Then he thought about Kate joining him in his tent after being flooded out. He loved how she was so resilient. Not once had she complained about anything. He didn’t think he would have been that nonplussed had he been drenched in the middle of the night. Of course, if he had joined Kate in her tent instead, he hoped she would have been just as accommodating. Still, he suspected he would have joined Mike instead, not wanting to disturb Kate or to force her to have to decide if she would let him stay.

  Derek and the other guys and Toby stayed at the river and continued to fish. If they were needed, someone in camp would let them know right away. Still, he kept worrying about Holly and the babies.

  Toby had put his fishing pole down on the ground, tired of fishing already. It didn’t take him long to wear out on an activity. A couple of the bodyguards helped him stack rocks nearby, keeping him entertained.

  “All right,” Derek finally said. “I don’t think our minds are on fishing. At least I know mine isn’t. I’m going back to camp.”

  “Me too,” Mike said.

  They all carried their fishing gear and the ice chest back to the campsite and found that someone had started the campfire. Derek and Ryder began cleaning the fish—the whole three that they’d finally caught.

  “How about having nachos for lunch?” Lexi asked. “That really appeals to me. Holly can’t eat anything heavy, just broth or water. Popsicles if we could have had them out here.”

  “Okay, remind me not to go camping unless I can bring Popsicles if I’m getting ready to deliver a couple of babies,” Kate said.

  “You and me both,” Lexi agreed.

  “Are you taking notes?” Mike asked Ryder.

  “Hell, no camping trips period when it gets close to Lexi’s due date. This has been way too stressful—for me!” Ryder said. “Then she can have all the Popsicles she wants—at home, safe and sound, with Aidan and Holly nearby to help out.”

  Everyone laughed.

  After eating lunch, they began to pack up some of the tents. As a wolf, Holly wandered around the campsite and then returned to the “nest” that Aidan had made for her in their tent, restless, ill at ease. Derek thought everyone else looked that way too. The rest of Holly and Aidan’s bedding had already been loaded in their vehicle, except for the old quilts they were using for her nest.

  Aidan came out of the tent to get her some more water.

  Jade was trying to get Toby down for a nap. He would probably sleep in the vehicle on the way home, but they didn’t know how long this would take.

  “But it’s not nighttime yet,” Toby said. “The sun’s still out.”

  Derek smiled. He wondered if Toby used the same excuse every time.

  “Right, but we always take a nap about this time of day. Do you want to sleep with me in the big tent or the little tent?” Jade asked her son.

  Toby considered both the tents. “The big tent.”

  “Race you there,” Jade said, and Toby took off running. Jade let him beat her—again.

  As soon as they were inside the tent, some of the others continued to pack up things. Kate and Lexi were making Dutch oven apple cobbler—cinnamon-and-brown-sugar-coated apples with a biscuit dough—the perfect dessert for the end of their stay.

  Derek just wished Holly could have had some!

  After their nap, Jade and Toby joined Lexi and Kate while they finished the cobbler.

  They sat down to eat some of it. With half the tents packed away, the campsite was beginning to look a bit barren when Aidan came out of the tent all flushed, smiling. “Number one son!”

  They all whooped, whistled, and hollered heartfelt congratulations to both Holly and Aidan. He was the first baby actually born to the pack, and that was something wolves really celebrated. Toby was Rafe’s adopted son, and Jade had Toby before she’d met Rafe, though he treated Toby like he was his son through and through.

  Aidan ducked inside their tent to wait for the birth of the other twin. They all continued to eat their cobbler.

  “This is really great, ladies,” Derek said.

  “We didn’t realize Maddie was sending desserts with you, and we had planned to make one of our own,” Lexi said.

  Everyone agreed it was delicious. They were saving some for Aidan and Holly though. Derek wondered what he and Holly wanted to do next. Leave the campsite quickly after the second baby was born? Or give Holly some time to recover?

  They finished their dessert and then began packing Jade and Rafe’s tent and some of the bodyguards’ tents. They left Toby’s up in case he wanted to play in it before they actually finished packing up the campsite. They still had to take down Aidan and Holly’s tent once she birthed her second twin and was ready to go home.

  Once everyone was about done, they had tea and coffee.

  Aidan finally came out of the tent, smiling broadly, wiping his sweaty brow. “Number two son!”

  They all cheered the whole family.

  “What now?” Derek asked.

  “Holly wants to leave. She’s hot and tired, and she wants to ride in the air-conditioned vehicle on the way home. I’ve already made her a nest of clean, old bedding in the back seat for when we drive home, either for if she had them on the drive or after she’d already had them. So we’re ready to leave.”

  “All right, let’s get everything else packed up then,” Lexi said. “Oh, Aidan, here’s your cobbler.”

  “Thanks, I can’t eat it right now.” Aidan smiled. “I have an upset stomach. But save some for Holly and me if you have enough. We’ll both enjoy it tonight after we get home.”

  “We saved some for both of you,” Lexi said. “You will need some energy food when you get settled in.”

  Aidan went back into the tent, and everyone got to work packing up the rest of the camping gear, including Toby’s tent.

  “Hey, we’re ready,” Derek finally told Aidan.

  Aidan came out of the tent carrying both newborn wolf pups. Jade and Kate hurried to take the pups from him. Both pups were sound asleep.

  Aidan went back into the tent to get Holly.

  As a wolf, Holly came out of the tent looking anxious, and then she poked her nose at Jade and Kate’s legs, and they crouched to show her the pups were safe. They waited with her until all the bedding used for Holly’s nest that had been in Aidan’s and her tent could be put in plastic bags, taken home, and washed. Then the others took down the tent.

  Kate couldn’t have been happier to cuddle the sleeping wolf pup while Jade was loving on the other. The boys would know that all the wolves here were their family.

  Toby was trying to check on the wolf pups and saying, “Let me see! Let me see!”

  “Just pet them gently,” Jade said, guiding him on how to do it. “Later, you can see them as babies. For now, they’re your little wolf cousins.”

  Everyone greeted the pups, Miles and Emmett, though they were still sound asleep. Wolves in a pack treasured the offspring of their wolf couples. All of them would be nannies!

  All of the rest of the gear was packed, and everyone began loading into the vehicles.

  Jade went with Aidan to help Holly in the back seat with the pups. One of their bodyguards was driving, the other sitting in the passenger seat.

  Derek hadn’t really thought Holly would birth her twins on the campout. He suspected she hadn’t really believed she would either, unless she had wanted the whole pack together for the momentous event. If that was so, it had been ideal planning.

  ***

  “That was a great campout,” Kate said on the drive home. “It couldn’t have turned out any more special than it did when Aidan and Holly’s babies came. It was the perfect time to leave before it rains tonight—no more bears, cougars, or hikers to go off-trail to see us either.”

  “Yeah, I would say that was a great campout. Except for your tent flooding.”

  Though she thought that had turned out well too. In the end. She stretched and yawned. “It worked out. I have to admit I will enjoy sleeping in my own bed tonight though.” Kate was glad all her gear had dried out before they began packing up, but she would wash everything when she got home.

  “Remember Friday is the 1920s dinner and dance,” Derek told her.

  Kate felt like such a mess and really needed to get cleaned up. “I will be a new woman by then. It’s a good thing it’s at the end of the workweek.”

  He chuckled. “Yeah, I know how you feel. A nice hot shower tonight, a shave, clean clothes, and I’ll feel like a new man.”

  “I’ll be wearing a dress I wore to a costume party that had a roaring twenties theme that I attended last year with Lexi. Hopefully, I won’t have any big issues with it.”

  Derek shook his head. “I can’t believe women can be that petty. I wear the same suit or tuxes all the time to these events. I can’t imagine tossing them out and getting new ones every year.”

  “Me either,” Kate said. “It’s wasteful. And I can’t afford it. Nor would I want to just so I could do that.”

  He glanced at her.

  “Seriously. I mean, I could afford to do it now, but I wouldn’t waste that much money on a single-use gown. It’s not worth it.”

  “I agree.”

  ***

  They all stopped for bathroom breaks and gas a couple of times on the way home, everyone checking on Holly and the pups. Aidan had to walk Holly as a wolf on a leash while the others cuddled the pups in the car. There wouldn’t be any lack of loving on them in the pack.

  After the long drive, Derek finally reached Kate’s home. Lexi and Ryder parked up at their house right after that. Derek walked Kate to her door while Cliff and Will hauled her camping gear and her backpack into her garage for her. Derek wanted to help her clean up her equipment, and he wished he could stay the night with her since he was leaving for several days with Rafe on a business trip and he wouldn’t get to see her again until Friday.

  “Did you need any help cleaning up your camping equipment?” Derek knew what a chore it was, but all the guys cleaned theirs together, making short work of it.

  “Yeah, I mean, I’ll deal with it later, but we could use it as an excuse for you staying overnight.” Kate wrapped her arms around Derek’s neck.

  He smiled. “We’ll clean it up, take a shower, and—”

  “You will stay the night?”

  “Hell, yeah.”

  She sighed. “But don’t you have to fly to Colorado tomorrow?”

  “Yeah, but my bag’s packed. Cliff can bring it with him when he picks me up at your house and takes me to the airport.”

  “What time is your flight?”

  “Ten thirty.” Smiling, Derek raised his brows.

  “All right. We’ll do it. I’m going to run into the house and get us some water to drink.” Then she went inside.

  “We kind of screwed things up for you,” Cliff said as Derek walked back to the Land Rover, the guys both waiting for him to return to the vehicle.

  “I’m staying the night.” Derek explained what he wanted Cliff to do for him tomorrow morning. He grabbed his toiletry kit and a pair of clean boxer briefs from his bag in the Land Rover. Cliff would have to bring his clothes tomorrow so Derek could dress in something nicer for the plane trip, though they were going in Rafe’s jet, so they could wear whatever they wanted. “I just need you to bring my packed bag sitting in the bedroom and the clothes I had set out for tomorrow’s flight when you take me to the airport in the morning.”

  Both of his bodyguards smiled. Cliff said, “You got it, boss.”

  Then Cliff and Will drove off in the Land Rover to leave them in peace.

  This was the perfect end to a great camping trip.

  Kate had propped open the door for Derek. “Hey, I guess I need to give you the key code to the front door,” she called out to him from the kitchen as he entered the house and shut the door.

  He suspected this was only the beginning of their blossoming relationship. Then he got a call from Aidan, joined her in the kitchen where she’d poured them glasses of water, and put the call on speaker for both of them to hear.

  Aidan said, “Hey, I’m just making a conference call with all of you. We’re home, tuckered out, and Holly wants to thank all of you for making this the best camping trip ever! She had abhorred the notion that she would be sitting around the house all by herself—well, with me there too—when the time to have the babies came, so she was thrilled we could all be with her, sweating it out.”

  Derek laughed. “Yeah, well, we were all doing just that, that’s for sure. I’m glad the new momma, daddy, and the babies are home and doing just fine.” Derek and Rafe had bought the twins cribs that made up into daybeds when the kids were bigger. But he figured the babies would be in bassinets for a while, at least when momma wolf wanted to change back into her human form.

  “I’ll let you all go. I’m taking care of the little ones while Holly’s in the shower. They’re babies now and they’re already awake and hungry,” Aidan said.

  Everyone congratulated them again and then ended the call.

  “Okay, I wanted to take a shower first, but I guess the best way to go about this is we clean the camping gear first and then take our shower. There’s no sense in getting dirty all over again,” Kate said to Derek.

  Kate said shower, not showers, he noted, which meant she wanted to take the shower with him too. He wanted to tell her to get cleaned up and he’d take care of the camping equipment, but he didn’t want to miss showering with her, and he suspected she didn’t want to leave the job to him either.

  It didn’t take long for Kate and Derek to hose down her tent and the rest of the items, though she kept turning the hose on him and he chased her around her backyard for it a time or two. They were laughing and having a blast. He’d never expected to have this kind of fun while cleaning up after a camping trip.

  He caught her and kissed her and got her all wet. “We don’t even need to take a shower now,” she said.

  “Oh, yeah, we do. Thinking about all that soap sliding down your body is enough to make me want to toss you over my shoulder and haul you inside right now.”

  She laughed and got him with the hose again. Then it was time to go inside, sopping wet, no towels out here, and they raced each other to the master bath. She slipped on the tile floor in the kitchen, her expression mischievous, and he grabbed her up, and then he did just what he said he wanted to do, tossed her over his shoulder and walked triumphantly to the bathroom. He had caught her, and she was his.

  Chuckling, she said, “Reminiscent of your caveman days?”

  “You bet.” He set her down on the bathroom floor, and he removed her hiking shoes and then his own, ready to make love to Kate.

  ***

  Kate slid Derek’s zipper down on his sopping-wet jeans shorts molded to his cock and felt his erection fully aroused after all that sexy playful fun they’d had with the garden hose. She slid her hand down his arousal, still covered in navy-blue boxer briefs. She pulled his shorts off his hips as he captured her mouth, his hands cupping her face, kissing her with passion.

  He stirred a need in her that was nothing like anyone else had ever done for her. She was glad they were dating each other exclusively now.

  He kicked off his shorts and then worked on the fastener on hers, unzipped them, and slid them down her hips. Once she’d stepped out of them, she slipped her hands up his wet T-shirt, marveling at the feel of his soft skin stretched over hard pecs, and felt his nipples peaking as she swept her fingers over them. They would need to wash their clothes—but later.

  Then he was pulling her hard against his body again. She wrapped her arms around him and rested her head against his soft, wet T-shirt and hard abs.

  “Hmm, what a campout.” She was so glad she had asked him to come with them! He had been a great camping mate.

  “I’ll say.” He pressed a kiss on top of her head.

  She pulled off his T-shirt, and he unfastened her bra. Then he slid her bra straps slowly down her arms as he kissed her breastbone. He dropped the bra and began kissing her breasts, licking one nipple and then the other, molding his hands to her breasts, and kissing her mouth again.

  Being with him felt so right. She ran her hands up his chest, grazing his nipples with her fingernails. Then she reached down to pull off his boxer briefs. She slid them down his legs until he could step out of them. He slipped her panties down her hips until she was completely bared to him like he was to her.

  They kissed again, his erection hard against her, and she felt real satisfaction in having him here with her tonight.

  She started the shower and stepped into it. He joined her, closing the glass shower door behind him. Then she squirted shampoo on her hands and began to soap up his hair, and he did the same with hers.

  This was just too nice. They started soaping each other’s bodies after that, and she was thinking how much she liked this routine and how she didn’t really want to give it up. She moved her soapy hands all over his body, his chest, his shoulders and arms, and his back and then lower to stroke his rigid erection, and he groaned. He reciprocated by sliding his soapy fingers all over her at the same time, the same places. Then he slipped a hand between her legs and began his slow seduction of rubbing her nubbin. She thought they were going to move this to the bed, but he didn’t seem to be in any hurry to rinse off.

  So she went with the flow and began stroking him in earnest, her hands just as soapy on his flesh as his hands were on hers. He was kissing her at the same time, his free arm wrapped around her as if he had to keep her on her feet or she would melt right into the floor. The way his eyes were smoky with desire and his breathing shallow, she thought he might be holding on to her for the same reason as she suddenly stroked him to completion and he erupted all over her. She came in the same instant, crying out.