"DAMMIT!" Jenna cursed herself, the rain, the mud and everything else in sight as she pushed herself up onto her hands and knees. She was pissed certainly but it got worse as her hand slipped again. She grabbed a tree root in time to brace herself from slipping off into the ravine. Unfortunately, the same could not be said for the leather strap she'd tied around her wrist. The mud had worked it loose and Jenna watched helplessly as the leather strap... and her compass... dropped a good thirty feet below her into heavy underbrush. "Shit! Way to go!"

Crawling backward cautiously, Jenna managed to get safely away from the drop off. It was an unexpected little hole in the world but who could see with hair dripping into her face and the rain pelting her eyelids, making her blink. Standing up again, she checked herself over to assess the damage. The slip and slide covered her in mud which the rain was trying to beat off, with some success. One sleeve of her short-sleeved shirt was ripped at the shoulder seam but her khaki shorts looked ok. The pockets were still loaded. She wished she had snapped her compass securely into one of them.

A rivulet of water ran down her neck into her cleavage and further soaked her white undershirt. It was pretty obvious the rain was cold judging from her hard points pressing both shirts visibly. Jenna looked on down her muddy bare thighs then saw a gash across her knee. It was starting to sting and blood from it was mixing with the mud on her shin, but it wasn't a terribly deep cut. She could still walk okay. The thick socks bunched at her ankles were soaked and muddy but along with the heavy hiking boots, at least her feet were still fairly warm.

Jenna shifted her backpack and looked around her for some sign of where the trail had gone. During her panicked slide, she lost track of what direction she was gliding in and no notion of how far. She tried to wipe the water from her face and get her long dark copper hair to unpaste itself from her forehead. "Dammit." she cursed again, more quietly, as she turned and just walked. She'd have to wait for stars and a clear sky or maybe pray for sunshine tomorrow, just to tell which direction she had chosen.

As it was, dusk approached, or Jenna thought it did. It was difficult to tell with the heavy canopy of trees and the dark sky that was pelting her. She figured she'd have to find shelter soon or rig a canopy to sleep under. "Mutherfucker!" she hissed. That one was for the weatherman who predicted no hint of rain for the weekend. Foolishly trusting the forecast, she'd packed no gear for this joke from Mother Nature.

"Fucking weather service." Nathan chuckled to himself as he looked out from his cave. The idiots at the NWS almost got him this time. When the rain started to come down he had immediately made for this small cave. Fortunately for him it wasn't far from where he had been collecting data on the raccoon population in this part of the valley. Data that was more accurate than the NWS' standard drivel. Of course they were the only people he knew who could be wrong most of the time and still keep their jobs. His job had a higher standard, and as he looked at his warm, dry, Forest Service-issue all-weather gear, he was deeply grateful for it. The numbers were in, he had a small fire going, and all he had to do was ride out the storm. And the night it seemed, judging from the rapidly darkening sky. Well, he had prepared for a night in the forest anyway.

He crouched to untie his boots so he could settle in, lean, muscular thighs flexing, when a noise froze him. He could have sworn that he had heard a human voice, but that didn't make sense. He was a fair ways from the camp areas. He would have dismissed it, but minutes later he snapped to attention, head jerking to hear better. Yes, definitely a woman's voice. Deciding to investigate, he put on a non-regulation leather fedora over his thick black hair, and slipped on a hooded poncho over his sun-browned body.

After ten minutes of making his way through the brush, Nathan spied his quarry. It would have been sooner, but the rain was misting up his glasses. "Hello there," he called out, and as the figure turned toward him he caught the sight of beauty. She was soaked, muddy... and bleeding, from a thigh wound apparently. But none of that hid her smooth skin, or her body, which was trim and curvy at the same time. As she turned to look at him in shock, he became more aware of his own body, the short black hairs on his arms and legs standing from the cold rain, skin taut over muscle.

Shaking out of his thoughts, Nathan called, "Are you ok? What are you doing here?" He walked up to her. "Get caught in the storm, did you? Hmm, that cut needs tending to. It's getting dark, and I have shelter nearby, you'd better come with me." Under the circumstances he couldn't quite get a good look at her face, but he thought he saw a smile. His own look of concern covered stirrings of other thoughts, hungry impulses.

"Oh, shelter! Thank god. I was sure I'd be weaving together leaves or crawling into a hollow tree or something just to sleep without drowning." Jenna wiped her hand across her face, serving mostly to smear mud on her cheek but there was indeed a relieved smile. She hardly captured more than his rain gear and hat in her mind before he turned and retraced his steps back toward the cave.

Jenna followed along behind the poncho, watching his boots in the mud and her own steps. "You're a park ranger aren't you? Can't believe you ran onto me in this nasty mess. I slipped off the trail a ways back and lost my compass and of course I can't see a damned thing in this rain." She continued to babble in her excitement at having been found and didn't stop til he paused at the mouth of the cave.

She didn't know where to start first, what to wring out, what to take off. She shook water from her hands then drew her disheveled pony tail around to wring it and caught him watching her. She just smiled as he lowered his head. Beaded water dripped from the brim of his hat as it tipped downward. He was looking at her legs apparently.

"It looks much worse than it is." Jenna said. "All the water, the mud..." She looked down too and shook her head. "I'm a sight! I guess I smeared it. The cut is actually not all that bad. It's there, just below my knee." She bent forward to wipe around the actual wound but hissed when she touched it. Leaned forward as such, her full breasts strained the damp cotton of her shirts. Water dripped down and disappeared between soft pale flesh. "I'm sure it's hardly more than a scrape, really."

Jenna stood up again and looked into Nathan's face but still saw very little in the shadow of his hat and behind his rain-mottled glasses. She pressed her hands to her sides and over her stomach, flexing her fingers, trying to squeeze water from her clothes. "I'm okay just... stupid. I don't know why I trusted the weather forecast. I know better. I'd have been fine if I'd brought my rain gear like you did."

Finally it occured to her to unload her back pack. As she wriggled from the soaked straps, she turned aside to look into the cave, squinting. She didn't see Nathan noticing how her breasts shifted beneath the wet cotton. She didn't realize that the thin white fabric, when wet, almost reveals the soft rose of her chilled nipples. She didn't know he was watching her stomach flex in the effort of unloading the pack or that he could almost see the hollow of her navel in the sculpted fit of the soaked shirts, just above the snap of khaki shorts.

Her voice drew his gaze back up to her face. "So, this is it, huh?" She stood, still looking into the cave. Her backpack was dangling from one hand. The other hand was trying to get a stubborn strand of dark copper hair to fit behind the curve of her ear and join the other tendrils dripping down her long neck.

"Yeah, I'm afraid so," smiling as he spoke, "It's a little small, but we can make do. C'mon in." He stepped inside and removed his hat and poncho, mind racing as he spoke. The lady seemed completely unaware of the picture she presented. Mostly she seemed nervous, off-balance somehow. As he wiped his glasses and replaced them, he could see that she had red, almost coppery, hair. He would have this woman.

"It'll keep the wind and rain out and the little fire I've built will keep us warm. There's even some dry brush to cushion the ground when we bed down. But first things first." She entered the cave eagerly, grinning, as if hungry and grateful for security. He took a little basin and stepped to the mouth of the cave, letting it fill with water. "We should take care of that cut before it gets infected. I have a first aid mini-kit. Take off your boot and sock. You can sit on that little ledge."

Yes, he thought, she was definitely happy to be safe and sound. Hmm.. "I'm going to let this heat up a bit over the fire, so it'll be warm when I clean the wound." He made a show of looking outside. "It's lucky you slid in this direction, otherwise I might not have even heard you, let alone found you. This is true darkness." He looked back at her. In the firelight she went from beautiful to magnificent. His hunger grew and his penis stirred in his shorts. And she had nowhere to go. "You'd better get out of those wet clothes. I have a small towel you can use for your hair. As for the rest of you, I'm afraid all I have is this windbreaker and this extra pair of shorts.

Despite her disappointment at the lack of dry clothes, Jenna thrilled inside. She had been very worried there for a few minutes. She was not a novice hiker, but she knew that she would have been in very real trouble if the ranger had not found her. Now she had not only shelter, but the help of an able woodsman, a reassuring, nicely built one at that. He seemed to know just what to do as he knelt to clean her leg and tend her cut. She felt a little uncomfortable at the prospect of undressing in such close quarters with a stranger, but she didn't complain, partly because there was little choice, but also because she didn't want to annoy him. Plus, his soft touch on her leg made her feel much better. Once he finished he looked up at her and said, "I can unzip my sleeping bag so we can both sleep on it. I have a little food too. How about you? Hungry?"

Jenna nodded, "Yes, actually... yes. I have a few things in my pack but, well, jerky and dried fruit. I hadn't intended to be out overnight." She watched as he rose to his full height again and now in the firelight, without the poncho, she could see the golden warmth across his strong legs, his tanned skin. His hands had been gentle but something else too. It made her shiver a little more than just being wet and cold. In the small cave, with the fire shadowing him, he seemed rather looming to her as well. He handed her the jacket and shorts then turned to the fire, crouching to sort through his supplies for the food he'd brought. He pulled her pack over too, sifting through it for edibles.

After laying the offered clothing aside on the ledge, Jenna leaned over and took off her remaining boot and drenched sock, setting them next to the other. Looking around the small cave, she saw no nook to dress in, so, she stood in place and turned her back to the ranger. Her fingers worked at the buttons of her shirt and had to peel it from her skin since it was still soaked. She pondered leaving her under-t on but it was just too wet. She crossed her arms and gathered it up to strip it off over her head.

It was just at that moment that Nathan turned. The firelight danced across Jenna's back, flexing as she removed the undershirt. She was turned but he could see the swell of her breast shift and again signs of her chill and nervousness. He quietly let her know he was watching, "I'm Nathan, by the way."

Jenna jerked at the sound of his voice coming directly to her. She pulled her arms down quickly, trying to hold the t-shirt across her to cover. She looked over her bare shoulder at him and shakily replied, "J-Jenna. My name is Jenna." She waited for him to turn back around, but he didn't. Taking a deep breath, she turned her back to him again, quickly exchanging the undershirt for the jacket and slipping it on. She shivered as the cool fabric touched her skin. She zipped the windbreaker and had to roll the sleeves up a few times. The garment was much too large for her and hung down over her shorts.

Nathan continued to watch as she unsnapped her shorts and worked them down to her thighs. Her attention had returned to the business at hand, so she wasn't aware of his eyes on her now. She bent over to step out of her shorts. The white of her cotton bikini panties peeped from beneath the hem of the jacket. Nathan grinned. He had to shift in his crouch to accommodate his growing interest in this one.

Immediately after stepping into the borrowed shorts and pulling them up, Jenna knew they would not work. She turned around to find Nathan's kneeling silhouette outlined by firelight. She couldn't read his face from the shadow, but smiled nervously to him anyway. "I don't think I can keep these up." She held the waistband of the shorts beneath the bunched jacket. There was just too much spare room around her slim hips.

He shrugged, "Then I guess you'll have to go without them."

Jenna swallowed, looking wide eyed into his shadow, "Yes, I... I suppose." She fidgeted with the jacket and shorts awkwardly trying to keep herself covered while stepping from the shorts. The jacket hem just barely reached her thighs and covered her ass. She would have to leave her damp panties on, they'd dry soon enough. The jacket would have to serve to cover the rest, mostly.

Stepping carefully in her bare feet, Jenna walked around Nathan and the fire, away from his bedroll, and found a rock to sit on, opposite the fire from him. She worked at her hair and finally got it free from the tie. After a few minutes, her long natural waves of deep reddish brown hair lay around her shoulders, already beginning to dry. She was all jacket and bare legs, perched on the rock. Her deep blue eyes reflected the firelight as she looked back to see Nathan had finished sorting out their make-shift meal. There were echoes in her mind though... bed down, he'd said. This disturbed her, but maybe it was just the phrasing. She tried to put it out of her mind. Her stomach was speaking more loudly than her fears just now anyway.

They ate in silence, which gave Nathan a chance to reflect. It had been quite a stroke of luck that the shorts hadn't fit. It left her nearly naked, and yet overtly he had done his part. He could barely taste the food he was eating as another appetite grew ever stronger. Before the night was over he would wrap his hands in her long red hair. Speaking of which... He rose in one, smooth, almost fluid move. "Hold still," he said as he neared her,"there's something in your hair." And there really was.

A spider had crawled down the cave wall and gotten onto her hair. Luck that it was there and luck that he saw it, an opportunity. "Just a second," he said. Yes, his proximity was definitely getting to her. He had told her to hold still, but she was nearly frozen. His quick movement had unnerved her, he thought. Reassure her, or keep her off-balance? "There," he said as he tossed the spider away, "It's gone." She looked very relieved at that, as if it were more than just the spider she was glad to have away.

Clearing away the remains of dinner, he said, "I hope you don't mind, but I hate to sleep in these shorts. They're fine for most everything, but they're just not comfortable for me to sleep in." He thought her eyes went a little wide at that. In the dim firelight it was hard to tell. "Don't worry, though, I do have jockeys on underneath," he added, smiling.

Turning to prepare the sleeping bag, he quickly enjoyed the memory of standing over her, his hands in her hair. She smelled good, even after the day's events, and her growing unease was on her scent too. She had soft, smooth hair and flesh, warm and supple. He was going to enjoy her.

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