“You aren’t alone any longer, Joey,” he whispered. “Hold absolutely still and look to the north.”
She looked She obeyed his command without any thought of defiance and caught her breath. At the verge of the meadow stood two vast brown shapes, magnificent and ungainly. Two bull moose, crowned by impressive racks of antlers, faced each other across a span of trampled grass. One of them bellowed, stretching its neck and shaking its head in threat. Just beyond the adversaries a cow, demure and plain, stood by to witness the competition.
Luke spoke very softly close to her ear, his warm breath caressed the sensitive skin. “When you see moose in rut, you stay very still and very quiet. With any luck they won’t notice us.” His grip tightened on her arm, though whether in warning or reassurance she could not tell, and he maneuvered her until her body pressed against his. She would have cursed him soundly for his perfidy, but she had no time, with a crack of collision, the two bulls came together in battle.
Joey did not know what to expect. Would this be a fight to the death? She held her breath and forgot everything else as the animals disengaged, threatened each other with snorts and bellows, and charged again. Luke’s arm had somehow found its way about her shoulders, and she leaned her cheek on his chest without thinking, all her attention on the drama before them.
It ended almost as soon as it had begun. Without warning one of the bulls danced away, tossing its head angrily, while the other charged after it. It soon became a rout, with the defeated party crashing off into the brush as the victor turned his attentions to the placidly grazing cow. Joey felt a blush rising at what she feared might follow, suddenly aware of the proximity of Luke’s hard chest, but much to her relief the two animals merely wandered at a sedate pace to the far edge of the meadow, browsing as they went, and disappeared among the trees.
“It usually doesn’t result in serious injury,” Luke commented. His deep voice vibrated against her ear. He had not loosed his hold on her, if anything, it had tightened. Now her heart had begun to race in spite of her will, every last protective shred of indifference drowned in a flood of perception. Of him.
She clenched her fists and held herself rigid. He would not humiliate her again, he would not.
“Animals have more sense than human beings,” he said softly. Without quite letting go, he pushed her away to gaze at her, searching her eyes. He compelled her to look, and she did. He filled her sight and all her senses, no matter how hard she fought it. His hard face was almost relaxed, almost gentle, last night’s ferocity was gone as if it had never existed. The fragile framework of her resolve collapsed entirely, and she could do nothing but feel him, though she wanted nothing more than to run and never see him again.
The grip of his fingers became a caress on her arm, trailing from shoulder to elbow. “Animals play games of dominance,” he told her, “but they know when to quit.”
His other hand released its hold and moved up to touch her face with feather softness. She closed her eyes and shuddered. She was melting in his heat, and she did not want it—and yet she wanted it so powerfully that everything she knew and believed in was disintegrating around her.
At last she gained enough control to open her eyes and face him again. “We’re not animals,” she whispered. “We’re people. Life isn’t so simple for us.” She cursed herself for her vulnerability and for revealing so much, more than she wanted him to know. But she saw no triumph in his eyes.
His thumb brushed along her jaw. For a long moment he looked away, across the meadow and forest and beyond to the distant mountains. “Sometimes things are simple,” he murmured. His hands moved back to her shoulders. “Joey, I’ve changed my mind. I’ll help you find what you’re looking for.”
Joey’s heart stopped. She stared at him, at an expression that revealed no hint of humor or calculation. She didn’t know him, she reminded herself. She didn’t know him, she had no reason to trust him. But she knew he was in earnest. She knew it with as much certainty as she had ever believed anything in her life.