Lions and Tigers and Bears (20 page)

He did and she stepped away, not looking at him as she silently straightened her clothing and readjusted her backpack. “I’m ready to go on, if you are,” she told him neutrally.

Rafe nodded. “A couple more miles and we’ll stop for lunch.” He turned his back and began to walk. A few feet away, he threw a soft comment over his shoulder. “You’re a very beautiful woman, Lindy.”

Preparing to take her first step forward, Lindy again found herself frozen, this time with shock. She watched Rafe’s retreating form with disbelief. Had he just said what she thought he said? A quick flood of tears filled her eyes and she blinked them back. At that moment she realized that Rafe’s beauty was more than skin-deep. He was turning out to be a genuinely nice man, not to mention intuitive. How many other men would have noticed her hurt and divined the reason for it? That, along with his looks, was a decidedly deadly combination.

She frowned as a small frisson of nervousness twisted her stomach. “I will not fall for this guy,” she whispered softly, knowing that it was already too late—she was already beginning to slip.

“Are you coming?” Rafe yelled back at her.

“I wish,” she murmured, then yelled out, “Yeah, yeah, I’m coming.”

* * * * *

“I wish you were coming,” Rafe muttered. “In my arms, with your legs wrapped around my waist.”

He cursed softly to himself as his cock thickened even more. It was a process that had begun when he’d saved Lindy from her fall. Having her in his arms had sent an unexpected explosion of feeling throughout his body. Her scent had swept over him in a wave that created an undeniable awareness of her. It was beginning to drive him crazy. And now, having felt her soft curves pressed against him, his imagination was coming alive with the possibilities.

There was a subtle tension beginning to build between them, and Rafe wasn’t sure how long he was going to be able to deny the desire to take her. He took a few deep breaths, dismayed at the swiftness of the building need.

“I am not an animal,” he whispered softly to himself, repeating the steadying mantra in his head.

Hearing her catch up to him, he increased the pace, determined to get a grip on his unfamiliar feelings. With that in mind, he again concentrated on the trail and the signs being transmitted by the birds and other wildlife. Although they seemed to prefer the areas closer to the river, occasionally one of the bears would venture into this part of the forest. So far there’d been no sign of one.

Lost in his contemplation of the surroundings, he was startled to hear a subtle growling noise and instantly halted, scanning the wood for its source. Finding nothing, he frowned, then grinned when he realized it was Lindy’s stomach.

“I take it you didn’t have breakfast?” he asked, turning to face her, finding her standing with her hand lying against her stomach.

“I can’t eat that early, it makes me sick.”

“Can you hold on for about twenty more minutes? We’re almost there.”

Lindy nodded and Rafe continued on, eventually leading them to a clearing through which a small stream ran. It emerged from a shallow, rocky grotto sunk into the hillside, the water trickling merrily over stones worn smooth by years of erosion.

“This is natural spring water, it comes from deep underground.”

“Is it safe to drink?”

“Sure.”

Lindy carefully negotiated her way over the smooth stones and dipped her fingers into the water where it burbled from between the rocks and formed a natural fountain. She found it quite cold and, cupping her hands, brought the water to her lips and drank.

“Mmmm, that’s good,” she commented and turned back to Rafe.

He stood watching her, mesmerized by her wet lips and the water dripping down her chin. Taken by the sudden impulse to cross the clearing and lick those sweet drops off her face, he realized that he was standing there with his mouth open. He quickly slammed it shut and bent down to his open pack, removing several packets of food.

“Nancy insisted that I bring a good variety so you’d find something you like. Take a look at these,” he offered, keeping his eyes on the food packets.

Lindy crossed to his side and knelt down. “Wow, potato corn chowder, chili, beef stroganoff—I didn’t know they made stuff like this for camping.”

“It beats hauling a bag of flour and a slab of bacon, or existing on oatmeal, although I have to say the oatmeal with cinnamon, raisins and almonds is pretty good.”

“Is this any good?” she asked, picking up the chowder.

“
I
think so,” he answered, and took a small pot out of his pack along with a couple of metal bowls and spoons. “Have a seat while I heat it up.”

Lindy took the folded blanket Rafe offered and spread it on the ground, settling herself cross-legged on it. She watched him as he started a fire and prepared the chowder.

Lindy accepted the bowl he offered and dug in, taking a tentative taste. Her brows lifted and she looked at Rafe. “This is really good.”

Rafe nodded, saying nothing as his mouth was full, but silently offered her some crackers, which she accepted. They finished their meal in a not-uncomfortable silence as they simply enjoyed the food and the setting.

Finishing her bowl, Lindy sighed with contentment. Rafe offered her more, but she declined. He easily polished off the rest and after cleaning up, repacked everything.

Lindy had gone back to the stream for a final drink and Rafe was watching her appreciatively when he noticed the sudden hush that had fallen over the woods. The birds had stopped singing. He began scanning the area and quickly found the reason for the silence. Across the stream, mostly hidden by the dense brush, stood a bear, one he instantly recognized as a very large male that occasionally had a tendency toward aggression.

“Lindy, don’t move.” He spoke the words with commanding calm.

Lindy instantly froze.

Careful not to make eye contact with the bear, Rafe walked slowly to Lindy’s side. Upon reaching her, he took her hand and squeezed it, then began to slowly back away, silently urging her to move with him. Just as slowly, the bear began to move forward out of the underbrush. It was huge. Fully eight feet long from the tip of its nose to its rump, the reddish-brown grizzly easily weighed in excess of nine hundred pounds. His feet were enormous and tipped with black, scimitar-like curved claws.

Lindy, who up until this time had not spotted the bear, took in a sharp breath.

“Easy,” Rafe encouraged, then began a soft litany of words and sounds that made no sense to Lindy.

To the bear, however, the words seemed to mean something. He stopped his advance, his ears flicking at the sound, his eyes focusing on Rafe as he listened to the rhythmic cadence of the words. Lindy flinched as the bear huffed what seemed like a response and turned its back to them, melting back into the trees. They stood quietly, unmoving, until the birds again took up their song.

Rafe released a deep breath and again squeezed her hand. “Are you all right?” he questioned, noting the increased pallor of her complexion.

“Sure, fine,” she replied weakly. “That was a
bear
,” she added in a dazed voice.

“Yes, it was,” Rafe replied gently and led her back to the blanket. “Sit down a minute,” he ordered softly and sat across from her, their bent knees touching.

“That was a really
big
bear,” she told him, eyes wide with shock.

“Yes, I know,” he told her patiently. “Lindy, look at me.”

“Okay,” she agreed, sounding like a lost child. She met his warm, steady gaze.

Rafe reached out and took both of her hands in his. They were chilled and curled around his as though seeking a lifeline. “You’re all right,” he reassured her.

She bit her lip and nodded in agreement.

“The bear’s gone.”

Again she nodded, mesmerized by the deep, rich brown of Rafe’s eyes and the smooth, gentle tone of his voice, a tone that offered safety and comfort.

“You did very well in your first encounter with a bear. Thank you for not moving as I asked.”

“I had to stand still, my legs wouldn’t move.”

“But you didn’t see the bear at first.”

“I know.”

“Why did you listen to me?”

Lindy opened her mouth to reply, paused for a moment, then admitted softly, “I trust you.” The words held a kind of wonder, as though she was just discovering how true they were.

Rafe was at first startled, then gratified by her admission. A wave of warmth swept over him. She trusted him even though he’d given her little reason to, considering the way he’d treated her when she first arrived. He couldn’t help but admire her honesty when she could have very well given some inane excuse, rather than make an admission that bolstered his ego.

Never one to be physically demonstrative, he surprised himself and leaned forward to kiss her cheek. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” she replied shyly and smiled, her green-eyed gaze sparkling as color returned to her cheeks.

“Ready to go?”

“On one condition.”

“What’s that?”

“That we don’t see anymore bears today… At least not that close up.”

Rafe grinned. “It’s a deal.”

He squeezed her hands and stood, helping her to her feet. They folded the ground sheet and, after packing it away, headed out toward the river, each silently acknowledging a truce to the hostility that had marked the beginning of their acquaintance.

Chapter Three

By the time the final eight miles were covered, Lindy was ready to admit that she was worn out. It was one thing to walk three miles a day, and quite another to cover nearly twenty all at once. She wanted nothing more than to pitch her tent and fall into her sleeping bag. One thing stood in the way of that goal—camp had to be set up.

Fortunately, Rafe was more than experienced in doing just that. As this was a site he was well familiar with, he knew exactly where to begin. He instructed Lindy to set up their tents while he set up a food preparation area, approximately one hundred yards away.

Despite the popular picture of campers sitting in front of their tents while roasting weenies over an open fire, when camping in bear country, they both knew that this would be a foolish thing to do. If a bear did happen to wander into their camp, it would be prudent to have no food near their sleeping area.

Rafe reopened a previously dug fire pit, uncovered the rocks that lined it, then gathered deadwood from the surrounding area. Their campsite was in a wooded area, the front of it facing out across a huge stretch of grassy meadowland. In the distance, the light from the setting sun sparkled on the river.

Suspended by a rope on a nearby tree was a box which Rafe lowered to the ground. Finished with her chore and grateful for tents that were a breeze to set up, Lindy watched Rafe as he opened the box and began transferring all the foodstuffs from his pack into it.

“What’s that?” she asked, indicating the box.

“A BRFC, bear-resistant food container. All our food supplies are going in here and we’ll keep them suspended from this tree. This keeps the bears from associating campsites with food. We don’t want to attract any uninvited guests,” he added with a grin.

Lindy smiled, then suddenly remembered the trail mix and energy bars she’d stowed in her own pack. “Hold on a minute,” she said and went back to her tent, rummaging through her pack until she’d gathered every bit of food she’d stuffed in it.

She returned to Rafe and handed it all over to him and he obligingly packed it away with the rest of the food.

“I’m not going to suspend this until after we’ve had dinner. Want to pick something out, or do you want to be surprised?”

Noting the mischievous twinkle in his eyes, she indicated a packet of beef stroganoff. “I think I’ll try that,” she told him.

“I thought you trusted me.”

“Not with that look in your eyes.”

“What look?”

“The one that says you might be up to something.”

“Believe me, sweetheart, you’ll
know
when I’m up to something.”

Lindy’s insides did a pitching roll at Rafe’s use of the endearment and the steady, heated look he gave her. Suddenly nervous and feeling a bit defensive, she backed up a step. “Yeah, well, be that as it may,” she replied a bit breathily, “I’ll still go with the stroganoff.”

“Suit yourself. I
was
going to make wild rice with
savory
mushroom sauce, sun dried tomatoes and chopped jerky. I’ve been told it’s really good. But if you’d rather have the stroganoff…”

“Okay, okay, I give! That sounds delicious and I’m starving. What can I do to help?”

Rafe grinned, told her to get the utensils and cooking pot out of his pack, and they were soon amicably preparing their meal. Sitting cross-legged on the blanket in front of the fire, they ate and watched the setting sun. It was a stunning view, the sky filling with color as the sun sank slowly down toward the horizon.

Rafe broke their easy silence. “Lindy… That’s an unusual name—is it short for something?”

“Lucky Lindy, you know, Charles Lindbergh? My dad had a great admiration for the man. He learned to fly a plane and it was one of his greatest joys. He used to take me for rides all the time. It was wonderful.” She sighed. “I really miss him. He always took such pleasure in life—it was contagious, no one could
not
have fun around my dad.”

“He sounds like a good man.”

Lindy gave him an enquiring look. “You didn’t say
was
a good man.”

Rafe shook his head. “He may not be here with you, but he’s still around, and I’m sure he’s still the good man you remember.”

“That’s exactly the way I think about it,” she told him incredulously. “I hated it when people would say he was gone, or my grandparents were gone. They’re not gone, they’ve just relocated,” she said with a smile.

“I notice you didn’t mention your mother, is she still here with you?”

“Yes and no. When Dad died, Mom was hit hard by it. Instead of descending into the role of grieving widow, she ran. She lives in Europe and travels a lot. We speak on the phone and see each other once or twice a year, but we just don’t have much in common, you know? And I think the fact that I look a lot like Dad distresses her to a certain extent.”

“She’s lucky in a way. My dad
did
descend into the role of grieving widower after my mom’s death. He just sort of went inside himself and never really came back.”

Lindy reached out and placed her hand on Rafe’s arm in sympathy. “I’m sorry, it must have been difficult for you.” Even through the fabric of his shirt sleeve, she could feel the tension in the hard muscles under her hand.

“Yeah, well, I learned to cope,” Rafe replied, slowly relaxing under her soothing touch. “Dad retreated in to his studies and the digs—he was a paleontologist—and I pretty much ran the household. I guess losing himself in his work was his way of running from the hurt.”

Lindy nodded with understanding. “Unless it happened to us, I guess we’d never really know how we’d react to losing our mate.”

Rafe sent a sharp glance her way at her use of the word mate instead of husband or wife, then chastised himself. She couldn’t know, there was no way, he concluded silently.

“Rafe, I’ve been meaning to ask you—” she continued, “—earlier, when the bear put in his appearance, you started speaking to it. What were you saying?”

Rafe paused a moment as though ordering his words. “I was assuring brother bear that our intentions were peaceful and that we would do no harm to the forest or to those she sheltered.”

“Brother bear?”

“My mother taught me to honor all animals as my brothers and sisters. She told me it was our duty to protect them.”

“And the language you were speaking?”

“Shoshone, the language of my mother’s people.”

She nodded and smiled impishly. “It must be nice to be bilingual.”

“Not particularly, when the second language is one most people don’t understand,” he replied with the lift of a sardonic eyebrow.

Lindy squeezed his arm. “Well, I’m sure glad the bear understood!”

It amazed Rafe how quickly that one little touch lit flames inside him. A wave of warmth and desire raced under his skin, a wave that boosted his heartbeat and sent blood pumping to his now throbbing and eager cock as it grew and caused a distinct bulge under his jeans. He looked at Lindy, at that moment wanting nothing more than to lose himself in her inviting green gaze and the full, tempting lushness of her body.

A calm, detached part of his mind wondered what it would be like to be just a normal man wanting a woman, having her, loving her, raising a family with her. Those tempting images swam before his eyes and solidified in the depths of Lindy’s.

He leaned toward her, noticing the rosy flush that graced the smooth, glowing skin of her cheeks. His lips parted and, when hers echoed the move, a low, rumbling growl crawled from the depths of his chest. Lindy’s eyes widened but she didn’t back away, she leaned toward him, her posture broadcasting her willingness.

Her rising scent assaulted his nostrils, tendrils of it winding around his spine, sending an unexpected and eager quiver through his body. The sweet musky aroma of her desire melted into his awareness and electrified every nerve.

Rafe felt the heated, caressing rush of her breath on his lips as he tilted his head, closing that infinitesimally small space between them. Just as his lips made fleeting contact, a movement in the distance drew his attention. Outlined on the horizon by the last of the sun’s fleeing rays, a mother bear and her cub were leaving the river’s edge for their nightly resting place.

Rafe pulled back and watched them go, mesmerized by a sight he’d seen many times in the past. He turned back to Lindy and found her looking at him with a puzzled expression on her face. At that moment, the differences between them slammed into him like a blow from a sledgehammer. He wasn’t a normal man, never had been, never would be, and no amount of wishful thinking would make it so.

“Let’s get these things cleaned up and put away. I want to get the BRFC secured for the night.” He rose and without a backward glance began cleaning up the remains of their supper.

* * * * *

Lying in her tent, wide awake, Lindy was still worrying about the significance of what happened earlier in the evening. There was no doubt that Rafe had been about to kiss her, a thing she’d decided she very much wanted. But then something had happened. All the heat and want and need she’d seen in his eyes just seemed to drain away, replaced by such a haunted look of loneliness, regret and resignation that Lindy felt her heart pinch with dismay.

It hurt to think that Rafe wrestled with such poignant emotions, and she couldn’t help but wonder why. She hadn’t refused his advances, she had in fact been on the verge of throwing herself into his arms. The agonizingly slow moments that passed as he’d moved closer had made her want to moan with frustration.

She wanted him. There was no denying it. Her body was making demands, her mind was confirming the need and now, seeing the hurt that filled him, her heart wanted to heal his. Conflicting emotions swirled inside. Mother, lover, friend, she felt the need to be all those and more to the big, quiet man who slept in the tent next to hers.

She restlessly changed positions in her sleeping bag and froze at the sound of something brushing the side of her tent. Listening intently, her tension increasing, the sound came again and she let her held breath out with a whoosh. It was the tall grass at the back of her tent. The breeze had picked up and intermittently set the stuff dancing against the nylon walls.

Slowly relaxing, Lindy sighed and yawned, pulled her backpack into her arms, and hugged it tight. She missed Humphrey, she admitted wryly and yawned again, her eyelids drifting down. Sleep came, and with it, dreams…

Naked, she lay back against the huge, warm body that curled around her. Dark, soft fur caressed her, sending delightful shivers over her skin. She could feel the strong, steady heart that beat against her back and she ran an exploring hand down a long fur-covered leg. Another shiver shook her as something nuzzled the hair at the back of her neck, and she smiled even as her hand reached a paw.

The enormous paw sported long, curved claws and her fingers explored them curiously. A low growl sounded at her ear and she turned her head, her eyes meeting those of the creature she leaned against. A shocked gasp was torn from her lips as she froze in terror, waiting to be torn asunder. The bear simply stared at her, its eyes dark and familiar and filled with patience as it waited. Lindy slowly relaxed and took a deep breath. Puzzlement filled her thoughts as recognition replaced fear.

“Rafe,” she whispered and woke.

She groggily blinked a few times then drifted back to sleep, the dream filed away in her subconscious. Unfortunately, the next dream was not so easily dealt with, and she woke again, this time in a cold sweat, a phantom roar reverberating in her head. Lindy lay shivering for a moment then sat up and crawled to the entrance of her tent. She cautiously lowered the zipper and peered out. Lit by moonlight, their campsite held none of the monsters that haunted her dreams.

All was quiet, except for the soft sounds made by the breeze as it rustled grass and leaves, and the chirp of crickets and frogs in the darkness. She scooted out of her tent and stood shivering as the moisture dried on her skin. Dressed in a pair of jersey shorts and a thin t-shirt, she felt naked as the air easily penetrated her clothes.

The dream was slowly fading, but she still felt an echo of the terror that had filled her in the dream as something large had leaned over her, its hot, pungent breath coating her skin and making it crawl before she was grabbed and dragged across the grass. Her fingers had dug into the dirt as she’d sought for something to hold on to, and a scream had built in her throat.

Breathing hard, fighting the returning fear that washed through her, Lindy forced herself to calm down, and was silently coaxing herself to let it go and relax when a voice spoke softly from behind her. “What’s wrong?”

She screamed and spun to face the new threat.

“Damn! What’s wrong?” Rafe exclaimed.

“You scared me!” she yelled.

“Well, I didn’t mean to, I was just trying to see if you were all right.”

“I had a nightmare. I was…scared,” she confessed, the last word trailing off softly.

“You were what?”

Lindy bit her lip and looked up to see a teasing twinkle in his eyes. “I was scared, all right? I admit it,” she fumed.

“I see. I guess I didn’t help matters.”

Lindy shook her head and shivered again as the breeze kicked up and rushed over her. Her nipples pinched tight under the thin fabric of her shirt, and for the first time she noticed that Rafe was bare-chested and wearing nothing but a pair of loose athletic shorts that exposed his well-formed legs to mid-thigh.