Force Of Nature

by Peggy Webb

“But?”

  “But what?”

  “Don’t hedge with me, Daniel. I want to know exactly what you think. Then, of course, I’ll do as I darned well please.”

  He laughed. “Here goes, then. I don’t think this is a man who will ever be tamed. Make sure you understand that.”

  Her brother spoke the truth. She’d known that about Hunter almost from the beginning.

  “I’m not the kind of woman who wants a tame man.”

  “Then go for it.” He hugged her, then said, “Let me be your escort for a while. I saw a few barracudas out there.”

  When she entered the gallery she saw her parents and Clarice talking to Hunter. Skylar was with Jake and Emily standing underneath a giant painting of a white wolf.

  “What did the rest of the family say when they saw the paintings?” Hannah asked.

  “You know them. They didn’t blink an eye. Skylar said she’d never seen you look more beautiful, and Mom agreed.”

  “And Dad?”

  “You know Dad. He said how proud he is of you, then got this look in his eye that meant he’d be talking to Hunter in private.”

  She had no time to think about that because the press had spotted her. They began to fire questions.

  “What is your relationship with Hunter Wolfe?”

  “In the last few months I’ve been his friend, his teacher and his model.”

  “Are you having an affair?”

  “No comment.”

  “Do you plan to marry him?”

  “No comment.”

  “What are Hunter Wolfe’s plans?”

  “You’ll have to ask him.”

  “Will he be going back to Mississippi with you?”

  “I can’t answer that question.”

  “Were you afraid of him when you first saw him?”

  “Never.”

  “What was your agenda when you brought him out of Denali?”

  She held up her hand. “No more questions. This is Hunter’s show. I’m merely a guest, just as you are.”

  All of them left except one aggressive young man who shouldered his way close and said, “What was it like being intimate with a wolfman?”

  Daniel turned to Hannah and said, “I’ll get Hunter.”

  She and her brother had worked as a team so long they could practically read each other’s minds.

  “Okay,” she said.

  As Daniel stalked off, the reporter struggled for composure. Hannah repressed her laughter.

  “What can Hunter Wolfe tell me that you can’t?”

  “He’s not going to say anything. It’s what he’s going to do that you should worry about.”

  His face turned a sick shade of green, and he quickly vanished into the crowd.

  “Did it work?” Daniel asked when he returned.

  “It worked.” They gave each other high fives. “Let’s go and see some art.”

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  March 28, 2002

  I’m sitting here at this lovely antique desk in our suite while Michael sleeps. I lay beside him for a long time watching him sleep before I came in here. Lord, he’s so gorgeous in repose. I wish I had Hunter Wolfe’s talent. I’d paint him…those incredible cheekbones, that strong square jaw, the wonderful cleft in his chin. And his long black eyelashes… Lord, no wonder our girls are so spectacular.

  Emily is positively glowing, and I’ve never seen Hannah look more beautiful. Those paintings took my breath away. They still do, even now, hours later, just thinking about them.

  There’s an intimacy in them that is sacred, a passion that is palpable.

  Michael felt it too. He didn’t say anything, but he reached for me, and we viewed the rest of the show holding hands.

  Then while Michael was talking to Hunter, Clarice told me, “I have to have one of these for my bedroom. If they ring Larry’s chimes as much as they do mine, you can start looking for another matron of honor dress.”

  “You’re not thinking of marrying again!”

  “Why not? I’m getting too old to live in sin.”

  “Don’t mention age. In my mind we’re both still sixteen.”

  “I was just kidding. I’m going to be young and outrageous forever.”

  “So am I,” I told her, and then as soon as we got back to our hotel I proved it to myself and Michael both.

  Afterward, Michael said, “Remember our first time here, Anne?”

  “How could I forget?”

  He kissed me and said, “Darling, every time is like the first.”

  Oh, it is. It is. The excitement never wanes with us. So many people don’t have what Michael and I do. I can’t imagine living without the spontaneous fun, the remarkable passion, the magic.

  I hope I never have to. I hope that when our time comes to die, we will look at each other and nod, then hold hands and walk off into the great beyond together.

  I think Emily and Daniel have found that kind of love. I believe Hannah has, too, though I’m not sure she fully realizes that.

  She left with Hunter tonight. I don’t expect her back, though of course, I won’t know until morning. And I’ll know only what she chooses to tell.

  My children have lives of their own, and I do too. Thank God.

  Daniel and Skylar and Jake and Emily are flying home tomorrow. Michael and I are staying another two weeks.

  When I said, “You’re spoiling me,” he said, “Call it another honeymoon.”

  “I’ve lost count of the number of honeymoons we’ve had since you woke up.”

  “Good,” he said, and I could tell he was pleased…not only that I had lost count, but that I had mentioned his recent coma as if it were merely something that happened to us. An extraordinary event, to be sure, but no longer terrifying.

  He still hasn’t talked about it, though, except to say that he heard every word, felt every touch.

  “You brought me back, Anne.” That’s what he tells me at least once a week.

  Someday I hope he can tell me what it was like being alone in the dark for so many months. Was he scared? Lonely? Peaceful? Free?

  When the time is right, he’ll tell me. Until then, I have this…the greatest love of all time.

  Chapter Forty

  Hunter’s room at the St. Moritz overlooked Central Park. The curtains were open and in the wee hours of the morning, while most of the world slept, it was almost like being outside.

  Hannah and her wolfman lay on the carpet facing a brilliant sliver of moon and stars so bright they burned holes through the night. As sweat cooled on her body, she shivered and Hunter pulled the spread off the bed to cover her.

  She wanted to cuddle close to him and fall asleep, but more than that she wanted to know that when she woke up in the morning he would be there. What to say? What to do?

  They had reached a turning point. With the success of the show, Hunter had achieved credibility as an artist. There was nothing more she could teach him, nothing more she could do for him.

  Except love him.

  The thought whispered through her mind, and with it her mother’s advice.

  Still, Hannah hesitated. Loving Hunter was only part of the equation. He had to love her back.

  There was no doubt that he wanted her. Lord, hadn’t he proved that over and over?

  But he had to choose her. That was the important thing. And in order to know whether he would, she had to set him free.

  She shifted so she could see his face. “Hunter, I’ve taken an assignment in South America.”

  “When do you leave?”

  “In a few days.”

  “For how long?”

  “As long as the story takes. I’ll probably be down there a month.”

  He didn’t say anything for a long while, but gazed out the window with a faraway look in his eyes.

  “I’ll miss you,” he finally said.

  “I’ll miss you, too.”

  He started stroking her arms in the slow, soft movements she loved so well. How eas
y it would be to close her eyes and drift away on a sea of contentment.

  “Hunter…what will you do?”

  “I don’t know, Hannah… I know some things I’m not going to do.”

  “Such as…”

  “Live in New York. George and Sarah want me to stay with them in Ithaca, but I’m not going to do that. It’s no longer home to me.”

  Did that mean he was going back to Alaska? Was it possible he would stay in Mississippi?

  “Mississippi can be your home…if you choose.” He was quiet. “Could you live there, Hunter?”

  He lifted himself on his elbow, and in the moonlight he looked almost as he had when she’d first seen him watching her from the deep snowy woods.

  “Could you live in Denali?”

  Live how? In a tent? In a house? In a cave? She wasn’t ready to ask those questions. She didn’t want him to feel tied down, hemmed in, imprisoned by her expectations.

  “I don’t know,” she said.

  “Neither do I.”

  She felt the tension building in him, the heat. When he pressed her back against the fallen coverlet, she wrapped arms and legs around him and welcomed him back, welcomed him to the only home he knew.

  They loved each other with fierce passion…and with aching tenderness. They loved until the sun pinked the windowsill. And when they both gave one final ecstatic cry, Hannah knew this would be the last time for a very long time. Perhaps forever.

  Hunter held her close for a while without speaking. And then he said, “I’m going back to Denali.”

  “I know,” she whispered.

  “I have to.…”

  “You don’t have to explain. I understand.” She twisted in his arms. “I’ll fly you back in.”

  “Yes,” he said.

  There was nothing left to say, nothing left to do. Hannah gathered her things, and when she was dressed she said, “The day after tomorrow. I’ll pick you up in Ithaca.”

  She left quickly without looking back. They had already said goodbye.

  The knock on her hotel room door woke Hannah. “Just a minute,” she said, then grabbed her robe and opened the door.

  Anne came in bearing food—two steaming cups of coffee and a bag of pastries. “Soul food, good for what ails you.”

  “How do you know what ails me?”

  “I can see.” Her mother handed her a cup and two packs of sugar. “Talk when you’re ready.”

  “I’m taking him back to Denali.”

  “Oh, Hannah.…”

  “I need to go anyway. I want to see the cave paintings and take a few pictures for the next installment of my story. Stop worrying, Mom.”

  “What? I didn’t say anything.”

  “You didn’t have to. I saw that look.” Hannah fortified herself with a big bite of pastry. “I’ll head to South America as soon as I leave Denali. I’ll be so busy the next few weeks I won’t have time to think about personal problems.”

  “In a pig’s eye.” Hannah laughed, and her mother said, “I mean it, Hannah. When you love someone, he’s never far from your mind. After I met Michael I didn’t stop thinking about him for two seconds straight.”

  “You exaggerate.”

  “Only a little. I thought of him constantly. That’s what happens when you find the one.”

  “It’s wonderful to see you so happy again. You look twenty years younger.”

  “Really? I think I’ve put on five pounds.”

  “I don’t hear Dad complaining.”

  “He doesn’t have time. I keep him occupied.” Anne laughed with her head thrown back and her face shining, and Hannah thought, Only a woman truly loved looks like that.

  She envied that. Did Hunter truly love her, or did he merely want her? With his background, would he ever know the difference? And would it matter to her?

  Or would he simply choose to return to the wild?

  “Will you join us for lunch before you fly back home?”

  “Yes. I’ll want to see Dad before I leave.”

  Hannah finished loading her gear for South America into her plane, then went back into her cottage and pulled open the closet door. Hunter’s bearskin clothes and his primitive weapons lay inside.

  If she didn’t take them, maybe he wouldn’t stay. If she did she would be saying to him, “The choice is yours.”

  She hesitated only a moment before packing them in a duffle bag and taking them out to the plane. Within an hour she was suited up and flying to Ithaca. She wouldn’t think about the purpose of her journey. She would only think about weather conditions.

  When Hannah walked through the door of the Wolfe mansion something inside Hunter settled down and said, There now. It amazed him that she had such power over him…the power to calm as well as excite.

  Neither of them said hello. Instead they stared…and sizzled. It started as a slow heat that quickly escalated to a towering inferno.

  Hunter reined in his passion.

  “Was your flight good?”

  “Yes. The weather cooperated. It’s supposed to be clear tomorrow, too.”

  “Good.”

  He never took his eyes off hers. How could he? He was drowning.

  “I brought your bearskins and weapons.”

  “Thank you… George and Sarah have dinner planned here.”

  “Fine,” she said.

  What was she thinking? Was she remembering how they’d slipped out of the party and made love beside the lake?

  “Sarah has your room ready.”

  “I’ll go and freshen up, then.”

  “I’ll get your bag.”

  When he passed by her, he reeled from the nearness. What was he thinking, leaving this woman?

  Hannah wore a red strapless gown for dinner. Vanity, she guessed. A last-ditch effort to show Hunter what he would be missing if he stayed in Denali.

  Before she chastised herself for stooping to games, she remembered that throughout the animal kingdom preening and strutting are common in the courtship ritual. The idea of courtship was ridiculous, of course. She and Hunter had progressed far, far beyond that point.

  But where would they go from here?

  Her eyes locked on his, and stayed that way throughout dinner. She ate little and tasted nothing.

  Here she was sitting across the table from her entire universe, and she might as well be on another planet.

  Hunter paced his room, wrestling with demons. In the hallway the grandfather clock struck midnight. The rest of the house was sleeping. Or were they?

  Was Hannah lying in her bed waiting for him? Wanting him as much as he wanted her?

  He started toward her room, then made himself turn back. If he went to her tonight, he could never leave her.

  And if he didn’t leave her, he would always wonder if he should have gone back to Denali.

  Taking nothing except the clothes on his back, Hunter hurried out of the house and down to the lake. He stood for a moment with his face uplifted to the glow of the moon, then made a bed of cedar boughs under the trees where he and Hannah had made love.

  For once, though, nature did not soothe the savage beast.

  Chapter Forty-One

  The snows still wrapped Denali in a thick blanket. She banked the plane without looking at Hunter. She was afraid of what she would see in his face.

  Instead she concentrated on her landing. “I’m going to try to bring us down in the same spot I used last fall. Is there anything I should know about what the snow does to this particular terrain?”

  “It’s a natural runway, and you’re a good pilot. You’ll be fine, Hannah.”

  After she’d landed, Hunter helped her set up camp. Once again she chose the site she’d used when she first met him. She’d never considered herself superstitious, but wasn’t that a good omen? Returning to the scene where she’d first come under his spell?

  “Will you stay here tonight, Hunter?”

  “No.”

  “Where will you go?”

  “To
find the wolves.” He touched her face. “I’ll see you in the morning, Hannah.”

  Pride got in the way of common sense. “I can find the cave by myself.”

  He laughed. “I know you can. I want to show it to you. I want to see your face when you discover it.”

  “Oh.” She felt foolish, but quickly forgave herself. When you loved someone as much as she loved Hunter, you were bound to make a fool of yourself every now and then.

  “Do you have everything you need before I go?”

  “Yes. I’m fine.”

  He picked up his primitive weapons and the duffle bag that held his bearskins, then stood studying her. Was he reluctant to leave? She hoped so. She hoped leaving her was the hardest thing he’d ever done.

  She held her breath, waiting for him to change his mind, waiting for him to say, “Since you’re going to be here a few days, it would be foolish for me not to stay with you.”

  Instead, he said, “I’ll see you later,” then disappeared into the woods.

  She stood listening to the eerie silence. How could he have vanished so completely, so quickly?

  All those months of training to become “civilized” had not destroyed his animal instincts. As she watched the silent woods, something in Hannah exulted.

  She jumped at every sound. Hannah snapped on her flashlight and looked at the dial of her watch. Midnight. Would she ever sleep?

  All of a sudden the back of her neck prickled. Not from fear but from excitement. Hunter was out there somewhere, nearby.

  She lay in her sleeping bag listening for a sound that would give him away, but all she heard was the soughing of the wind in the trees. Hannah snapped off her light. All she needed was the evidence of her senses.

  Smiling, she folded her hands under her cheek and closed her eyes. She was at peace. Her wolfman was keeping watch.

  When Hannah saw him the next morning she experienced a sense of dèjá vu. Dressed in bearskins with the snowy mountains as backdrop, he was every inch the wild and free wolfman she’d first seen.

  “Hunter?”

  “I didn’t mean to scare you, Hannah.” He came into the clearing smiling.

  “You didn’t scare me. I didn’t expect.…” She didn’t know what she had expected. “Coffee will be ready in a minute.”