by Zoe Chant
Toni blushed. Why had she said that? Maybe her life wasn’t the most exciting, but that wasn’t the sort of thing you broadcast to hot guys you were trying to impress.
She sneaked a look sideways. Jack was smiling ruefully.
“You want to know the truth?” he said, gesturing to encompass the woods around them. “I’ve only been back here for a week, and this is already the most time I’ve spent in the outdoors in years. Turns out that being CEO means flying around the world to see the inside of a lot of conference rooms, and not much else.” He chuckled. “The only time I get to actually see the parks my company looks after is if my assistant organizes a publicity shoot at one of them, and even that’s just…”
His voice faded away. Toni could imagine what he was going to say. A photo shoot would mean being surrounded by a team of people, photographers, makeup artists, journalists – the opposite of the solitude of open spaces you wanted when you were exploring the wilderness.
“That sounds worse than never seeing the parks at all,” she said, musing aloud. “All that wilderness to explore, and you’re stuck in front of a camera all day.”
“That’s exactly it! And at the end of the day everyone hightails it to the nearest hotel. For more meetings.”
Toni bit back a laugh. It was probably deliberate, but Jack sounded genuinely upset – and a little bewildered – that being successful had led to him being promoted out of his favorite part of the job.
“If you’re in charge, can’t you … I don’t know, de-promote yourself? Or give yourself a new job, one that requires lots of important looking at trees?”
Jack laughed. “Manager in charge of running off and hiding in the woods: got a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?”
He paused, a question in his eyes. Toni sighed. Jack had pretty much bared his soul – she might as well do the same. Besides, it wasn’t like she was ever going to see him again after this weekend. He would return to his hundreds of conference rooms, and she to her own daily grind.
She took a deep breath. Grumbly, but light-hearted – that was the tone to go for. The same tone he had used, though it was clear there was real emotion under his joking words.
“Please do the tactful thing and don’t ask what I do for a living, or I’m going to have to reveal that I’m one of the pathetically underemployed, here babysitting her niece and nephew because my hours got axed so I’m free to play babysitter whenever Ellie and her husband are out of town.” She made a show of looking around, as if sizing up the park. The sun was so bright it made her squint. “Hey, you don’t need a live-in hermit for your forest here, do you? I’m sure I could find a suitable tree to live in. And you could ship me to one of your other campgrounds during those six-foot-snow winters. My rates are very reasonable,” she continued as Jack dissolved into laughter.
The trees thinned out. Just ahead was a wide clearing, buzzing with activity. A few trucks and cars on the far side suggested there was a road somewhere. The area was dotted with picnic tables and, along one side, a series of packed-dirt jump ramps. No one was using the ramps at the moment, but Toni could imagine the chaos that would unfold when the group of BMXers returned.
“Here we are,” Jack said. “The main control center. Chairs, drinks, and shade. Some of it’s even not covered in mud.”
Toni shaded her eyes. “No kids, though. What a shame, guess I’ll have to sit down…”
“…and have a drink?” Jack finished. “I’ll find you a chair – unless you’d prefer to start testing out a few trees?”
Toni giggled, unable to stop a delighted grin from lighting up her face. She sat down under a tree whose leafy branches cast a wide, cool shadow and watched Jack lope across the clearing. The “control center” he had pointed out was a truck with its trunk open to reveal a grill and a cooler of cold drinks.
Maybe, she let herself think, just maybe, this weekend wasn’t going to be as bad as she had feared. Even if Jack disappeared back into the forest after this afternoon, the memory of those golden eyes would give the whole weekend a warm glow.
Well. His eyes, and … other attributes. Toni enjoyed the view as Jack walked across to the truck, but quickly looked away as he turned back, drinks in hand. Her eyes stayed firmly on the trees, bike path, and everywhere else that wasn’t his perfect pecs as he strolled back.
“Coke, or beer?” he asked, holding out two dripping wet cans. Toni took the soda and popped the tab.
“Thanks,” she said gratefully. The sun was still high in the sky, and she was parched. Because you’ve been panting over this guy so much, her inner voice teased.
“Here’s to freedom from meetings and retail jobs,” she said, raising her drink. “Even if only for one weekend.”
The air under the tree was cool, and its leaves cut out the harsh sunlight that had left them both squinting at each other as they crossed the maze of bike paths. As Jack sat down opposite Toni and raised his beer to her toast, she looked directly into his eyes for the first time, and he into hers.
Jack’s whole body tensed. He dropped his drink on the ground.
“Are you all right?” Toni leaned forward and put a hand on Jack’s arm. His muscles were so tense they were jumping under his skin. His whole body was shaking. She looked into his face. His eyes were rings of gold, almost drowned by his huge, black pupils.
“I – oh, shit,” he muttered roughly, and broke her gaze. He passed one hand over his face, ruffling his hair. “I’m sorry, I – I have to go. Excuse me.” He rose suddenly, kicking his can in his rush to get away. Beer splashed out onto the dry dirt.
Toni stared after him, shocked. What had happened? Had she said something—?
No, she realized dismally as she followed Jack’s unsteady flight away from her. He was running so fast he practically collided with a blonde woman. Toni recognized her from earlier that day: Karen, the woman who had organized the BMX tournament.
Karen was petite and toned; her long blonde hair, pulled back in a perfect ponytail, shone like gold as it caught the sun. She was everything that Toni wasn’t.
A lump of sour unhappiness lodged in Toni’s stomach. It was clear as crystal what had happened. Big, ungainly Toni Oglietti would always come second best to someone like Karen.
Toni realized she was gripping her drink so hard the aluminum can was buckling. She took a deep breath and forced herself to relax. She’d met guys like Jack before. He probably hadn’t even been flirting with her, just being friendly. And if he dropped her like a hot potato the minute someone he liked better came along … well, yeah, that hurt. It hurt a lot. But it wasn’t like she would ever see him again.
It’s just like all those assholes who come into the shop looking for someone to bitch at, she told herself. It says more about them than it does about you.
Toni had just managed to make herself feel, if not entirely better, then at least not totally miserable, when a shriek cut through the air.
“Auntie Toni! Auntie Toni, watch me-e-e-e-e-e!”
Toni’s new-found calm went flying. She looked up and automatically flinched as a bicycle whizzed past her. Lexi, barely recognizable under her safety gear and a thick layer of mud, raced at top speed toward one of the jump ramps.
Toni closed her eyes tightly. One of the many things she had not inherited from her family was their ability to enjoy acrobatic feats of insanity without being terrified someone was going to get hurt. She couldn’t even watch Lexi take the jump without feeling sick to her stomach.
A small hand plucked at her elbow.
Toni opened her eyes just in time to see Lexi hanging upside-down six feet in the air. Her stomach flipped as the slight figure sped earthward, somehow twisted right-side-up, and hit the dirt wheels-first in a skid of pebbles.
She shut her eyes again. “Thanks, Felix. Your sense of timing is just so, so great.”
Felix flung his arms around Toni’s shoulders. “Come on-
n-n!” He giggled. “You know we have to trick you, or you’ll never watch us do anything.”
Toni sighed, but she couldn’t argue with that. As cat shifters, Felix and Lexi were almost magically athletic. Like everyone else in Toni’s family, the two of them had grown up with perfect control of their shifter and human bodies. So, as dangerous as the BMX tricks looked, Toni logically knew they weren’t in any danger.
Not that any of that stopped her from silently freaking out when they jumped into activities like the BMX aerials. Logic took a back seat to what Toni liked to think of as “Auntie terror,” i.e., the fear of what her sister would do to her if anything happened to her children while Toni was looking after them.
Felix tugged at her sleeve and pointed across the track. “Look! There’s Karen! She’s awesome. She showed me how to do a new jump.”
Toni followed Felix’s pointing arm to where Jack was still talking with the slim blonde woman. Jack turned away just as she looked across, putting his back to her.
Karen was looking up at him, her hair a cascade of perfectly, straight, perfectly shiny gold. Toni looked away, disappointment curling in her stomach.
“I’m going to try it that new jump now!” Felix crowed, jumping on his bike and wheeling across to the ramp.
“And I’m not going to watch!” Toni caroled after him, secretly grateful for the distraction.
Toni settled back to watch Felix as he launched himself back onto his bike. She steeled herself as he approached the jumps. This is fine, she told herself. I didn’t actually scream out loud when I watched Lexi jump. I can totally deal with this.
Besides, the more I freak out over the kids, the less I’ll think about Mr. Perfect Butt over there.
“Watch this!” Felix yelled, and Toni flinched as he twisted around to poke his tongue out at her. He swerved toward a tree, over-corrected in the other direction, and then righted himself at the last second, cackling madly. Toni hadn’t even had time to leap to her feet.
Toni rolled her eyes and slumped back in her chair. If she was ever going to get used to her niece and nephew’s death-defying displays, now was the time.
With the late afternoon sun behind her, the whole clearing was flooded in clear, golden light—the perfect calm backdrop for her niece and nephew to go wild.
Lexi was hollering encouragement at Felix as he sped toward a ramp. Toni had just taken a gulp of soda and fixed her eyes determinedly on the small figure hurtling across the ground when the shade of the tree suddenly got a lot colder. The crunch of leaves told Toni someone had stepped up behind her.
For one crazy moment, Toni thought it might be Jack, come back to apologize for running off. But a glance across the clearing showed her he was still deep in conversation with Karen.
She twisted in her seat to look at the stranger, and frowned. It was a man – and, whoever he was, he had crept up way closer than she’d thought. Toni fought a sudden impulse to back away.
“Uh, can I help you?” she asked.
He was tall – not as tall as Jack (why did her stupid brain keep going back to him? Ugh!) – but tall enough that he loomed over Toni in her chair. She supposed he was good-looking, but it was a sleek, unnatural handsomeness, like he’d been buffed and polished in a workshop before being let outside.
He was holding a tablet of some sort in his hand, and seemed more interested in it than in answering her question. Toni glared, and shivered. The whole forest to stand in, and not only did he choose to creep up behind her, but now he wasn’t even going to acknowledge her?
Silver Forest? she thought grumpily. More like Forest of Asshole Men.
Well, she was pissed off enough not to let him just stand there ignoring her.
“Hello?” she said, unable to keep the sarcasm out of her voice. “Anyone there?”
She waved a hand in front of him. He tucked the tablet under one arm and, like someone had flicked a switch, suddenly looked down at her with a gleaming smile on his face.
“Andre de Jager,” he said smoothly, plucking her hand out of the air and shaking it. “Sorry, I was just – checking something.”
Toni couldn’t pick his accent; it was slightly foreign, but not one she could recognize. Maybe something European, or South African?
“Toni Oglietti,” she replied shortly, unwilling to let his sudden show of manners make up for his lack of them before. “Do you mind? You’re—”
She paused. It wouldn’t make sense for her to say, “You’re blocking my sun,” because she was already sitting in the shade of the tree. But she couldn’t shake the sense that the air had grown colder the moment he turned up.
“…standing behind you like a particularly creepy shadow. I do apologize.” He moved in front of her – but without letting go of her hand.
“Right.” She pulled her hand away. “And that was an extremely creepy … pirouette … thing.”
“Then I apologize again. What a bad first impression I’m making. And on one of Jack’s … friends, no less.”
He was still smiling, but Toni had worked retail long enough to know when someone was making nice.
“You know Jack?” she asked.
“Oh, we go a long, long way back,” Andre said, and laughed unpleasantly. That is, his laugh sounded entirely normal – even pleasant – but it somehow … wasn’t.
It was hard to concentrate on talking. Her heart was hammering in her chest, a panicked drumbeat telling her danger–danger–danger. Her eyes flicked automatically to Felix and Lexi, who were playing happily on the other side of the clearing with the other children.
Was it her imagination, or did the stranger – de Jager – follow her gaze?
What was going on? Why was this guy freaking her out so badly? All he’d done was turn up and be a bit of a dick. So why was her body going to panic mode?
Toni shook her head to clear it. She was being irrational. She was just tired, probably. She’d driven all the way from the city today, and it was so hot, and Jack had dropped her like a hot potato not that she cared … yeah, she was probably just tired.
And now she’d snapped at this guy for basically nothing. Toni rubbed her face and started to stand up.
“Look, I’m really sorry, but I’ve got to…” got to go, got to clear my head, got to have a nap like a freaking five-year-old who’s gotten over-excited … Toni’s head buzzed as she tried to think of an excuse to leave.
She stumbled into Andre as she stood up, and he dropped the tablet. Automatically, Toni stooped to grab it before it hit the ground. As her fingers closed around the black plastic shell, a shock like electricity arced up her arm.
“Ouch!” she yelped, and let go of the device. It fell to the ground and lay there, blinking.
Toni sucked on her stinging fingers and stared at the thing. Now that she could see it clearly, it didn’t look like a tablet after all. The screen and interface didn’t look like machine she’d even seen – plus, it felt like it had bitten her. What the hell?
“Shit, that really hurt!”
CHAPTER TWO
JACK
Karen was saying something. Several somethings. Actually she had been speaking constantly for the last ten minutes, but Jack hadn’t picked up a word of it, because every atom of his attention was focused on another woman.
Toni.
He knew exactly where she was, still sitting under the tree, less than a hundred yards away. He didn’t need to turn around to see her; her image was front and center in his mind’s eye. That mane of dark brown hair, almost black, wild curls escaping from their loose ponytail to frame her sweet round face. Her spark
ling eyes, blue as the morning sky, and the way she’d glanced up sideways at him from under her long, thick lashes.
Jack closed his eyes briefly, remembering her plump, red lips. And below all of that … he almost moaned aloud in frustration at the memory of her body, held close against his. Her soft, generous curves. The heat of her body and that tantalizing blush as she felt his own heat…
And then – those same blue eyes losing their brightness, barely able to look at him. That mobile mouth turning down, lips tucked in at the corners, biting down on her feelings. She had looked that unhappy when he first saw her, trapped in her own unhappy thoughts. He had brought her out of herself, teased out those flirtatious, flashing eyes and open smile – and then slammed the door in her face.
His life had changed in less time than it took him to draw a breath, and the first thing he did with that breath was ruin it. The best thing that had ever happened to him, and like an idiot, he’d thrown it away.
He’d been attracted to Toni the moment he first saw her. With those curves, and that face, how could he not be? As they had talked, he had realized she felt the same attraction, but it wasn’t until they locked eyes for the first time that he understood the truth. What she was. Who she was.
He’d thought she was just a stunning human woman. Someone he would have loved to get to know better but who, in the end, would just be a harmless summer fling. After the last few months, he’d welcomed the thought of summer romance, even a brief one. He’d felt happy, lucky, like everything was going his way. Then – bam.
As soon as he looked into her eyes properly, he knew.
She was his mate.
He couldn’t deny it. He literally couldn’t even consider denying it. His brain leapt away from the thought like it was poison. The moment he had looked into her eyes, and seen her looking into his, he had known. Certainty had struck his body like a bolt of lightning. His tiger, already close to the surface out here in the wilderness, had risen up and purred in delight. It had been all he could do not to tear her clothes off then and there.