by Beverly Rae
“You saw me at the stream.”
Startled, she stared at him, unsure how much she should reveal. He waited, his face open, eager to hear her answer. What would he say if she told him she’d thought she’d seen him change into a bear? Even she had a difficult time believing it.
“Yes, I did.” She dropped her gaze lower and was once again stirred by his large shaft. Another rush of desire turned her legs to jelly. She might have fallen if she hadn’t been sitting.
He pulled a small section of sleeping bag over to cover his crotch. Had he caught her gawking? She blushed and lifted her head, determined to keep her gaze high.
“I’m sorry you saw that.”
Was he talking about his package now? Or about what she’d seen at the stream? “I’m not.”
His eyebrow arched, his stare intensified. “You’re not?”
“No.” She nodded, admitting the truth to herself for the first time. “But I don’t understand either. Tell me, Conan. Tell me what happened.” The second she’d asked, she sensed him retreat behind an invisible wall.
“What’s to tell? I like to fish.” His hard face lacked any emotion.
Disbelief ripped her apart, but she hung on. She had to know the truth. “With your bare hands?”
He laughed, an insincere snort of a chuckle that didn’t come from deep inside him. “No, not with my bare hands. I used a net.”
“A net? I didn’t see any net.” His lie hurt her more than any simple denial would have. Granted, they didn’t know each other, but hadn’t they shared a very intimate connection? After what they’d done, couldn’t he tell her the truth? He darted his eyes away, churning a hole in her stomach.
“It’s a very small net.”
Disappointment shot through her. He’d already withdrawn from her with his lie about the net. Why bother trying to get him to tell the truth when he refused to open up? “I see.”
“That’s right.” His eyes grew cold and impenetrable. “Nothing more, nothing less.”
Pushing her hurt away, she opted for a different topic. A topic she hoped would be a lot less dangerous to broach. “Do you have any family? Kids?” She paused and strengthened her resolve to know. “A wife?”
He jerked his head up, his eyes narrowing. “Why do you ask?”
“You mean about having a wife? Seems like a reasonable question after what we did. Although I guess I should’ve asked before we did what we did. And for the record, I hope you don’t have one.”
“Why would it matter?”
Was he for real? She gritted her teeth to keep choice words from slipping out. “Oh, I don’t know. Maybe because I wouldn’t like being the other woman.”
This time his laugh was full throated and sincere, rolling out of his chest. “The other woman? Where did you get the idea that you’re the other woman?”
Her ire dissipated for a moment as hope, ridiculous as it may have been, seeped in. “So you’re not married?”
“No way.” He grabbed for his clothes and tossed hers to her. “Let’s get this straight, okay? This—” he glanced down at the rumpled sleeping bag, “—was great. I enjoyed the hell out of it. But it was just a fun time in the sack. A result of heightened emotions and easy opportunity.”
Her breath got caught somewhere between her lungs and her nose. She found it along with a hefty dose of incredulous shock. “Wait? Easy opportunity? As in ‘slam, bam and thank you, ma’am’?”
He couldn’t have shaken his head any harder. “What? No. That’s not what I meant.”
“I hope the hell not. Because I’m not, you know. Easy, that is.” Great. She’d finally gotten him to say more than four words, but now she wished he’d just shut up.
“Look, Conan, I’m not trying to start a romance here.” She wasn’t, was she? “I just thought it would be nice to know a little something about the man I just slept with. Like whether I helped him cheat on his wife. Unlike what you may be used to doing, I don’t hop into bed with every Tom, Dick and Beary.”
They froze, each wondering if she’d actually said what she’d said. Conan recovered first. “I didn’t think you did, and for the record, I don’t have kids or a ma—a wife.”
He didn’t have a wife. Thank God. Relief as well as joy did a little dance inside her.
“But don’t get any ideas, either.”
Chloe closed her eyes against his worried expression and regretted the moment the joy fled and the anger set in. Who the hell did this guy think he was, anyway? She took a deep breath to steady herself and opened her eyes, sending him the meanest look she could. She stabbed her index finger against the middle of his chest. His oh-so-much-like-granite chest, damn him. “Don’t flatter yourself. I’m not looking for a husband, and if and when I do, I won’t want a slug like you.” She hoped her mean look was as hard as the one he gave her.
“Good deal.” Conan got to his feet, standing as straight as his height allowed in the tent, and fisted his hands as though trying not to strike her.
“Yeah, good deal.” She stood, hands on hips, and glared at him.
Did he just growl at her?
“Hey, you two. The rain’s over.”
Nina’s voice broke through their confrontation and Chloe stepped back to let Conan pass. He threw back the tent flap and strode out of the tent. Unwilling to let him get the last word—er, growl—in, she hurried after him. Nina and Billy scurried backward, hands linked, mouths gaping at them.
“I thought they were getting along.” Nina shot Billy an exasperated look.
Billy, on the other hand, shrugged it off. “You can never tell with Conan.”
“I should’ve kicked you out in the rain.” Chloe wished she’d thought of a better comeback.
Almost to the edge of the forest, Conan whirled around to find Chloe on his heels. “What the hell do you want from me?”
She shoved her finger into his chest again, delighting in the way it made him snarl. “Haven’t you been listening? I don’t want anything from you.”
“Great.”
“Yeah, great.” Sudden awareness of his overwhelming physicality made her step back although she ached to touch him. Damn, but she didn’t really want him to leave. She’d handled trying to get information from him in the worst possible way, but she couldn’t do anything about it now. If only she could start over again. If she could, she’d stay cuddled next to him and keep her mouth closed.
The memory of how she felt snuggled in his arms swept through her, washing away most of the anger. “Look, Conan, maybe—”
“Billy, let’s get the hell out of here.” Sending her one last glower, Conan whirled around and stalked into the woods.
Chapter Five
“Hey, Conan, slow down, will ya?”
Conan ignored Billy’s request, his mind filled with a tumultuous squall of thoughts and questions. Why the hell had he gotten involved with Chloe?
He shook the odd word away. No, not involved. He wasn’t about to be involved with anyone, much less a human female. But the question remained. Why had he made love to her?
Love? Shit, where were all these crazy thoughts coming from? He’d taken her; not made love to her. Right? Right. Sure, she was hot enough to make his balls ache, but he could’ve taken care of that problem by himself. Done anything, in fact, other than what he’d done. He’d lost control, that’s all. Plain and simple.
Billy grabbed his arm, but he yanked away from the were-coyote, keeping his hurried pace. “Back off, Billy.”
“What the hell happened with you two, huh? I mean, I know what happened first, but then what caused the blow-up? Argh!”
Conan clutched his friend’s shirt, lifting him off the ground to let the smaller man’s feet dangle in the air. “I told you to back off.”
“No.”
The word came out as a squeak, but he could see the determination in Billy’s face. Placing his face an inch from Billy’s, he let out a low growl. “I’m warning you.”
“Sorry, but I’m not
giving up.”
Conan narrowed his eyes, all while knowing it was useless to threaten him. Billy knew he’d never hurt him. Tossing the man aside like a rag doll, Conan barreled his way through a group of bushes, although he knew Billy wouldn’t be far behind. Tenacious little animals, these were-coyotes. Sometimes too tenacious for their own good. “Fine. It’s up to you. But don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
“Conan, come on, man. Tell me what’s going on. Anyone can see how much you like her.”
Conan slammed to a stop and felt Billy bounce off his back before he swiveled to confront his friend. “She was good in the sack. Nothing more.”
“I’m sure she was.”
“Watch your mouth, dog man.” The fury took root in less than a second, surprising him as much as it did Billy.
But Billy still wouldn’t let up. “See what I mean? You’ve taken a lot of females to bed, but you’ve never acted like this afterward.” His friend peered closer as though searching for something. “Oh, hell. She got under your skin, didn’t she?”
Conan had to look away then, the truth of Billy’s accusation striking him in the gut. Hadn’t he sensed it all along? From the first moment he’d caught her watching him at the lake, from the first second he’d laid eyes on her, he’d felt a pull, a longing for her that had nothing to do with sex. Almost as though he’d known her before actually meeting her. Then once they’d met… What did people say? They’d just clicked. Damn. More like exploded.
“Wow. Conan, this is huge.”
The awe in Billy’s voice matched the awe Conan was experiencing. He couldn’t, however, let himself feel anything for her, no matter how many times he’d thought about her. Hell, dreamed about her. She was human and he didn’t want anything to do with her. His life didn’t need the complication. “No, it’s not. It’s nothing. She’s nothing.”
“I don’t think so. I think—”
Conan, fists clenched, growled at his friend. “I don’t give a shit what you think. Now I’m going back to the cave, and if you’re going to stay there with me, you’d better not mention her again. Understand?”
Billy backed away, taking the threat seriously now. “Okay, okay. Relax, big guy.”
“Good.”
The argument was over with Billy, but as Conan stalked through the forest toward the cave, his mind lost the battle to keep Chloe out of his thoughts.
“Color me confused. So I have to ask one more time. What happened between you and Conan? Why did he storm off?”
Chloe kept her back to Nina, trying to ignore not only her friend’s persistent questions about Conan, but her own thoughts of him. Not that she was succeeding. Why couldn’t she stop thinking about him?
He was a big, oafish lout who had taken advantage of her at a weak moment. She muttered a curse, then chastised herself for letting him intrude on her life. But her mind wouldn’t stop playing tricks with her, tormenting her with images of how he looked hovering above her, the expression on his face as he came and the way he’d wrapped his arms around her, comforting her. She moaned, remembering how wonderful he’d felt against her, inside her. Sure, he was a great lay, but it was more than physical chemistry. He’d been truly sorry about the loss of her artwork and his sincerity had tugged at her heart.
Still, the man wasn’t her type.
“Wow, Chloe, will you listen to yourself? Come on. Talk to me.”
Chloe organized her brushes—for the fifth time. Damn. Why couldn’t she shake him out of her head? “There’s nothing to talk about. It was sex. Pure and simple.”
“But you don’t do sex. At least not with strangers. And not with someone you just met five minutes before. That’s what makes what happened so special.”
Chloe whirled on her friend, anger mixing with her wounded ego and self-reproach. “Get over it, will you? What we did wasn’t special. He wasn’t special. I was upset and lost my head. That’s all.”
Regretting her outburst the moment Nina winced, Chloe bent down and busied herself with her brushes again. She placed her brushes into her supply carrying case and snapped the lid closed. “Trust me. It won’t happen again. Now, can we drop it?”
“I guess. For now.”
Relieved, Chloe hoped her apologetic smile would convey everything she couldn’t seem to put into words. “Great. How about we talk about something fun?”
“Do you mean fun as in Billy?” Nina whipped her hands up, palms outward to ward off Chloe’s scowl. “Hey, just because you regret your hook-up doesn’t mean I do. In fact, I’m very happy I did what I did.” Her grin grew wider. “Every time I did it.”
Chloe could never stay angry at Nina for long. Besides, just because her whatever-it-was with Conan had ended in ruins, that didn’t mean she couldn’t join in her friend’s happiness. “Yeah, I could tell from the sounds coming from your tent.”
“Really? I’m surprised you could hear us above all the noise you and you-know-who were making.”
If heat was any indication, her face had just burned away under the rush of embarrassment scouring her cheeks. “Oh, uh, well, I— Hey, never mind. And don’t try to bring him up again, got it?”
Nina grew serious and took Chloe’s hand, then led her to a log where she urged her to take a seat. “Look, I get how you feel. But I have to tell you something.”
Chloe’s stomach made a sickening flop. Nina being serious was bad enough. But Nina taking her hand and acting this dramatic was worse. “Should I dial 911?” Nina not laughing at her lame joke only made Chloe’s stomach turn over again.
“Only if you attack me after you’ve heard what I’m about to tell you.”
“Oh, crap. Do I have to know? Because I’m pretty sure I don’t want to know.” The sting of the bark on the log poking into Chloe’s right butt cheek was nothing compared to the quick pain in her chest.
“Billy and I agreed to meet later on today.”
Chloe held her breath, waiting for her friend to spit out the rest of the news. After all, there had to be more than Billy and Nina getting together again. “O-kay. And this is going to upset me why?” She tried not to think about what the couple would be doing in the next tent.
Nina dropped her gaze, then raised her head and met Chloe’s gaze head-on. Her friend’s determination sent a chill down Chloe’s spine. She was right. There was more.
“Because I promised to meet him down by the water. You know. Where you saw, um, what you saw.”
“You mean where I hallucinated seeing a man—Conan—turn into a bear.” At least Chloe hadn’t made the mistake of telling Conan about her alcohol-induced vision. “So?”
Nina shifted in her seat, her determination gone. “Well, you see… I mean, when Billy mentioned meeting him there…”
“What did you do?” Chloe struggled against the awful truth she knew was coming.
“I’m sorry. But yeah. I kind of told him.”
When would her friend stop dropping emotionally charged bombs on her? “You kind of told him? Damn, Nina, please say you didn’t tell him about that. You didn’t, did you?”
But Nina’s expression told her everything she didn’t want to know. Still, to be certain, she had to hear the words. She grasped her friend’s arm, keeping her on the log. “Tell me what you said, Nina.”
“I just, well, I just sort of said you’d seen Conan before he came to our camp. Plus, that you couldn’t figure out how one moment you’re looking at him and then, in the next moment, you’re looking at a bear.”
Chloe was on her feet and pacing as though she could get away from both her friend and what she’d revealed. “Oh, hell. I do not believe this. Isn’t it bad enough that the man thinks I’m after him for a relationship?”
“He does?”
“And now he’ll think I’m crazy in a whole different way.” Chloe ran a hand though her hair, her heart pounding against her chest.
“Hey, don’t worry about it. I told him what happened. You know. How you were slightly inebriated at the time.”
The expression oh, my God had never meant more than it did at that moment. “Terrific. Just terrific. Not only will he think I see things, but now he’ll think I’m a drunk.”
“No. I’m sure he won’t. Besides, who knows? Billy might not even mention it to him.”
Chloe tilted her head, tossing her friend a scornful look. “Really? You don’t think so? If the situation were reversed, wouldn’t you tell your best friend some juicy tidbits about his latest conquest? Especially if you thought the conquest was a nutcase.”
Nina scrunched up her face. “I see your point. Damn, I’m sorry. I didn’t think.”
“No, you didn’t.” How had her trip gone so wrong so fast? In less than a day she’d met an unbelievably handsome albeit bull-headed man who she’d not only fantasized about but who had also been the main character in a real-life hallucination. What next? An alien abduction?
“Are you sure you want to do this?”
Chloe stopped to pull off her shoe and dump the dirt out of it. “No. But I don’t think I have a choice.”
Nina waited until she slipped her shoe back on, then started down the trail again. “I guess I could try and explain the situation to Billy.”
“We’ve already discussed this. I want to be sure he understands that you made a mistake in telling him about what I saw. What I think I saw.” Chloe gritted her teeth against the urge to declare what she’d seen was real. Without a doubt, the bear had been real. But the man changing into a bear? As much as she told herself she’d hallucinated, she couldn’t shake the feeling that even the amazing transformation had been real.
“Okay, maybe I made a mistake by telling him.”
Chloe rolled her eyes at her friend. “Ya think? I want him to promise not to repeat the story. Not to anyone, including Conan. And I want to actually hear his promise.”
“Well, if you’re sure.”
“Don’t worry, Nina. I won’t stay and intrude on your hook-up in the woods.” Chloe repositioned her backpack on her shoulder. “I’ll get some water for cleanup, then you two can have your fun while I find a location to paint.”