The Last Lone Wolf

by Maureen Child

  When she gathered up the dishes and the pan she’d used to cook in and stacked them to carry to the river to wash, Jericho beat her to it. “I’m supposed to be doing all of this, remember?” she said. “Part of the whole survival-prove-you’re-worthy test?”

  He smirked at her, shook his head and carried the small load to the river. She fell into step behind him, determined to earn her way. She’d cooked a good dinner. At least, she was taking the fact that Jericho had eaten two of the fish himself as a good sign. But part of being outdoors, camping, was the cleanup and she wouldn’t walk away from a job half done.

  “Seriously, I’m cleaning up.” She caught him at the river, took the plates and pan from him and dropped to her knees in the sand beside the rushing water. He crouched, too, and waited until she met his gaze to speak again.

  “Accepting help doesn’t mean you can’t do it yourself.”

  “I know, but you’re the one who said it was all up to me and I want to do this. I want to prove to you that I can do this job.”

  “You already have.”

  That stopped her. “Really?”

  He shrugged, glanced away, then looked back at her and gave her a reluctant smile. “You’re a good campfire cook.”

  “Yeah?” Ridiculously pleased, Daisy grinned. “Thanks, I did notice you ate a lot.”

  He laughed shortly. “Yeah, well, I’ve never had pan-fried trout with an herb sauce on the trail.”

  “Well, I brought along a few things from the lodge kitchen. With the right spices, you can make any meal a banquet…”

  “So I’m learning.”

  It only took a few minutes to clean up the dishes and then they were walking back to the campfire, a companionable silence stretching out between them. Once the supplies had been put away, she sat down across from him. And the quiet lingered, becoming a tension that felt almost brittle. Daisy spoke up finally, because she never had been able to be quiet for long anyway.

  Besides, it was time to find out exactly where she stood. She took a breath and faced the hard truth. She wanted to bring up the subject before he did, so that she could put her own spin on her less-than-stellar performance on his series of “tests.”

  He’d admitted that he was considering giving her the job, and if his decision was going to be based on her skills at his tests, then she wanted to defend herself before he made his final decision.

  “About the rope bridge,” she began. “I know I didn’t go very fast, but I did eventually make it.”

  “You did.”

  “And I think if I’d had a little more time—” like a million years, she added silently “—I probably could have made it over the climbing wall on my own steam.”

  “You did better than some I’ve seen.”

  That was a bit lowering, she thought. Not good, she told herself, but better than some. Remembering just how poorly she’d done at the climbing, she could only feel sorry for whoever was actually worse than her.

  “All in all, you did a good job,” Jericho said and Daisy’s thoughtful gaze narrowed on him. He shrugged. “Frankly, I didn’t expect you to hold up as well as you have.”

  “Oooh. Big surprise.” She smiled though, giving him silent encouragement to keep talking. If he was feeling generous toward her, she wanted to hear it.

  “Right. Well.” Firelight danced across his features, tossing shadow and light over the sharp planes of his face, making his guarded eyes even more difficult to read than they normally were. “Like I said, you’ve got spine. And that’s important. Maybe more important than being able to climb a wall on your own.”

  “So I didn’t lose points because you had to give me a boost?”

  “No,” he said. “You didn’t ask for help, after all.”

  “True,” she said eagerly. “And I wouldn’t have.”

  “I know.”

  “So you said earlier, you were considering giving me the job.” Daisy took another deep breath and blurted out her question. “Have you decided? Because if your mind still isn’t made up, we can go back to the wall. I can try it again. I’m pretty sure I could do it with enough time…”

  He chuckled briefly. “You really don’t know the meaning of quit, do you?”

  “Not when I really want something,” she admitted.

  “Yeah, I get that. So we don’t have to go back to the wall.”

  “You’ve made your decision, then.”

  “I have.” He nodded. “If you still want the job, you have it.”

  “Really?” Bubbles of excitement burst into life inside her. Funny, but she hadn’t realized just how stressed she’d been about this. If he hadn’t offered her the job, she’d had no backup plan. No way to convince him to let her stay. No strategy for getting him into bed and making her pregnant. Now, thankfully, one wouldn’t be needed. She’d be here, on the mountain with him, every day. Every night.

  And soon, she’d have the baby, the family she wanted so badly. All she had to do was say yes.

  “Of course I want the job,” she told him.

  “All right then, it’s settled.”

  But he didn’t look happy about it. “Can I ask you something?”

  “Why not?”

  “Why are you being nice to me?” Maybe she shouldn’t push her luck. Maybe she should just accept his job offer at face value and count her blessings. But Daisy had to know why he’d decided in her favor. “We both know I never would have passed your tests if you hadn’t helped me. So why did you?”

  He scrubbed one hand across his face and blew out a breath. Then he shifted his gaze to the flames dancing in the fire ring to avoid looking directly at her. “I came out here expecting you to fail, like I said.”

  To be honest, so had she. “And…”

  “And you didn’t.” He looked directly into her eyes. “You didn’t quit. Didn’t whine. Didn’t give in. You kept pushing yourself no matter what.”

  Daisy smiled. “So blind stubbornness earns points with you?”

  One corner of his mouth lifted briefly. “You could say that.”

  “Well, yay me.”

  “We’ll see.”

  “About what?”

  “How you’ll work out around here. Yes, you’re hired, but that’s not saying you’re going to want to stay.”

  “I won’t quit.” Not until she had what she’d come here for. Not until she was pregnant. Her gaze drifted to his mouth, his firm, soft lips and everything inside her tingled, as if her whole body had been asleep and was suddenly waking up. Then he started talking again and those tingles subsided just a bit.

  “Like I said, I like your attitude. But know this. Stubborn might not be enough to keep you here when the snow starts flying and you’re cut off from the main road for days at a time.” He laid his forearm across one updrawn knee and looked at her across the fire. “It’s not easy living up here. You’re a woman not used to the quiet—”

  “I like the quiet,” she argued.

  He laughed shortly. “You can’t be quiet yourself for more than ten minutes at a stretch.”

  She frowned, but could hardly disagree.

  “I’m just saying, if you figure out this isn’t what you want after all, there’s no shame in walking away.”

  Daisy tipped her head to one side and watched him. “And you expect me to, is that it?”

  “I didn’t say that.”

  “You didn’t have to,” she told him. “Still, I guess the only way to convince you that I’m right for this job is to prove it to you. Yet again.”

  He nodded. “You’re getting your chance.”

  “That’s all I ever asked for.” Daisy knew he still didn’t believe that she could make it there, but she’d show him. She’d convince him. And then, she thought, remembering that simmering kiss, she would seduce him.

  She had to admit that she was looking forward to the coming seduction with a lot more eagerness now than she had when she first arrived. There were dark fires simmering inside Jericho King. She’d felt
the heat of them all too briefly and couldn’t wait for the chance to experience it again. And when they did, he wouldn’t be telling her that it hadn’t happened. Smiling to herself, she gasped when the first, eerie howl lifted into the air.

  “What was that?”

  “Coyote.”

  “Oh, God.” She blew out a breath and pretended to not be shaken by the wild, eerie sound still reverberating through the mountains. “I didn’t hear them last night.”

  “Probably farther away then. They move around a lot, but they always come back to their home ground.”

  “Which is here,” she mused, staring off into the darkened forest surrounding them.

  “They were here first,” he told her with a shrug.

  “Well, that makes me feel so much better.” She’d get used to it, she told herself firmly. After all, it wasn’t as if she had to live outside with wild animals. She and Nikki would have their own room at the main lodge and they’d be careful to not stray too far from the… Nikki.

  Daisy turned her head, looking for her dog and felt her heart chill when she didn’t see the tiny poodle. Now that she thought of it, she hadn’t seen Nikki since dinner. As if to deliberately terrify her, another howl from what was probably a very hungry coyote lifted into the air.

  Seven

  “Jericho,” she cried, “Nikki’s gone. Nikki! Nikki baby, come to Mommy.”

  She jumped to her feet as yet one more howl sounded out, sending shivers down her spine. That one seemed closer than the one before, she thought frantically. How many of the blasted things were out there?

  “Damn dog,” Jericho muttered, scrambling to his feet as Daisy began to walk a fast, frenetic circle around the fire. She peered into the woods, struggling to see past the encroaching dark, straining to hear the slightest sound, the faintest yip. But there was nothing. It was as if the forest had swallowed up her dog.

  “Where is she?” Daisy sent a quick, panicked look at Jericho. “She must have wandered off when I wasn’t looking. Oh, God, how could I have been so careless? Nikki!”

  Before he could say anything, Daisy rushed off blindly into the tree line, pushed by a driving sense of urgency. If there were coyotes close by, Nikki would be helpless. Nothing more than a snack to an animal three times her size.

  With her heart in her throat, Daisy shoved through low-hanging pine branches, hardly noticing when the limbs and needles poked at her. “Nikki! Come here, girl!”

  “Daisy, damn it!” His shout followed her into the brush but didn’t stop her.

  Her gaze swept the darkness, checking every shadow. Beside herself with worry now, she called the dog to her again and then listened for an answering bark that never came. The farther she got from the river, the more terrified she became. Nikki wouldn’t have strayed this far. But she might have gone another way. How would Daisy find her? They should go to the lodge. Get a search party. Flashlights. Something. But she couldn’t leave without Nikki, so Jericho would have to go for help alone.

  She’d wait here. She’d keep looking. She had to find the little dog that was her last remaining link to the brother she’d lost. Visions of Nikki hurt, or worse, filled her mind and strangled the breath in her lungs. Her imagination was running at full steam so she screamed when a hand came down on her arm and spun her around.

  “Stop,” he ground out, holding onto her upper arms. “You’re not going to find the damn dog running through the woods like a crazy woman. Hell, you don’t even know where you are. How can you find her if you’re lost, too?”

  “I’ll find her. I’ll just keep looking until I do. I can’t lose her,” she said, her voice hardly more than a whisper. “She’s all I have. She’s my family. She’s…”

  He gave her a hard shake to get her attention, then released her and stepped back. “You go running off like that in the dark and you’re going to end up at the bottom of a ravine. You don’t know these woods.”

  “No, but you do,” Daisy said, grabbing hold of his shirt with both hands. “Find her, Jericho. Please find her.”

  Clearly disgusted, he said, “I’m going to. But you’re going back to camp.” He turned her around, pointed her at their campsite and gave her a gentle shove. “Go back now and wait by the fire or I’ll be looking for you and the stupid dog.”

  She wanted to argue. Wanted to tell him that she wouldn’t be sent off to wait for the big strong man to come to her rescue. But even as she started to speak, Daisy realized he was right. She’d only slow him down. He knew these woods. This was his territory and she’d only make his search that much more difficult if she insisted on going along.

  So for Nikki’s sake, she’d do what he said. She’d sit down and she’d wait. “Okay. Okay, I will. But find her, Jericho. She must be so scared…”

  Muttering darkly under his breath, he jerked his head at her, silently telling her to go back. Then he moved off without so much as a whisper of sound and disappeared into the deep shadows of the forest.

  Daisy shivered and walked back to the campsite. She waited, but she couldn’t sit. How could she? She was alone by a campfire, and Jericho was off moving through the darkness in silence and Nikki… If anything happened to her dog…

  Daisy continued to pace in tight, worried circles around the perimeter of the campfire, her mind racing, her heart pounding. The coyotes howled again and she wondered if they were hungry. If they’d already spotted a tiny poodle snack. If Jericho would never find the little dog because she’d already been…

  “She’s fine.” Jericho’s voice broke into Daisy’s thoughts and she whirled around to face him.

  He stepped into the firelight and held a trembling Nikki against his chest in one huge hand.

  “You found her!” Daisy raced to him, scooped up her dog, murmuring soothing sounds and sighs as Jericho watched her with a bemused expression on his face. “Where was she?”

  Nikki’s tiny pink tongue swiped Daisy’s face in gratitude just before the little dog sent Jericho a look of complete canine adoration.

  “Cowering under a rock,” he said, with a shake of his head. “She was shaking so hard, the leaves on the bush beside her were trembling. Quite the ferocious little watchdog you’ve got there.”

  “You’re making fun of her, but you saved her. Poor baby, alone in the woods.” She looked at him, her heart in her eyes and felt something inside her tremble as violently as Nikki was. “Thank you for finding her. I was so scared.”

  “It’s fine. She’s fine.”

  “I don’t know what I would have done if anything had happened to her.”

  “Nothing did.”

  “Because of you. My hero.”

  He stopped, frowned and told her succinctly, “I’m nobody’s hero.”

  But he was, Daisy thought as she watched him walk down to the river, effectively closing himself off. Jericho King might be a reluctant hero, Daisy told herself, but that didn’t change the facts. He was a man to count on. A man to admire.

  The perfect man to be the father of her child.

  He woke up with both Daisy and the dog curled up into him again and this time, it was even more difficult to ignore the warmth of her curvy body pressed up against his. Now he knew what she tasted like. Now he knew what it was like to hold her, to feel her surrender herself. And now he was being haunted by those memories. Which only made him more determined to ignore the feelings, the temptations racing through him.

  She was now officially his employee and he wouldn’t take advantage of the situation. A man had to have rules of conduct for himself, or he was nothing. Besides, he wasn’t the kind of man to allow a woman into his life and Daisy was in no way the one-night-stand kind of female. She had “commitment” stamped all over her. All he had to do was look into her eyes and he could practically see a white picket fence and 2.5 kids—not to mention her idiot dog.

  Jericho eased away from her, despite the reluctance nagging at him. He wasn’t going to step into a bear trap and he wasn’t going to indulge himself
and hurt her. So he’d just keep his distance whatever it took and hope that she got over this whim of hers to live on the mountain.

  “Daisy!” His voice was sharper than it should have been, but even as he thought that, he figured it was just as well. He didn’t want her getting attached to him because nothing good would come of it.

  “Huh? What?” She rolled over, the dog yipped and shot up to all four feet while Daisy was still blinking sleep out of her eyes. “What’s going on? It’s dark.”

  “Almost dawn,” he corrected, giving one quick look at the already-lightening sky. “Time to get moving.”

  “Right,” she said, nodding as she pushed herself into a sitting position. “I’ll fix breakfast and then we can—”

  “We’re going now,” he told her. No more cozy meals, just the two of them over a dancing fire. “There’s trail mix in my pack. You can eat on the way.”

  “Ooh, yummy,” she murmured dryly, scrubbing both hands over her face. “Why the hurry?”

  He looked down at her. Eyes slumberous, hair tangled and falling about her face, lips full and all too tempting. She was the damn hurry, he thought angrily. Being alone with her was turning into a lesson in torture. One he, thankfully, didn’t have to put up with. He’d just get her back to the lodge, let her settle in and from now on, he’d make sure he was never alone with her. Safer all the way around.

  His body didn’t agree, but it would just have to find a way to deal with disappointment.

  “Test is over,” he said shortly, going down on one knee to stuff supplies into his pack. “Time to get back to work.”

  “Okay…” She pushed to her feet and Nikki trotted to Jericho’s side, sat beside him and leaned against his thigh. “I’ll just…”

  He paused in his packing, shot her a look and nodded. “Fine. Go take care of things, but hurry it up.”

  While Daisy stepped into the forest for some privacy, Jericho looked down at the little dog snuggling in close to him. “You and your mistress are turning out to be a real pain in the ass.” When the dog only huffed out a contented sigh, Jericho scowled at it. “You’re not going to get to me though, either of you.”