After she was settled on a limb, he walked up and looked at her, eye-to-eye. He almost shifted back into human form right there, so he could laugh out loud as she babbled to him.
Besides, he’d wanted to get closer because she looked familiar. And now, as he listened to her talk, she sounded familiar. Unfortunately, his bear wasn’t very good at remembering human names and faces.
As the first snowflake fell on his fur, he turned and left her alone. He needed to shift so he could get her out of here before she really did get lost.
He raced back to his cabin, shifted before he went inside, then threw on some clothes and headed back out. By the time he got back outside, there was a steady shower of snow falling.
The girl was easy enough to find. She’d been walking parallel to the trail. In fact, if she hadn’t been hiding in the tree, he would have been able to see her from the trail.
When he found her, she was still sitting in the tree where he left her.
“Hello,” he said, as he approached her.
“Thank goodness.” She brightened when she saw him.
And Brayden recognized her immediately. She was the weather girl on RMTV- channel ten. “What are you doing up in that tree?” He moved to stand closer to look into her mesmerizing green eyes.
“There was a bear.”
Brayden looked around. “A bear? Where?”
“Right there. Where you’re standing.”
“I don’t see a bear. You can come on down.” It was snowing hard now.
She didn’t move. “I don’t think I can.”
Chapter 6
Taylor had already given some serious thought to getting out of the tree. In fact, she’d dropped one foot to the next limb, but it was slippery. And it was further down than she expected.
She’d checked her cell phone again, but still no service. She held it up in the air. Nothing. If only she’d thought to bring a sat-phone with her. This was supposed to just be a quick get-a-lay-of-the-land trip.
It wasn’t supposed to be a get-lost-and-attacked-by-a-bear trip. As she sat holding on to the limb in front of her, she listened. It was so quiet she could hear own breath.
This had so not been such a good idea. Her chin quivered. That Michael was going to get a piece of her mind when she got back to the station.
At the sound of footsteps, she’d gasped. Now the bear was coming back to eat her after all.
She’d been about to go up on the next limb and hoped she didn’t fall when she saw that it wasn’t a bear, but a man. As he walked toward her, she could see that he was a handsome man about her age with dark hair, and by the looks of his face, he’d gone at least a couple of days without shaving.
“Are you stuck?”
“Yes.” Her nails dug into the bark. So much for her nails. “I’ve never climbed a tree before.”
“Somehow that doesn’t surprise me. I’m impressed that you’re up there to begin with.”
“Well.” She said. “Are you going to help me get down?”
He shrugged. “You look kinda cute there in the tree.”
He stood close and looked into her eyes, much like the bear had. His eyes, like the bear, were a dark brown, but his held a glint of mischief.
She shuddered. And closed her eyes. I just want to go home.
“Okay, come on.” He gestured for her to come toward him.
“I can’t.”
“Come on jump. I’ll catch you.”
“You must be out—” She squealed when he grabbed her bottom and slid her off the limb against him. She threw her arms around his neck and clung to him.
“I think you can.” He whispered in her ear.
He shifted her to hold her more tightly against him.
“Oh,” she gasped. She struggled a bit to get loose, but with his strong arms wrapped around her, she only managed to fit better against him.
She stopped moving and contemplated how to get away from this unexpected predicament.
Or maybe she didn’t want to. He smelled so… yummy, like leather and firewood.
She shifted again. She couldn’t help it. She wrapped her arms tighter around him.
He chuckled against her ear. “Hold on, Taylor.” Not sure if he meant to actually hold on or to stop moving against him, she froze.
“How do you know my name?”
“You’re kidding, right? Taylor Stone, the weather girl, is a household name around here.”
She groaned.
He laughed and let her legs slide against him until her feet were on the ground.
She swallowed and looked up at him. Tall, dark, and handsome, in a rugged kind of way. She didn’t meet too many rugged men in her line of work, but this one had her thoughts scattered and her nerve endings on fire.
“How did you find me?”
“I followed the trail of… lipstick?”
She sighed. “Chanel lipstick, actually.”
“Chanel.” He studied her lips. “Yeah. I can see that it’s your color. Not the best use of good lipstick.”
“Except that it saved my life.”
His secret smile was exasperating. “I don’t think you were as lost as you thought.” He held out his hand.
She put her hand in his and followed him a few yards towards the mountains.
“You were following the mountains, right?”
“Oh course.”
“You were walking parallel to the trail.”
She stepped onto the well-worn path and rolled her eyes. “I should have known.” She started down the path.
He stood and cleared his throat.
She turned around. “What?”
“You’re going the wrong way.”
“Seriously?”
Chapter 7
The look on Taylor’s face was priceless.
“The lodge is this way.” He gestured over his shoulder.
“Of course, it is.” She kept walking. Then she stopped and looked into his eyes. “Oh. Thank you for getting me out of the tree and back on the trail.”
Those mesmerizing green eyes. “Think nothing of it.” He lifted an eyebrow. “Where are you going?”
“To my car, so I can go home.”
Brayden crossed his arms and shook his head. “You can’t do that.”
She scowled at him which made him smile. She’d never scowled on TV. “And why not?”
“Because it’s snowing.”
“So?” She shrugged. “I know how to drive in the snow.”
“What is it the weather girl says? It’s snowing. Stay out of the hills.”
“Ha. Like anyone does.”
“Actually, we take that advice seriously around here.”
“Fine. I’ll spend the night at the lodge.”
“Do you have a reservation?”
“No.”
“Then you won’t be staying there.”
“Because…”
“The lodge is full.”
She crossed her arms. He couldn’t take his eyes off her. He’d watched her so much on TV, it was almost like she was an imaginary creature come to life, but she was so much more entertaining in real life.
“And how do you know this?”
He opened his mouth to explain that his family owned the lodge and all the land around it, including that under their feet, but decided in that split-second to play it another way. “I just came from there.” She was shivering now. He needed to get her warmed up.
“I suppose you have a room.”
What a tangled web he wove. “No, I don’t.”
Concern finally flashed over her features.
“I have a cabin though.” Anything to take that frown off her face.
“Of course, you do.” She put her hands on her hips.
He laughed. “What does that mean?”
“Every good serial killer has a cabin in the woods.”
“It’s a lodge cabin. Here.” He held out his phone. “You can call the front desk and verify it.”
She loo
ked from him to the phone. She was probably trying to decide if he had cell phone service. And this area was spotty, so he probably didn’t.
The snow was covering the ground now, disguising the trail. Taylor was shivering. She wasn’t wearing gloves, and her feet had to be soaked. “You can stay in my cabin until the roads clear. I’ll stay with my brother.”
She crossed her arms and squinted at him. “Right.”
“Okay. I’ll take you to the lodge, and you can sleep on one of the couches in the lobby. I hear they’re not bad.”
Chapter 8
Taylor considered her options. She wasn’t a celebrity, exactly, but she was well-known enough in this area that strangers recognized her on the street. This man was a case in point. Not that it mattered. Her mother had instilled a healthy dose of caution in her as a child.
She stood up and stretched to her full five-foot-four-inch height. She was no longer a child, and she could usually tell if someone was trustworthy, couldn’t she? At any rate, she had to make a decision soon before they were buried in snow right here on the trail.
She looked past Brayden. Already, the dirt trail was becoming obscured by the snow. It didn’t take much for the trail to blend with the ground to start and end it all. She had no choice, really. She either had to go with him or risk getting lost again. “Fine,” she said. “I’ll go to your cabin.”
He grinned and held out his hand. As she put her hand in his, she was reminded of the sensations of being in such close proximity to him.
Nonetheless, Taylor was miserable. Her boots were soaked through, and her toes were like ice. Her wool coat wasn’t waterproof, so as the snow melted on it, it soaked through, too. Even her ears felt like ice cubes.
But her hand, held firmly in Brayden’s, was warm. How was he staying warm when he wasn’t wearing gloves either?
As they walked in silence, her trepidation faded. Right now, all she wanted was to be dry and warm. But of course, she hadn’t brought an overnight bag.
They veered to the right and walked alongside the flowing river for a bit. The water was shallow here, and as it flowed over the rocks, it gurgled soothingly. As they walked, Taylor watched in fascination as snowflakes melted into the rushing water.
If they followed a trail, only Brayden could see it. Then the path opened into a clearing with a small log cabin with an upper balcony with two inviting wooden rockers. There were large windows with open shutters on each side of the front door. The porch had a wooden bench on one side and firewood stacked on the other side.
Taylor was charmed. This was much nicer than a room in the lodge, primarily because it had the privacy she so often craved.
She followed Brayden onto the covered porch area and watched as he keyed some numbers into a keypad. Charming with modern touches.
They stepped inside and entered a modern, clean house. The cabin exterior was merely a camouflage for what could be a city apartment.
“I’m impressed.” She looked around, taking in the black leather sofa with the big screen television hanging on the wall.
“You like?”
“Very much. I had no idea these cabins were so nice, or I would have reserved one.”
“I doubt you would have gotten a reservation. This one is booked out for quite some time.”
Chapter 9
Brayden didn’t tell her that this was his home. He wasn’t normally deceitful, but he allowed her to make her own assumptions.
“Oh.” She nodded and rubbed her arms. “Could I borrow a towel?”
“Of course.” Spurred into action, he led her to the bathroom. “Would you like a hot bath?”
“Please. Yes!”
He ran water to fill his garden tub. This was the first time he’d used it. Until this moment, he’d seen it as a waste of space. “I’ll get you some clothes.”
A few minutes later, he returned with a tee-shirt, sweatpants, and a pair of thick socks. She’d added some of his liquid soap to the water and now his tub was filled with bubbles.
He took her coat from her. “Enjoy your bath.” Then quickly left her alone. The image of Taylor Stone naked in his garden tub was more than he could bear to think about.
Needing something to take his mind off of her in his tub, he brought in firewood that he’d chopped himself and built a fire in the fireplace.
With nothing else to do but wait, he logged into his computer and made a couple of transactions.
Brayden worked as a tour guide simply because he enjoyed getting outside, riding his horses, and interacting with people.
The rest of his time was spent mostly glued to a computer screen.
He’d promised Taylor she could have the cabin, so he packed up his computer and threw some jeans and a sweater into his overnight bag. Then he called his brother. “Hey, Aiden, I need a favor.”
Chapter 10
Taylor peeled off her wet clothes, secured her hair onto the top of her head with a band she kept in her handbag, and stepped into the tub. She could just as easily have been in a five-star hotel as a remote cabin in the woods. Maybe she should write her story about this lodge with its hidden luxury. But she had to be careful about how the owners would feel about the sudden exposure. Perhaps they were one of those exclusive places that had all the business they wanted and preferred their privacy. This would require some research.
She leaned her head against the back of the tub and sighed at the warmth of the water. Her thoughts led back to her host. He’d said he could stay with his brother. Maybe his brother had a cabin also, or perhaps he had a room in the lodge. She found it curious that they hadn’t shared a room. These rooms, no doubt, were rather costly. Brayden or maybe his brother must be wealthy.
She wondered if Brayden’s brother had a girlfriend or a wife and maybe that’s why they weren’t staying together. It was fortunate for her, but she felt bad about imposing.
When the water started to cool, she toweled off and put on Brayden’s clothes. Fortunately, her underwear hadn’t gotten soaked. She had to roll the waist of his pants several times over to keep them up at the waist.
She located a hair dryer and blew the dampness out of her hair. Either Brayden had brought an unusually large number of personal items with him or the lodge supplied a lot of male personal hygiene items.
This was a most unusual place. She shrugged off her thoughts. She’d never stayed in a cabin before, so she didn’t really have a frame of reference. Maybe this was like one of those Air BNB houses, where someone lived there and rented it out when they weren’t home.
Satisfied that she’d figured out why the place had so many male personal items, she gathered up her clothes and went out through the bedroom to find Brayden sitting on the sofa writing something with his iPad pencil. Trying not to be envious, she noticed his bags on the sofa next to him.
He looked up and smiled. Her heart did a little flip. Her gaze was drawn to his lips, curved at the corners, and the smile that spread to his eyes.
“Feel better?”
“It was wonderful. I feel really bad about you giving up your place. I can pay you back for the night.” Hopefully. She bit her lip. This place could run several thousand a night for all she knew.
Much to her relief, he waved her off. “Don’t even think about that.” He handed her a Post-it note. “If you need anything, you can call my cell phone or this other number which is the lodge. They’ll know how to get in touch with me.”
She took the paper and smiled at him. “Thank you. You’re very kind.”
He shrugged. “It’s the least I can do for our local weather girl.”
She winced. “I was hoping that was about to change.”
He leaned back. “Change how?”
She dropped onto the couch next to him. “I was hoping to get promoted to news anchor.”
“You don’t like being the weather girl?”
“It’s not real news. Everyone thinks it’s a joke.”
“Around here, the weather is taken very serious
ly, I can assure you.”
“Yeah, but anyone can look at a Doppler and give a weather report.”
“Then explain to me why-” He stopped to answer his phone. “It’s my brother.”
Chapter 11
“The snowmobile won’t start.”
Brayden glanced at Taylor before stepping into his bedroom. “It’s not a problem. I can walk.”
“I’ve been telling you we need a fleet of those things.” Aiden insisted.
“Yeah, and then the tourists would want to start riding them, and then we become libel for any accidents.”
“Nonetheless, we’re gonna regret not having snowmobiles with this weather.”
“Maybe so. We’ll talk about it again later.”
Aiden waited a beat. “Are you sure you can’t stay put?”
“No. But really. I can… walk.” He got up and paced to the door to gaze at Taylor sitting on his sofa. “It’s not that bad, and I won’t be out there that long.” He disconnected and went back to sit on the sofa next to Taylor. He ran a hand through his hair. Then he put a hand on his computer bag.
“What’s wrong?” Taylor asked.
“The snowmobile won’t start. Probably a dead battery. So, I’m going to have to walk.”
“How far is it?”
Aiden lived on the other side of the lodge, so he guessed it was about four miles. It wouldn’t take him anytime to get there as a bear, but it would be difficult to carry his computer. “About a mile maybe.” That would be about the same distance in time if he walked as a human.
She stared out the window. “That’s a long way to walk in this.”
“It won’t be bad. I’ll just have to leave my computer here.” That was the only solution. He could do without the extra clothes, too. He could just come back tomorrow and get what he needed.
Besides, the odds were good that the roads would be safe by noon tomorrow anyway, and Taylor Stone would be on her way back down the mountain to Fort Collins.
Brayden's Mate Page 2