Authors: Anya Nowlan
“So, where are we going to start tomorrow? Bear Ridge, I assume?” she asked, trying to pretend to be helping and talking at the same time. Jackson didn’t raise his eyes from the food and simply shrugged his wide shoulders.
“Probably not. I don’t think Bear Ridge would be very interesting,” he said, his tone suddenly almost conversational. She noticed the change and filed it away for future consideration. Bear Ridge was supposed to be the site where the locals had noticed the greatest increase in bears recently. But, one would assume that it would be wiser to trust the warden’s knowledge about what might be an important place to visit than just going by rumors. “We’ll go set up some cameras if you want and do some observation rounds. I’m not really sure if I can be of much help, since I don’t particularly agree with the assessment that there are a lot more bears in the region now. They come and they go, like they always have.” Tess pursed her lips, finishing chopping the carrots and pushing the board towards him across the counter. It didn’t matter either way to her, she was just glad to be out in the field again. And it didn’t hurt that she got to be in the company of a man as heart-flutteringly hot as Jackson.
He moved with practiced ease, preparing a hefty portion of salad and potatoes to go with the mouth-watering meat. When he served two portions on wide plates, the food barely fit on his plate. She had to wonder if even a man his size could down all of that, but she was soon shown that a cowboy could have a big appetite.
I wonder if that’s all that’s big on him…
Tess mused quietly, a slight smirk tugging at the corners of her mouth. She didn’t consider herself a particularly predatory woman when it came to dating or having boyfriends, but this grouchy specimen of magnificent masculinity did a number on her, and she had a hard time keeping her thoughts on the straight and narrow around him. When his hand brushed against hers as he handed her a glass of white wine, she could feel an immediate spark between them. Her eyes met Jackson’s for a moment, but he averted his gaze quickly. The subtle flash of surprise in his eyes told her that it wasn’t just her that had noticed it, though.
She cleared her voice and took a sip of the wine, enjoying the warmth of the liquid as it trickled down her throat. It had been a long day and she was not far from collapsing with exhaustion, and the food and wine were certain to do her in. Jackson didn’t join her in drinking wine, pouring out a few fingers of whiskey for himself instead. He hadn’t even bothered to ask what she preferred, but he had been spot on with his choice. Apparently she could be read like a book, at least as far as alcohol went.
The first bite of the meat made her groan with delight. She swallowed quickly and beamed at the glowering man, who was well on his way to devouring the plateful of meat and vegetables.
“This is delicious! Thank you for cooking dinner!” she chirped, receiving another curt nod in reply.
Wow, he really isn’t a big talker.
Tess gave a mental shrug. She didn’t mind the strong and silent type, especially when there was absolutely no chance that it would go any further than her imagining the dirty things he could do to her – professionalism and all that was a thing even with rugged wildlife wardens and sassy scientists. “So, have you been here long?” she asked. The silence didn’t scrape at her ears as much as she thought it would, but she was dying to know more about him. He’d picked a seat on the opposite end of the counter, teetering perilously on an identical bar stool.
“All my life.”
“Oh! Born and raised, then. I hope you don’t mind – I saw a picture in the den with you and two other men. Are they your brothers?” The food tasted divine and the venison was juicier and tenderer than anything she had ever tasted before. The man sure knew his meat. He took his time with replying, though, taking a few more bites before nodding again. She was beginning to think that most of his communication went through head and hand gestures.
“Yes. Jonah and Julian.”
“Are they still in the area as well?” Another shake of his head, and she had to stifle a groan. What a frustrating man! She didn’t want to be as nosy as she was, but the more she knew about him, the more she seemed to want to. Tess had tried to Google him before, but of course the pristine wilderness wouldn’t allow for any such nonsense as cell reception. So, she had to do her snooping the old-fashioned way – through conversation and observation.
“It must get lonely here,” she said, trailing off lightly. It would go a long way if she knew that he wasn’t on the market. There had to be a tall, gorgeous, blonde drink of water of a Montana girl somewhere in a nearby town, who held his reluctant heart in her delicate hands. There always was. The only place where fairytales of curvy, petulant women snagging the hot and dangerous man ever worked out, were in daytime soaps, and even there someone had to get amnesia for it all to play out.
Jackson shrugged his shoulders, tossing her a look that made her toes curl. The heat in the pit of her stomach wanted to boil and bubble over the sides, rushing to her cheeks. He kept his eyes on her as he emptied his whiskey with one quick swig. The man stood up, carrying his plate to the sink and pouring himself another helping of whiskey, this time double the amount he had before.
“We drive out at 5:30.” With that, he walked out of the kitchen area and left Tess by her lonesome, battling with the
completely
inappropriate thoughts she was having about the gruff warden and a slight case of hurt feelings at his lack of willingness to satisfy her curiosity.
This is just work and he’s a sour brute,
she reminded herself, finishing up her dinner with an annoyed expression. Although, just because he was a jerk didn’t mean that she wasn’t going to fall asleep that night with the man fixed squarely in her dreams.
***
The early morning sun was shining bright, and the birds were singing. The only one not quite as bright and cheery was Tess Laurelton, who looked like she had just been wrung out to dry. She stood in front of the lodge, huddled in her warm jacket and fur-lined boots. Her breath rose in a vapor and her sleep-muddled eyes could barely focus on anything. A backpack hung over her shoulder, stock full of tracking cameras, notebooks and material she
might
need. Jackson had taken one look at it in the morning and scoffed. Considering that it already felt too heavy to lug around all day, Tess was starting to understand his reaction to the sight of it. A small metal box was set down at her feet, filled with a handheld tranquilizer gun and five vials that were sure to bring down a bear if need be. The huff she had got from Jackson when she had inspected the gear in the morning still rung in her ears, but she would rather have it along and not need it, than the other way around.
What I wouldn’t give for a Starbucks,
she thought. The excitement of getting out into the forest had taken a sharp hit when she realized that she couldn’t get a triple espresso with the closest barista probably being 20 or more miles away.
The front door slamming shut behind her made Tess jump a little. Jackson’s determined form strode past her with long steps, shoving a thermos of what smelled suspiciously like strong black coffee into her hands. She fumbled with it, her mitten-clad fingers slipping around it before she got a hold of the smooth container. Tess stared at it, dumbfounded, before looking at the retreating back of the warden. She smiled brightly and scampered after him, jumping into the passenger seat of his big truck and cuddling the thermos as if it included life-giving blood and was worth its weight in gold. The truck roared to life and pulled out of the driveway with gravel flying in a wide arc behind it. Tess quickly buckled her seatbelt. At least Jackson didn’t appear to be too sleepy. The case and her backpack slumped against one another in front of her feet.
“I’m going to check a few traps today, but you can tag along. Bears aren’t a common sight, so don’t get your hopes too high, but I’m sure you can at least find some tracks or something,“ he said, the car flying down the hilltop that Tess had taken so long to discover.
“Sounds good to me. I just want to check a few places that were mentioned to me and set up cameras. Bear Ridge, Three Oaks Valley, the Yellowhead river source…” she counted out places that weren’t too far and that had been on her list of must-see locations. Montana was absolutely the best place to be in her line of work, so it was unfortunate that she was just about as far from the US grizzly mecca as she could get. There weren’t that many grizzlies left in the wild, and of those, more than half lived in Montana and around that particular area of the Rockies. As much as the view took her breath away, she hoped it wouldn’t be the only thing she could remember from this trip.
“Yellowhead is a one-day hike, though,” Jackson said, handling the car as if it were a speedboat and the narrow trails the wide-open ocean. “And Three Oaks is two, maybe three days. Are you up for the hikes?” he asked, a hint of curiosity seeping into his tone. Tess grinned and nodded vigorously, childishly excited at the thought of immersing herself in the habitats of her most favorite creatures.
“More than up for it! I’d love the chance to go. If you have time, that is.” The man huffed, shifting gears and tumbling ahead at speeds that made Tess’s nails dig into the upholstery.
“My schedule got cleared just for you, Miss Laurelton. So, apparently I have all the time in the world to bend to your wills and whims,” he said, keeping his eyes on the road. She glanced at him, marveling at his profile. The sliver of hope that she wouldn’t feel like a flustered teenager around him by morning had faded away, and the memories of the looks he had given her the night before still made her squirm a little. She had amused herself quite thoroughly with the thought of breaking through his icy barrier before she had fallen asleep and it only served to make her cheeks light up with a blush yet again.
You really need to stop that,
she chided herself.
Act professional, damn it!
But it was so hard.
“Call me Tess. Only my undergrads call me Miss Laurelton,” she said, inclining her head at him. “I’m sorry I’m such a nuisance, though.” The noncommittal grunt she got in reply made her brows furrow. Clearly, the night had not changed anything. Jackson Arder seemed determined to be difficult, and Tess couldn’t shake her interest in the growly guy. The rest of the drive went by in silence, the roads all bleeding into each other as Jackson led the loud pick-up from one hill and forest to the next. When he stopped at a cluster of trees overlooking a small valley and jumped out of the car, the first thing that Tess did was take a long drink from the coffee.
“Oh thank god,” she murmured, the coffee as if spreading through her veins and bringing life where formerly there was nothing but annoyance and irritation at herself and her chosen guide. She clambered out of the car and grabbed her bag, hoisting it on her shoulders with marked difficulty. By the time she caught up with the man, who was treading through the thick underbrush with the speed of a raging bull, she was winded and heaving for breath. She fell in step with him, hooking her thumbs on the straps of her heavy bag. Of course, matching his speed meant that she had to take nearly two steps for every one he took.
“Where are we going?” she asked, noticing the man cast long looks around himself and his body tensing. She would have expected him to relax and loosen up, but it appeared that the further he got from the car and his home, the less at ease he was.
“Checking traps,” he said, his tone as uninformative as she expected it to be. Resigning herself to the trip, she tried to keep up with him as much as she could while looking around and taking in the majesty of the Montana Cabinet Mountains. At least nature wasn’t being grumpy.
CHAPTER THREE
They walked for the better part of an hour, until they were well into the valley and so far from the road that she doubted she could have found it if she tried. It looked promising, though. Just as Jackson had predicted, they happened across wide bear tracks leading deeper into the valley and towards the trickle of a river hidden deep within it. It was to be expected that the bears were on the move now – winter was not far and this was their busiest time in preparing for the long hibernation.
He had humored her and given her plenty of time to flit up and down the path the steps had taken and to photograph and catalog them thoroughly. Most of the time, from what Tess could tell, the tall ranger had been leaning against a tree, eyeing in equal parts what she was doing and what was going on around them. He was dressed in jeans, hiking boots and a light jacket that looked far too thin to provide any warmth. Tess wasn’t sure what she had expected, but definitely not the picture-perfect vision of masculinity that had been waiting for her. A long hunting knife sat on one of his hips and she kept noticing his hand hovering near it whenever he wasn’t watching her. She always knew when he was keeping his dark brown eyes on her – she could feel it on the back of her neck. His presence was undeniable and it made focusing on her work more than a little difficult.
Tess had just knelt down next to her backpack to take another picture of the indented footstep, when Jackson suddenly rushed to her and pulled her up on her feet with one quick tug at her arm. She yelped and landed on her feet, mere inches away from the ranger. His breath was on her for a moment, the pillars of steam mixing together, and Tess felt her heart skip a beat. She half-expected him to kiss her – a girlish notion that had taken root in her brain and that she couldn’t shake off. Instead, he spun around and blocked her view with his wide back. Only then did she hear the telltale sounds of someone heading straight for them through the underbrush. The tension in Jackson’s body was palpable and her heart pounded loudly in her ears.