by Jan Springer
Despite her boredom, this place certainly was as close to a heaven she could imagine. It was quiet, joyful and peaceful.
Even though JJ had mentioned to Milena that she shouldn’t stray far from the ranch house while she was alone, she’d been going bat-shit stir crazy with boredom by the time her chores were finished every morning.
She’d loved doing the chores; taking care of the garden. Making sure that the few older cattle the guys had in the barn where well fed and their stalls clean. Chores were not the problem. She did everything that needed doing for the past almost two weeks since they’d been gone. She’d even forced herself to follow a few recipes in one of JJ’s cookbooks. But cooking never had interested her, so her creations were crap compared to JJ’s delicious food.
Milena did look forward to her only human contact by phone when JJ or one of the fellows or even when the parole officer called in daily to see how she was coming along.
Truth be told, she’d been lonely here. In prison, there was always someone around yapping or being a pest and back there she’d craved peace and quiet every day and night. Now that she had it, it was driving her nuts.
Milena licked her dry lips, suddenly realizing she was pretty thirsty. She hadn’t brought along any water. Hadn’t even thought of it.
She sighed as she eyed the lake. During one of their endless conversations over the past weeks, she remembered JJ had mentioned that they got their ranch water out of a drilled well, but that the lake water was also clean and free of pollutants and drinkable.
That’s what she would do. She could cup her hands and use them to quench her thirst. Yet, she wasn’t sure she wanted to get that close to the water.
Oh, come on, silly girl. Be brave!
Milena took a deep breath and forced her legs to move. Gingerly, she stepped around some sharp rocks and tried not to stumble over the abundance of bushes that laced the shoreline. By the time she’d reached about one feet from the lake, her heart was pounding and she had horrible visions of a giant arm of water curling out, grabbing her, and pulling her right into the lake, drowning her.
Shit, talk about your crazy imagination going wild.
But she was thirsty and desperate times did call for desperate measures. She stepped as close to the shore as she dared, squatted as best she could, and was glad to see the water wasn’t bottomless at all. She could see rippled sand there at the bottom. She guessed the water was only a foot deep.
She sighed with relief.
Freaking out over nothing, silly.
She let out a laugh, leaned over, cupped her hands, and dipped them into the liquid. She sighed at the wonderful coolness that washed over her fingers. The water was clear.
Quickly, she lifted her cupped hands and gingerly sipped.
Tastes good.
She took more sips and then gulps as she kept dunking her hands into the lake. The water surely hit the spot and when she drank her fill, she stood, turned, and froze.
Oh my God!
Some big black, furry creature, twice as big as her, was casually strolling on four big legs toward her two buckets of blueberries!
“Hey! Get! Get out of here!” Milena shouted. The instant she yelled, she realized maybe she shouldn’t have drawn attention to herself?
The bear stopped. It’s short, rounded ears twitched and then it turned its furry black head and gazed at her with what appeared to be curiosity. It had a short black snout and a black nose that twitched as it smelled the air.
Wasn’t there something about bears that she’d read once? Not to get between mother and baby bears?
As the bear stood still and stared at her, she surveyed the nearby surroundings. No sign of any little ones. A sliver of relief whispered through her.
“Hi,” she said to the bear.
The bear sniffed the air some more. Huh, he or she seemed harmless enough.
“Listen, get away from my buckets, and then I will be on my merry way.” She spoke to the big creature like she would to a human.
Like the damned thing understands me?
She suddenly remembered something else she’d read. Make noise. Lots of noise so the bear would know you were in the area. Was that before or after encountering a bear?
Oh crap, she couldn’t remember.
JJ had mentioned that they rarely had a bear around the ranch house, mainly because bears didn’t like humans and she tended to sing or smack sticks against trees while out for a walk to keep it noisy.
But this bear seemed to like people. It wasn’t leaving. Nor was it moving away from her buckets. Actually, the bear was ignoring her and was following his sniffing nose now toward her blueberry-filled buckets!
“Hey! Wait a minute! Get away from my buckets! Oh, come on! Stop already!” Milena shouted as high as she could. She ran toward the bear and stopped about fifteen feet away.
From here she got a closeup view of paws and claws. She remembered seeing a movie once of some pioneer guy wearing a necklace made from bear claws. Maybe she shouldn’t be getting so close?
However, the bear continued to zero in on those buckets like it was a heat-seeking missile.
Milena huffed with frustration.
“Oh, come on! Please!” she yelled.
It continued toward the buckets.
Anger burned through her. Son of a bitch!
Gazing around the ground in front of her, she spied a couple of soft-ball sized rocks. Maybe she could scare it away by throwing them near it?
She grabbed the rocks and quickly tossed one. It plopped onto the ground a couple of feet in front of the bear.
It stopped, turned and looked at her again. This time it growled. It was an ominous sound that sent shivers up her spine. She spied some mean-looking fang-like very long teeth too.
Time to back off. Bear did not look happy.
“Okay, okay, maybe I should just leave?”
Forget the blueberry buckets. Get out of here!
She could always come back another time with JJ and pick some. Suddenly she got a really bad feeling that she had made a very big mistake in coming here alone. She should have listened to JJ more carefully when she’d been told not to venture away from the ranch house. Should have obeyed JJ when she’d said not to come along this trail that first evening she’d arrived here.
The bear kept growling at her and that’s when she realized the creature was blocking the trail and her way back home.
She inhaled at the word home. Oh man, she really wanted to be back at the ranch house. She really enjoyed the chores. Loved the quietness. Just not the solitude. Was there a difference? She wasn’t sure.
What should she do? What if after it ate her blueberries, it came after her? Where could she go? Into the water?
No.
She didn’t like the way it kept studying her and growling and now it was even snorting. His eyes were black and evil-looking. Shivers ripped through her.
Maybe she should run? No, she wasn’t supposed to do that. She’d read not to run. Or was it the other way around?
She really wanted to run.
The bear turned toward her. Sniffed the air some more. Growled again. Took a step forward. It licked its lips with a long tongue.
Oh damn. Was she tonight’s dinner?
“If you move, she will attack you. Just stay still. I will take care of her, just don’t move,” a man said. His voice was calm and came from somewhere off to her left about twenty feet away right by the lakeshore.
Milena didn’t move. Dared not look to see who was talking. Did not even take a risk to answer him. Heck, she wasn’t even going to nod to acknowledge that she had heard him.
Fear rocked her. It was like the horrific sinking feeling of dread that she’d experienced after she’d seen all that blood blossom across that security guard’s chest when her boyfriend had shot him all those years ago. It was a bad feeling. Really bad.
Instincts told her the bear was going to att
ack her, just like this guy said.
Great, she’d get killed by a bear on her first outing from the prison. Wait until the mates back at the prison heard about this one. They’d laugh and joke with each other that she just could not catch any luck.
Defiance rocked through her. If need be, she would poke the bear in the eyes. Blind it, and run!
Milena jerked at the harsh sound of the man as he suddenly yelled the words. “Get the hell out of here!”
His shouts were quickly followed by some clanging sound like metal on metal that really hurt her ears.
The bear whipped its head toward the noise.
Milena forced herself to remain as still as a statue despite wanting to run for her life.
“Get! Move on! Get!” The man shouted. The clanging grew louder and quicker. She swore that noise would drive her nuts if it kept up.
The bear grunted loud, turned away from Milena and suddenly sauntered through the blueberry bushes and disappeared.
“Okay, she’s gone. You can relax.”
Milena found herself nodding like she was some bobblehead. The man suddenly appeared in front of her.
My, he was big. Yep, big guy. He didn’t scare her. Well, not as much as the bear did.
She stared up at him. Noticed he was a head taller than her and kind of handsome in a rugged, outdoorsy sort of way. His hair was short, military short. Light brown with gold highlights. Eyes were friendly and chocolate brown.
“Are you okay, ma’am?” he asked. Concern etched in his face.
“Um, I think so,” she croaked. She was shaking like a leaf.
He had big shoulders. He wore a plain V neck short-sleeved dark green shirt that matched the forest behind him. Military dog tags dangled from a silver chain necklace from his neck.
A soldier? Out here in the wilderness? Weird.
“There is a chance the bear might come back. Are you here alone?”
Why did that question sound so ominous?
Nope, she was not answering that question.
He held up two dented stainless-steel pots with blackened bottoms.
“You did the right thing in screaming. Bears don’t like noise. But it sensed your fear. Next time just make sure you bring a bell or whistle or something like these pots and use it every few minutes so the bears will know you’re here. They’ll stay away.”
Milena’s gut clenched.
“Bears? Like in more than one? How many?”
He looked at her as if to say, “Are you serious?”.
“The wilderness is full of them. Full of man-eating beavers and head-stomping moose too. You just have to make some noise.”
Was he kidding her?
Man-eating beavers? Head-stomping moose? Why hadn’t JJ warned her that this place was so dangerous?
“You must be the lady who is taking care of Moose Ranch?” He suddenly placed the two pots onto the ground, stepped forward and extended his hand.
She nodded shakily and extended her hand. It shook wildly.
“Yes. Yes. I am.”
“I’m Daegen. And you are?”
“Milena.”
“Pleasure to meet you, Milena.”
His grip was strong and warm and for the briefest moment she felt safe. When he let go, she was thrust back into her world of aloneness.
“Where did you come from?” she asked. JJ had said there was no one around for miles.
“Was fishing just at the mouth of the river about five minutes off. Best trout ever. Had a big one on the line, but your screaming distracted me to the point the fish yanked the fishing pole into the lake with it. I had two choices. Dive into the lake and chase after the fishing rod and let you get mauled by the bear. Or come and rescue you.”
Guilt rammed into her. “I am so sorry. I owe you a fishing rod.”
He shook his head.
“Don’t worry about it. It’s just a handmade cedar pole with some fishing line and a hook. Quite primitive.”
Primitive like him. Now that her fear was settling down a little, she noticed the bristly five o’clock shadow hugging his chin and cheeks. He was dressed in jeans and he wore…moccasins? How interesting.
“Do you know your way back?” he asked.
She nodded. “Just follow the lakeshore animal trail and I’ll run smack into the ranch house.”
“That’s right. The bear is probably long gone by now. So, you should be safe.”
Probably gone? Should be safe?
Shit! Suddenly she wasn’t sure she wanted to go back alone, especially with the man-eating beavers and head-stomping moose. But she couldn’t ask him to escort her. She didn’t even know him. Maybe he was a killer who was camped out here eluding the police?
Okay. Calm down. He is not a killer.
She tensed as he walked over to the two buckets overfilled with her blueberries.
He grunted. A low rumble of thunder followed his grunt.
Oh great. Another freaking storm.
“Those pails are gonna get heavy before long and it looks like rain. How about I give you a lift back in my canoe.”
Yeah, so you can kill me?
Another low rumble of thunder. This time closer.
He looked to the sky and frowned. She followed his gaze and her tummy dipped in a bad way. Huge black clouds were rolling toward the sun.
“Actually, I will have to insist I give you a ride. The storm is coming in fast. It’s not safe to be outdoors with the lightning we get around here. We need to head out now, before the waves get bad.”
Without waiting for an answer, he picked up her buckets, turned and hurried along the shoreline in the direction he’d come from earlier.
Okay now was her chance to escape. He could have the blueberries. She turned to run but then stopped. The trees were swaying in the increasing wind and she could hear branches cracking.
Then lightning flickered.
Oh crap! She was not in the mood for getting hit by lightning and get all cooked up for the bears. She had no choice but to follow him. But how was she ever going to get up enough nerve to get into a canoe?
The last thing Daegan needed was a damned female on his hands. And a freaking greenhorn to boot, he thought as he placed the two heavy buckets of blueberries beneath the front seat of his bright red wood canoe and repositioned his cooler full of fish in front of the buckets.
“Okay, hop in while I hold the canoe steady,” he said as he held tight to the edge of his boat.
She didn’t move. She just stared at his canoe as if it was that bear he’d just chased off. Like she was paralyzed with terror.
“Ma’am, you really need to get a move on,” he prodded.
Lightning slashed through the sky overhead. Thunder complained angrily.
Shit! Time to go, lady!
“I won’t hurt you. I’m gay,” he lied. Maybe that would calm her down?
“It’s n-not that. I don’t like water.” She was shaking her head and he sensed she would run off.
He almost laughed aloud. She was afraid of water? Man, he just could not catch a break today. Lost his fishing rod, and now a chick who was giving him grief with a looming thunderstorm.
He grabbed the spare red life jacket from beneath the middle seat of the canoe.
“This is a life vest. If you wear it and fall into the water, nothing will happen to you as it will allow you to float.”
“It will?” she blinked at him. Man, she was pretty. She had a smile in her eyes even when she was frightened. How cool was that?
“Watch how I put mine on and you do the same. Okay?”
She nodded and jumped as thunder cracked overhead.
“We’ll be fine. You’re wearing rubber soled running shoes. Lightning won’t hit the boat as long as you keep those shoes on.” He hoped that wasn’t a lie, but the thought popped into his mind. Hopefully it would calm her a little.
He reached for his vest. She watched as she show
ed him how to put it on and followed suit. A moment later, she was all geared up.
“Good job. Now, next step…”
He grabbed her wrist and placed it on the edge of the canoe.
“Hold here. Stay hunched and just lift one foot across the rim and then the other. Try to stay in the middle of the boat. Sit down on the centre bench and hold onto the sides while I get in. Got it?”
“Uh, huh.”
Concern gripped him. She looked pale as a ghost as she stared at the waves crashing against the side. She really was afraid of water.
He kept his hand over hers as she slowly moved a leg over and then the other. Man, she sure did have a nicely shaped butt. He blinked that thought away with a shake of his head.
Concentrate on the task at hand, my man.
He could tell she’d never been in a canoe before because she was all wobbly like a newborn colt. He held her hand until she plopped very unladylike onto the middle seat. He reminded her to hold onto the edges. He figured it would help stabilize the now rocking canoe as he climbed in.
As he sat on the seat behind her, the wind blew a lungful of her very pretty scent his way. She smelled of watermelon. Probably some shampoo or perfume that she used.
He was reacting to her smell, despite not wanting to. His cock was jerking against his jeans and waking up from one hell of a long sleep. Right now, was not the time. The storm was coming in fast and there was some heavy duty paddling to do. He doubted she knew how to paddle, so he didn’t bother to ask and there was no time to show her.
The sunshine disappeared and everything went gray. Drops of rain began to fall.
“Hold on! It’s going to be a rough ride!” he yelled above the shrieking wind.
Hell, if they were lucky, they just might make it back to Moose Ranch. If they weren’t…then he hoped she knew how to swim.
Chapter Nine
“My goodness, this is absolutely fancy. Too fancy for out here in the middle of nowhere,” JJ whispered as she stood in front of the newly built log cabin. She’d just returned from flying Paul and Mitch back to their ranch. She would have swung by to check in on Milena but because JJ wanted to spend a night alone with her guys, she’d bypassed the ranch and returned here to her cowboys.
