by Tessa Clarke
“I don’t know. I think Barry expects me back at the clinic. It’s only my second week, and I don’t know about Buddy. He might run off.”
“Come on. You can’t desert me and Aquila,” he said. “We can put Buddy inside the house. Have you ever seen Montana by helicopter? Raven Ridge is stunning from above. And Barry likes me. He’s a distant relative. My mother’s second cousin or something like that. He’ll understand. And one of my best friends Sam is the one buying the clinic anyway.”
She brightened a bit. “Oh you know Sam? I haven’t met him yet.”
“He’s a great guy,” Leif said, edging a closer to Delany and finding his own heart beating a little uncomfortably faster than he’d expected.
“Well my parents told me never to take rides with strangers,” she said. “And this qualifies as an awfully long ride.”
“Do you always take your parents’ advice?” he said.
She cracked an impish grin back at him. “Only when I think they’re right.”
He slid easily into charm mode, and into lies, or at least omissions. “All right. What do you want to know? My life is an open book. Ask me anything you want. Then I won’t be a stranger. My name is Leif William Peirce. I was born here in Raven Ridge. My parents were ranchers, and now I’m a rancher. I spent ten years in the military as pilot, and did two tours in Afghanistan. I like horses, dogs, helicopters, drinking beer, and skiing, and my favorite color is red. And if you can’t think of anything to ask, you could call Barry. He can vouch for me.”
“Pajamas or underwear?” she shot back.
He grinned. He had her now. He was sure of it. “I sleep in the nude.”
“Of course you do,” she said, but a faint flush had crept up her freckled cheeks. “Favorite novel? That’s if you have one,” she added tartly. “And it can’t be one you read in school.”
Leif staggered a bit, pretending to be wounded. “The Call of the Wild, and Ender’s Game, for your information, Madam Vet, who seems to think cowboys don’t read.”
“That’s Doctor Vet to you,” she replied. “All right. I’m coming.” She reached into her Subaru to pull out her purse and slung that and her veterinary bag over her shoulder. “Lead on Mr. Cowboy Pilot.”
After she gave Aquila a shot of pain reliever, they put Buddy in the house. Her concern for her little dog was cute. He noticed her covertly looking around the neat-as-a-pin country kitchen.
“Old habits die hard,” he said when she arched her brow and touched one of the tea towels that had been folded with precision and hung over the stove handle.
“This is a really nice place,” she said. “You cook a lot?”
He shrugged. “A fair bit. When you’re single and you have to eat, you have to cook.”
“Tell me about it,” she said. Leif was a little startled by the degree of elation he experienced at her announcement that she was single. He imagined her in his kitchen, drinking a glass of wine while the steam rose from a pot and the warmth of the kitchen colored her cheeks rosy. Then he imagined showing her his walk-in shower and his bed.
He realized he’d been staring at her for the last few seconds, but she’d been returning his gaze with little trepidation. Something in his heart leapt a bit. He still didn’t believe in that love-at-first-sight-mate shit, but he had to admit, he was far more interested in Delany than he’d ever been in any of the women he’d taken into his arms for the past fifteen years.
But they had an injured eagle waiting on the porch, so instead of pulling her to him and laying a kiss on her lush lips like he wanted to do, he gestured to the door and followed her back out into the afternoon sun.
“So you have me at an advantage,” he said. “You know my details, and I know nothing about you.”
“Not much to tell,” she said. “I grew up in White Peaks. Went to veterinary college at Montana State.”
“I love White Peaks. Sam and I were skiing there this winter with another buddy. Are you a skier?”
Delany made a noncommittal sound. “I love the mountains too, but I wanted to see what big sky country was like on the plains.”
“Hence Raven Ridge?”
“Hence Raven Ridge.”
“Any hobbies, siblings, skeletons in your closet?” It was dangerous, asking about skeletons… but he was feeling suddenly, and strangely, bold and lighthearted.
“I ride horses and read. I have two sisters and I’m the youngest, and there’s no way I’m sharing my skeletons with you.”
“I promise you I’m a great and sympathetic listener.”
She snorted and he was tempted to touch that hair of hers. But it was way too soon for that.
Delany gave a satisfying gasp when they rounded the corner of the barn and she saw his R44 Raven II helicopter. He decided he wanted to hear that gasp again, perhaps when she saw him naked, preferably while she was naked too.
His shaft was already at half-mast when he helped her up into the cockpit and seeing her pert ass in front of his face didn’t help matters. He might need an icy shower before they got anywhere near Bozeman.
He climbed into the other seat in the cockpit and busied himself with prepping the helicopter for take off.
“I should probably call ahead to the raptor center while we’re on the ground,” Delany said. He nodded and she pulled out her phone. He heard her talking while he ran through his safety checks and started the rotors.
She pressed end and set the phone on her lap. Leif handed her a headset and she put it on.
They were just lifting off when a text flashed up on her phone from Barry Williston. Delany snatched her phone up before he could read it. Maybe Barry had changed his mind about bringing the eagle to the clinic. Leif hurriedly let the chopper rise into the air.
He wanted to spend this time with Delany.
Chapter Three: Delany
< Just so you know, Leif is a known ladies man around town. Whatever you do, don’t go out with him. > read Barry’s text.
Delany glanced over at Leif. She knew Barry’s text was probably meant to be funny, in the older veterinarian’s gruff sort of fatherly way. But as she glanced over at Leif’s broad chest, bursting at the seams of his plaid shirt, as he guided the helicopter into the air, disappointment washed over her. She’d already somehow in her mind moved into that sumptuous farmhouse with the cozy kitchen, picturing herself in fuzzy pajamas, her hair a tumble of wild curls, and Leif half-naked and smiling that panty-melting grin at her every morning… after some literal panty-melting sex.
< Is he safe to ride in a helicopter with? > she texted back.
< On that front, he couldn’t be safer. > Barry responded.
Delany’s chagrin soon turned to awe as White Raven Ranch, and then the grasslands she’d driven over that morning, appeared before her. The Great Plains of Montana. They were part of the reason she’d moved to Raven Ridge.
“Why is your ranch called White Raven?” she asked Leif through the headset.
He gave her a wicked smile and veered the helicopter sharply to the left as they gained more altitude.
“Because I have a portion of the igneous rock outcrop on my property for which Raven Ridge got its name. But mine has something special...”
“You mean a white raven?”
“How’d you guess?”
Delany rolled her eyes at him. “That’s super cool, really? They’re so rare.”
“I know. I can show you some day if you’re into hiking.”
Leif left off there and Delany just absorbed the passing landscape. Pastureland dotted with cows extended out below them, and far off to the east, a surge of red-brown cows moved across the plain, followed by two men on horseback with more white and black dogs.
“That’s Andy and Ryan down there,” Leif said.
“How many dogs do you have?” Delany said.
“Only three of my own. Those ones belong to Andy and Ryan.”
“How many head of of cattle do
you have?”
“1200.”
Any reply that Delany might have had was cut off by their arrival at Raven Ridge, the giant black escarpment that ran nearly fifty miles through the heart of this part of the plains. It shone a brilliant obsidian in the afternoon sun. She’d seen it in the distance many times from her new apartment in town, but from the air it was shockingly beautiful. They came almost upon it, then suddenly lifted to soar over the dark cliffs.
Leif’s voice came over her headset and he pointed at an area of the rock. “The ravens all roost in this section at night. You can see them all flying here in a group just before dark. A conspiracy apparently. That’s what they call a group of ravens. The white raven is one of them.”
Delany nodded, absorbing the panorama.
“There’s a trail that starts on my property and goes all the way up to the top of the ridge. If you want to see the white raven, we could hike it some time at dusk. We’d have to ride to the base of course, but you said you like horseback riding. It’s pretty amazing to watch the ravens arrive. There are thousands of them.”
Barry’s words came rushing back to Delany with a jolt. She’d been so consumed with the view that she’d forgotten about the text. Yet Leif seemed awfully tentative in his invitation for a ladies’ man.
“Maybe,” she said. “We’ll see how busy Sam keeps me when he arrives.” She wasn’t sure if she imagined it, but Leif’s hand seemed to tighten on the control stick between his legs.
Her mind immediately flooded again with images of fucking Leif. He smelled so delicious. She wanted to crawl on his lap, rip his shirt off, and devour him. How could he not be a ladies’ man? Women probably threw themselves at him every day. Would it really hurt to be one of the hordes? It might, if she fell too hard, Delany concluded. And it would be pretty difficult not to.
Leif was silent for a bit after her response to his invitation, and the plains gave way to treed areas as they crossed the Marias River and then the glistening expanse of Lake Elwell.
“There are some sweet little campsites and swimming holes down in there,” Leif said pointing at a smaller lake adjacent to the reservoir. “I call that tiny little lake Emerald Lake. It’s gorgeous in the summer.”
She imagined camping with him, waking up next to his broad body in a sun-dappled tent and shivered.
“So how many siblings do you have?” she asked as they cruised over the low hills around Elwell. She had to get her mind off Leif in a tent.
Leif hesitated for a long time. “Four brothers and one sister, Rachel. I’m the youngest.” His tone seemed a bit stiff, and Delany wondered what family dynamics were at play.
“Wow. That’s a big family.”
Leif shrugged. “That’s a pretty normal-sized family around these parts.”
“I guess, ranching families,” Delany said, not quite sure what she meant by that, but getting a strange feeling from Leif.
“Yup,” Leif replied.
Had she offended him by not agreeing to go hiking with him? “I wouldn’t mind going hiking with you,” she ventured. “But you know, I’d want to do it just as friends.” Then she flushed, because everything in her mind was screaming, not friends, not friends, not friends.
Leif gave her a sidelong glance and a grunt, and she blushed deeper and felt a warmth spread through her groin. How could she even propose just being friends to a man she wanted so much?
“Why would that be, Doctor Vet? Nursing a broken heart?”
“No, no. Just trying to stay focused on my career, not that I don’t find you very attractive. Very attractive.”
Why was she even saying this? It’s not like he’d even really asked her out. He’d suggested they go for a hike, and here she was blathering on like a love-struck schoolgirl.
Leif was silent for a few seconds while Delany stared out the window at the passing hills and cursed herself inwardly for her words.
There was a hint of laughter in his voice when he spoke, but also somehow a deep seriousness. A deep, sexy seriousness. “I find you very attractive too. And I’m of the philosophy that when there’s a spark between two unattached people that it’s to be taken advantage of. Lots of advantage. I feel a spark between us, and I think you do too. Don’t you want to take advantage of that spark?” He turned and gave her a look that made her hot all over.
Delany gulped. His voice had been so full of suggestion that she found it a little hard to breathe. “Barry said it was a bad idea,” she managed to squeak.
Leif barked out a laugh and then didn’t say anything. Delany glanced at his profile, convinced that she’d totally offended him this time, but he was wearing a wide grin.
“What?” she said.
“Barry’s not wrong. I have a bit of a reputation around town. I’d probably give a sweet young thing the same advice.”
Delany crossed her arms. “I’m not that young or sweet.”
Leif gave her a sidelong glance and pursed his lips in a smoldering kind of way. Damn. Was anything about him not sexy?
“We’ll see,” he said.
“Well, you might not see, Mr. Cocky Cowboy Pilot,” she said. This might have sounded more convincing if she didn’t want to strip him and taste every inch of his skin right then and there.
“How’s Aquila doing?” Leif asked.
Delany leaned back to check on the eagle. The bird was still conscious, and although he looked perturbed by the helicopter, he wasn’t panicking. “He’s okay. I hope they can help him. I’m glad we’re not driving though.”
They switched subjects then, with Leif asking her questions about growing up in White Peaks, veterinary college, and her riding experience. Then he told her stories about Raven Ridge, running a ranch, and his tours in Afghanistan. She was impressed by the thoughtfulness with which he listened and spoke. No matter what Barry might say, on a casual relationship front, Leif seemed pretty sincere.
“So how come no girlfriend?” Delany said. If they were going to be friends, surely they could talk about that kind of thing. The shot of jealousy that ran through her just at the prospect of him having a girlfriend was remarkable.
“Haven’t found the right woman. I want someone with a bit of fire, who likes to drink whiskey, rustle cattle, dance under the stars, and talk dirty to me in the bedroom.”
“Mmmm,” Delany almost gave a little moan. She’d closed her eyes while he spoke, picturing him taking her in his arms beneath a starry sky.
She snapped them open with a start, but not before she saw the faint upward curl of his lips. She blew a huff of air out of her nose. “Surely you’ve met at least a couple of women in Raven Ridge who will do all of those things.”
“Not the right woman,” he said definitively.
They’d been nearing Bozeman for the last bit, and now the outlines of houses and buildings appeared in the distance.
Leif’s voice became business-like. “I need to check in with the Bozeman Airport. I’m hoping there’s a field near this raptor center where I can just land. It’ll make it a lot easier to get there. If you want to pull up the satellite image of the center, I’ll take a look and see if there’s a spot.”
They landed in a grassy field right next to the center and Delany raced Aquila in. She was met by a vet and vet tech who took the eagle from her and prepared to x-ray the bird.
“You want to stay and watch?” the vet, who’d introduced himself as Matt, said.
“I don’t know,” she said. “I’d have to check with Leif. He flew us here. He might need to get back.”
“You can go check. We’ll just be in the back room. He can come and watch too.”
Leif stood in the reception area of the center, his fingers looped in his belt buckles. Delany suppressed her automatic gasp just at the sight of him. He was just so hot. It was like sighting a movie star or someone who wasn’t quite real. She couldn’t possibly allow herself to become interested in a man that was so gorgeous. No good could come of i
t.
“They said we can stay and watch, but I’m assuming you want to get back.”
Leif shrugged. “I’m in no hurry. Andy and Ryan can handle things on the ranch.”
They went quietly into the room where Matt and his assistant were already x-raying Aquila.
The eagle was stoic while they pinned the bone and wrapped his wing, and Delany felt ridiculously proud of the raptor. She got a little misty when they unwrapped his feet and guided him into a little metal cage. He looked so dejected.
“Sorry buddy,” Matt said, “Your confinement is temporary. We’ll have you in the flight barn in no time.”
Delany sniffed a little, and she felt a hand slip into hers and squeeze. It was just such a simple touch, and Leif released her right away, but it sent a shocking wave of energy through her body.
“What are your plans for rehabilitation?” Leif asked Matt.
The smaller man gave Leif a sharp look. “We work them back up to flying gradually. We have a flying barn and start with short flights. The process is all mapped out. Why?”
“I was thinking I’d like to take him back to my ranch and rehabilitate him there in familiar territory.”
Matt shook his head. “I don’t know. It’s not as easy as it looks.”
“I’ll follow all your directions.”
“And I’ll help,” Delany chimed in.
The smile that shot over Leif’s face made her knees weak. What was she doing? This would just result in her spending more time with Leif and falling more head over heels with a man who played the field.
Matt scrutinized her and then Leif. “I’d be willing to consider it when he gets to the later stages of rehabilitation, but not before.”
Leif nodded. “Call me when that happens.”
Matt saw them out, and they headed back across the field to the chopper.
