He paused, giving her time to absorb his words.
“We were meant to be together. I’ve been patient, hoping you’d eventually see that too, but every time I thought we might be getting close…”
“I panicked,” she said. “I panicked because this didn’t feel like I expected it to. Like I thought it was supposed to. I thought when it happened it would be warm and wonderful, but it wasn’t like that with us…well, not completely. I felt vulnerable, scared, insecure—”
“Welcome to my world.” He gave another dry laugh. “I spent eight years in a war zone and never felt any of those things until Haley Cooper came along—all five-foot-nothing of you. Even now, you have the power to devastate me. Do you know that?”
“Then maybe it’s time I laid those fears to rest.” She brought her hands up to his face. “I love you, Reid. I know that now.” Her green gaze never wavered. “I think I’ve been in love with you for quite a while, but I wouldn’t acknowledge it because it didn’t fit. I thought love had a certain formula. I thought it had to be built on friendship and shared ideals. I thought all we had together was shared lust… I was wrong.”
He shut his eyes on a groan of relief. She’d finally given him what he desired most.
Haley had surprised the hell out of him by showing up like she had. But then again, she’d never done anything in half-measures. Her passion was one of the things he loved most about her, but he needed not just her body, but her heart. He might be able to take the first, but she had to give him the rest. He never would have opened his mouth if he hadn’t thought she reciprocated at least some of his feelings, but he’d still harbored some doubts. Until now.
“If that’s really how you feel,” he said, “I think it’s time to lay it all on the line.”
Her forehead wrinkled. “I thought we just did that.”
The uncertainty clouding her eyes made his pulse drum in his ears, but he’d already crossed the point of no return. There was no holding back now. He took a fortifying breath. “That was only half of it. There’s more. I want you, Haley… I want to spend the rest of my life with you.”
* * *
She couldn’t believe the words that just spilled from his mouth. But it still seemed impossible. “This is all happening so fast.”
“Hardly.” His mouth curved sardonically. “It’s been almost seven years since you slapped that twenty on the pool table. Seven years, sweetheart. It’s a snail’s pace. I’m offering you everything I have. Everything I am.” He caressed her face. “Marry me, Haley. Let’s prove to the whole world that two strong people with widely differing views can make it work.”
“Do you honestly think we can?” she asked.
“Depends on how much we want it,” he repeated his earlier reassurance.
“I do, Reid. More than anything, but—”
He silenced her with a finger to her lips. “We’re smart people. We can figure it all out.” The same finger gently traced her mouth. “Marry me, Haley. I swear I’ll love, honor, and cherish you, if you’ll let me.”
She could hardly breathe for the pounding in her chest. He’d just offered her everything she’d ever wanted, voiced everything she’d never thought to hear in her wildest dreams.
She swallowed hard, taking the biggest leap of faith ever. “Yes, Reid. I’ll marry you.”
The answer was barely out of her mouth before his lips claimed hers in a long, lush kiss, the kind that sent ripples of desire all the way to her toes. His hot mouth moved slowly up her neck to hover at her ear. His hands cupped her breasts, his thumbs teasing her nipples. His breath was hot and humid on her skin. “When is the boat coming back for you?”
“In four days,” she replied. “I told him to send out a posse if I’m not back by then.”
“Then that only gives us ninety-six hours.” He grinned, big and sexy. “We’d better not waste any of it.”
Between fevered kisses, they kicked off boots and peeled off clothing. Moments later, a squeal ripped from her throat as Reid pulled her into the crystal clear pool. The steamy water engulfed them, but nothing compared to the heat of his hands and mouth.
He settled on a natural ledge, pulling her onto his lap. She wound her arms around him and shut her eyes, suffusing her senses in the feel of his hard, muscular thighs supporting her body and his hungry mouth feasting on her breasts.
Writhing with need, she reached for his erection, jutting large, hard, and proud between them. “I want you inside me, Reid,” she gasped. “Please.”
He suddenly tensed, his breath leaking out in a long, unnerving hiss.
“What’s wrong?”
“Shit! I don’t have protection. Do you?”
“No,” she replied in dismay.
He shook his head on a sigh. “Don’t worry about it, sweetheart. I’m happy to take care of you.”
“No, Reid. That’s not enough for me. I need you inside me.” After their heartfelt exchange, the prospect of anything less made her feel cheated.
He stared back at her in protracted silence, the tension of the moment stretching out.
“Are you sure?” he asked. “I promise you I’m safe, but—”
Safe? She almost laughed. With Reid Everett, safe was the last word that ever came to her mind. “I’m certain,” she replied. “I want to feel all of you and I want you to feel all of me. All or nothing, right? I want you to come inside me, Reid.”
His pupils flared, darkening his irises to cobalt. “Sweetheart, if you want a bareback ride, I’ll make a cowgirl out of you yet.”
She threw her head back on a cry of pleasure as he pierced and filled her. They merged and melded with mingled moans and synchronous sighs. Kissing, nipping, groaning, and gasping, they embraced the sweet, wet friction. Harder. Deeper. Careening into a climax as pure and primordial as their surroundings.
* * *
Hours later, after making love again, they lay in joined sleeping bags, gazing up at a nighttime sky exploding with brilliant stars. Haley had never felt more content, or more in harmony with the world. Everything was so right when it was only the two of them. It was only when the outside world came crashing in that things always fell apart.
But they wouldn’t be alone forever. Once they went back, would they discover that it was all just a delusion? Would their differences lead to constant discord and strife?
“Reid?”
“What, Runt?” He nuzzled into her hair.
“What’s going to happen when we get back? You know I don’t fit into your world.”
“I’m not asking you to.”
“Do you think your family will accept me?”
“They will if they want to be part of our lives,” he replied solemnly.
“Are you going to go back to outfitting?”
“I don’t know.”
“Is there something else you want to do instead?”
“I don’t know that either, although I have a few ideas.” He ran his tongue around the shell of her ear.
“Like what? You need to stop that now, Reid. This is a serious discussion. Tell me what you’ve been thinking about.”
He shook his head. “Not yet. It’s a bit premature to discuss. I want to do a bit of research first.”
“Don’t be so mysterious,” she persisted.
“That’s me,” he remarked dryly. “Mr. Enigma.”
“C’mon, Reid,” she cajoled. “Tell me. Maybe I can even help. Research is very much what I do, remember?”
“You truly want to know?”
“Yes!”
“It’s going to be really anticlimactic now.”
“I want to hear it,” she insisted.
“All right. Maybe you do, especially since it concerns wolves.”
She regarded him quizzically. “Wolves?”
“Yes. I’ve been thinking a l
ot, Haley. This whole situation has gotten so far out of hand. There’s gotta be a better, more proactive method of managing it. A lot of folks seem to think the silver bullet is killing more wolves, but reducing their numbers is only a partial solution. As long as there are any wolves, they’re gonna compete with hunters and threaten livestock. That’s a real problem when people are fighting just to make ends meet.
“But there are programs in place—”
“But they don’t always work. You gotta understand how it is with ranchers, Haley. Once they move their cattle out to summer range, they only do spot checks a few times a week, sometimes less. They can’t afford to spend all day babysitting cows. On the other hand, if they aren’t around to witness a predator attack, they may never find the carcass to report. No carcass means no reimbursement.”
“I understand that, but what more can we do that we aren’t already doing?”
“Ever heard of range riders?” he asked.
Her forehead wrinkled. “Aren’t they just cowboys?”
“They’re the old-school kind, the kind that stay with a herd for the entire grazing season, moving cattle around, doctoring whatever needs to be doctored, and watching out for the stock. They don’t kill predators, but they do haze with rubber bullets, flash rounds, or shellcrackers. Some of the big commercial cattle operations use them to minimize losses while grazing stock on public lands.”
“So where are you going with all this?” she asked.
“I’d like to start a range rider program and recruit returning vets. There’re a lot of good men and women out there who are having trouble adjusting to civilian life. And a lot of them can’t find jobs. They already have survival skills and arms training. They just need to learn about the livestock. It’s only a seasonal gig and wouldn’t pay a whole lot, but it could give people who need it time to decompress and get their heads together, just like I have out here in the wilderness.” He added with a dry laugh, “When all I’ve had is my own company, it hasn’t taken me long to figure a lot of shit out.”
“It’s a brilliant idea, Reid, but how could small ranches afford to hire these riders?”
“That’s the dilemma. For this to work, I think it would have to be a co-operation between the Feds, ranchers, and conservation groups. That leads to the research part I was talking about.”
“But I can help you with that,” she said. “God knows I have enough experience with grant writing. I did almost all of Jeffrey’s for him. I’m certain a number of veterans’ organizations would get on board, and I’d be happy to contact some the conservation groups that set funds aside for projects like this.”
“So you support the idea? It’s something you could get behind?”
“Absolutely,” she assured him. “And it looks like I’ll have plenty of time to devote to it since I’m now unemployed.”
“What do you mean? What happened to your job?”
“I quit. Maybe it wasn’t the smartest thing to do with nothing else lined up, but I couldn’t stay after everything that happened. Problem is, Jeffrey has a lot of clout and will likely retaliate. I may not be able to find another position.”
“What about that independent study you wanted to do?”
She snorted. “The one I’ve been denied funding on for three years?”
“Yeah, that one. Why not apply for an independent grant?”
“I admit the thought occurred to me after Jeffrey shot me down again.”
“Screw Jeffrey. He has his own agenda.”
“He used me, Reid, and I’m sorry you had to suffer for it.”
“Don’t worry about it, sweetheart. There’s nothing you could have done.”
“How can you be so damned nonchalant about all this?” she asked.
He turned her face to his and brushed her lips in a soft and tender kiss. “Because I have everything I want right here. Everything I need. You. In the great scheme of things, nothing else matters.”
Haley nuzzled into his chest, breathing him in with a blissful sigh. How could she ever have doubted him? Just as Yolanda had said, he was everything she needed to bring her life into balance. He was a warrior and a lover—tender, sensitive, passionate, attentive, masterful when he had to be, but still willing to give up control. As a husband, she knew he would love and respect, provide, and protect. And as a father…
“What are the chances?” Reid’s softly spoken question eerily echoed her thoughts.
“I don’t know,” she whispered. “It probably wasn’t very smart or safe.”
She gazed up at him with a sudden onset of guilt. She hadn’t even considered that he might resent being rushed into fatherhood. She’d been far too caught up in the moment, in her need for him, even to care.
“And if you are?” He softly stroked her hair. “Any regrets?”
“Honestly?”
“Yes. Always. There isn’t room for anything but honesty between us, Haley.”
She shook her head. “No regrets, Reid. Not a single one. I’d do it again in a heartbeat.”
To her relief, the wrinkle eased from his brow. “Glad to hear it, Runt.” A slow, sexy smile spread over his face. “It might take me a little longer than a heartbeat, but I’ll be happy to oblige you.” Rolling on top of her, his eagerness for an encore emerged between them as his tongue sought hers in a long, lush kiss. “Then again…” He pulled back, chuckling. “Maybe not.”
Epilogue
Frank Church Wilderness, Central Idaho
Six months later
“Targets sighted,” the pilot announced.
The helicopter zoomed in on the wolf pack, easily identifiable with the barren trees and heavy snow cover. There were six in all—groggy, lethargic, and slow to react after gorging on the nearby elk carcass. And Reid hoped to get them all.
He locked his sights on the largest of the bunch, presumably the alpha male and took careful aim. “Steady now,” he commanded the pilot. A second later, he squeezed the trigger. “Hit,” he declared. “One down. Five to go.”
By now the wolves had roused from their post-feast torpor and were in motion. Hovering and swooping close to the ground, the helicopter gave chase to the howling pack. One by one, Reid took his shots. After hitting the last, he gave the signal for the pilot to land.
Minutes later, they leaped out of the chopper, gear in hand. They had a narrow time window to get the job done. The tranquilizer darts were fast-acting and had already begun to take effect, but they wouldn’t last long. The snow was deep. By the time they reached the first wolf, Haley was breathless and flushed.
“Are you all right, sweetheart?” Reid asked.
“I’m fine,” she replied, still panting as she dropped her pack. “It’s just hard to move fast carrying all this extra weight.”
In truth, it hadn’t slowed her down near enough for his peace of mind, but when Haley set her mind to something, she was unstoppable. His wife’s energy and tenacity never ceased to impress and amaze him.
They handled the wolf with the usual caution. Haley’s drug of choice was a paralytic agent that left the animal immobilized, but still conscious, a fact that always made Reid a bit nervous. Reid muzzled the wolf as an added safety precaution and then stood guard over her, assisting as needed while Haley took blood and recorded the animal’s gender and vital signs. She then placed a radio collar around its neck. Working with fast and confident efficiency, they were finished within ten minutes. After administering the reversal drug, they moved on to the next wolf.
The second wolf was female, which meant she got a dose of the new contraceptive vaccine they were testing, along with a special GPS collar for closer monitoring. In less than an hour, they’d collared the entire pack. He was glad this was the last excursion until spring. They were too close to the wolves’ breeding season to do any more. Any further contraceptive vaccines would only be wasted.
&nb
sp; “I think that was our record, Reid.” Haley grinned as she gathered up her supplies. “Who would have known we’d make such a perfect team?”
“I did,” he replied smugly.
Haley laughed in reply as he boosted her back into the chopper.
Reid’s eyes never left her beautiful, wind-burned face during the twenty-minute flight. Watching Haley work with the wolves, he recognized that she was in her true element, and his heart swelled with pride. She’d been relentless in her quest for subsidies and grants for her contraception study, and her efforts had paid off in spades. She’d received enough funding to support a ten-year study.
Their next greatest challenge had been to obtain study subjects. This is where Reid’s family had surprised him. They’d thrown themselves behind Haley’s pet project, using all of their substantial clout to gain the cooperation of state wildlife services in Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana. It was a priceless gesture from his family, and one that gave Haley the sense of acceptance she so deeply craved.
They didn’t speak again until after landing at the Salmon Heliport. It was too loud to be heard on the chopper anyway. A few minutes later, he handed her up into the truck. He barely had the engine running before she’d shed out of her coat. “Aren’t you cold?” he asked.
“I was while on the helicopter, but mainly because of the wind. Now I’m getting hot. It hits me at really weird times, Reid.”
“Good thing I like the cold,” he said. “Else you’d freeze my ass off.”
She laughed. “Now that would be a crime. You already know how fond I am of your ass. I still think it’s much nicer than Hugh Jackman’s, and he flaunted his big time in the last Wolverine movie.”
Reid shuddered. “That was a visual I did not need, sweetheart.”
She laughed. “Are we staying here tonight or driving home?”
“I s’pose that’s your call,” he replied.
“I’m pretty tired, but I’m even more homesick,” she said. “I’d really love to sleep in our own bed tonight.”
He would too. After a week of motels and rough camping, he was glad that they were finally free to head back home. “Are you sure you’re up to the trip?” he asked, concerned about the dark circles shadowing her eyes.
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