“I’m glad to meet you, Ben. I’m Hayley. Do you spend all of your time up here rescuing damsels in distress?”
He steered her through the trees and up the path, “Not nearly enough, ma’am,” he smiled down at her, “although I live here on the mountain.”
The sun was higher now as it dappled through the rustling leaves and branches. The mist had thinned almost to nothing. As Hayley’s Timberlands crunched the forest floor, she said, “I saw a brown bear this morning.”
Ben’s tongue slipped across his smile. He kept looking forward as his eyebrows raised mockingly, “Oh yeah?”
“An idiot hunter nearly shot him.”
“Seems like a good day for narrow escapes, wouldn’t you say?”
“I just hate that a man would shoot a fantastic beast like that for no reason.”
Ben’s eyebrows briefly arched. “You and me both, Hayley.”
As they moved between two bushes toward the edge of the wood, Hayley wanted to take his hand. Too late, they broke out into the full morning light. She felt like she was leaving a magical place and emerging back into dull reality.
Up ahead and perched on the mountainside was a low wood building. Dick’s Diner, said the sign over the big windows. “Food’s good in there,” Ben said. “You should fuel up if you plan to spend the day on the mountain.”
Hayley could tell that Ben didn’t plan to join her inside and she felt deflated. He said, “Be careful if you’re out late, Hayley,” and she loved the sound of her name in his strong throat. “Weather’s apt to turn this afternoon.”
She watched his face. He said, “As you walk, ‘specially if you get up any higher, watch out for little huts, usually in cover of trees. If you get caught in the weather, make for the nearest one and hole up.”
His smile was warm. She wanted him to stay with her.
“Won’t you join me inside?”
“His food’s good, like I said. Dick’s got the right name, though.”
He took her hand. At the touch of his skin on hers, a powerful pulse pounded through her. She pleaded with him with her eyes as he said, “Take care, Hayley,” and he was gone like a Cheshire cat. Nothing was left but the feeling that the smile in his voice gave her.
With some reluctance Hayley opened the door of the diner and stepped inside. About half a dozen men sat around the counter, and they all turned to look around at Hayley’s arrival.
Round, whiskered hulks of men with ruddy cheeks and sly eyes watched her and waited. Hayley heard grunts, but she couldn’t make out what was said. Somebody whispered something and several of them chuckled. It was a low, slow chuckle, and Hayley didn’t think it was very nice.
There were tables by the window, all of them unoccupied. If she sat at the counter, she would probably have to deal with some of the men’s banter, but if she settled by the window they would probably mumble and make remarks out of her earshot.
She chose the counter. Better to be near and see if she couldn’t face them down. She aimed at least to hold her own, and she looked each of the men in the eye without smiling as she took her stool.
The round, buff server’s blue tunic had an embroidered badge that said, “Dick.” Hayley ordered cereal, poached eggs, and toast with some coffee. The coffee was thin like it was in her hometown.
She sipped her coffee slowly as she waited in the uneasy quiet. The men looked at her when they didn’t think she was watching, and they exchanged glances.
The eggs were fresh and excellently cooked, and the toast was made from a hearty, rustic bread. It came with a pat of rich, yellow butter and some jam that tasted homemade.
As Hayley was sipping her second coffee, the door behind her opened. As soon as he said, “Good morning,” he recognized the voice of the man. It was the hunter.
Dick said, “Hallo, Jeb. How are you today?”
She heard Jeb’s feet stop behinds her. He said, “Be a darn sight better if it weren’t for this dumb city girl.”
“Now, Jeb. Don’t come in here and insult my customers.” Dick lowered his eyes over Hayley’s shoulder in a way that he obviously thought was comic. Hayley turned on her stool to face Jeb.
He was pudgy and he fixed her with beady eyes “You spoiled my shot. Dumb b…”
“OH-kay, Jeb, now don’t lose your manners here.” Dick took some of the we’re-just-kidding out of his tone now.
Jeb came a little closer to Hayley, close enough that she could smell his expensive aftershave. “If women ain’t in the kitchen, they ought to be on their backs.” A ripple of sly laughs went around the men at the counter. “Your mouth’s good for one thing and one thing only, cutie,” Hayley’s heart was pumping harder as he said, “And it ain’t talking.”
“You were going to shoot that bear and for no reason at all. I’m glad if I made you miss, and I hope I get the chance again.”
His face came nearer, “Bears are dangerous. They need to be culled. I’m doing a public service.”
“Bears were here before we were and we need to learn to live with them.”
Dick said, “Lady has a point, Jeb. Only three of them bears are left, far as we know, and all of ’em are male.”
Jeb grunted. “Might as well say the same about grass and trees and bushes, missy. When you want schools and houses and hospitals and roads, gotta clear away the scrub.”
Hayley’s blood was hot now. “We’re not making grass extinct, and we don’t cut down forests for recreation. We’ve learned, and we know better now. You’re a fossil. You just don’t know it yet.”
“You’re talking about things you just don’t understand, city girl.”
“I understand the closed mind of the generation that’s wrecked our planet. I understand people too set in their comfortable ruts to look around them or even think for themselves. I understand…”
Dick cut in, “Okay, okay. I don’t want any of my customers being rude to each other.” He looked from Hayley to Jeb and back. “If you want to be starting fights, don’t do it in here. Take ’em outside, okay?”
Jeb started to speak, but Dick glowered at him and said, “Oh-kay?”
Hayley left money on the counter and thanked Dick as she got up to leave. Jeb followed her.
As she went through the door, she said, “I don’t know what you think you’re going to do.”
He growled, “You should learn to act like a lady, young lady. Show some respect to your elders.”
“I’ll show you the respect that you earn, and so far, that ain’t very much.”
She backed away from him but he kept coming toward her. Maybe she should have tried to finish this in the diner. The other customers hadn’t been much help, but dick or not, Dick had tried to be a calming influence.
Jeb’s face reddened. “You should know a woman’s place,” he said, and he lunged towards her. From behind her and at either side, deep growls rose and came nearer.
Hayley swiveled to see a huge brown bear approach from each side. Their teeth were bared and their heads were forward, low and twisting. Their eyes were locked on Jeb. He ran.
The bears picked up speed and passed Hayley. Jeb dashed for the bushes. The bears chased after him. The sound of a rustling, cracking pursuit with the pounding of heavy paws faded into the woods.
Hayley stood for some time watching the spot where they had disappeared. Her emotions churned as she recalled the breeze in the wake of the two rushing bears and how their soft, thick fur rippled as they’d cannoned by her.
Deep inside her a fantasy flickered that somehow the two bears had been there to protect her. That they had bounded after the hunter to keep her safe. Safe from him. Safe for themselves. She trembled at the thought, then she tried to dismiss it.
Through the diner window, all of the customers had huddled back around the counter. Dick’s head was down, too. Hayley had no idea how much of what occurred they had witnessed, if any.
No matter, and she wouldn’t let it spoil her day on the mountain. She headed up the slope
and toward the sun.
The higher Hayley hiked, the less she felt the tug of the world below. The rent, the damned job—it all melted away behind the sounds and scents of the high forest and faded below the horizons of her sketches.
The wild, natural world was where Hayley felt at home. Among the trees and birds, with earth beneath her feet and wind in her hair. This was where she belonged. If only there was a way to for her to remain up here, up in the cool, fresh air.
Between the clear sky and the green trees, Hayley felt as though this was her place. In her younger days when she escaped to the woods and the mountains, she felt more at home there than she did with her unpredictable, explosive family.
Now on this clear day she felt that her home was not just in the mountains, but on this mountain. She sat to draw. Meeting the bears had given her a feeling that wouldn’t leave. Were there two bears, she wondered, or three?
The man in the diner had said there were just three bears left up here. Could she have seen all three of them, here on her first visit? Hayley wondered what it would take for her to see them again.
Through the last of the morning and on into the afternoon, she found trees and vistas to draw. She stopped near to a running spring so that she could make one or two quick watercolor paintings.
As she looked through her drawings, she remembered the photo of the valley in the morning mist that she had taken with her phone. She got herself a little water, laid out her colors, and found the photo.
It was perfect. Time slipped away as Hayley immersed herself in the delicate rendering of the depth of the gorge and the mist as it rose from the valley floor. She was excited as she caught the softness of the morning light.
Her colors blended to give shape to the steep slopes and the pointed trees as they stretched up through the haze. She paused to check the photograph. Something in the corner caught her eye and she pinched the screen to enlarge it.
How had she not seen that before? Small but distinct in the corner, looking right at the camera under cover of thick red and turquoise shrubs, were the snout, ears, and shining eyes of a bear.
As Hayley stared at her phone in disbelief, she ignored the first couple of tiny drops of water. In her cocoon of concentration, she hadn’t noticed the light dimming as the sky grayed. A drop of water made a pool as it fell onto her painting. Then another.
Hayley dabbed at the marks with a soft tissue and tried to shield the picture. The few drops became many. The picture was beginning to run as she pressed a clean piece of paper to it in an effort to protect the work.
The few drops became a drizzle and she looked around her for better cover. As she slipped under the shade of a tree and scrambled to put her pads and colors into her pack, the rain became steady.
Wind rose to blow around her and Hayley realized that this could be the start of a storm. She tried to recall the last of the cabins that Ben had told her about. She couldn’t remember having seen one since shortly after she left the diner.
That was too far back. She would be drenched if she made it all that way, and that was if the rain didn’t get any harder. Rapid raindrops drummed on the forest floor. It was pouring now.
Ben had said the cabins were usually near the forest edge. If she went down, she would be in the woods for a long way. The edge was nearer if she went up the slope.
If she didn’t find a cabin that way, though, she would be farther from any habitation and on higher, more exposed ground. She decided that upward was the better gamble. If she had to retreat, at least it would be through the shelter of the trees.
The rain beat on her jacket and soaked her skirt. Her legs were chilly and wet. The cold and the wet ground made her unsure of her footing as she scrambled up through the trees and undergrowth. The slope wasn’t so very steep, but it was enough to make her feet slide back every few steps, and she had to resist a swell of panic in her chest.
When she reached the edge of the trees, she looked around hastily. Practically all she could see was gray mist and dancing drops of water. But behind a large boulder, still farther up the slope, Hayley made out an angular shape.
She couldn’t be certain whether what she saw was a building, but it was all the hope she had. She kept as close to the tree line as she could as she made her way toward the rock.
For the last hundred yards the rain was so hard that she had to run with her head down, barely able to see where she was going. When she finally reached the rock she practically smacked into it.
She clung onto it like it was a long-lost friend while she recovered her breath. Panting and soaked, she peered around the rock for the shape she had seen. She wiped the splattering rain from her eyes twice before she located it.
It was the broken branch of a tree. Hayley sagged in despair. Close to tears, she leaned with her back against the rock. Rain beat on her neck. She endured it for a moment before she lifted her head.
In the darkness of the woods, just thirty feet below her, she was facing the door of a small, gray, wooden cabin.
The door was unlocked. Inside was a stone fireplace with a neat pile of cut logs and a simple, but thick shaggy rug in front of it. The plain wood table and chairs were all the furniture, except for some benches around the walls.
There was a tiny kitchen area, and a small bathroom with a shower.
Hayley leaned gratefully against the door as she closed and latched it behind her.
Her jacket was soaked. As she pulled it off, she found that the top half of her sweater was drenched, too.
In the little cabin bathroom, Hayley found a soft towel and took it out to the main room. She peeled off her sweater and her big, soft breasts bounced out into the cool air. It felt good as she rubbed herself with the towel for warmth.
To dry her hair, she huddled on a wooden bench against the cabin wall as the deluge pounded and howled around the outside of the wooden walls. She wondered about starting up the wood fire. It wasn’t so cold yet, though. She wrapped the big towel around her.
There was something wonderfully cozy about being inside the little cabin with the weather beating outside. She knelt on the bench to peer out of the window.
A face shocked her. Right on the other side of the glass, peering in was the face of a big, brown bear. He pulled back a little. He must have been startled too.
But he lifted his paw to the window. He looked cold. Hayley wanted to let him in. Now that’s just crazy, she thought, looking into his poor face. His head cocked to one side.
She heard a scratching at the wooden cabin door and she bolted straight over to it.
“Hayley?” it was Ben’s voice. She opened the door. He was soaked. His hair was sopping and his beard glistened with water.. He looked so fantastic that Hayley just stared at him for a moment.
He said, “Er… may I come in please, Hayley?”
“Oh, I’m such an idiot.” She was flustered, “Come in, quickly.” She pulled the door wide open and stood aside, transfixed by the way that his wet jeans clung to his massive thighs and his gorgeous ass.
“We should get you dry.” She handed him the towel. His eyes opened wide as he said:
“Thank you, Hayley.” His tongue dragged across his lips and he stood, mesmerized. His gaze didn’t move off her body as he absently lifted the towel to his head. That was when Hayley realized she was only wearing her low-cut, lacy black push-up bra and her little plaid skirt.
Even the bra seemed too much as her big breasts heaved. Her nipples hardened and the fabric felt scratchy as Ben’s eyes feasted on her curves. Reflexively she pulled her arms across her chest, although it seemed silly now.
Bear Mountain Clan Brides: romantic bbw werebear menage Page 7
