by Cora Seton
“I bet.”
Anders liked the way she watched him while he talked. Her whole attention on him.
“One thing I noticed was the difference in the environments where hunter-gatherers lived and where farmers or herders lived.”
She cocked her head.
Anders tried to explain. “It makes sense that they’re really different. When you’re a hunter-gatherer, you need your landscape to be as diverse as possible because it has to provide for all your needs. When you farm or ranch, the goal is to make the land produce as much as possible of a small subset of crops or animals. First you clear everything else away and keep it away. Then you direct all your scientific and technological advances toward that end—getting more of a single crop.”
“I definitely see that in satellite images. Each crop has a specific color, so you get monotone squares or circles when you photograph them from above.”
“Exactly. The United States has run with it. It’s far more efficient to monocrop. You can mechanize planting and harvesting. On the downside, you have to add a lot of fertilizer and pesticides to monocrops. They aren’t good at defending themselves against insects, and they deplete the soil.”
“Where do bison come into all this?”
Her interest in one of his favorite subjects was almost an aphrodisiac. Anders wanted to reach out and trace the line of her jaw. But they didn’t have that kind of relationship yet. All he could do was woo her with words.
Was he wooing her? Suddenly worried, he bent closer. Maybe he was boring her.
“Well?” she prompted.
Maybe he wasn’t boring her quite yet.
“Bison belong here naturally. They eat what the prairie provides and, in doing so, actually help it regenerate. Their dung acts as a natural fertilizer as they graze. Their hooves mix the dung in with the soil. We don’t have to add petroleum-based fertilizers, and we don’t have to supplement their feed during the winter, either, like we have to do with cattle. Bison can handle the snow. We’re not exactly hunter-gatherers, but we’re not exactly ranchers in the traditional sense, either.”
“You do grow crops here, too.”
“We do. We’re experimenting with different processes to learn what’s best. This first year we went about things in pretty standard ways, but we intend to try intercropping among other things.”
She nodded. “It must be gratifying to know that what you’re doing is restoring balance to this area.”
“It’s just one ranch.” Sometimes he wondered if they were pissing in the wind, television show or no television show.
“That’s where you start—solving one problem at a time.”
As if she knew how to get that done. She’d set off after high school with the best intentions and come home on a stretcher. Had anything she’d accomplished during that time made a difference?
She’d been relieved when she’d realized earlier that despite his threats, Clem hadn’t shown Anders the footage of her saying she wanted to sleep with him.
Yet.
She enjoyed talking to him like this—a lot. Sex with Anders would be something special. She was sure of that. Talking was… foreplay. And since the topic interested her, it was interesting foreplay.
She realized she was smiling.
Anders smiled back ruefully. “I get going about bison and don’t know when to stop,” he said.
“I’m not bored,” she said forthrightly. “Not at all. I love listening to you.”
Her words registered with him, and he leaned closer. She liked the way his dark eyes searched hers. Anders was a very handsome man, and Base Camp was a very appealing place.
She’d better watch herself.
“You might regret saying that.” He chuckled.
“I doubt it.”
It had been a while since she’d flirted with someone so openly. She’d been in a bit of a rut back home, Eve realized.
How had that happened?
Her last boyfriend, she decided. The last real one. Heath. James might be a figment of her imagination—a hyped-up character she’d created with Melissa—but Heath had taken what was left of her confidence and stomped on it when he’d dumped her. She’d barely gone out since then.
“Eve? You okay?” Anders asked.
He was close enough their positions felt intimate, even though they sat in a crowded room. Anders’s jaw was strong, his eyelashes as dark as his hair.
“Why aren’t you blond?” she asked. “Anders is a Swedish name, right?”
“It is, but my mom—”
Eve couldn’t help herself. She leaned forward and kissed him.
And kissed him again.
When she pulled away, Anders grinned.
“Sorry,” she said.
“What for?” He moved closer, slid a hand under her hair to cup her head and kissed her back, a good, long kiss that left her whole body humming. “It was a good idea,” he told her.
She looked up and spotted Clem watching them. And Byron filming them.
“I’m not sure of that. I won’t be here long.”
Anders studied her, then seemed to notice they were receiving a lot of amused glances and covert looks. “Let’s take this one day at a time, okay?”
“Okay,” she heard herself say.
“What’s more romantic than looking at the stars?” Curtis asked Anders in an undertone as they climbed out of the truck they’d driven to the Night Sky Bonfire. Hope, Avery and Eve climbed out of the back seat and straightened their long jackets and gowns.
Anders shrugged.
“You’ll make big strides with Eve tonight if you play your cards right. I’ll try to head off Clem and the crew as best I can. Give you a little privacy.”
“Good luck with that.” Clem seemed determined to stick close. And ask far too many questions. He’d taken to jumping out at him in odd moments and peppering him with questions about his youth. Where did he go to summer camp? Who was his favorite teacher? Who was his best friend? According to Anders’s contract, he was supposed to answer direct questions. He felt like a failed politician with his I don’t knows, I don’t recalls, and other evasions.
When a string of fireworks went off some yards away, Anders whirled and fell into a defensive crouch before almost immediately realizing what was going on. Speaking of Clem, there he was, and one of the cameramen had caught his defensive maneuver on film.
Perfect.
“Done that plenty of times myself,” Curtis said, but he was chuckling. Had Eve seen him? Anders checked, but she was chatting with the other women. Good.
He wasn’t the only one surprised by the fireworks. A murmur had run through the gathering when they went off, and Anders spotted Cab Johnson, the local sheriff, threading his way through the throng to find the perpetrators. A moment later, he collared a couple of teenagers and marched them off.
Anders bit back a grin. He could only hope that was the extent of the mayhem committed here tonight. He needed to focus on Eve and give this budding relationship between them a decent chance.
“Hey, Anders,” Clem called out. “I’ve got something here you should see.” He held up his phone and beckoned him over. Anders closed the distance between them reluctantly.
Eve turned, and when Clem said, “Watch this. Eve had something to say earlier,” her mouth opened and her eyes widened.
Avery turned, too, and bustled over as if she’d grab the phone from Clem’s hand, but Avery was petite and Clem was tall. He held it up high in one hand, tapped the screen with the other and turned the sound up loud. Anders made out Eve, Avery and Clem onscreen, standing in the barn.
“Have you seen him without his shirt on?” Eve was asking. Clem had the sound up so loud several other people in the vicinity turned to see what was going on.
Avery jumped again, but Clem reached out, palmed her head and held her down, lifting the phone even higher.
“Clem, that’s enough,” Anders said, but the footage went on.
“Have you?” Clem asked on the tiny sc
reen. “Have you two already done the nasty?”
“Done the nasty?” That was Avery. “Are you in second grade?”
Good question, Anders thought.
“Bumped uglies?” Clem said onscreen. “Made the beast with two backs? Done the dirty deed?”
“No,” Eve said on the video.
The real Eve looked like she wanted to sink into the ground. Anders didn’t blame her.
“But you want to,” Clem said onscreen.
Despite himself, Anders’s gaze flicked back up to Clem’s phone, and he waited for Eve’s answer. Surely she’d denied it.
“Yes,” Eve said on the footage. “As a matter of fact, I can’t wait to bump uglies with Anders.”
Anders laughed, but he couldn’t help the images flooding his mind. Getting Eve alone, pushing deep inside her, pumping until—
Hell.
He didn’t mean to look at her, but he did and found Eve still wide-eyed, a butterfly caught—pinned and framed—on a wall.
“Clem, you’re an asshole,” he managed to say.
“Just thought you’d want to know,” Clem said gleefully. “Now you can skip all the boring stuff and get right to the action.” He ducked when Anders lunged at him, surprising him with his dexterity. “Remember what Curtis said. Don’t hit the director!” he taunted as he backpedaled away.
It took three of the men to restrain Anders.
Someday he’d get his revenge.
If it hadn’t been for Clem, Eve would have enjoyed this gathering. The weather had cooperated, and the sky overhead was a sea of stars. Part of the field near the high school had been flooded to form an ice rink that was full of skaters. Several telescopes had been set up in a darker patch, and people stood in line to get their chance at a celestial view.
A bonfire burned between the ice rink and a concession stand, where people bought hot chocolate and various baked goods.
She was too busy wishing the ground would swallow her whole to be able to enjoy it.
Why, oh why had she thought it was a good idea to say what she’d said to Clem? Now Anders thought she was the kind of woman who jumped into any warm bed. There wasn’t anything she could say to defend herself, either.
That didn’t keep her from trying.
“I didn’t mean… He was being so obnoxious…” she stuttered when Clem escaped and Boone, Greg and Curtis let Anders go again.
“You don’t have to explain,” Anders said. “We’ve all lashed out at the crew at one time or another. I know you didn’t mean it.”
The thing was, she did. She hesitated, not knowing what to say. When a corner of Anders’s mouth quirked up, she closed her eyes.
She opened them a moment later to find he’d moved closer, and the others had melted away into the crowd. She spotted Curtis and Hope getting in line to look through one of the telescopes. Riley and Boone were headed toward the ice rink.
“Maybe you did mean it,” Anders said softly. He tilted her chin up with one finger and bent toward her, giving her all the time in the world to move away.
She didn’t.
She let him kiss her, lightly at first, and when he captured her mouth with his, wrapped his arms around her and kissed her for real, she kissed him back.
“I’ve been waiting to do that forever,” he said when they came up for air.
“You’ve known me forty-eight hours,” she pointed out unsteadily. “And you kissed me earlier today.”
“You mean you kissed me. Now I want to do it again.”
She let him, and he brushed his mouth over hers once, twice, and pulled her closer, deepening the connection until she was weak in the knees.
“Guess we can’t do that all night,” Anders said when they broke apart.
She nearly asked why not, but he was right. They were in a public place, and she barely knew him, and she was leaving—
“Want to skate?”
“I… sure.”
Portable spotlights had been set up around the ice rink. Eve and Anders stood in line to secure rental skates, then sat on a bench near the rink to put them on. Everyone seemed to be leaving their boots where they were, so they did, too, and picked their way through the snow toward the ice.
It had been a while since she’d skated, but she used to go to a local ice rink when she was a child, and she was competent. Anders took her hand, and they started out slowly, increasing their speed as they found their balance.
“It’s been a long time,” Anders said. “Forgot how much I like this.”
“You skated in Texas?”
“Yep. Believe it or not.”
He was good, his strokes sure, and he kept her upright a time or two when she would have fallen. The crowd was full of families and children, all having a good time, but it seemed to Eve there was an edge to the festivities. The darkness pushed in at the light. On these long winter nights, the boundary between the worlds was thin, if mythology was to be believed.
She caught sight of Riley and Boone. Then Avery—and even Walker. The tall Native American man looked at ease on his skates, too, and Eve remembered he was a local. Probably everyone in Montana grew up skating.
“All right, folks, time for a little music!” a man called out as loudspeakers crackled to life nearby. “Find your partner and hold hands for a little romantic skating!”
Anders squeezed Eve’s hand as a waltz filled the air. Eve curled her fingers around his, and they skated together in time to the music.
“This is kind of fun,” she said after a minute.
“A little tame. But not bad.”
Eve laughed. “You have to start somewhere.”
“True.” He sped up a little and whipped her around the turn. Eve shrieked and clung to him.
“If you let go, I’m going to go flying!”
“I won’t let go.” He slowed a little but kept her arm in his. “Where’d you learn to skate?”
“At a local rink. I took lessons.”
“Didn’t know they had skating in Virginia.”
“It gets cold there in winter. Cool,” she amended when he laughed at her. “Not as cold as Montana, I guess.”
“You got that right.”
“How about you? Where’d you learn to skate?”
“Same. Local rink. I played hockey for years.”
“Really? Were you any good?”
“Was I any good?” he growled and pulled her closer. “Hell yeah, I was good.” He put his right arm around her shoulder and held her hand with his left. Eve liked the contact. From the satisfied smile on Anders’s face, he liked it, too.
They continued on until the music stopped, then glided toward the outer edge of the rink. When they came to a halt, Anders pulled her close again.
Eve met his mouth with her own, resting her hands on his arms, going up on tiptoe in her skates to reach him.
His kiss felt good, and Eve didn’t want it to stop. When he broke it off, she steadied herself, still holding on to him, before stepping back as a new song started. He linked his arm with hers and began to skate again. She kept pace, wondering how she’d ever bear to leave Anders behind when the time came.
She probably wouldn’t have a choice. He might like her now, but when she used his show to expose Hansen Oil and unleashed a firestorm of negative attention from the company, he’d realize she’d come here under false pretenses.
She didn’t want to contemplate that.
“Is there anything about Texas you like?” Eve asked Anders.
He thought about it. “The sky,” he said finally. “The storms. They’re something to see.”
“I’ll bet. You don’t mind these kind of winters?”
“Not at all. I like seasons. How about you?”
“I like winter, but I have a feeling it lingers here a little too long for my taste.”
Anders was quiet, and Eve remembered he was trying to convince her to marry him.
Or was he?
He hadn’t actually mentioned matrimony so far. She ima
gined he was trying her on for size, in a manner of speaking, but if she kept dissing Montana’s climate, he’d think she was telling him she wasn’t interested.
“I imagine you get used to it, though,” she added hurriedly.
Anders just nodded. “Should we go look at the stars?” he asked a few minutes later.
Eve, who’d been searching for something to talk about, accepted gratefully. “My feet are getting cold,” she admitted.
“Can’t have that.” When they sat on the bench to change back into their boots, Anders took first one of her feet and then the other into his hands and chafed them vigorously. “How’s that? Any better?”
Eve had fallen into a daydream about other ways those hands could warm her up and struggled to answer. “G-great.” She hurried to put her boots on. She couldn’t remember ever being so susceptible to a man’s touch before. Had Heath ever made her feel this way?
She didn’t think so.
But then Heath wasn’t Anders. He wasn’t nearly as handsome. Or as gentle. Or as rugged, either, she admitted to herself, remembering the way Anders had gone after Clem.
She was going to miss Anders when she left.
They returned their skates and joined the line for one of the telescopes, and when Anders put an arm around her shoulder and drew her close for warmth, she allowed herself to enjoy it.
Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted Clem and a camera crew, focusing on her.
Better make this good.
Her need to keep Clem’s interest was the only reason she was standing on tiptoe and pressing a kiss to Anders’s cheek, she told herself a moment later, but when he bent down to meet her mouth with his, she forgot about everything else.
Twenty minutes later, it was finally their turn, and Eve took turns with Anders looking at the stars, moon and other features of the night sky, tutored by an excited man who obviously loved everything about astronomy.
By the time they made their way to the bonfire, she was ready to sit down.
“How about I get us some cocoa?” Anders asked.
“Sounds lovely,” she said.
She hadn’t seen any sign of the camera crew for at least fifteen minutes and had assumed Clem had gotten bored while she and Anders were stargazing, so when she found a section of log near the fire to sit on, and Clem plunked down on the section beside her, Eve bit back a sigh.
