ELI
I spent the next few days trying to figure out what was even remotely good about me being me, but I couldn’t think of one damn thing to justify Jade’s gratitude.
Mostly, I was a workaholic. My break with Jade was the longest I’d ever taken since my dad had passed away.
I didn’t do commitments, so I had no fucking idea how to be good to a girlfriend. But the idea of claiming Jade in some way was starting to look pretty damn appealing.
And maybe Charlie was a little spoiled, but it wasn’t difficult to spend my free time with him, and he deserved an owner who treated him well. He’d spent way too much of his short canine life in misery.
Honestly, I thought Jade deserved better than a guy who was only around so he could satisfy his carnal urges.
I was thoroughly convinced that once we’d gorged ourselves on sex, one of us would eventually get bored and move on.
Problem was, I wasn’t so sure I’d be the one who wanted to break things off quickly once our itch was scratched.
So I’d avoided having sex with Jade, even though it was fucking killing me.
The longer it takes for us to have sex, the longer she’ll be around, right?
I’d made certain we were worn out every single day with planned activities: exploring Yellowstone, bike riding, horseback rides, white-water rafting, and some very long hikes.
By the time our day was over and we’d had a few drinks after dinner, Jade had conked out almost as soon as she hit the bed.
I wasn’t quite so lucky.
There was no way I was going to sleep in another bed. I liked feeling her warmth draped over me, or snuggled up to my side.
But every night was torture.
I couldn’t figure out what in the hell was wrong with me. I’d achieved my goal. Jade was willing, and we were both adults. Why the fuck was I putting off what I knew would be the most satisfying sex of my entire life?
She’s making me crazy.
There was no other explanation.
Our days had been an eye opener for me. Although I’d already known that Jade was gutsy, because of her survival expertise, I’d also discovered just how fearless she was when confronted with any kind of outdoor activity.
She jumped into every experience wholeheartedly and without any hesitation.
I wasn’t quite sure if that fascinated me even more, or if it terrified the hell out of me.
“Do you think we should head back?” Jade asked, jolting me out of my own thoughts.
I looked around, realizing we could either take the trail back to our camp, or we could hike farther away from our lodgings before circling back.
The moment I looked at Jade, my dick was hard. Not that it wasn’t constantly that way because of her, but it was difficult not to want to fuck her up against a nearby tree.
Her skin was still flushed with excitement, even after exploring for two days. And her joyous smile made me feel like somebody had bashed me in the chest.
Her happiness was becoming my damn obsession just because I wanted to keep looking at her smile.
We’d gotten lucky for the last few days. The weather had been good, but cold, so we were both bundled up for hiking.
I looked at the sun, and then my watch. “We probably should head back. I don’t want to get caught in the woods after dark.”
It was rutting season for the big-horned-mammal population like elk and moose, and I’d been ridiculously paranoid about Jade stepping on a rattlesnake since the minute we’d first started hiking. We’d seen plenty of the former, but hadn’t seen any kind of snake while we’d been out hiking. But it didn’t lessen my fear of it happening to her.
I turned to lead the way back to our luxury lodgings, but turned back around as I heard Charlie growling, a serious sound I’d never heard from him before.
“Don’t move,” Jade said in a calm voice. “And don’t run.”
I looked up the opposite trail just in time to see a huge grizzly bear rear up onto its hind legs.
I had to force myself to keep my hands at my side and not jump for Jade to get her out of harm’s way.
That bear would have to tear my ornery ass up before it ever got to Jade.
“Bear spray?” I asked in a quiet, monotone voice.
“Not close enough,” she answered. “And probably not necessary. He’s prehibernation, and is probably just looking for food of the nonhuman variety.”
As she spoke, I did see Jade slowly reach for her bear spray just in case. Since I wasn’t exactly a country boy, I’d let her talk me out of carrying it myself. I’d relented since she had way more experience with wildlife than I did. But I had never stopped to think about the possibility that she could be torn up if the weapon didn’t stop a bear.
The male was still on his hind legs, and it wasn’t sitting well with me that Jade was several steps closer to the bear than I was.
The beast was probably fifty feet from us, and not making any crazy moves that made me twitchy. Still, it was too damn close.
“Don’t make eye contact,” she instructed. “And no sudden moves.”
I hastily moved my eyes from the massive animal’s face, and motioned for Charlie to be quiet and get down beside me. I was relieved when he reluctantly obeyed.
I stayed frozen in place while Jade was talking nonsense in a calm voice to the bear.
Strangely, her vocal calmness appeared to be working.
“Start backing up slowly,” she instructed in the same tranquil tone she was using with the bear. “Let’s give him some space.”
I waited until Jade was beside me before I started my retreat.
If something was going to happen with the massive mammal, I was damn well going to be able to put my body between hers and the bear’s to keep her from getting mauled.
“When do we haul ass and get out of here?” I asked in a quiet voice as I motioned for Charlie to follow us.
“We don’t,” she said firmly as we kept giving the predator more and more space. “If we act like prey, his instinct is going to make him pursue. And a human will never be able to outrun a grizzly.”
With every step we took, the more distance we put between us and the bear. “Do we just keep moving like this?” I asked.
“Yes. You’re doing fine. We can’t turn our back on a bear until he can’t see us. Bad idea. Just keep walking until he moves on.”
Once I’d gotten over my immediate instinct to protect Jade by throwing her body to the ground and covering her—a move that would have probably gotten us both mauled—I respected her judgment. She was the expert. When we’d come across rutting moose and elk, she’d steered me away from them carefully, teaching me how to keep from getting hurt.
“He’s leaving,” she remarked.
I looked up to see the bear turn his back on us and lumber in the other direction. Obviously, it didn’t matter if the bear turned his back on us since it was an apex predator.
As the grizzly finally disappeared into the woods, Jade said, “We can move on.”
I grabbed her hand in an iron grip as she turned around and kept up a fairly fast walking pace toward our accommodations.
“Are you still concerned?” I asked her after we’d moved at a steady clip for a few moments, nodding my head at the bear spray she was still holding in her hand.
“No,” she answered in a normal voice. “He looks well fed, and I didn’t see any sign that he’s likely to be aggressive and stalk us. But bears can be unpredictable. No harm in being prepared.”
I sure as hell didn’t like the sound of that. “I’ve been here before, and I’ve hiked. I’ve never seen any bear, much less a grizzly. We take precautions. Usually, we only allow hiking in groups of three or more, and with an experienced guide. And in the three years the place has been operational, not a single guest or employee has seen a grizzly. Not this far away from the park.”
“Their numbers are recovering,” she informed me. “They’ve been protected to increase the population, and now they’re starting to spread out beyond the Yellowstone ecosystem. That’s been happening for a while now. But I don’t think they’re here very often. I didn’t see the usual signs. It was probably just an uncommon occurrence.”
I frowned. “Do you think it will cause any problems at the resort? Are the guests in danger?”
She shook her head. “No more than somebody staying in the park. A person has a better chance of getting struck by lightning than getting attacked by a bear. The large percentage of attacks are due to human error. I’m not saying it doesn’t happen without provocation, but it’s extremely rare.”
“Human error? Like running?”
“Sometimes. One of the biggest mistakes is getting too close to cubs. Females are incredibly protective.”
“You don’t sound the least bit nervous about coming face to face with a grizzly,” I grumbled.
“I’m not,” she told me. “I’m excited. That wasn’t my first bear encounter, but it’s my first grizzly. Don’t get me wrong, we didn’t need to be that close. And I respect the fact that the bears are wild animals, and anything could happen. But I’ve always wanted to see one in their natural environment.”
Fuck! She was actually flushed with excitement and smiling.
“This has happened to you before?” I asked.
“Of course. I did all kinds of fieldwork, Eli. I’m a wildlife conservationist. Granted, I never got outside California, but we have plenty of bears.”
“I don’t like it,” I answered stubbornly. “It’s a dangerous job.”
She moved closer and slammed into my shoulder playfully. “Most of the time, I study data in a laboratory. Running into a bear is a rarity.”
“They can be aggressive.” Jesus! Didn’t she know that something bad could have happened?
“He was up and sniffing. That’s usually curiosity and not aggression. But I agree. He was a huge male. But we were invading his territory. That’s always a very small risk that you take when you hike. Especially in this area.”
“I was more worried about snakes,” I said, pissed off at myself because I’d hardly considered other risks.
“Human-and-bear encounters happen. But being mauled or killed by one is a rarity. For the most part, they’d rather avoid humans.”
“No more hiking,” I told her as we arrived at our tent.
I waited until she was inside, and then closed the door behind us. It was going to take a hell of a long time to forget the sight of her in front of me while we were having a confrontation with a damn grizzly.
Maybe she was able to handle it well, but I was probably going to have nightmares about what could have gone wrong.
I bent down to reassure my canine, who was clearly still confused by what had happened. “Good boy,” I told him as I stroked his head.
Charlie was easy. After a minute of affection, he was back to normal.
Jade took off her jacket and bent down to pet Charlie, too. “He was a good boy. If he wasn’t so well trained, we could have had trouble on our hands.”
As I straightened up, I asked, “So what do you do if a bear charges?”
She took off the belt around her waist, and dropped the hiking tools and bear spray on the kitchen counter.
“It depends,” she replied. “Sometimes they’ll do a fake charge to get you to move away. But if they’re really going to engage, you wait until they’re within twenty-five feet or closer and hit them with bear spray.” She looked up at me and added, “Hey, you really look worried. Are you okay?”
“Not completely,” I admitted. “I was afraid you’d get hurt.”
“You were worried about me?” she questioned softly, her expression slightly surprised.
“For God’s sake, I brought you here, Jade. And something could have happened to you because I picked the wrong damn place to go.”
I wasn’t afraid to admit I’d been pretty damn scared that the bear would go rogue and hurt her.
And it would have been my fault.
“I’m fine, Eli. I was nervous the first time I had a close encounter with a bear. But I guess I’ve learned that the worst thing a person can do is panic. I’ve had years of experience and research into animal behavior. You haven’t. I know it’s pretty terrifying.”
“I wasn’t afraid for me,” I rasped. “I was worried that something would happen to you. One mistake and you could have been dinner.”
She came forward and touched my arm. “We didn’t make a mistake, Eli.”
I had her in my arms before she could blink, and I held her so tightly she probably couldn’t breathe.
We stayed that way for a couple of minutes, and the feeling of her safe body against me eventually calmed my ass down.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
I released her slowly. “Yeah. I’m good.”
I was a damn liar. I still didn’t really want to let her out of my sight.
Lighten up, Stone! If she wasn’t scared before, I’m probably making her anxious with my behavior.
“I should make a few calls and let the local wildlife stations know that we had a grizzly encounter. They like to monitor when the bears begin moving away from the park.”
I took off my jacket and started to remove my boots. “No problem. We can go to dinner right after that.”
“Thanks for caring about my welfare,” she said softly.
I looked up at her from my stooped position. “Thanks for making sure we weren’t on the dinner menu for Smokey.”
She laughed as she rummaged for her cell phone.
I kicked off my boots, determined that I’d never see Jade in danger again.
My damn heart would never survive if I had to see her vulnerable and not be able to do anything about it a second time.