Joss busied herself collecting the last of the plates around the fire pit. Most of the guests had peeled away after dinner and drinks, some together, others alone, and found spaces in their beds for the night. Only Hunter and Jesse remained with the crackle of burning wood for company.

One moved to get up, while the other seemed content to stay out under the stars for a while longer.

“Thanks for the meal tonight, Joss,” Jesse said. “Let me help you with these.”

And leave her alone with Hunter? That sounded like a recipe for disaster.

“Oh, it’s fine. This is part of the gig,” she answered lightly.

The dinner itself was a success. Food had been stocked in the lodge’s refrigerator prior to their arrival. While the guests freshened up, she set about to cooking up a gourmet delight to eat while they joked around an open fire and enjoyed the last rays of daylight.

A day out on the trail did more than work up appetites. Joss finally felt back in her element. The pure delight over the menu of steaks, potatoes, rolls, and a campfire classic of baked beans was enough to privately pump her fist in celebration. Seeing the guests eat nearly as much as the shifters, and bicker over the last of the sides boosted her confidence.

She’d done that. She made the entire party full and round with happiness. She didn’t need a fat bank account and a sprawling, sterile home to prove her worth. Her own skills earned her appreciation.

“Sit,” Jesse insisted. “You’ve been on the move all day. Take a moment to rest.”

Faced with a tug-of-war over a stack of plates, Joss let go. Jesse nodded to her once and set off toward the lodge. She shook her head in bewilderment.

“He’s right, you know.”

Joss startled at Hunter’s voice and whirled around. He watched her from across the fire. The flickering red flames picked up flashes of color in his eyes and gave him an extra dose of mystique he didn’t need.

“We’ve already settled the horses and sent the little ones off the bed. You haven’t stopped since we started this morning.”

She glanced back toward the lodge one last time. Light spilled out of the windows with a cheery homeyness. One lone figure moved around inside. She knew she should go and clean up. It wasn’t right to put that on someone else.

The excuse was a poor one and served only to remove her from the temptation and inevitable hurt that sat by the fire.

Her badger welled to the front of her mind with a sudden desire to stay. Her legs ached from riding, too. She’d looked forward to winding down in front of the fire and maybe sneaking an extra s’more or six once the others were gone.

She couldn’t decide if Hunter being present was a blessing or a curse. Blessing because, hello, hot cowboy. A curse because she felt far too possessive of a man she wouldn’t touch.

More than one bridesmaid had eyed him up all afternoon. He’d been polite when they chatted him up, but stayed distant, much to their annoyance.

And her pleasure. And wariness. And confusion.

Despite the badgering from her inner beast, Joss knew she needed to keep him at arm’s length.

Knew, and failed.

“Okay,” she said finally. “Just for a few minutes.”

A smug smile spread across his face. He lifted a hand and beckoned her with a finger.

Danger, Joss. Danger.

The alarm bells clanging away didn’t stop her feet from moving toward the man.

Joss took a seat on the ground next to him, bracing herself against the log that served as a bench for an old-fashioned feel.

“Drink?” he asked, tilting a flask toward her.

“Only if you promise not to take advantage of me later.” Stupid, stupid thing to say. That was flirting, and she was decidedly Not Flirting with anyone.

Not even the hunky cowboy with one leg cocked up and the other stretched out in front of him in a leisurely, sensual sprawl.

He raised fingers in the air. “Scout’s honor. Though I’m not to be blamed if you throw yourself at me.”

“That typically how it works for you, huh? Dip your hat and they come running?” she blurted.

“The wrong sort.” Gold flashed in the eyes he fixed on her. “I’m glad you’re out with us. I didn’t really want to dehydrate and starve. We’d never have survived without your delicacies.”

The slightest bit of inflection on his final word poured heat over her. Joss’s breath caught in the back of her throat while she tried to think of an equally light response that didn’t come out mangled in four different directions.

“Close your eyes.”

“More shifter lessons?” She tried to wipe the smile off her face. “Okay, but make it quick. Those dishes aren’t going to do themselves.”

As soon as her eyes closed, something floral hit her nose. If she concentrated hard enough, she could almost feel the petals or leaves an inch from her nose.

“Flowers?” Joss opened her eyes. He twirled the long stem of something pretty and blue a hair’s breadth away from her lips.

One corner of his mouth lifted in a sexy smile. “I told you I’d pick them for you. I’m a man of my word.”

Her badger practically purred. Joss squeezed her thighs together to stem the excitement vibrating through her. He remembered his offhand comment and followed up on it when it had zero benefits for him. If he wanted to melt her heart, he was heading for success.

How many times had she told Cal what type of flowers she liked, or her favorite movie? How many times had he gotten everything wrong? There was nothing worse than standing by someone and feeling completely alone and unheard.

Days in Bearden were clearing her head and showing just how ill-fitting her life before had been.

“This is the common camas,” Hunter murmured.

“Sounds like what they’d name something uncommon, just to mess with you. Like Greenland and Iceland.”

“No trickery to avoid a Viking raiding party here. This is a cute one. Rosy pussytoe.” He held up a stem with a cluster of flowers on the tip. Red rounded white and looked like the bottom of a cat’s foot.

“How’d you learn all this? Is there some cowboy manual on how to rehab broken shifters?” That other half of her felt offended, then bite-y.

The smile on his face fell and his eyes flashed bright gold. “You aren’t broken,” he growled. “Fuck anyone who made you feel that way.”

“I don’t— It’s not—” She pressed her lips together, then reached for the flask. Warmth spread down her throat and through her belly. Heck, even her fingers seemed to tingle. She tried to tell herself it wasn’t from his nearness or the daring he spawned in her. “Yeah, eff them.”

The words felt freeing. She’d bit her tongue and kept her opinions to herself for the sake of peace within the family. Her reward was betrayal and banishment. There was nothing wrong with her. She wasn’t broken. She was just different.

“That’s the spirit,” Hunter drawled, smirk hitching up one corner of his mouth. He took the flask from her and downed another shot. “I learned everything I know from my old man. He’s the toughest sonovabitch I know, and the tenderest, too. Always had a kind word for my mother. You ever been to a rodeo, Red?”

The nickname didn’t go unnoticed. Fighting the familiarity hinted with it felt wrong.

“No. Never been to a rodeo.” Joss shook her head with a small smile. The suggestion would probably have killed her former in-laws. Dirt and cattle and horses and a whole world of other messes didn’t mesh with their perfect, uptight image.

“My old man, he rode bulls. Taught me that, too. Even when he was competing himself—before he got injured—he’d always find a way to make it to my competitions.”

Well, she knew what she’d be dreaming about. Six feet of gorgeous hunk strapped down to a bucking, wild creature in a display of pure dominance made for a pleasant night ahead.

“You sound like you’re close,” she said quietly, repeating to herself her mantra of looking, but no touching.

“Not as close as I’d like. I had to leave Texas years ago.” Hunter frowned into the fire and took a swig from the flask in his hands.

“Not big enough for two Shaw men?”

The hand he rubbed over the back of his head killed her teasing. There she went again, sticking her foot right in her mouth.

“There was a girl,” he said after a moment. Strain tightened his voice. “It, ah... It didn’t work out.”

Something itched at the back of Joss’s mind. He said he could smell a lie, and maybe she could, too, if she really thought about it. Certainly, there had been times when she knew without a shadow of a doubt when someone lied to her face. Hunter looked mournful enough for the words to be true, but there was still something missing.

It wasn’t her place to dig.

So she did what felt natural in an awkward moment, and made a joke.

Joss lifted the flask for a toast. “To the dummies who let us go.”

Hunter chuckled and snatched the flask from her hands. “May they forever realize what they lost.” He pointed a finger at her and squinted his eyes. “How come you don’t cuss?”

Joss shrugged. “My mother always said she’d wash my mouth out with soap. Then when I got big, she said it wasn’t polite. I guess it just stuck.”

“Politely, fuck that.”

She laughed, and the tension of before vanished. “I guess your dad taught you how to curse, too?”

“Only the best for us Shaw men.” His eyes danced. “How about this one? Scum sucking dickhole.”

“Good gravy.” Joss rolled her eyes.

“Fuck trumpet.”

She barked a laugh. “What the French toast is that supposed to mean?”

Hunter dropped his voice to a low rumbled and slowed the words down like he intended to seduce her. “Shitbagging, pissflapping, knobhead.”

Joss bit the insides of her cheeks to keep from laughing. “You’re being a pain in the Angus.”

“Fuckface shitmagnet.”

“A real dill pickle.” She couldn’t hold back her amusement.

“The real dill, maybe,” he said without missing a beat. “Slobbering shithouse assface fucknugget.”

“Oh.” A fit of giggles killed her response. She shook her head and sucked in another breath and tried again. “Oh, fudge.”

Her cheeks hurt from laughing, but it was Hunter’s eyes that warmed her from the inside out.

Dangerous man. Tempting man. He made her laugh and looked at her like she was the most important person in the world. A dose of fear injected itself into her heart. The last time she let herself get close to a man, he’d ripped her love to pieces.

Joss cleared her throat, then pushed to her feet and dusted herself off. “I should get to bed. Early morning tomorrow to feed this army.”

He sat up suddenly, fingers wrapping around her wrist. “Don’t go.”

Heat whipped through her at his touch, and she knew without any mirror nearby that red blossomed on her cheeks.

He pulled her closer, turning her in the process. Then his hands landed on her hips and he guided her down into his lap.

Holy macaroni.

She’d tried to avoid the temptation that was Hunter Shaw from the very first moment she laid eyes on him. She had too many fresh hurts and complications that didn’t need to be put on someone else’s plate.

Yet there she was, straddling his lap like at least one of the bridesmaids hoped to do.

Hunted leaned into the crook of her neck and pressed his lips against her shoulder. Warm breath puffed against her skin in delicious contrast to the coolness of the summer night.

“We shouldn’t,” she protested weakly. “You deserve someone...”

Else? Better? Available? She couldn’t settle on one choice with heat curling in her stomach.

“Don’t want them. Want you.” He trailed his nose up the column of her neck and planted a soft kiss right below her earlobe.

Every second together nudged her just a little closer and made her a tad more curious. He surprised her and made her laugh while he hacked away at all the barriers she’d erected to protect her bruised heart.

He was quick with his smiles and words, but something else lurked just under the surface. Just like with everyone, she tried to tell herself. But they weren’t the ones she drooled over whenever she watched him walk away.

Hunter was the one her badger wanted to keep forever.

A single flashed image poked through the hazy desire. A bite mark on Hunter’s tan skin.

He didn’t choose any of the women making eyes at him over the course of the day. He wanted her.

Joss turned her head and connected with Hunter’s lips.

He eased into it, not like the sudden shock from their first time. He sipped at her slowly, gently, until she melted against him. Kissing Hunter was like sinking into a hot bath. He was warmth and comfort and exactly what she needed after a long day.

She wrapped her arms around his neck and held on tightly as he slipped his tongue between her lips. His groan whipped another inferno through her veins.

His fingers brushed up the back of her shirt. Higher, then higher again. Hunter dragged flattened palms over her skin and held her tight against him. A roll of his hips brought his considerable length against her and a tiny moan from her chest.

Just before she found the good sense to panic about what this meant and worry about what he thought they were to each other, Hunter eased from the kiss, slowly pulling from their tangled tasting.

“Joss...” Her name died in a purr of pleasure. Gold eyes stared at her when he opened them. “Been waiting for that since we met.”

She shook her head to clear some of the fog. “What do you mean? We kissed before.”

“That was you running off another woman. Don’t get me wrong, it was sexy as fuck.” He cocked an eyebrow at her. “This was because you wanted to.”

“Or you got me liquored up and took advantage. You cad,” she teased.

“Lie.” He tapped his nose once, then twirled a finger between them. Gold eyes faded back to his human hazel and turned him serious. “I know you’re still hurting. I know you need time. Whatever you ask, it’s yours.” A growl vibrated in his chest and the hand he’d slid to her hip tightened. “Because I don’t want to let you go.”

Something rearranged in her chest. Warmth, light, whatever she wanted to call it, all stemmed from his declaration. She had the sense that even her badger was pleased to hear them.

But underneath was that itch again, like he only said a fraction of what was on his mind. There was a weight to his words that didn’t match what she heard.

The man was a puzzle for someone else to figure out.

But that wasn’t what he said, was it?