Chapter 12

Caleb stared across his plate at the woman before him. She was thoughtfully chewing on her sandwich and seemed to be avoiding eye contact with him. He couldn't blame her.

But even as he realized it was for the best, Caleb couldn't help wanting to pull her closer, just as he was pushing her away. Yet the dream came back to haunt him. He couldn't hurt her, couldn't risk that, not when she'd come to mean so much to him.

"I think you should leave the park," he said before he could change his mind. "You can either go back to your college or stay somewhere in the vicinity, maybe in Alsea. But you can't stay here."

"Why not?" she asked, finally meeting his eyes.

"You know why not."

"No," she said, a flush rising up her soft cheeks, "I don't."

Caleb growled. The woman loved frustrating him. "It's too dangerous here."

"Why? Because of the flooding?"

"No," he said, his eyes boring into hers.

"Because of the invisible miners?"

"That's part of it, but not the main reason."

"Then what's so dangerous?"

"Me," he said softly and watched her inhale sharply. "I'm dangerous to you. You shouldn't stay here."

"Caleb," she began, and he heard the let's-just-be-reasonable tone in her voice and cut her off.

"I don't want to hear another lecture. You know there's something between us. When I'm around you, I can't stop myself. I want to touch you, to hold you, to be inside you. But I shouldn't. I can't. So you have to go."

Dani looked as if she'd been slapped. "Just because you can't control yourself, I'm supposed to give up my research? Do you know how much work I've done to get here? I'm not going to toss it all away because you can't keep it in your pants."

"I'm not the only one," he said, looking at her meaningfully.

Dani scowled. "That's utter bullshit! What happened to 'I don't do relationships'? Sounds like you're the one being clingy now."

She crossed her arms, her dark eyes hooded. "I'm not leaving. Period."
It was Caleb's turn to scowl. Why couldn't she just listen to reason? Why did everything turn into a debate with her? "Well, you can't stay here. And your campsite is probably underneath three feet of mud right now, so you certainly can't stay there. What does that leave you?"

He watched her, watched the wheels turning behind her expressive eyes. He thought for a moment that perhaps she'd surrender, and he was surprised at the disappointment he felt. But he should have known better.

"The shack!" she shouted in triumph. "I'll stay in the hunting shack. It's pretty close to my campsite, so I should be able to pick up the feed from my cameras there without a problem. And we know it's not damaged. As long as you'll loan me some of your firewood, I should be able to make do until my camp can be reclaimed."

Shit, Caleb thought. He'd already forgotten about the shack. She had a point. "No." The shack was still too close. He'd know she was in there, and he doubted he could keep himself from pursuing her.

"Why not?"

"Just no."

He didn't want to let her know just how much she affected him. If she hadn't gotten the hint already, he wasn't going to say the words.

"Really?" she asked, and he didn't trust the tone in her voice. "Well, I don't think it's up to you. I have permission from the Forestry Service, and the support of Brice Masterson. So I'm staying. If you want to call up your superiors and explain to them that you can't stop yourself from popping a boner around the new scientist and therefore she has to leave, be my guest. But until they tell me I have to go, I'm staying."

"Dammit, Dani," he said, slamming his palm against the tabletop. "Why are you making this so hard?"

"Me!" she shouted, her anger ratcheting up. "You're the one making this hard! I've done years of research and now I've finally got a chance to really prove my theory and you want me to just throw that away. Why? What are you so afraid of?"

He stood and walked over, stopping in front of her, staring down into the heated pools of her dark eyes. "I'm afraid someone is going to get hurt."

He stood there, breathing in her scent, wanting nothing more than to bury his face in her neck, to run his tongue around her ear and press his lips to her soft skin. His body ached for her. He'd had her just a couple of hours ago, and he still wanted more. Needed more. She was more precious than air.

But he was going to have to learn to go without breathing.

"No one is going to get hurt," she said softly, but he read the doubt in her eyes. "We just have to stay away from each other. It's like hiding the box of cookies before you eat it all in one sitting. If we can just avoid each other, we'll avoid temptation."

"I don't know if I can."

He closed his eyes and leaned down to place a kiss on her neck. He opened his eyes and saw the purple bruise next to the place his lips had been, and it hardened his resolve. He straightened and backed away.

"Stubborn woman," he grumbled, turning his back on her.