The delicious scent of grilled steak woke Molly’s stomach before it actually woke her. A day and a half without food had that effect. Her belly rumbled loudly. Eventually, Molly opened her eyes and looked around the dark room for the source of the heavenly smell.

“Hungry?” a deep, rich voice asked from the other side of the small room.

The reassuring weight of the German Shepherd was gone, and the cool air made her shiver.

“Do I smell food?” she said, her voice cracking.

“Steak and potatoes. My cooking skills are limited.”

“Sounds wonderful.” She pushed up on her elbows, the movement waking up all the battered and bruised parts of her body. Still, the pain wasn’t nearly as bad as the first time she’d made the same attempt. The pill she’d taken earlier must have given her some relief.

He loaded a plate and carried it over to her.

“I can eat at the table.” Molly tried to get out of the bed, swinging her bare legs over the edge. The chilly, mountain air made her immediately regret her decision to get up. “You don’t have to serve me,” she muttered. Molly’s independent streak, the one that got in the way of most of her relationships couldn’t be ignored. Well, maybe just this once.

She glanced at the smooth planks on the floor and imagined they would be icy cold. Her bare toes curled at the thought of touching the wood.

Joe set the plate on the nightstand, scooped her legs up and tucked them back under the covers. “Stay in the bed until I have a chance to put something on your cuts and scrapes.”

“I can do that myself. You don’t have to do anything else for me.” She wasn’t used to having anyone wait on her.

“I haven’t done much,” he said.

But he had carried her out of the woods, up and over the mountain and cooked dinner for her. Molly inhaled deeply, drawing in the heavenly scent of charbroiled steak.

Joe reached for the plate, handed it to her and went back to get his. He grabbed a chair and stood it next to the bed and sat beside her.

Six curled up on the floor nearby.

Leaning against the wall, Molly rested the plate on the blanket in her lap, cut off a slice of the juicy steak and placed it in her mouth. The juices danced across her taste buds. As she chewed, she closed her eyes, leaned back her head and moaned. “Sweet Jesus, that was amazing.”

A quick glance at her rescuer revealed his lack of agreement and a positively frowning countenance. “Are you always this emotional about your food?”

She sighed. “Only when it’s orgasmic. This is better than sex,” she said before thinking and popped another bite of the steak in her mouth, hoping he’d let the comment pass.

He didn’t. “Apparently, you haven’t had good sex.” Joe took a bite and chewed before speaking again. “What were you doing out in the mountains yesterday that would warrant someone shooting at you?”

And so started the interrogation... Molly didn’t have the clearance to tell Joe about her operation. A twinge of guilt knotted her gut as she opened her mouth prepared to lie.

“Don’t say anything if it means you have to lie.”

She blinked. “You don’t know I was going to lie.”

“You hesitated, looked away and gathered a whopper of a story before you opened your mouth. It was going to be a lie.” He shook his head. “I’m good at reading people.”

She pressed her lips together and glared at him. “Oh, yeah? What am I thinking right now?”

He chuckled. “That you hate me for outing you before you could concoct your story. That you’d like to throw your plate at me, but you’re too hungry to waste the food. And you’re wondering if sex with me could possibly be as good as that steak.” Joe shoved another bite of steak into his mouth and chewed.

Molly opened her mouth and closed it again. The man had been spot on. Damn him. “I wasn’t thinking what sex would be like with you. And you’re being all creepy, talking about it when you have me at your mercy.”

He shrugged and polished off the steak on his plate. “Finish your meal. I’m going out to get more wood for the stove. Don’t get dressed yet. I got ointment and bandages that need to be applied.”

He stood, laid his plate in a tin pail and opened the door to the cabin, letting in a cool breeze.

Molly shivered.

Outside, darkness had wrapped its mystery around the man and the mountain, cutting them off from the rest of the world and making the setting even more intimate than in the daylight.

Six trotted out onto the porch.

Joe followed and closed the door behind them.

Inside the relative warmth of the cabin, tucked into the rough woolen blanket, Molly stared at the door, her pulse pounding against her ribs. The man was entirely too cocky. To think she would be interested in anything sexual with him was ridiculous.

So what if he had incredibly broad shoulders, arms that could lift her up as if she weighed no more than a child, and a smile that turned her knees to noodles. Molly had to remind herself he’d been rude and less than forthcoming with information about himself. Much like herself.

His name was Joe. Just Joe. First thing she had to do was get his full name and have her contacts back in DC run him against the National Crime Information Center database to see if they found a match. Of course, he could give her a fake name, which might result in a bogus hit. For all she knew, the man could be a serial killer.

“Doubt it,” she said out loud. “He has a nice dog.” Yeah, the conclusion wasn’t scientific, but she liked Six, and Six liked both of them. Dogs, for the most part, were good judges of character.

But it wouldn’t hurt to run him through NCIC, just to be safe.

He could have killed you by now, she reminded herself. Joe could have left her for dead out in the mountains. No one would have found her until the scavengers had picked her bones clean—if anyone found her at all.

Molly chewed on that and another piece of the amazing steak. The man had talent when it came to cooking beef.

Minutes later, Joe entered the cabin, carrying an armload of wood. He set the load beside the stove then grabbed the pail and left the cabin again.

Six stayed inside this time, taking up a position beside her bed.

“He doesn’t talk much, does he?”

Six stared up at her with soulful brown eyes.

Molly glanced at the door, cut off a bite of steak and had it halfway to Six’s mouth when the door opened, and Joe returned.

He frowned when he spotted her hand held out with the piece of steak. “Don’t.”

“It’s just one piece.”

“He’s on a strict diet. Anything foreign might create problems in his digestive tract.”

Six stared at the chunk of steak, and drool slipped out of the corner of his mouth.

“I’m sorry, boy,” she whispered. She popped the steak into her mouth and chewed, her brows dipping as she glared at Joe. Once she’d choked down the offending morsel, she set the plate to the side. “One piece of steak?”

“One. I told you, he was a highly trained working dog.” Joe set the pail on the stovetop and cleaned his plate and the skillet in which he’d cooked the steak. He collected her plate and made quick work of it as well.

After he stacked the plates on a shelf, he carried the pail back outside, tossed the water and returned with fresh, clean water. Joe wiped his hands, wet a washrag, and grabbed a towel and the bag, bearing the label of the local pharmacy, then sat in the chair beside the bed.

When he reached for the blanket covering her legs, he stopped short. “Do you mind? We need to treat some of those cuts and abrasions before they get infected.”

Molly hesitated. The thought of Joe’s big, coarse hands on her legs sent shivers all across her body and heat coiling at her core. Her tongue knotted in her mouth, so all she could do was nod.

Without preamble, he flung the blanket aside and stared down at the cuts, bruises and abrasions. Joe smoothed his hand over her thigh and down to her ankle, and then he went to work, cleaning the wounds and applying antibiotic ointment. When he’d completed the tops of her legs, he looked up. “Lie on your stomach. I’ll take care of the backs of your calves and thighs.”

“No, really. I can do that.” She held out her hand for the ointment, knowing perfectly well, she couldn’t see all the damage and would botch the job. But having him stare at her backside for any length of time was just…just… Another shiver rippled through her body. The tops of her legs where he’d cleaned and treated her scrapes tingled everywhere his hands had been. How the hell was she supposed to play it cool and unaffected?

“Roll over,” he commanded.

Six immediately complied.

Molly laughed, nervously.

Joe raised an eyebrow. “If Six can do it, you can, too. Come on. Some of these wounds had dirt ground into them. The sooner we get it out, the better.”

Gathering the long T-shirt around her bottom, Molly rolled onto her stomach, her core tightening, and her sex aching.

This time, he started at the ankles and worked his way up the backs of her legs to her thighs. With the washcloth, he gently wiped the dirt out of the wounds. He smeared salve over the abrasions and applied bandages over the deeper cuts.

“Can’t do anything about the bruises. When you get back to town, I recommend ice for the swelling.

The whole time Joe ran his hands across her legs, Molly couldn’t stop the heat building inside. What would happen if he slid his hand between her legs and brushed against her center?

She swallowed hard on the moan rising up her throat. How could she have sexual fantasies about a man whose name she didn’t know?

“What’s—” Molly’s voice squeaked. She cleared her throat and tried again. “Joe, considering your know more about me than I ever thought possible, perhaps you could tell me your last name. Unless of course, it’s a secret and you’re in the witness protection program, in which case, you will likely tell me and then have to kill me.” Holy shit. She was babbling. His touch was doing crazy things to her insides.

“Kuntz,” he replied. “Do you always talk so much?”

“Only when I’m nervous.”

“Nothing to be nervous about. I won’t take advantage of the situation, if that’s what you’re concerned about.”

Oh, hell, she wasn’t worried about Joe taking advantage of her. She was worried he wouldn’t. Or that he would, and she’d embarrass herself by begging for more.

He’d reached the tops of her thighs just short of the T-shirt hem. “I know you scraped your back in your fall. I need to get to it. Do you mind?”

“Hell, you’ve come this far and seen me practically naked when I was unconscious—what’s the difference?” Except now, she was awake, and her body was reacting to his ministrations to the point she might orgasm before he finished.

“Exactly.” He slipped her shirt up her back, his knuckles skimming across her skin, setting off an array of fireworks blasting along her nerve endings.

This is a very bad idea. Despite the fact he was treating stinging cuts, his touch felt so good, she couldn’t say no, or stop, or anything any rational woman should say when nearly baring her all with a virtual stranger.

He wrung out the washcloth in the pail of water. “This is going to sting a little.” Joe pressed the damp cloth to the scrapes on her back.

Molly hissed. More because of the brush of his knuckles against her skin than the stinging sensation created by rubbing the abraded skin.

“I cleaned these wounds last night, but I didn’t have anything to put on them and no bandages.”

“Thank you for taking care of me. I would have died had you not found me when you did,” she said softly.

“Actually, I didn’t find you. Six did,” He said, leaning close enough, his warm breath stirred the hairs along the back of her neck.

She turned her head toward the dog and held out her hand.

Six nuzzled her fingers until she reached up and scratched behind his ears. “Aren’t you going to tell me to stop touching your dog?”

“I’ll work on his training later. He’s still trying to readjust to me.”

Molly frowned. ‘Readjust?”

“He’s been passed around from trainer to trainer and then to foster families. He needs time to settle, to feel like he’s home to stay with one owner, one trainer.” Joe continued to work on her back, cleaning and applying ointment.

“Sounds like he’s had a rough time of it.” Molly said.

Joe unclipped her bra.

Molly gasped and brought her hands up to the sides of her breasts. “What are you doing?”

“Dressing your wounds. I’ll hook it back when I’m done.”

“I certainly hope so.”

A low chuckle rumbled close to her. “Relax.”

“Easy for you to say,” she grumbled. “You’re not the one at the mercy of someone twice your size and strength.”

His hand stilled. “Look. I don’t know what kind of men you’ve been hanging out with, but I don’t abuse women. Have I hurt you in any way?”

“No,” she mumbled.

“And I won’t. I don’t need to hurt women to get off.”

Molly’s cheeks heated. The man had been more than a gentleman in his dealings with her, and she’d given him nothing but hell. “I’m sorry. I’m judging you without getting to know you.” She cleared her throat. “Hi, I’m Molly Greenbriar.” She couldn’t turn her head far enough to look up at his expression.

“Joe Kuntz, but you already know that.” He smeared ointment into the scrape across her back. “My friends call me Kujo.”

Molly snorted. “I was okay with Joe and Kuntz, but Kujo isn’t making me feel all warm and fuzzy.”

“It worked when I was in the military.”

“I can imagine. What were you, a Ranger or Special Forces?”

“Delta Force,” he responded, his tone low, almost too hard to hear.

“I’m impressed.” She stared at Six. “And Six?”

“He was my battle buddy. He and I led the way into enemy territory.”

“Is he trained to attack?”

“No. He’s a bomb-sniffing dog.”

Molly reached out to touch Six’s scar. “Is that how he got this?”

Joe applied a bandage over one of the deeper scrapes across her back. “That’s what it says on his record.”

“You weren’t with him when it happened? I thought handlers stayed with their dogs?”

“That’s usually the case, unless one or the other is injured.”

Molly leaned up on her elbow, realized she was exposing her breasts, and covered them with her hands so that she could turn far enough to face Joe. “I’m confused. Obviously, Six was injured.”

His face was a mask of stone, the only movement a muscle twitching in his jaw. “Six was injured three years after I was released from active duty.”

Molly stared at the man, her eyes widening. “You were injured first?” She swept him from head to toe, lingering on his legs. “You were limping when I first met you. Was that what got you kicked out?”

Joe stared at her for a moment then dropped his gaze to the bandages on her back. “Yes.”

“And you didn’t get to take Six with you?”

“He wasn’t injured as badly.”

“But you were his handler.” Molly couldn’t imagine the two being apart. How cruel.

Joe shrugged. “He belonged to the Army. He still had good years left in him. A lot of time, money and effort went into his training.” Again, Joe’s jaw hardened. “He still had a job to do.”

Joe didn’t say the words Even if I didn’t, but Molly heard them. The man had been injured and kicked out of the military, losing his friends, his dog and his job all at once.

“But you have Six now,” Molly reminded him. She smiled. “And he seems happy to be with you. Are you going to train him to work in an airport or for the police department?”

“No.” Joe hooked her bra together and pulled her shirt down over her back and bottom.

She tugged it over her thighs and pushed to a sitting position. “What kind of work are you doing now?”

“I’ve answered my quota of questions. It’s your turn.”

Molly closed her mouth on the next words she’d been about to say. She’d expected him to spill his guts, but she wasn’t at liberty to reveal the real reason she was there.

“What is Molly Greenbriar doing in the mountains flying a drone?”

Feeling guilty over the fact she couldn’t be honest with him, she lowered her eyes. “I’m filming footage of the mountains. I’m attempting to create my own documentary on the Crazy Mountains and the history surrounding them.”

Joe’s eyes narrowed. “Who are you working for?”

She’d practiced her answers to the point she could recite them without thinking. But something in Joe’s countenance made her suddenly forget. “I…uh…” As her gaze met his, she couldn’t look away and her mouth couldn’t seem to form the words.

He cocked an eyebrow. “Is the question that hard?”

Heat rose up her neck and suffused her cheeks. “No. Of course, not. I’m…I’m freelancing. I was gathering information and footage I planned to look at later during the editing process. Which reminds me, I really need to recover the drone and see if it can be salvaged. It’s key to my work here.”

Joe didn’t respond. Instead, he held her stare long enough to make her feel even more uncomfortable. He wasn’t buying her story.

Molly fought to keep her face set and her body still. She refused to squirm under his scrutiny. This was her first assignment in the field. If she proved herself here, she might be considered for future field assignments. If she blew her cover in the first few days, she’d be back at a desk, performing background checks.

“I’m feeling a little better,” she said, shifting her gaze from his.

“Liar,” he countered.

Molly frowned. “I’m not lying.”

“It’s all in your body language.” He reached out to brush his finger along her cheek. “Every time you say something untrue, you glance away.”

“I do not!” She stared straight into his eyes, even as she fought the urge to look away.

“It’s okay. I figure you have a reason for lying to me. Keep your secrets; I’m not interested. As long as they don’t come back to bite me in the ass.”

“Look, I can go back to my room in town. I don’t want to inconvenience you.”

“Too late for that.” He chuckled. “You’ve been an inconvenience since I ran into you on that mountain trail.”

Molly slid her legs over the edge of the bed. “Seriously, if you could give me a ride back to town, I’ll be out of your hair. No. Never mind, I’ll take the ATV.”

He pressed a hand on her shoulder. “Don’t get your panties in a wad. You’re not up to riding a damaged ATV seven miles back to town in the dark. And as much as I’d like to have my cabin and bed back, I wouldn’t feel comfortable leaving you alone in town. Not until we figure out who shot at you and left you lying out in the mountains for buzzards to pick through your bones.”

“Now who’s being overly dramatic?” Her lips curled upward. The man had rescued her. He deserved her gratitude. “Thank you for saving my life and treating my wounds.”

“Don’t thank me, thank Six.” Joe tipped his head toward the dog.

Six had settled beside the bed with his chin on his paws. When he heard his name, he lifted his head, his ears perked.

Molly reached out to stroke his neck. “Thank you, Six. And despite being a bit cantankerous, your master isn’t so bad himself.” She faced Kujo again. “If you like, I can sleep on the floor. You shouldn’t have to give up your bed for the second night in a row.”

“Stay. You’re still recovering. Besides it’s cold on the floor. With your injuries, your body’s immune system might be compromised.” Again, he lifted her legs and tucked them beneath the blanket. “Get some rest. We’ll figure everything out in the morning.”

“Where will you sleep?” she asked.

He gave her a twisted grin. “In a chair or on the cold, hard floor.”

Molly shook her head. “No way.” She hesitated for only a moment before saying, “If you promise not to do anything, you can sleep in the bed. It’s big enough for the two of us.” Her cheeks heated at the thought of Joe slipping beneath the blanket, his long legs brushing against hers, his broad shoulders taking up most of the space. She’d been stretching the truth that time. The bed was big enough for Joe. Alone. “I sleep on my side, anyway.”

She scooted to the far side of the mattress, turned her back to him and twisted around to nod at the space she’d created. “See? There’s enough room if you sleep on your side.”

Joe’s brows dipped. “I’ll be fine on the floor.”

She shrugged. “Have it your way. But if you change your mind during the night, the offer’s still open. I’ll leave room for you.” Molly settled on her side, resting her head on half of the pillow. She laid for a long time, feigning sleep, her ears straining to hear every sound coming from Joe.

He moved about the room, the floor creaking, marking his progress. She heard the clank of the cast-iron stove door opening and closing.

A cold breeze blew through the cabin as Joe opened the door, making Molly shiver. The click of toenails on the wooden floor indicated Six heading for the door for one last visit to the great outdoors before he settled in to sleep.

Molly dared to turn and look.

Joe stood for a moment in the door before following Six out onto the porch and closing the door behind him.

Molly didn’t know much more about Joe than when she’d run into him on the mountain trail, but she knew she trusted him.

Her body ached, but she could handle it better. Sleep eventually claimed her, though she shivered in the cool cabin.

Sometime during the night, she dreamed of a dark stranger firing at her, of falling off a cliff, falling…falling…into a bottomless abyss. She cried out, afraid she would hit the ground and break into a million pieces.

Strong arms caught her and held her close. Half asleep, she snuggled up to the heat and slipped into a deep, deep sleep, finally feeling safe.