Lone Wolf (3 page)

“Maybe,” she said. “We’ll see how busy Sam keeps me when he arrives.” She wasn’t sure if she imagined it, but Leif’s hand seemed to tighten on the control stick between his legs.

Her mind immediately flooded again with images of fucking Leif. He smelled so delicious. She wanted to crawl on his lap, rip his shirt off, and devour him. How could he not be a ladies’ man? Women probably threw themselves at him every day. Would it really hurt to be one of the hordes? It might, if she fell too hard, Delany concluded. And it would be pretty difficult not to.

Leif was silent for a bit after her response to his invitation, and the plains gave way to treed areas as they crossed the Marias River and then the glistening expanse of Lake Elwell.

“There are some sweet little campsites and swimming holes down in there,” Leif said pointing at a smaller lake adjacent to the reservoir. “I call that tiny little lake Emerald Lake. It’s gorgeous in the summer.”

She imagined camping with him, waking up next to his broad body in a sun-dappled tent and shivered.

“So how many siblings do you have?” she asked as they cruised over the low hills around Elwell. She had to get her mind off Leif in a tent.

Leif hesitated for a long time. “Four brothers and one sister, Rachel. I’m the youngest.” His tone seemed a bit stiff, and Delany wondered what family dynamics were at play.

“Wow. That’s a big family.”

Leif shrugged. “That’s a pretty normal-sized family around these parts.”

“I guess, ranching families,” Delany said, not quite sure what she meant by that, but getting a strange feeling from Leif.

“Yup,” Leif replied.

Had she offended him by not agreeing to go hiking with him? “I wouldn’t mind going hiking with you,” she ventured. “But you know, I’d want to do it just as friends.” Then she flushed, because everything in her mind was screaming,
not friends, not friends, not friends
.

Leif gave her a sidelong glance and a grunt, and she blushed deeper and felt a warmth spread through her groin. How could she even propose just being friends to a man she wanted so much?

“Why would that be, Doctor Vet? Nursing a broken heart?”

“No, no. Just trying to stay focused on my career, not that I don’t find you very attractive. Very attractive.”

Why was she even saying this? It’s not like he’d even really asked her out. He’d suggested they go for a hike, and here she was blathering on like a love-struck schoolgirl.

Leif was silent for a few seconds while Delany stared out the window at the passing hills and cursed herself inwardly for her words.

There was a hint of laughter in his voice when he spoke, but also somehow a deep seriousness. A deep, sexy seriousness. “I find you very attractive too. And I’m of the philosophy that when there’s a spark between two unattached people that it’s to be taken advantage of. Lots of advantage. I feel a spark between us, and I think you do too. Don’t you want to take advantage of that spark?” He turned and gave her a look that made her hot all over.

Delany gulped. His voice had been so full of suggestion that she found it a little hard to breathe. “Barry said it was a bad idea,” she managed to squeak.

Leif barked out a laugh and then didn’t say anything. Delany glanced at his profile, convinced that she’d totally offended him this time, but he was wearing a wide grin.

“What?” she said.

“Barry’s not wrong. I have a bit of a reputation around town. I’d probably give a sweet young thing the same advice.”

Delany crossed her arms. “I’m not that young or sweet.”

Leif gave her a sidelong glance and pursed his lips in a smoldering kind of way. Damn. Was anything about him not sexy?

“We’ll see,” he said.

“Well, you might not see, Mr. Cocky Cowboy Pilot,” she said. This might have sounded more convincing if she didn’t want to strip him and taste every inch of his skin right then and there.

“How’s Aquila doing?” Leif asked.

Delany leaned back to check on the eagle. The bird was still conscious, and although he looked perturbed by the helicopter, he wasn’t panicking. “He’s okay. I hope they can help him. I’m glad we’re not driving though.”

They switched subjects then, with Leif asking her questions about growing up in White Peaks, veterinary college, and her riding experience. Then he told her stories about Raven Ridge, running a ranch, and his tours in Afghanistan. She was impressed by the thoughtfulness with which he listened and spoke. No matter what Barry might say, on a casual relationship front, Leif seemed pretty sincere.

“So how come no girlfriend?” Delany said. If they were going to be friends, surely they could talk about that kind of thing. The shot of jealousy that ran through her just at the prospect of him having a girlfriend was remarkable.

“Haven’t found the right woman. I want someone with a bit of fire, who likes to drink whiskey, rustle cattle, dance under the stars, and talk dirty to me in the bedroom.”

“Mmmm,” Delany almost gave a little moan. She’d closed her eyes while he spoke, picturing him taking her in his arms beneath a starry sky.

She snapped them open with a start, but not before she saw the faint upward curl of his lips. She blew a huff of air out of her nose. “Surely you’ve met at least a couple of women in Raven Ridge who will do all of those things.”

“Not the right woman,” he said definitively.

They’d been nearing Bozeman for the last bit, and now the outlines of houses and buildings appeared in the distance.

Leif’s voice became business-like. “I need to check in with the Bozeman Airport. I’m hoping there’s a field near this raptor center where I can just land. It’ll make it a lot easier to get there. If you want to pull up the satellite image of the center, I’ll take a look and see if there’s a spot.”

They landed in a grassy field right next to the center and Delany raced Aquila in. She was met by a vet and vet tech who took the eagle from her and prepared to x-ray the bird.

“You want to stay and watch?” the vet, who’d introduced himself as Matt, said.

“I don’t know,” she said. “I’d have to check with Leif. He flew us here. He might need to get back.”

“You can go check. We’ll just be in the back room. He can come and watch too.”

Leif stood in the reception area of the center, his fingers looped in his belt buckles. Delany suppressed her automatic gasp just at the sight of him. He was just so hot. It was like sighting a movie star or someone who wasn’t quite real. She couldn’t possibly allow herself to become interested in a man that was so gorgeous. No good could come of it.

“They said we can stay and watch, but I’m assuming you want to get back.”

Leif shrugged. “I’m in no hurry. Andy and Ryan can handle things on the ranch.”

They went quietly into the room where Matt and his assistant were already x-raying Aquila.

The eagle was stoic while they pinned the bone and wrapped his wing, and Delany felt ridiculously proud of the raptor. She got a little misty when they unwrapped his feet and guided him into a little metal cage. He looked so dejected.

“Sorry buddy,” Matt said, “Your confinement is temporary. We’ll have you in the flight barn in no time.”

Delany sniffed a little, and she felt a hand slip into hers and squeeze. It was just such a simple touch, and Leif released her right away, but it sent a shocking wave of energy through her body.

“What are your plans for rehabilitation?” Leif asked Matt.

The smaller man gave Leif a sharp look. “We work them back up to flying gradually. We have a flying barn and start with short flights. The process is all mapped out. Why?”

“I was thinking I’d like to take him back to my ranch and rehabilitate him there in familiar territory.”

Matt shook his head. “I don’t know. It’s not as easy as it looks.”

“I’ll follow all your directions.”

“And I’ll help,” Delany chimed in.

The smile that shot over Leif’s face made her knees weak. What was she doing? This would just result in her spending more time with Leif and falling more head over heels with a man who played the field.

Matt scrutinized her and then Leif. “I’d be willing to consider it when he gets to the later stages of rehabilitation, but not before.”

Leif nodded. “Call me when that happens.”

Matt saw them out, and they headed back across the field to the chopper.

“Hey,” Leif said, as they approached the helicopter. “I have to go refuel at the airport. But do you want to go grab a bite to eat after that? I know a roadside diner on the way back that makes a mean burrito, and it has a landing spot right nearby.”

Delany bit her lower lip. That was sounding dangerously like a date. A date that she absolutely wanted to go out on.

She let her eyes sweep his taut, muscled body and chiseled face. What the hell? Why would she pass him up, even if all he was offering was a one-night stand? It could be a rock-your-panties-off, once-in-a-lifetime, one-night stand. And she was good with that.

Of course when she saw him with another woman, it would be a different story. Cause he was more than that. From what she could tell, he was also smart, kind, and funny. He was definitely boyfriend or even husband material.

But for now, the evening spring air was ever so sweet, and she was getting in a helicopter with the hottest man she’d ever laid eyes on.

“Sure,” she said. “Let’s go grab something to eat.

Delany seemed to just get sexier by the second. The air from the rotors had mussed up her red curls in a most disarming way, and as he lifted the helicopter from the ground by the raptor center, Leif couldn’t stop thinking about that gorgeous hair against his white sheets while he plunged his cock into her and made her cry out.

It was a damn good thing that flying was so second nature that he could to it with his mind on things like how her generous tits would look once he released them from the pink lace bra that he kept getting glimpses of. The way her green eyes had lit up in excitement as they first lifted off the ground had nearly felled him. He’d wanted to fly her anywhere she wanted at that moment.

Play it cool
, he reminded himself.
You’re not looking for a mate.
Besides, she’d already been a bit spooked by his suggestion that they go hiking. He wondered what else Barry had told her about him.

Especially about him being a shifter. It wasn’t a completely well kept secret in town, and and as his mother’s second cousin twice removed or some such thing, Leif knew that Barry knew.

Maybe he’d told Delany. Leif’s jaw tightened. Somehow this mattered to him more than it ever had.

While a lot of women liked wolf shifters, not all of them did, especially if they thought that being with one meant being with his brothers too. But Leif was a lone wolf. His brothers would have no part of his future mate.
His future mate.
He wasn’t really going down that path, was he? Suddenly he wanted Delany more than he could put to words.

She seemed to have changed in the last half hour since they left the raptor center. Her vibrant green eyes seemed to sparkle more and she was meeting his gaze in an almost flirtatious manner, her fingers grazing his thigh occasionally when she made a point. Like she’d made a decision. It was making him hard.

He made light small talk about life on the ranch, his dogs, his cows, and his horses on the way to the little diner off I-15. It was sometimes hard to take his eyes off her. She seemed to shimmer and glow with life. He tried not to think about Jackson.

Was she the one he’d been waiting for? He didn’t even want to think it. He’d so conditioned himself against it, in Afghanistan, after Afghanistan. The prospect of dying and leaving a soul mate behind. It was too much. It was better not to have anyone. But he’d done his tour of duty and he was a free man now, if not totally whole anymore, and it felt impossibly like his future had just pulled up in a storm. A good storm. The kind that made you want to go outside, watch the wonder of the shifting sky, inhale the wind, and thank God you were alive.

A storm he’d never thought would come.

He touched the chopper down gently a hundred yards from the diner and turned to his passenger.

“So do you always fly around Montana stopping at diners like this?” she asked.

His mouth twitched. “When I feel like it.”

She nodded. He could see that she knew what this meant about his finances. That he had money to burn. And yet since leaving the military and inheriting his share of his parents’ fortune, he’d been careful with his money. But he could now understand men’s temptation to shower women with money, to get them expensive baubles and boots, to buy their love.

He examined her more closely as he helped her out of the cockpit, their hands touching for just a fraction of a second too long. She wore skin-tight jeans that hugged her generous, round bottom, scuffed riding boots, and a button-up plaid work shirt much like his own. Apart from the gold hoops in her ears and a hint of blue eyeliner, she was unadorned. And she looked divine. He couldn’t see her being one for jewelry.

“So what do you advise ordering,” she said lightly to break the tension that touching seemed to have generated between them.

“The Butter Chicken burrito with habanero hot sauce,” he said, wondering if he could take her hand while they walked into the restaurant, but deciding against it. If this were one of his regular dates, he’d already have his hand in her pocket.

Betty Anne wore a broad smile when he entered, her tanned, creased face and old pink uniform always a welcome respite.

“I put the order in for your usual as soon as I heard the helicopter,” she said with a wink. “But you’ll have to tell me what your lady friend is having.” Betty Anne gave Delany a once over, and Leif could tell she approved.

Delany was taking in the diner—its counter with a row of round stools, fountain drinks, checkered floors, and booths. It looked untouched from the fifties. So did Betty Anne for that matter.

“I’ll have whatever he’s having,” Delany said.