See Jane Fall (36 page)

“What?” he asked, turning slightly to place
his hands on the frame over her door and hang there innocently,
extending his arms and flexing his chest muscles in front of her,
blocking the entire doorway with his body and grinning back at
her.

He was so adorable, she chuckled.

“Look at you, all proud of yourself.”

“What do they say? If you’ve got it, flaunt
it?”

“Oh! And so modest!”

He lowered his arms, crossing them, his eyes
twinkling. “I’m just teasin’.”

“I’ve only seen you in work clothes. In your
polo shirts.”

“Yeah, this is more…me.”

She shook her head, wishing she could
compose herself. He looked like the cover model for a “sexy cowboy”
shoot. All he was missing was a lasso over his shoulder and a horse
in the background.

“Well…it works.”

“Does it?”

She stepped forward until she was almost
touching him then raised her eyes to his face.

“Yeah.” She placed her palms on his grey
t-shirt and his muscles flexed under her hands. “We’re never going
to make it to the grizzlies at this rate.”

“Screw the grizzlies,” he growled.

He held her eyes as he put his hand on her
neck, his fingers resting on the hairs at the nape of her neck, his
thumb brushing her cheek in front of her ear softly. As he pulled
her gently toward him, she rose up on tiptoes to meet him, closing
her eyes as his lips touched hers. She moaned against the heat, the
jolt, the swirling inside, fingers curling on his chest. He
adjusted and readjusted his lips until they were molded full and
flush to hers, slightly parted, moving rhythmically.

Jane felt his free arm encircling her, his
other hand moving against the contours of her neck, kneading the
warm skin there, the rough pads of his fingertips gently grazing
her hot, eager skin and delivering a sharp sweetness that made the
muscles in her back flex, arching her into his body. Finally his
lips moved from her mouth, grazing her cheek to her ear as she
leaned into him, surrounded by his smell, his taste, the urgent
sound of his breathing as his teeth tugged gently on her
earlobe.

She gasped an
ahhhh
sound which ended
in a moan from the back of her throat, surprised by the sharpness
of his teeth and the way her insides turned to jelly at the
unexpected bite. She leaned her neck to the side and his hat fell
to the floor as his forehead finally rested under her ear, on her
pulse, bowed in supplication or prayer, or just…heaven.

His chest moved rapidly under her fingers,
she could feel the insistent thumping of his heart. She slowly
opened her eyes, raising her hands to his face, and gently pushed
him back, away from her neck so that she could read his eyes.

He didn’t smile at her. He looked at her,
and she read
vulnerable
and
overwhelmed
on his face,
all signs of cocky teasing gone. The fierce tenderness in his eyes
had to be a mirror of her own. She had a name for her own feelings,
and last night he’d given the same name to his. They were falling
in love with each other, and it was too soon and too much and it
should be impossible after knowing one another for only a week, but
staring back at his face, into his beautiful blue eyes, she knew
that it was happening and there was nothing—
nothing
—that
either of them could do about it now.

“Jane…” he murmured, the sound of her name
on his lips imbued with hunger, with tenderness, with longing.

And that was the moment she realized it; she
trusted him. No man looked at a woman like that if there was room
in his heart for any other woman. And suddenly she knew that her
heart was safe with him.

She pulled his head back down and pressed
her lips to his, sweeping her tongue over the seam of his lips
until they opened and finding his tongue. He wrapped his arms
around her again, his hands curling into fists against the suede
that covered her lower back, pushing her closer and closer to him,
as if she could never be close enough. Her fingers played with the
short blond hair behind his ears and she felt him shiver, heard a
strangled groan released from his throat, felt the evidence of his
arousal increasingly unmistakable against her belly.

If they didn’t stop now, they were going to
end up on her bed in a matter of minutes.

She turned her head gently away from him,
positioning his forehead against hers, eyes closed, trying to catch
her breath. She could smell coffee light on his breath, just as she
had tasted it a moment ago.

“Grizzliesssss,” she breathed, wetting her
lips and smiling as she opened her eyes.

He leaned back from her, grinning. “Damn,
Jane.
Every word
with that voice. I could listen to you all
day.”

“Grizzliesssss,” she said, again, trying for
lower and breathier, but couldn’t pull it off because she started
giggling. “And good, ’cause that’s the plan.”

“You’re goofy this morning.”

“I’m happy this morning,” she answered,
readjusting the bag on her shoulder, and straightening the
sunglasses that threatened to slip off her head after so much
kissing.

“Is that so?” He leaned down to pick up his
hat and backed out of the doorway, watching as she pulled the door
shut behind her.

Jane thought of last night and this morning
and today and tomorrow…

“That’s so.”

***

Lars wasn’t sure how she’d feel about him
making her a mix CD like a high school crush, but if the look on
her face was any indication, the hour or two of work it had taken
to put his favorite ’60s songs on a CD and print a picture of
grizzlies for the inside cover of the jewel case were well worth
the effort.

“You made me a mix? When did you have time?
It’s like we’re going steady, Just-Lars!” Always a little sassy,
but he could tell she was pleased as her cheeks colored pink and
she touched the picture gingerly with her fingertips, and it made
him feel awesome.

“Tuesday night. After you broke things off.
I was feeling sad.”

“So you did something nice for me?” She
tilted her head, smiling at him tenderly.

“I couldn’t stop thinking about you, Jane. I
had to do something.”

She took the CD out of its case and slipped
it into the player.

“I wasn’t sure what you’d want to listen to,
so I put some of my favorites on…we’ll see what you think.”

As the familiar strains of the Del Viking’s
“Come Go with Me” filled the cab, Jane turned to him and
beamed.

He’d done well.

She started singing along softly, legs
crossed toward him, occasionally looking at him with that sweet
smile, bright green eyes taking in the scenery as they flew under
the Roosevelt Arch into the park as he’d done a thousand times
before.

Last night wasn’t enough and this morning
with her wasn’t going to be enough, either. For that matter, nor
was the combination of today and Sunday and Monday, unless he had
all of the days after that. He
had
to figure out a way to
convince her to stay.

He picked up his coffee cup and took a deep,
bracing sip, wishing he could just enjoy these moments with her
without worrying about the future. He had no right to expect a
future with her—hell, he’d only known her a week—but she had
insinuated herself so deeply into his heart over the course of a
few days, it hurt, really hurt, to think about saying good-bye.

He thought about his sister Jenny. Jenny met
and fell in love with her husband Sam over the course of a single
weekend a couple of years ago, so no one could tell Lars it was
impossible to feel this much, this fast.

He knew it was possible. He just hadn’t seen
it on his radar. And he didn’t exactly know what to do about
it.

***

Lars said it would be another half hour
before they passed Mount Washburn, and from there, another ten
minutes until they got to Lower Hayden Valley where he’d recently
found the mama grizzly and her cub, not far from the wolf pack.

“Lower Hayden’s probably our best bet for
seeing any wildlife,” he added. “Even if we don’t see the
grizzlies, good chance we’ll see elk, buffalo, coyote…but, maybe
we’ll luck out. Unusual for the wolves to be in the valley this
time of year. They generally head to the mountains for the hunting
and don’t come back until October or November.”

He had been quiet for a while once they
started their drive, introspective maybe, and Jane had listened to
the music, looking out the window. But, after a while, he was
so
quiet, Jane almost worried something might be wrong, so
she was relieved he was talking about Yellowstone again.

Jane could listen to him talk about the park
forever. There was a confidence in his knowledge that she found
incredibly sexy. She reached for her coffee cup and took a sip,
glancing at him. “How’d you learn so much about Yellowstone?”

“Mostly just grew up here. My father bought
the tour business from an old mountain man back in the ’80s. John
Cooper led tours out of Gardiner ever since he returned from World
War II, but he was getting on in years, and so my Pop bought him
out. Old Coop didn’t have much of a business, really, mostly took
fishing parties out for catch-and-release fly fishing.”

“What’s catch-and-release?”

“Oh, man, you are a city girl,” he chuckled,
glancing at her. “Catch-and-release means you let the fish go. You
don’t keep it or cook it.”

“Doesn’t it have a…a thingy in its mouth…”
She cringed, gesturing to her lips.

“Does it have a hook in its mouth? No. You
take the hook out.”

“And it swims away all torn up and
bleeding?”

“You use a barbless hook, pull it out gently
and throw ’em back in.”

“But, it’s in pain…”

“Jane, those diamond in your ears? How’d you
get them in there?”

“Oh, my ears are pierced.”
Comes the
dawn.
She smiled at him. “I see.”

“Doesn’t really hurt them. They get back out
there looking all tough, find a friendly little girl fish who’s all
impressed, have little fish babies…better than ending up on a spit
or skillet.”

She grinned.
He’s so
uncomplicated.

“Do you catch and release?”

He glanced at her askance. “Right now I
prefer catch. Release has me a little worried.”

“Are we still talking about fish?”

“I hate it that you’re leaving on Monday,
Minx.”

Me too.
Jane’s breath caught in her
throat. But, telling her that he didn’t want her to go wasn’t the
same as asking her to stay.

“We weren’t even supposed to have today,”
she murmured. “Odds were that one of us should have been in Jackson
Hole this weekend.”

“I like our odds.”

“Me too.”

“I like…us.”

“Me too.”

“Jane…would you ever consider, um… I mean,
what’s your plan? Now that you’ve quit working for Samara?”

She shrugged, shaking her head. “I don’t
know. I don’t have a plan yet. That’s the truth.”

“You’ll stay in New York?”

“My apartment’s there. All of my stuff.”

“Right, but…are you going to
live
there?”

“I just—I can’t answer you. I quit
yesterday. I have figure out what comes next.”

“Okay.” He settled into his seat, and his
shoulders drooped, as if he was backing off from something.

He wasn’t trying to ask her to stay in
Gardiner, was he?

Now, don’t go jumping to conclusions or
trying to see what you want to see, Jane.

“How much longer until we’re there? At…what
was it, Hayden Valley?” she asked, trying to steer the conversation
back to the park.

“Ten minutes. Not much more. It’ll be a lot
of waiting. But, I promise we’ll see something. We’ve got about two
hours to see what comes along. Promised my Pop I’d—
we’d
be
at his place by noon.”

“Why not ‘Dad’? What’s with ‘Pop’?”

“Nils called them
Mamma
and
Pappa,
so we all did.”

“I bet it was great to be one of four. Nicer
than one of one.”

“It had pluses and minuses, I guess. I don’t
know any different. I sure wouldn’t trade it.”

“You want kids?” She regretted it the moment
the words came out of her mouth and cringed.
Argh! Jane! The
kiss of death question for any fledgling relationship!
She
glanced at him sheepishly and his face was merry, so he must have
caught on to her discomfort.

“You offering?”

“You’re incredibly inappropriate.”

“You’re incredibly adorable…”

“Quit teasing me.” She grinned at him. “Just
answer the question, Professor.”

“Umm. Yeah. I definitely want kids.
You?”

“Yeah,” she answered wistfully. “More than
one. It’s lonely being an only child. I wouldn’t want that for my
kids.”

“I always thought I’d have three or
four.”

“
Three or four
?”

“I could be happy with two,” he amended
quickly.

This kept happening in their conversations:
they’d start off talking theoretically about something, and then
without warning, she’d sense that they had somehow segued from
theory to reality. She decided to try something. She took a deep
breath.

“Okay, then let’s have two.”

She wasn’t sure if he’d play along or get
freaked out. She waited, her heart beating faster, tingling with
anticipation, wondering if she had overplayed her hand or if
he’d…

“Two it is,” he finally answered smoothly.
“Any names picked out?”

“Swedish, maybe. Like their
Pop.
Nothing trendy.”

“Agreed.” A smile turned up the corners of
his mouth.

“Except I don’t know any Swedish names.”

“Then I’ll buy you a book and we’ll lie in
bed and I’ll pronounce them all so you can decide what you
like.”

“Good plan. Where will we live?”

“Why not build our own house?”