Wilderness Passion Page 11

  Libby curbed a smile. “So I have to go in after him?”

  “Correction—you go nowhere alone.” He gave her a sharp glance. “You see how dry the woods are? Take a look around. It’s like a tinderbox up here. We haven’t gotten sufficient rain this summer and the ground is hard. Green plants that normally survive have died and dried up. We’re sitting on a critical fire situation as far as the US Forestry Service is concerned. One good lightning strike will blow this place up like that.” He snapped his fingers.

  She sobered, looking around. It was true; even smaller trees were dying, their once green limbs turning brown from lack of the life-giving rain. “You seem to know quite a bit about fires.”

  Dan grimaced. “I was a smoke jumper for five years, Libby. I’ve been dropped in on top of just about every kind of forest fire known, including those damn crown fires.” He shook his head, his eyes filled with disgust. “I hate crown fires. They’re the most common and the worst to control. Usually they start at the top of one tree, and then the fire leaps to the crowns of neighboring trees, spreading with disastrous speed.”

  Libby stared at him with new interest. She knew little about smoke jumpers and the subject intrigued her. “Tell me about smoke-jumping. This is fascinating. Is there anything you haven’t done?” she asked, awe in her voice.

  “I’m sure there is. I worked for the US Forest Service from the age of twenty until I was twenty-five. My team and I were equipped with parachutes and special fire—fighting gear. We’d be dropped far enough ahead of a fire to try to put up a line to stop it. It was grueling physical labor, believe me.”

  “Why did you quit?”

  “Busted up my leg on one drop. I damn near bought the farm on that one. I was unconscious and had a broken leg. My buddy Dave freed me from a tree, rescuing me just in time. The wind changed direction and the fire came directly at us. He carried me a good mile on his back before a truck picked us up and they got me to the hospital.”

  Libby digested the account, suddenly grateful that he was no longer in that line of business. “It sounds terribly dangerous,” she murmured.

  “It is and it isn’t. Jumping isn’t bad—it’s the fire that’s always your real enemy. Wind changes or a front coming through and creating different wind directions always makes it difficult to evaluate a forest fire.”

  Libby shivered, wrapping her arms around herself. “It would be horrible if these mountains caught on fire.”

  “Happens every year, Libby.” There was worry shadowing his eyes. “And right now we’re sitting on a powder keg. As much as I personally dislike Bates, I wish to hell he’d fold up his tent and get back into camp until the danger is over. The thunderstorms are on the increase because of the temperature rise that occurs this time of year, and I just have a bad feeling about the whole situation.”

  “So I can’t go in and contact Bates?”

  “Yes, you can, but we’ll do it together,” he explained. He offered her a tender smile. “Ordinarily all I’d do is order one of our choppers to drop you off at Bates’s camp and you could do your thing. But with the fire danger, I don’t want you left alone. If you’ve never been in a forest fire, you can quickly become disoriented.”

  Libby was the first to agree. In her city of concrete, steel and glass, she had never gotten close to a major fire of any kind. “I’m glad you’ll be coming along,” she said. “When will we leave?”

  “We’ll go up tomorrow morning. Early. I’ve got Chuck trying to locate Bates. Apparently he wanders several miles north from his camp during the day and comes back each night. Don’t worry, I’ll make sure we find him. I want to be there to see his so-called condor.”

  * * *

  LIBBY GAWKED AT the beehive of activity at the main camp. When she had visited before, it had been a quiet little valley with only six mobile offices. Now another ten trailers were arranged in neat rows, attesting to the growth that had taken place.

  There were gargantuan bulldozers known as Caterpillar D9s, which would shave the earth clean of all debris, making way for the road that would go far into the interior. A number of dump trucks and graders roared noisily by, kicking up yellow clouds of dust into the lazy afternoon heat. Dan picked up her luggage and guided her over to the dirt-encrusted mobile home that served as his residence.

  Once inside, Libby turned to him, smiling. “This is a busy place! And you’re coordinating all of it?” There was respect in her voice as she watched him take the suitcases into the bedroom. Their bedroom, she corrected herself.

  “Yes. We’re at peak activity now because the snow will start falling in late October,” he explained, coming back out. He looked at ease in his well-worn jeans, light blue chambray shirt and dusty boots with leather laces. Pushing a rebellious lock of hair off his forehead, he guided her to the kitchen. “Hungry?” he asked.

  Libby sat down at the table. “Starved,” she laughed.

  Dan grinned, opening the refrigerator. “‘As usual.” He looked at her critically. “What did you do, lose weight, Lib?”

  Heat crept into her cheeks and she looked away for a moment She had lost a good twelve pounds since returning to San Francisco. And it wasn’t because of her job or the long hours she was putting in. Libby didn’t try to fool herself. Being away from Dan was the cause of her loss of appetite. But he couldn’t know that. He didn’t want a permanent relationship, she reminded herself. His past was keeping him from making a commitment to her. A coil of sadness spiraled through her. She loved Dan without reserve, without any strings attached. She gazed up into his concerned features, a soft smile touching her lips. “I guess I missed the mountains,” she said, avoiding the whole truth.

  Dan went to work frying up some mouth-watering ham and potatoes. “And you didn’t miss me?” he asked pointedly.

  Libby fidgeted at the table, moving the salt and pepper shakers around on the surface in an effort to quell her nervousness. “Terribly,” she admitted.

  There was relief in his eyes as he looked over at her. “Good. Because I missed you like hell. How many slabs of ham do you want?” He held up a huge ham steak.

  “Just one! They’re gigantic,” she protested.

  Dan laughed amiably. “Remember, you’re back in your mountains, Lib. High altitude and unpolluted air make for a big appetite.”

  She agreed. “Let me start out with one. Tonight, if I get hungry, I can fix another.”

  His blue eyes darkened. “I’m hungry for you,” he murmured, his voice dropping in husky inference.

  After spending the afternoon in Dan’s office, reviewing all of Trevor Bates’s reports, Libby looked at her watch. It was nearly five. She stretched languidly at Dan’s desk, looking out the small window toward the stand of trees at one end of the busy valley. Getting up, she sauntered into the next room, where Dan was sitting, working intently on some documents. He looked up as she walked in.

  “Done?” he asked.

  “Yes.”

  He frowned, putting down his pen. “What do you think of Bates’s reports?”

  “They seem to be in order, Dan. I really can’t judge without going to the base camp he’s working out of.” Her brown eyes glimmered. “But right now, all I want to do is take a walk in your forest. Think you can arrange that, Mr. Wagner?”

  Dan responded to her lilting voice. “Better believe it” he said, standing. “Besides, I was getting tired of this paper-pushing. Come on, we’ll take one of the Jeeps and head across the valley. You’d better put on a long-sleeved shirt, though,” he warned, coming around the desk and slipping his arm around her waist.

  “Why long sleeves?”

  “There’s plenty of poison sumac and ivy up here at this time of year. I’ll show you what it looks like, but the heavier clothing will protect your skin if you inadvertently brush against it.” His hand barely grazed her cheek. “And I for one don’t want to see your beautiful skin marred by that miserable stuff.”

  The ride across the valley was brief. Sunlight sla
nted across the land, creating long shadows and shedding a golden glow on the outlying trees that stood like silent sentinels guarding the forest. Dan took her up the newly constructed timber road for five miles before pulling over and urging her out to walk among the fir and pine. A feeling of peace surrounded them as they walked hand in hand from the road into the forest itself. If Libby hadn’t known there was a road to her right, she would have believed they were completely cut off from the rest of civilization.

  Happily she smiled up at Dan. “How I’ve missed this!” she exclaimed, her voice filled with excitement. “I’d look out my office window and see canyons of skyscrapers made of steel, stone and glass, Dan.” She halted, reaching out, running her fingers down the bark of a soft-needled tamarack. “I missed this,” she admitted, her voice dropping to a whisper. “And this.” She stroked the long needles gently. Libby turned, staring up at Dan’s pensive face. “And more than anything, I’ve missed you, Dan. I find you the most intriguing, fascinating person I’ve ever met,” she admitted. Catching his gaze, she added, “There’s so much more I want to know about you, Dan.”

  He leaned down and lightly brushed her lips with a tender kiss. “I’m an open book to you, Libby. For the first time in a long time I want to share myself.” He shook his head ruefully, his blue eyes glinting with humor. “Sure you didn’t cast a spell on me, Druidess?”

  Libby laughed. “On you? What about me? I swear, these mountains have cast a spell on me! All I ever think about is you and your beautiful forest lands.”

  It was toward 8:00 p.m. when Chuck Busch, the foreman, brought over Trevor Bates’s latest report. Dan thanked him, handing the paper to Libby. They had just finished a simple but delicious meal, and Libby was lounging on the couch.

  “Then it’s all set?” she asked, looking up at Dan as he made himself comfortable on the couch next to her. “We’re to helicopter in tomorrow morning at 6:00 a.m?”

  “Yes. If we go any later than that, Bates will be gone. I told Chuck to tell him our ETA. He’d better be there waiting for us,” he growled.

  Libby quickly read the hand-scribbled report. It contained counts of a number of insects indigenous to the area, and numbers of bird species as well as plants. She went back to the bird list, searching for the condor. There was nothing listed. Handing the report to Dan she said, “No condor today. I noticed in his reports for the last week that he hadn’t sighted any buzzards. Could he be mistaking a buzzard for a condor?’’

  Dan managed a soft snort of disgust, perusing the paper. “That’s my guess. Whatever it is, it was probably passing through on a migratory route, heading south for the winter.” His eyes narrowed with anger as he handed the paper back to her. “I’ll bet he never spots the damn thing again.”

  “Sometimes, Dan, field biologists tend to get slightly fanatical about a find and jump the gun. Maybe Bates is like that.”

  Dan shook his head, reaching over and pulling her into his arms. “Let’s forget about Bates and his phantom condor,” he murmured huskily. “I don’t know about you but I’m tired, and bed sounds like a good idea.”

  “Sounds wonderful,” she agreed. Within moments Dan had hoisted her, carrying her as if she were a mere feather in his grasp. Her heart beat faster in anticipation of his wonderful skill as a lover. But it was more than that. She told herself that he couldn’t make love to her the way he did and not feel something for her. But for Dan to admit he loved her would mean breaking down too many barriers from the past. Closing her eyes, Libby held him close. “Love me, Dan,” she whispered.

  The full moon’s light sent a pale wash of silver into the small but intimate bedroom. Libby watched the lace-pattern shadow of the curtains on Dan’s magnificent body as he began to undress. Her eyes widened in appreciation of his well-muscled chest and the breadth of his powerful shoulders. He dropped his shirt onto the chair, revealing the play of muscles in his back and torso. As he turned and walked toward the bed, Libby could see the unshielded hunger in his eyes. It made her breathless with anticipation as he settled down beside her. She glided her hand across his chest, reveling in his male beauty. Dan cupped her chin, raising her eyes to meet his.

  “Do you know how many times a day I’ve dreamed of doing this?” he whispered, beginning to unbutton her blouse. His fingers deliberately grazed her breast, and a small gasp of longing escaped her lips. Libby felt her skin tighten beneath his caress. The blouse fell open, revealing the delicate lace of her bra. “Or this?” he murmured, leaning over and placing a kiss in the cleft.

  Libby sighed, reaching up, sliding her arms around his shoulders. “No more than I,” she whispered throatily, meeting his hungry gaze. She closed her eyes, sliding her fingers across the rugged planes of his face, feeling, sensing, imagining. The wind, the weather and the harsh rays of the sun had made his flesh strong. It was pliable beneath her exploring fingers and she lingered over each new discovery.

  Dan kissed each of her fingers with delicious slowness. He gazed down at her tenderly, aware of his body tightening with explosive desire. The pale light gleamed on her golden hair, creating a halo about her head. Her brown eyes were flecked with the molten gold of passion. His gaze traveled to her lips, and he leaned down to kiss them, feeling her immediate and willing response. He tasted her depths with his tongue, slowly, purposefully building her excitement until he had her trembling with desire. He felt her shiver as his hand traveled firmly down her body from breast to hip. Without hurry he unbuttoned her jeans and finished undressing her.

  She lay there before him, her skin radiant in the moonlight. The silvery glow lent an additional softness to her curves. Somehow, with the aid of the moonlight, the night was becoming a magical experience, a joining of past to present, a coupling of hearts that had always loved one another. Dan ran his hand gently around her taut breast, watching as longing grew in her beautiful eyes. He did love her, he admitted. More fiercely, more protectively, than he had ever loved any woman in his life. Libby brought those unknown emotions out in him, he thought, leaning down, tasting the budding hardness of her nipples, hearing her moan with need of him.

  Tonight, he promised her silently, I’m going to love you with everything I have within me to give, Libby. I won’t hold back; I want to give myself to you as you do so eagerly to me. He was thrilled, yet confused, by her ability to be so openly loving with him. Hadn’t life scarred her, also? How had she overcome past wounds to love so freely and unselfishly once again? He didn’t know. But what he did know was that Libby, by simply being herself, was allowing him the opportunity to experience all of his emotions once again, and he loved her fiercely for that.

  Libby moaned, pressing the length of her body against him, unable to fight her spiraling need of him. “Dan, Dan,” she cried out softly, “please, be one with me, please....” Her fingers dug deeply into his back as he positioned her beneath him. Her heart yearned for the physical contact. Closing her eyes, she arched upward, joy radiating through her as he thrust deeply into her welcoming body. She gasped. Time slowly swung to a halt as he gently brought her into rhythm with himself, obeying the commands of love.

  Her breathing was shallow, her heart beating wildly in her breast as he took her beyond her wildest expectations. Throbbing fire leaped through her veins as an explosion of molten pleasure occurred deep within her. Libby fell against him, suddenly satiated and weak, needing his supporting arms to hold her. She reveled in his release seconds later, glorying in their shared joy. The silence fell kindly upon them as they rested in each other’s embrace. Somewhere outside an owl hooted in the distance.

  Dan raised himself up on one arm, studying her tenderly in the moonlight. He reveled in her natural beauty, the clean lines of her face, the silken texture of her long hair as it framed her features and the fragrant dampness of her skin as he rested his head against her breast. Her heart fluttered like a wild bird caged, and he gently stroked her beautifully formed hip and thigh. He had never known happiness such as this. He had never known i
t existed until now. Rousing himself minutes later, he traced her brow and cheek, watching her slowly open those lustrous, loving eyes.

  “What are you?” he asked in wonder.

  Libby stirred, delighting in his strong male body against her. “Just myself,” she whispered, feeling utterly drained and deliciously filled with happiness.

  Dan proffered a slight smile as he studied her. “That’s a loaded statement, Druidess. You’re magical, you know that? No wonder I think I’m under a spell.” He caressed her cheek, holding her gaze. “Your giving of yourself is a rarity in this world, Libby,” he began quietly. “And I find myself in awe of your ability to share, to give so openly. So completely.”

  A tremulous smile fled across her lips as she touched his jaw. “Don’t you know that you’re giving as much to me?” she whispered.

  He stared at her for a long time, digesting her question. Finally he managed a half smile and rolled over, bringing Libby to his side and covering them both with the sheet and blanket. “You bring out my best, Lib,” he admitted huskily. “And that’s what I love most about you,” he added silently. As he held her close, feeling the softness of her breasts against his hard chest, he wanted to whisper those words aloud. He wanted to tell her he loved her, but something was holding the declaration back. Disappointed with himself, Dan eventually closed his eyes, but it was long after Libby had fallen asleep. He was holding a miracle in his arms and he lay awake for at least an hour, marveling at the joy Libby had brought him.

  9

  TREVOR BATES’S EYES narrowed as he watched the two people approaching his camp. He had a small fire going, with coffee perking in the battered, blackened pot. He stood up as they neared.