Taming the Wild Cougar Read online

  “And you said yes. You had to have.”

  Leyton laughed. “Yeah. I knew that as long as the organization remained honest and above board, they needed me.”

  “And you needed them.”

  He just smiled. “I knew that’s what I wanted to do. Will I always want to do it? Maybe. Maybe not. I’m keeping my options open. I’ve heard of this quaint little town called Yuma in Colorado that I might want to check out further.”

  “What would the organization do without you?” she asked, quite seriously.

  “Hell, I might convince the office you have a need for me right there in a cougar-run town. We don’t have any field offices in Colorado. I could open one up right there. Sounds perfect to me.”

  “Ha! If Dan and the rest of the cougar population learned that you’d taken me hostage, they’d string you up.”

  “They should’ve been watching over you better.” Leyton pulled her back into his arms and tilted his head down to kiss her, waiting a heartbeat before she showed she was just as interested in kissing him back. Their lips pressed together, gently, as if getting the feel of each other, the softness of her mouth against his, her warm breath mixing with his. He felt her relaxing in his arms, her tongue licking the seam of his mouth in a playful way. He growled a little, his body already aroused with the intimacy. He couldn’t deny how much he admired Kate for who she was and how she handled things, how she hadn’t tried to kill him for taking her hostage. She could have tried, but seemed to have been waffling between trying to decide if he was the good guy or bad. He suspected some of her reluctance to fight him much was due to his already being injured. But especially because in her heart, she had known all along he wasn’t the bad guy.

  They touched tongues and then he plunged into her mouth with his, wanting to show her how much he really liked her, how much she turned him on and fired up his blood, his senses on overload as her pheromones spiked and sent his soaring.

  “Hmm,” she said, pulling away to catch her breath.

  He wanted to continue, loving the way her eyes were smoky green now with desire, not wanting this to stop between them.

  “Is this a way of convincing me to lie to Dan and the others about you taking me hostage?” She arched a pretty red brow, her mouth curved in a hint of a smile.

  “Is it working?” he murmured against her hair, the silkiness soft against his face.

  “Hmm,” she said back, but he wasn’t sure if that was a yes, or just being noncommittal.

  He wasn’t worried. If he stopped back in Yuma Town to see her, he wasn’t letting the sheriff or anyone else prohibit him.

  She lifted her chin up to kiss him again, and he was thinking it might be safer if she slept in the car tonight while he slept alone in the tent, as a cat.

  6

  After kissing Leyton, and deciding that was enough, probably way more than enough, Kate had regained her senses and pulled away from the hot cat so they could get some work done. She organized their gear that afternoon for when they would try to hike out of here, if they thought no one was going to find them. She had it in mind that she wanted to tough it out here for several days, maybe even past the date she was supposed to return, and hope that Dan, or his deputies, Stryker, Chase, or Hal would check on her and see what they could find. But they wouldn’t know she came this way. It was way out of the way from where she would have driven. They knew she always took the shortest route there.

  Then she had a sliver of a hope. Leyton had used her card at gas stations and at the mountaineer shop…she paused to think about that. If they checked out her purchases, they’d wonder why she had bought men’s gear. Then they’d probably assume she was in trouble.

  She sighed. She hadn’t planned to mention it. Any of it. That Leyton had taken her hostage. That she had taken care of his bullet wound. That she’d washed him in the shower. Her whole body warmed as she thought about the way he had been aroused in the shower and now him kissing her here. They needed to sleep together in the sleeping bag to stay warm since she had only the one. But if it led to more kissing…

  Then again, being practical, she recalled she was hurting and Leyton was too. So that wouldn’t come to pass.

  She glanced over at him as he worked to make a fire ring. She was surprised to see he’d made it so big. When he caught her watching, he said, “A bigger fire in case we can catch someone’s eye from the sky. They might think a fire has been started in the woods, check it out, and discover we’re in dire straits.”

  She smiled a little about the dire straits comment. Sure, they were both injured and her car was totaled, but they could last out here a couple of weeks, without even using their cougar abilities, if they needed to as much food as they had. And they had purification tablets they could use to purify the water. Or drink it straight from the tap—the creek that was, if they needed to as cougars.

  Done with organizing their gear for a different setup—i.e. she wasn’t going to be setting up in a cabin, she planned to help him gather wood for the fire. It would get dark and cold soon, so it was best to be prepared.

  Then she noticed he’d made two other fire rings. She was surprised.

  “In the event we have bear trouble. And also to help indicate we’ve had trouble. If anyone sees three fires going on down here at once, they’ll surely realize we are sending up an SOS of sorts.”

  “Okay, gotcha. You’re definitely cut out for this.” She was really glad for it. She might be great for her medical knowledge and skills, but she wasn’t trained in survival tactics. Though if she had to live as a cougar, she could manage.

  “Yeah, it comes in handy on occasion.”

  When she went to gather wood, he was right next to her. “Let me carry the heavy stuff.”

  “Don’t get all macho on me. We both need to gather wood if we’re going to have enough to build three fires that will last any length of time.”

  “Your back is already killing you. You don’t need to make it worse.”

  “And your shoulder isn’t?”

  “Now, that’s me being macho. We’ll need plenty of kindling. You work on that, and I’ll get the bigger wood that I can find.”

  “If anyone finds us, we’re going to have to come up with a story.”

  “You want me to say I was driving?”

  She frowned, partly in annoyance with him, and party because he was right, her back was killing her. She desperately needed to rest it. “No. The word will get back to Yuma Town that I totaled my car, and a strange man was with me at the time.”

  “Strange huh?” He gave her a smirk while he piled a couple of rotting logs in one of the fire rings.

  “You know what I mean.” She piled the tinder next to the first ring, then went to fetch some more.

  “Well, you could tell them the truth.”

  “That you broke into my clinic and—“

  “I didn’t break in. The place was unlocked as if it was open for business. And, the doctor was in. She fixed me right up. Being a kind and concerned cougar of a friendly place like Yuma Town, she even fed me dinner.”

  “And tied me up and made me sleep with you.”

  He thought about that for a moment and she looked over from gathering more kindling to see him lifting a heavy log.

  “That’s too heavy for you.”

  He plunked it down in the second fire ring. “We need some timber that will last longer.”

  “All of this is so dry, I imagine it’ll burn pretty fast once it gets started. So about you tying me up? Do you have a ready explanation for that?”

  “You insisted,” he said, and headed back for another log.

  “I…I…how do you figure that?”

  “I’ll have to think on that one.”

  “I bet you will.”

  “So then you insisted that I come with you on the camping trip. Hey, your friends should be missing you.”

  “My friends?” she had no idea what he was talking about.

  He dropped a log into the
third fire ring and went for more. “Yeah. The people you were going to be camping with. Won’t they be worried if they don’t see you? Then send word to Yuma Town?”

  Oh. She’d forgotten that she’d told him that tale. But she really thought he hadn’t believed her. She knew he hadn’t about her being married to Chase or having a bunch of kids.

  “You really believed that?”

  She hauled more kindling to the first ring. She was dying, her back absolutely killing her, but she knew Leyton’s shoulder had to be hurting just as bad, yet he was making a real effort to try and catch someone’s attention to come to their aid. She wasn’t going to be the weak party member here.

  He paused cutting up a tree branch with her camping ax, looked over at her, and said, “Why, Dr. Kate Parker, did you lie to me?”

  She laughed.

  He smiled darkly. “Okay, so in that case, you insisted that I go with you to help drive and give you a break because I needed to be in the area to go after the fugitive.”

  “And then you drove off the cliff and…”

  He smiled. “I thought you said you weren’t going to blame that on me.”

  “No, just the part of why I took the supposed shortcut this way.”

  Leyton watched her for a moment, and then said, “We have enough.”

  “Not nearly enough.” She had gotten a stack of kindling for each fire ring, but the kindling wouldn’t last long. Then it dawned on her. He was hurting too bad. “Oh, sure. Maybe we should put up the tent now and get everything set up the way we want it before it gets dark.” That would be enough work for the day anyway. She so wanted to lie down.

  “That’s a deal.”

  She couldn’t help making sorry sounds of pain, just under her breath, trying not to show how much she was hurting, but damn it, she hurt! He was doing the same, so she knew it wasn’t any picnic for him. Before long, the tent was up on the most level spot they could find. They blew up the double-size air mattress, left over from when she was coming here with her now ex-boyfriend.

  Once they had one of the lanterns inside, Leyton got a pack of ice. “Before we make dinner, why don’t you lie down on your stomach on the mattress, and I’ll put some ice on your back.”

  “Thanks, Leyton.” She truly appreciated that he was thoughtful enough to do that.

  Once she laid down, she had the greatest urge to close her eyes and go to sleep. But then she’d be awake in the middle of the night. After he finished applying the ice pack, he began to massage her back and shoulder strain.

  She hurt, but it helped to relax her, felt like her whole body was going into meltdown mode, and she couldn’t keep her eyes open any longer. When she woke, she was curled up against Leyton and he was still sound asleep. Poor man. He had to be hurting like crazy, and she couldn’t even massage his shoulder to make it feel better.

  Planning to leave the tent, she tried not to wake him. She carefully left the mattress and headed outside to make supper so that when he woke, she could just feed him. She felt so much better, but she knew as soon as she started working again, she’d start feeling bad. She folded shredded cheese and hot dogs in foil and began heating them. Then she brought out the buns and condiments and a big bag of potato chips. She figured this was a good time to have a couple of miniature bottles of wine that might help them to sleep better tonight. Though she sure had conked out for at least an hour or so.

  She heard movement on the mattress, a groan, which she knew was because Leyton had carried too many large logs and chopped too much wood for the fires. He pulled the flap aside, smiled at her, exited the tent, and stretched a little, careful with his injured shoulder. “How long have you been up?”

  “Just long enough to start supper. Figured if I didn’t start it soon, we would be making supper and eating in the dark.”

  “Watch the sunset, listen to the water rushing by in the creek, sounds rather idyllic. Besides,” he said joining her, “we can still see.”

  “True.” She handed him a bottle of wine, figuring he would think they were silly, but for one person, they were almost too much for her, and she didn’t need to carry around the big bottles to drink all by herself. “Hope you don’t mind having wine.”

  “I love everything of yours.”

  She laughed. “I have to admit that though we got a really rocky start, you’ve kind of grown on me.”

  “I have to say that even though I’m usually completely gung-ho about a mission and despite our current situation, I can’t really complain.”

  “Is this something you would normally do?” She served up the hot dogs and chips.

  “On a combat mission, yeah, only not half as fancy. No wine. No women. No soft mattress. No campfire. And no relaxing. Otherwise, if I’m chasing down a criminal like Butch, same thing. No tent. No food. Water. Nothing.”

  “So this is like five-star accommodations for you.”

  “More than that. Who can say they get to have their own doctor for a camping partner.”

  “Or Ranger who’s trained in all sorts of emergencies.” She started to eat her hot dog. “I’d say we make a pretty good team.”

  “Yeah. Speaking of possible emergencies, did you get some noisemakers for the tent tonight?”

  “So much for the thought of it being totally idyllic in paradise,” she said, having forgotten already about the bears.

  * * *

  After finishing their hot dogs, chips, and wine, they topped the dinner off with s’mores as they continued to sit around the campfire, listening to the crickets chirping and an owl hooting away some distance in the woods. The creek gurgled a few feet away and Kate breathed in the scent of the fresh water. This wasn’t what Kate had in mind for her camping experience, but she had to admit, considering her car was totaled and she and Rafe were both in pain, they had survived, and it wasn’t half bad. They had plenty of food for two weeks, well, maybe less, because she had planned her meals out for one person. But they could catch fish to supplement meals too, and extend them until they got rescued, or found a way to walk out of here safely.

  “I imagine you never thought you’d be doing this when you have a mission to accomplish,” Kate said as Leyton made another s’more for her.

  “No.” He smiled at her. “Can’t say that I mind too terribly much. Sometimes it’s good to stop and smell the s’mores.”

  She chuckled.

  Then he looked serious again. “I’ve been giving this situation a lot of thought. See what you think. We’ll stay put tomorrow, but I’m going to take the backpack with me up the mountain to learn if there’s any sign of traffic. I didn’t want to say, but I haven’t heard one vehicle pass up on the road. Maybe we can’t hear anyone this far down in the ravine and with the creek flowing nearby, but I suspect if someone had driven by, we would have heard it. The only way this will work is if I manage to make it up the mountain in my cougar form, though trying to explain it to anyone would take some doing if I do chance to meet someone. I’ll need you to secure the backpack to my back so I can carry my clothes and the phone, in case I can get reception up on the road. Once I make it to the road, I’ll shift and dress so that if anyone sees me, I can tell them we had an accident. But in the meantime, I’ll see if I can get any bars on the phone.”

  “Okay. What if they catch you dressing?”

  “I’ll stay in the woods if I can. It might be too much of a drop-off at the edge of the road, so I’ll have to see. I’ll look to see if anyone can observe the car from up there, and I’ll make a marker to indicate we’re down there.”

  “You’re a genius.”

  “Learned a lot of survival tactics in Ranger school.”

  “Leyton, I know you said you can’t say why you can’t go to the authorities and ask them for help…”

  He pulled her into his arms. “Right. Because I can’t. If I could, I would. How are you feeling? Any better after we napped?”

  “The jagged edge of the pain has worn off a bit, but I know that it will come back wit
h a vengeance once we’re gathering wood again.”

  “You need to rest.”

  “Yeah, like you do. How are you feeling?”

  “Sore. Like I overdid it.”

  “I knew you did.”

  “I was hoping I could alert someone and get you out of here.” He cuddled her tighter.

  She loved the feel of him wrapped around her before the campfire. She hadn’t had anyone like this ever, she realized. Even her ex-boyfriend wouldn’t have done this. Sure, he was always for hopping in bed with her, but just holding her tenderly in front of the campfire? No.

  “What about the man you’re tracking?” she asked, wondering if he’d be close by and dangerous.

  Leyton had her lean forward and lightly stroked her back and her shoulders, easing some of the tightness in her strained muscles again. “Extremely unlikely that he’d just happen across us out here in the wilderness.”

  “Do you think he left the cabin as a man and not a cougar?”

  “He might have. I’d hoped I might find some clues at the cabin, but as cagey as he is, probably not.”

  “What are our chances that someone will happen upon us?”

  “Tonight? It would be unlikely. Sometime during the day, depends on road traffic and if someone does drive that way, if the occupants are observant of what’s around them and not just concentrating on the road straight ahead. Could take a couple of days. Maybe a few hours. Your guess is as good as mine.”

  The sun had set and their fire was dwindling, the night air growing colder, despite sitting on the log wrapped in Leyton’s arms. She enjoyed this, seeing the stars in the night sky, the crescent moon, the black water in the creek rolling on by, the flames sparking and crackling.

  Leyton seemed to be enjoying this just as much as she was, not wanting to disturb the status quo. He finally gave her a light squeeze. “Time for us to turn in, if you’re ready.”

  “Yeah, I am.” She was cold, but she felt a little better, pain-wise. Maybe because of the wine.

  They went their separate ways to have pit stops before they returned, each carrying a lantern, and he let her go into the tent first and then followed.