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She was still sitting on the rock outcropping, nearly out of sight of the trail, but Matt’s attention tracked straight to her with no effort at all She sensed his wry amusement as he stopped and eyed her "Soh Dammit, Mallory Out of all the men in all the land, you had to send this one…

When she didn’t answer, he smiled He knew damn well she’d called Mallory, and he wanted to hear her admit that she was lost

But she didn’t feel like it--childish and immature, she knew The truth was, her reaction to hi from childish, and that scared her She wasn’t ready for the likes of hi she needed was an entanglement, even if Matt did make her et her off this eneral…

And if that wasn’t the ht she’d had in weeks…

Months

"Mallory called the cavalry," he said "Figured I was the best shot you had of getting found before dark"

A she looked more capable than she felt "Mallory shouldn’t have bothered you"

He smiled "So you did send out the SOS"

Daet about it," she said "I’…" She waved her hand "Whatever it is that forest rangers do, getting Yogi out of the trash, keeping the squirrels in line, et cetera"

"Yogi and the squirrels do take up a lot of reed mildly "But no worries I can still fit you in"

His voice always see funny to her stomach And lower "Lucky me"

"Yeah" He took another leisurely sip of his soda "You i in line and all the squirrel wrangling I do, rescuing fair maidens is also part of my job description"

"I’ screeched directly above her Reacting instinctively, she flattened herself to the rock, coe

"Just the cry of a loon," her very own forest ranger said "Echoing across Four Lakes"

She straightened up just as another anied not to flinch "That," she said shakily, "wasof an elk It’s dusk Everyone’s on the prowl for dinner The sound carries over the lakes,everyone seem like they’re closer than they are"

"There’s elk around here?"

"Roosevelt Elk," he said "And deer, bobcats, and cougars, too"

Aet the hell off the " She didn’t know his, and then there was the fact that he was everything she didn’t trust: easy s

Chapter 2

If God had meant for us to be thin, he wouldn’t have created chocolate

Matt loved his job Having coo SWAT, the current shortage of blood and guts and gangbangers in his as a big bonus But his day as supervisory forest ranger for the North District had started at the ass crack of dahen two of his rangers had called in sick, forcing hiht up there with having a root canal

Without drugs

Talking wasn’t the proble just fine, and he loved the mountain What he didn’t love were the parents who didn’t keep track of their own children, or the divorcees ere looking for a little vacay nookie with a forest ranger, or the hard-core outdoor enthusiasts who knew… everything

After the one to the Eagle Rock campsites to relocate one royally pissed-off raccoon mama and her four babies from the bathroom showers From there, he’d climbed up to Sawtooth Lake to check the east and west shorelines for reported erosion, taken steps to get that erosion under control, patrolled all the northern quadrant’s trails for a supposed Bigfoot sighting, handled some dreaded paperwork, and then come back out to rescue a fair, sweeton the rock outcropping, her s bent, her ar away except her mistrust, and he felt the usual punch of awareness hit hi beautiful And so full of 100 percent, hands-off-or-die bad attitude

She wasn’t his usual type He preferred his wo, with a nice dash of playful sexiness, so he had no idea what it was about Amy Michaels But for the past six months, ever since she’deach other

Ora whole lot of ignoring, a real feat given that she’d been serving hiht He could have asked her out, but he knew she wouldn’t go She turned down everyone who asked her

So instead Matt had regularly parked hi hiet it Then he’d go hoht keep hi off onjeans and a black tank top that hugged her curves, revealing slightly sunburned shoulders and toned arirl boots,to tellon"

"Uh huh" She was revealing a whole lot of nothing Basically, she would ad lost over her own dead body

Usually people were happy to see him, but not this wo He knew fro everyone from the mayor to raunchy truckers with the sah bullshitthat wasn’t delivered straight up "So Mallory’s what, on crack?" he asked

"She thinks she’s funny"

"So… you’re good?"

"Pretty reeably Fine by hi lost He enjoyed her fierceness, and the inner strength that came with it But he still couldn’t just walk away

Or take his eyes off her Her hair was a deep, rich, shiny brown, so softly about her face, as it was today She wore aviator sunglasses and lip gloss, and that tough-girl expression She was a walking contradiction