DESI'S RESCUE Read online

  He let go of a chuckle of surprise. "Stop what?"

  "Trying to charm me. Turning on all the little quirks and tricks."

  He raised a brow. "Like that, you mean?"

  "It's just impossible for you not to do it, isn't it?" She rolled her eyes, hiked the box closer to her chest. "Attempt to charm every woman you come into contact with?"

  His eyes narrowed. "I don't think I deserved that one, mate. Did it cross your mind that it might not be all women, but you in particular?"

  She rolled her eyes. "Right."

  His body went still, and Desi regretted her meanness. But he said mildly, "Not every man is a bastard like that husband of yours."

  Desi lowered her head. "Did you know him?"

  Tam just nodded.

  "I guess everyone did." It was difficult to keep the bitterness from her tone. "There's not a soul in Mariposa who doesn't know he was cheating on me for heaven knows how long." She pushed hair out of her eyes, blinking hard. "I shouldn't be surprised."

  "The surprise is how he landed a woman like you."

  She looked at him. A thousand replies and versions of replies arrived in her mind, but in the end none of them seemed right.

  "I know you've had a bad time," Tam said. "But don't start thinking all men are bastards. We're not, you know."

  She nodded. "I'll be back in a minute."

  "Two shakes of a dead lamb's tail," he quipped.

  She wanted to chuckle at his joke. Instead, she rushed out, box in her arms, to avoid showing even a hint of emotion.

  * * *

  When Desi returned with the pup, she'd managed to calm down a little. There was something about Tamati Neville that was stirring her up in ways she had not known in a long time. Beware, said a little voice.

  It's too soon, said her sister's voice.

  The sleepy pup yawned beneath her throat, and Desi buried her face close as she ducked back into the cabin. "You're such a little sweetheart," she said. His fur, still baby soft, smelled of the straw they used for the pens, and that earthy, furry undernote of wolf and the pervasiveness of baby. Milk, she thought, and bent close to his mouth. Happily he licked her nose. Desi laughed.

  As she came into the cabin, Tam was pouring hot water into a round yellow pot and he'd set out mugs and spoons and sugar. "You take milk?" he asked.

  "Yes. But I'll finish that. You come sit down and take the baby."

  Tam moved to the couch and sat down, that limp barely noticeable today. Desi put the baby into his lap and tried to avoid looking into those astonishing eyes. God, what was wrong with her? She didn't get like this, all flushed and flustered by a man.

  But as he reached for the pup, his fingers grazed her left breast, and she was quite sure it was not on purpose. Their eyes met for a split second, silent acknowledgment, then slid away. "Hey, baby," Tam said to the pup. "Good to see you again."

  The pup whimpered in happiness and took the bottle. Desi headed toward the kitchen area and finished making the tea. Darkness was falling beyond the windows and her stomach growled. Tam chuckled. "You should have brought some more lamb stew home for your supper."

  Desi brought everything over on a tray. "That was excellent food." She stirred sugar into her tea. "But it was also a long time ago."

  "It was." He scratched the wolf's forehead. "If you've got a bikkie or something like that, I wouldn't mind it."

  "Bikkie?"

  "Biscuit?" He paused. "Cookies."

  "Ah." Desi's stomach growled again, and she stood up to look in the cupboards. There wasn't much there, but she found some graham crackers and brought them over.

  "I had a visitor this morning you might want to know about," Tam said.

  "I'm listening."

  "Me old girlfriend. She's just married Bill Biloxi. They've got the land next to yours."

  The dog door flew open and a dog, then another came through like rockets, first Tecumseh, then Sitting Bull. "Hey, guys!" she cried. "Where have you been?"

  The dogs, fluffy and covered with snow, shook themselves hard, looking back to the dog door. Desi gave Tam a grin and held up a hand, ticking off seconds on her fingers. "One, two, three, four, five—" the door flew upward and the third wolf-mix came through, nails skittering on the floor.

  "Ah, there you are!" she said to Crazy Horse, always the laggard of the group and the sweetest. He rushed over, his entire rear half wiggling, and licked her hand, then greeted Tam, as well. "Hey, honey, whatcha been up to?"

  "Are these wolves?" Tam asked.

  "Tecumseh more so than the other two," she said, pointing to her big, fluffy wolf-mix. "But these are my dogs. They're all pretty domesticated. I've had Sitting Bull for a long time, and Crazy Horse is a pretty recent rescue. He was abandoned, and he's the sweetest thing you ever saw." She lifted his big nose and kissed the velvety top of it. His eyes drifted closed and he made a soft, growling noise of pleasure. "And a big baby, too, huh?"

  Tam laughed, the sound warm and low. Desi realized she'd let her guard down again.

  But she was tired. It had been a long day. There was time to reestablish distance tomorrow. For now he was easy to be around, and it was easy to just be … herself.

  "You were saying about your old girlfriend?" she prompted.

  "Right. They want to open a spa and utilize the hot springs."

  "I'd heard that."

  "You realize that you could lose the flow to your land if they succeed?"

  She raised her eyebrows, hand lingering in the pile of Crazy Horse's fur. "I hadn't thought of that." It made her feel guilty, not realizing that, but she'd just been overwhelmed with the mess with Claude.

  He lifted an eyebrow. "Thing is, you can probably get an injunction to stop them."

  "On what grounds?"

  "The flow of hot springs is compromised when anyone taps into it more than they should. Interferes with the disbursement of heat and water."

  Desi looked at him for a minute, then smiled. "That's very smart, Tam."

  He winked. "I aim to please."

  "Or get back at her."

  "Nah. My motives are to help you."

  Desi nibbled a graham cracker. "In theory, it's a great idea, but I suspect I might have trouble getting anyone to rally around my cause." Her heart felt hollow as she considered the reality. "Everyone thinks I killed Claude." With a frown she said, "It took me so long to win a place in Mariposa, and I was the one who did all the work, all the community building, and he reaped the benefits."

  "It's a hard community to crack," he said.

  "Yeah, it really isn't fair that not only did he cheat on me publicly, but he managed to get himself murdered, which ruined my reputation and made me lose all my connections in the community." She broke a cracker, stared at it with a tight mouth. "I never had a place to call mine. Mariposa was."

  "It will be again," Tam said. "Eventually the murderer will be found and you'll be steady and here and they'll think you're a heroine."

  Desi smiled ruefully. "It's a nice picture. Thanks."

  "In the meantime, I bet you can get the Utes on your side with that injunction, eh?"

  "You know," she said, "you might just have something there."

  "Good," he said, and settled the sleeping wolf cub beside him on the couch. The baby, absolutely trusting, stretched his feet out in front of him and sighed hard.

  "You injured your leg in the Hayman fire?"

  He rubbed the thigh vigorously for a minute. "I did."

  "What happened?"

  "Bad landing," he said. "We misjudged it. I had a spiral fracture of the bones in my thigh and shattered my knee. Roger tried to help, but he was trapped by a falling tree." His face showed nothing, which gave Desi an even deeper sympathy for his loss.

  "I'm sorry," she said.

  "Life brings what she brings, yeah?"

  The pup stretched and made a soft yawning noise. "So much for teaching him to be wild eventually," Desi said

  A guilty expression crossed Tam's face. "
Sorry. Did I—"

  "No. I probably knew as soon as he arrived that it wasn't going to happen. Especially not without a wolf mother to teach him." The thought of Fir sent pangs of loss through her middle. "But we should be careful about letting him bond too much to you."

  "Understood," he said. "He needs his adoptive mum and his pack, yeah?"

  Desi nodded. "Yes. Wish I knew where she is."

  "I have time in the morning, I could come out and help track her."

  "Do you know how to do that?"

  "I do, love." He stuck out his chest in a mocking pose. "I was trained to do many things in my smoke jumping days."

  She nodded. "Please. Any help you can offer would be wonderful."

  "I will, then." He stood. "Now, I suppose I'd best let you get your work done, eh? Can I help you with anything else before I go?"

  Desi shook her head. "You've been a great help already today, Tam. Thank you." She stood up with him, a warmth in her chest. "It's nice to make a new friend."

  He took her hand, a faint irony in the tilt of his head. "I have more than friendship on my mind, love."

  Desi tried to take her hand away, but he just grinned and held on, not tugging or pushing, just holding on. "I'm not—this isn't … ugh!" She scowled up at him.

  His grin broadened. "Do you like me?"

  "Yeah. You're a nice guy."

  "Only nice?" He tugged her hand a little bit, and Desi had no choice but to move forward. "You're not finding anything exciting?"

  She looked up at him, shaking her head. "Tam, I—"

  With one quick move he neatly folded her arm behind her, his arm around her waist, their bodies in full contact. A hot jolt of desire moved through her, and she tried to find a protest, but his mouth captured hers, gobbling up her words.

  Desi heard a faint noise rise in her throat at the shock of his lips upon her own, the nudge of his tongue shifting her mouth open. His body was as solid and steady as it appeared. Her breasts were crushed into his chest, her hips hard against his, her thighs—oh!—laced.

  And Tam very slowly, very pointedly, very thoroughly kissed her. It was greeting and promise and exploration, his tongue asking hers to dance, then leading the kiss into a waltz of grace and beauty, the exact pause, the soft nibble on her lower lip, the softness of his breath on her cheek. His free hand rose and covered her cheek, his fingers grazing the edge of her eye, her ear. Such a big hand. Such a skilled kiss. Against her pubic bone, she felt the rise of his member, a warm unfurling. An answering heat blossomed in her breasts, and she found herself rubbing, almost unconsciously, against his chest.

  He made a low, rich noise and pulled her more closely against him, his tongue going deeper, drawing hers back into the hot depths of his mouth.

  Danger, danger, danger!

  She opened her eyes and saw that his eyes were closed, the black lashes fanning over his dark cheeks. As if he sensed her gaze, he opened his eyes, and their gazes locked. Holding her gaze, Tam suckled lightly on her lower lip, and heat slammed into her hips, softening her belly, her knees, as if she were his doll, opening at his will.

  She pushed at him, backing away with her hand to her lips. "I can't do this. It's too much. It's too … I don't have good judgment right now."

  He caught her hand, and before she could run away entirely, lifted it to his lips. "You don't have to be anyone or do anything."

  Letting her go, he shrugged into his coat and turned up the collar. "I'll see you soon, Desdemona."

  And then he was gone.

  * * *

  As she walked down the hill to her own cabin, Desi felt the kiss rocketing over her flesh, swirling over her nape, slamming into the back of her knees and the crook of her elbow. He tasted of promise—the long, lazy promise of sex that lasted hours and hours, unrushed and easy and building to—

  No.

  Breathing the sharpness of winter darkness, she cooled her overheated throat and belly and imagination. Her life was an absolute mess, and so were her emotions. The last thing she needed was to get mixed up with some hot-blooded sweet-talker who'd just break her heart all over again.

  By the time she returned to her house, Desi was starving half to death, but it was too late to prepare the chili she'd planned, and she settled for a grilled cheese sandwich and a handful of pretzel sticks with a cup of instant coffee.

  Her sisters both howled over her love of instant coffee, but she'd grown fond of it during college, when she borrowed her roommate's electric kettle and learned to drink crystallized coffee with powdered cream. On her travels she carried instant coffee, and when she and Claude had purchased the land, they'd had little in the way of comforts for a long time, so instant coffee and hot chocolate were a couple of their favorite things.

  In a way, she thought, her reliance on instant coffee was a symbol of her life. Carrying the cup to the fire, she settled in an easy chair in front of the round, hot stove. Cozy, she thought, extending her toes in their woolen socks toward the warmth. The dogs were scattered in piles around the room, Sitting Bull snoring through his big snout, Tecumseh running in his sleep, paws flipping in his hurry.

  The phone rang and Desi sighed. It was across the room on the counter. If she could be sure it was a personal call, she'd leave it, but with a veterinary business, she had to answer. Reluctantly, praying it wasn't some terrible emergency like a shot goat or a mauled horse, she stood up and grabbed it. "Dr. Rousseau."

  "Hey, girl, did you forget your old judge?"

  Horrified, Desi covered her mouth. "I am so sorry! I've been working on the hole in the fence all day and just got finished. How is Lacey?"

  "Fine, fine," he said gruffly. "She'll be all right, but I'm disappointed, Desdemona. I fixed your favorite butternut squash soup."

  "I'm so sorry," Desi repeated. "I guess I've been overwhelmed. Can I sample the soup tomorrow?"

  "I'll save you some," he said. "What time can I expect you?"

  "Ten o'clock?"

  "Right. I'll see you then, sweetheart."

  "Bye, Judge. Thanks for your understanding." She flipped the phone closed and thought about the things that needed to be done tomorrow. She needed to spend some time at the clinic in the afternoon, and see the judge in the morning and catch Helene at some point, too. She scrolled through her address book on the phone, and found Helene's number. She punched the call button and waited for Helene's voice mail.

  Instead, the real woman answered. "Hello, Desi!" she cried.

  "Hi, Helene. I'm surprised to get you—don't you usually work Thursday nights?"

  "A girl needed to pick up some hours, so I let her have them. How are you holding up, girl? Your sister told me somebody cut your fence."

  "Yeah. Listen, I have something to talk to you about—do you have some time in the morning, before ten, say?"

  "You know me. Up at the crack of dawn. You want to come have breakfast with me and Glory? I'll make pancakes."

  "That sounds great. I'll be there at what? Eight?"

  "Perfect."

  The morning meetings arranged, Desi headed back to the fireside chair and the dogs. A gust of wind slammed into the house, and she whirled as a window flew open, letting the wind roll into the room in a ball that scared the dogs into full alert. They jumped up, Sitting Bull barking fiercely, his hackles raised.

  Desi took her rifle off the wall, checked it and peered out into the night. Nothing but wind as far as she could tell, but in the distance the wolves howled.

  Damn. What if there was someone out there again? Hassling the wolves? She picked up the cell phone and dialed Alex, the caretaker. He answered immediately. "I'm on it, boss. Don't worry."

  "Be careful," she said.

  "You know it."

  Slamming her feet into her boots and donning heavy winter gear, she gripped the rifle and went outside to check the perimeter of her own clearing. The dogs moved with her as a group, Tecumseh in the lead, Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse flanking her protectively.

  The night
was very dark with no moon and no clouds to reflect the town lights back down to the forest. Once away from the island of light that was her cabin, Desi could see little at all. The trees formed a black wall around the meadow, and there were no prints she could see in the snow. She turned in a careful circle, listening.

  Nothing. The dogs looked and panted, sniffed the snow, but when they gave up and sat down, Desi knew she was all right. Against her thigh, her cell phone rang. "Nothing here," Alex said.

  "Here, either. Maybe it was the ghosts," she said.

  "Musta been."

  "See you in the morning. Call me if you hear anything else." She headed back to the house, locked up and hung her coat on the hook.

  Next to Claude's woven serape. It hung where he'd left it, one of the few things she hadn't boxed up and given away. It seemed to mock her now. She reached for it, hesitated, then annoyed with her weakness, she grabbed it from the hook, planning to carry it into the back room.

  But from the depths of the fabric came a scent. Fur and snow and dogs, woodsmoke and vanilla cookies and shampoo. Almost without realizing what she was doing, Desi carried the fabric to her nose and inhaled it, flooded by a hundred memories, a thousand. Claude laughing as a hoard of little kids mobbed him in the streets in Peru, after the peppermints they knew he carried in his pockets. Claude standing at the top of a mountain overlooking a vast, empty landscape, his hair flying loose on a wind. Claude kissing her. Telling her she was beautiful, the most beautiful woman in the world.

  Claude painting. Proudly showing her the first of his canvases, and her slight shame in realizing that she hadn't expected him to be particularly good. And he was. Not, perhaps, a genius, but clear-eyed, with a distinctive style.

  Realizing what she was doing, Desi dropped the serape in horror. It lay in a puddle at her feet, and she stared at it as if it was a snake, waiting to coil around her ankles and squeeze her to death. How could she be thinking of those things? He'd been terrible to her! He'd lied and cheated—not only to Desi, but to at least three other women she knew of. Played them all like the Pied Piper, and they'd all danced to his flute like little puppets.