Daisy shivered and walked back to the campsite. She waited, but she couldn’t sit. How could she? She was alone by a campfire, and Jericho was off moving through the darkness in silence and Nikki… If anything happened to her dog…
Daisy continued to pace in tight, worried circles around the perimeter of the campfire, her mind racing, her heart pounding. The coyotes howled again and she wondered if they were hungry. If they’d already spotted a tiny poodle snack. If Jericho would never find the little dog because she’d already been…
“She’s fine.” Jericho’s voice broke into Daisy’s thoughts and she whirled around to face him.
He stepped into the firelight and held a trembling Nikki against his chest in one huge hand.
“You found her!” Daisy raced to him, scooped up her dog, murmuring soothing sounds and sighs as Jericho watched her with a bemused expression on his face. “Where was she?”
Nikki’s tiny pink tongue swiped Daisy’s face in gratitude just before the little dog sent Jericho a look of complete canine adoration.
“Cowering under a rock,” he said, with a shake of his head. “She was shaking so hard, the leaves on the bush beside her were trembling. Quite the ferocious little watchdog you’ve got there.”
“You’re making fun of her, but you saved her. Poor baby, alone in the woods.” She looked at him, her heart in her eyes and felt something inside her tremble as violently as Nikki was. “Thank you for finding her. I was so scared.”
“It’s fine. She’s fine.”
“I don’t know what I would have done if anything had happened to her.”
“Nothing did.”
“Because of you. My hero.”
He stopped, frowned and told her succinctly, “I’m nobody’s hero.”
But he was, Daisy thought as she watched him walk down to the river, effectively closing himself off. Jericho King might be a reluctant hero, Daisy told herself, but that didn’t change the facts. He was a man to count on. A man to admire.
The perfect man to be the father of her child.
He woke up with both Daisy and the dog curled up into him again and this time, it was even more difficult to ignore the warmth of her curvy body pressed up against his. Now he knew what she tasted like. Now he knew what it was like to hold her, to feel her surrender herself. And now he was being haunted by those memories. Which only made him more determined to ignore the feelings, the temptations racing through him.
She was now officially his employee and he wouldn’t take advantage of the situation. A man had to have rules of conduct for himself, or he was nothing. Besides, he wasn’t the kind of man to allow a woman into his life and Daisy was in no way the one-night-stand kind of female. She had “commitment” stamped all over her. All he had to do was look into her eyes and he could practically see a white picket fence and 2.5 kids—not to mention her idiot dog.
Jericho eased away from her, despite the reluctance nagging at him. He wasn’t going to step into a bear trap and he wasn’t going to indulge himself and hurt her. So he’d just keep his distance whatever it took and hope that she got over this whim of hers to live on the mountain.
“Daisy!” His voice was sharper than it should have been, but even as he thought that, he figured it was just as well. He didn’t want her getting attached to him because nothing good would come of it.
“Huh? What?” She rolled over, the dog yipped and shot up to all four feet while Daisy was still blinking sleep out of her eyes. “What’s going on? It’s dark.”
“Almost dawn,” he corrected, giving one quick look at the already-lightening sky. “Time to get moving.”
“Right,” she said, nodding as she pushed herself into a sitting position. “I’ll fix breakfast and then we can—”
“We’re going now,” he told her. No more cozy meals, just the two of them over a dancing fire. “There’s trail mix in my pack. You can eat on the way.”
“Ooh, yummy,” she murmured dryly, scrubbing both hands over her face. “Why the hurry?”
He looked down at her. Eyes slumberous, hair tangled and falling about her face, lips full and all too tempting. She was the damn hurry, he thought angrily. Being alone with her was turning into a lesson in torture. One he, thankfully, didn’t have to put up with. He’d just get her back to the lodge, let her settle in and from now on, he’d make sure he was never alone with her. Safer all the way around.
His body didn’t agree, but it would just have to find a way to deal with disappointment.
“Test is over,” he said shortly, going down on one knee to stuff supplies into his pack. “Time to get back to work.”
“Okay…” She pushed to her feet and Nikki trotted to Jericho’s side, sat beside him and leaned against his thigh. “I’ll just…”
He paused in his packing, shot her a look and nodded. “Fine. Go take care of things, but hurry it up.”
While Daisy stepped into the forest for some privacy, Jericho looked down at the little dog snuggling in close to him. “You and your mistress are turning out to be a real pain in the ass.” When the dog only huffed out a contented sigh, Jericho scowled at it. “You’re not going to get to me though, either of you.”
“Anyone want seconds?” Daisy asked, lifting the cast-iron skillet temptingly.
Firelight danced across her features, highlighting her grin and making her look more beautiful than Jericho had ever seen her.
“Count me in,” Max Stuben, CEO of a furniture dynasty, spoke up, holding his plate out. “Daisy, after seeing what you can do over a campfire, I have half a mind to go home and shoot my chef.”
She laughed, delighted, then said, “A little extreme, Max, but I appreciate the compliment. Jericho and I like to keep our clients happy, don’t we?”
When she looked up at him, Jericho couldn’t help smiling back. Damned if the woman hadn’t charmed every one of his clients.
Harry Morrison, bank president, added, “I’m impressed with how well you handle yourself out on the trail, Daisy. Why, if my wife were here, she’d be complaining about everything. You seem to love it.”
Jericho slid a glance to watch her reaction. She was the least likely woman ever to enjoy being on the mountain, yet she seemed to be doing just that.
“Well, at King Adventure, we really go out of our way to make sure all of our employees are capable of doing everything we ask of our clients. Isn’t that right, Jericho?” She looked over at him, a wide smile still on her face.