Her nose burned.
Hungrily, he examined her lips.
Ka-bang!
Her mouth became an inferno. Visually he caressed her jaw.
Ka-blewy!
Her chin was toast.
Wait a minute, where was he going with that naughty stare?
Ka-bam!
Her breasts erupted in sparks.
No, no, don’t go any lower. Please.
Ka-sizzle!
Her abdomen caught ablaze.
He raised his eyes to hers briefly, then with a devilish grin he dropped his gaze to the lowest point yet.
Her pelvis. Oh her pelvis!
Whoosh!
Backdraft.
The Yellowstone forest fires had nothing on what was raging down there. Help! Call 9-1-1. Get the fire department over here pronto. Camryn Josephine was in nuclear meltdown.
They were moving around the dance floor, albeit not in time to the music. They could have been handcuffed together in solitary confinement, so oblivious was Cammie Jo to any stimuli other than Mack’s dangerous eyes. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration should look into labeling those incandescent orbs with a high octane warning.
“Thirsty?” he asked when the band took a break.
She nodded, her insides nothing but vapor. No, not thirsty. Parched, scorched, desiccated.
“Let’s grab some punch, get some fresh air.”
“Sounds good,” she murmured and was shocked to hear her own voice come out as seductive and husky as a whiskey-voiced blues singer.
He wrangled them a couple of glasses of punch and a few cookies and steered Cammie Jo to the back door of the community center. When the heavy metal fire door clanged closed behind them, she took a deep breath and looked up at the sky, surprised to find it was still bright daylight despite being past nine o’clock at night.
Summer in Alaska.
Cammie Jo gazed at the mountains in the distance and nibbled on an almond cookie to collect herself. The breeze blew cool against her skin and that helped soothe her feverish thoughts, until Mack came to stand directly behind her.
She could feel his manly presence.
Felt his gaze drop onto her body, her hair, every darned where.
Talk about sensory overload. If she didn’t have the totem, Cammie Jo would have run for the safety of the B&B long ago. Heck, let’s be honest. She would never have left her room in the first place. She would be curled up on the bed sipping hot cocoa and watching old movies.
Bor-ing.
“Your punch,” he said and held out a cup.
She took it from him and their fingers brushed. She concentrated on sipping to keep from meeting his gaze once more. Her core body temperature had to be a hundred and ten. She didn’t think she could stand any more heat.
I’m brave. I’m strong. I’m courageous. Nothing but nothing scares me. Not even a man with Fourth of July rockets for eyes.
“You’re very beautiful,” Mack said, taking a step closer.
“Thank you.”
I simply will not blush and I won’t back up. I won’t! Camryn would be accustomed to receiving and deflecting advances from amorous admirers, but Cammie Jo was not.
“I suppose you hear that all the time.” She affected a ho-hum expression. “Not as much as you’d think.”
He took another step forward.
Her heart clattered like an aging engine on low-octane fuel.
“I’d like to get to know you better.”
Cammie Jo couldn’t help noticing the dimple carved in his cheek and the provocative twinkle in his eyes. Was he asking her out?
“Really,” she murmured.
“Yeah. I’ll admit it. Out of all the women who’ve shown up in Bear Creek over the last couple of weeks, you’re the only one who’s really raised my interest.”
“And why is that?”
He cocked his head and a sheaf of dark-brown hair shifted over his side part. “You’re something of a mystery, and I love solving puzzles.”
“Oh you do?” She couldn’t believe how easily she was flirting, how she was matching his stare without blinking or turning red as a boiled lobster. She took a bite of cookie, ran her tongue along her lips for effect.
“I do.” His eyes tracked the movement of her tongue.
“Well good for you.”
“You’re making fun of me.”
“I’m not.”
“Where did you come from, Camryn Josephine?”
He raised a hand and for one jumpy moment she thought he might touch her, but instead he reached out to brace his palm against the side of the building and lean in toward her. His scent was pure heaven. He was close enough so that she could see just how long and lush his lashes were. They looked supple as sable and softened his direct, inquisitive eyes.
“Out of the blue.”
“I believe you,” he murmured. “You’re that unique.”
She’d never been in such an intimate position and she found she loved being close to this glorious representative of the male species.
“How are you when it comes to adventure?”
“How do you mean?”
“Do you like the outdoors? Are you game for mountain biking and kayaking and salmon fishing?” He waited, and it seemed, held his breath.
Goodness, what was the correct answer?
She thought of the ad, visualized the caption underneath the picture.
Wild Women Wanted.
Could she be wild enough for this man? She moistened her lips with her tongue, tasted the too-sweet flavor of strawberry-banana punch mingling with the almond of the cookie she’d just finished.
“I’ll take any adventure you can throw my way and eat it up with both hands.”
He hissed in his breath as if
