But then she softened as she thought further. “The smell of snow falling through a forest of coniferous trees, the wildflowers in summer and that first dampening of mountain soil.” Her eyes raised heavenward as she drifted, inhaling as though smelling the mountain air right now. “The air is so cool and crisp and fresh after a big snow.” She breathed in again, eyes closed.
He couldn’t stop an erotic image of her.
At last, she lowered her gaze to look at him. “Cities are stressful.”
He grunted because he had the exact opposite feeling toward cities. Cities comforted him the way her chilly, remote mountain hideaway did her. “I still don’t see the reason for the name Never Summer.”
“We have a summer but it never really gets hot. Mid-July to maybe early September are the warmest.”
That sounded more stressful to him than cities.
“Right this way,” the hostess said.
At their table, Jamie pulled out the chair for Reese, unable to recall the last time he’d done this for a woman. Long before the military. The girl after high school. He’d broken up with her to join the Army.
She smiled up at him, seeming to enjoy this as much as he was. The first date. The excitement of meeting someone who hit the mark. Or maybe he misread her. She did live in Colorado and his office was here in Wyoming. If she was all he felt she could be, then she was worth risking a long-distance affair for a while. He’d worry about logistics later.
He sat across from her. They spent the first few minutes in small talk, reading the menu, giving the waiter their order. The wine came and they sipped.
The air between them hummed electrically whenever their eyes met, as they connected on a subliminal level. He almost couldn’t bare the intense physical attraction and suspected she struggled with the same affliction. While he knew what he’d do with that magic, he didn’t think she’d be ready this fast. Besides, creating his new life would take time. He wouldn’t rush into it like he did his job with Aesir.
“So...deputy sheriff, huh?” he asked, breaking the silence. Just how serious was she about devoting a lifetime to Never Summer?
She rubbed her hand up her arm, forearms resting on the table, a slow, comforting caress that made him wish he could rub it himself. “There’s not much crime in Never Summer. Nothing compared to what your company sees.” Except the Neville cold case. That definitely compared.
“How did you get into law enforcement?”
She looked away in consideration. Had no one ever asked her that before?
Finally she met his eyes again. “I’ve always had an interest in law enforcement. As a kid I loved cop cars and uniforms and watched shows about good guys catching the bad guys. Now I have a degree in criminal justice and passed the police academy at the top of my class.” She smiled genuinely. “I love it. I can’t tell you why. I’ve served as deputy in Ute County for four years now.”
“You plan on staying there?” he asked.
“Why would I leave? My family is there.” She sipped her wine.
He didn’t like how certain she sounded, but her commitment to family counted as a plus. “Would you move somewhere else if an opportunity arose?”
“I’ve never considered that, other than leaving to go to college. Never Summer is a close-knit community.” She paused in thought. “There’s really nowhere else I belong. Besides, ‘Sheriff Harlow’ kind of has a nice ring to it.”
She had aspirations of becoming sheriff. He liked ambitious women.
“Sheriff Knox does, too.” He didn’t stop himself in time. “Sorry. That just came out.” He didn’t mean he’d propose marriage, only tested out the sound in anticipation of being married—someday.
Would she be ready to settle down? She looked young. Twenty-five or twenty-six. He kept that question to himself. Don’t move too fast.
He’d met women like her before, career-driven, tenacious, independent. They didn’t pick controlling men. He wasn’t looking for a woman to control. He was looking for a woman who meshed with him, a friend and a lover, someone who’d spend the rest of her life with him.
He must have looked at her in an intense way, as the passion he felt for his goal came out strong and freely. She fell into a long gaze with him, as they had several times now.
Then she seemed to jar herself back to the date, sitting straighter and putting her hands on the table. “Tell me your story. How’d you end up working for Kadin?”
“After the military, I went to work for a private company, but that ended up not being good for me.”
“Who did you work for? Why did it turn out not good?”
“I don’t want to talk about that now. The important thing is, now I work for Kadin.”
“All right.” She smiled.
Instead of pushing her away, his preference of remaining a mystery appealed to her. He found that a little suspicious. Did she like to avoid serious subjects? Would she not share her story to keep things casual? Her beauty and lively energy made him discard the flash of warning that this woman may not be in line with his vision of a future.
* * *
Except for Jamie’s slip when he’d said, “Sheriff Knox,” Reese liked how he kept serious talk at bay. He didn’t talk about his past, what had led him to Kadin. It was too personal. While the reason he didn’t might be something she should know, she didn’t have to find out tonight.
She felt safe with him, safe to explore the desire this man—this stranger—stirred. He seemed so dangerous, and yet he treated her so romantically. All through dinner they’d talked about likes and dislikes. Movies. Food. Politics. He liked action, meat and potatoes, and laws that helped the little people and kept greedy corporate leaders honest and fair. She liked the occasional chick flick but she also liked action. Meat and potatoes were okay but she preferred seafood. The two complemented each other in an inexplicable way.
With dinner finished, she didn’t want the night to end just yet. He presented her with temptation but...should she dare?
“There’s something I’d like to show you. Are you up for a drive?”
Drive? Alone with him? “Where?”
“I’d like to keep that a surprise. Something incredible, something a small-town girl like you would love to see.”
She wasn’t sure she should go anywhere with a man she’d only just met. But the fact that he worked for a man with Kadin’s reputation and she could defend herself as a trained cop, she agreed.
Now he pulled to a stop on a dirt road where it crested an incline. Moonlight gleamed over a grassy field atop the flat surface of the butte she’d seen from his office window.
“What’s here?” She saw nothing.
“Just wait. It’s usually around this time they show up—if they show up. They don’t always.”
She
