“I’m not laughing.” He knitted his fingers together and rested his hands on top of his head. “I like to see a woman who enjoys her food.”
She took another small bite, savoring the texture. The sugar rushed through her system, boosting her energy, giving her a false sense of well-being. “All right, Liam. What kind of work do you do when you’re not flying search and rescue for CCC?”
“I’m a charter pilot based out of Grand Lake.”
“Why did you come to this spot?”
“A couple of days ago, I took aerial photos of your meadow. When the pictures came back, I noticed a parka on the ground.”
She nodded. He was telling the truth. Her parka had gotten wet and she’d laid it out in the grasses to dry. “So you came back to look around.”
“That’s right,” he said. “Now, I have a question for you. Why do you want to stay here?”
“I want to be left alone.”
“Something’s got you scared,” he said.
His perceptiveness surprised her. Her eyes narrowed as she met his gaze. “Why do you think I’m afraid?”
Steadily and calmly, he said, “You’re hiding from something. Why?”
This was more than enough sharing of information. Even if Liam wasn’t one of the hunters, she wanted him gone. Rain had no intention of leaving these mountains.
She’d nibbled the candy bar down to a stub, which she held out toward him. “The rest is yours.”
As he approached, she realized her mistake in inviting him closer. Before she could pull the candy bar back, Liam took it from her. And he kept on coming.
She scrambled backward until she was trapped between the boulder and this tall, muscular man. He must be nuts to come at her like this. Didn’t he see the Glock? The barrel was only inches away from his belly. If she pulled the trigger—
He grasped her wrist and bent her elbow. The bore of the gun pointed toward the sky. His body pressed against hers. She could feel his hard strength and the heat that emanated from him. This was her first human contact in weeks, and the sensation startled her. She’d forgotten what it was like to be touched.
His nearness took her breath away. His fingers locked firmly around her forearm, and his gaze imprisoned hers.
“I could disarm you.” He wasn’t bragging, merely stating a fact.
Her lips pressed tightly together. There was no point in objecting. Liam was capable of physically overpowering her.
“However…” His voice was deep and resonant and— God help her!—sexy. “I’m not interested in taking your gun away.”
Up close, his hazel eyes were flecked with gold and deep, forest green. He stared with an unblinking intensity that verified her earlier impression: this was a stubborn man. She asked, “What do you want from me?”
“The truth,” he said. “You could have returned to civilization if you wanted. You seem to be healthy enough to hike out. But you stayed here, and I want to know why.”
Rain swallowed hard. “I don’t have a simple explanation.”
“We’ve got time to talk,” he said. “Without having you wave a gun in my face.”
“Fair enough.”
When he stepped back and released her, the gun lowered to her side. The fact that he had released her, rather than press his advantage, counted for a great deal. Though still wary, she had to believe that he meant her no harm.
“Come with me.” Rain circled around the boulders and led him into her little camp. He was the first person to see her wilderness home.
“Very nice,” he said.
She was proud of what she’d done here. The gravelled area in front of her cave was neatly groomed. This was her dining room and kitchen. She’d cleared away the foliage and built her fire pit against the rocks. Using stones and a sturdy pine branch with the bark whittled away, she’d made a spit across the fire. Though she hadn’t managed to catch any fresh meat to cook on her spit, she used the branch to hang her only cooking pot above the flames. The water in the pot churned at a slow, erratic boil.
She offered, “Would you like some tea?”
“Sure.”
Luckily, she had two cups—one of which she used for brushing her teeth by the creek. She poured water into the toothbrush cup to rinse it out.
“What’s that?” he asked. “The thing you’re using to hold your water?”
“It’s a sock.”
“I can see that. Why isn’t the water draining through it?”
“Because it’s lined with a condom.”
“Ah.” A sick expression pulled down the corners of his mouth. “And where did you find condoms?”
“In my backpack.” She pointed to three other condom-socks hanging from tree branches. “Handy little things. They hold about a quart of water each. Does that seem excessive to you?”
“Not if they’re elephant condoms.”
She dipped boiling water from the pot into each cup and added her own special mixture of sage, sorrel bark and mint. “We let it steep. Then, it’s tea.”
He asked, “Is this all the food you’ve had to eat?”
“I had seven MREs. Those lasted for about two weeks.”
“Meals, Ready-to-Eat. Like in the Army.” Liam leaned against a boulder beside the fire. “So you packed for a week’s worth of camping.”
“I had all the basics.”
Whether or not she’d packed these items herself was an unanswered question. Surreptitiously, she glanced toward the expedition-sized backpack that leaned against the inner wall of her cave. In addition to the camping gear, the bottom of the backpack had been lined with neatly wrapped bundles of hundred-dollar bills. Almost fifty thousand in cash. There had also been a pouch containing jewelry—diamonds and gold.
Rain had tried and tried to come up with reasonable explanations for why she might be carrying money and gems on a camping trip. Unfortunately, she kept coming back to the same conclusion: this loot was stolen. Which made her a thief. If she added that fact to the revelation that she was also possibly a murderer…
“What else was in your pack?” he asked.
No way would she tell him about the treasure. “A hunting knife. Fishing kit. Sleeping bag. That cooking pot. And first aid supplies, thank goodness.”
“Were you injured?”
She rolled up the tattered sleeve of her silk
