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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 his mind had conjured some very wicked adventures indeed. “Anything?”
“Anything,” she declared, happy she had wondrous magic to help her keep that vow.
“Wait a minute.” Mack was suddenly looking at her real funny, staring at her mouth.
Uh-oh. Had he finally figured out she wasn’t really brazen Camryn, but shy Cammie Jo? A moment of fear licked through her before she remembered her wish.
Reaching out, he smoothed his thumb over the corner of her mouth.
Cammie Jo shivered. What was he doing?
“Cookie crumb,” he said.
“Oh.”
But the crumb was gone and he was still here, his face so very close to hers.
“Not so fast.” His arm snaked around her waist and he pulled her flush against the length of his body.
Good thing there wasn’t a maximum speed limit for pulses. She’d be liable for the highest fine imaginable.
Then he lowered his head and took her mouth with his own.
She was in heaven. But when he pressed his tongue to her closed teeth, she jumped back startled.
Mack blinked. His initial thought was one of complete surprise. Camryn Josephine knew next to nothing about kissing. But how could that be? Surely this hot, sassy babe had kissed dozens of men, if not hundreds.
Maybe she’d given him the weird, platonic-but-not-quite kiss because she was uncertain of her feelings. Mack scratched his head and looked down at her.
She was such a cute little thing. All curves and dips, so different from his own hard, angular body.
The woman might not be clear on her feelings, but he was clear on his. He wanted to taste more of her, go deeper, explore. See if she could indeed be the woman he was searching for.
He hooked his index finger under her chin, lifted her face up to meet his again. He watched the pulse in her neck jump with anticipation. Slowly, he lowered his lips to that throbbing beat and kissed her exposed throat with the lightest touch he could manage, heightening the anticipation.
Her skin was hot and getting hotter by the minute. The more his tongue laved over her rapidly pounding pulse, the faster it beat.
Mack felt her tremble. Her escalating excitement matched his own. Did her quest for adventure include those of the flesh?
He wanted her with a sharp spike of desire that stabbed straight through his groin. But letting lust rule his head was not the way to go.
No. As much as he might want to, he wouldn’t drag her home to his bed. But he would sample another taste of those lips. Just to give himself something to think about.
He took her mouth in a heated rush. She gasped into him. She tasted so exquisite he almost groaned.
The feminine scent of her filled his nostrils. He felt her chest raising raggedly against his own. He threaded his fingers through that mane of golden brown hair, cupped the back of her head in his palm.
Camryn wriggled in his arms, every nerve ending in her body on full alert.
It was too much, too soon. She was in sensory overload and she couldn’t absorb everything that was happening.
Yes you can, silly, you’ve got the totem. She reached up to caress the necklace, to draw strength from its power. But when her fingers crept to her throat she felt nothing but her own skin.
Panic-stricken, she jerked away, leaving him looking dazed.
“What…?” he asked.
Cammie Jo stared down at her chest. The totem was gone!
Without it, she was not brave enough to kiss a virtual stranger. On her own, she was not the type to flirt and bat her eyelashes and volley innuendoes.
She was her old self. Vulnerable, scared and way out of her league.
In desperation, she cast her gaze to the ground, looking among the flowering lupine at their feet for her missing necklace. Her breath came out in frantic wheezes, as if she was an asthmatic in a room full of ragweed pollen.
“Camryn? What’s wrong?” Mack reached out to put a hand on her shoulder.
His touch sent her over the edge. She had to get away. Had to leave before she ruined everything. Had to hide from him so he wouldn’t see her for the timid spinster-in-the-making that she really was.
Later, after the party was over, she would come back and try to find the necklace. But for now every phobia she’d ever experienced was gelling into one major fear. That of being found out a fraud before she’d ever had a chance to really live her great adventure.
Get out. Get away!
“I…I can’t do this.” She spun on her heels and took off at a dead run.
“Camryn,” Mack cried. “What’s wrong? Talk to me.”
She never hesitated.
“Wait!” His footsteps thundered behind her.
Clippety, clippety, clippety—stumble. Her ankle turned sideways in the impossible heels but she ignored the bite of pain and kept going.
Hurry, hurry. You’ve got to give him the slip. Except she could hardly see where she was going with this darned hair bouncing free and unfettered about her face and she didn’t know the area. She rounded the building at a dead-on sprint, hoping he’d give up the pursuit. For heaven’s sake, if a man was running away from her she’d take the hint and not chase after him.
But Mack stayed right on her tail.
Was the man part bloodhound? Jeez Louise. Talk about relentless.
Where could she go to get away from him? She leaped over some shrubbery at the edge of the side-walk. A well-dressed crowd was just walking into the entrance of the community center. Cammie Jo barreled past them, using human bodies as a shield between Mack and herself.
“Excuse me. I’m sorry. Didn’t mean to step on your toe.” She heard Mack apologizing but she never slowed, not for a second.
Lungs bursting. Stitch in her side. Throbbing ankle. She could endure all that but not a totemless face-to-face encounter with Mack.
Rabbit quick, she darted through the front door, spun past a startled Kay and clattered upstairs to the relative safety of the ladies’ room.
Okay, don’t panic, don’t panic.
Lovely advice. About as useful as telling a hostess not to panic when she’s got ninety-nine guests coming for Thanksgiving dinner in fifteen minutes and a hundred pounds of Turkey à la Froufrou just exploded in her brand new rotisserie oven.
Cammie Jo paced the tiled bathroom, arms folded across her chest. What to do? She couldn’t stay in here all night.
Or could she?
Tempting thought, but considering the way he’d chased after her, Mack didn’t seem the kind of guy to let things go without a fight. He would probably send someone in after her.
Rats, rats, rats.
And then her gaze landed on the window.
Hmmm. Small opening, but she was petite.
Cammie Jo climbed up on the sink and leaned over to raise the window. She stuck her head out and peered down.
Yipes!
The ground was farther away than she expected. Never mind that directly underneath the ladies’ washroom window sat a row of sturdy, metal, bear-proof garbage cans that looked as if they could skin a girl something nasty.
Cammie Jo pulled back, and mulled over her choices. She could take a header, or more precisely, a footer out the window, or she could face Mack again.
Which was easier to do?
She closed her eyes briefly and wished for the totem.
If wishes were nuts and cherries we’d all have a Merry Christmas, Aunt Kiki was fond of saying, although Cammie Jo had never quite understood the adage. Herself, she’d always wanted clothes and toys for Christmas, not nuts and cherries.
“Camryn?” Kay’s voice called to her from the outer room. “Are you in there? Mack’s looking for you.”
Ulp. It was now or never.
Cammie Jo dangled her legs over the window ledge, took a deep breath and jumped, stiletto heels and all.
5
