LITMIR.BIZ

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      Lupe didn’t have much to do except explore, sniffing the ground and air. They nevertheless stayed in the woods for twenty minutes or so.

      “Ready to go to town, too?” Owen asked as they headed back.

      “Sure,” Selena said, glad she’d survived the walk unscathed. Then she tripped over a branch and Owen grabbed her arm to steady her.

      She found herself smiling in thanks up into his handsome, rugged face and saw that there was more than concern in his eyes. Not just casual heat, either.

      More like lust.

      She opened her mouth just a little as she attempted to thank him...and Owen’s lips came down on hers.

      The kiss seemed to ignite the cool forest, especially when his arms went around her and pulled her close. She held him tightly, too, tasting him with her tongue as his teased hers.

      Her eyes closed, and for a moment she was aware only of Owen. And herself. Here. Together, in the wilds, where anything could happen.

      Before she could conjure any steamy scenarios, he pulled away. His breathing was hard and irregular, as was hers, and his expression was still full of heat, but his words were just normal and friendly, as if nothing had happened.

      “Let’s drive into town, shall we?”

      “Right. Sure. That sounds fine.”

      * * *

      Selena put Lupe in the kitchen of the house where they’d be staying, then joined Owen at his car.

      Neither of them mentioned that kiss or where it had come from—let alone how inappropriate, yet suggestive, it had been.

      Maybe it was just an act of closure after their initial discussions of nudity. Something they just had to get out of their systems. Now it was over. At least she hoped so.

      Why, then, did it leave her aching for more?

      Owen drove them carefully down the hill, then parked along the main commercial street and led her into the Yukon Bar. It was crowded, but even so, there were a couple of available tables. At his urging, Selena chose one—the one closest to the door and therefore the farthest from the noisy bar.

      “Is this all right?” she asked.

      “Definitely.”

      She ordered a glass of red wine; he ordered a beer. When their server left, he asked, “Is it okay— I mean, you’re all right drinking alcohol?”

      She laughed. “You mean...people like me? Yes, when we’re like this, all usual activity is fine.”

      He smiled at her. She liked his smile and the way it raised his hint of dark beard ever so slightly. “I think I have a lot to learn about people like you.”

      “And I have a lot to learn about the Mounties. You’ve told me a bit about your background, but how did you wind up here, in this kind of assignment?” One he didn’t seem to relish. “And when are you going to tell me the main reason for the formation of the CAs unit? I gather it’s something important.”

      “It is.” He moved a little closer and spoke softly. “It’s actually a bunch of serial kidnappings that have justifiably gotten our senior officers’ attention, but it would be easier to explain more about it when your folks get here and I can do it all at once.”

      The server brought their drinks, and since neither was especially hungry after that pizza, they ordered only a small appetizer to share.

      When the server left, Owen looked at Selena with his gorgeous blue eyes and said nothing for a long moment. She felt her insides heat as if those eyes were igniting her nearly as much as his lips had. Before she lost herself in their depths she said, “Okay, tell me why you’re here.”

      Shrugging, he took a drink of his beer. He still kept his voice low as he responded. “Not much to say that you don’t already know. As a kid, I always loved to see Mounties in their formal red uniforms riding horses and all. I told you about some of my assignments, but most recently I was assigned to the task force investigating those kidnappings I mentioned. That’s partly why I was chosen to help form the Canada Alphas—so I could use a different direction to catch the kidnappers.”

      “Your career sounds amazing,” Selena said.

      They started speaking again of Canada and what Selena might see here. The rest of their outing was pleasant. More than pleasant. Selena found herself looking into Owen’s face constantly, sharing smiles and laughs and banter, almost as if they were flirting.

      Which, of course, they couldn’t be. Despite that onetime, unforgettable kiss. They were professional colleagues—that was all. Her role was to teach him and his fellow RCMP members what they needed to know and then leave.

      Developing any other kind of relationship just couldn’t happen.

      * * *

      Sitting across the table from the lovely Selena, Owen now wished they’d found the rest of their crowd and hung out with them.

      As much as he was enjoying Selena’s company, he was...well, he was liking it too much. Liking her too much.

      Trying too much to remind himself what she was. Why she was here.

      How touching her, kissing her, had been way out of line.

      But he’d absolutely enjoyed their kiss. He also enjoyed the memory of it now, as he watched those full, sexy lips of hers while she talked and smiled and drank her wine and nibbled their appetizer.

      This was unlike him. In all his assignments, he was totally professional. He got along fine with colleagues, sure. Even attractive female ones. But he had always behaved with absolute professionalism.

      He had already blown that once with Selena. It couldn’t happen again.

      She was talking softly now, about her recent assignment, although just loudly enough that he could hear her over the roar of the crowd around them. “Rainey, Lupe and I were in the Seattle area on more of a recon kind of thing. There were some reputed AWOL soldiers hanging out there, around a secluded campground, and the regular army hadn’t been able to confirm it. The idea was that the soldiers might be acting the roles of hunters or naturalists or whatever. They might be easier for a wolf to spot.” She paused and smiled, raising the ends of those sexy lips slowly. “They were. The assignment was pretty well over when I got a call from my superior officer. So here we are.”

      “Yes, and I think your presence here will be a particularly good thing. We’d already been planning to form the CAs, but it had to come together even faster than originally thought because of those kidnappings. We—”

      He heard a cell phone chime. “Mine,” Selena said. She pulled it from her pocketbook and looked at it. “It’s my captain. Excuse me.” She rose and walked away.

      At the same time, Owen’s phone rang. He pulled it from his pocket and looked at it. Anthony Creay, his boss.

      “Yes, sir?” he answered.

      “I hope you’re getting your CAs trained well and fast, Owen. There’s been another kidnapping.”

      “But the last one was only last week. There’s always been a good month or more before the next one.” Owen realized his protest was inane. If there’d been another kidnapping, the criminals’ prior MO on the four previous cases was no longer relevant.

      “True. They’ve been so successful that they must be ramping it up. Which is all the more reason that your group is so critical.”

      Selena returned and sat across from him again, no longer holding her phone. He mouthed Creay when she raised her eyebrows in question.

      “We’re still waiting for some of the Alpha Force members,” he said, this time keeping his voice low in case anyone was eavesdropping.

      “I heard what you said,” she told him in a soft voice. “Tell

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