Chance swore. “What are you doing?”

Brian’s chin went up a notch. “Same thing as you.”

“You’re checking out the terrain, making sure all the guests are down the mountain?”

Brian snorted. “That’s not what you’re doing. You’re climbing up so you can rip down, fast as you want.”

Chance stared at him, then sighed. “Okay, fine. You caught me. Now go away.”

“I want to come with you. I want to learn all I need to know about this place.”

“Well, that sounds suspiciously responsible.”

“I’m not stupid.”

“And yet you’re a juvenile delinquent. Go figure.”

Brian’s face reddened. “I didn’t start the fire.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

“I didn’t!”

Chance no longer knew what he thought on that score. Brian seemed genuinely indignant about the charge. On the one hand, if Brian had started the fire, he was being suitably punished. But if he hadn’t, as he continuously claimed, then Chance had been pretty rough on him.

“Can I go with you, or what?”

Chance shoved his fingers through his hair, wondering why he couldn’t just say no. He was going soft, no doubt. “Yeah. Fine. Whatever.”

He hadn’t realized the tension that had held Brian rigid, but the boy relaxed now, enough to let out one cocky grin. “Yes!” He ran up the trail toward him, half carrying his bike, half dragging it.

Chance watched, torn between the need to groan with frustration and the need to smile at the enthusiasm he recognized all too well.

Still, he’d rather be alone. He was a simple man with simple needs. He wanted to live his life the way he wanted, when he wanted-without restraint. Work wasn’t considered a restraint, he loved his work. But Brian on the other hand, the kid was a definite restraint.

As was Ally, with a capital R.

And as if he’d played with fate at just the thought, he summited the mountain with Brian dogging his heels and came to an abrupt stop.

There at the top, pretty as a picture, smiling with hope and excitement, stood Ally, a mountain bike leaning against her hip.

“What in the hell are you doing here?”

“Inappropriate language,” she tsked, picking up the helmet dangling from her handlebars and putting in on her head.

Backwards.

Swearing, then biting his tongue at the grin Brian gave him, he strode forward and pulled it off. His fingers slid through her silky hair as he turned the helmet around. The scent teased him and he scowled. “How did you get up that trail and why are you here, here where I am?”

“I walked up the trail,” she said. “Same as you, soon as I heard you tell Jo on the radio what you were going to do.” She smiled sweetly and something inside his chest did a slow roll. “I waited for you. As for why, it’s because here is where you are.”

How did he respond to that? With one look into her wide, guileless eyes, his usual sarcasm failed him. “You don’t know how to ride. You hit things. You fall.”

“I’ve been practicing. Every afternoon in the parking lot.”

“The parking lot is flat.”

“I’m doing this. We’re doing this.” She turned to Brian. “Now I want you to be extra careful, do you hear me?”

Brian was still grinning. “I hear you. Can I lead?”

“If that’s okay with Chance,” she said demurely.

Oh, now she was being meek. “Go ahead,” he said tersely, wondering if he purposely lost both of them up here, if they’d make it down on their own.

He wouldn’t bet on it.

So together the three of them came down the newly redone trails, the wind in their faces, trees whizzing by, the earth crunching beneath their wheels, and though everything inside Chance screamed to race down the trail at eye-popping speed, he restrained himself. Barely.

It helped that Ally’s T-shirt was white and snug. It helped that the wind left her chilled, which meant her nipples were clearly defined. It helped that she had the best butt he’d seen in a good long time-

“Let’s go off trail,” Brian yelled.

It was exactly what Chance wanted, needed, to do, and he warred with himself, but in the end, he shook his head.

“Why not?” Ally asked.

Yeah, why not?

“It’s against the rules,” he said, wincing at his militant tone. He took the lead and stayed on trail. While pedaling, watching his world go by, he took a good hard look at himself and didn’t like what he saw one bit.

How had he become the pansy and Ally the wild thing? He couldn’t help but think about how she’d felt in his arms, lush and warm, eager and pliant, whimpering into his mouth for more. Passionate. Uninhibited. Ready. At that thought, his foot slipped, and the next thing he knew, he was face down in a heap, eating dirt.

“Wow.” Brian leaped off his bike and ran toward him. “That was an awesome fall. You okay?” The kid looked over his shoulder, then leaned close. “Were you trying to show off?” he whispered. “You know, for Ally?”

“Oh, Chance!” From behind them came Ally, still riding, her legs pumping for all they were worth, her hair flying, her mouth opened in a little “Oh!” of concern. She came closer and braked-too late.

She was going to crash, hard, and all Chance could do was watch in horror as she skidded past him, screaming like a banshee.

A small bush broke her fall.

Surging to his feet, Chance rushed toward her, sinking to his knees at her side as visions of her dying choked him so that he couldn’t even breathe. “Ally,” he managed, only to have her get up on her own, laughing at herself as she dusted herself off. “I’m fine,” she said, an innocent hand to her breast. “How about you?”

He sank to his butt, the adrenaline catching up with him. Then, because he was too weak for even that, he lay back on the ground, studying the sky, waiting for his heart rate to return to normal, which it probably wouldn’t do until Ally left Wyoming.

“Chance? Are you okay?” She leaned close and peered curiously into his face. “How are you?”

How was he? Crazed.

Brian was trying to hold back his amusement at having watched his idol fly over the handlebars like an amateur, but he failed as a laugh escaped him.

Chance glared at him. “Oh yeah, this is just hysterical.”

“You’re not supposed to think about a chick when you’re doing something dangerous.”

“Gee, thanks for the tip.” He looked at Ally, who was applying lip balm to the mouth he hadn’t been able to stop thinking about for days.

“Can we go off trail now?” she asked, a branch in her hair, dirt on her cheek.

“No.”

“But you do it all the time.”

“I have terrain to check out.”

Brian gave out that snort again.

Ally just looked at Chance, her huge eyes filled with disappointment, though why it mattered what she thought, he had no clue. By her own admission she didn’t want to care about him, she had enough on her plate.

So did he.

Still, he made them all stay on trail, despite Brian’s grumbling. He stayed on trail and watched Ally’s nicely rounded bottom as it bounced in her seat. He’d never ridden with an erection before, and learned the hard way it was a definite detriment to his well being.

7

DETERMINED TO FIT IN, Ally exercised every night. She worked hard every day as well, doing all the paperwork in the office, helping on the mountain, replanting. And with Lucy’s request in mind, she made sure to fit in lots of fun as well. Every lunch hour she spent learning something new.

This week it was kayaking.

It took a lot of convincing, but she got Tim to take the same lunch hour, which he spent showing her the basics.

One morning they got up early and hit the river for an hour before work. Afterwards, exhilarated, still wearing the neoprene river jacket Jo had lent her, and a pair of small men’s swimming trunks, she stood on the path between the lodge and her cabin. She was wet, and she needed a hot shower, but it was a glorious morning. There were heavy woods on either side of her, so that if she looked up into the amazing sky she could almost believe she was all alone on earth.

Birds sang. Trees rustled. Branches crunched beneath her feet. All sounds that only weeks ago had made her so nervous. Now she thought them lovely. Essential. She hadn’t heard them often enough in her city.

She had to laugh at that, because San Francisco had never been her city, but a place where she’d parked herself and let life pass her by.

She couldn’t fathom doing that now. Over the past three weeks she’d felt more vibrant, more alive than she’d ever felt, even in her precious library. Yes, she missed take-out food. She missed a good shopping mall. But breathing in the fresh, clean air, Ally suddenly couldn’t imagine the crowded freeways, the pollution.

A female giggle pierced the air and the woods went completely silent.

“Anyone there?” Ally called down the empty path, imagining a clandestine meeting between destined-but-tragic lovers. Maybe they had sneaked away into the forest, overcome by passion. Maybe they were fated to steal moments in time, trapped by circumstance, by a family feud, by social differences…

The only tragedy here was her imagination, though she couldn’t deny the little sigh and the wish that she had a lover to meet. A lover like…oh darn it, she might as well admit it. Like Chance. Just the thought of him, all dark and brooding, heated and aroused, made her weak.

As if it could ever happen. Laughing at herself, she started walking again, but didn’t get two feet before she heard another giggle, followed by a distinctly male “hush.”

“Okay, I definitely heard that,” she said to the trees.

More unnatural silence, though she could have sworn that “hush” had sounded like…Brian? But it was a weekday, which meant he’d be getting ready for school.