“Not that that would matter to Gem,” Austin muttered as she yanked off the wheel and leaned it against the side of the SUV. She doubted Gem would have much sympathy for big corporations. Too many true disasters—pipeline ruptures, well failures, transport ship leaks—had caused countless wildlife deaths and contamination of waters and marshlands and beaches throughout the world to argue that the oil industry hadn’t damaged the environment. She couldn’t argue against those facts. They existed too. She’d known a lot of people like Gem, people devoted to the sanctity of the environment and its inhabitants, who’d made it their life’s work to protect it. She respected the work they did and tried to walk the thin line between protecting her client’s interests and preserving the integrity of nature. She believed her job was necessary, or she wouldn’t do it. The fact that her parents appreciated the risk involved, and approved of her work, never mattered. Much.

She hoisted the muddy wheel and carted it to the back of the SUV. She set it down, leaned in, and pulled out the spare.

“Are you almost done?” Gem asked. “You’ve got to be miserable.”

“Theoretically, this next part should be easy,” Austin said grimly. She dumped the flat into the well in the rear of the SUV. “Let’s hope so.”

Gem gripped her arm. “You’re sure I can’t help you out some?”

“It’s gotten a lot darker,” Austin said. “I could use your light if you don’t mind getting wet. I think you can still stay under cover of the hatch and keep mostly dry.”

“I’ve been wet before,” Gem said. “Wildlife biologist, remember? The birds don’t care if it rains. I won’t melt.”

“Sorry. You’re right. I mean, maybe not about the melting, but I get you’re not a delicate flower.”

Gem laughed. “Definitely not. More like a wildflower.”

“Yeah, I can see that.” Gem did look wild and beautiful, with damp blond curls framing her face and her blue eyes alight. Austin traced her finger along the angle of Gem’s jaw where raindrops beaded in a delicate chain and slowly brushed them clear. Gem’s eyes widened again, and that spark of heat flared. An answering fire surged in Austin’s belly. Hell, what was she doing? She turned away and grabbed the spare. “Okay, you’re up.”

Gem followed Austin, switched on the light on her phone, and held it down in front of her. Austin knelt on the stony, muddy shoulder and wrestled the spare onto the wheel hub. If that was the easy part, she hated to think how hard getting it off had been. She hated thinking of Austin exposed to the wicked wind and driving rain for so long. She edged a little closer and tried to use her body to shield Austin from the downpour.

“Okay. Hand me the nut.” Austin held out her hand. “Give them all to me—you don’t need to be out here too.”

“I’m good. Wildflower, remember?” Gem dropped the first nut into Austin’s hand and pulled the hood of her windbreaker closer around her face. She was still reasonably dry, although her jeans were soaked from the thigh down, below the bottom of the jacket. Austin’s clothes were so thoroughly soaked she might as well have been standing naked—and that was an image she didn’t want to dwell on. Or actually, she kind of did—which was worse. Traffic had slowed to a trickle, most people probably having given up and pulled off to wait out the storm in roadside motels. The occasional vehicle, usually a pickup truck going too fast, shot by and sluiced water in their direction. Austin didn’t even seem to notice the additional deluge, but Gem wanted to shout after the crazy drivers to smarten up. “I wish I had some way to keep you drier.”

Austin looked up, blinking rain from her eyes. “I’m okay. Really. Almost done.”

A minute or two later, Austin released the jack, pulled it out from under the vehicle, and rose. “Come on, let’s get out of here.”

Gem hunched under the raised hatch and kept her light on while Austin stored the tools back in the wheel well and closed up the back.

“You need dry clothes,” Gem said.

“I’ll have to change inside.”

“Fine. Get what you need.” When Austin hesitated, Gem said, “I won’t look.”

Austin grinned. “Damn.”

Gem gave her a little shove on the shoulder. “Hurry up. Even your eyelashes are dripping.”

Austin pulled her satchel closer, rummaged inside, and came out with a shirt and jeans. She bundled them up and thrust them under her arm. “Come on, I’ll help you back inside.”

Gem poked her lightly in the center of her chest. “I can make it. Go get in yourself.”

“Stubborn,” Austin muttered, but she closed the hatch and they both headed back to the front.

Gem shed her windbreaker before she climbed in and draped it over the back of her seat so it could drip onto the rear floor. Austin stood outside with her door open. “It’ll be faster to take my clothes off out here, and I won’t get the seat all wet.”

“As long as you’re quick.” Gem swiveled in her seat and peered out the back. “There’s no one coming right now. If someone does, you need to jump inside.”

Austin laughed. “They probably won’t even see me.”

“Oh, they’ll see you,” Gem said. And so would she, because she planned on keeping an eye out behind them, and that meant she’d be looking past Austin toward the road. But it wasn’t as if she was intentionally spying or anything. She just didn’t want anyone seeing Austin naked except her. Her mind stumbled on that thought. Oh, for heaven’s sake, she really did need to get a grip and get back to reality—any number of women had undoubtedly seen Austin naked and likely would again. And she wasn’t going to be one of them. This road trip would end soon enough and she’d be her careful, rational self again. Just the way she liked it. The way she wanted it.

Austin stripped her shirt off over her head without even unbuttoning it, balled it up, and tossed it into the back of the SUV. Whatever she’d had on under it went along for the ride, and she was suddenly, gloriously naked from the waist up. Her teardrop-shaped breasts were neither large nor small, with small, tight nipples beaded in the chill. Damn near perfect—no, check that. Perfect. Her chest and shoulders were subtly muscled, and if she had a tan, it was an all-over one. Gem’s stomach tightened.

Austin glanced in, grinned, and opened her jeans. When she hooked her hands in the waistband, Gem dragged her gaze away. Lord, she must seem like a voyeur. Maybe she was, a teeny bit, because watching Austin undress was definitely enjoyable. She wasn’t cold any longer, that was for sure.

Austin swiveled onto the front seat and shoved down her jeans. Her boots went flying onto the floor on the driver’s side. She was fast, but not so fast Gem couldn’t see her muscular form emerge. She was lean and long, which was no surprise. Her skin blushed red from the reflected dash lights. Her torso was tapered, her hips narrow, and below…Gem carefully didn’t look there. Within seconds it seemed, Austin pulled her jeans up her long legs, lifted her hips, and snugged her pants around her waist. When she raised her arms to tug on her shirt, Gem kept her eyes up, but she’d already seen the long, irregular scar that wrapped around Austin’s torso just below her left breast. Slightly indented, darker than the surrounding skin, the scar was not deforming, but a symbol of something serious nonetheless.

Austin shoved her shirt into her pants and leaned down to pull on her boots. “Thanks for keeping lookout.”

“No problem.”

Austin adjusted her seat, glad to be warm and dry, and glad Gem seemed to have enjoyed watching her change. She wasn’t usually self-conscious or really even aware of how other women perceived her body. She rarely gave it much thought. She kept in shape more because of the nature of her work than anything else, climbing around rigging, hustling from one place to another, and when at home, keeping up the property and stockpiling firewood for the winter. When she was with another woman, her focus was on them, and usually that’s the way they liked it too. She wasn’t above being pleasured, she enjoyed it, but those times her partners were less than reciprocating never really bothered her.

She wondered how Gem saw her and hoped she liked what she saw. That was unlike her, but none of this was really like her. The silence grew, and she thought she knew why. “I was born with a heart defect. That’s what the scar’s from.”

“And the surgery fixed it,” Gem said, her heart beating faster. Of course the problem was fixed, it had to be. Austin was in great shape, and…the idea of Austin being ill, being hurt, was frightening in a way she didn’t want to think about.

“It took a couple of goes. The first time was just a few days after I was born, so they tell me. Then again when I was eleven,” Austin said, her hands loosely clasping the wheel, “but, yeah, all’s good.”

“That must have been really hard.” Gem’s heart hurt imagining Austin’s childhood being shadowed by such a serious illness.

Austin glanced over at her. “Long time ago.”

Gem nodded, hearing the pain but recognizing Austin’s attempt to make light of it. Still, the specter of a young Austin dealing with the fear and discomfort filled her with sympathetic sorrow. Wishing to chase away the shadows, or maybe ease her own sadness, she cupped Austin’s jaw and brushed away a trickle of water trailing down her cheek with her thumb. Austin held so very, very still, Gem was reminded of a wild thing, caught and wary and waiting to be freed or destroyed. Freedom was so very often only a breath away from death. “I’m sorry.”

“Thank you.”

Austin leaned ever so lightly into her palm, or perhaps she imagined that too. If she did, she didn’t care. She couldn’t pull away. She drew Austin’s face closer and kissed her, and when Austin didn’t move back, she let her lips linger, feeling the coolness of the rain disappear from Austin’s soft lips and heat surge against her mouth. She slid her fingers into Austin’s hair, wrapped them around the back of her neck, and stroked her nape as she stroked her mouth. A soft groan escaped from deep in Austin’s chest, and her lips parted in offering. Gem teased a little inside, tasting her, and traced the warm inner surface of her lower lip with the tip of her tongue.