Arielle and the Three Wolves (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) (24 page)

She relaxed back into the water and was quiet. She realized Luke had created this diversion for her benefit. The water games had all been to make her feel better.

“Our clothes should be dry by now,” he told her and swam back to the bank.

“Thank you, Luke,” she called to him.

“For what? Letting you win?”

“You know,” she told him and let it drop. Luke was a chivalrous guy. That was unique in this day. She truly enjoyed him.

As his dripping body climbed out of the water she quickly turned her back again.

“Everything is dry up here,” he called down to her.

“That’s good,” she said, and looked up at the mountains. The sun shined in her eyes, and her arms flayed in the water. Her eyes got water in them and she had to close them. She rubbed them to get the water out. When she opened them she just caught sight of Luke as he finished with his towel on the shore. He was a naked Adonis. His hard body was spectacular.

Quickly she closed her eyes and turned around again. She didn’t like the lusty thoughts she had about Luke’s body. They seemed wrong somehow. Perhaps it was because she had already started physical relationships with his brothers. But this is where relationships with shifters got all confused. It was a fact that both Jason and Kyle wanted her to have a sexual relationship with Luke. That’s why she had agreed to come up to the ranch in the first place, and that had been Luke’s stated purpose to bring her out to the forest. She hated this part of her relationship with the men. It was so impossible to figure out and square with what passed for normal. She had to try and find some barometer on what was right and wrong in this new life, but so far that barometer was miserably nonexistent.

“There’s a towel up here for you if you want to come up and dry off,” he yelled down to her.

“That’s good,” was her clipped response, her back still to him.

“Well, come on,” he prodded her. “You’ve been in the water all afternoon. Your skin is going to be warped.”

“Just set the towel down,” she called over her shoulder at him, her voice sharp with strain. “I’ll get to it when I want to. Just leave!” she knew she sounded bitchy because she was angry. At the moment she didn’t care.

He didn’t say anymore to her. In another minute she saw him walk off down the trail in the woods. She took the opportunity to swim over to the shore and pull herself out of the pond. Her body was frozen when it came in contact with the air. She was afraid he would come back any minute and didn’t want him to catch her in her underwear.

She plucked up her shorts and halter off the rock. They were dry but very stiff from the sun. She took her underwear off and then got dressed in only the shorts and halter. She leaned back down to the pond and dunked her panties in the water and washed them briefly. She could dry them back at the campsite. Then she walked around and found her shoes where she had first taken them off.

Luke waited for her back at the camp. He attended to the horses. “I don’t like washing my clothes like this,” she told him. “They’re too tight and scratchy when I put them back on, and I think my top has shrunk.”

“Yeah, I think it has,” he agreed with her, and favored her with another smile. “It must be the material.”

She felt a blush spread across her face as she looked down at the halter. It was about two sizes smaller now, and she didn’t even have a bra to wear with it at the moment.

She sat down on the ground across the campfire from him and leaned back against the fallen log. A huge yawn enveloped her and she had to put her hand over her mouth to stifle it. Then it suddenly dawned on her she had been awake all day with only two hours of sleep last night. No wonder she acted like a bitch. She looked across at Luke. He had probably had even less sleep than she had, but still seemed to be filled with energy.

“How do you go without sleep?” she asked him.

“It isn’t hard. I’ll sleep later.”

“It’s hard for me. Now that I’ve warmed up out of the water, I can barely keep my eyes open.”

“That won’t be a problem. I’ve got just the thing for that.”

“You Wildback men have an answer for everything,” she said, with a hint of sarcasm. She felt so sleepy at the moment that it made her feel mean-minded.

“If only that were true,” he answered sadly.

He went back to the magic duffle bags and pulled out a small blanket and even smaller pillow. Then he went to unzip the flap of her tent. “That’s why we put these things up,” he told her. “Try them out. They’re pretty comfortable.”

She dragged her weary bones up off the ground and went to her tent. He handed her the pillow and blanket. “Thanks.”

“You’ll feel better after you’ve had a few hours of sleep.”

“You’re right about that.”

“While you’re sleeping I’m going out and catch our dinner. How would you like to have rabbit?”

“How are you going to catch a rabbit out here?”

His smile was broad. “I’m a shifter. Catching rabbits is what I do best.”

He started to leave, but she stopped him. “Luke, sorry if I’ve been a little grouchy. This was really a good day. You tried hard to make it good.”

“It was a good day,” he agreed with her.

She stood close to him and just wanted to take the time to look at him for a moment. He smelled so fresh and clean out of the water, and she had to admit that his shirt looked better on him than it did on her, though he looked even better with no shirt on at all. His eyes were blue and flecked with hazel. They reflected who he was. They were sure and honest.

“Get some sleep,” he ordered her, and pulled her to him. She was happy to go into his arms. He gave her a gentle kiss on the top of her still-wet hair. Then he was gone off into the forest to catch their dinner.

Inside the tent she pulled down the zipper and gladly shut out the outside world. A tough polyethylene material covered the floor so she didn’t have to sleep on the ground. When she lay down and brought the blanket over her shoulders it was actually very comfortable. Her body was numb with tiredness, and she didn’t even curl into a ball which was her normal sleep position. Instead she lay on her back, her hands behind her head and looked up. A mesh window was overhead so she could see out and up to the sky and the overhead mountains. Outside the tent some late afternoon crickets screeched.

She felt completely safe and at ease. It was like she had everything she wanted. She felt content and a bit wicked because she had so much all of a sudden to be thankful for. She had three men who loved her and wanted to share her. Maybe that wasn’t so bad after all. They were all good men, and her heart had found a place for each of them.

She went back and forth on this. At this moment before sleep came to her, she felt happy in the multiple-partner relations with the men. She was okay with it and could accept it because she viewed each man as an individual. It was kind of like Jason had explained to her. They were a family. An odd family, but still a family.

Next she thought of her sister, and even worse her mother and father. By this time Bethany would be out of her mind with worry about her due to the fact she had not received a call all day. Adam, her husband, would try and calm her down, but without success since he normally did whatever Bethany told him to do.

Yesterday morning when she had a brief conversation with Bethany, she had gone all Spanish Inquisition on her about her relationship with Jason. Bethany didn’t know about Kyle, and she didn’t know about Luke. Of course she didn’t know they were shape-shifters either. There was so much to tell, and Arielle didn’t know the right words, or even where to begin.

Her mother and father would be a different case entirely. They were old-fashioned, religious, and slightly judgmental. Never in a million years could they understand the choices she had made out here.

Arielle pounded the polyethylene floor of the tent with her fist. She was frustrated and angry. She turned to her side and curled up into her favorite position. She willed herself not to think anymore, and within five minutes sleep had blissfully come to her. She had more dreams. This time there were three men in her dreams.

When Arielle woke up it was about to get dark outside the tent. She unzipped the tent and stepped out to the smell of roasted rabbit over the open fire. Luke kneeled in front of the fire and prepared their dinner. She felt refreshed from her sleep. She had been asleep for four hours and recharged her batteries.

“That smells good,” she said to Luke as she approached.

“You feel better?”

“I do.”

“I hope you’re hungry.”

“I am.”

Luke mixed some sort of brown sauce in the pan with the rabbit. It smelled good in the fresh air. He got up and made room for her next to the fire. “Have a seat,” he told her.

She sat down next to him. She wiped her hair back out of her face and knew she looked horrible after her sleep. But she didn’t care. The outdoors and Luke’s steady presence removed any need for vanity. She would enjoy another meal outside. She had never realized what an outdoors-type person she was until this trip. She had learned something else about herself.

“Thank you,” she said to Luke as he served her up a big portion of rabbit with brown sauce and canned vegetables he had brought along with them. Out in the woods the crickets were singing, and a flash of lightning flared over the mountains followed by a distant crackle of thunder. She watched Luke eat and realized he was in his element. He could have stayed up here in the forest for the next year and been just as happy. “What about Jason and Kyle?” she finally asked Luke.

“They know me. By this time they realized I went off the deep end and kidnapped you. They’re used to me messing up.”

“Don’t you think they’re worried about us?”

“Jason’s probably out looking for us.”

“You know I only have five more days until I have to go back to work.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll have you back by then. I’m sorry if I ruined this part of your vacation.”

“It hasn’t been so bad.” She looked down at the rabbit and made a face. “But this could use a little seasoning. Next time why don’t you catch the dinner and let me cook it.”

“You
are
a good cook, Arielle.”

“Thanks.” She smiled. She still had not gotten used to a compliment from another person on her culinary skills, and she liked the way Luke said it. He was simple and just stated it as a fact. More thunder rumbled off in the mountains, and a cool breeze hit her in the face. “Do you really think Jason and Kyle would come up here looking for us?”

“I know they would.” He laughed. “Surely one or both of them has warned you about me by now.” He gave her a pointed look.

“Well, not exactly,” she said, and at the same time she remembered Kyle’s words about Luke. He had told her he was dangerous.

“You know birth order is real important in shifter families,” Luke told her. “We tend to take our cue in life from where we were born in the family. Jason is the oldest, and so he’s the dominant alpha and the leader. Kyle is number two so he is good-natured, laid back, and confident.” He left off and didn’t move onto himself.

“What about you?” Arielle asked him after a minute passed. “What about number three?”

“Number three is a misfit. I don’t really get along with people very well. I love to be out here in the mountains, and yet I don’t always belong here either. It’s like I’m running back and forth between the ranch and out here all my life.” He narrowed his eyes and looked across the fire at her. “What about you? Are you older or younger than your sister?”

“I’m three years older than Bethany.”

“So you don’t know what it’s like.”

“Actually, I do. I might be the oldest, but I was never the leader.” Arielle laughed when she thought back on some of the memories from her childhood. “I’ve spent my whole life goofing up and making my parents feel bad. Bethany’s always been the one to make them happy. She charms everyone. Her and her husband, Adam, have been together since her freshman year in college. Now they’re expecting their first child. My mom and dad are ecstatic. I, on the other hand, wasted three years on a loser. Everyone tried to politely tell me he was a scumbag, and I was too dumb to listen.”

“Sounds like you’ve really beat yourself up about that.”

“Yes, for the last two years. Mom and dad won’t be getting grandkids from me any time soon. There’s not so much pressure now with Bethany being pregnant.” Arielle looked down at the ground as she chewed on her rabbit stew. “And now I’ve really gone off the deep end and gotten myself involved with you guys. Nobody I know back home would ever understand what I’m doing out here. I’m only just starting to understand it myself.”

“Are you embarrassed by us?”

She sighed and shook her head. “No. I’m more embarrassed by myself and my own actions.”

“But why?” he asked. “You love Jason and Kyle. You said so yourself. What’s there to be embarrassed over?”

“Because there are two of them.” Another thought tugged at the back of her mind and she looked back up at him and amended her words. “Three of you,” she said.

He gave her another simple and matter-of-fact look. “That’s why shifters live out here away from people. We don’t get caught up in all their petty judgments.”