my head back, not a common occurrence for me. I could usually stare guys straight in the eye, and I was rarely this close to them. They were never naked.
He smelled like the forest - green trees, brown earth, and... something wild, something free. I felt as if I were falling into his dark, endless eyes. His cheekbones were sharp, his lips full, his skin perfect. The man was prettier than I was.
I took a giant step back. Just because I was in a woodland clearing with a gorgeous, naked Indian man didn't mean I had to swoon like the heroine of a historical romance novel. I wasn't the type.
"I'm doing my job," I said, as much to answer him as remind myself. "A wolf bit a woman out on the highway. I need to find the thing."
Something flickered in his eyes and was gone so quickly I wasn't sure if I'd seen anything beyond the shift of the moon through the trees.
"I doubt you'll succeed." He turned away again, and this time my gaze caught on a nasty bruise along his hip.
"Ouch," I murmured.
"What?"
"I - uh - " I waved my hand vaguely at his ass. "What happened?"
He twisted, glanced down, frowned, then raised his eyes to mine. "I'm not sure. I must have been clumsy."
As he strolled toward the cabin, I watched him move. Funny, he didn't appear clumsy at all.
He plucked a pair of cutoffs from the porch and yanked them on without benefit of underwear. Why I found that incredibly erotic, I have no idea. But there it was.
Not bothering with a shirt, either, he returned. I found myself entranced by his chest. Smooth, strong, no hair to mar the perfection, would he taste as good as he smelled?
I rubbed my eyes to make the image go away. I needed to get laid and fast. When my pulse leaped in response to the thought, my cheeks heated again.
Down, girl, I admonished my panting libido. You're in the minors; he's a major leaguer.
Still, I could dream, couldn't I?
"Uh... Um. Could you help me pick up the trail?"
Nice, Jessie. Why don't you stutter and drool while you're at it?
Thankfully, he didn't seem to notice my red face and awkward tongue.
"Me?" He ran his fingers through his short hair, frowned, and shook his head, almost as if the cut was new, unfamiliar. His earring danced in the moonlight.
"The blood disappears beyond that bush where you - " I frowned. "You're sure you didn't see him?"
He gave an impatient sigh. "I'm sure."
"Then maybe you could help me pick up the trail again?"
"Why would you think that I know how to track a wolf? Just because I' in Ojibwe?"
"You are?"
He rolled his eyes. "Come on, Officer, you aren't blind and you've been looking."
"You've been showing. I'm also not stupid."
His lips twitched. He nearly smiled before he caught himself. "Even if I knew jack about tracking in the dark, I wouldn't help you find that wolf. You'll kill him."
I shrugged. "He bit a woman. She's going to need rabies shots if I don't find him."
"You won't find him."
Annoyance flashed through me. "You psychic or something?"
"Something."
Whatever that meant.
Chapter 3
As it turned out, he was right. I didn't find that wolf or any other.
The woods were strangely empty that night. I chalked it up to the brightness of the moon and my less than graceful manner of crashing through the underbrush. But later I wondered.
Hell, later I wondered a lot of things.
Like who was that unmasked man? He'd learned my name but never offered his. And I'd had little opportunity to ask.
I'd stepped from the clearing, searching once more for a trace of the trail, and when I glanced back he'd disappeared as suddenly as he'd appeared. Logically I knew he had gone inside - rude as that was without a good-bye - still, I never heard the creak of a porch board or the click of the door.
I moved on, but when the sun came up and I was still empty-handed, I returned to the scene of, the accident. Someone had towed Miss Larson's oversize vehicle away, leaving the glass, plastic, and blood behind. Peachy.
I rousted Zee on the radio.
"Damn, girl. Where have you been? I was gonna send out the cavalry pretty soon."
"I'm fine. Didn't Brad tell you where I was?"
"Off in the woods, alone in the night. You nuts?"
"I had a big gun."
"Someday, Jessie, you are gonna meet someone smarter and meaner than you."
"Someday," I