Shutting her eyes, she recalled a night spent in another desert when she’d driven down to Baja California for a project in time-lapse videography. After hours of scouting, she’d located a small growth of thin, inconspicuous, dead-looking branches hidden among a patch of scrub—a night-blooming cereus. After setting up cameras, she’d spent the night vigilantly watching for the desert queen to unfurl for its single night of glory. When the flower finally opened, it had perfumed the air with a sweet and delicate scent. She sat watching the flower until it had wilted and withered away with the first light of dawn. Watching that bloom come to life had been one her most memorable experiences.
Keith made her feel very much like that desert flower waiting to bloom. She yearned to be touched…to be loved…and her resistance to him was fading fast. The kiss intensified, blinding her with blissful sensation. Nothing compared to the taste of his mouth, of his musky scent, of the feel of his warm hands on her skin. It was everything she’d hoped for and more. Any lingering doubts vaporized like a puff of breath in the cold night air.
Her hands crept up to his chest, the heat of his skin permeating through the cotton of his shirt into her fingertips. She swallowed hard. A low growl broke the quiet of the night. Miranda froze. “What was that?”
He tensed. “What was what?”
“That sound.”
Another growl was echoed by bloodcurdling shrieks from the two horses. Keith was instantly on his feet and shouldering his rifle. He took off running toward the horses while Miranda fumbled in the dark for the flashlight. She arrived at the scene just as a great shadow leaped through the air. She drew in a breath to scream but, paralyzed with terror, no sound emerged. The panic-stricken horses frantically kicked, reared, and hauled back on the picket line in their urgency to flee. The line snapped. The lamp crashed to the ground, casting the scene into darkness.
“I can’t see anything!” Keith hissed. “Shine the light out there.”
The narrow beam of her flashlight pierced the darkness, but not enough to help.
“Where is it?” she asked.
“I don’t know. Shit!” Keith fired a shot into the air, cocked the rifle again, and fired another.
Miranda then shone the light on the ground beneath the picket line, where puddles of blood soaked the earth, trailing into the blackness beyond. She covered her mouth in horror. “Oh my God! What was it?”
“A mountain lion,” he answered grimly. “With the way it leapt, it couldn’t be anything else.”
“What are we going to do?” she asked.
“Nothing. He’s already made the kill.”
“How do you know? How can you be certain the animal isn’t just wounded?”
“Mountain lions never wound, Miranda. They are masters of the surgical strike. It’s almost always a clean, fast kill. At least the other two got away.”
Miranda’s throat closed on a choked sob. “It’s all my fault! It happened on my watch.”
“There’s nothing you could have done,” he consoled her.
“Wh-what about us?” she asked. “What if it comes back? What if there are more of them out there?” Her hands flew to her neck at a sudden vision of a lion with fangs bared lunging at her throat.
“There won’t be others,” Keith replied. “Mountain lions are territorial. They always hunt alone. And that one is unlikely to strike twice, but my rifle’s loaded just in case.” Looping a strong arm around her waist, he guided her into motion. “Let’s get away from here. You’ll be safer by the fire.”
*
Miranda’s teeth chattered, and her body still racked with aftershocks as they settled back under the blanket together. She was close enough to be a second skin, but he knew it wasn’t a sexual invitation. She sought only warmth and comfort, but he still couldn’t help the surge of blood to his dick. Danger, especially close encounters with death, often incited sexual desire. The danger had been real, and so was his lingering lust, but the moment for acting on it had passed.
“Cold or frightened?” he asked, pulling her closer still.
“Both,” she answered with a shaky laugh. “You really don’t think it’ll come back?” she whispered.
“It won’t. It’s probably gorging itself right now.”
She shuddered. “I didn’t need that visual. Which one did it get?”
“I’m not sure.”
“What are we going to do out here with no horses?” she asked.
“I have the sat phone, remember? I can call for help if need be, but we’ll probably find the horses once the sun rises. After that adventure, they’ll be as happy to go home as we’ll be.”
In reality, Keith would be more relieved than happy to take Miranda back. Although his first priority was to keep her safe, he wouldn’t have minded more time alone with her.
“I can’t believe this whole experience,” she said. “It’s like a weird dream. Do people really live like this? With poisonous snakes and horse-eating lions?”
“Where I come from they do. We coexist with many predators, including wolves and grizzlies. I thought you said your grandparents have a ranch. Didn’t you ever encounter any wildlife there?”
“It’s actually just my grandma’s now. We rode horses and played around with the cattle, but I never experienced anything like this before.”
He chuckled. “You aren’t in Kansas anymore, Dorothy.”