Bear Fur Hire (Bears Fur Hire #2)(14)

Jenner kicked his horse toward a grove of young trees and dismounted without a word, so she followed suit. He tied their lead horses to a low hanging branch and pulled her to him, so close she had to rest her hands on his chest to fight the urge to hug his waist. In her ear, he whispered, “Get your equipment. Long range shit if you have it.”

“Okay,” she said on a breath. His smooth jaw brushed her cheek as he pulled away. And while she clicked her long-range lens to her camera and pulled out a tripod, Jenner busied himself with loading a rifle. Bears? Her hands started shaking. This was it. She would finally see an Alaskan brown bear. Her middle became a warzone of excitement and terror while adrenaline dumped into her veins, making it feel like she was floating as she hiked after Jenner through the thick brush.

When the sound of splashing touched her ears, Jenner crouched and eventually lay down on the pine needle-blanketed ground. Slowly, quietly, they moved forward toward a tall wall of marsh grass, and when he carefully pulled the barrier aside, she had to swallow a gasp of excitement before she scared the animals off. It was a moose, standing belly-high in a pond, and behind her was a newborn baby, still wobbly but splashing with one hoof in the shallows.

When she turned to grace Jenner with a grateful look, he had moved closer to her and was staring at the smile on her lips with the most peculiar expression on his face. Hunger?

Now her nerves were out of control, and Jenner was the cause of it. Desperate to steady her trembling hands, Lena dragged her attention back to the animals. Jenner hid her actions by letting the grass fall gently back into place, and slowly, she set up her tripod on the shortest setting. When she was ready, he pushed it aside again. Her first shot brought a big old grin to her face. Momma moose was broadside, staring directly at them with a long strand of deep green pond grass hanging from her dripping lips, and the baby was mid-splash behind her. A money shot, and the perfect way to start this trip. Bucks and Backwoods was getting low on moose shots, and she was about to pump up their photo options for future issues. And not just with distant, hurried shots. Jenner had got her in extremely close with a long range lens, and momma moose was a f*cking supermodel. Morning sun bouncing off her clean coat, ears erect and interested, she kept freezing to listen for danger, giving Lena shot after shot of un-blurred photographic gold. God, she couldn’t wait to look at these pictures later because every one she reviewed between shots made her heart stutter. What an incredible, magnificent, gigantic, graceful animal, and her baby was adorable with personality for miles. And when the moose moved from the pond, Jenner brushed her waist lightly and gestured for her to follow him. Slowly, silently, they stalked the moose and set up again in the brush to take more shots of the pair drying off in the shade of a Western Hemlock tree. She even got shots of the mother nuzzling the baby’s face and of the little one nursing.

Lena had taken classes on animal behavior for every species she would potentially come into contact with, and she knew just how dangerous Moose could be, especially mothers, but here, in the cover of the brush, she was astounded by the moment Jenner had secured for her.

Jenner Silver was good. He was real good.

The animals meandered off slowly, but he didn’t make a move to leave. As they disappeared into the woods completely, Jenner turned to her from where he lay on his stomach beside her, and said, “Lena, I’m sorry about your dad.”

She jerked the camera as she began to remove it from the small tripod and accidentally took a picture of the ground. “What?”

“You talked about your dad’s funeral last night and how he taught you to shoot. Your voice sounds sad when you mention him, and I’m sorry for it. Sorry he’s gone. Sorry you hurt.”

For a minute, she couldn’t find her words, nor could she push them past her tightening throat if she had, but at last, she swallowed hard and rested her cheek on her crossed arms. The sunlight was throwing gold speckles across his cheeks and one right against his eye, making it look fiercely beautiful. “Did you lose your dad?”

His eyes tightened as he huffed a soft breath. “This isn’t about me. Let’s go.”

He made to stand up, but Lena clutched onto his wrist and kept him beside her. “What is your problem?”

His eyes empty, he shrugged and whispered, “I don’t have a problem.”

“You do!” she whisper-screamed. “One minute you’re nice to me, and the next you’re cold, and I can’t keep up with your changing moods, Jenner. And furthermore—”

Jenner’s lips crashed onto hers. Utterly shocked, Lena reared back and slapped him. The air sparked between them as they glared each other down, but Jenner had started a storm in her middle, churning and unavoidable, and before she could stop herself, she kissed him back. Hard. Jenner’s hands were fire against her skin as he rucked up her shirt and rolled on top of her. His lips moved against hers, relentless and overbearing, and he used his teeth when he sucked on her bottom lip. Angry, turned on, and out of control, she bit his lip hard, and a rattling sound filled his chest. Wild thing.

He moved over her gracefully as he grabbed the back of her neck and pushed his tongue past her lips, and holy f*ck, she could taste him now. He even tasted feral. A helpless moan left her as she rolled her hips against him. He lowered his mouth to the tripping pulse at her neck, shoved her knees farther apart, and ground his thick erection against her sex.

“Oooh, that feels good,” she murmured, eyes rolling back in her head. This right here was what it felt like to lose her mind.