Wind River Wrangler (Wind River Valley #1)(19)

“Mmmm, this is good,” Shiloh murmured, giving him a warm look of thanks. “You really are handy in the kitchen.” She saw Roan’s eyes change, a glint in them. She wasn’t sure what it meant, but the feeling radiating from him was like a velvet embrace around her shoulders. What would it be like to slide her fingers down that hard-muscled forearm, sun darkened, dusted with dark hair? Something cautioned Shiloh not to try to find out. There was intense sexuality oozing out of his pores. She could practically feel it. And worst of all, her nipples were puckered. Groaning inwardly, Shiloh didn’t want to try to move the material because it would only draw his attention to them. Geez Louise. What was wrong with her body? It suddenly had a mind of its own! At least around Roan, it did.

There was nothing she could do. If she tried to put her arms across her chest to hide them, then she couldn’t drink the hot chocolate. Her breasts tightened with just the thought of Roan’s callused fingers grazing her nipples. What must it feel like? Her mind had gone off the deep end for sure. Shiloh never looked at men in sexual terms. And that’s all she could see in Roan when he was near her. Shiloh was convinced the stress of the last six months had finally caught up with her and she was having some kind of lusting meltdown.

“I’m going to be riding out to the Pine Grove area tomorrow,” he told her. Roan could see the sudden realization and awareness in her face about her nipples pressing proudly against the material she wore. A pink flush had crept up her throat and into her face. The sudden skittering of her eyes said it all. She had a momentary panicked look in them and then quickly looked away from him.

Roan made sure he didn’t look down at her breasts, having no wish to make Shiloh any more stressed or uncomfortable than she already was. He laughed at himself because in the past, in Special Forces, he could have any woman he wanted when stateside. Didn’t take much to get one, either. They always hung around well-known Team clubs off base. For some, it was a notch in their gun belt when they bedded down a vaunted sergeant out of the A-teams.

“I don’t know how to ride a horse,” Shiloh confessed, giving Roan a concerned look.

“No worries. We’ll find you a nice, quiet mount and I’ll walk you through everything.” He saw instant relief on her face. Roan decided Shiloh was incapable of hiding her feelings. “How often do you get these nightmares?”

Squirming, Shiloh admitted haltingly, “A couple of times a week. Sometimes more, if I get faxes from him.”

Nodding, Roan saw the terror banked deeply in her green eyes, wishing he could remove it. “What are the nightmares about?”

Rubbing her brow, Shiloh felt fear snaking through her. “Just . . . a shadowy man’s form moving from one building to another, coming after me.”

“Do you see a face?” No wonder she screamed and dropped the mug when she saw him in the shadows of the living room. Damn. Roan felt bad now.

Shaking her head, she muttered, “No, but I wish I did. I wish I knew who this bastard was. He’s taken my life away from me, Roan. I can’t explain it, but I’m so fearful now.” Giving him a misery-laden look she admitted, “Like right now? I happened to catch your shadowy figure in the living room and it just punched every fear button I own. I’m really sorry. It wasn’t you. It’s my damned imagination, I guess.”

“I’m glad you can separate me out from your stalker,” he teased, trying to make her feel better. Roan would have liked to put his fist through the man’s face. “Look,” he said, “this guy is gutless. He can’t face you.”

“I would never associate you with a stalker, Roan,” she said, giving him a frown. “I’d give ANYTHING to know who he is. No one in law enforcement will believe me. They think I’m making this up to get newspaper and Net publicity.” She snorted. “That is so crass! I would NEVER do anything like that! Any publicity I’ve ever received, I’ve earned the hard way by writing a darned good book.”

Hearing the fierce passion in her words, seeing it in the defiant look in her eyes, Roan nodded. “So the FBI or local law enforcement aren’t trying to follow down the phone used for those faxes?”

“Correct.” She rested her chin in the palm of her hand, feeling the frustration. “I mean, the only way they’re going to believe me is when they find me dead in my apartment someday. Then it will be too late.”

Just the thought of Shiloh dead made his heart feel as if a fist had suddenly squeezed it. “Do you have any idea who it might be? A pissed-off male fan?”

Shrugging, Shiloh sighed. “I don’t know. I’ve gone through my e-mail correspondence with my readers and I can’t find anything to suggest something like this.”

“You do have male readers, don’t you?”

“I do. Not many, though, mostly women.”

“If it were a man, Shiloh, why would he want to do this to you?”

Rolling her eyes, she muttered, “I don’t know. Maybe my love scenes? In a romance there’s always love scenes. I’m known for hot scenes. Not erotic, but hot.”

Roan tried to keep focused on the discussion, and not forming fantasies of love scenes and erotic images of her in his bed. His senses told him she’d be damned sensitive, hot, and a little wild in bed. He’d bet money on it. But this wasn’t the time to go there. He saw the hurt in her eyes, the worry. Her lips were thinned. “So, do all authors get some men who are like that? They get turned on by the love scenes and then start stalking you? Unable to separate reality from fiction?”