Ensnared (The Accidental Billionaires #1)(39)

She shook her head. “No more than somebody staying in the park. A person has a better chance of getting struck by lightning than getting attacked by a bear. The large percentage of attacks are due to human error. I’m not saying it doesn’t happen without provocation, but it’s extremely rare.”

“Human error? Like running?”

“Sometimes. One of the biggest mistakes is getting too close to cubs. Females are incredibly protective.”

“You don’t sound the least bit nervous about coming face to face with a grizzly,” I grumbled.

“I’m not,” she told me. “I’m excited. That wasn’t my first bear encounter, but it’s my first grizzly. Don’t get me wrong, we didn’t need to be that close. And I respect the fact that the bears are wild animals, and anything could happen. But I’ve always wanted to see one in their natural environment.”

Fuck! She was actually flushed with excitement and smiling.

“This has happened to you before?” I asked.

“Of course. I did all kinds of fieldwork, Eli. I’m a wildlife conservationist. Granted, I never got outside California, but we have plenty of bears.”

“I don’t like it,” I answered stubbornly. “It’s a dangerous job.”

She moved closer and slammed into my shoulder playfully. “Most of the time, I study data in a laboratory. Running into a bear is a rarity.”

“They can be aggressive.” Jesus! Didn’t she know that something bad could have happened?

“He was up and sniffing. That’s usually curiosity and not aggression. But I agree. He was a huge male. But we were invading his territory. That’s always a very small risk that you take when you hike. Especially in this area.”

“I was more worried about snakes,” I said, pissed off at myself because I’d hardly considered other risks.

“Human-and-bear encounters happen. But being mauled or killed by one is a rarity. For the most part, they’d rather avoid humans.”

“No more hiking,” I told her as we arrived at our tent.

I waited until she was inside, and then closed the door behind us. It was going to take a hell of a long time to forget the sight of her in front of me while we were having a confrontation with a damn grizzly.

Maybe she was able to handle it well, but I was probably going to have nightmares about what could have gone wrong.

I bent down to reassure my canine, who was clearly still confused by what had happened. “Good boy,” I told him as I stroked his head.

Charlie was easy. After a minute of affection, he was back to normal.

Jade took off her jacket and bent down to pet Charlie, too. “He was a good boy. If he wasn’t so well trained, we could have had trouble on our hands.”

As I straightened up, I asked, “So what do you do if a bear charges?”

She took off the belt around her waist, and dropped the hiking tools and bear spray on the kitchen counter.

“It depends,” she replied. “Sometimes they’ll do a fake charge to get you to move away. But if they’re really going to engage, you wait until they’re within twenty-five feet or closer and hit them with bear spray.” She looked up at me and added, “Hey, you really look worried. Are you okay?”

“Not completely,” I admitted. “I was afraid you’d get hurt.”

“You were worried about me?” she questioned softly, her expression slightly surprised.

“For God’s sake, I brought you here, Jade. And something could have happened to you because I picked the wrong damn place to go.”

I wasn’t afraid to admit I’d been pretty damn scared that the bear would go rogue and hurt her.

And it would have been my fault.

“I’m fine, Eli. I was nervous the first time I had a close encounter with a bear. But I guess I’ve learned that the worst thing a person can do is panic. I’ve had years of experience and research into animal behavior. You haven’t. I know it’s pretty terrifying.”

“I wasn’t afraid for me,” I rasped. “I was worried that something would happen to you. One mistake and you could have been dinner.”

She came forward and touched my arm. “We didn’t make a mistake, Eli.”

I had her in my arms before she could blink, and I held her so tightly she probably couldn’t breathe.

We stayed that way for a couple of minutes, and the feeling of her safe body against me eventually calmed my ass down.

“Are you okay?” she asked.

I released her slowly. “Yeah. I’m good.”

I was a damn liar. I still didn’t really want to let her out of my sight.

Lighten up, Stone! If she wasn’t scared before, I’m probably making her anxious with my behavior.

“I should make a few calls and let the local wildlife stations know that we had a grizzly encounter. They like to monitor when the bears begin moving away from the park.”

I took off my jacket and started to remove my boots. “No problem. We can go to dinner right after that.”

“Thanks for caring about my welfare,” she said softly.

I looked up at her from my stooped position. “Thanks for making sure we weren’t on the dinner menu for Smokey.”

She laughed as she rummaged for her cell phone.