Montana Rescue (The Wildes of Birch Bay Book 2) by Kim Law Read Free Book Online

She’d talked enough for one day. Nick let her lead for several minutes before catching up, but he didn’t immediately speak. When they came out of the trees, though, and the helo sat across the field in front of them, he finally broke the silence. And she appreciated his levity.
    “So is that thing your only means of transportation?”
    She smiled halfheartedly. “I also own a four-wheel-drive truck, as well as a jeep.”
    “No car for you?”
    “Cars don’t always go where I want to take them.” They reached the perimeter of the helicopter, and she turned to him. “But I’d just finished up a job today. Hadn’t made it back home yet.”
    “What do you do?”
    “Whatever someone will pay me for.” She spent a couple of minutes filling him in on the types of fares she contracted for. Tours over Glacier National Park, a pickup or drop-off from airports, showing realtors and potential buyers around the area.
    “You stay busy?”
    “I do okay.” Only, she didn’t do what they’d purchased the helicopter for. She glanced toward the lake once again. “So . . . tomorrow?”
    “You’re not going to try to make me puke again, are you?”
    She deadpanned. “Only if you get on my nerves again.”
    “Well, I’m not sure I can promise not to do that.” He smiled at her then. It wasn’t the panty-dropping, making-women-beg-at-his-feet smile that he seemed to enjoy bandying about so much . . . but it was potent enough. In fact, she had the same reaction to this one as she’d had when he had turned the super-sexy smile on her. She got hot all over.
    But the thing was, she’d thought her response was about attraction. A simple reawakening of her libido. Only, at the moment, it wasn’t merely parts of her coming back to life. It was desire. It was hunger .
    She wanted sex, and she wanted it with Nick.
    The realization floored her.
    “Let me pay you for the ride tomorrow.”
    She looked down her nose at him. “As if.”
    Then he shifted and leaned in. It was a subtle move, but she couldn’t miss it. He was crowding her. Testing her boundaries. And her internal panic button blazed to life.
    And what she realized was that just because she had a reawakened urge to do more than lie alone in her own bed at night, it didn’t necessarily mean she was actually ready to do more. She took a step back. “We’ll call it a favor for my little sister’s friend,” she suggested.
    “How about a favor for your friend?”
    Her pulse thumped harder. Did friendship come with responsibilities she wasn’t ready for?
    Nick studied her as she battled with her internal dialogue, and she sensed that he wouldn’t let her tease the moment away. He was pushing her, seeing where she’d let him in. But she couldn’t bring herself to answer. Because she didn’t know the answer. Friendship somehow seemed scarier than the idea of sex.
    “Could you use a friend, Harper?”
    “I—”
    “Because I could use one.”
    The moment had grown heavy once again. “I somehow suspect that you have all the friends you need, Mr. Montana’s Favorite Cowboy. You certainly didn’t seem to be lacking for any Saturday night.”
    Interest flared in his eyes at her words, and she realized he could take them to mean that she’d been watching him at the rodeo last weekend. As she had been. But he politely didn’t point that out.
    Instead, his voice lowered, and he said, “But I don’t have any who know my secrets.”
    Shock froze her. Nick Wilde had secrets? He seemed so carefree.
    “I’ll pick you up here after lunch.” She backed toward the cockpit door. She didn’t want to talk about secrets, his or hers. “I have an early charter in the morning, but I’ll be here by one.”
    “I’ll be waiting.”
    Forcing herself to break eye contact, she turned and climbed into the cockpit. Her hands were shaking as she powered up, but she ignored them. She didn’t know what she wanted from Nick. Someone to talk to? Sex? A friend?
    And what