Again

Anne clipped her hair into a knot on top of her head and took a quick shower. Long trips always made her feel grimy, but that wasn’t the only reason. The old cliché about horny guys taking a cold shower to cool down actually made sense. Her body was on fire after Brad’s kiss. The man kissed like he’d meant it. She’d only known him for what? Fifteen minutes?

How would he kiss her after a few days? After they got to know each other.

Why wasn’t she freaking out? She never kissed men she didn’t know. Actually, they never kissed her. But Brad did. And damn it all, he kissed her like he meant it.

The shower helped, though the minute she got out and thought of him she flushed hot all over again. “Oh. My.” Fanning herself, Anne stared at the woman in the mirror. Her cheeks were pink, her eyes sparkled, and she could swear her lips were swollen from kissing. She’d never, ever reacted to a guy the way she did to Brad, but then she’d never had a totally hot guy kiss her just minutes after meeting her.

Who was she kidding? She’d never had a totally hot guy kiss her. Ever.

She really needed to get her act together. She added some lip gloss, unclipped her hair, and brushed it out so that it fell in thick waves past her shoulders. Wrapping the towel around herself, she opened the suitcase she hadn’t had time to unpack and dug through it, looking for clean underwear and her favorite knit maxi dress.

She wanted to look as good as possible, but she was too tired to stress over it.

A strange noise had her spinning around. Something had clunked against the cabin door—not quite a knock, but someone was obviously out there. Anne glanced at the little clock beside the bed. Brad had left a little over twenty minutes ago.

He wouldn’t really send someone after her, would he?

Heart thudding, she wrapped the towel tighter around herself and opened the door just a crack.

An absolutely spectacular silver and gray wolf sat on the front step. He raised his head and whined, stood, and pushed at the crack in the door with his nose as if he had every right to come inside.

Anne didn’t think. She merely stepped aside and let the wolf into her cabin. He walked past her and straight to the bed, where he stopped, turned, and, if she didn’t know better, posed for her. He really was beautiful, and obviously friendly. She felt absolutely no fear of the animal—in fact, she wanted to pet him but wasn’t sure if she should.

Holding her towel tightly between her breasts, she studied the beast. He appeared to be studying her right back.

“Did Brad send you?”

The wolf looked at her, tongue lolling, and yipped. Then he planted his butt on the little rug beside the bed and stared at her suitcase.

Talk about Mr. Obvious, but if that wasn’t an answer—she couldn’t wait until she told Christa and Steph about her visitor. “Okay, already,” she said. “I’ll get dressed.” She almost dropped the towel, but then she took another look at the wolf, at the way he watched her out of those perceptive evergreen eyes, and she blushed. Again. He seemed much too intelligent for an animal, that direct stare, his obvious responses to her questions.

She’d read that wolves were really smart.

But not this smart.

Still, did she want to strip down in front of him?

Absolutely not. Instead, she tightened her towel around herself, tucked the end in between her breasts, and unpacked her cotton knit dress with a pattern and fit that disguised her extra weight. She laid it out on the bed and quickly pulled her underpants on under the towel.

She took a quick glance at the wolf.

He was staring toward the window, totally ignoring her, which made her feel really stupid. He was an animal. There was absolutely no reason at all for her to feel embarrassed being naked in front of an animal.

With that thought in mind, she dropped the towel on the floor and reached for her bra.

The wolf whined. She turned. He’d moved. He stood beside her, his green eyes focused on her breasts. Anne yanked the dress up and covered herself. The wolf dropped to his belly and covered his eyes with both front paws.

Stunned, Anne watched him. Then she turned away and set the dress aside, quickly slipped into her bra, waited a couple of seconds, and spun back around. His head was up, eyes wide open.

The moment she turned, his head went back to the floor and his paws covered his eyes.

“No one will ever believe this. A peeping wolf?” Definitely too bizarre for words. She pulled the dress over her head. “Go ahead,” she said. “You can look now.”

The wolf sat up, mouth open in a big doggy grin while she slipped her feet into comfortable sandals and grabbed a soft shawl in case the weather turned cool. She wasn’t sure what got into her, but Anne went to her knees in front of the wolf so that she could look at him eye to eye. “I’m not sure what your game is, big guy, but I like you. I didn’t want to come on this trip with my sister and her friend. I think they tricked me into coming because I’m not really comfortable in new places, but so far this has been the best time I’ve ever had. Though you, my friend, are a bit of an enigma.” She stood, and then shook her head. “Great. I can’t believe I’m having a conversation with a wolf. Maybe I have been working too hard.”

She stood, glanced around the cute little cabin, and realized it already felt familiar and comfortable. The wolf watched her, and if she didn’t know better, she’d think he looked concerned. Maybe she did need a drink. “C’mon,” she said, snapping her fingers as she opened the door. “Why don’t you show me where the bar is.”

Then she opened the door and followed the wolf outside.

* * *

The sound of laughter drew Anne to the broad deck in front of the lodge. Christa and Steph were seated at a long picnic table with the three women they’d seen earlier. She glanced back to see if the wolf was still with her, but he’d faded into the forest.

Disappointed she couldn’t show off her new friend, Anne climbed the stairs to the deck.

“We were just wondering where you were.” Steph scooted over and made room for Anne on the long bench.

“I needed a shower. Driving that far makes me feel grungy.” She sat in the vacant spot and faced the three strangers. They were each beautiful, and, as usually happened in situations like this, it would take two of them to make up one of her.

It used to bother her. She’d learned to accept she was who she was and there was no point in wishing she could be different. Not that her personal philosophy totally stopped her agonizing, but still … 

Smiling, she reached across the table to shake hands with the closest woman. “I’m Anne.”

“I’m Fred.” The tiny blonde laughed at Anne’s raised eyebrows. “Fredericka, but if you call me that I’ll have to kill you. This is Suni on my right, Darnell on her right.”

“They’re up from L.A.,” Christa said. “Suni’s a costume designer, Darnell does makeup, and Fred’s a hairstylist. They just finished work on a movie they can’t talk about yet.”

“Wow. A secret movie?” Anne glanced at the three.

Fred rolled her eyes. “We had to sign an agreement not to talk about it. The director’s superstitious.”

“But he’s really good,” Darnell added.

“And we all got paid on time.” Suni poked Darnell in the shoulder. “That’s never a given in this business.”

“Hey, Anne.” Brad stepped out of the lodge with an empty wineglass and a newly opened bottle of Chardonnay. “I was beginning to wonder if you were coming.”

She took the glass and held it while Brad poured. “Are you saying you didn’t send that big, beautiful guy to my cabin?”

His smile was so damned sexy she broke out in goose bumps from head to toe. “I take it you had a visitor?”

“You might say so.” She took a sip of her wine. Brad winked and then turned away to refill the glasses for the other women.

Christa reached around Steph and poked Anne’s arm. “I wanna know more about your visitor.”

Anne had no idea why she blushed, but it never took much to set her off. Sometimes she wondered if she were the only woman in the world who spent as much time showing everyone just how embarrassed she was.

“Anne?” Laughing, Christa cocked an eyebrow. “Who was it?”

“More like ‘what was it,’” she said. “Did you send him, Brad?”

“I’ll never tell.” He tipped the brim of his ball cap and headed back into the lodge.

Anne called after him, “You’re no help.”

He turned at the open door and made a deep bow before going inside.

“Men.” She almost snorted but bit it back in time. “I was just getting out of the shower when I thought I heard someone at the door. When I opened it, an absolutely magnificent wolf was sitting there. He just shoved the door open with his nose and walked into my cabin like he owned the place.”

“Oh! I am so jealous. I’ve been hoping to see a wolf.” Suni was practically vibrating with excitement. “That’s the whole reason I talked these two bums into coming with me.”

“I was thinking someplace a little more, um … upscale?” Fred rolled her eyes. “I’m not much of an outdoors girl. I grew up in Brooklyn.”

“Where the wildlife consists of pigeons and stray cats?” Darnell checked a nonexistent hangnail.

“Pretty much.”

“Was he friendly?” Christa was leaning forward on the table. “What was he like?”

“Weirdly smart. I mean almost human intelligence. I asked him if Brad sent him to get me, because Brad had threatened to do just that if I wasn’t down here in twenty minutes. The wolf showed up almost exactly twenty minutes after Brad left. Anyway, when I asked him, he yipped like he was answering me. And then when I went to change clothes, I just felt really weird with him sitting there staring at me, so I actually told him not to look.”

“Well?” Steph laughed. “Did he cover his eyes?”

“Yes.” Anne stared at her.

“No, he didn’t.” Steph stared at her, and her eyes went wide. “He did? You’re not kidding, are you?”

Anne shook her head.

“He really covered his eyes?”

“With both paws. But then he peeked.”

“What?” Christa’s shriek had all of them laughing.

“You heard me. He peeked. I turned around to see if he still had his eyes covered, but he was watching me. The moment I turned, he covered them again. It was just weird. I was laughing but I felt really exposed, ya know? I mean, he’s a wolf, but he was obviously watching me, and he understood when I told him not to. He actually looked embarrassed that I’d caught him.”

Christa suddenly grabbed Anne’s hand. “Is that the same wolf? Look. Over by that big pine. Isn’t he beautiful?”

“Yes! I think it’s him.” Anne walked down the steps and across the green area in front of the lodge. The wolf spotted her, trotted across the parking area, and sat at her feet.

He just stared at her, but she could swear he was grinning. “Okay, big guy. Now don’t make me look stupid. I told them you were really smart. Will you come up on the deck and meet the girls?”

The wolf tilted his head and then nudged her hand. Taking the hint, Anne placed her fingers in the thick fur around his neck, and the two of them walked back up to the deck. “Yep,” she said. “Same wolf. I think he’s a voyeur.”

The wolf hung around while the women had their dinner inside the lodge. Two men they hadn’t met had set out a beautiful buffet and the six women loaded their plates and sat at a large table inside. The service was quiet and unobtrusive, and Anne couldn’t remember an evening she’d enjoyed more. The three women from L.A. were funny and smart, though Fred could be a bit abrasive. Brad kept the wine and drinks flowing.

Time seemed to fly, but before long the L.A. contingent, as Darnell, Suni, and Fred were calling themselves, headed off to their cabins, following the trails lit by twinkling lights. Brad called them fairy lights, but they were really just white Christmas lights hidden in shrubs along the pathways, bright enough to make it safe for the women to find their cabins.

It wasn’t much longer before Christa yawned and Steph joined in. Wide awake after her shower and a sense of excitement she hadn’t expected, Anne hated to see the evening end, but she wrapped her shawl around her shoulders and followed her sister and Steph out to the deck.

The lights twinkled and shimmered along the paths to the cabins. Christa hugged her sister and yawned again. “I hope you’re having a good time. You okay going back to your cabin alone?”

Anne hugged Christa and then Steph, too. “Are you kidding? Look.” She pointed toward the path that led to her cabin. The big silver and gray wolf sat there, waiting patiently. “With a bodyguard like that, what’s there to be afraid of?”

Laughing, Steph and Christa left. The night seemed to close in around Anne, but in a comfortable, soothing way. She leaned against the railing, feeling more at peace than she could remember. She’d only been here a few hours, and already she was having a better time than she’d thought she would. Maybe this week wouldn’t be terrible after all.