“I might be around for a little while.” She’d actually planned on setting up their base of operations in Wenatchee or perhaps farther north near Chelan, but Leavenworth was looking pretty good at the moment. Unwilling to share all her secrets, and possibly bore him to death with scientific business, she added, “When my… friends arrive, we plan on doing quite a bit of hiking.”
She was surprised to see him grin. “Yeah? You need a guide?”
She chuckled. “Why? You volunteering?”
He shrugged. “Maybe. These friends of yours…How many are there, and are they boy or girl friends?”
She grinned wider and played along. “Well, there’s two of them, and they’re both men.”
He slapped his hand over his heart as if in pain. “Seriously?”
She laughed again. “Yes, just a couple of good friends, but…” She leaned closer. “They’re not here tonight.” She dared a wink at him and wondered where in the world she’d found such bravado.
He smiled back at her, and she realized that somehow the man beside her made it so easy. He was charming and handsome, and she wasn’t keeping up professional appearances for colleagues on campus. With this stranger, she was free to be herself, if only for a little while. Just tonight. No harm in a little flirtation.
And she was having fun, something she hadn’t done in quite some time, what with classes and hours upon hours spent in the lab. A nice change of pace—one she’d all but forgotten existed until this chance meeting with Kelan Falke.
He had a nice name to go with that handsome face. Sexy. She liked the way it felt on her tongue.
The bartender delivered her food, and as she picked up her fork, she glanced at him. “You on a liquid diet?”
He cast a look at his beer and chuckled. “No. I finished a double bacon cheeseburger just a bit ago.”
“And you were supposed to order another round,” a new arrival said from behind them in a voice that rumbled with a sexy bass tone.
Beth turned to greet the newcomer and froze when she saw double.
Deep down she knew it was rude to stare. Twins were not unheard of in the world, but she never expected to see
Not that she’d act out those fantasies. She was a single woman in an unfamiliar town, in a pub no less. She wasn’t the type to pick up strangers and take them home with her, even if they looked like these two.
But still.
She so wanted to giggle, but chose to hide behind her glass of OJ and vodka.
“Reidar,” Kelan said, “this is Beth Coldwell. Beth, this is my brother, Reidar.”
“Rider?” What strange names they had.
“It’s spelled differently, but the sound’s the same. Hi, Beth.” He turned to Kelan. “The others took off, said they’d catch up with us tomorrow.”
“Okay. Sorry, bro.” Kelan waved at the bartender and ordered, “Another round here on me,” when the man approached. “For Beth too. What are you having?”
“A screwdriver, light on the vodka,” she said.
Seated at the bar, she ate and watched the brothers as Kelan filled Reidar in on her plans to go hiking with two other guys. Reidar’s response was similarly amusing.
Between bites, she asked them, “So, what do you two do for a living? I assume you live here and aren’t just passing through yourselves.”
“Born and raised here,” Reidar said with a smile as captivating as his brother’s, though there was a distinct difference between them. His hair was shorter, neatly trimmed. Just a little wisp curled against his forehead, giving him a not-so-good-boy look that kept her thinking about how these two guys could rock her world. If she were that type of woman, which of course, she was not.
She shoved her glasses up her nose and then took another bite of steak, slowly chewing, telling herself that just because she hadn’t been with a man in a few years didn’t mean she’d go jumping into bed with a couple of hapless locals.
She almost snorted. These two weren’t hapless. But she figured they could make her helpless to say no, if they asked the right questions.
Kelan added, “We’re guides.”
She snickered, not believing him. Sure they were. “Seriously, what do you do?”
He grinned, but Reidar responded. “Seriously, that’s what we do. We take city slickers into the mountains or down the river rapids and make sure they survive while roughing it in the big, bad, dirty wilderness.”
She blinked, her brain clearing from the sensual fog they seemed to emit. Guides. Maybe she could find out a little about the national forest before even meeting with the forestry service. She took another bite as she formulated her questions. “Um, what about the wildlife? Is there a lot to see if a person stays on the mapped trails?”
“Sure,” Kelan said. “Of course, if you hike through the woods making a lot of racket, your odds drop considerably.”
“What kind of animals?”
“The usual,” he replied while Reidar took a drink of beer. “Rabbits, deer, squirrel, and a lot of birds if you like to watch those kinds of critters.”
“What about the…carnivorous type?” she asked, using his own words from earlier.
“There are bears, wolves and cougars in the area, but most will avoid contact with humans, particularly when you travel in groups.” He ran a thumb in a gentle arc along the corner of her mouth, his fingers curled beneath her chin. “Don’t go wandering off alone, and you’ll be fine.”
His touch left her skin tingling after he pulled his hand away, but she swallowed and said, “And don’t camp with food in your tent.” She wasn’t a stupid city slicker, but she’d keep that information to herself too, for now.
Both men grinned.
“Right.”
“If you wanted to see some, though,” she asked, “are there places along the trails where they’re more prevalent?”
As she finished off her meal, they answered her questions and shared more about the quaint Bavarian- styled village, their descriptions often filtered with brotherly teasing she found entertaining.
In return, she shared a little about where she came from in Seattle and admitted to being a grad student working toward her doctorate. She steered clear of talk about her scientific research, a topic she would’ve happily discussed ad nauseam on campus. But, tonight, she didn’t want to talk shop. Didn’t want to be the geeky scientist. She liked the way these two handsome men made her feel more womanly than she’d felt in a long time.
After the meal, and after a bit of coaxing from the brothers, she took a couple of spins around the dance floor with each of them before somewhat reluctantly calling it a night.
“I really should get back to the hotel,” she said, exiting the pub with her twin escorts.
“The Bavarian Inn?” Kelan pointed toward the well-lit building a short jaunt down the quiet street.
She nodded.
“We’ll walk you to the door,” Reidar volunteered.
“Oh, you don’t have to do that.” Nervous butterflies took flight in her tummy, not alarm but unvarnished anticipation. She shook her head, knowing she couldn’t let this—whatever
Her pulse leaped at the thought.
Not the time to explore crazy fantasies. Fantasies were always better than reality, anyway. Right?
Her fluttery tummy told her these men would be everything she’d ever imagined, and more.
The men, of course, hadn’t actually suggested such a thing. But for the small caress that Kelan gave her at the bar, they’d made no further advances.
“We know we don’t have to,” Kelan said, taking her hand and tucking it into the crook of his arm.
“But our parents would tan our butts if we didn’t act like gentlemen and walk a woman safely home.”
They began a slow stroll down the sidewalk, one man on either side. She glanced at Reidar when he tucked
