Gina hesitated. It would be rude to turn down the offer, but she’d been clear with her agent andThe Dance Off’s producers about her aversion to showmances. As much as she wanted Stone to feel comfortable working with her and for them to have an easy rapport, providing fodder for the editors to cut and splice into a faux romance wasnoton her agenda. Her career was her number-one priority, and she wouldn’t jeopardize it by getting a reputation for messing around with her coworkers.
Stone was still waiting. Politeness won, tempered by a determination to keep her distance.
“Um, sure.” Gina followed him down the porch steps. The cameras on the ground spread out and the ones on the porch slipped quietly down the stairs behind them.
At the stump, Stone wrenched the axe free and held it flat in both hands. “You’ve seen an axe before?”
“Yeah, of course. On TV.” Gina pointed to the blade. “This is the part you hit the wood with.”
He let out a sound that was part laugh and part sigh. “Fair enough. The axe has a particular design, and the names of its parts are easy to remember because a lot of them correspond with body parts.”
Body parts? Great. “Uh-huh.”
His big hand skimmed the handle of the axe as he talked, drawing her attention to the scars and dirt marring his skin. His hands were those of a man who worked hard and pushed his body and strength to the limit, yet he’d held her with care and respect on the porch. In her second season, she’d been paired with a comedian who’d hit on her at their first meeting—on camera. This was an improvement over that, at least.
Even if he wasn’t an Olympian.
Stone adjusted his grip on the tool and pointed to the metal part. “This part of the head is called the bit.” He tapped the sharp edge. “Or as you called it, ‘the part you hit the wood with.’”
“Ha!” She snapped her fingers. “I knew it. See, we city folk know something about country living.”
For the first time since they’d met, he laughed. His lips stretched in a smile, showing straight white teeth, and his blue eyes crinkled at the corners.
Damn, he was handsome.
“City girl, this is way beyond country living,” he drawled. “This… is living wild.”
It wassucha line, said to slip the name of his show into the conversation. Gina knew that. And still. The words, uttered in that deep, growly voice, reminded her that she was so far outside her comfort zone, she might as well kiss it goodbye forever. A curl of desire rippled and thrummed inside her. Breathing became difficult, the air filled with the scent of freshly cut wood and sexy man.
She cleared her throat. “You were saying?”
Stone described the different parts of the axe, and he hadn’t been kidding about the correspondence to body parts. Hearing him talk about toe and heel, or cheek and face, was fine. But then he mentioned shoulder, beard, and butt, and he might as well havebeen talking about himself because his body was all she could concentrate on.
“Are you ready to give it a swing?”
Gina stared at the axe. She’d spaced out while he was demonstrating, distracted by his naked torso. “Oh, um…”
Crash.
Heart in her throat, Gina whipped her head around toward the trees. “What was that?”
Stone’s broad chest swelled as he sucked in a breath. “Don’t move. I think I see something.”
The urgency in his voice cut through her haze of arousal. He swung the axe into the stump with a thud and put out an arm to herd her behind him.
The crashing continued. Branches snapped and cracked, and leaves swished, like something big was moving through the forest.
“What?” Alarm squeezed the word into a squeak. Her gaze skimmed the trees at the edges of the clearing, searching for the threat. Since Stone wasn’t wearing a shirt, Gina grabbed the waistband of his jeans like it was a lifeline. “What do you see?”
“Stay behind me.” His voice, deep and commanding, was also steady. This was his world. He knew what to do. She pressed closer to him as a growing sense of horror raised goosebumps over her back. Stone jerked his chin toward the line of trees at the opposite end of the clearing and spoke in a low voice. “Gina, I don’t want to alarm you, but there’s a bear in the woods over there.”
Terror streaked through her.“A bear?”
“Yes. In this area of Alaska there are more bears than people. This is their turf.”
Gina sucked in a breath. She knew it. She fucking knew it.Thiswas what happened to people who went into forests. They got eaten bybears.“What do we do? Make a run for it? Aren’t they fast?”
“I’ll protect you.” Stone reached around the woodpile and brought out a gun.A fucking gun.Gina let out a strangled squeal, then clapped her hands over her mouth.
