“Not a shifter,” he cut her off, brutally.
He made his tone as curt and forbidding as possible. His old fire crew would have recognizedthatvoice, and shut up instantly. It was a tone that he would never, ever use on the kids, since he had no desire to have to jump back from a sudden spreading puddle of urine. It was a tone that said, in no uncertain terms, that the discussion was Over.
Honey did not take the hint. Of course she didn’t.
“You say that, but you are,” she said, like a doctor probing a wound that was refusing to heal. “Maybe you do have a mate out there, somewhere.”
“Lot of people in the world. What would be the odds of bumping into each other?”
“It does seem unlikely.” Honey sighed. “Maybe it’s not such a great thing after all, being able to recognize your soul mate. It must be hard, knowing that thereissomeone out there for you, but you might never find them.”
He kept his eyes firmly fixed on the path ahead. “Can’t say it keeps me awake at night.”
“You must have thought about it, at least a little,” she persisted, because the maddening woman was born to torment him. “Don’t you ever wonder what your mate might be like?”
“Nope.”
“Well, I’m curious, even if you aren’t.” Her tone softened, turning wistful. “I bet she’s someone special.”
He was very aware of her hand, inches from his own. Every breath filled him with her scent. He could have closed his eyes and still known exactly where she was—from six feet away, from across the camp, from the other side of the world.
“Yes,” he said. “I’m sure she is.”
Honey started to say something else, then stopped.Literallystopped, freezing in mid-step.
“Wait.” Her voice shot up. “You said shifters recognize their mates on sight? And they never make a mistake?”
“Yep,” he said grimly. “You see the problem now.”
“And I let the kids think that I… oh no. Oh no, no, no.” Honey pushed both hands through her hair, pressing her palms against her head as though trying to force spiraling thoughts back in. “Buck, what are we going to tell them?”
He’d already ridden this train of thought all the way to the inevitable destination. “Nothing.”
“That’s not going to work! They’re not stupid, Buck. They’re going to figure out pretty darn fast that I’mnotyour mate. And then they’re going to start wondering why I lied, and from there it’s only a short step to working out the truth. They’ll figure out my secret!”
“No,” he said grimly. “They won’t. You told the kids that we’re true mates. So that’s what we’re going to be.”
CHAPTER24
“What?” Honey stared at Buck, wondering if she’d misheard him. “Are you seriously suggesting that we pretend wearefated mates?”
“We need to hide your secret. And the only way to do that is to convince the kids that they’re right. That we’re…” A muscle flexed in Buck’s jaw. “An item.”
Honey’s treacherous imagination immediately supplied a vivid picture of exactly how they might do that. She’d felt the heat of his body as he’d carried her down from the ropes course; the flex and shift of muscle, the grip of his hand on her thigh. It was all too easy to imagine that hard strength pressed against her in a very different context.
What am I thinking?Honey shook herself free from the ridiculous fantasy.
“This is crazy,” she said out loud, more to herself than him. “Buck, think for half a second. There’s no way we could pull this off.”
“Sure we can. Look, I’m not saying we need to—to actually get into bed together.” Buck stumbled on the words, as though the prospect was so mortifying he had to force them out. He turned, setting off for camp again at a brisk pace. “They’re just kids, after all. It won’t take much to convince them we’re as good as married.”
“And everyone else will conclude that you’ve lost your mind,” Honey shot back. “Buck, it’s not going to work. You said that shifters recognize their mates on sight, and I’ve already been here for weeks. I’m pretty certain you haven’t been going around telling all the staff that I’m your mate!”
“That’s the beauty of it.” Buck’s mouth twisted in a grim, ironic smile. “Everyone knows how I feel about motherloving shifters. They’dexpectme to deny it. Fight tooth and nail against fate, all the way to the bitter end.”
There was, she had to admit, a certain truth to that. “But… but they wouldn’t expect me to do the same. The kids might not realize that I haven’t been acting like a shifter who’s met their mate, but the staff will quickly figure out that something’s fishy.”
“Don’t be so sure.” Buck hesitated, raking a hand through his hair. “Look, you remember when we first met? Back in Zeph’s office?”
