As if she could forget. That moment was permanently stamped in her memory. His raw physical presence, hitting her like lightning… that dark, intense stare, fixing on her as though nothing else existed in the world… the instant response of her body…
“Oh God.” Her hands flew to her mouth. “Buck, did you… you thought that I’d recognizedyouas my mate?”
His gaze slid away from her, off into the shadows. “Well, you did a damn good impression of a stunned shifter. So yeah.”
No wonder he’d flinched away from her like she was his worst nightmare brought to life. She remembered the first words she’d ever heard him say:Ohhellno.And then there had been the way Zephyr and Conleth had seemed to be repressing grins…
“Oh no. Zephyr and Conleth.” Her whole body went hot with mortification.“They think I’m your mate too, don’t they?”
Buck blew out a long sigh. “Yeah. They’re not the only ones. Pretty sure half the staff have a damn betting pool going on as to when we’re finally going to fall into each other’s arms.”
She thought of the staff campfire later, seeing Leonie and Moira’s questioning in a whole new light.Nowshe understood all those odd little comments.
“But—but you knew the truth,” she stuttered. “Youknew I wasn’t your mate. Why didn’t you tell them?”
“I did.” That thin, tight smile cut across his face again, like the blade of a knife. “Didn’t do any good. Like I said, they expect me to resist. I could have a sworn testimony signed by Cupid and it wouldn’t do any good. They’re all convinced I’m in denial. That I’m just refusing to listen to the damn beast sharing my skin. And to be honest… I wasn’t certain they were wrong. I was pretty confused as to how one of us could feel the world rock every time our eyes met, when the other didn’t even seem to notice.”
“You weren’t entirely sure yourself, were you?” she said slowly, pieces fitting together in her head. “Before you found out that I wasn’t a shifter, you thought maybe you were mistaken. I made you think we might actually be mates, even though you didn’t feel it yourself.”
He grunted. “You remember what I told you at staff training?”
She cast her mind back. “That I was the most confusing woman you’d ever met?”
“I meant every word I said that day.” He shrugged, still not looking at her. “But in any case, it’ll work in our favor now. Believe me, nobody’s going to think it’s weird if we start acting like an item. Hell, knowing Zeph and Leonie, they’ll probably throw a party.”
“But…you said that shifters mate for life. And I’m going home at the end of the summer. What are you going to tell everyone?”
“That’s my problem, not yours,” he said firmly. “Let’s not look too far ahead for trouble. Got enough of that as it—”
Buck broke off, his head jerking up. For an instant, moonlight caught in his pupils, reflecting a flash of silver.
Wolf eyes.Her breath caught. Buck was so much himself, sometimes it was easy to forget that he shared his skin with something else, too. Now, however, the air around him felt charged, prickling with power like a storm about to break.
She dropped her voice to a whisper. “What is it?”
Buck’s nostrils flared. Without a word, he caught her arm, pulling her against his side.
“We’ve got to get back,” he said, projecting his voice so that the words carried clearly through the trees. “If we’re much longer, the kids will start wondering where we are. Come on.”
Honey found herself hustled along at double pace, tripping over her own feet as she tried to keep up.
“Don’t look back.” Buck’s lips barely moved. He stared straight ahead. “Damn it, woman, I saiddon’tlook back. We’re being followed.”
With an effort, Honey kept her head facing forward. “The kids?”
“I think so. Sounds too small to be one of the staff, and it’s definitely on two legs rather than four. The wind’s in the wrong direction for me to get a scent, but I’m guessing it’s Estelle or Flora. I passed them on the path earlier. One of them probably came sneaking back to see if their plan worked.”
They’d reached the edge of the camp. Honey started to pull away, but Buck’s arm was an iron bar around her waist.
“If we don’t give them a show, they’ll start asking awkward questions.” He didn’t slacken his pace, heading straight for her cabin. “We’re going to have to make this convincing.”
“Buck, this is insane,” she hissed, hoping his shifter hearing hadn’t picked up how her heart had just missed a beat. “There’s no way we can pull this off. I know you. You’ve got all the subtlety of a sledgehammer, and about as much acting ability as the average bull walrus.”
His mouth twitched. “Thanks?”
“You know what I mean. There isn’t an ounce of pretense in your entire over-muscled body. Even if you try, nobody is ever going to believe that you’re infatuated with me.”
He stopped, swinging round so abruptly that her nose almost bounced off his chest. Before she could step back, his hands closed around her upper arms. She found herself pinned; by his strength, and his hot, dark stare.
