Match Made In Paradise by Barbara Dunlop (black female authors TXT) 📕

nearly half an hour and not a single vehicle had passed.

No sooner had the thought surfaced than she heard an engine. She smiled to herself. Speak of the devil. She hoped the vehicle didn’t kick up too much dust. She’d been enjoying the sensation of drawing the pure air into her lungs. If she could package that and take it back to LA, she’d make a fortune.

The truck slowed as it approached; very considerate. It was a blue pickup, and she wondered if anyone drove anything besides pickup trucks around here. She hadn’t seen much of the town yesterday, but she didn’t recall any cars, just trucks and a couple of older SUVs.

The truck rolled to a stop and she recognized Silas in the driver’s seat.

He unrolled his window. “You headed for town?”

She nodded.

“You need a ride?”

Mia began jogging in place to stay warm. “No, thanks.”

“You’re exercising?”

“A run into town.”

He looked up and down the road. “Raven know you’re doing this?”

Mia shook her head. Why would Raven care if she went for a run?

He looked her over. “You have bear spray on you?”

Raven had a shelf full of various bug repellants but nothing that mentioned bears. Was Silas messing with her?

“Is that a joke?” Mia asked.

He put the truck in park and opened the door.

“Are you mocking me again?” she asked.

“I’m not mocking you.” He got out and reached into the truck box, pulling out a black utility belt. “You can borrow mine.” He marched toward her.

“What are you doing?” She took a step backward as he advanced. She wasn’t afraid of him this time, but he sure had a way of acting suspicious.

“Lending you some bear spray.”

Looking closer, she could see a canister dangling from the belt.

“That’s really a thing?” she asked.

He stopped in front of her. “It’s really a thing.”

“I don’t . . . what?” She stiffened as he reached around her waist to loop the belt.

He was tall.

She was nearly as tall as most men, a few inches taller than Alastair, but she wasn’t anywhere near Silas’s height.

He was broad too, big shoulders, sinewy arms, wide chest, woodsy scent, and oh, what a handsome face.

She thought again that he’d make a good outdoors model.

He snugged the belt with a tug, one hand bracing her hip while the other fastened the catch. Her exercise pants and top were thin, and his hands were warm where they touched her.

His breath puffed her forehead, calling attention to his lips. They were full, balanced, soft-looking, slightly parted.

She thought about kissing him and felt dormant emotions surge up inside. She hadn’t kissed a man since Alastair, had barely kissed Alastair in many, many months. His heart condition had made lovemaking impossible, so it had been years since they’d been intimate, years where she was more a caretaker than a wife. Years where she’d repressed her sexuality in favor of work and caregiving.

And now it was back, all at once, all in a rush.

“I’ll show you how,” Silas said.

Her passion surged, ready for anything.

But he pulled a flap on the belt, and the sound of the Velcro strip cut through the air. Then he tugged the canister free. “You pull back the orange tab,” he said, demonstrating the motion with his thumb.

Mia blinked, bringing herself sharply back to reality, struggling to suppress her embarrassing hormonal reaction to a healthy male standing way too close.

“That’s the trigger guard. The nozzle is this little white square here. Point it away from you. Are you looking?”

She wasn’t. “Yes.” She focused her attention.

“You have to wait until the bear gets really close. I mean really close, like under ten feet.”

“Do they”—she swallowed, thinking about it—“get that close?”

“They can. If they’re mad, or if you startle them. That’s when they’re a problem. Some of the spray might blow back. It usually does, and it’ll sting your eyes, so don’t let that rattle you.”

“You’re serious,” she said.

He looked and sounded deadly serious, the same way he had giving the safety briefing on the airplane yesterday.

“You think pepper spray is a joke?” He was clearly aggravated by her question.

“No. I mean, I’d never heard of it before. I thought you might be messing with me. You know, new kid in town and all that.”

“I’m not going to joke about bear safety, Mia.”

“Clearly.”

He heaved a sigh of obvious frustration. “Point it away from you.” He demonstrated. “With the orange trigger guard removed, hold it at arm’s length, wait until the last possible second and only if you’re being seriously charged, then spray it in the bear’s face. Got it?”

“Got it.” She understood the concept, but it was hard to imagine a bear out here on the road; harder still to imagine one charging her.

“Good.” He wiggled the canister back into the holder and refastened the Velcro strap.

“You can keep this. I’ve got others.” He was still close, still handsome, still powerful and sexy.

“Thanks.” She wanted him to kiss her . . . or something. She wanted him to at least look like he wanted to kiss her.

“Catch you later,” he said instead, turning away.

His truck was still running. He took one step, then two, then three and four.

She glanced around at the thick bush, realizing that when he drove away it was going to be completely silent and completely empty all around her. She hadn’t been nervous until now, because she’d thought of the forest as a great big park.

It didn’t look like a park anymore.

He put his hand on the driver’s door, and she took a couple of quick steps his way. “Uh, Silas?”

He looked over his shoulder.

She paced quickly toward him. “I was wondering . . .”

“You want to catch a lift into town?”

She gave a rapid nod.

To his credit he didn’t grin or roll his eyes or otherwise mock her fear. Instead, he came her way and reached for the belt at her waist.

A vivid kiss fantasy bloomed in her mind again, and she tipped her chin ever so slightly his way.

“Can’t take this inside a cab,” he said, unfastening the black belt. “If the spray accidentally