Why wasn’t she surprised that these two green-eyed, wild-looking males knew each other?

“Who the hell is that?” Eric asked out of the corner of his mouth. “The guy looks meaner than his dog.”

“That’s Morgan MacKeage,” Sadie told him in a voice that wouldn’t carry across the clearing. “And if you want this park to work, it’s his land on Fraser Mountain that has to be purchased first. Without that acreage, there’s no south access to the valley. And that’s not a dog, Eric,” Sadie added, just to rile him. “That’s a wolf.”

Eric stiffened and moved another step closer to her. Faol, apparently not liking the direction Eric had taken, stepped forward and growled again, hackles raised in warning.

“Jesus Christ,” Eric said on an indrawn breath. “Get me to my truck, Quill. Now.”

More from wanting him gone than from pity, Sadie moved around the picnic table and toward Eric’s truck. Keeping herself between him and her uninvited guests, she tried not to laugh as Eric latched onto her side like a shadow. Together they walked the short distance, and Sadie opened the truck door. Eric quickly climbed in, slammed the door shut, and locked it, then started the engine and rolled up the windows.

Only then did he turn and glare at her. Sadie smiled back, waggled her fingers in a mock wave, and stepped away just as Eric sent the truck spinning backward, sending another cloud of dust into the air and leaving a groove in the gravel an inch deep.

Brushing herself off, Sadie turned and headed back to her cabin, completely ignoring her guests. She picked up her dry bag, her pack, and her tent and carried everything to her truck. She opened the back hatch and threw the gear inside, only to turn around and nearly run into Morgan MacKeage.

“I don’t like your boss,” he said, not moving out of her way.

“Neither do I, at the moment,” she shot back, stepping around him. She went to the picnic table, grabbed her kayak, and hefted it onto her shoulder. She swung around, and Morgan barely had time to catch the nose of the boat before it hit him in the chest.

“Dammit, Mercedes,” he said, lifting the kayak off her shoulder and setting it on his. “I’

m trying to talk to you.”

“The only talk I want to hear is your reason for leaving that note on my porch this morning.”

He repositioned the kayak and grinned at her. “I can’t believe you stayed put.”

Sadie scowled at him. “Was it a test, or was there something in the woods that was dangerous?”

He sobered. “Poachers,” he told her succinctly. “Or so I thought. But, according to your boss, the two men are your competition. And that makes them even more dangerous.”

Sadie waved that away and headed for her truck again. “It’s the Dolan brothers,” she said. “Neither one of them is competent enough to tie his own shoes. They’re more a danger to themselves than to anyone else.”

She stopped at the truck and grabbed the end of her kayak, lifting it onto the roof rack.

She left Morgan to slide it into place while she moved to stand on the running board to tether it down.

“And what do you know of this competition?” she asked as she tossed one of the straps to his waiting hands. “How long were you standing there, listening to Eric and me?”

“Long enough to know that this park you’re so determined to build might not happen.”

Sadie glared across the roof at him. “It will happen. Because I’m finding that gold and giving it to the consortium. The Frank Quill Wilderness Park will be built if I have to turn over every rock in this valley.”

He stopped working and rested his arms on the roof, staring at her. “But why? Why a park, of all things, and why here?”

Sadie tightened the last buckle on her side of the boat into place. She also rested her arms on the roof and looked at him. “Because this is the valley my father loved. This is where I spent every summer, every weekend, and every vacation with him. Frank Quill’

s soul still roams these woods, searching for Jedediah’s gold.”

With a frown at her answer, Morgan finished fastening his side of the kayak down, then walked around and stood in front of her. Sadie got a good look at his face, and her toes instantly curled in reaction to what she realized was coming.

“I’m mighty impressed you stayed put this morning,” he said just as his arms came around her and his lips made contact with hers.

Sadie stiffened, kept her mouth firmly shut, and tried not to notice how nice he smelled or how his powerful body pressed so intimately against hers made her heart race. He couldn’t kiss her whenever he wanted.

But, more important, she couldn’t want him to. Responding to Morgan MacKeage’s kisses, she had learned on their date Saturday night, could very quickly lead to intimacy. And intimacy would mean getting naked.

And that could never happen.

Sadie felt herself spinning through space, and it wasn’t until her back touched the hood of her truck that she realized Morgan had just picked her up and was all but lying on top of her.

Damn. He was pure alpha male when it came to kissing.

Sadie felt the hem of her T-shirt being pulled from her pants. She tore her mouth away with a gasp, at the same time grabbing his hand to stop its advance. She gave his shoulder a mighty shove to push him away.

It was like trying to push a mountain. Sadie found herself staring into solid green eyes, as dark and as swirling as the forest during a storm.

“That’s far… I don’t… you can’t… ” Sadie snapped her mouth shut and glared at him.

Morgan simply watched her for the longest time, then threw back his head and laughed out loud. He straightened and pulled her upright to stand against him, hugging her tightly.

“Someday, lass, your mouth will catch up with your brain,” he told her, still laughing, still hugging her. He pulled on her hair to tilt her head back and kissed her soundly but briefly on the lips. “But you have my permission to postpone that day for several more years yet.”

She tried to pull away, but he wouldn’t release her.

“Now, lass. Where is it we’re going in such a hurry this afternoon? Will I be needing my own boat?” He darted a look at her kayak, then back at her. “Because I’m telling you now, that’s a mighty odd craft you use, and I don’t have one like it.”

“I’m going to the Prospect and setting up camp. You’re going home and staying the hell out of my business.”

He shook his head and grinned at her. “Ah, Mercedes. Haven’t you figured it out yet?

When you stayed put today, you gave me your trust.”

“Istayed put because I had things to do.”

Sadie wiggled free, went to the hammock, and picked up the stolen diary and her own journal. She turned to find Morgan sitting on her porch, watching her. Faol was sitting beside him. The wolf’s head was cocked at an inquisitive angle, his eyes following her every movement.

And if Sadie didn’t know better, she would think the two arrogant fools were grinning at her.

She strode to her truck, ignoring the male parade that silently fell into step behind her.

She climbed in, but before she could shut the door, Morgan had one hand on the roof and one arm resting on the inside handle, effectively stopping her from leaving.

Sadie glared at him.

He grinned at her. “Until later,gràineag,” he said as he softly closed her truck door.

Sadie rolled down the window. “What does that mean?” she hollered to his retreating back.

He stopped, only turning his head, and shot her a wink. “It’s a term of endearment, lass.

And one that fits you much better than that glove you wear on your right hand.”

He walked into the woods with that nonanswer, and Sadie watched as Faol ran to catch up. The wolf stopped, though, just before he entered the forest and looked back at her.

He gave a single bark, then turned and also melted into the landscape.