River’s End

I’ve had feelings for you. I want some time to figure out what those feelings are. Most of all, Liv, right now, I want you.”
    “How healthy is it, Noah, that this connection you believe in has its roots in murder? Don’t you ever ask yourself that?”
    “No. But I guess you do.”
    “I didn’t before six years ago. But yes, I do now. It’s an intricate part of my life and who I am. An intimate part of it. Monster and victim, they’re both inside of me.” She drew her knees up, wrapped her amis around them. It disturbed her to realize she’d never spoken like that to anyone before, not even family. “You need to think about that before any of this goes ... anywhere.”
    “Liv.” He waited until she turned her head toward him, then his hands caught her face firmly, his mouth crushed down hard and hot and heady on hers. “You need to think about that,” he told her. “Because this is already going everywhere, and for me at least, it’s going there pretty damn fast.”
    More disturbed than she wanted to admit, she got to her feet. “Sex is easy, it’s just a basic human function.”
    He kept his eyes on hers as he rose, the deep green diving in and absorbing her. “I’m going to enjoy, really enjoy proving you wrong.” Then in an abrupt change of mood she couldn’t keep up with, he hauled up his pack, and shot her a blatantly arrogant grin. “When I’m inside you, Olivia, the one thing I promise you won’t feel is easy.”
    She decided it was wiser not to discuss it. He couldn’t understand her, the limitations of her emotions, the boundaries she’d had to erect for self-preservation. And he, she admitted as they headed up the trail again, was the first man who had made her feel even a twinge of regret for the necessity.
    She liked being with him. That alone was worrying. He made her forget he’d once broken her heart, made her forget she didn’t want to risk it again. Other men she’d dealt with had bored or irritated her within weeks. Olivia had never considered that a problem, but more a benefit. If she didn’t care enough to get involved, there was no danger of losing her way, losing her head or her heart.
    And ending up a victim.
    The sunlight grew stronger as they climbed, the light richer. White beams of it shot down in streams and bands and teased the first real spots of color out of the ground. There were the deep scarlet bells of wild penstemon, the crisp yellow of paintbrush. New vistas flashed as they hiked along a ridge with the long, long vees of valleys below, the sharp rise of forested hills rising around them.
    At the next wet crossing, the river was fast and rocky with a thundering waterfall tumbling down the face of the cliff.
    ‘There. Over there.” Olivia gestured, then dug for her binoculars. “He’s fishing.”
    “Who?” Noah narrowed his eyes and followed the direction of her hand. He saw a dark shape hunched on an island of rock in the churning river. “Is that—Christ! It’s a bear.” He snatched the binoculars Olivia offered and stared through them. The bear slammed into his field of vision, nearly made him jolt. He leaned forward on the rustic bridge and studied the bear as the bear studied the water. In a lightning move, one huge black paw swept into the stream, spewing up drops. And came out again locked around a wriggling fish that flashed silver in the sun.
    “Got one! Man, did you see that? Snagged it out of the water, first try.”
    She hadn’t seen. She’d been watching Noah—the surprise and excitement on his face, the utter fascination in it.
    Noah shook his head as the bear devoured his snack. “Great fishing skills, lousy table manners.” He lowered the binoculars, started to hand them back and caught Olivia staring at him.
    “Something wrong?”
    “No.” Maybe everything, she thought, is either very wrong or very right. “Nothing. We’d better go if we want to make camp before we lose the light.”
    “Got a specific place in mind?”
    “Yes. You’ll like it. We’ll follow the river now. About another hour.”
    “Another hour.” He shifted his pack on his shoulders. “Are we heading to Canada?”
    “You wanted backcountry,” she reminded him. “You get backcountry.”
    She was right about one thing, Noah decided when they reached the site. He liked it. They were tucked among the giant trees with the river spilling over tumbled rocks. The light was gilded, the wind a whisk of air that smelled of pine and