Battle of Wills Read online

'Okay… see you about eight o'clock, if that isn't too late,' Ralph agreed, and if he suspected her intentions, he didn't show it.

  The rest of the day, fortunately, was quite peaceful. Seana spent most of it trying to locate Ryan and his moose, but they seemed to have moved down behind a ridge that obscured her view.

  She wasn't quite sure how she would handle Ryan if he returned before Ralph showed up, but she became increasingly determined as the day wore on to do something to even the score. The humiliation of being taken in yet again by his cunning made any thought of revenge especially sweet.

  Ralph got back exactly at the time he had promised, and apart from showing mild surprise that Ryan wasn't back yet, he said nothing about his friend, apparently thinking it of no really great significance that Ryan was roaming around somewhere out there with night only minutes away.

  Seana, mindful of Mrs Jorgensen's instructions about wild meat, soon had the venison sliced into enormous steaks that sizzled enticingly in the heavy cast-iron frying pan. They were just settling down to eat when a voice from the open doorway caused Seana to pause, fork halfway to her mouth and an unexpected flush of surprise rising along her throat.

  'My, my… isn't this a fine example of gratitude! I bring the woman fresh meat and as soon as my back is turned she feeds it to somebody else. How are you, Ralph? Getting enough to eat? You're a braver man than I am, my friend… there's probably enough arsenic in that steak to kill a grizzly bear… or were you saving the poisoned bit for me, ladybug?'

  'She must be saving it for you,' Ralph muttered around a mouthful of tender steak. 'Mine's just fine, thanks.'

  'So it should be, considering the trouble I went to getting it,' Ryan replied. 'Ah, well, I suppose I can make do with a can of beans, although it really is stretching friendship a bit far…'

  'Oh, stop it!' Seana snorted. 'There's more than enough for you and you know it. In fact, why don't you start on this,'—pointing to her own plate—'while I get busy cooking some more?'

  'I wouldn't dream of it,' Ryan replied. 'Take the food right out of your mouth? No, I've got to get cleaned up anyway, so you go ahead and enjoy your meal.'

  'Why must you always go out of your way to be difficult?' Seana snapped, and while Ryan merely looked at her innocently, Ralph chuckled around yet another mouthful of steak and then joined in the conversation.

  'My, but you two get along beautifully,' he laughed. 'I really think you ought to get married; it's a shame to spoil two houses with you.'

  Seana gasped at the remark, but Ryan gave her no chance to answer.

  'Not likely. It'd be like sleeping with a rattlesnake,' he replied. 'You'd never know which night would be your last. If anybody's going to marry Seana, I think it should be you, Ralph. You've got a nice steady job and money in the bank. And at least you can talk to her without starting a war every time you open your mouth.'

  He looked at Seana, his eyes roving over her slender body as if she were on an auction block. The expression in his eyes was unreadable, not the usual mocking light, but not anything else she could interpret, either.

  'No… not for me,' he said then. 'Give me a nice quiet farm girl who knows how to cook, clean and keep the bed warm without hostility. I'd starve to death in a week on the diet of hot tongue and cold shoulder that Seana dishes up.'

  'Oh, I don't know,' Ralph replied, speaking as if Seana weren't even there! 'This venison was sure good; I think she can cook fairly well when she puts her mind to it. The problem is that whenever you're around she can't keep her mind on what she's doing.'

  'She's too busy thinking of nasty remarks,' Ryan added. 'You'd really think she could be nice once in a while, but then maybe she really wants to be an old maid. I'll bet that's it… she doesn't want to get married at all. She'd rather burn her bra and run around screaming about sexual equality.'

  'I can't imagine that,' said Ralph. 'Why should a woman want equality? They've already got most of the advantages as it is. If anybody should be demanding equality, it's us!' And he glanced slyly to where Seana was quietly fuming, her meal forgotten.

  'If you think you're going to get my goat, you're both sadly mistaken,' she replied with as calm a voice as she could muster. 'And just for the record, I wouldn't marry either one of you on a bet! You,' she said to Ralph, 'eat too much. And you,' to Ryan, 'talk too much. Now go and get cleaned up and your steak will be ready when you are.'

  Ralph laughed. 'She's learning,' he said, again treating Seana as if she were absent.

  'Um… slowly, though,' Ryan replied, then ducked out the door when Seana flung a fork at him in a deliberate gesture of mock rage.

  Ralph was done with his meal and ready to go back on patrol when Ryan returned to the cabin, changed into clean clothes and with water still hanging in droplets from the tips of his beard. 'I'd like to stay, but duty calls,' the wildlife officer said. 'That's the worst part of this job; I always have to go to work just when the party's getting interesting.'

  They made their farewells, then Ryan sat down to his dinner while Seana bustled about making fresh coffee and trying to avoid his deliberate, sensuous appraisal of her movements. He ate in silence, then abruptly asked, 'What are your plans when the season's over?'

  'I… I'm not sure yet. Why?' she replied, deliberately not mentioning Mrs Jorgensen's proposal and her own acceptance of it.

  'Do you want to stay up here, or do you miss the city so much you'll be going straight back?'

  'To the city? Not if I can help it,' she replied, honest in that much, at least.

  He looked slightly surprised at that, then frowned and returned to his interrogation. 'But you haven't got a job lined up yet… or anything?'

  He was obviously leading up to something, but for the life of her she couldn't imagine what. 'Well, I've had an offer or two,' she lied. 'Old Mike over at Saddle Hills wants me to spend the winter teaching him to bake bread, and…'

  'Damn it, be serious!' he snapped in an unexpected show of temper that immediately sparked Seana's own.

  'Well, I might, if you'd stop beating around the bush,' she retorted. 'Why can't you just come out and say what you mean, for a change?'

  All right… I might have something you'd be interested in. How's that?' he growled.

  'You? You? What kind of job could you possibly have for me?' she jeered. 'According to you I'm a walking disaster area, remember? Unsafe to be left alone, incompetent, useless…'

  Hands like steel claws reached out to take Seana's shoulders, and for several seconds she was picked up and shaken like a naughty child. 'Damn it! Can't we talk about anything without you starting a fight?' he demanded. 'Now sit down and shut up and listen, or I'll have you over my knee next!'

  She was so surprised at the physical threat that she did as he ordered, eyes wide with astonishment. He was really angry! But why? she wondered.

  'What kind of a typist are you?' he asked after sliding back into his own chair. 'Not necessarily fast, but can you type nice tidy, clean, accurate copy?'

  'Yes.'

  'Good,' he said. 'That's settled, then.'

  'What's settled? What are you talking about?' she demanded, forgetting her resolve to be quiet.

  'Well, when you get done up here you can spend a few months typing this damned textbook I'm working on,' he said. 'There's three hundred and fifty pages, so far, and it's in pretty rough shape, but with your zoological training you should have no trouble. Couldn't do any worse than the typist who did the last one. She didn't know anything about the subject and she made some awful mistakes—gave the proof-readers a helluva time, and me with them. The publisher wasn't much impressed either.'

  He paused and looked enquiringly at Seana. 'What are you staring at? Have I just grown two heads or something?'

  He was closer than he dreamed. A sudden flash of insight had struck Seana with the force of a thunderbolt, and she was wondering how she could have been so long putting two and two together.

  'You're… you're R. G. Stranger!' The words eme
rged in a fog of total astonishment, and some of the confusion seemed to spill across the table.

  'Isn't that allowed?' he asked, a wondering look on his face.

  He might have saved his breath. 'You're the R. G. Stranger who did the master's thesis on the relationships between wetland habitat and moose populations? And the later study into the effects of oil exploration and access on moose in the Whitecourt forest? I… I just don't believe it!' Seana cried.

  'Oh, you don't?' Sarcasm crept into his voice as he stared back at her. 'What did you expect, white hair and Coke-bottle glasses? It isn't necessary to be a centenarian to be a researcher, or hadn't you noticed?'

  'Oh, it's got nothing to do with your age,' Seana blurted, then halted in embarrassed confusion. But Ryan finished what she was fumbling to get out without being insulting, and he was much more brutal about it.

  'But you thought I was just a poor ignorant backwoods boy, is that it?' he said with a wry twist to his generous mouth. 'No manners, no style, no education… just a rough, crude country hick.' And his voice became increasingly caustic as he went on. 'Well, let me suggest, Miss Muldoon, that you are the worst person I have ever seen for making assumptions based on things you know nothing about. Now do you want the typing job or not?'

  'Well… yes,' she said, 'but I… I can't take it.'

  'Why not? Or is it the fact that you'd be staying under my roof that bothers you? Well, it shouldn't, because while you might be there, I won't. I've got a full guiding schedule for the rest of the season and I'll be too far away to come home at weekends, just to be bitched at.'

  'You're a fine one to be complaining about people making assumptions,' she snapped, over-defensive and not caring if he realised it or not. Then she outlined Mrs Jorgensen's offer and found to her astonishment that he immediately agreed with her acceptance of it.

  'It solves a lot of problems on both sides,' he said. 'And don't worry about Hutton; I just happen to know he's quite impressed with the way you've handled things up here. He's a good man, even if he won't listen to me.'

  'It doesn't solve your problem, though, does it?' Seana asked, deliberately ignoring his attempt to bait her. 'And actually, I would like to do that typing for you, if you still want me to. I… was quite impressed with your work when I was at university.'

  'Well, thanks… for both the compliment and the offer,' he smiled. 'And now I'd better be going… wouldn't want to compromise your reputation any more than I already have.'

  Seana walked with him to his truck, suddenly, surprisingly at ease, yet still with one question she just had to ask.

  'Why didn't you tell me the truth about the white moose in the first place?' She asked it very gently, without any hint of sarcasm. 'You were deliberately trying to get my goat, but why bother?'

  The reply was anything but what she might have expected. Wordlessly, Ryan turned and pulled her against him, seeking her lips and finding them with unerring skill.

  Seana responded without thinking, her body going with the pressure of his arms, her own arms lifting to clasp around his neck and her response heightening with his as the kiss continued. His hands moved along her back, stirring her passion as his kisses rained on her lips, then his fingers shifted subtly lower, caressing her hips, pulling her against the hardness of his body.

  She could feel the wiry tickle of his beard on her cheeks, then along her throat as his lips moved down into the opening of her shirt while his hands continued their gentle exploration of her body.

  Her own passion rose to meet his, her hands moving like creatures separate from the rest of her as they stroked at the nape of his neck, explored the hard muscles of his shoulders and back, then crept between them to seek the furry warmth of his chest.

  His lips traced a delicate pattern across the top of her bosom, then up her throat to where his teeth could nibble at the lobe of her ear.

  'Why bother?' he whispered. 'This is why.' And his fingers expertly slipped the buttons of her blouse, then ran like fire over her exposed breasts, firming them, turning their peaks to such tenderness Seana could have screamed with delight at his touch.

  His lips followed his fingers, the coolness of his mouth merely adding to her pleasure, floating her further and further from all reason.

  'Ryan…' She whispered his name even as he pulled her closer, forcing their bodies together so that her breasts were crushed against the hardness of his chest, her hips writhing against his. But she wasn't close enough; she wanted to be part of him, united with him in a single entity that would merge their passions into one all-consuming flame.

  'Not now.' Had she said that? She had not! But even as she wondered, Ryan's arms tensed, forcing her just far enough away from him to break the spell. 'Not now,' he said again, and then he was kissing her again, only this time it was a kiss of pure passion, without tenderness, without consideration. For an instant she accepted it, but then she recoiled, unsure of herself, and he let her—helped her—go.

  'Some day, maybe,' he said, 'when you're older.'

  There was a thin-veiled innuendo there, enough to make Seana jerk back with anger at the tone in his voice, the guarded, deliberate look in his eyes. But she said nothing, merely stared at him, trying to figure out what had changed him, what had taken the colour from their lovemaking.

  'You're a lot easier to resist when you're angry,' he told her, leaning down to kiss her lightly on the forehead. As he stepped back, she saw the impish gleam in his eyes. 'And besides, it's so easy to make you angry.'

  The proof was how long she stood, fuming, after he had got into his truck and driven away down the mountain.

  And it was easy to get her goat, Seana decided as she lay sleepless in her bunk several hours later. Easy, because she made it easy, because she kept opening her mouth and shoving in her feet, but mostly because she loved Ryan Stranger so much she was totally vulnerable to his every mood, his every word.

  'And that,' she said aloud, 'has got to stop.'

  She spent the rest of the week deliberately considering all her past encounters with Ryan, especially her own reactions to his blatant baiting and prodding.

  And on Saturday, Mrs Jorgensen arrived for a visit with yet another example of Ryan's own peculiar logic. In addition to her usual complement of baked goods, the white-haired woman unloaded two stout cardboard boxes, each of them stuffed to the brim with papers and photos and scribbled notes.

  And a letter: 'I thought you might like to have a look at what you're getting yourself into if you decide to take on the typing job,' it said. 'I think your tower job is almost over; you'll have snow there within three weeks. Please keep an eye on our moose and I'll do the same for your goat, which I still have, I'm sure.'

  He hadn't bothered to sign it, but there was no doubt of the sender. Well aware of Mrs Jorgensen's interest, Seana handed her the note with the casual comment, 'He writes a fairly nice hand, doesn't he?'

  'Oh, definitely,' her friend agreed. 'But what I want to know is when's the wedding? Or do you have to wait until you get your goat back?'

  'There isn't going to be any wedding,' Seana objected. 'That's just his weird sense of humour.'

  'Oh yeah? Then why is your face so red?'

  'Sunburn,' Seana shrugged, deliberately being as casual about the whole issue as she could be.

  'At this time of year? Oh, come now. I may be old but I'm not stupid. And what's wrong with admitting you're attracted to Ryan? He's handsome, a good hard worker… most girls around here would think of him as a good catch.'

  'Which only shows that most girls don't know him very well at all,' Seana retorted. 'He's handsome, I'll give you that. But he's also egotistical, chauvinistic, overbearing, arrogant and generally obnoxious.'

  'You forgot rough, tough and nasty, big, bad, bold and expensive,' Mrs Jorgensen snorted. 'What's the matter… are you two feuding again?'

  'Not that I know of. He'd hardly send all this to anybody he was feuding with, would be?'

  Mrs Jorgensen wasn't swa
yed by that argument. 'I know very well why he sent it,' she said. 'The same reason he's spent more time up here this summer than he has in the last five years. Don't be fooled by appearances, dear. All this… typing… is just his way of keeping you handy so he'll be able to do some serious courting once the guiding season's over. And don't say you hadn't thought of that yourself, although you might be best not to admit it when he's within hearing.'

  'I… he… he wouldn't,' Seana protested, flustered because she genuinely hadn't thought of it. But I will, she thought, and wondered if she really dared hope that Mrs Jorgensen was right.

  'What? No suspicions at all? And you have the nerve to deny you're in love with the man! Oh, Seana,' Mrs Jorgensen sighed, 'I'd think about it if I were you. You may not want to be in love with Ryan, but I think you certainly are. And best you admit it, to yourself if nobody else.'

  No sarcasm there, just a kind, genuine concern against which Seana had no defences.

  'But he doesn't even like me,' she protested. 'All we ever do is fight… every single time we meet. As soon as either one of us opens their mouth, there's a war going on.'

  'So what? You're communicating, aren't you? Or are you going to tell me you're just dog-and-catting it without any feelings at all?'

  'Oh, there are feelings all right. I make him angry and he makes me angry. He told Ralph—right in front of me—that he just wants a quiet farm girl who'll cook, clean and keep the bed warm. But he never even gives me a chance. He just goes out of his way to get my goat, and of course I let him… I think I even help him!'

  Mrs Jorgensen laughed. 'A quiet farm girl? That, my dear, is a great load of something else from the farm—and that I, guarantee.' And she laughed again. 'What's more, if you believe it you're even more gullible than I think. Don't you imagine Ryan's had more than his share of chances with nice, quiet farm girls? Bored stupid in two days, that's what he'd be. At least you know you're not boring him, or he wouldn't keep coming back for more.'

  'I don't know if I'm boring him or not, but I do know I'm stupid to care,' Seana retorted. 'And as for gullible—well, I think perhaps I'm too gullible to be involved with Ryan or any other man. Maybe I should just give it all away and go back to Edmonton as soon as the first snow comes.'