A/N: Thank you all for the reads! You're amazing. :)

Chapter 22

When the bike stopped a short time later, Evie was a little surprised. She had expected that he'd make her stay on the back of the bike for as long as possible to cure her phobia, but their trip took all of twenty minutes from the ranch through the downtown area to the base of a modest sized mountain. There he stopped the bike in the parking lot near a picnic area.

Evie tried not to let out an audible breath of relief, but she hadn't been as quiet as she had intended. Steve glanced back over his shoulder and gave her a small grin. "You survived."

"We still have to go back," she remarked.

"You'll be fine," he chuckled.

She looked around the area, not ready to release her hold on his hips or move off the bike. The fear from the ride, though it had lessened over the twenty minutes, was still locking her thighs and legs into place. As for the park area, it looked empty but for a few unoccupied cars parked in spots on the asphalt, which was no surprise considering the sun was now dropping well below the tree line.

"Are you going to let go of me?" he asked, with a soft chiding tone in his voice.

Evie shook her head and worried her lip. "What are we going to do?"

"We're going to go on a hike," he said.

"I wasn't warned about a hike."

Steve grinned. "It's less than two miles round trip to the summit and back, and the steep parts are paved."

"Oh, well, then I guess it should be okay," she replied, finally loosening her grasp on his hips. She quickly dismounted the bike in reverse order from how she had mounted, her legs rubbery and half asleep from the position in which they had been clenched. Evie stretched her body out, stretching her arms out over her head and then dipping down at her waist. A few joints popped at the movement and made her sigh from pleasure.

Steve was just stepping up beside her as she righted herself. Without saying anything, he wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her close to give her a sound kiss. It was short, but it certainly wasn't chaste or sweet, and he grinned at her.

"Congratulations for making it this far," he said, his voice low. "You did wonderfully."

Evie giggled lightly. "I don't think the whole thing has caught up with me yet, but if I get a kiss like that every time I do something well, then I'll try more things that scare me."

Steve shook his head and fully parted from her. "Perhaps if you did more things that scare you, I might think of other rewards so that they are commensurate to whatever you accomplish."

Evie stood still considering what he said as he began to walk across the parking lot for the hiking trail. "Your offer is rather compelling."

He turned just slightly and laughed at her, but continued on his way, not waiting. She watched him walk for a few moments, noting the way the skin and sinew and limbs moved with his locomotion. His gait was smooth and sure, and whether or not he had intended it, the man had a dominant, alpha walk without the arrogance that so often came with it. He was a thing of beauty in so many tangible and intangible ways that it made her wonder, yet again, how such a man could be interested in her.

When he realized she wasn't following him, he stopped and held his arms out at his sides in confusion. "Are you coming?"

"Not yet," she mumbled to herself and started over for him.

The hike was fairly short, but she was winded by the time they made the final climb up to the summit overlook on the small mountain. Altitude had changed and the air was definitely a little thinner, but it wasn't that markedly different. Steve stepped up and over the ridge of rocks in which they were scrambling and bent down to offer his hand to her. She accepted his help and once on top of mountain, grabbed the stitch in her side and walked around the flat area.

When she was finally able to see straight, her breath was once again taken with the view. Even though she had not come to Prescott many times, she had seen a lot of the forest area because it abutted the ranch and was now used as federal grazing land. But this was different and beautiful with the changing leaves on the trees and vegetation spreading throughout the valley in a riot of colors, not only the typical brown of Arizona desert.

"Wow," she said simply, moving closer to the edge and the guardrail to get a better look at the downtown area in the center of a blanket of trees. "This is beautiful."

Steve merely stepped up beside her and nodded his head. He let out a contented sigh after a few minutes and left her standing there. She found him sitting on a wooden bench, an arm tossed across the back, looking completely at home. Like he belonged here.

Evie joined his side and slipped into the space beside him. The breeze that had started halfway through their hike had increased now, and at the higher altitude whipped through her jacket and made her shiver. Luckily, Steve was like a furnace. She inched closer to him and rested her head on his shoulder.

This is how they sat for some time. She wasn't quite sure for how long they were, just enjoying being in each other's company, but they watched the sun continue to lower on the horizon and disappear behind threatening, though spotty, gray clouds. The setting orb ignited them in a flame of oranges, reds and purples.

It was amazing to just sit there in companionable silence with nothing going on, nothing to worry about, nothing to take her attention but his presence there beside her. The superficiality of her past relationships hit her full force. There was always something that she was doing, filling the void. She'd always been frightened to let the silence happen, usually because it was the death knell for whatever torrid love affair she currently found herself.

This was a different kind of connection; never before had she experienced such a calmness in a man's presence. She'd always felt compelled to put on a show to make them pay attention to her. To gain their affection.

Steve was the opposite. He didn't want a show, someone pretty at the end of the day to entertain and divert his attention for a little while like all her past lovers had wanted. He wanted substance. He wanted someone who could sit on a bench beside him and who would look out on the world with him, and take in the beauty. Of course, she knew there was an adventurous side there, but he was a constant, a rock in an ever changing sea. Someone who did not fly off the handle or live by his emotions. Nothing could shake the man. He wanted a partner, not a plaything.

The thought simultaneously terrified her and exhilarated her. Could she really give him that? Could she learn to be the woman he wanted—needed? Would he compare her to his fiancée if she didn't live up to his expectations?

"I'm glad you decided to come with me," he said. She felt the rumbling in his chest from the voice, more than she heard it.

A small smile found her lips and she shifted closer to him, if that was possible. His arm around her tightened. "I'm glad I did, too."

"I used to come up here all the time after I first came to the ranch," he said. "I could just mellow out."

Evie looked up at him. It was said in a contemplative tone, as though he were searching for a way to bring up the subject of his coming to the ranch, but he wasn't sure how to. Did it even matter? She knew why he had come, she didn't need to know the details once he arrived. She sighed and squeezed her arms around him. "It's very peaceful."

Silence followed until her questions got the better of her.

"So… what drew you to the whole cowboy thing?" she asked. It seemed benign enough if he didn't want to go in depth with the answer.

He laughed. "Rest and relaxation in a sparsely populated location is what drew me. The cowboy thing came along with it."

"But you seem like such a natural. Like you really adore it," she said.

Steve shrugged and looked down at her. "It's back-breaking work. It goes on twenty-four-seven. But it's not fighting in a war and it's honest work. The animals don't talk back too much, and I can still fulfill my need to serve my country through my command of the Project Rebirth group. Honestly, with all the bullshit in Washington these days, it's kinda nice to actually make a difference for people in this way. I see the results of what I'm doing in front of me every day instead of dealing with bureaucracy."

After a moment, he continued in a thick New York accent. "But I'm still a boy from Brooklyn at heart, though."

She couldn't contain her laughter. "Wow, that's really bad."

He rolled his eyes. "Like it's any better than your adorable muddled accent."

Evie scoffed. "I never made any claim to it being pure."

In response, he leaned down and stole a kiss. "I like it just fine."

She grinned and rested her head on his shoulder. It was some time before he asked her, "Do you like what you're doing?"

It surprised her that she actually had to pause for a moment to think about her answer. "Yes and no."

"You have to explain."

Evie shrugged. "I love the science… the history… trying to piece together mysteries from the past. I guess it's sort of like you and dealing with the government. I hate the bureaucracy of the university world. I hate always having to prove myself because I'm young and a woman. I mean, it's not like it matters anyway. My career is pretty much ruined."

His right brow rose curiously. "Why?"

"You know when I told you that night we did the cookout that my mentor was a tosser?" she asked.

He nodded his head slowly.

"Well, I was the idiot graduate student who slept with him," she said. "While he was still married. While I was still his student. And I was stupid enough to fall into the web of lies that he kept spinning to keep me in his grasp. Every time I would get away from him, he'd pull me back in somehow… until the day I got the call from Donald that Dad had died. That day, I walked in on him and his wife—whom he said he had separated from—and I lost it. Charlie said he was spreading rumors around as soon as I was gone. Any kind of reputation I had was built on whatever he gave me. Otherwise, I'm nothing."

Evie didn't dare look up at him. Instead, she trained her eyes on the horizon and the gathering clouds. She couldn't bring herself to see his expression. To watch what must have been a little piece of her personal credibility falling away.

"I've let quite a few men like him come into my life all the time to build me up with the attention I thought I needed while they're really just stripping away another piece of me," she said. "You know, once you lose enough pieces of you, it's really hard to get back to being the person you should be."

Steve didn't shift. He didn't move. For a moment she thought he would push her away once he made sense of what she was trying to say. That he'd finally realize that she really wasn't worth his time. That no one so good as him could want anything to do with her.

Instead, a hand reached her cheek and slipped below her chin, applying the gentlest pressure so that she had to look up at him. Evie met his gaze, and instead of finding the disgust she expected, his eyes were soft.

"Evie, I don't care about the past," he said. "We've all made mistakes. We all have regrets. But if there's anything I've learned, it's that you've got to keep living your life even if there's a trail of regrets behind you."

Her lips curled in a forced smile and she shook her head. "You're too good for me. One day you'll realize it and then you'll leave me like all the rest."

"I like to think I can decide for myself who's good enough for me," he replied. "And I don't run. I always finish what I start."

Evie wanted to believe him—if there ever were a person on the face of this planet she could trust, it was this man—but in her heart she couldn't allow herself to be duped into a false sense of security again. The problem was that she was already half in love with him, and she didn't want to go through the pain of yet another failed relationship for whatever reason. He was worth a risk, but she refused to let her better judgment cloud her feelings right now. After all, it could all change with what happened to the ranch.

She looked back on the horizon where the gray storm clouds were closing in around what was left of the sun dipping below the mountains in the far off distance. Lightning illuminated inside them, a muted flash in the heavy gray. "Is that coming for us?"

"Probably," he said. "Hopefully it'll die down some by the time it gets past the mountains, but we should probably head down now. I don't want to scare you too much by riding in a thunderstorm."

Evie laughed. "Thanks, I appreciate it."

They didn't make it back to the ranch before the storm hit, and the ferocity of the storm had not abated as Steve had said it might. Instead of stopping to let her off at the house, he steered the bike right into the shed where he kept it. That, at least, was dry.

Evie slipped off the bike more than gracefully climbed off of it because she was soaked, but she was glad to be back on her own two feet after the harrowing experience. Even though Steve had driven safely through the deluge, it had been slow and fretful, and she did not foresee a time in the near future that she would be taking another ride with him without checking the weather report.

He got off the bike and did a quick check before turning to her. "Come on."

"Don't we have to dry it off or something?" she asked.

"It's fine for now," he replied, grabbing her hand and pulling her through the exit of the shed back out into the rain.

"Where are we going?" Evie asked with a laugh as he pulled her around the side of the house. He opened up the door to the mudroom and laundry room. "I didn't know this was unlocked."

"We leave it open," he said.

Evie nodded her head and stepped in before him. He shut the door and kept on going. "Doesn't walking through the house preclude the need for a mudroom?"

"I'm not staying," he replied. "I just need to make sure my file cabinet is locked. You know, Army regulation."

"Yeah, yeah." She waved him off, shaking her head. There were towels that someone had done—likely Charlie, because Evie knew she hadn't touched the laundry—sitting in a pile on top of the dryer. She grabbed the top one and wrapped it in her hair before starting to peel off her boots and clothes.

If there was one feeling she hated more in life, it was the feeling of wet, sticky clothes on her skin; she didn't stop to think about it as she hastily kicked off the boots into the corner and reached for the hem of her shirt, pulling it over her towel wrapped head. The cotton material made a wet, disgusting slurp-sucking sound as it left her skin. She tossed the offending thing in the wash and reached down for the button on her jeans, but stopped when she noticed the shadow standing in the doorway from the main house.

It wasn't that he was standing there mortified or even shocked. Actually, it seemed like nothing was going through his mind at the moment. He merely stood still and watched her with morbid interest. Evie giggled at him. "Are you blushing?"

Now he was.

Evie laughed again and walked over to him, grabbing the front of his shirt and pulling him along with her into the mudroom. "They're just boobs, Steve."

"But…" he began. "They're, er, yours."

"Yes, they are," she replied, looking down at them. The lace and satin of her bra had made an uncomfortable combination soaking wet. She contemplated reaching for the hooks on the back, but stopped herself.

He laughed despite himself and ran his fingers through the wet strands of his hair. "It's been a really long time…"

Evie stepped closer to him. He swallowed.

"So you have…" she didn't finish her sentence. Frankly, the thought died on her lips as soon as his lips were covering hers. There wasn't anything else in the world she could possibly think about as Action Steve kicked in, pulling her flush against his body and hungrily devouring her.

She felt something hard behind her then, and realized it was a wall, and that Steve had somehow maneuvered her to that spot without her knowledge. It was just as she was reaching for the snaps on his button down, with the intention of ripping them away, that the moment burst completely.

She heard the commotion outside. A booming clap of thunder. Electricity sizzling and going out, leaving them in a gray, nearly dark mudroom. Yelling followed by hundreds of hooves and fearful, anxious mooing. Steve went rigid and pushed back from her, uttering a single, "Fuck."

Evie had never heard such a pejorative tone come from his mouth, much less any rude word. It shocked her, but it also amused her, despite the fact that she knew this was a serious situation. He looked at her with a pained expression, then at the door and back to her.

"You better go," she said.

He nodded his head resolutely and went to the door. But he stopped, walked back, and gave her one last kiss. "I'll be back in a little while."

"Okay," she replied simply.

"I fully intend on finishing what I started," he remarked as he walked out and shut the door with a bang to mirror another rumble of thunder.

Evie stood still in the room, doing her level best not to let her mind get carried away with his last statement. "Be still my beating heart," she mused before beginning the search for matches and candles.

She hoped whatever occupied his time out there wouldn't take him long. Not after a warning like that.