“After we finish lunch. The webcam does the bulk of the work, but someone should be monitoring the nest on a regular basis and taking some digital still shots. The professor gets the constant webcam feed, but he makes good use of my personal notes and the stills, too.”
“How did you hook up with him?”
“He put an ad in the paper, and out of all the people who answered it, he picked me.”
“Of course he would.” Luke was quickly becoming her biggest fan. “You have the credentials and you’re extremely personable. I’m surprised you haven’t landed a job with one of the national parks yet.”
“Everyone has budget issues, and I’m relatively new to the profession. The parks are struggling to keep their veterans employed, and that’s what they should do. I can wait it out. I don’t have lots of bills, and I can stay with my folks and pay a small amount of rent. I also have some savings.”
He nodded. “You’re like me. I don’t worry if I don’t have a job right this minute, because I know I’ll find something eventually. Whereas my dad got a job with an electronics company right out of college and never left. He thinks if he did, no one else would hire him.”
“And you don’t want to live in fear like that,” she said.
“God, no. Fear makes you afraid to take risks.” He bit into his sandwich. It was about a thousand times better than her energy drink.
“Have you ever been engaged?”
Now, there was a question right out of left field. She should know that he wouldn’t do that. “I’m not into marriage.” He glanced at her. “How about you?”
“A guy asked me once, but I couldn’t see him as the father of my children. So I said no, but I did my best to be gentle about it.”
“So that’s your criteria? A guy has to pass muster as the future father of your children?”
“Well, I need to love him passionately, and we need a good sex life, but yeah, I’d want to be able to picture him as my future children’s dad. Animals in the wild use that yardstick all the time and it’s not a bad one.”
She sure wouldn’t consider a wanderer like him as a viable father of her kids, which was a good thing, really. “I take it you are planning to have kids, then.”
She laughed. “I’m planning and my parents are praying. I’m an only child, so if they’re going to have grandchildren to spoil, I’m their only hope.”
He was also an only child. His mother had made some noises about grandkids, but his dad had cautioned him to live his life for himself and not worry about providing grandchildren. Luke had heard the unspoken message—don’t make my mistakes.
Naomi gazed at him. “Did you think I wouldn’t want kids?”
“I don’t see how you’d manage a family and still be so involved with wild-animal research.”
“People do manage it. There’s a woman who took her little boy out on the boat while she studied whales. If I could get a job at Yellowstone, then being married and having a family would be no problem at all because it’s so close to Shoshone. My folks would help when they could, and I know a bunch of people around here. Child care would be a breeze because I’d have a support system.”
He stared at her as a million contradictory thoughts battled in his head. “That kind of thinking is so foreign to me. I’ve never thought in terms of having a support system.” He was both attracted and repelled by the concept.
Something that looked dangerously like pity flickered in her blue eyes. Then it was gone. “If you’re a really strong person, I guess you don’t need one. When I was in Florida, I had friends, and I cobbled together a loose kind of support system. But it wasn’t anything like I have here.”
“So does that mean you feel tied to this place?” He was still sorting it out.
“Not at all. In fact, it’s the opposite. Let’s say I did get a job around here, found the right guy, had a couple of kids. And then I had some fabulous research opportunity for a few weeks. Being here would mean I could consider it, because I’d have backup. Backup in addition to my husband, of course, whoever he might be. I’d have other people I could count on, too.”
“I don’t know.” He shook his head. “It seems a little too cozy for me.”
“I’m sure it does. You’re a lone wolf. I shouldn’t describe this as a one-way street, either. If I expect to count on others to help me, then when they need backup, I have to make myself available.”
“Aha.” He knew there had to be a catch. “So you could end up being tied down by them.”
“For a little while. It’s supposed to even out. If I ask my parents to babysit, then I have to be willing to watch their house and feed their dog if they go on vacation. It’s a trade-off.”
Luke shuddered. “I couldn’t deal with that.”
“Then it’s a good thing you’ve created the life that you have, isn’t it?”
He met her gaze across the tablecloth, littered with the remains of their lunch. “Yes. I like it.” He allowed himself a slow perusal of Naomi Perkins, from her bare toes to her golden ponytail. He and Naomi might be headed down different paths, but right now, they occupied the same place and time. “I’ll tell you what else I like.”
Her skin had turned a sweet shade of pink as he’d studied her. “What’s that?”
“The idea of you naked on this tablecloth.”
Her breath hitched. “That’s quite a change of subject.”
“We needed one.” He started moving the food off the red checkered cloth. “All this talk about family ties and obligations was playing hell with my sex drive.”
“Is that why you’re such a sexy guy? You don’t get involved in all that cozy family stuff?”
“You tell me.” He pulled off his boots.
“Could be. You’re a wild guy, Luke.” Rising to her knees, she stripped off her T-shirt for the second time today.
And for the second time today, he drank in the sight of her undressing for him. “That must be why you like me.” He unsnapped his shirt and took it off. “You’re attracted to wild things.”
“That’s part of it.” She gave him the same sort of once-over he’d given her and smiled. “Mostly I just want your body.”
Lust shot straight to his groin. “Likewise.” He lost track of his own undressing when she arched her back and reached for the clasp of her bra.
Snap, it came undone, and she pulled it off by the straps before tossing it aside. The motion made her breasts quiver. He became completely absorbed in watching them as she moved. When she unfastened her shorts and slid them, along with her panties, down to her knees, he had a visual feast.
He couldn’t imagine ever growing tired of this view—her pale, full breasts tipped with wine-dark nipples, her slender waist and the gentle curve of her hips. She would put an hourglass to shame. His glance traveled lower, to those blond curls covering what was currently his favorite place in the world.
“Now who’s falling behind?” She rid herself of her shorts and panties, and her breasts jiggled again, capturing both his attention and his fevered imagination.
“I can’t concentrate when you’re doing that.”
She gave him a saucy look. “I’m only following instructions.”
“Then