Free The Accidental Mrs. Mackenzie by Bonnie K. Winn

myself to finish the strips in time for the shuttle driver to take them to the express office.”
    “Should we skip the ride so yon can make your deadline?”
    Brynn considered, then decided it was the chicken’s way out. Besides, her conscience needed the relief of telling the truth when possible. “No. Actually, tomorrow’s shuttle will be better. Then I’ll have more time to go over the final product.”
    He studied her for just a moment before exiting the truck.
    Brynn waited as Matt opened her door, silently appreciating the mannerly gesture, especially in the rugged surroundings. But she watched him unload the four-wheeler with trepidation. Never the athletic sort, she felt gangly and awkward doing anything other than the simplest things. She’d been relieved to see only one ATV, and assumed that meant he would be driving. She fervently hoped that Matt did all the steering and the only thing she had to do was hold on. For dear life, she reminded herself.
    “Do these all-terrain vehicles hurt the ecology of the land?” It was a desperate ploy.
    “Obviously people impact the environment, but as long as we only leave footprints and not destruction, we’re not disturbing the balance.”
    “Uh-huh.” No help there. “Is there much to riding one of these things?” she asked, hoping to sound casual, knowing she failed miserably.
    His gaze settled on her for a moment. “Nothing to worry about Just hang on.”
    Brynn couldn’t prevent a sigh of relief.
    “They’re pretty harmless,” Matt continued.
    Meeting his gaze, she saw that he had sensed her anxiety. “I’m sure they are. I’ve just never been on one.”
    He grinned suddenly, changing tactics. “Then you don’t know what you’ve been missing.”
    Incredibly, his excitement was contagious. She found her fear fading as he held out a tanned, strong hand. Tentatively she accepted his grip and climbed on the vehicle behind him, far to the rear, at the edge of the seat. As she searched for a place to hold on. Matt twisted around.
    “Unless you plan to fly off when we hit the first rock, you’d better move up and hold on.”
    Gingerly she scooted forward. “To what?”
    “Me.”
    “Oh.” With great care she touched two fingers from each hand to his waist.
    He shook his head, then reached out and took both her hands, clamping them firmly around his waist. She gulped, feeling hard muscle beneath the denim covering his lean hips, trying to ignore the fact that she was pressed into the ungiving line of his back. But before she could assimilate the sensations, they were moving.
    Expecting to be terrified, instead she was exhilarated as they traveled down the mountainside, the breeze hitting her cheeks, flattening Matt’s shirt to his skin, sending her unexpected laughter into the trees.
    Expertly, he drove the trail and Brynn could understand the appeal of these freedom machines, easily forging a path where on-the-road vehicles dared not go.
    On her own, Brynn would never have ventured into something this out of the ordinary, this different from her normal, safe life. Which was why it felt all that much more exciting.
    Closing her eyes for a moment, she tried to recapture the days before the MacKenzies had whisked her away—me sameness, the loneliness. Now each moment was filled with something new.
    Matt turned just then, flashing his even-toothed white smile. And suddenly she focused more on how handsome Matt was than on the thrill of this new experience. He had eyes like a cougar, she realized—green with enough gold flecks to give an air of mystery to his Marlboro-man looks. Suddenly the pit in her stomach had nothing to do with the lingering traces of fear from riding the four-wheeler. It was a far different kind of fear.
    “We’re on a snowmobiling trail,” he shouted above the wind. “Farther up it’s still covered in snow, and in winter this part will be, too.”
    Brynn jerked her attention away from his magnetic pull to look again at the