Endangered Hearts [Après-Ski 3] (Siren Publishing Everlasting Classic) Read online

  Après-Ski 3

  Endangered Hearts

  Bounty Hunter, Sabine Carter, tracks Rick Dwyer to sleepy Nevella. Instead of the scumbag she’s expecting, Rick turns out to be a dedicated conservationist, passionate about saving an endangered species of eagle nesting in the Nevella mountains. She doesn’t usually care what the people she’s paid to find are supposed to have done, but there’s something about Rick that troubles her conscience. A less likely industrial saboteur she had yet to see. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that he’s a hunk, but Sabine won’t let that influence her judgment.

  Rick knows the moment he sets eyes on Sabine that she’s been sent to trap him. He also knows she’s pretty damned special. She hates to be touched, and Rick sees that as a challenge. But first he must convince her he isn’t the bad guy.

  In between passionate bouts of lovemaking, Rick and Sabine devise a means of drawing out the real villains, endangering themselves and their own hearts in the process.

  Genre: BDSM, Contemporary

  Length: 47,450 words

  ENDANGERED HEARTS

  Après-Ski 3

  Zara Chase

  EVERLASTING CLASSIC

  Siren Publishing, Inc.

  www.SirenPublishing.com

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  A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK

  IMPRINT: Everlasting Classic

  ENDANGERED HEARTS

  Copyright © 2014 by Zara Chase

  E-book ISBN: 978-1-62741-436-4

  First E-book Publication: March 2014

  Cover design by Les Byerley

  All art and logo copyright © 2014 by Siren Publishing, Inc.

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.

  All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.

  PUBLISHER

  Siren Publishing, Inc.

  www.SirenPublishing.com

  Letter to Readers

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  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  About the Author

  ENDANGERED HEARTS

  Après-Ski 3

  ZARA CHASE

  Copyright © 2014

  Chapter One

  “Falconiformes, as you all must know by now, are diurnal birds of prey, but for the sake of our new arrival, please bear with me if I repeat myself.”

  Standing at the back of the group, Sabine felt the full force of Rick Dwyer’s megawatt smile. All heads turned in her direction. The men flashed welcoming smiles. The other three females in the group fixed her with warning scowls that screamed hands off. She wanted to tell them to lighten up. She wasn’t there to dance the horizontal mambo with the hunky group leader.

  Unfortunately.

  “I appreciate your making allowances for my ignorance,” she said. She’d read up on the eagles nesting here in Nevella so she would seem convincing in her role as a conservation enthusiast, but it suited her purpose to play dumb.

  “No problem.” Rick returned his attention to the entire group. “These birds used to be a common sight in Nevella. Now we have less than twenty pairs nesting here. Our job is to ensure they can nest without being disturbed until their eaglets hatch and can fend for themselves. Now that the Nevellians have woken up and realized they have an endangered species on their mountainsides, we have their backing to carry out our protection program—”

  “But they’re not putting their money where their mouths are?” someone said censoriously, speaking English with a heavy German accent.

  “Unfortunately not, which is why I need you guys. You share my passion, are willing to suffer the less than salubrious accommodations, and work for free.”

  General laughter greeted this comment. They all knew they were being exploited, Sabine figured, but since it was for the greater good of the eagles, it made them feel like they were making a difference. Sabine had to hand it to Rick. By reminding them they were doing their bit to save the dying planet, he had them eating out of his hand. Hmm, now there was an idea. No, don’t go there!

  “Look upon your time here as an investment in the future. It would be a tragedy if later generations were deprived of the sight of these magnificent birds in their natural habitat. But, if we do our job right then in time their numbers will increase.”

  “How could anyone steal their eggs when they nest in such inaccessible places?” asked one of the volunteers. “I know the eggs are sought after, but they’re not worth breaking your neck for, surely?”

  “You’d be surprised how much they fetch on the black market,” Rick replied, grinding his jaw. “Where there’s that sort of money involved, people tend to get inventive and take crazy risks to cash in.”

  “They could abseil down that cliff face,” one of the guys suggested.

  “They could, and they have, on more than one occasion. That particular access point has been blocked off, but they could still climb up from this position, and will probably try it at some point. That’s why we are here.”

  Sabine hated to admit she could have listened to Rick talking a
bout his environmental program all day. In spite of her knowing he wasn’t the idealistic conservationist he made himself out to be, his enthusiasm was still infectious. His expert knowledge on the various protection schemes running in Nevella, and the soft, lilting cadence of his voice as he explained more about this particular one, held her spellbound. She could see it had the same effect on her fellow volunteers. They were friendly enough, but had bonded before she arrived. Their closeness reminded her she was the new girl, as evidenced by the females’ wariness of her. Whether that was intentional or not, Sabine couldn’t have said. Nor did she much care. She came here with an assignment to complete and it had nothing to do with winning popularity contests.

  Rick was a tough, disarmingly handsome guy, very easy on the eyes, which is probably what had gotten the other girls’ panties in a wad. He sported a thick head of red hair held back in a ponytail to show off chiseled features, gorgeous greenish-blue eyes, and the most devastatingly wicked smile she had seen in a very long time. Not that she was interested in him as a person. It was part of her job to be observant—to look beyond the obvious—and Rick Dwyer was very obviously a Class-A hunk. Not that such considerations would affect her judgment, but perhaps it explained why he had been able to fly beneath the radar for past two years when a lot of important people were very anxious to get their hands on him. In her experience, people were always more accommodating, more willing to overlook flaws, if the guy who required accommodating was a sexy hunk who oozed charm and machismo. That was the way the world worked and Sabine had long since stopped railing against the unfairness of it all.

  Far from alienating the guys in the group with his popularity, Rick’s knowledge, relaxed manner, and his disinclination to hit on the females despite their giving off less than subtle encouragement, seemed to endear him to them as well. They had all given up their summer breaks to help Rick, so they had to be dedicated environmentalists. Sabine could relate to that. She was as keen on protecting endangered species as the next girl, but she also had to eat. If she could pull off the assignment then she would be dining at the very best restaurants for a long time to come.

  “Look, here’s one now.”

  Sabine followed the direction of Rick’s pointed finger, lifted binoculars to her eyes, and gasped as she saw a magnificent bird soaring effortlessly on gentle thermal winds before coming in to land on its eerie situated on a rocky outcrop high above their heads. It had something between its vicious talons, food presumably for its mate sitting guard over their egg.

  “Wow,” said someone. “That’s an awesome sight.”

  Sabine had to agree.

  Rick returned his attention to the group and continued to talk about the eagles. His husky, Ruben, sat close by his side and every so often Rick spontaneously reached down to scratch his ears. The dog rubbed his head beneath Rick’s large hand and looked up at him through adoring eyes, tongue lolling from the side of his mouth. Sabine felt an irrational twitch of jealously, wishing it could be her head getting scratched by such capable hands. Get a grip, girl. Hell, she couldn’t help the nature of her thoughts. It her own defense, it had been a while since she’d gotten down and dirty with a guy. Damn it, he’d noticed her watching him, and his slow, lazy smile was way too arrogant for her liking, as though he’d read her mind. When she deliberately lifted her binoculars to her eyes again and trained them on the eagles’ eerie, she was convinced she heard him chuckle.

  The petite, very pretty blonde standing directly in front of Sabine—Cassie, Sabine thought her name was—raised her hand and jumped up and down to attract Rick’s attention. She had done so several times already. Sabine figured she had to know the gesture made her generous tits bounce and every male eye gravitate toward her chest.

  “Yes, Cassie,” Rick said. “Something you need to know?”

  Was it Sabine’s imagination, or did Rick come close to sighing as he asked the question? Surely he wasn’t immune to Cassie’s charms? She would bet good money on him not being gay, so why was he looking the proverbial gift horse in the mouth? Cassie was a real babe, and supposedly well-qualified in the field of environmental protection. Didn’t that make her and Rick perfect bed-fellows?

  Sabine shook her head, reminding herself why she was there. Her purpose had absolutely nothing to do with Rick Dwyer’s love life and she didn’t give a fuck who he did or did not…well, fuck. Under the pretense of capturing the eagle’s eerie, Sabine shot off a few snaps of Rick’s profile. She was pretty sure he was the person she had spent the past three months tracking down, but his appearance had changed and she needed to be sure. Once she got back to her room, she could download the pictures she had taken, compare them to the ones taken of him in a previous life when he used a different name, and confirm her suspicions.

  “Okay, ladies and gentlemen,” Rick said. “If there are no more questions, let me show you the refuge that will be your part-time home for the next month.”

  They all dutifully moved toward the ancient stone hut—one of a number situated in the hills around Nevella. To say this one was basic would be a gross understatement. Bunks, a Calor gas stove and not very much else. They were there for the free use of hikers who wanted to spend the night, or nights, communing with the wilds. This one had been commandeered by Rick’s project and was off-limits to anyone not involved with it. It had a clear view of the eagles’ nesting site and a radio transmitter, since there was no cell phone reception up this high. Rick told them they would be working in eight-hour shifts to keep a watch on the nests until the chicks hatched.

  “Night time is when the poachers will come,” Rick reminded them. “Hence the night vision goggles. The moment you see anything suspicious, anything at all, get on the horn. It will take the poachers a while to scale that rock face and we can have a helicopter up here before they get anywhere near the eggs.”

  “Will you be taking a shift, Rick?” Cassis asked.

  “Sure. I wouldn’t ask you guys to do anything I’m not prepared to do myself.”

  Just what was he prepared to do, Sabine wondered. How far was he prepared to go to…well, feather his own nest? She happened to know he had a degree in environmental studies so his presence here was easily justified. It was equally clear he really cared about what he did. You couldn’t fake that type of passion. But she knew there was more to him than that. A very great deal more. Absently, she sketched his likeness on an open page of her pad as he fielded questions from her fellow volunteers.

  “There are nine of us, including me,” Rick said, “so we’ll split ourselves into three shifts of three.”

  Sabine watched Cassie’s eyes light up, and knew what she had to be thinking. Make it two per shift and give me the night shift with Rick. That would suit Sabine, but not for the same reasons Cassie had in mind. She needed to get him alone, talk to him, win his trust. Still, she couldn’t draw attention to herself by pushing the issue. An opportunity would present itself. Opportunities always did in her line of work.

  Rick reeled off a list of names, drawing Sabine’s attention back to him. She was on the first afternoon shift, but not with Rick.

  “We start first thing tomorrow. I’ll stay here all day with the first two shifts, and then see the night shift in,” Rick said, putting down a heavy-looking rucksack and unloading supplies. “Once I’m happy you all know what you’re doing, we’ll settle into a routine for the next two months.” He glanced around his audience. “Everyone good with that?”

  Eight heads nodded.

  “Okay then, let’s get back down before the sun goes. It gets damned cold up here at night, even this time of the year. Remember that and dress accordingly.”

  * * * *

  “Give those azaleas a wide berth.” Rick pointed to the delicate yet hardy plants, currently in full bloom, as he led his party down a path made hazardous by loose rocks and slippery shale. It hadn’t rained for a while and the hard mountain trail was difficult to negotiate when moving downhill. “That particular strain of azalea is
peculiar to this part of the world and it’s against the law to pick them or deliberately damage them.”

  “How will anyone know if they do, pick them, I mean?” Cassie asked, falling into step beside him.

  “They rely on people telling.”

  “Oh, but how can−”

  Rick let her prattle on, not bothering to answer her. He knew what Cassie wanted from him−she wasn’t exactly being subtle about it−and he couldn’t understand what made him hesitate. Okay, so he wouldn’t be introducing her to the dungeon at Hadleigh’s. That was very exclusive, strictly invitation only and she wouldn’t fit in, but he was willing to bet she’d be a mover in the sack. Unfortunately he had no desire to find out. His buddies at Hadleigh’s couldn’t figure out what was wrong with him. As they were quick to point out, he’d been happy enough to exchange body fluids with previous volunteers on his summer projects.

  Perhaps he was undergoing a premature mid-life crisis. Christ, he hoped not. He was only thirty-two, for fuck’s sake. He’d been feeling restless lately, wondering if it was time to move on, but had put that down to being between subs and because…well, sooner or later he would be found and he really didn’t want to face all the crap that would then ensue. All the more reason to take Cassie up on her offer, surely? This little enclave tucked away between France and Spain had plenty going on to keep him occupied, but it was also frustrating trying to get the powers that be to see what they were sitting on from an environmental perspective. They made plenty of money out of skiing in the winter, but that trade was dwindling due to some of the Baltic countries getting in on the act and undercutting Nevella. If they got their environmental projects thriving, tourists would flock to the area. But, of course, that would require an input of capital. Money. An international stumbling block that recognized no border controls.