Page 90 of Dream Weaver

“Um… What about the vortex?” I asked, anxious to get back on solid ground.

Abby made a cutting motion. “It stopped. All quiet now.”

I looked around a moment longer, then sat beside Abby. Like her, I stared up at the sky, thinking. And, wow, was it blue. That was the thing about nature. Even when the world was a mess, its beauty still shone through.

I snuck my hand over to Abby’s, and she wrapped her fingers around mine. I tugged a little to kiss the back of her hand, and she smiled.

“Now I have an extra reason to hate Liselle,” she murmured.

I looked down, waiting for the punch line.

Abby sighed at the sky. “We could still be in bed.”

In bed, but not asleep,my bear chimed in.

I grinned. Good to know Abby mourned the missed opportunity as much as I did.

I leaned over to kiss her. Just one little kiss before we got back to sleuthing — I swear! But the kiss took off with a drive of its own, and soon, my heart was pounding — and hers too.

She slid her hands over my back, while mine found the dent of her waist. Abby broke off the kiss to smile at me, and what a sight.

“Not exactly the most private place…”

No, but now that we’d started, it was hard to stop. I kissed my way down her neck, driven by instincts wired into my DNA.

“By noon, this place will be crawling with tourists, you know,” she warned.

“Good thing that’s hours away,” I mumbled into the smooth curve of her collarbone.

Abby tilted her head back, giving me space. Then she laughed and looked down.

“This is all your fault, you know.”

“What’s my fault?”

“Getting me off track. Again.”

I looked up with a chuckle, and she grinned back. The wind ruffled her hair, and she pushed it away from her face. Then her eyes caught on something in the sky, and her smile faded.

“What the…?”

I rolled away to look, but my nose caught a scent first. Something wild and feline.

I jumped to my feet, pulling Abby up with me. Her eyes were on the sky, but mine were on the trees at the end of the natural bridge.

A growl built in my chest, echoed by a faint snarl from the trees. Shadows flickered as something slunk around, just out of sight.

I backed up a step, pulling Abby with me.

“Where did that come from?” she murmured, gazing north.

I glanced up.Thatwas a dark cloud stretching across the horizon. But that wasn’t the only thing that had snuck up on us.

A cougar stalked out of the bushes, keeping low to the ground in attack mode.

I grabbed Abby’s shirt to get her attention.

“Oh. Wow,” she breathed.

---