Natural Instincts Read Online Free PDF Page B

closed but not locked, and when I opened it, nobody was around. A note scrawled on a chalkboard propped by the cash register read Help yourself to whatever. Catch you later.
    I left a dollar and two dimes on the cash register and took another bag of ice, marveling at the way people in Vermont did business. Not that there was anything very valuable in the little store. Still, it was a far cry from the world of high finance I was used to.
    I was almost back to my site when movement by my tent caught my eye. I froze, heart starting to pound. The damned image of vampires kept coming back to me, and my first thought was that I’d caught Jon prowling around my tent, thinking I was still inside, sleeping and vulnerable. But it wasn’t a dark, cloaked man who stepped into sight. It was a young blonde woman wearing shorts and a pink bikini top, holding a camera with a very big lens. She saw me and flushed.
    “I’m so sorry,” she called, walking quickly toward me. “I’ve been trying to get a good shot of that loon since last year, and he was right there by the rock. I hope you don’t mind?”
    I did actually mind a whole lot that she’d not only invaded my privacy but that she’d bothered my loon. I decided not to start anything, though, so I just shook my head slightly and stepped out of her way, hoping she’d take the hint and leave. But she followed me over to my car as I opened the hatch and set down the ice. Today I was going to drain the cooler.
    “I’m sorry?” she said, looking as if she was missing something. Strangers often did around me. It freaked people out to no end when I didn’t respond with appropriate small talk. Generally they took the hint and left. But sometimes they acted as though I’d replied, but they hadn’t heard me.
    Damn it, now I was going to have to dig out my phone. With a silent groan, I pulled it from my pocket, opened and closed my cold hands to loosen them up, then typed I don’t speak and showed it to her.
    “Oh wow,” she said, looking at me hard, as though trying to figure out what was wrong with me. For some damn reason, a lot of women apparently thought that not speaking made me very hot. Maybe it triggered their maternal instincts, or maybe they thought they’d be the one to get me over whatever my problem was. Or maybe they jumped at a chance to get to know someone who would have no choice but to listen to them all the time. As far as I was concerned, a woman had been the final straw as to why I no longer spoke. Love had not worked out well for me. I still had scars on my wrists, throat, and ankles to prove it.
    “Are you, like, deaf?”
    I shook my head and focused on my cooler. I needed to swing it sideways, lift, and pull it to the edge of the car so the drain plug would be over the ground. The damn thing was heavy, and to my frustration, the woman reached in to help. That brought me face-to-face with her bikini top, which strained over her skin as she used her muscles, bringing back way too many memories for me. I tried to block them, or at least accept that they no longer had power over me. It didn’t work. It took everything I had not to leap away and run.
    I gritted my teeth and nodded in thanks after we got the cooler into position. I told myself firmly that she did not have any rope. Nor was I ever going to experiment in that direction again, no matter what my innermost cravings were. I popped the plug and water streamed out, spattering in the dirt. I didn’t care about my feet since I was wearing sandals, but I was happy that she danced back a pace so her little sneakers didn’t get wet.
    “Were you born that way?” she asked, probably wondering if I had a tongue. As far as I was concerned, she was never going to find out.
    I could have lied and nodded, but that wasn’t my style. I shook my head and left it at that.
    “Sorry,” she said, giving me what she must have thought was an understanding smile. “I’m too nosy for my own good.”
    I agreed but