Wanted By The Cowboy Tiger (Heroes of Shifter Creek 3) by Clara Moore Page B

how she didn’t know the color of Derek’s hair. He never took off his cowboy hat, wearing it like a soldier wore a helmet on the frontlines. Right now, all she wanted to do was tear his hat off and run her hands through his hair as he pulled her close.
                  “Maybe you shouldn’t,” she whispered back, feeling a hot pulse run through her body that had nothing to do with the blazing sun.
                  Then she remembered the woman he mentioned – Bridget. As much as Krista wanted Derek, she had some morals. Knowing they were about to kiss, she stood, breaking the moment. “I should get back to work, before the sun goes down.”
                  He was disappointed, she could tell, but he also looked relieved, as if she had saved them both from some ill fate. “How is your work going?” he asked, his interest peaked. “You find anything interesting?”
                  “No,” she said, trying to sound nonchalant. She had never been a great liar. As an anthropologist, she sought the truth. Speaking against the truth was like having her blood flow backwards. “Nothing important.”
                  He looked across the desert to where the tarp lay over the grave, protecting the bones from a new layer of sand. “That looks like a mighty big hole.”
                  “Sometimes you have to dig deep to find what you’re looking for.”
                  “And sometimes it’s right before you,” Derek proclaimed. “Krista... I...”
                  The rumble of a truck invaded the moment. The truck belonged to Derek, she had seen him drive it before, but this time a woman with bright red hair hanging down like ivy and wearing a blue flannel shirt was behind the wheel. She pulled up beside them. “We gotta go,” she hollered at Derek, ignoring Krista. “The lambs are dropping.”
                  The woman –Bridget,she assumed –was beautiful, but there was nothing friendly about her.
                  “Not the season,” Derek called back.
                  “You know what I mean. Get in.”
                  In no hurry, Derek brushed a piece of hair from Krista’s cheek. “Until next time, sunshine,” he said, and then he jumped into the truck.
                  As Krista watched the truck drive away, leaving her alone in the deserted valley once more, she forgot about the man-beast completely, wishing she had kissed Derek while she had the chance.
     
    ***
                 
     
     

Derek
                                Derek hated leaving Krista alone in the desert. It went against everything he believed. He admired her spirit of independence as much as he admired her healthy curves and stunning amber eyes, like flames against her dark skin. But men were meant to protect women. His instincts screamed at him to turn the truck around and bring Krista with him back to the ranch where he could keep her safe.
                  But that would be counterproductive. The desert was where Krista was safest. The ranch was where the true danger lie.
                  He knew Krista was hiding something, that she wasn’t being completely truthful. He had seen her drawing of the man with tiger bones.
                  But he didn’t think less of her for it, not when he had a secret of his own.
    ***

Chapter Two
     
    Krista
     
                  She worried about leaving the bones behind, but Krista had somewhere important to be. Navigating her little smart car across the valley, Krista could almost imagine she was a driving a rover across Mars. Everything around her felt alien compared to the city, from the abstract rock formations to the oddly-shaped cacti. And the man-beast buried in the ground.
                  The more she thought about it, the more she was convinced