RAVEN'S HOLLOW by Jenna Ryan Page B

controlled vibes?”
    “I used the word jitter, Eli, specifically because jitters are in fact controllable. By women, anyway.”
    “Is that your opinion of all men, or just me?”
    “Oh, I have a much higher opinion of you than I do of most men.” Her smile teased him now. “You charmed me in Boston, Eli. The bigger miracle is that you also charmed my aunt, who’s as practical as Molly and wouldn’t know a jitter if it bit her. She thought you were hot, and I was insane not to jump you.”
    “Yeah, well, that same aunt told me that you were her favorite niece, and if I so much as made you frown, she’d turn me into a jackass.”
    Sadie waved off the remark. “She uses that threat on men all the time. It’s a private joke. In her opinion, there isn’t a male alive who needs a hit of magic to become a jackass. It’s a natural condition.”
    He grinned. “I could refute that, or shut up and drive. I’ll go with the easier option.”
    “Making you the smartest jackass in the class. Turn right,” she said without looking. “Follow the so-called road as far as you can, and I’ll do what I can, sans spell book, to keep the ground underneath us as navigable as possible.”
    “Appreciate that, sweetheart. While you’re at it—” he nodded through the windshield “—you might want to tell that moose thirty feet in front of us to move along.”
    * * *
    H E ’ D EXPECTED HER to jolt. Instead, the smile that lit every one of her features had his brain blurring with lust.
    “She’s gorgeous.” Clearly captivated, Sadie scooted forward in her seat. “The size of them never fails to amaze me. This one’s bigger than most males.”
    Noting a movement, Eli gestured. “This one has a calf.”
    “Really? Where? Oh, it’s gorgeous, too.”
    He reached into his waistband. “Don’t know about baby, but Mama moose is a hell of a lot more than gorgeous.”
    “The word you’re looking for is dangerous. But only if she sees us as a threat.” She made an uncertain motion. “Then again, it’s mating season, so that could be a problem if there’s a horny male in the vicinity. Present company excluded.”
    “Funny.” But when he started to open the door, she caught his arm.
    “Eli, you are not going to shoot that magnificent creature.”
    He half smiled. “I thought we agreed I wasn’t the biggest jackass on the planet. I only want to move mother and child along before a hormonal bull shows up and sees my truck as a worthy opponent.”
    “What makes you think...? Oh, never mind. Just do it.”
    Four harmless shots later, Mama moose, having carefully considered her options, nudged her calf along and clomped into the woods behind it.
    “Huh.” Sadie sat back. “Bear would have been more fun.”
    “Proof that you’ve never ventured into the high Rockies. No encounter with a grizzly could ever be called fun.”
    She waited until he slammed the door, then reaching over the console, grabbed a handful of his hair and yanked his mouth onto hers. When she drew away, her gray eyes glittered. “I love a man who can transition from back alleys to the backwoods without missing a beat.”
    He’d figure out what she’d said, Eli reflected, when the flames at the back of his throat subsided and his heart—which had missed several beats—kick-started again.
    A blast of wet wind bore down on the truck. Releasing his hair, Sadie dropped back into her seat. “Looks like my focus is shot, Lieutenant. Good thing we brought our rain gear.”
    Rain gear, right. Eli struggled to think past the need currently blasting through his bloodstream. The road they were on ended two miles from Kilgore’s cabin—as the raven flew.
    Given that Sadie had long since mastered the art of a guileless expression, he could only speculate as to what was running through her mind right now. Probably nothing his male pride wanted to hear. Happy enough to let it ride, he flicked on the wipers and upped the volume of Whitesnake on his iPod.
    By