Man from the Moon

Janet Chapman

For all of you who have ever looked up at that big, bright full moon and wondered, what if?

One

Isobel plunked her purchases down on the counter\ causing the store clerk to look up from her magazine with a smile. "Hi, Doc," the gum-snapping teenager chirped. She suddenly recoiled, pointing at Isobel s chest. "Eww, that's not guts, is it?"

Isobel looked down and brushed at her work coat. "Nah, its just cow snot."

The young clerk leaned on the counter, her smile back in place. "I heard you finally gave Whiny Wayne his walking papers," she said in a conspirators whisper, darting a glance at the man in the snack aisle before arching her pencil-thin eyebrows at Isobel. "That's a record for you, isn't it? You dated him what ... a whole month?"

¹¹ Whiny Wayne?"

The gill straightened with a shrug. "Everyone knows that ever since Wayne Thompson's mama kicked him out, he's been looking for a new place to plug in his umbilical cord.' She pointed the scanner at the pint of ice cream, then aimed it at the six pack of soda. "You gotta stop being such a push-over, Doc. I mean, really, a guy just has to look at you with sad old puppy-dog eyes, and you practically trip over yourself running to his rescue.'

"I do not."

"No? What about Fred Baker? Its no secret you checked him into the rehab center in Ellswoith, but that he started dating Lacey Briggs the day he came out." She hit some buttons on the register, then leaned over the counter and lowered her voice again. "And everyone knows you had to get a restraining order against Clive Jenkins, when he camped out on your lawn because you wouldn't go on another date with him."

Isobel swiped her debit card through the machine somewhat forcefully and punched in her password. "You

make me sound pathetic."

"No, you re not pathetic! The guys you date are/" the girl said, instantly contrite. She snapped open a paper bag with a dramatic sigh. "You re too softhearted for your own good, Doc. I swear its like you go around wearing a sign that says I Date Losers/ She packed Isobel s purchases but didn't hand them over. There's a bean supper at the church tonight. Maybe you'd have better luck finding a boyfriend there.'

Isobel gaped at the audacious twit, then grabbed the bag out of her hands and strode to the door. "I have a date with some maple fudge ice cream toniglit."

"You know what they say, Doc," the girl called after her. The best way to get over one man is to get under another one!"

Utterly moitified, Isobel began searching through her purse when the man who'd been in the snack aisle readied past her and opened the door, allowing her to precede him out. Thank you," she muttered, juggling her ice cream and soda as she continued searching for her keys. She couldn't bring herself to look up to see if she knew the man, especially since shed heard him chuckling.

Dammit, she didn't date losers!

At least not once she found out they were losers.

Isobel got in her truck and continued searching for her keys. She finally found them in her coat pocket and was trying to cram the key in the ignition when her passenger door opened and a man slid in beside her. She didn't immediately panic, since there was a good chance it was someone she knew who needed a ride.

But she did yelp in surprise. "Hey, you startled me!"

¹¹ Don t scream," he said, his hand snaking around her head to cover her mouth.

Okay, now she panicked. She didn't know this creep!

His other hand moved in a blur, catching her fist when she tried to drive her key into his thigh as she groped at her door handle. His fingers dug into her jaw when she tried to buck him off, and he jerked her back toward him.

¹¹ Don t fig lit me; I don't want to hurt you," lie said, guiding her hand to slide the key in the ignition. He

started the truck. "Drive east. Slowly/" he ordered, his fingers wrapping around her neck like a manacle.

Isobel tried to look toward the store, but he held her facing forward, his thumb pressing into her pulse. "Drive, Doctor. Do as I tell you, and you wont be hurt."

Yeah, like she believed that!

¹¹ Now!" he snapped.

Her heart pounding violently and her hands shaking uncontrollably, Isobel put the truck in gear as she tried to come up with a plan. Hadn't she heard that letting an assailant take her to another location was the worst thing she could do?

Maybe she should crash into the light pole.

"Dont try anything," he said, as if hed read her mind. His hand on her neck tightened. "Just do as I tell you, and we'll be gone by morning."

We? Oh God, he had buddies!

Isobel s foot jerked on the accelerator and the truck lurched forward. She immediately stomped on the brake when he squeezed her throat so tightly that she staited gagging.

"You need to stay calm." He adjusted his grip, settling his thumb on her carotid artery. "You'll be released unharmed if you do as you re told. Now, slowly, pull onto the road and head east."

Isobel took a shuddering breath, which caused her to inhale his scent. He smelled . . . pleasant, actually. Like the ocean. And spruce trees.

For some unexplainable reason, that calmed her more than his assurance that he wouldn't harm her. She took another steadying breath, slowly eased out of the parking lot, and turned east onto Route One.

They'd traveled less than half a mile when he said, "Pull over here, but dont shut off the engine."

No sooner had she lifted the shifting lever into park when the passenger door opened and a man leaned in. Isobel inched her hand toward her door handle, prepared to make a run for it the moment he relaxed his grip.

"Bring Daniel/⁷ he said to the new man. "She's a doctor."

Isobel stilled. Hed kidnapped her because he thought she was a doctor?

"No, wait/" she said, twisting to see when the rear passenger door opened and two more men appeared. "I'm not a—"

His thumb pressed into her pulse, cutting her off. "How far to your office?" lie asked, releasing the pressure slightly.

"T-three miles. But Im not—"

She snapped her mouth shut when his fingers tightened again. There was a commotion in the backseat, and somebody groaned as the truck rocked slightly. The back door shut and one of the men climbed in the front seat beside her assailant.

"She's a doctor?" the new man asked.

"No/' Isobel rasped, clawing at the fingers around her neck. "I'm a veterinarian!"

The hand on her throat slackened. "A what?"

"I'm an animal doctor. If you'd looked at the door of my truck, you would have seen the DVM at the end of my name. As in Doctor of Veterinary Medicine."

"Damn," he muttered under his breath.

A much more colorful curse came from the backseat, accompanied by a pained moan. She glanced over her shoulder and saw a man sprawled across the seat, resting up against another man.

"Its bad enough we have to rely on their crude medicine," the guy beside her assailant hissed. "We cant let an animal doctor work on Daniel."

"Its her or nothing, if you don't want him to bleed out."

"1 have an idea," Isobel offered. "I can drive you to the hospital in Ellsworth."

"How far?"

"Sixty miles. But it's Saturday night, so traffic's light. It shouldn't take us more than an hour to get there." She glanced over her shoulder again. "But if he's bleeding, I need to put a pressure bandage on him first."

"We already have," the man in the backseat said.

"Well go to your office," her assailant said, forcing her to face forward. "Drive."

"But-"

"Now!"

Isobel pulled back out onto the road. The only reason she could think of as to why they wouldn't let her take their buddy to the hospital was because hed been shot. Gunshot wounds had to be reported, and apparently letting their friend bleed to death was preferable to alerting the authorities.

Oh, God. What if she killed him?

Isobel tried to think back to the last gunshot wound shed treated. "Do you know if the bullets still in him?" she asked, remembering the difficult time shed had with Jane Hays horse four years ago, when a hunter had mistaken the poor animal for a moose.

The hand on her throat twitched. "Bullet?"

Isobel squirmed, moving his thumb off her throbbing artery. "I'm trying to figure out what I have to do when we get to my surgery. Where was he hit? Is there an exit wound?"

"Daniel wasn't shot/" the man in the backseat said. "He fell. We aren't sure if he has any broken bones; it's the tree branch in his side that seems to be putting him in immediate danger."

"Is the branch still in him?'

"Yes. We packed a pressure bandage around it."

"Then let me drive you to the hospital. He needs a real doctor!"

Instead of tightening again, the thumb on her pulse moved soothingly. "We mean you no harm. You help Daniel, and the four of us will be gone by mom ing."

And if Daniel died on her operating table—would they still feel the same way about not harming her?

Two

Two

Isobel got straight down to business the moment she pulled up to the front of her surgery and shut off the engine. 'Carry him in and lay him on the table in the back room/' she instructed, opening her truck door.

Her assailants grip tightened, and Isobel fell back with a yelp.

That's enough!" she cried, clawing his hand as she drove her elbow into his ribs. "If you dont quit manhandling me, I swear III let your buddy bleed out."

"Let her go, Hicah," came a pained growl from the backseat.

MicarYs grip only slackened. "What if someone's in the house?"

"Chase will check it out. If he finds anyone, lie has my permission to kill them."

Though he might be bleeding to death, apparently Daniel was coherent enough to realize that threatening a loved one would gain her cooperation far better than manhandling her would. There's no one inside," she whispered. "But I have a pet rabbit!" she rushed to say when the man sitting beside Micah got out. She was worried he might hurt Snuggles if her pet took him by surprise.

The fingers around her neck suddenly opened, but instead of bolting for the woods like she wanted to, Isobel cautiously got out. Rubbing her sore throat, she opened the back door and leaned inside to see the extent of Daniels injury. Only, when she tried to move his jacket aside, his hand shot out and captured hers, and Isobel found herself looking into piercing, arctic blue eyes.

"Go prep your surgery, Doctor," he said quietly, though he continued to hold on to her. "And dont bother trying to call for help. Chase will have cut your phone line."

She started to back out, but he still didn't let her go. Isobel a relied a brow. "Postponing going inside isn't going to make it huit less."

One corner of his month lifted in a tight smile. "What's your name?"

"Isobel."

"You wont be ha lined, Isobel."

"Even if you die?" she whispered.

His eyelids dropped momentarily before his gaze locked on hers again. ^UI have no intention of dying. You take the branch out and sew me up, and tomorrow it will be as if we were never here/^r he said, finally releasing her.

This time Isobel did bolt, but for her surgery instead of the woods. She didnt know who in hell these guys were, but they obviously meant business. They didnt appear to be common criminals but had more of a . . . military air about them.

Special ops, maybe? Navy SEALs?

If so, then what in hell were they doing here in coastal Maine?

tt t O

Isobel slammed through the door of her surgery and snapped on the lights, only to scream when she saw Chase standing in the hallway to her house.

In an almost mirror image of Daniel, one corner of his mouth turned upward. She shed her coat as she rushed to the back room, giving a cursory glance at the phone on her way by. Had he already cut the line?

¹¹ It no longer works/" he said from right behind her.

She continued on to her desk, took out a set of keys, then unlocked her medicine cabinet and began reading labels.

^uNo drugs," Chase said over her shoulder.

She looked up in surprise. "You expect me to pull a branch out of your friend while he's awake?"

When lie merely nodded, she grabbed a bottle of anesthesia. "Yeah, well, Daniel might be a tough guy, but

One corner of his month lifted in a tight smile. "What's your name?"

"Isobel."

"You wont be ha lined, Isobel."

"Even if you die?" she whispered.

His eyelids dropped momentarily before his gaze locked on hers again. ^UI have no intention of dying. You take the branch out and sew me up, and tomorrow it will be as if we were never here/^r he said, finally releasing her.

This time Isobel did bolt, but for her surgery instead of the woods. She didnt know who in hell these guys were, but they obviously meant business. They didnt appear to be common criminals but had more of a . . . military air about them.

Special ops, maybe? Navy SEALs?

If so, then what in hell were they doing here in coastal Maine?

tt t O

Isobel slammed through the door of her surgery and snapped on the lights, only to scream when she saw Chase standing in the hallway to her house.

In an almost mirror image of Daniel, one corner of his mouth turned upward. She shed her coat as she rushed to the back room, giving a cursory glance at the phone on her way by. Had he already cut the line?

¹¹ It no longer works/" he said from right behind her.

She continued on to her desk, took out a set of keys, then unlocked her medicine cabinet and began reading labels.

^uNo drugs," Chase said over her shoulder.

She looked up in surprise. "You expect me to pull a branch out of your friend while he's awake?"

When lie merely nodded, she grabbed a bottle of anesthesia. "Yeah, well, Daniel might be a tough guy, but

I m not. I refuse to work on a conscious patient."

He readied past her and pulled out a different bottle, swapped it for the one she was holding, and put the anesthesia back in the cabinet.

"You know medicine?" She shoved the bottle at him. "Then you pull out the branch, and III assist."

"I know chemicals," he said, walking away. "Daniel stays awake."

Micah and the man from the backseat came through the door, Daniel shouldered between them.

Isobel rushed to her operating table, gathered up the books piled on it, and tossed them onto a nearby counter.

Chase startled her by lunging after the books, catching several of the journals as they slid off the counter. "Have a care, woman!" he snapped, shooting her a glare that should have turned her to toast.

Isobel gaped at him, only to realize the other men had also stilled, looking equally horrified. They're just old monthly journals," she said as Chase carefully set them on the counter, his hands hovering to make sure they didn't slide off again. She took down two surgical gowns. "You planning to hold him up while I pull out that branch or are you going to lay him down? Chase, you re scrubbing up with me." She tossed the men a surgical blanket. Take off all his clothes, then you two are leaving so you don't contaminate my OR." She waved toward the reception room. 'There's a hallway that leads into my house; just watch out for Snuggles."

"Snuggles?" Micah said, looking up from unlacing Daniel s boot.

"My pet bunny. But instead of running from strangers like a proper rabbit, she likes to da it out at people so she can watch them trip over themselves," she explained, slipping into her gown. "You can make a pot of coffee if you want, and help yourselves to whatevers in the fridge. Oh, my ice cream! Would one of you go out to the truck and get it before it melts and put it in the freezer?"

The men stopped undressing Daniel to look at her.

She smiled, rather proud that she had finally stopped shaking despite the fact that there were four threatening giants in her surgery. "I know the kidnappee doesn't usually give orders to her kidnappers, but these are unusual circumstances, wouldn't you say, gentlemen?"

A weak chuckle came from the table. "Her surgery, her rules, gentlemen," Daniel said. "Get Isobel s ice

cream."

Hicah leaned down next to his ear. "What's ice cream?" he whispered.

Isobel stopped halfway to the sink. He hadn't really just asked that, had he?

"You'll know when you find something that's melting/" she heard Daniel whisper.

Isobel clutched the rim of the sink and closed her eyes. She might be acting like she was in control, but honest to God_r she felt as if shed stepped out of that store and into the twilight zone. Who in hell were these brutes?

She jumped when Chase set his hand on her shoulder. "You're doing fine, Isobel. This will be over in a few hours."

"My patients are dogs and cats and horses and cows, not humans."

He gave her shoulder a squeeze. The biology is similar. Think of Daniel as a horse, if you like. Surely you've treated equine puncture wounds."

"But if I cant stem the bleeding when we pull out that branch, he could go into shock and die. I have no way of replacing the blood he's going to lose."

"We can give him a transfusion."

"But I cant test for his type/" she cried softly. "And even if I knew what it was, I don't have any blood to give him."

"The three of us can supply what you need."

Isobel leaned away in surprise. "You know you re all the same type?"

He turned on the water, then nudged her around to face the sink. "We're a match," he said, filling his hands with soap. "Wash up, Doctor. The sooner we begin, the sooner we 11 be gone."

Isobel scrubbed up, slipped into her gloves, then grabbed two surgical masks and handed one to Chase. She walked over to her operating table as she tied her own mask in place, folded down the blanket covering Daniel, and immediately started shaking again. A piece of wood as thick as her thumb was sticking out of

what looked like a shut wrapped tightly around his midsection, leaving two inches of the branch exposed. She was relieved to see there wasn't much blood seeping out.

Chase walked up on the opposite side of the table and started to unwrap the bandage, but Isobel stilled his hand. "I want to give him an exam first." She moved to Daniel's head and found him looking intently at her. "Where else do you hurt?"

"No place else. It wasn't a long fall, and the tree . . . slowed me down."

She touched an angry bruise on the inside of his shoulder. He tightened defensively. But when she fingered the thick metal collar he was wealing, Chase pulled her hand away.

"Don't touch that, please," he said.

"What is it; some soit of communication device or something?" She couldn't tell if Chase was also wearing one, as he had on a black turtleneck—just like the other two men were wearing. She looked him right in the eyes. "Are you guys Navy SEALs? Not that it matters, because that collar needs to come off."

"It stays."

She noticed he hadn't answered her question about whether they were SEALs. "But his clavicle might be broken, and the swelling could choke him."

"It stays," Daniel echoed. "Just get the damn branch out of me."

"My surgery, my rules," she reminded him.

All that got her was another tight smile. "Except in this instance."

She looked at Chase again. "Okay, lets knock him out."

Daniel also looked at Chase. "No."

"Not completely," Chase assured him. "Just enough to keep you manageable."

"No drugs. I need for my head to be clear."

Isobel carefully pressed on his shoulder, and he snapped his gaze to her with a growl. "It wont knock you out, it'll just make you not care. So what do you weigh, big guy?" she asked.

"He's around a hundred kilos," Chase answered.

Isobel arched a brow. "What's that in good old American pounds?"

"Approximately two hundred and twenty."

She did a quick calculation in her head, filled a syringe with the tranquilizer Chase had chosen, and gently slid the needle directly into Daniel's vein.

She handed Chase a pair of surgical scissors. "You can cut off the bandage while waiting for the medicine to kick in. I'm going to x-ray that shoulder and his torso." She rolled her portable X-ray machine over to the table. "Urn . . . could you look under the blanket at his lower extremities?" she asked, fighting the blush creeping into her cheeks. "I need to make sure he doesn't have any injuries we're overlooking."

Chase lifted the blanket and Isobel immediately got busy positioning the X-ray machine over Daniel's shoulder", leaning down to make sure it was aimed correctly.

"You have unusual eyes/" Daniel said.

She turned her head in surprise.

"They're a mixture of green and gold/" he continued, his own blue gaze locked on hers. "And very beautiful and ... expressive."

She shot him a smile, then remembered she was wearing a mask. "You're the first patient I've ever had tell me that." She started positioning the X-ray machine again. "Unless you count slobbering kisses and wagging tails."

She draped a lead apron over the lower half of his body, then stepped away, pulling Chase with her. She depressed the button in her hand, repositioned the machine along Daniel's torso and stepped back, and depressed the button again. "So, did you find anything interesting below his waist?" she asked, only to wince at the way that sounded.

Dammit, she wasn't used to working on humans, much less handsome giants!

Chase's eyes crinkled with amusement as he finished removing the bandage. "I can't say that I found anything particularly interesting," he drawled.

Isobel studied the digital X-ray screen, wishing she'd given herself the tranquilizer. Honest to God, if her

cheeks got any hotter she was going to burst into flames. She jumped when Daniel suddenly wrapped his fingers around her wrist.

He smiled up at her, his eyes glazed and unfocused. "You should look for yourself, Isobel," he said, guiding her hand toward the blanket with surprising strength. "Maybe you will find something interesting down there."

"Christ, how much tranquilizer did you give him?" Chase growled, prying Daniels hand off her wrist.

"Not enough, apparently," she said with a slightly hysterical laugh, stepping away. She quickly sobered, however, when she finally got a good look at the fully exposed wound just below his ribs—that was now bleeding profusely. She studied the digital X-ray, positioned the screen so Chase could see it, and half filled another syringe with tranquilizer.

"Its deep, Chase/' she said softly, sticking the needle in Daniel s arm before either of them could stop her. "And not only are there fragments of wood floating around in there, it looks as if that branch may have nicked his kidney." She took a steadying breath. "This is beyond my expertise. He needs a real doctor. Let me stabilize him and call for an ambulance to take him to Ellswoith."

Chase looked from the screen to Daniel, then to her. "No. You will take out the branch."

"Dammit. Dont you understand that I could kill him! Is whatever you guys are hiding from so important that you'd risk your friends life?"

¹¹ Yes."

The hairs on the back of her neck rose at his softly spoken answer. Whoever these men were, and whatever they were doing here, apparently was worth dying for.

And killing for?

Isobel looked down at the branch sticking out of Daniels side, took another steadying breath, and finally picked up her scalpel. Not that it mattered if they did kill her, because the moment she'd stuck that needle in Daniels arm, her life as she knew it was over. If the authorities ever found out shed performed surgery on a human being, not only could she lose her veterinary license, she could also go to jail.

Which certainly put her dating losers into perspective, didn't it?

Three

Three

Isobel scooped another spoonful of ice cream out of the pint container, only absently aware of dribbling some on Snuggles sitting on her lap. Honest to God, she felt as if she'd spent the last five hours wrestling Daniel away from the devil.

And the frightening thing was, she still didn't know if shed won.

Her patient was sleeping peacefully—thanks to the third injection of tranquilizer she'd given him half an hour ago—and she was trying to come to terms with the fact that she had actually poked around inside a live human being.

Which was something she never, ever, wanted to do again.

Slurping down more of her ice cream, Isobel studied her surprisingly competent surgical assistant. Chase looked nearly as battered as she felt, his feet propped on the bed as he quietly slept in a chair on the opposite side of her guest room. Heel thrown his blood-stained surgical gown and turtleneck in the trash, and was left wealing a black T-shiit. There was a small bandage on his heavily muscled arm from where she'd set up a direct blood transfusion, and his hair had specks of dried blood in it.

But it was the thick metal collar around his neck, exactly like the one Daniel was wearing, that truly puzzled her. If these guys were military, she hoped to God they were on hei side.

They certainly had the physiques of soldiers. But even stranger than dressing alike, they could almost be clones. All four of them had piercing blue eyes and short dark hair, they were all the same height—which she estimated at six-three—and they all appealed to weigh within ten pounds of one another.

Oh yeah, she'd definitely stepped into the twilight zone.

Isobel folded Snuggles' ear around so the rabbit could clean off the mess shed made, and wondered how

grown men could not know what ice cream was. As soon as shed finished supervising settling Daniel into bed, shed gone straight to the kitchen to get her ice cream, fully intending to pour a liberal dose of Baileys Irish Cream over the top of it. Only she hadn't found the pint of maple fudge in the freezer, but in the fridge!

Nor had they made any coffee, despite her asking for some at least twice during the five-hour surgery. Shed had to settle for caffeine-laced soda instead—which had been lukewarm because apparently they didn't know what soda was, either.

As soon as they'd helped carry Daniel to bed and assured themselves she hadn't killed him, Noah and Micah had disappeared back into her den, where they seemed to methodically be working their way through her library of textbooks and journals. One or both of them had come into the bedroom several times in the last hour and asked her to explain the physiology of some animal they were reading about.

And if that wasn't strange enough, when shed finally asked them why they were interested in the autoimmune systems of cats, dogs, mice, and squirrels, they'd both suddenly clammed up and left and hadn't returned since.

Isobel drank the last of the ice cream right out of the cardboard container, then set it on the floor beside her chair. She wiped her mouth on her sleeve with a sigh, set Snuggles down, and stood up. After feeling Daniels forehead and checking his pulse, she headed toward the hall.

"Where are you going?' Chase asked.

She stopped in the doorway and looked back to find lie hadnt moved a muscle except to open his eyes. "I have a horse in the barn that lost a fight with a barbed wire fence, and I need to go check on him."

Chase dropped his feet to the floor and stood up. "Ill come with you."

Isobel held up her hand. "No, you have to stay here and let me know if Daniel so much as moans. He's still in critical condition and needs constant supervision." Then Micah will go to the barn with you."

"Look," she said tiredly. "You don't have to worry I'm going to escape and aleit the authorities about what's going on here. Whether you realize it or not, my saving your friend lias put my career in jeopardy. You

disappear just as soon as its safe for Daniel to travel, and I will simply pretend this has all been a bad dream."

"What do you mean, in jeopardy?"

She waved toward the bed. "If anyone finds out what Ive done, at the very least I might lose my veterinary license, and at the worst I could get arrested for performing surgery on a human." She shot him a tig lit smile. "So I promise, I wont tell if you don't."

"Tell what?" Micah asked from right behind her.

Isobel jumped in surprise and turned to find Micah holding yet another one of her textbooks, open to a page on ... now he was reading about raccoons?

"You will accompany Isobel while she checks on a horse in the barn/' Chase said, also feeling Daniel's pulse before walking over to them. Then take her upstairs and have her pack whatever she'll need for the next five days." He moved his gaze to Isobel when she gasped. "Hake sure you include warm clothes, as the cabin has only a woodstove for heat."

"Excuse me?" she whispered. "W-what cabin?"

"You intend to take her to the island?" Micah asked, apparently as surprised as she was. "But why? It's bad enough we were forced to break our rule of not engaging the locals; you cant mean to continue doing so."

Chase nodded toward Daniel. "He's in danger of dying if we don't. Tell Noah to pack some food for them." He looked at Isobel again. "When you're done upstairs, gather whatever medical supplies you'll need."

"That wasn't our deal. You said if I patched him up, youd all be gone by morning. You have enough medical knowledge to take care of Daniel yourself."

The three of us cant stay with him, so that leaves only you.

"Then why cant I take care of him here?" she cried. "I promise, I wont tell anyone!"

Chase stepped past her into the hall. "I will allow you to make one phone call before we leave, to someone who can come tend your animals for the next five days."

"Dammit, no! That wasn't our deal."

His entire countenance suddenly changed, his features hardening and his eyes turning dangerously cold. Isobel took a step back at the realization that Daniel hadn't been bluffing when he'd said Chase would have killed anyone in the house.

"Our deal, Doctor, was for you to save Daniels life. And since that has not yet been accomplished, I have no choice but to take you to the island so that the three of us can continue our mission." He reached down and scooped up Snuggles when she came hopping into the hall, and gently wrapped his fingers around the rabbits neck. "Continue cooperating, Doctor-_f and both your career and your pet/' he said ever so softly_f "will remain intact."

"You wouldn't," she gasped. "She's just an innocent animal!"

"Do not test me, Isobel. All of us have sworn to do whatever we must to achieve our goal, at whatever cost to us—or anyone or any thing we encounter."

Four

Four

Isobel hugged Snuggles inside her coat, blinking back tears as she shivered in the stark silence broken only by the snap of cedar catching fire in the woodstove. She wasn't in the twilight zone anymore, she decided; she was in hell. And hell was cold and dark and smelled of decay, and was so damned isolated that she doubted even God would hear her scream.

"You dont have to worry about my bringing home any more losers/" she told Snuggles, rubbing her quivering chin against the rabbits fur. "Because as of today, I am swearing off all men. If Prince Charming himself walked in here right now and asked me for a date, I'd turn him down flat. I would/' she muttered, tilting Snuggles so her pet could see how serious she was. "Men are pigs. No, I take that back; pigs are more civilized. You never see a pig reassuring you everything's going to be okay one minute, then threatening to kill someone you love the next."

She hugged her pet to her chest again. "Dont worry, I wouldn't have let those mean men hurt you. I made them let me bring you with me, didn't I? Threatening not to give Daniel any pain medication certainly made Chase change his tune."

"Then how about keeping your word."

Isobel yelped in surprise, spinning to look at the bed in the corner.

"Christ, woman, what in hell did you do to me?" Daniel growled. He tried to move, then stilled on a sharp groan. "It feels as if you cut me clean in half. And why is my left arm bound to my chest?"

"Because your collarbone is broken."

"My side is on fire. I swear the branch didn't cause this much pain."

"I can shove it back in you, if you want," she offered sweetly.

There was a heartbeat of silence, and then she heard him sigh. "Isobel, I'm sorry you were brought here against your will."

"I'm sure you are." She stood up and walked to the bed, just so she could glare down at him. "Now that you realize your pal Chase has left you at my mercy for the next five days. Which means that I'm in charge. You got that, big man?"

The kerosene lamp on the bedside table gave off enough light for her to see one corner of his mouth lift in a grimace. "Yes, ma am."

Isobel walked over to the supplies the men had carried up from the boat and unceremoniously piled in the corner. She set Snuggles on the floor and opened the box of food. Good Lord, it appeared as if Noah had thrown everything from her fridge into the box—including some four-day-old pizza, the bag of beef bones she kept for recuperating dogs, and the baking soda!

She turned at the sound of the bed creaking, then jumped to her feet and ran across the room. "What do you think you re doing?" She took hold of Daniel s good shoulder and pushed him back down. "You can't move; you're going to pull out your stitches and stait bleeding inside again."

I need to get up," he growled in a winded whisper. "I have to use the latrine."

Isobel straightened and closed her eyes. Damn. She hadn't thought about that particular aspect of caring for him. She rarely put catheters in her patients; they just wet on their bedding, which she would simply crumple up and toss away.

But she doubted Daniel was into piddling on newspaper.

"You can't get out of bed yet," she said, walking to the counter on the side wall of the cabin. She found a dusty old gallon jar and carried it back to him. "So you re going to have to settle for peeing in a jug."

His cheeks darkened as he eyed the jar.

"Look, being shy about this isnt an option. I just spent five hours getting personal with your internal organs, and you're going to burst that kidney wide open if you don't . . . go." She set the jar on the bed beside him, then headed back to the supplies.

"Remind me again what planet you guys are from?" she muttered. "Because I gotta tell you, your pal Noah doesn't seem to know that eggs don't go in the bottom of the box, or that the Geneva Convention outlawed feeding moldy pizza to prisoners."

She stared out the dusty window at the breaking dawn. "And Micah acted like hed never seen a horse before. When I asked him to hold Clyde while I gave him an injection, you'd have thought I was asking him to hold a lion by the whiskers. And he nearly came unglued when one of the barn cats nibbed up against his leg."

"I'm done/" Daniel said, a distinct growl still in his voice.

Isobel carried the carton of broken eggs to the counter, then wiped her fingers on her coat as she walked ovei to the bed. "So what's up with you guys, anyway? Aren't there any horses on Mars? Or ice cream? Or refrig e i a ti o n ? Qv hooks?"

"Everyone knows Mars is uninhabitable. And refrigeration is a waste of energy."

"Only if you like fungi growing on your food. Where's the jug?"

"I slid it under the bed on the other side. So how about some of that pain medication you bargained for? Chase kept his word; are you going to keep yours?'

The only reason she didn't demand he hand over the jug was because she could see beads of sweat had broken out on his forehead. And considering he probably had the pain threshold of a rhinoceros, and that hed rather die than ask her for anything, Isobel guessed he must truly be hurting.

And there was always the added bonus that a drugged patient would be much easier to deal with than a growling one. She headed back to the pile of boxes and started searching through her medical supplies. 'So if Mars is uninhabitable, which planet did you fly in from?" she continued conversationally. She filled a syringe with pain medication and returned to the bed to find Daniel glowering at her.

Apparently extraterrestrials didn't have senses of humor, either.

He captured her hand when she tried to slide the needle in his arm. "What is that you re giving me? I don't want to be knocked out again."

"You don't have to worry that III take advantage of you in your sleep. You re not my type. Ohmigod, look at that giant spider!" she cried, pointing at the wall beside him.

The moment he turned to look, she jabbed the needle in his arm and pushed the plunger, then skittered away when he tried to grab her again.

"Dammit, woman! That was dishonorable!' he hissed, rubbing his arm.

"But effective.' She shot him a smug smile. "It works every time—at least on dogs. Cats just look at my finger." She shrugged. "You re welcome to sue me for ma I practice, if you'd like."

"I need to stay awake."

"Will you chill out? Since it appears we're stuck with each other for the next five days, how about you stop growling at me like a wounded dog, and III stop treating you like one." She stepped closer so he could see her smile was perfectly sincere. "And to pass the time, you can tell me all about life on whatever planet it is you flew in from, and I'll explain how things work here on Earth."

"I'm not from a planet; I'm from the moon," he said, only to snap his mouth shut with a scowl. "Dammit, you cant give me any more drugs! I need to remain lucid."

Isobel patted his arm. "Don't worry, I have no intention of telling anyone you're the man on the moon." She frowned. "And I'll lower the dose next time. It's obvious your metabolism is abnormally fast. That injection already seems to be working, despite my not even hitting a vein.

"So," she said, walking back to the supplies. "What brought you four moon men to Earth? Are you on vacation, or is this a business trip?" she asked, carrying more of the food over to the counter. Hell, maybe she could boil the bones and make soup. She glanced toward the bed when he didn't answer. "Five days is a long time to stare up at the rafters in silence."

Not to mention how long it would seem for her. She really would have to lower his doses, because even a growling patient was better than stark silence. "Hey, wait. Isn't the moons gravity a lot less than Earth's? Like half or something? So if you live up there, how come you can even walk down here?"

"Our gravity is one-sixth of Earth s," he growled. But then she heard him sigh. "And if we hadiv't worn

weight suits all our lives, our bones would have snapped the moment we landed."

Isobel stilled. Was he serious?

He sure as hell sounded serious. And rather knowledgeable.

"Urn . . . how did the four of you get here?" she asked.

"We used one of our old cargo transports/' he said, still staling up at the rafters, his voice slightly slurred. He touched the collar around his neck and looked over at her. But once we got to Earth, we came back to this century via our time links. That's why we couldn't let you remove mine; its my only means of returning."

^UR-returning to when?" she whispered.

^uTo the year 2243."

Ohh-kay. This was getting really weird. "So you're not only from the moon, but from the future as well?"

He looked back up at the rafters with a heavy sigh and closed his eyes. "Yes, from the future/' he murmured. "Only we'll not survive another decade if our mission isn't successful. The four of us are our colony's only hope.'

Utterly intrigued despite herself, Isobel walked to the bed and gently shook him. "What colony?" she asked. "Are there people living on the moon in 2243?" His eyes opened slightly, but she could see he was quickly fading. "What about Eaith? Its still full of people in 2243, isn't it?'

"No," he murmured. "Humanity got wiped out in the middle of the last century. And its taken Eaith almost a hundred years to be habitable again."

She gave him another gentle shake. "What happened to all the people?"

"Plague."

Isobel stepped back and rubbed her hand on her coat.

"Which is why we must find the . . . animal/" he said, his eyes closing again.

"What animal?" She pulled her sleeve down over her hand and shook him again. "What animal?"

¹¹ We don't know, exactly. One of your small mammals, we believe."

"Daniel!" she cried, shaking him again. "What do you need this mammal for?"

He swatted at her arm, missing by a mile. "Go away, woman. I'm not supposed to engage any of the locals."

She gave a slightly hysterical laugh. "Don't I wish/" she muttered, walking over to the door. She opened it to stare at the ocean surrounding the small coastal island they'd brought her to_r and let out a shuddering sigh.

Shed been kidnapped by aliens?

No, by moon men from two hundred and thirty or so years into future.

Either that, or horse tranquillizers made people creatively delusional.

She rubbed her hand on her coat again. But what if it were true?

It could be true, she supposed. Man could be living on the moon two hundred and thiity years from now.

And have learned how to travel back in time.

But Daniel said humanity got wiped out in the middle of the twenty-second century.

Except for the people living on the moon, apparently, who had then been forced to wait almost a hundred years to return home.

But that would mean generations would have been born there.

She looked back at the bed. Including Daniel? And Chase and Noah and Micah?

They couldn't really be from the moon—could they? Isobel snorted and stepped out into the slowly warming October morning, deciding to explore the tiny island that would be her prison for the next five days. This is what she got for dating Paul Stanford for almost a year, who had been a certifiable Star Trek groupie. And she really had to stop watching the Syfy channel, as she was damn close to believing Daniels drug-induced delusion.

It certainly explained a lot of the men's strange behavior.

Five

Five

Daniel fought his way through the shroud of fog imprisoning him, alarmed to realize that his muscles were even less responsive than his mind as he tried to remember where he was and why he felt drunk. He stilled at the sound of movement to his left, the spike of adrenaline sharpening his senses.

He cracked his eyelids, then relaxed when he saw Isobel crouched in front of the woodstove, feeding it fuel. Her pet rabbit, that hed caught only a glimpse of peeking out of her coat earlier, was on the floor beside her, and the two of them seemed to be having a whispered conversation.

Which surprised him, as he hadn't realized people talked to animals.

Could the creature talk back?

While he listened to see if the rabbit responded, Daniel silently flexed his muscles. His shoulder seemed back to normal despite the binding immobilizing his left arm, but his side still felt as if it were on fire-though the flame had dulled appreciably since hed last been awake.

He wracked his mind trying to remember his conversation with Isobel, and feared he had revealed the reason the four of them were here. He winced, remembering that hed told her what year they were from, too, as well as from where.

Hed have to be more guarded; for hadn't it been drilled into them over a lifetime of preparing to come here that people of this century would be unable to comprehend their ability to breach time? And that if they did expose their presence, not only could it put their mission in jeopardy, but the future of mankind as well.

Daniel smiled faintly. He would also have to keep guard against Isobel s trickery. Her smugness hadn't been lost on him after shed turned his attention away from her crude method of administering medicine by pretending to see a spider.

Not that he could remember what a spider was, exactly. An insect, he thought.

Daniel concluded the conversation taking place across the room was one-sided, as the rabbit had yet to respond to Isobel s long-winded monologue disparaging men in general and several ex-boyfriends in particular.

His smile widened as he began freeing his left arm from its binding. Was that why shed chosen a pet with such long ears? His history lessons had included what role animals had played in people's lives before the Cataclysm, though cats and dogs were thought to have been the most common household pets. Maybe the fact that Isobel was an animal doctor had led her to choose a more unique companion. Then again, maybe she simply needed a pet with long ears that would quietly listen without comment.

The woman did like to talk.

She was quite pleasant on the eyes, as well; much plumper than Moon lander women, and far healthier looking than the Earth women he'd seen pictures of from a hundred years ago. Daniel guessed that if Isobel had been alive at the time, she might have survived the plague. For they knew now that society's obsession with thinness had been its ultimate demise, everyone having grown so gaunt that they hadn't been able to fight the super-germ that had spread around the world like wildfire. Only by the time the scientists had realized their irrevocably weakened immune systems were to blame, the entire human race had disappeared in one generation.

Having witnessed the Cataclysm from afar, the colony that had at first been quarantined and then eventually stranded on the moon had spent the next four generations trying to fatten itself up in preparation of returning to their homeland—though limited resources had made it difficult. And if the four of them were unsuccessful this week, the last humans in the universe could be gone within the decade. Which was why it was imperative they find at least one species of animal that could provide a vaccine to make Earth safe again, so they could transport all the Moon landers home before their aging infrastructure finally collapsed.

"I'm serious, Snugs. If a date ever darkens my doorstep again, you have my permission to trip him flat on his face," he heard Isobel say, her voice rising at the prospect. ^uAnd just to save you boyfriend troubles of

youi own, I'm not going to put off neutering you any longer. That way we can grow old and fat and happy together, and eat ice cream until it's coining out our ears." She gave a musical laugh, lifting the rabbit's ears playfully. "Which would take at least a pint for you, Snug-a-bug."

She suddenly looked toward the bed, and Daniel closed his eyes to slits, to pretend he was still sleeping. Apparently satisfied that he was, she scooped the rabbit into her arms and stood up.

"But you can't trip Daniel," she said, her voice lowered back to a whisper. "I'm going to have to get him walking by tomorrow at the latest, and I don't need him falling and bursting open his side. You stay well clear of that growling bear, you hear?" she said, holding her pet at eye level, facing her. "For all we know, they eat bunny rabbits for breakfast on the moon."

"We don't have bunny rabbits on the moon," Daniel said.

She turned toward the bed with a gasp. "How long have you been awake?"

Daniel sighed. Since she already knew more than she should, maybe she could help them discover exactly which small mammal they were looking for.

^uIn fact," he continued, "we don't have any animals on the moon."

"None?" she asked, her expression turning appalled. 'That is really, really sad."

¹¹ Sad? How so?"

She approached the bed, cradling the rabbit to her chest. "Well, because it's a proven fact that animals play an integral role in human health. We need to love something that will love us back unconditionally." She snorted. "Because men sure as hell don't know how to love a woman just for herself."

"So are you saying Micah misinterpreted the conversation between you and the young girl in the store?" he asked, watching her expressive face turn a lovely pink. "You don't dump your boyfriends just as soon as they become enamored with you, then get over them by getting . . . under another one?"

She gasped so hard the rabbit flinched. "Micah told you what that little twit said? But when? Ive been with you almost the whole time."

In your truck after you ran for your surgery, when I asked him what he knew about you."

She set the squirming rabbit on the floor in order to cross her arms under her breasts, and stepped closer to the bed—presumably so he could better see her glare. "For your information, I do not sleep with every man I date. And not one of them was ever enamored with me; they were only interested in the DVH at the end of my name."

"How so?" he asked, intrigued by how serious she was.

"In these pa its, marrying a doctor—even a veterinarian—is tantamount to winning the lottery. One jerk even suggested that if we got married, he should take my name instead of me taking his, so that our stationery could read Dr. and Mr. Briggs/

Daniel couldn't believe what he was healing. Had she ever looked in the mirror? Or did she simply not realize that when a man looked at her, prestige would be the last thing on his mind.

It sure as hell was the last thing on his at the moment.

She was absolutely beautiful, with hei disheveled blonde hair falling down around her green gold eyes and suntanned face. She exuded health and vitality, not to mention a hint of potentially explosive passion. And that was above the neck. When he let his gaze drop lower, she was better than flawless; she was perfect.

He wouldn't mind helping her get over her last boyfriend by letting her get under him.

"Hey!" she suddenly cried_t pouncing.

Daniel actually flinched, afraid shed read his mind, but then sighed in relief when she grabbed the bandage that had been binding his left arm.

"You have to leave this on/' she scolded, trying to wrap it around him again, which caused her to lean close enough that tend ills of her hair tickled his neck. "If you cloirt, you re going to finish breaking that clavicle."

Daniel captured her hand in his. "Its already mended."

"It cant be/^r she said, pulling his shiit aside. Her eyes widened in surprised and returned to his. "How is that possible?" she whispered. "I know it was only a hairline fracture, but the swelling is completely gone and even the bruising has faded."

She tried to straighten away, but lie held her leaning over him. "As you noted earlier, I have an unusually fast metabolism." He reached up with his other hand, captured one of her escaping tend ills of hair, and rubbed it between his fingers. "It is as soft as it looks." He returned his eyes to hers and smiled. "Moonlander women all have dark hair and must keep it short out of necessity."

¹¹M-moon lander women?"

He ran his thumb down the side of her cheek. 'Your skin is also soft and carries the kiss of the sun." He pressed his palm against her cheek. "Do that again."

"D-do what again?" she whispered.

"Blush with that beautiful glow of passion. I wonder if your lips are as soft as they look? And as sweet," he murmured, gently cupping her head and urging her closer.

Her fingers kneaded into his shirt as she at first resisted, before she suddenly softened, allowing him to lower her mouth to his. Mindful not to overwhelm her, Daniel carefully captured her lips in a gentle kiss. His restraint was rewarded when she softly moaned, and her delicate hands cupped his cheeks. She tasted even sweeter than he'd expected and exuded the sensual energy of an expanding pulsar.

Which made him wonder how she thought she could ever swear off men.

But just as lie was about to deepen the kiss, she suddenly jerked upright with a yelp, shaking one of her hands violently. ^uEww!" she cried, swiping at the pillow beside his head. "That is a monstrous spider!"

More than a little confounded by her antics, Daniel arched a brow at her.

"No, really," she said, nibbing the back of her hand on her leg before pointing past his head. "There was an honest-to-God spider crawling on my hand. And then I saw it go scurrying up the bedpost." Her eyes dropped to his slackened mouth, and her cheeks turned blight pink again. That was ... we shouldn't have . . . you cant do . . ."

She suddenly turned and strode to the stove, but just as suddenly stormed back. "What in hell is a Moon lander?" she asked rather aggressively.

The poor woman appeared more confounded than lie was. Apparently Isobel didn't have a clue how to

handle the frustration of thwarted passion—something every male learned to deal with by the age of fourteen. "Me," he told her calmly.

"I'm a Moon lander. And Chase and Micah and Noah. Its the name that was given to those living on the moon, especially those of us [30111 there."

He saw her hands [3a 11 into fists at her sides. "Are you going to continue with that crazy story?" she growled. "Because I gotta tell you, its starting to give me the creeps."

He arched a brow again. "How so?"

"People cant live on the moon, much less be born there. Its nothing but a dead rock. There's no air to breathe and no water to drink. And if the gravity really is only one-sixth of ours, then you should have the bone density of a thiity-seven-pound person—which means you couldn't be walking upright light now."

"I believe I explained that we wear weight suits to compensate for the difference. Every Moon lander does—only the four of us wore suits that would replicate the weight of a three hundred-pound man here on Earth to make us even stronger."

She crossed her arms under her breasts again and rested back on her hips. "Do you think I just crawled out from under a rock or something? A suit that heavy would have to be so bulky you wouldn't be able to move in it."

"Not if its made out of Tricaiblyster."

"What's Tii . . . tri-whatever?"

"Its a material that was developed early in the twenty-second century so the scientists living on the moon wouldn't lose bone mass on extended stays." He lifted the blanket at his waist. "Its no bulkier than this material."

She lolled her eyes with a snort and marched to the woodstove. "I made you some beef broth," she said, lifting the cover off a steaming pot on the stove. She turned just enough to look at him. "Or will it upset your stomach because youve never had animal-based protein before? What with there not being any animals on the moon," she drawled, looking rather smug again.

I have no idea/" he said. He tossed back the blanket, gritted his teeth against the pain he knew was coming, then slid his legs over the side of the bed and pushed himself into a sitting position.

^uHey!" she cried, dropping the lid and rushing to him. "You have to stay in bed!"

He resisted her attempt to ease him back down. "What was that term you used earlier?" he asked. "Chill out? If it means to relax, then you must chill out, Isobel. If I don't start moving around, III grow weak."

Her fingers flexed on his shoulders as she gave a small laugh. "Not in a month of Sundays, big guy. You have more muscle than a boa constrictor." She let him go when she realized she had no hope of laying him back down. "Okay, then. Lets see if we can get you on your feet/" she said, lifting his arm over her shoulder as she tucked herself into his side. "I don't know why Chase had to kidnap me," she muttered. "At the rate you re healing, you II be swimming to shore in a couple of hours."

She actually attempted to lift him, but Daniel didn't budge. "I can get myself up," he said, trying to pull his arm away—which she refused to let go of. "I don't know how steady my legs are, Isobel. If I fall, I could crush you."

She lepositioned her grip on the back of his pants and gave another tug. "I'm stronger than I look. I handle large domestic animals for a living, remember? Don't worry, I wont let you fall."

Daniel didn't know whether to laugh or roar. He did know lied like to meet a few of her old boyfriends and ask them if she was this stubborn and bossy in bed.

Bracing himself against the pain, lie pushed off the bed to his feet. Only his knees buckled the moment he stood, and he ended up in a wrestling match with Isobel when she tried to support him and he tried to push her out of the way. They fell back on the bed together; Isobel giving a yelp that ended in a whoosh of expelled air, and Daniel giving a roar at the jarring pain.

"Ohmigod, your side!" she cried, holding him on top of her instead of pushing him away. "Dammit, I told you it was too soon to get up. But oh, no. Mr. Macho Moon Man had to prove how big and strong and—"

He covered her mouth with his hand to keep himself from wrapping it around her neck. "Hush, woman," he whispered through gritted teeth, closing his eyes against the fire raging in his side as he adjusted his weight

slightly off her.

"Dnt-mve-r-ymyby."

"Silence!"

She went perfectly still beneath him, her eyes widening in alarm.

Daniel dropped his forehead to hers. "Just lay quietly Isobel, and let me get my bearings." He slackened his hand to see if she intended to comply, then took it away completely when she remained silent. A minute later, he lifted his head. "Did you get hurt when we fell?"

She gave a frantic—and utterly mute—quick shake of her head.

He took a steadying breath as the pain in his side finally eased to a dull throb, and brushed her hair away from her pale face with an apologetic smile. "Tin sorry, Isobel. I would never hurt you."

She said nothing. She did, however, hesitantly shift beneath him.

And every drop of testosterone in Daniels body roared to life.

Which set off a far more pleasant fire deep in his gut. After giving a quick scan of the bedposts for anything that might resemble a spider, he dipped his head and kissed her, fanning the flames of his desire even as he fought to keep them in check. Only instead of the soft, pliant woman he'd kissed just minutes ago, Isobel held herself perfectly stiff. He felt her hands slowly creep up to his chest, and she hesitantly tiled to push him away.

Daniel broke the kiss to run his lips over her forehead before rising up enough to look her in the eyes. "I swear, Isobel, I would cut off my arm before I'd ever hurt you."

She blinked up at him, then tiled pushing him away again. He rolled off her with a groan, but when she tried to slide off the bed, he captured her arm and held her lying beside him. "Please, don't run off. It's important to me that you believe I wont hurt you." He laced his fingers through hers. "Lets stare at the rafters together and . . .talk. Go on, ask me something about life on the moon in 2243."

There were several heartbeats of silence, then Daniel heard her mutter something under her breath. He smiled, realizing he'd been right; Isobels apparent need to fill the silence was much stronger than her fright.

"Do the women of your colony allow men to shout at them?" she asked. "And if they were to shout back at you, what would happen?"

"Our women give as good as they get, if not better. However/" he said, giving her hand a squeeze, "they are wise enough not to test the limits of a warrior s patience."

He looked over to find her eyes had gone huge again. "Are you a warrior?"

He nodded. "Chase, Micah, Noah, and I were bred especially for this mission."

"Bred? How do you mean?"

"We were designed to produce more testosterone than the average man, to give us the strength, endurance, and aggression it would take to succeed."

"Designed? As in a lab? Is that how babies are made in the future?"

"No, it still requires a man and a woman and a good deal of privacy, and is one of the few pleasures left to us. In fact, you might say Moonlanders have perfected the art of lovemaking."

When her jaw slackened, Daniel returned to looking at the rafters to hide his smile. He wouldn't gain her cooperation if she was afraid of him, and apparently the subject of male-female relationships was of great interest to her. "But when certain traits are sought," he continued, "then sometimes ceitain people are ... encouraged to mate. The four of us are the results of several generations of selective breeding."

She rolled toward him, her curiosity finally winning out completely. "Does that mean the four of you are brothers?"

"Yes."

"And was your father a warrior?"

"No. Our parents are scientists, as are most Moon landers." She arched a brow. "Exactly how many Moonlanders are there?"

"One hundred and twenty three.

She blinked. "That's it?"

"Our infrastructure was designed to support only a hundred, but we've managed to make room for more in

the last generation, in preparation of repopulating Earth.¹

Her eyes widened again. "Are those extra twenty-three people just like you?"

"No, there's only ten of us warriors altogether. We have another brother who traveled from the moon to Earth with us, along with our mother and father. But Neil and our parents stayed in the year 2243 to maintain the energy supply supporting our links. The other five warriors from a different family remained on the moon ... in case the seven of us failed."

"That's it?" she repeated. "You only have an army of ten protecting the moon?"

He arched a brow. "Exactly who would we be protecting ourselves from? There is no one left to war against, Isobel. The last men on Earth died in 2156."

She rolled onto her back and stared up at the rafters again. "What about aliens?" she whispered. She looked over at him. "In over two hundred years, no other life form has ever been discovered in the universe?"

"We are it for our solar system." He shrugged. "And if there is life elsewhere, we haven't found it."

"Or it hasn't found us/" she drawled. She suddenly let out a yawn, immediately covering her mouth. "Oh God, this lumpy old bed feels good/" she murmured, her eyelashes dropping to her cheeks. "I didn't get a wink of sleep last night. So tell me more about the four of you," she continued drowsily. "If there isn't any need for an army on the moon, then who taught you guys how to be warriors?"

"Our mother."

She opened her eyes in surprise. "A woman taught you about fighting and stuff?"

Daniel chuckled. "Mom is a historian and the keeper of our colony's precious book collection. Using ancient texts, she taught the ten of us the art of war, educated us in the ways of twenty-first century Earth, and helped us grow strong by making sure we got extra portions of protein. In fact, it was her idea that we should wear heavier weight suits." He chuckled. "She also helped get us excused whenever we got into trouble growing up, by explaining to the Elders that creative intelligence and aggression were an integral part of a warrior's make up. And that the pranks we pulled were proof enough that we would eventually save the colony."

Isobel s eyes narrowed. "So you re really saying the ten of you were spoiled rotten." She snorted. "And youi mama wouldn't let anyone even shake a finger at her boys. You turned into a bunch of bullies, didn't you, throwing your size and strength around like . . . like you did with me just now/" she said, pushing his hand holding hers away and sitting up. "Well, Mr. Moon Han, your women might get all ga-ga over a macho attitude and bulging muscles, but women in this century don't particularly like intimidating brutes."

She staited to leave the bed, but Daniel wrapped his arm across the front of her shoulders and pushed her back onto the pillow, all the time wondering how their conversation had gone so terribly wrong so quickly.

^uHey!" she cried, struggling to sit up again—even as she was careful not to bump against his side. "Let me up!"

"Go to sleep, Isobel. You cant nurse me to health if you re fall ing-down tired."

"You're a bully," she whispered, lying stiffly beneath his arm.

"No, I'm simply a man in pain who would like a few minutes of quiet."

"You started the conversation."

He gave her a squeeze. "Which we will continue after you've slept."

She remained silent for all of sixty seconds. "I have to get Snuggles."

"The rabbit sleeps with you?" He lifted his head. "Does she do so when your boyfriends are . . . visiting?"

Isobel returned to glaring up at the rafters. "She gets cold easily, and she's scared and confused to be here. And rabbits are social creatures, and they get lonely."

lust like you, he refrained from saying. "Then call your cold and frightened little friend and pick her up," he offered, freeing one of her arms. "And I will keep the both of you warm and safe while you sleep."

Six

Six

Isobel wound back her arm and threw the rock as far as she could, then watched it land in the ocean with a plop. Perfected the cut of lovemaking, she thought with a snoit, picking up another rock.

Yeah, well, he better not try any of his fancy moves on her!

She threw the next rock at a piece of exposed ledge, then watched in horror as it ricocheted off the granite and nearly hit a seagull floating on the swells. The bird rose into the air with a squawk of surprise, its scolding caws carried away on the breeze.

"Sorry! I didn't see you swimming there!" Isobel called after it. She picked up another rock worn smooth by the surf and began searching for another target.

If Daniel tried to kiss her again, so help her God, she would . . . dammit, she was tempted to kiss him back! Just to prove that he didn't intimidate her one itsy-bitsy bit, she decided, this time aiming at some floating seaweed.

It was bad enough Snuggles hadn't left his aims all afternoon. Didn't the little traitor know that his fawning over her soft fur and long ears was nothing but a veneer, hiding a don t-test-me-or-I'll-wring-you r-neck liar just like his brother Chase?

About the only part of Daniels story Isobel believed was that he really did have an overabundance of testosterone. The guy had shown up with a branch sticking out of his side, for crying out loud; but not only was he already walking around on his own, he apparently felt well enough to kiss her. Twice! And when she'd awakened from her nap this afternoon, it had been to find him cupping her breast in his sleep!

Were horse tranquilizers aphrodisiacs for men, or what?

Isobel picked up another rock, this one the size of her fist. So what if she'd slept like a dead woman in his

arms? Shed been up for almost two days. And getting kidnapped was stressful. So was being forced to perform surgery on a human, only to be kidnapped again, then stranded on this stupid island with a man who snapped at her one minute and turned into a horny-toad the next.

And if Daniel thought she believed he was from the future, he was dumber than he obviously thought she was. His story was riddled with holes big enough to drive a truck through. If he and his brothers were on such an important mission to save mankind from becoming extinct, why did he seem more interested in kissing her than helping his brothers search for their precious animal?

She suddenly gasped in midthrow and lowered her hand. "Ohmigod, he's playing me. If his story is even remotely true, then he's been buttering me up in hopes that 77/ help them find the animal they need. The no-good, conniving sneak/" she muttered, winding her arm back and spiking the rock at the ledge again.

This time it hit so hard it shattered into pieces and sent tiny missiles flying in every direction. One of the pieces sailed into the air and smacked a seagull soaring in to see if it was food she was throwing. The bird gave a strangled squawk and tumbled straight into the ocean, only to bob to the surface in bewilderment as several more gulls landed beside it, thinking their friend had found something to eat.

"Jeesh, I'm sorry!" Isobel shouted, shoving her hands in her pockets.

"Is it customary to apologize to an animal you re trying to kill?" Daniel asked.

Isobel turned with a gasp, tripped over her own feet, and fell into the suif just as a wave slammed into her back and washed over her head. "Dammit, you can't sneak up on a person like that!" she cried, getting to her feet and slogging back onto the beach.

But then she had to scramble up the bluff and grab his arm when she realized he'd staited down to rescue her. "You're not well enough to be out here. I don't care how good you feel, you re going to burst your kidney wide open."

He wrapped his arm over her shoulder for support and allowed her to lead him to a boulder to sit down. "I'm sorry I startled you," he said, unzipping his jacket and peeking inside.

Isobel saw Snuggles peeking up at him.

"Can I set her down out here?" he asked, eyeing the gulls edging closer in hopes the new arrival had brought food. "Or will those large birds carry her off and have her for dinner?" He looked up at Isobel. "Aren't rabbits prey animals?"

"Yes. But seagulls are not raptors. They eat mostly crustaceans—or whatever food they can beg or steal from people. It's okay to set Snugs down. She wont go far."

Isobel shed her soaked jacket and tossed it on the pebbled beach. Then she pulled her hair free, bent over, and began fluffing the water out of it with her fingers.

"You're shivering/ he said. "Here, let me give you my jacket."

She straightened to glare at him. "Keep it. The last thing I need is for you to catch pneumonia."

"Youre still angry/" he said, sincerely surprised. "I apologized for groping you during our nap." He shot her a boyish grin. "But you were so warm and plump and inviting, my hand instinctively wandered to you without my permission."

She stopped fluffing her hair again. "Did you just call me plump?"

His boyish grin turned outright lecherous, and he actually nodded. Trust me, Isobel, if you were not so beautifully plump, I wouldn't be spending every moment wanting to run my mouth over every centimeter of you," he said, his voice dropping several octaves. "Or imagining how sweet your skin must taste or what it would feel like to have you writhing beneath me as I slid deep inside your heat, and let your soft, plump body consume me."

Despite being soaked to the skin and standing in fifty-degree air, Isobel felt like an ice cube in a pot of boiling water. Was this guy for real? Because, honest to God, she could practically feel herself consuming hint.

"You re the most beautiful woman I've ever laid eyes on," he continued gutturally, his piercing gaze holding her trapped in a realm of salacious possibilities. "And like an explorer, I want to map every line and curve and dip of your body, and turn the passion of your blushes into flames of desire," he whispered, the deep cadence of his voice sharpening the mental image of his words. "And hear your cries of ecstasy as you

shudder around me with the force of an exploding nova."

He dropped his gaze to her blouse plastered against her breasts, then his darkened eyes returned to hers. "I want you, Isobel. Badly. So I suggest that you run while you still can."

¹¹W-what?'

"Because if you don't leave immediately, I will have you right here on the beach."

He thought she could run? Hell, it was all she could do to breathe.

"Go!" he snapped, making her flinch and effectively getting her moving.

Isobel frantically scrambled up over the bluff in a daze of confusion and no small amount of horror—both of which were aimed at herself. Because, honest to God, she had wanted him to make love to her right there on the beach, so she could shudder around him like an exploding nova.

She was halfway to the cabin before she suddenly stopped, turned around, and marched back to the bluff. "For your information/" she called down to him, "I am not plump. I have a body mass index of twenty-two, and that's considered perfect. And I wouldn't have let you have me, anyway, because I've sworn off men."

He stood up. "Do not test me, Isobel/" he said roughly. "As I am determined to keep my promise not to hurt you."

She took a step back, preparing to make a run for it again, but something in his voice gave her pause. He was fighting more than an overabundance of testosterone; it sounded as if he was equally determined not to hurt . . . himself?

She turned and quietly walked to the cabin, no longer fleeing in horror but still confused. Was it possible Daniel was coming to actually like her?

Impossible. They'd known each other less than twenty-four hours.

But she had saved his life. Could he have one of those syndromes—like the Stockholm syndrome, where captives came to feel affection for their captors—that was making him feel affection for her? Maybe he was battling a misguided sense of gratitude, or even adoration, that had manifested as ... lust.

But she was the captive; she should be the one enamored with him.

Isobel stepped into the warmth of the cabin and softly closed the door. "So what if I do think he's to-die-for good looking and totally hot?' she said into the silence as she took off her blouse. "Other than his tall tale that he's from the moon, he's certainly a far cry from the losers I've been dating." She unzipped her wet jeans and peeled them down with a snoit. ^uWhich isn't saying much. I've dated every eligible male in a fifty-mile radius, and not one of them ever made my heart race the way Daniel does just by looking at me."

She kicked her pants toward the woodstove, went to the supplies in the corner, and found the duffle bag shed packed. "My God," she muttered, "I damn near had an orgasm just picturing him sliding into me."

And she probably would have had three by now, if he'd followed through instead of chased her off.

She took a shuddering breath and pulled a sweater down over her head. "Okay, young lady, get a grip on yourself. You've sworn off men, remember?"

She paused in the act of stepping into a pair of dry jeans. If she was facing a prolonged bout of dates with pint containers of ice cream, and Daniel would be disappearing back into the ether in a few days, why not kick off her celibacy by having a torrid little affair with him?

A/esure as hell seemed willing. And he certainly seemed physically capable, considering how fast he'd healed. And maybe Moonlanders really had perfected the art of lovemaking, and he could give her some really hot memories to keep her warm on the long, lonely nights ahead. And who knew, maybe there was even a thing or two she could teach him.

Yeah, she didn't have to swear off aii men.

Isobel finished pulling up her pants with a smile of anticipation. "So I guess that means you better start sleeping with one eye open, Mr. Moon lander, because you're no longer the only person on this island with wandering hands."

a o a

Daniel sat back down on the boulder and hung his head in his hands with a heavy sigh. Christ, that had been

close. He really had been seconds away from stripping Isobel naked and making rough, unrestrained love to her right here on the beach.

After which he would have can led her to the cabin and made love to her again.

And then he would have spent the next four days trying to persuade her that he wasn't a brute.

He snorted. "Say it enough times and maybe you'll eventually persuade yourself.¹

The tiny black rabbit hopped over and sat up on her haunches, nudging his leg with her front paws. Daniel picked her up and tucked her inside his jacket with a humorless laugh. "I can see why Isobel is fond of you, little one. You've even managed to get me talking to myself. It must be your long ears/' he murmured, stroking her ears against the soft fur of her back. They encourage speech. And now I also understand Isobel s claim that pets have health benefits, as I am growing calm just holding you."

He ducked his head to look the rabbit in the eye. "Isobel stirs my senses like no other woman ever has. And its not just her beauty. Even when she's not especially pleased with me she's still tender and caring, her concern for my welfare always winning over her anger."

Daniel looked out at the ocean, once again awed by the vast expanse of water", and took a deep breath of fresh, fragrant air that was being filtered by nature instead of machines. He couldn't wait for his people to come here and witness such colorful beauty and abundance for themselves.

"So, my little friend," he said, stroking the rabbits fur as he eyed the large birds edging closer, "do you have any suggestions as to how I can keep my hands off Isobel?" He rubbed his stubbled chin on the rabbits head. "For its not physically that I fear I might hurt her, but emotionally. I know only too well that when a woman gives her body to a man, there is a danger that her heart will follow. And its obvious that Isobel \s a passionately generous and caring woman, and I worry she may come to care for me more than she should."

He lifted the rabbit to look into her dark, fluid eyes. "And in four days, when I have no choice but to return to my natural time, she could be heartbroken." He hugged Snuggles to his neck and closed his eyes. "Just as I fear I may be."

Seven

Seven

Daniel eyed the plate Isobel had set in front of him, then leaned to the side and eyed the plate shed set on the floor for Snuggles. And then he scowled at the bowl of delicious-smelling broth sitting in front of her. "Is there any particular reason the rabbit and I are eating the same food, but you are not?" he asked.

"Yup," she said, taking a noisy slurp of the broth. She closed her eyes and made a sound of pleasure, then dipped her spoon into the broth again.

Daniel reached across the table and stilled her hand on its way to her mouth. "And that reason would be?" he asked.

She lowered the spoon to her bowl. "Because recovering from major surgery is not exactly the best time to introduce a body to new food." She arched a delicate brow. "You said there aren't any animals on the moon, so that means your digestive system has only had plant-based protein."

She reached across the table and picked up his fork, drove it into the pile of green foliage and diced orange . . . things, and held it up to his mouth. "Like Snuggles, you are essentially a herbivore, and the only thing I had in my fridge when Noah raided it was lettuce and carrots. It's this or nothing." She set the fork on his plate when he refused to open his mouth and be fed like an infant. "Or, you can chance having your intestines blow up," she said, taking another loud slurp of broth.

Daniel finally picked up his fork but hesitated. "What is making it wet?"

"Olive oil." She nodded toward the floor where the rabbit was eagerly munching her dinner. "Eat up. It'll make your chest hair soft and shiny, just like Snugs' fur."

Daniel hid his consternation by filling his mouth with foliage. Something had changed between the time he'd sent Isobel running from the beach and when he'd returned to the cabin an hour later. She hadn't been

leery of him as hed expected; in fact, she'd been outright solicitous. And smiley. And unusually quiet.

Which only served to put him on guard.

"So your parents and brother are waiting for you back—I mean forward—in 2243?" she asked. "Where are they, exactly, location-wise?"

"Right here/" he said after swallowing, deciding that he liked the earthy taste of olive oil—though not the bitter aftertaste it left. "Wherever we re standing when we activate our links is where we will be standing when we arrive in our new time. We left from this island."

"But then how did you get to the mainland when you arrived here? You couldn't know there would be a boat on the island, could you?"

"We swam the eight kilometers to the mainland." He grinned. "Apparently Micah found a boat to borrow to bring us here this morning."

"But how did you know this island wouldn't be inhabited when you suddenly . . . what, do you step out of the ether or something?"

Daniel swallowed his next bite. "We don't step out of anything, we simply materialize. And we took an educated guess the island would be deserted, based on what we knew of this time and this area." He grinned. "Though it's quite run down, the cabin being here was a pleasant surprise."

She leaned forward. "Okay, I can understand why you picked the sparsely populated Maine coast, but why this particular year?"

"Because it was far enough back in time from when the first strain of the plague showed up, which made it our best chance of finding the animal we need without contaminating ourselves."

"Why couldn't someone from the twenty-second century simply come back and stop the plague from happening to begin with?"

"Breaching time wasn't possible back then. Moon lander scientists developed the technology just thiity years ago."

"Then why didn't one of the Moon landers come back and warn everyone about what was happening, so

they could create a vaccine before it was too late?"

"Time travel is still a very new technology, and we haven't yet explored all the ramifications of using it. But our scientists believe its imperative that we not alter the past in any substantial way, because we can't predict what rippling effect it could cause. We dare use time travel only to impact our own futures.

She set down her spoon. 'When all the people die, do the animals die, too?"

"Not all species. But when the last humans disappeared, the nuclear energy reactors eventually deteriorated and spread radiation into the atmosphere, and the Earth went through what we've been calling a Cataclysm." He shrugged. "Which in turned altered the DNA of many of the animals that did survive. So we made sure we came back both before the super-germ existed and the animals hadn't mutated. But we also had to make sure it was late enough that we would have access to science advanced enough to help us find which animal we need."

"Urn ... if you re worried the plague is still hanging around in 2243, aren't you afraid that you and your family could get infected?" She gasped. "And that you'd bring it to this century and infect us?" she asked, her eyes widening in alarm.

Daniel shook his head. "We know the four of us didn't carry it back to this time."

"How can you possibly know that?"

"Because we exist. Mankind wouldn't have survived more than a decade if we brought it here, so there never would have been a colony on the moon to begin with." He set his fork down to rest his elbows on the table. "That's what I meant about not altering the past, Isobel; if we have an impact during one of our visits, it would then be part of recorded history."

"Can you travel forward in time?"

He picked up his fork again. "We don't know for certain, but all our data points to it being possible, although it does appear to be a one-way journey."

"Why do you believe that?"

"Because anyone who has ever activated a time link set on a future date has never returned."

# ft

Isobel started devising her plan of seduction right after dinner, even though she was pretty sure starting an affair with Daniel wouldn't require any more effoit than taking off her clothes. Still, there wasn't any reason her soft, plump, inviting body—that he wanted to feel writhing beneath him—couldn't be presented in its best light.

And what better light was there for lovemaking than the soft glow of a kerosene lamp? Especially if she set it on the table in the center of the cabin, well away from the bed, so it could cast interesting shadows over every line and curve and dip of her body that he wanted to map like an explorer.

Isobel splashed some of the spring water she was using to wash the dishes onto her face, then ran her wet hand down her neck. Good Lord, she was growing hot again just remembering the sensuous images he'd conjured up on the beach this afternoon. If he could make her melt with just words, there was a very real danger shed go off like a Fourth of July rocket if he did run his mouth over every square centimeter of her.

"I'm going outside to sit and watch the moon come up," he said from behind her.

Isobel yelped, spinning in surprise and splashing water all over herself, and him, and Snuggles peeking out of his jacket.

"I'm sorry," he said, though his grin said he was anything but. "I don't mean to keep startling you."

"You walk like a cat/" she muttered, wiping her face on her sleeve. " Why don't you whistle or something to warn a person you're around."

* Whistle?"

She dropped her arm and blinked up at him. "You don't know how to whistle?"

"I assume it's some sort of noise I should make?"

Isobel puckered her lips and whistled a few notes of Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star, but stopped the moment she realized he'd locked his gaze on her mouth and his eyes had darkened. ^uEr, that's whistling," she whispered, her own gaze going to his mouth as she imagined those lips kissing every square centimeter of

her body.

"I may be gone awhile/" he growled, turning away and striding to the door.

She gripped the counter and closed her eyes on a sigh. Maybe having an affair with him wasn't such a good idea. Since she couldn't remember ever being this flustered over a man before . . . well, what if he mined her for ail men? What if after making love to Daniel, every other man paled in comparison?

"Yeah, right/" she said with a snoit, squaring her shoulders. "He puts his pants on one leg at a time, just like every other man."

But he sure filled them out nicer than most. And she couldn't have helped but notice how ripped his body was when shed been looting around inside it. She honestly hadn't found one ounce of extraneous fat, though she had found plenty of muscle. And a blind woman couldn't miss how broad his shoulders are.

Or how soft his shadowy chest hair looks.

God, she loved chest hair on a man. It made her want to run her fingers all through it, and kiss it, and feel it tickling her naked breasts as ...

Isobel pushed away from the counter with renewed resolve and ran to the bed and straightened the blankets Micah had suggested she bring. She fluffed the pillows she had insisted on bringing, then grabbed the lamp and carried it over to the table. Then she went over and dug through her duffle bag to find her toiletries, and after a peek out the window to see Daniel making his way toward the bluff, she stripped off her clothes.

Washing up in spring water ceitainly cooled her down, and blushing out her hair until it flowed like silk calmed her considerably. She stuffed everything back in her ditty bag, gathered her clothes off the floor, then carried them to the corner.

She stopped in midstep. "Damn. Snuggles/" she muttered. She pulled everything out of her duffle bag, arranged a sweater in it like a nest, then carried it over to the bed and set it on the table where the lamp had been. But then she iota ted it so the opening was facing the counter. "Sorry, Snug-a-bug, but last I knew, lovemaking wasn't a spectator sport."

She ran to the window to see Daniel sitting on a log, watching the sun drop into the ocean as Snuggles sniffed through the crisp leaves at his feet. She lit the kerosene lamp on the table, then looked around. It was a rickety old cabin someone had built half a century ago, and the Maine coastal storms had taken their toll. Still, it kept out the weather, and she couldn't think of a cozier place to cozy up to a Moon lander.

Well, except maybe her comfortable bed at home.

She added two of the punky old logs shed found out back to the woodstove, closed the damper to keep them from burning up too quickly, then looked around again. "What else?" she asked out loud. "Think of the five senses/" she instructed, holding up a finger for each. "Sight; the kerosene lamp will do nicely. Sound; lets hope my cries of ecstasy are music to his ears. Smell." She snorted. "I hope Daniel gets turned on by the odor of deodorant soap. As for touch and taste, those are a given." She suddenly gasped. "Ohmigod. Protection!'

She ran back to the pile of clothes and started searching though her toiletries again. "Come on, please let there be some condoms in the bottom," she pleaded, digging deeper as she tried to remember her last sleepover. Only sleepovers were usually at her house, since half the men she dated still lived with their mothers. "Yes!" she cried, pulling out a sleeve of three. But then she went rooting through the bottom of the bag again. "Three condoms for a four-day affair just isn't going to cut it."

Coming up empty but for the three in her hand, Isobel stood up with a sigh. "I doiv't suppose time-traveling warriors pack that kind of protection, so I guess that means I'm about to find out how creative Moonlanders really are when it comes to lovemaking."

Taking a deep breath, she walked back to the bed, tucked one of the condoms under her pillow, then stuffed the other two in the duffle bag under Snugs nest. There, the stage is set and we're ready for the show to begin, folks."

She crawled into bed, fanned her hair across the pillow, arranged her boobs—that she had to admit were pleasingly plump—so that a good deal of cleavage showed just above the blanket, then settled in to wait for the leading man to arrive.

And she waited.

And waited.

Until she eventually fell asleep.

Eight

Eight

Isobel woke up with a scream when something brushed her arm, and she came up swinging at the dark shadow looming above her.

"Dammit, woman, would you stop!" Daniel snapped, catching her fist before it could make contact with his belly. "You're starting to give me a complex."

"You re supposed to whistle/' she snapped back, tugging her hand free to pull the blanket higher around her.

"I've been trying to for the last hour, but I can't seem to make my lips work the way you do. Here, I fear Snuggles may have gotten chilled," he said, trying to tuck the rabbit under the blanket again.

"No, put her in the duffle bag," Isobel told him, gesturing toward the bedside table. "She likes cuddling up in my sweater."

Daniel frowned at her, hugging Snuggles back to his chest. He looked around the dimly lit cabin, and sighed. "She can sleep with me, then," he said, heading toward the pile of clothes in the corner.

"No, wait," Isobel called out. She took a fortifying breath and scooted over and patted the bed beside her. "There's no reason we cant share the bed." When he stopped and turned to her, she let the blanket slip just enough to reveal one naked shoulder and lowered her voice to what she hoped was a sultry tone. There's plenty of room for both of us. And its going to be chilly in here by morning, so I thought we could share our . . . our body heat," she ended in a whisper, her courage deserting her when she saw his eyes darken—not with lust, but with . . .oh, God, he actually looked angry.

"Go back to sleep, Isobel."

She immediately recoiled, prickles of heat rushing to her cheeks as she realized lie had just flat-out

rejected her. Suddenly feeling her chin staiting to quiver, she turned onto her stomach and pulled the blanket over her head to bury her face in her pillow. What in hell had she been thinking! No wonder only losers dated her; she obviously had the seductive wiles of a gnat. Isobel pressed deeper into the pillow to muffle a sob when she heard him mutter something nasty under his breath.

So now how was she supposed to get up and get dressed, if he was lying on her clothes? Because there was no way she was going to let him sleep on the floor after shed spent five hours sweating bullets to save his sorry, miserable life.

The no-good, ungrateful jerk.

She felt the bed dip, and his hand settle across her back. "Isobel. Look at me."

^uG-go away," she sniffled into the pillow.

"I need to—Christ, are you crying?"

^uNo. Go away!"

"Isobel."

She tightened her grip on the blanket when he attempted to pull it down. "I've decided I deserve the bed tonight for saving your miserable life/" she said, trying to sound appropriately dismissive. ^wGo sleep in the corner with your new best friend."

He stopped tugging on the blanket and his hand returned to her back, only lower, settling on her backside. "Are you not concerned I might catch a chill on the floor and take a turn for the worse?"

She tiled to slide out from under his touch, but he pressed heavier, then started caressing her. So she reared up to her hands and knees as she pulled the blanket around herself, then scooted backward off the end of the bed. "Fine! You take the bed and I'll sleep in the corner."

Her toes hadn't quite touched the floor when she suddenly found herself swept off her feet and plastered against his chest. "What the—Are you nuts? You re going to burst open your side!"

"Hush, Isobel," he whispered, just before his mouth came down on hers.

Oh, great. A consolation kiss!

Keeping her lips tightly pursed, and being careful not to smack his clavicle or lose her grip on her blanket, she tried to push him away. But he effortlessly held her cradled against him and kept rig lit on kissing her until she staited getting dizzy from lack of air.

Totally and utterly humiliated now, and fighting to keep from bursting out in loud sobs, Isobel gave a shudder of defeat and went limp. And when he finally lifted his head, she hid her face in his neck.

"You will not cry/" he whispered. "I don't like it."

Oh, then by all means she should stop, shouldn't she? "Put me down," she said against his neck. "Because I swear if you bust open your side, I'm not sewing you back up again."

"I will put you down when you stop crying/⁷

She gave a quick swipe of her eyes, then lifted her head to glare at him. But the moment she looked into his beautiful blue eyes, her chin staited quivering again and she turned away. "Will you please put me down?"

He laid her on the bed, but then he lay down beside her, somehow managing to keep her locked in the crook of his aim. "I want you to look at me, Isobel."

"Yeah, well, I want to go home, but that's not happening," she muttered, yanking the blanket up around her shoulders.

He cupped her jaw to force her head up, and then threaded his fingers through her hair to keep her looking at him. "Six months before we left the moon to come here, the entire colony gathered together for a grand and solemn ceremony," he said calmly, "to hear myself and my brothers give our warriors' vows. And a part of those vows was our promise to become celibate, and remain so until we chose a wife."

Isobel dropped her gaze to the metal collar around his neck. "A-and that's why you don't want to ... why we ... ?" She looked into his eyes. "We cant make love because you've vowed to have sex with only your future wife?"

"If I make love to you ton ig lit, Isobel, we wont leave this bed for the next four days, and when I return to my time, I will never touch another woman."

"Then why did you tell me down on the beach that you wanted me?"

"Because I do."

She dropped her gaze to his collar again and released a shuddering sigh. "Oh. Okay. I understand. You want to, but you cant/" she said, trying to pull away.

His arm around her tightened, and he forced her to look at him again. "I have a duty to my people, Isobel, not only to help make Earth safe for them to come here, but to help repopulate it. Our warrior genes are mankind's best hope for survival, and my destiny lies in the year 2243."

"I understand" she repeated, this time trying to sound like she meant it.

She also tiled to roll away again, but he continued to hold her facing him even as she continued to struggle. "If I could, I would take you with me."

She went perfectly still. "You . . . that's quite . . . you're assuming . . . you want to take me with you?" she squeaked.

He nodded.

"But you can't!"

"I know," he said, closing his eyes on a sigh. "But I am tempted to anyway."

She untangled a hand from her blanket and poked him in the chest—well away from his injury—to make him look at her. "That's a pretty arrogant thing to say, considering you haven't even asked me if I want to go with you."

One side of his mouth lifted, and his eyes crinkled at the corners. "I doir't have to ask; warriors have been granted the power to take."

"Take what?"

"You," he said, smiling openly when she gasped. "If I want."

She blinked at him, trying to decide if he was serious or just making up another tall tale to distract her from his flat-out rejection, afraid she might start crying again. Yeah, well, she was certainly past that; she wouldn't make love to him now if he was the last man on Eaith!

"That might be a rule or law or something in 2243, but it sure as hell doesn't apply to women in this time." She poked him again. "I mean, really, where are you getting all these harebrained notions, anyway? To begin with, soldiers haven't been called warriors for centuries." She arched a brow. "Are you telling me that instead of becoming enlightened, mankind regresses over the next two hundred years? Vows of celibacy are positively ancient even now."

He captured her hand so she couldn't poke him again. "I told you my mother was a historian, and that she's also the keeper of our book collection. By the middle of the twenty-second century, printed books had become relics, as all knowledge was stored digitally. But when Earth died, everything was lost. So when it came time for us to train, the only military information we had access to was in the few printed books some of the scientists had brought with them to the moon."

He grinned. "And my mother's grandmother had a thing for ancient warriors, apparently, so she brought her small personal collection of novels. They were penned in your century—which is one reason we decided to come to this time—but were set anywhere from the tenth century to the fifteenth."

"Novels?" Isobel whispered in disbelief. "Your mother taught the ten of you how to conduct youiselves from historical fiction?"

They were set in a very noble time."

"It was a barbaric time."

He sighed. "Which isn't far from where Earth is now, in 2243. There's nothing left, Isobel. In the eighty years since the Cataclysm, nearly all signs of humanity have disappeared. The land and the oceans are as if man never existed." His arm around her tightened. "Which is why I am reluctant to take you with me."

"Are we back to that?"

"I believe that is exactly what this conversation has been about," he growled. But then he sighed again. "What I've been trying to explain, Isobel, is that just like your boyfriends are looking for the prestige marrying you would bring them, I must also guard against women who want only to be a warrior's wife." He snorted. "In the six months before we came here, I and my brothers would come home to find women in our

beds, hoping we would choose them as our wives. Oh, and while we were at it, could we please impregnate them before we left?'

Isobel felt prickles of heat rising into her cheeks again, and she hid her face in his shiit. No wonder he'd gotten angry to find her waiting for him; she had acted just like all those conniving, blood-sucking, no-good, rotten Moon lander tramps.

Oh God, that made hei the loser!

He canted her head back to look at him again. "You re the only woman to ever tempt me, Isobel. And if it wasn't for the uncertainty of having you travel forward in time, we wouldn't be having this conversation at all, because we would right now be setting this bed on fire."

Okay, she had to get at least some of her dignity back here, before she totally humiliated herself. She shot him a rather sad smile and patted his chest. "Yeah, well, sorry to burst your bubble, big guy, but I'm really not into alpha males carrying me off into the ether." She tried to roll away, but when he still refused to let her go, she added, "But it's very sweet of you to want to take me with you, and I am honored. Truly."

She felt him stiffen, and his eyes sharpened with suspicion.

Isobel kicked her smile up a notch. "Its just that . . . you see ... I have a pretty good life here. I enjoy being a veterinarian, and my four-legged clients need me. And I like running water and electricity and indoor plumbing. And though I'm not a vegetarian, I don't think I could actually kill my own food, and I cant grow a tomato to save my life. So you see, I'd really make a lousy twenty-third century wife, anyway."

When his only response was for his complexion to darken, she patted his chest again. "And really, when you think about it, we've only known each other one day," she said with a soft laugh—that she hoped sounded lighthearted rather than hysterical.

Because, honest to God, the idea of starting out fresh in a pristine new world with Daniel was actually starting to appeal to her. And really, that was just too crazy even for her. Wasn't it?

"And for all you know," she continued, keeping her smile shining brightly and her tone light, "within a month of bringing me home to meet your parents, you would be bugging your scientist buddies to find a way

to send me back when you discovered that under all this wonderful plumpness, I'm really not the woman you thought I was."

He still said nothing, and it took Isobel several heartbeats to realize he'd opened his arm and freed her. She immediately rolled away and scooted down to the foot of the bed to leave.

Only the blanket didn't appear to be leaving with her. She looked over her shoulder to find Daniel holding on to it, his expression . . . unreadable.

She gave a sharp tug on the blanket.

Daniel tugged back. And despite scrambling to catch it, the blanket flew off her and onto the pillow beside him, leaving her utterly naked.

"What did you do that for!" she cried, hunching her shoulders to hug herself protectively, glaring back at him.

"Because I wanted to. And because I could."

Like he could take her with him if he wanted to?

Isobel stood up and calmly walked across the cabin to the corner. She gathered up several pieces of her clothes, then walked to the door, stepped outside into the cold night air, and closed it softly behind her.

Apparently when a twenty-third-century warrior found himself on the receiving end of a flat-out rejection, he didn't get disappointed, or humiliated, or want to burst into tears.

He simply got even.

Nine

Nine

Isobel woke up to sunlight hitting her face and immediately closed her eyes with a stifled groan. How in hell was she going to survive being trapped on this stupid island with Daniel for three more excruciating days? She had made such a fool of herself last night, she was probably going to develop a permanent sunburn from blushing every time she looked at him.

Opening one eye and finding the cabin empty, she groaned out loud. Never mind looking at Daniel; she was going to have to touch him, too. Because if she didn't change the bandage on his side, his sutures could get infected. Shed shot him full of dog antibiotics rig lit after the surgery, and mixed some with the olive oil shed put on his salad, but considering what the horse tranquilizer had done to him, there was a good chance his body didn't have a clue what to do with twenty-first-centui y antibiotics.

Then he'd get a fever she had no way of fighting.

And then he'd die.

And Chase and Noah and Hicah would return and find out shed killed their brother, and Chase would wring her neck instead of Snuggles'.

Assuming she didn't die of embarrassment first.

Isobel pulled the blanket over her head with another groan. The moment she'd come back in the cabin last night and curled up in the corner, Daniel had picked her up and carried her to the bed, covered her with the blanket, then gone outside.

All without saying a word.

And apparently without coming back in, either.

She suddenly bolted upright. "Ohmigod! What if he thought lie was well enough to join his brothers and

swam to shore like he did before?" She threw off the blanket, jumped out of bed, and went hunting for her shoes. "He better not have drowned himself. How in hell am I going to explain to Chase that I lost his brother?" she cried, hopping to the door as she pulled on one sneaker and then the other. "Honest to God, I've treated snarling wild animals that didn't give me this much trouble/" she muttered as she tore outside.

Only to slam head-on into a large, solid chest.

"Hey, there/" the owner of the large, solid chest said with a grunt, grabbing her shoulders when she bounced off him and nearly fell back.

Isobel looked up and gasped. "Chase!"

"What are you saying about wild animals?"

She took a calming breath, stepped out of his clutches, then took another step back for insurance. "I . . . um . . .1 lost your brother," she whispered, inching toward the side of the cabin as she kept an eye on his neck-wringing hands.

"Which brother?"

She finally worked up the nerve to look up. "Daniel."

"Oh, him," lie said with a shrug. '■That's okay. I've always wanted to be the oldest. So what were you saying about wild animals?"

Isobel took a step toward him this time. 'That's a terrible thing to say! Brothers are precious."

"Do you have a brother?"

"No. But if I did, I certainly wouldn't want to find out someone had iost him."

"What about a sister? And parents? Do your parents live near you?"

Isobel scowled at him. "My parents are dead. But what are we talking about me for, when Daniel's out there somewhere?" she said, angrily waving toward the ocean. "Probably drowning, because he thinks lies such a warrior that he can swim to shore two days after having major surgery."

She stepped around him and strode toward the bluff. "Okay, if you wont go find him, then I will. Honest to God, if everyone's counting on you guys to keep the human race from becoming extinct, mankind is in

really big trouble/" she continued when he fell into step beside her. "Maybe along with the animal, you should take back some nonfiction books." She stopped when they reached the bluff and she saw the beach was empty. "Dammit, where s your boat?" she asked, turning around and heading to the beach on the other side of the island. "I need it to go find your no-good, rotten brother."

"I can see by your concern that you've obviously grown quite fond of Daniel," Chase said, falling in step beside her again.

Isobel stopped and shot him a brilliant smile. "Oh yes, how can anyone not grow fond of a man who leads a girl to believe he wants her, then totally humiliates her by flat-out rejecting her when she works up the nerve to accept what he'd been offering all day?"

"It certainly wasn't Daniels intention to humiliate you, Isobel. He was trying to protect you."

"Protect me from what?"

"From yourself." He grabbed her shoulders when she gasped and took a step back. "Isobel, Daniel knows that when a woman gives herself to a man, her heart usually follows. He was protecting you from getting your heart broken."

Of all the arrogant, outrageous, condescending things he could have said, the idea that Daniel was protecting her from herself was ... it was . . .

Oh God, there were those prickles of heat climbing into her cheeks again, and damn if her chin wasn't starting to quiver. Without even thinking about what she was doing, much less who she was doing it to, she punched Chase in the belly hard enough to make him grunt and let go of her.

And then she ran as if the hounds of hell were after her.

But she didn't make it ten feet before she was stopped by another large, solid chest—only this time she knew instantly who it belonged to.

"Daniel! You didn't drown!"

Not answering because he was too busy glaring past her shoulder, he pulled her into his anus and held her against his chest. Isobel didn't even protest, because . . . well, because she just as soon not let him see her

blushing to high heaven.

"Why was she running?" lie asked over her head. "What did you do to her?"

"Hey, she punched me," Chase said, walking to them. "She was so distraught that you might be drowning and we weren't going to look for you that her emotions obviously got in the way of her judgment."

Wonderful. She could hear the amusement in Chases voice, as well as feel the tension humming through Daniel. So how in hell was she supposed to get out of this mess without utterly humiliating herself again?

"Eww! What a monstrous snake!" she cried, pointing at the ground as she stamped her feet in alarm and struggled to get free.

Daniels arms merely tightened. "Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me/" he whispered into her hair.

She snorted. "Did you get that one out of one of your great-great-grandmother s books?"

His arms relaxed but didn't let her go.

That was okay with her; she still wasn't quite up to facing him yet.

"Where's the snake?" Noah asked, running toward them. "I want to see it."

'There is no snake/" Daniel said. "Isobel pretends to see things to distract unsuspecting dogs before she pokes them with a needle. Only apparently it doesn't work on cats." He gave her a warning squeeze. "Or on

men."

"It sure as hell worked on you the first time," she muttered into his shiit.

"So, have you asked her yet?" Micah asked, having run up with Noah.

^uNo," Daniel said.

Isobel tilted her head back to look up at him. But when she found herself staling into his beautiful, ocean blue eyes, she immediately buried her face in his shiit again. "Ask me what?"

^uWe want you to help us catch a raccoon," Micah said.

Isobel leaned back in surprise, but having learned her lesson, she looked at Micah instead of Daniel. "You think the animal you need is a raccoon?" She suddenly pulled free and walked over to Micah. "What happened

to you?" She looked at Noah. "And you!" She stepped closer and squinted up at his face. "Are those claw marks? From a raccoon?"

Noah nodded.

"Well, come on then/" she said, taking his arm and leading him toward the cabin, figuring that as distractions went, this one worked. "You, too, Micah. I have to clean those scratches before they get infected. There's a whole world of nasty bacteria growing under animal claws."

Noah freed himself from her clutches but continued walking with her, Micah and Daniel and Chase following behind.

"If they have bacteria under their" claws, how come they don't infect themselves?" Noah asked. "We saw them putting their little hands in their" mouths."

"You did?"Where?"

"Just fifty meters behind your house, down by the stream." He grinned over at her. "We found some bread in one of your cupboards and filled a large can you had in your shed with it, then set it beside a tree down by the stream."

She a relied a brow. "So you know what bread is, but you didn't think to pack any for usT' She shook her head. "Never mind. Okay, you filled a trash can with bread and then lugged it into the woods. But why?"

"Because one of your books said raccoons like to sneak in when its dark and lift off the covers to get to the food inside. So we lured them with the bread, then waited in the bushes foi them."

She stopped walking and eyed the scratches on his face. "And what did you do when they showed up?" she asked, even though she had a pretty good idea already.

"We jumped out and grabbed them," Micah interjected, holding up his battered hands as proof. He shook his head. "They're not as friendly as your rabbit."

Isobel looked at Chase, noticing he didn't have a scratch on him. "And just what were you doing while Micah and Noah were wrestling raccoons?" she drawled.

"I was in your den, reading," he drawled back. "Because I do not believe a raccoon is the animal we need."

"Why not?"

"Because it's not from the family of Lepoi-something. I don't know the rest of the word, but I did find that raccoons are of the Procyonidae genus, which isn't even close."

The hairs on the back of Isobel s neck rose in alarm. "You re looking for a member of a genus that begins with the letters l-e-p-o-r?" she whispered. "Um . . . what makes you think that?"

When Chase's eyes sharpened on her, Isobel realized she probably looked as if shed just seen a ghost. She staited for the cabin again.

"The only thing our medical scientists on the moon were able to come up with is four or five Latin genera for which animal it might be," Chase told her, falling in beside her again. "But they aren't sure of the spelling; the data uploads they got from Earth were garbled, because radiation was already leaking out of some of the nuclear reactors and causing interference. But even though I've been scouring your books, I still haven't been able to narrow it down, much less translate it to a common name. We cant afford to mess this up, Isobel/" he said gravely, "because if we don't find an animal with the proper attributes that can fight this particular germ, then we have nothing."

"Did your scientists send you here with actual data, or is it all in your head?"

Pulling her to a stop, Chase readied in his pocket and took out what looked like an iPod, touched a button that caused the screen to light up, then handed it to her. "Its been difficult for them to solve a problem from over four hundred thousand kilometers away, especially with no animals to study. The scientists on Earth sent us what they had on developing a vaccine, but our worry is that just like the animals mutated, so did the germ."

Isobel frowned at the notations on the tiny screen, then turned to face all four of them. "How about I make a deal with you? You take me home right now and let me go over this information/" she said, holding up the i Pod-like device, "and lets see if I cant help you decide exactly which animal you need." She shot them what she hoped was a reassuring smile. "And once I do, then I will help you catch that animal."

"We only have nine hours," Chase said, "and then we must leave, with or without the animal."

"But I thought you had four more days?"

"Our time links have been signaling us that they're running low on power/" Daniel interjected. "If we don't return to 2243 in nine hours, we wont be able to return at all."

"Then go plug them into a charger or something, and come back."

He shook his head. "Its not that simple, Isobel. The cargo transport we used to come here from the moon is supplying the energy for our links." He smiled sadly. "And I'm sure Neil and our parents are right now working to get every last drop of that energy out of its antiquated fuel source. If we don't activate our links ourselves, Neil will do it for us in exactly nine hours."

'Then come on/" she said, heading back to the beach. "We re burning daylight!"

Daniel grabbed her arm to stop her. "We must find Snuggles first. She hopped away from me earlier and is exploring the woods/" he said, pointing to her left.

"We don't have time," Isobel told him, pulling away and heading for the beach again. "She's a rabbit; shell be fine. Ill come back and get her . . . later."

But Snuggles chose that exact moment to come tearing out of the bushes at Hicah— causing him to trip over himself to avoid stepping on her. Then the little imp ran right over to Daniel, sat up on her haunches, and begged him to pick her up.

Which he did, immediately tucking her inside his jacket with a laugh. "Okay, lets go," he said, clasping Isobel's hand and leading her to the beach.

And sure enough, her face started prickling again at the feel of his large, warm, and rather proprietary hand holding hers.

o a o

Eight hours and two pots of coffee later, Isobel had most of the books in her den strewn over every available surface, including the floor. Hicah and Noah were quietly following her around, picking up the books she

would snap shut and shove away, and silently piling them into neat stacks that she would then dismantle as she went digging for something she'd read in one of them.

Chase was also following her around, reading over her shoulder.

And Daniel? Well, he was roaming through her house and surgery and barn, to study what type of structures they should build in 2243, he'd told her just before he and Snuggles—who seemed way too content in his arms—had disappeared.

Meanwhile, she was getting more than a little frantic as she searched in vain for something—anything— that would help her find another species of animal that would satisfy the barely decipherable formulas on Chase's device.

But try as she might, for some stupid, insane, no-good, rotten reason, the only genus of mammal that appeared even close to what they needed was Leporidae.

Or in layman terms, a rabbit.

Or in more personal terms, Snuggles.

And if Chase had known how to work backward from the Latin genus, she didn't doubt that shed be standing in an empty den right now, in absolute, stark silence, minus her pet.

"We have less than an hour, Isobel," he said, straightening with a sigh and closing the book they were reading. "Do you or do you not agree with me that of the five names they gave us, its the Lepoi-something family we are looking for? Because if it is, you need to tell us what animal that is exactly, so we can go catch

one now."

She also sighed, rubbing her eyes with her fists, then finally looked directly at him. "Yes, I agree with you," she said softly, just as Daniel walked into the room. She looked at each of the four men in turn, who were all looking at her expectantly, then settled her gaze on Chase. "Urn . . . they don't intend to kill this animal, do they, to develop the vaccine?"

"No. They need to keep it alive, to draw its blood."

Isobel took a shuddering breath. "Then the genus is Leporidae, and the animal you re looking for, is a

rabbit."

The loom suddenly went silent enough that they could have heard a mouse sneeze, and almost as one, all four men stopped breathing.

When she felt silent tears streaming down her cheeks, Isobel hugged herself and nodded toward Daniel. "I guess mankinds salvation lias been r-right here under our noses all . . . all along."

"Are there no other rabbits we could take?" Daniel whispered, placing his hand over Snuggles' ears, as if protecting her from their conversation. "A wild one_r or . . . some other one we could find?"

"There's a chance one of the pet shelters might have a rabbit/" she said, even as she swiped at her cheek and shook her head. But the closest shelter is in Ellsworth, and even if they did have one, it would take several hours to get there, fill out the paperwork they require, and then get back to your island."

"We don't have several hours," Chase interjected softly.

"I-1 know."

Chase pulled a tiny metal collar out of his pocket as he walked over to Daniel and held out his hands. "At any cost, brother; to us, or anyone, or any thing/' he said quietly.

Daniel glanced at Isobel, his daik-as-the-ocean eyes locking on hers briefly before he looked back at Chase. "We can come back/" he growled tightly. "Isobel will find us several rabbits, and we will come back and get them."

"We cant," Chase said, shaking his head. The transport might not have the energy for another trip. As it is, we cant even get back to the moon. We 11 have to develop the vaccine ourselves and have it waiting for the others when they arrive."

"Dammit, Daniel! Just give him Snuggles and go!" Isobel cried, turning away. "All of you, just get the hell out of my house. Now!"

She ran out of the den, down the hall, and into her surgery, slamming the door behind her so hard the windows rattled. She blindly groped her way along the reception counter and fell into one of the waiting-room chairs, then bent at the waist, buried her face in her hands on her knees, and broke into loud, gut-wrenching

sobs.

Honest to God, she wanted to die.

No, she wanted to go with them!

She could help them. She knew stuff they couldn't possibly know about Earth_f and animals, and vaccines, and medicine! And weather. And fishing. And what plants were edible. Dammit, she could help.

No, she just wanted to die!

She was so distraught that she didn't even scream when she was suddenly plucked out of the chair, slammed against a solid chest, and hugged so tightly that her last sob came out as a strangled squeak.

"Stop crying, Isobel," Daniel growled, sitting down in one of the chairs to cradle her against his chest. "I don't like it."

Realizing that he was shaking nearly as badly as she was, she bunched his shiit in her fists and cried harder.

"I'm sorry, Isobel," he whispered. "For everything. You have been nothing but kind and generous to us, and so brave through all we forced upon you; I'm sorry we hurt you. But mostly I'm sorry that I have hurt you," he continued gutturally, stroking her hair. "And by all that I hold dear, I will find a way to make this up to you, I swear."

"You can't! You re going to disappear into the ether!" she wailed, struggling against him because she was afraid shed stait begging him to take her with them.

"Ill come back!" he snapped. "I will find a way."

"I wont be here!" she snapped light back, lifting her head to glare at him. "So don't waste your precious energy. Save it for your colony."

His mouth came down on hers in a searing, heart-stealing kiss, and Isobel clasped his face in her hands and put everything she couldn't say into kissing him back.

And that's when she knew; without their ever making love, this sexy, arrogant, growling man had ruined her for all men. She would never again find anyone who made her heart race the way Daniel did, or make her

hot all over just by describing what he wanted to do to her, or make her so angry and crazy and excited all at once that she wanted to smack him.

No, she couldn't imagine ever falling in love with anyone except Daniel.

Isobel suddenly felt herself tumbling, her arms wind mill ing wildly as she tried to catch herself. She banged into the chair then fell to the floor with a jarring thud, her cry of surprise lost in the deafening boom throbbing through the heavy, shimmering air.

"Nooo, take me with you!" she screamed in a keening wail, curling into a tight ball right there on the floor, in her utterly empty waiting room. "Oh, Daniel, I want to love you/" she quietly sobbed into the stark silence.

Ten

Ten

Isobel sat cross-legged on the floor in front of the crackling fireplace in her den, listening to the blizzard-force winds bang a shutter on one of the upstairs windows as she slurped down a spoonful of soupy ice cream. She glanced around at the empty shelves with a shuddering sigh and tried to work up some enthusiasm at the thought of her books reverently lined up in her new den, in her new house, attached to her new surgery in Kansas.

It had taken her two months to find a veterinarian practice for sale that was as far from Maine as she could get while still being a thousand miles from the ocean. Then it had taken her another month to buy it, and two weeks to pack her belongings. At nine o'clock this morning, shed signed the papers selling this practice to a starry-eyed young woman just out of veterinarian school, then watched the moving van disappear down her driveway an hour later with all her belongings.

And tomorrow morning at seven o'clock sharp, blizzard or no blizzard, she was leaving for Kansas herself.

Shed tried getting her life back to normal after her little . . . adventure into the twilight zone, but light in the middle of her second date with the last available man in the county, she had suddenly realized it was time to stop pretending that she would ever feel normal again.

She had borrowed a boat and gone to the island at least twice a week until the winter storms had put an end to her sitting on a log and looking around, trying to picture Daniel and his family on that exact same island two hundred and thirty years in the future. She would imagine them cooking their meals over a campfire, drinking out of the freshwater spring that bubbled up next to the stunted pine tree, and learning to catch fish and dig clams and avoid marauding seagulls.

She hoped they took their time introducing themselves to new proteins.

There was so much she could teach them about life on Eaith; like how to prepare for the change of seasons, and how they could learn from the animals what worked and what didn't when it came to choosing a site to build their home.

It was at that last thought, after one of her last trips to the island, that Isobel had realized they'd probably moved to the mainland shoitly after the men had returned. Shed sat in her door yard, staring out the windshield at her home, and wondered if maybe they might choose to build their home on the exact same site. It was a good piece of land, with a stream running behind the low knoll that was sheltered from the fierce Gulf of Maine storms by towering pines and hemlock.

Which would actually be a whole new generation of trees in 2243.

She dipped her spoon in the semi melted maple fudge again, but then stopped with it poised halfway to her mouth when she suddenly realized she was no longer alone in the house. She slowly turned her head to see Daniel standing in the doorway, silently watching her. She just as slowly looked away to set the spoon back in the ice cream, took a shuddering breath, and looked at the doorway again.

He was still there, as big and strong and larger-than-life as she remembered; only his hair was longer and he had the beginnings of a beard, but his shoulders were just as broad, his body just as ripped, and his eyes just as stunningly, piercingly blue.

¹¹H-how long have you been standing there?"

"No more than five minutes."

She set the ice cream on the floor and slowly stood up, not once taking her eyes off him; afraid that if she did, he would disappear. She stood light where shed been sitting and faced him, shoving her hands in her pockets so he wouldn't see how badly they were trembling.

"How long are you s-staying?"

^uNo more than five more minutes."

She took a step back at the feeling of being punched in the gut and pulled her hands out and crossed her arms under her breasts to hug herself. "That's it? You came all the way back here for only ten minutes?" she

whispered, fighting the tremors threatening to buckle her knees.

"Ten minutes is all I need." To do ... did you bring Snuggles back?"

"No. I told you, Isabel, traveling into the future is a one-way journey. We can travel back and then return to our own time, but we cannot travel forward and then return to our natural time. I couldn't bring Snuggles with me."

"Tli-then why did you come back here?" she whispered, fighting the lump in her throat that was threatening to strangle her.

"I came back for you."

She locked every last muscle in her body, afraid to move or even breathe when he stretched open his arms toward her, as it was then that she noticed the thick metal collar in his hand, exactly like the one he was wearing around his neck.

"But you must come to me, Isobel,' lie said softly, "because, like your pet, it will be a one-way journey for you as well." When several seconds passed and she hadn't moved, one side of his mouth lifted. Take your time," he drawled. "You have four minutes to get from there to here."

"Four minutes isn't very much time for a girl to decide if she's willing to give up maple fudge ice cream for the rest of her life."

His smile disappeared, his complexion darkened, and his eyes hardened. "I gave you four months." But then he sighed, motioning to her witli his still outstretched hands. "Come to me, Isobel."

"E-everything I own is on a truck headed to Kansas."

"It doesn't matter; you can't bring anything with you, anyway." One corner of his mouth lifted again. "In fact, there's a very good chance the twenty-first-century clothes you're wearing won't travel into the future with you."

She took a step back. "I'm going to arrive in 2243 naked?"

"My mother has let out a few of her outfits for you to wear." His grin turned into a full-blown smile. "And I

made sure she added extra material in certain . . . areas." He motioned with his outstretched hands again. "Come to me, Isabel."

She took a hesitant step forward. "I-is it going to hurt?"

^uNo more than having a needle stuck in your arm. Three minutes, Isobel."

She took another step toward him. And then another one. "What if your mother decides she doesn't like me?" she whispered. She stopped. "Because if she's expecting me to put up with your bullying just because you're some spoiled-rotten warrior . . . well, I dont think I can pretend to be appropriately awed, Daniel."

"My mother is going to love you."

She started slowly walking toward him again, not because she didn't want to run but because her entire body had turned to quivering mush. Yet she somehow managed to end up between his outstretched arms, only he didn't close them around her.

"And your father? And Neil?" She eyed him worriedly. "And what about Chase? Does he know you came back here to get me?" She took a step back. "Its not like you can just . . . dump me or something, if this doesn't work out."

Daniel looked over her right shoulder and his eyes suddenly widened in horror. "Holy Christ, what is that!" he shouted, pointing behind her.

She spun around to look at where he was pointing, only to gasp when she felt the collar close around her neck with a loud snap. And Isobel suddenly felt herself tumbling again, and windmilled her arms in surprise as a deafening boom throbbed through the heavy_f shimmering air. Only instead of landing with a jarring thud, she was puffed into the strong, secure, unbreakable embrace of a twenty-third-century Moon lander warrior as they both disappeared into the ether.