She doubted Gem would look at her the way she did if she knew of her other job, even though it was legitimate and necessary. Yes, she was hired to avoid bad press for the company, but minimizing civilian panic and averting economic instability were essential too. Sure, she was paid to keep a lid on the bad press, but she was also paid to prevent rumor and escalations of doom that could literally destabilize the world. No one wanted stock markets plunging at word of offshore oil leaking and potentially costing billions of dollars when it might not come to pass. When and what news to release to the world wasn't her call alone, but her technical input was a big part of it, and she was the wall between the press and what was happening behind the scenes. Eloise and her bosses were too smart and too scrupulous to subvert the law, but within the bounds of the law, they protected the company. And why shouldn't they? Much of the world depended on the oil business too.

"Not that that would matter to Gem," Austin muttered as she yanked off the wheel and leaned it against the side of the SUV. She doubted Gem would have much sympathy for big corporations. Too many true disasters-pipeline ruptures, well failures, transport ship leaks-had caused countless wildlife deaths and contamination of waters and marshlands and beaches throughout the world to argue that the oil industry hadn't damaged the environment. She couldn't argue against those facts. They existed too. She'd known a lot of people like Gem, people devoted to the sanctity of the environment and its inhabitants, who'd made it their life's work to protect it. She respected the work they did and tried to walk the thin line between protecting her client's interests and preserving the integrity of nature. She believed her job was necessary, or she wouldn't do it. The fact that her parents appreciated the risk involved, and approved of her work, never mattered. Much.

She hoisted the muddy wheel and carted it to the back of the SUV. She set it down, leaned in, and pulled out the spare.

"Are you almost done?" Gem asked. "You've got to be miserable."

"Theoretically, this next part should be easy," Austin said grimly. She dumped the flat into the well in the rear of the SUV. "Let's hope so."

Gem gripped her arm. "You're sure I can't help you out some?"

"It's gotten a lot darker," Austin said. "I could use your light if you don't mind getting wet. I think you can still stay under cover of the hatch and keep mostly dry."

"I've been wet before," Gem said. "Wildlife biologist, remember? The birds don't care if it rains. I won't melt."

"Sorry. You're right. I mean, maybe not about the melting, but I get you're not a delicate flower."

Gem laughed. "Definitely not. More like a wildflower."

"Yeah, I can see that." Gem did look wild and beautiful, with damp blond curls framing her face and her blue eyes alight. Austin traced her finger along the angle of Gem's jaw where raindrops beaded in a delicate chain and slowly brushed them clear. Gem's eyes widened again, and that spark of heat flared. An answering fire surged in Austin's belly. Hell, what was she doing? She turned away and grabbed the spare. "Okay, you're up."

Gem followed Austin, switched on the light on her phone, and held it down in front of her. Austin knelt on the stony, muddy shoulder and wrestled the spare onto the wheel hub. If that was the easy part, she hated to think how hard getting it off had been. She hated thinking of Austin exposed to the wicked wind and driving rain for so long. She edged a little closer and tried to use her body to shield Austin from the downpour.

"Okay. Hand me the nut." Austin held out her hand. "Give them all to me-you don't need to be out here too."

"I'm good. Wildflower, remember?" Gem dropped the first nut into Austin's hand and pulled the hood of her windbreaker closer around her face. She was still reasonably dry, although her jeans were soaked from the thigh down, below the bottom of the jacket. Austin's clothes were so thoroughly soaked she might as well have been standing naked-and that was an image she didn't want to dwell on. Or actually, she kind of did-which was worse. Traffic had slowed to a trickle, most people probably having given up and pulled off to wait out the storm in roadside motels. The occasional vehicle, usually a pickup truck going too fast, shot by and sluiced water in their direction. Austin didn't even seem to notice the additional deluge, but Gem wanted to shout after the crazy drivers to smarten up. "I wish I had some way to keep you drier."

Austin looked up, blinking rain from her eyes. "I'm okay. Really. Almost done."

A minute or two later, Austin released the jack, pulled it out from under the vehicle, and rose. "Come on, let's get out of here."

Gem hunched under the raised hatch and kept her light on while Austin stored the tools back in the wheel well and closed up the back.

"You need dry clothes," Gem said.

"I'll have to change inside."

"Fine. Get what you need." When Austin hesitated, Gem said, "I won't look."

Austin grinned. "Damn."

Gem gave her a little shove on the shoulder. "Hurry up. Even your eyelashes are dripping."

Austin pulled her satchel closer, rummaged inside, and came out with a shirt and jeans. She bundled them up and thrust them under her arm. "Come on, I'll help you back inside."

Gem poked her lightly in the center of her chest. "I can make it. Go get in yourself."

"Stubborn," Austin muttered, but she closed the hatch and they both headed back to the front.

Gem shed her windbreaker before she climbed in and draped it over the back of her seat so it could drip onto the rear floor. Austin stood outside with her door open. "It'll be faster to take my clothes off out here, and I won't get the seat all wet."

"As long as you're quick." Gem swiveled in her seat and peered out the back. "There's no one coming right now. If someone does, you need to jump inside."

Austin laughed. "They probably won't even see me."

"Oh, they'll see you," Gem said. And so would she, because she planned on keeping an eye out behind them, and that meant she'd be looking past Austin toward the road. But it wasn't as if she was intentionally spying or anything. She just didn't want anyone seeing Austin naked except her. Her mind stumbled on that thought. Oh, for heaven's sake, she really did need to get a grip and get back to reality-any number of women had undoubtedly seen Austin naked and likely would again. And she wasn't going to be one of them. This road trip would end soon enough and she'd be her careful, rational self again. Just the way she liked it. The way she wanted it.

Austin stripped her shirt off over her head without even unbuttoning it, balled it up, and tossed it into the back of the SUV. Whatever she'd had on under it went along for the ride, and she was suddenly, gloriously naked from the waist up. Her teardrop-shaped breasts were neither large nor small, with small, tight nipples beaded in the chill. Damn near perfect-no, check that. Perfect. Her chest and shoulders were subtly muscled, and if she had a tan, it was an all-over one. Gem's stomach tightened.

Austin glanced in, grinned, and opened her jeans. When she hooked her hands in the waistband, Gem dragged her gaze away. Lord, she must seem like a voyeur. Maybe she was, a teeny bit, because watching Austin undress was definitely enjoyable. She wasn't cold any longer, that was for sure.

Austin swiveled onto the front seat and shoved down her jeans. Her boots went flying onto the floor on the driver's side. She was fast, but not so fast Gem couldn't see her muscular form emerge. She was lean and long, which was no surprise. Her skin blushed red from the reflected dash lights. Her torso was tapered, her hips narrow, and below...Gem carefully didn't look there. Within seconds it seemed, Austin pulled her jeans up her long legs, lifted her hips, and snugged her pants around her waist. When she raised her arms to tug on her shirt, Gem kept her eyes up, but she'd already seen the long, irregular scar that wrapped around Austin's torso just below her left breast. Slightly indented, darker than the surrounding skin, the scar was not deforming, but a symbol of something serious nonetheless.

Austin shoved her shirt into her pants and leaned down to pull on her boots. "Thanks for keeping lookout."

"No problem."

Austin adjusted her seat, glad to be warm and dry, and glad Gem seemed to have enjoyed watching her change. She wasn't usually self-conscious or really even aware of how other women perceived her body. She rarely gave it much thought. She kept in shape more because of the nature of her work than anything else, climbing around rigging, hustling from one place to another, and when at home, keeping up the property and stockpiling firewood for the winter. When she was with another woman, her focus was on them, and usually that's the way they liked it too. She wasn't above being pleasured, she enjoyed it, but those times her partners were less than reciprocating never really bothered her.

She wondered how Gem saw her and hoped she liked what she saw. That was unlike her, but none of this was really like her. The silence grew, and she thought she knew why. "I was born with a heart defect. That's what the scar's from."

"And the surgery fixed it," Gem said, her heart beating faster. Of course the problem was fixed, it had to be. Austin was in great shape, and...the idea of Austin being ill, being hurt, was frightening in a way she didn't want to think about.

"It took a couple of goes. The first time was just a few days after I was born, so they tell me. Then again when I was eleven," Austin said, her hands loosely clasping the wheel, "but, yeah, all's good."

"That must have been really hard." Gem's heart hurt imagining Austin's childhood being shadowed by such a serious illness.

Austin glanced over at her. "Long time ago."

Gem nodded, hearing the pain but recognizing Austin's attempt to make light of it. Still, the specter of a young Austin dealing with the fear and discomfort filled her with sympathetic sorrow. Wishing to chase away the shadows, or maybe ease her own sadness, she cupped Austin's jaw and brushed away a trickle of water trailing down her cheek with her thumb. Austin held so very, very still, Gem was reminded of a wild thing, caught and wary and waiting to be freed or destroyed. Freedom was so very often only a breath away from death. "I'm sorry."

"Thank you."

Austin leaned ever so lightly into her palm, or perhaps she imagined that too. If she did, she didn't care. She couldn't pull away. She drew Austin's face closer and kissed her, and when Austin didn't move back, she let her lips linger, feeling the coolness of the rain disappear from Austin's soft lips and heat surge against her mouth. She slid her fingers into Austin's hair, wrapped them around the back of her neck, and stroked her nape as she stroked her mouth. A soft groan escaped from deep in Austin's chest, and her lips parted in offering. Gem teased a little inside, tasting her, and traced the warm inner surface of her lower lip with the tip of her tongue.

Austin groaned again and gripped her shoulders, her hands hard and wonderfully demanding. Her tongue met Gem's, hot and firm, turning the kiss into something deeper, something hungrier. Gem gripped Austin's shirt, clinging to her. Her breasts tightened and her blood beat hard in the pit of her stomach. Her breath came faster, her head grew light. She wanted to climb into Austin's lap and press against her. She wanted to feel her everywhere. She tugged at Austin's shirt, found hot skin and hard muscles. She groaned.

Austin jerked back. "Gem. God. Traffic. This isn't safe."

"I know." Not safe for more reasons than Gem could count. She braced her palms against Austin's chest, holding herself away or she'd kiss her again. She gasped in a breath, another, until she felt like she could speak. "Traffic. Right. God, sorry."

"I hope not." Austin curved a hand behind Gem's head and yanked her close. She kissed her hard, hard enough for Gem to open her mouth and take her in again. God, she wanted to be naked, she wanted Austin's mouth and hands all over. She wanted in a way she hadn't wanted since before she knew better. She got a hand between them again, stroked the few inches of skin she'd bared on Austin's stomach. Needing to feel. Needing. Austin's hips lifted and Gem's vision blurred. "Okay, we need to stop."

Austin groaned. "I know. You feel so damn good."

"We can't stay here. And we can't..." Gem gestured to the front of the car and the wheel and the gearshift and the insanity of what they were doing. She laughed, her voice shaking. "And you know. We can't."

Austin slumped back, her hands on her thighs. "Yeah. I know. We can't." She glanced over, her face stark with hunger. "But I want to."

Chapter Six.

The silence stretched to fill the car, the air as thick as the swirling mist outside. Ordinarily Austin didn't mind silence. She enjoyed the quiet, letting it give her mind a place to empty and her body to relax. So much, maybe too much, of her life was spent on the move, but she didn't stop long enough to wonder if that was what she really wanted. She and Gem had shared long stretches of silences throughout the day, and even with the absence of words she'd been attuned to Gem's presence-her quiet breathing, the companionship and warmth reaching her as if Gem had extended a hand to touch her. This silence was different, a chasm of uncertainty filled with all they hadn't said. Her head pounded with her own voice and what she imagined Gem was thinking.

When in doubt, revert to talking about the weather.

"I think the fog's lifting," Austin said.

"We're on a roll, then. I'm catching a cell signal," Gem said, staring at her phone. She flicked through a few screens. "NOAA predicts a chain of fronts moving through over the next few days." She laughed a little mirthlessly. "I believe we're about to experience the calm before the next storm."

"I don't mind if it gives us a shot at getting to the coast." Grateful for any sign of normalcy, Austin leaned over and switched to an alternate route on the GPS. "What do you think? Shall we try to skirt around this and take the coast road south? If it doesn't work out, it could end up taking us longer."

"I don't mind taking a chance," Gem said quietly.

Trying to decipher some hidden meaning to that statement and deciding anything she guessed would be wishful thinking, Austin turned off onto a local road that would take them to the shore road on the ocean side of the peninsula. During the season the narrow two-lane was congested and traffic crawled for miles as the chain of tiny coastal towns strung along the shoreline filled with tourists, but in mid-September, they were preparing for the long off-season, when many of the local stores closed, the motels shuttered, and the year-round inhabitants scrambled to make a living or went on public assistance until the tourists returned in spring along with the birds.

Birds. Gem's passion.

"Tell me about the birds," Austin said.

"What about them?" Gem sounded slightly suspicious, as if she couldn't fathom why Austin would ask.

"Anything." Anything just so I can hear your voice. Austin glanced at her, wondering if her desperation showed in her eyes and not really caring. They had so little time. She just wanted them not to be strangers for a little while longer. "Why do they migrate in the first place?"

"We don't really know-we can only surmise from their behavior." Gem chuckled. "Like with so many things. Anyhow, something signals them to migrate. That cue isn't necessarily the same for every species-sometimes it's the shortening of the day, or the change in nighttime temperatures, or a reduction in their food supply. Certainly genetics plays a part. The exact combination of factors probably varies from species to species, but even first-time migrants know where to go when the time comes."

Despite wishing the damn birds were flying anywhere but right toward them, Austin was fascinated. By the phenomenon all on its own, and by Gem's enthusiasm most of all. "Do they always come back to the same places when they migrate?"

"Many do-especially the long-distance migrants that travel from Canada as far south as Central America. Some locations, like the area around Rock Hill Island, are what we call migrant traps. Popular stopovers for large numbers of birds." Gem smiled. "And of course, favorite spots for researchers, conservationists, and amateur birdwatchers."

"Migrant traps." Austin winced inside. Perfect. Not only did she have to worry about shore contamination, she had to deal with a threat to a pivotal location for people and wildlife.

"Mmm. That's part of the reason we study the flyways, so we can identify these areas of high species concentration and protect them. The island sanctuary is one of the stopping points along the Atlantic Flyway." Gem hesitated. She loved talking about birds, and she didn't mind skirting around the topic Austin obviously didn't want to discuss any more than she did. Like the elephant sitting in the backseat leaning over their shoulders. The kiss neither one of them wanted to acknowledge. She was grateful for the surcease. Maybe in a few more hours she'd be able to sort out her own feelings about it, but right now she was as surprised by the kiss as Austin probably was. Other than that first insane kiss with Christie ages ago, she'd never done anything so uncontrolled. And this time, she'd done it with a clear head, absolutely for herself and no one else. Unlike that first time, when she'd done it more out of desperation to save things with Paul than anything else. This time she'd kissed a woman first because she wanted to. She'd wanted to touch Austin, taste her, delve inside her. The question was why, and she hadn't an answer. "Do you really want to hear about all this?"

Austin nodded. "I do. So, this Atlantic Flyway-I'm assuming that's not a euphemism."

"Not at all. There are quite a number of flyways traversing North America, well-traveled migratory pathways with established stopovers for various species. It's made it easier for conservation groups to protect endangered species by identifying and preserving sanctuaries."

"Like Rock Hill Island."

"Yes-the Audubon Society has been the big mover and shaker there, but plenty of smaller groups and institutions do the same thing."

"I remember when I was a kid," Austin said, "watching the geese fly south in huge V-shaped formations. The sound was so amazing. I always felt a little sad-I don't know why." She shrugged. "Maybe I just wanted to be somewhere else too."

The melancholy in Austin's voice tugged at Gem's heart. "Where was that?"

"Vermont," Austin said. "My mother is a trauma surgeon at UVM."

"Is that where-" Gem trailed off.

"Where I had my surgeries? Yes."

"And now?" Gem didn't have the right to ask, but she couldn't help herself. She wanted-needed-to know in some deep primal place that Austin was safe.

"I'm good. Perfect health."

Austin grinned and looked more like the charming rake she'd appeared when teasing Gem in the diner about the buxom and seductive waitress. Had that only been half a day ago? Time seemed to have fractured into before and after the kiss, and the universe had taken on a whole different color. Despite the fog, the before-kiss time had been suffused with sunlight and blue skies, at least in Gem's imagination. The after-the-kiss was a deep purple morning sky on the edge of the sea as storm clouds rolled in. Reminding herself she loved both and never feared a gale, she went with her instincts. "It must have been really hard as a kid, though."

The silence surged back and Gem held her breath. Their truce was so fragile, like a fledgling first attempting to fly.

"I didn't have the stamina of other kids, so sports were out. In my family...that was tough."

"A competitive lot?"

Austin's laughter was sharp-edged and humorless. "About everything. My father was active Air Force and flew fighter jets in the Gulf. He met my mother there-she was Navy reserve and got called up as a medic. She got out between wars when my brother was born, but she never left the front lines. My brother's some kind of athletic savant-he never met a sport he didn't excel at. Got drafted to both a Major League Baseball team and the NFL. Played both for a while and finally settled on baseball. Plays for the Yankees."

"Richie Germaine is your brother?" Now that she thought about it, she could see the resemblance. Germaine was a star on and off the field-smart, handsome, and mega-talented. He also had a world-famous model for a wife, and they were frequently the subject of media attention.

"Yep, that's my big brother. I never could catch up in the physical arena-by the time I was finally done with the surgeries, it was too late for me and school sports." Austin grimaced. "Or much of anything else my family valued."

If they hadn't been in the car and weren't still mired in the after-kiss awkwardness, Gem would have hugged her. She could so easily see the child who, through no fault of her own, hadn't fit in a highly aggressive, competitive, physical family. Austin seemed to be the last person in need of protecting, but Gem ached with a well of protectiveness all the same. "Well, you've made up for it now. You're pretty damn famous yourself."

Austin laughed, and this time her obvious pleasure softened her features, making her seem younger and far less cynical. "Yeah, that's me-crowds follow me wherever I go."

"Told you," Gem said, inordinately happy just to have made her laugh. Maybe the after-kiss strangeness would fade away now too.

"So," Austin said, "enough about my uninteresting past. Tell me what kind of birds you're expecting, and when."

"I'm mostly interested in waterfowl-ducks, geese, swans, pelicans-especially since many of them overnight on pastures en route where they might come into contact with domestic fowl. And of course, all the shorebirds are key to follow. Many of them endangered." Gem stretched, beginning to feel the stiffness in her back and thighs from the long hours of inactivity. "The saltmarsh sparrow is a favorite of mine. And don't try to tell me you're dying to know more."

"Come on," Austin protested. "It's interesting. Do you band them or something?"

"Some, yes. We also document the flocks through satellite tracking, geographics, and sometimes with little tracking devices called geotrackers. And we ask birdwatchers to call a hotline if they sight a banded bird."

"I had no idea," Austin muttered, and she really should have. She'd dealt with environmental rescue teams more than she'd like, but she'd never talked to the biologists-usually just the incident commanders. She needed to get a lot closer to the ground to understand the personalities involved and what was at risk. "How long do they stay?"

She hoped the answer was not very long. If the spill was ongoing but slow, even if they couldn't contain it immediately, they might be able to set up enough blockades to stop or divert the movement of the surface contaminants to shore. Then if the birds were gone, the impact would be far less. Cleanup procedure would be a lot less complicated if they didn't have to deal with wildlife salvage.

"They don't all arrive at once, of course," Gem said. "We'll be seeing nesting flocks for the next few weeks."

"I see." Of course she couldn't catch a break. But then, maybe she would. Maybe Ray Tatum would give her good news. And she needed to contact him soon to get a sit rep. "We're still a good three hours from the island at the speed we're going. If the weather clears a little more, I'll be able to make better time, but I'm not counting on it."