Her Photographer Phoenix_A Paranormal Romance Read online

  “Of course,” said the other man – Marc Summers – smoothly.

  “And space is limited,” added Ellis, because the sleeping arrangements were going to be a big problem. “You’ll have to share tent space with some of us.”

  “We’ll make ourselves as small as possible,” said Benton quickly, and Ellis nearly laughed.

  Then, a little more desperately, Ellis asked, “Can either of you cook?”

  Marc and Benton both blinked at her. And then Marissa began to laugh. Ellis grinned sheepishly, but she didn’t back down. A girl had to have her priorities.

  “Yes,” said Marc at last. “I can make a few things.”

  “Nothing fancy,” added Benton. “But I’ve never gotten any complaints.”

  Marc snorted. “That’s because you’re paying me.”

  “Hey!” protested Benton over Ellis and Marissa’s giggles. “We are trying to get her to let us stay here.” To Ellis, he said, “Ignore him. He thinks he’s funny. I can cook well enough.”

  “I think he’s pretty funny,” said Ellis saucily, and Benton briefly frowned at her, something that made Ellis’ smile widen. “Come on,” she added. “Let’s go find the spare mattress. You can borrow clothes from some of the other guys. And then I’ll assign sleeping quarters.”

  Just saying it made Ellis’ palms sweaty.

  They had more than enough food – Ellis had provisioned for twelve people instead of eleven, and she always ordered more than needed even for that, just in case – and she even had a spare blowup mattress, but a place to put it was another matter. In among all the secondary units, backups, and just in case measures that she had packed, Ellis hadn’t thought to pack a spare tent or a second spare mattress.

  In the entire camp, there was only one person who wasn’t currently sharing their tent: her. But even if she made an exception and let one of the strangers bed down in her space, that still begged the question of where the other one was going to sleep.

  Someone was going to have to triple up.

  And she was going to have to share her space.

  Ellis scowled at the mere thought of it.

  Worse, she was going to have to share her small inflatable mattress with a stranger. It wasn’t like she could demand that anyone else do it.

  It was bad enough that she was going to make Emilio share his tent with one of them, because he was the one guy in camp that she was most certain could take care of himself. As his supervising professor, she couldn’t demand that he share his actual bed with a handsome stranger.

  As the group’s leader, that incredibly noble sacrifice fell to her. And if she had to platonically share her bed with a hapless stranger, it was going to be with the ridiculously hot one. Just thinking about it made Ellis’ heart hammer in her chest.

  With indignation, she told herself, not anticipation.

  Ellis wasn’t certain that she believed herself. It certainly felt a lot like anticipation. And nerves. There were so many nerves.

  Ellis really hoped that she didn’t live to regret it.

  To distract herself from her thoughts – and the nervousness churning in her belly – Ellis showed Benton and Marc around camp, pointing out the two tents that they were being assigned to as well as the small pool of spring water and the boulder past which a couple of showering stalls had been roughed in.

  At the storage tent, the one in which she packed her samples away, Ellis dug out the spare inflatable mattress and bedding. These, she surrendered to Marc, along with directions to Emilio’s tent.

  “I’ll send Donovan along to move his stuff in with Cameron and Talman,” added Ellis. It would be a tight fit, but Ellis thought that they could all room together.

  “Are you sure?” asked Marc. “I could share with Emilio and Donovan.”

  “Donovan will probably be happier with the other two,” said Ellis, and then tried to soften her words with a smile. “But thank you for offering.”

  Nodding, Marc swiftly departed.

  “What about me?” asked Benton, when they were alone. “Who will I be sharing with?”

  “You’ll be sharing with me,” said Ellis. She swallowed hard. “We don’t have another inflatable mattress or more bedding so we’ll… have to share mine.”

  A slow, wicked smile lit up Benton’s nut brown face.

  His reaction was everything that she could have hoped for, and at the sight of it, Ellis felt an answering flush of heat surge through her.

  “I won’t mind if you don’t,” said Benton, his voice low, and in the distance, lightening leapt between dirty grey clouds.

  “Not at all,” returned Ellis, her voice strangled. “Let me show you… stuff. Other stuff. This way?”

  In the mess tent, Ellis pointed out the chore and work schedules to Benton and then said, “I should tell Donovan that there will be two more for dinner. And that he has to move tents. Excuse me.”

  She fled past the tent’s partition before she could say or do anything more incriminating.

  When Ellis told Donovan that there would be two more for dinner, Donovan looked excited.

  “Maybe someone will finally appreciate all my hard work!” he said cheerfully.

  “Maybe,” Ellis said, unconvincingly if Donovan’s stink eye was anything to go by. “But go clean out your tent! Marc is waiting for you – at the tent, I think.”

  “Aye-aye, ma’am,” said Donovan and favored her with a sloppy salute.

  When they reemerged from the kitchen area, Benton wasn’t where she had left him. Nor was he outside of the tent. Donovan went to move his things, and shrugging to herself, Ellis went back to her tent to rearrange the chore chart. With Marc and Benton added to the schedule, they would get to eat edible food almost every other day. Just thinking about it made Ellis’ stomach twist with anticipation.

  Then, while she was still seated at her desk, Ellis pushed the newest batch of low hanging storm clouds away. It was hard, and it took longer than Ellis would otherwise have liked, but somehow she managed it.

  When Ellis finally emerged from her tent, tired but victorious, it was to find Benton loitering near Emilio’s tent with another of her research assistants, Kris.

  Benton looked even better when he was clean and dressed in a clean set of clothes.

  And Kris was not only pretty and clever, she was limber too.

  At the sight of them standing so close together, Ellis promptly squashed her surge of… indigestion. She’d been eating a lot of crappy, inedible meals lately, and they were coming back to haunt her. That was all.

  And so what if Kris was pretty and easy going and standing awfully close to Benton? So what if she was smiling up at him and fiddling with her long, blonde hair. That man was a perfect stranger, and he could do whatever he wanted. If he wanted to flirt with Kris, he could. Ellis didn’t have any sensible reason to be jealous.

  In the distance, lightening crackled between the clouds.

  Huffing at herself – sometimes she was so dumb – Ellis turned on her heel and went to post the recently modified work schedule in the mess tent. And she should probably tell Emilio that he had a new roommate. After that, she would go see how the field team was getting on at the lake without her. She had a lot to do and absolutely no time in which to moon over handsome strangers. She wasn’t that kind of woman, anyway.

  Ellis left camp without a backwards glance, because she absolutely, positively had no reason to care what anyone was getting up to back there. And she didn’t care. Not at all.

  Chapter 04 – Benton

  Despite the number of people living in it, the researchers’ camp proved relatively simple to navigate. It helped that there were only eight tents: two large ones and six smaller ones.

  One of the large tents served as the dining area, while the other was filled with gear, science equipment, and a table on which to process specimens. Past the two larger tents, there was a line of smaller green-brown tents that served as living quarters. They stood beneath a ragged line of trees, t
aking advantage of what little shade there was to be had during the dry season.

  Between living tents three and four and set a little ways back in the trees, there was a pool of crystal clear spring water bubbling up from the bedrock. It was full of tiny, brightly colored fish. The water in the spring apparently came from the same source as the water that the camp boiled before drinking… or very occasionally showering in the nook that lay past the spring. Much further away from everything was the latrine, although the less said about that, the better.

  And that was it.

  It was rough, but it was still miles better than the camp that Benton had been sharing with Marc. Clearly, Dr. Hale had been doing this long enough to know what she was doing.

  Thinking of Dr. Hale brought an image of the sexy ornithologist to mind. She wasn’t what Benton had imagined at all.

  When reading her research papers, Benton had imagined the writer as someone twenty years older than him and decidedly male. Instead, Dr. Ellis Hale was probably in her late twenties, and boy howdy was she female! Even in her baggy khaki shorts and faded olive green shirt, Dr. Ellis Hale was something to look at!

  She was maybe five feet and four inches or so tall with wide brown eyes, an upturned nose, and a generous mouth. Her hips were generous, her legs shapely, and her luscious breasts had strained against the worn fabric of her t-shirt. The island’s harsh sun tanned her skin and put sun streaks in her short brown hair. Every time that her dark brown eyes had landed on him, Benton had felt it like a touch.

  She was definitely his mate. Well, probably. Maybe? He wouldn’t be sad if it was her, at least.

  When Benton was near Dr. Ellis Hale, his pinkie never stopped twitching towards her. At least, he thought that it had been twitching towards her. With so many people in such close proximity to each other, it had been difficult to say which specific person it had been twitching towards.

  All he could say for certain was that the red string of fate connected him to someone in or around that camp, that he was wildly sexually attracted to Dr. Ellis Hale, and that he hoped it was her.

  And that his soul mate definitely wasn’t Kris.

  When he had let Kris chat him up about the camp, her graduate studies, and her plans for the future, Benton’s pinkie hadn’t once twitched towards her. She was nice, and she was pretty enough, but she wasn’t going to be the love of his every life.

  But if Kris was to be believed then she, Marissa, and Dr. Ellis Hale were the only women in camp at the moment, the other two currently being busy observing the firebirds on the lake. That meant that his fated mate was either Marissa, who had been standing in front the camp when they met, or Dr. Ellis Hale, who had been in camp at the time.

  He didn’t know her very well yet, or at all, but Benton really, really wanted it to be Ellis Hale. There was just something about her that he… wanted. And it wasn’t just her hot bod, although that certainly didn’t hurt.

  And so, his stomach churning with nerves, Benton went to find Marissa.

  Unfortunately, Marc found him before he found Marissa. It was obvious at a glance – and a quick sniff – that he, like Benton, had borrowed some clothes and taken advantage of one of the bucket showers. And much more fortunately for Benton, he had brought Marissa with him.

  Marissa had wavy dark brown hair cut short, sparkling blue eyes, and absolutely no effect on Benton’s pinkie. And if the way that her eyes slid past him to Marc was anything to go by, he wasn’t having much effect on her either.

  Fair enough, thought Benton, unruffled but also slightly amused.

  “Hey, have you seen Dr. Hale around?” asked Benton, trying to sound nonchalant. “I wanted to ask what else we could do to help out around here, maybe earn our keep.”

  “Oh! I think I saw her going out to the lake!” said Marissa helpfully. “Emilio’s group is out there right now observing the firebirds.”

  Well, that was certainly convenient, since he and Marc were supposed to be filming them. And he still had his camera equipment. Clearly, this was meant to be.

  The weather had cleared up, so it was as hot as ever as he and Marc made their way out to the researchers’ post near the edge of the lake.

  Benton didn’t immediately go chasing after his doctor. Instead, he worked his way around the lake’s edge, hopefully casual like. He took footage of the firebirds, which were once again beginning to steam as their feathers finally began to dry out. Some of his shots were of the research team doing their work – you never knew what might come in handy until you needed it.

  As they approached the small group, Benton’s pinkie began to twitch like mad. It was really distracting, and it messed up more than one of his shot, but Benton found that he didn’t mind.

  With every twitch of his pinkie, the excitement simmering in Benton’s belly bubbled a little higher and burned a little brighter. Somewhere in that little knot of researchers, his soul’s mate was watching firebirds croon to their eggs. And that – thinking it, knowing that he was so close, feeling her nearness in his bones – was pretty distracting too.

  “Hello again!” said Benton when they were close enough, and then tried not to preen when those fine, dark eyes landed on him again.

  “Hello again,” said Ellis Hale coolly.

  She introduced Benton and Marc around the group. He met Emilio, who was one of her graduate students, as well as her niece, Dafina, her niece’s friend, Parker.

  Something about Dafina reminded him of that guy Cameron that he and Marc had met on their way into camp. It was… familiarity and warmth and the desire to curl up next to one of them, put his head under his wing, and take a nap.

  It was worrisome.

  He had only known her for a few hours, but Benton had been almost certain that it was Dr. Ellis Hale that he had been looking for all this time, not her niece Dafina. Not that there was anything wrong with Dafina! She seemed pretty and cheerful and clever, but Benton didn’t feel the same visceral desire to kiss her that he did towards her aunt. He felt dirty even trying to imagine it, especially with her aunt standing right there.

  “The firebird eggs should begin hatching soon,” said Dr. Ellis Hale, thankfully drawing Benton’s attention back to her. “And then our work will really begin!”

  Dr. Hale looked positively delighted. She was all but rubbing her hands together with anticipation. Her glee was… really cute. And endearing. And he really wanted to kiss her smiling mouth.

  Watching her, Benton’s worries eased, and he smiled. Whatever was going on, he’d get to the bottom of it, and then they would live happily ever after.

  “Well, when it happens, we’ll be here to record it,” said Benton cheerfully.

  The little group stayed out long enough to watch a beautiful sunset over Lake Keris then gathered up their things and trooped back to camp for dinner.

  For supper, everyone was served chunks of boiled shoe leather in salty grey glop by a smiling man that bore a suspicious resemblance to Cameron, both in looks and in indescribable warmth. Looking down at his plate of food, Benton suddenly had a very good idea of why Dr. Ellis Hale had asked after their cooking.

  After everyone had politely choked their meal down and even more politely tried to compliment the cook, everyone went out to roast s’mores around a campfire. Sitting around the fire, everyone seemed friendly enough with everyone else, but Benton thought that he detected five distinct groups.

  First, there were the teenagers: Cameron, Donovan, and Talman. Next, there were the college kids: Dafina, Parker, Everett, and Landon. Then there were the graduate students: Marissa, Emilio, and Kris. And last there was him and Marc. With them all sat Dr. Ellis Hale, an invisible wall of separateness dividing her from all the rest of them.

  Benton had been there a time or two himself. In fact, he had been there ever since he had left home. He liked it there. But looking at her that night, he wondered what it would take to get over to her side of the wall. And once he did…

  It’ll be just her and me and al
l the beautiful moments in the world, thought Benton, happily.

  All he had to do now was win her: simple as a swoop – and just as heart pounding, he’d wager.

  Benton couldn’t wait to get started.

  Chapter 05 – Ellis

  While the others laughed over boarding school stories, Ellis slipped away from the group. Changing into her swimsuit again, she went down to the spring for a long soak. Now that the sun had finally set, it was even cooler and more delicious. Sighing, Ellis sank into the water up to her chin. Tipping her head back, she watched galaxies.

  She was pleasantly chilled, and the spring’s tiny fish were mouth at her toes and the rough skin at the back of her heels, when something cracked a branch. Ellis sat up sharpish.

  “There you are,” said an unfamiliar voice.

  From the darkness came Benton Hwong. The man must have had a trick for catching whatever ambient light there was, because he almost seemed to glow against the darkness.

  “Hello,” said Ellis warily.

  She absolutely refused to run away again, but she was a tiny bit worried about making a fool of herself in front of the ridiculously hot man that she wanted – and would be chastely sleeping next to for the foreseeable future.

  Please don’t let me make a fool of me, thought Ellis despairingly.

  “You’re like a ninja. I looked up, and suddenly you weren’t there. The others said that I would find you here,” said Benton, as he leaned down to dip his fingers in the water. He quickly pulled his hand back. “It’s cold!”

  “Yes,” agreed Ellis happily. “Isn’t it?”

  Benton huffed softly. “I can’t believe that you’re sitting in that.”

  “I come here and sit in the water every night,” said Ellis, “and occasionally during the day too. The others mostly come here during the day though.”

  “If you prefer the cold, why did you come to this island?” asked Benton. “Keris Island is one of the hottest places that I’ve ever been.”