Page 19 of Rules Of Engagement: St. Louis (In The Heart of A Valentine #17)

Chapter

Twelve

CHRISTIAN

“Let’s get dirty today. Are you up for it?”

One of Naomi’s eyebrows arched, and a smile ushered up her lips.

“That depends on what kind of dirty you’re talking about, Mr. Valentine.”

I grinned, leaning against the kitchen counter. “Picture it. Mud, forest floors, and ruining those expensive boots you packed.”

“Ah. So not the fun kind of dirty.”

“It can be both?”

She set her cup down with her lips pursed. “What are we doing today?”

“Truffle hunting. Giuseppe’s nephew Luca has the best truffle dogs in the region. He’s meeting us at ten.”

“Truffle hunting.”She looked down at her silk pajamas. “I’m going to need different clothes.”

“Yes, you do. Think camping gear, not boardroom attire.”

“Idon’t have camping gear.”

“Lucky for you, I knew you would say that, but I’ve got you covered. Giuseppe’s wife, Elena, stocked the closet with everything you’ll need.”

She shook her head. “I can’t believe I’m doing this.”

I strolled up to her. “Oh come on… you’ll love it. I promise.”

“Mmm. I’ll be the judge of that. Give me an hour.”

Naomi emerged from the bedroom looking nothing like the refined businesswoman I’d grown accustomed to. She wore hiking boots, worn jeans, and a flannel shirt that was too big for her frame with her hair pulled back in a ponytail. She looked about twenty-five years old.

“How do I look?”

“Like I should check your ID.”

Laughter rose from her lips. “What?”

“You wouldn’t lie to me about your age, would you?”

Her eyes grew. “Christian, I can’t tell if you’re being serious right now.”

“I think this is the first time I’ve seen you without a full face of makeup.”

She glanced at herself in a mirror that hung against the wall.

“Okay. What’s wrong with that?”

“Nothing’s wrong. Are you drinking from the fountain of youth?”

She blushed. “Oh… I see. You’re saying I look younger than my age, well, I have a killer skincare routine.”

“That much is strikingly clear.”

“I’m the same person you know.”

“Yes. And thank you for sharing this part of yourself with me.”

We stared at each other for a long heart throbbing moment before she blinked and pulled her eyes away.

Luca arrived promptly at ten with two of the most animated dogs I’d ever seen. Bella was a golden retriever mix who couldn’t seem to contain her excitement, while Rocco, a smaller terrier, was intensely focused.

“Signor Christian!”Luca embraced me like family. He was Giuseppe’s youngest nephew, maybe thirty-five, with rough hands and a permanent tan. “And this beautiful woman must be Naomi.”

“I am,”Naomi said, accepting his enthusiastic handshake.

“Today, we find the most delicious treasures hidden in the earth. But first, a warning.”His English was heavily accented but clear. “The forest, she is not always kind to city people. You must trust me and trust the dogs, yes?”

“We trust you,”I said.

“And you, Belle?”Luca addressed Naomi. “You are ready for adventure?”

“I think so. I’ve never done anything like this before.”

“Perfetto! First time is always the most exciting. Come, we’ll take my truck.”

The drive through winding forest roads took twenty minutes with Luca amusing us with stories about legendary truffle finds and the rivalry between neighboring villages over hunting territories.

“Last year, my cousin Giovanni found a truffle worth three thousand euros,”he said, navigating a sharp turn.“But he was so excited, he dropped it, and Rocco here ate half of it before we could stop him.”

“The dog ate a three-thousand-euro truffle?”Naomi asked.

“It was the best meal of his life, I think. Giovanni cried for an hour.”

Thick oak and hazelnut trees filled the forest, with leaves that created a canopy that filtered sunlight into golden patches on the ground. Luca parked beside a narrow trail marked only by a small wooden sign.

“From here, we walk. Stay close, follow the dogs, and remember—nature makes the rules here, not us.”

Bella immediately put her nose to the ground, tail wagging furiously as she began her search pattern. Rocco was more methodical, moving in careful grids while Luca watched their body language like he was reading a book.

“How do you know where to look?”Naomi asked, stepping carefully over a fallen log.

“I don’t. They do.”Luca pointed to the dogs. “Truffles grow underground, near the roots of certain trees. The dogs smell what we cannot. Bella is young and enthusiastic. Sometimes she gets excited about rabbit droppings. Rocco, he is serious. When Rocco stops, we dig.”

We’d been walking for maybe thirty minutes when Naomi stumbled over a root, windmilling her arms to keep from falling. I slipped an arm around her waist, steadying her.

“Graceful,” I teased.

“Very funny. These boots are bigger than my feet.”

“Why didn’t you say something? We could have found smaller ones.”

“And miss you watching me stumble through the forest like a baby giraffe?”

I chuckled and pushed my lips into her jaw, feeling her shiver in my grasp. Our eyes met and we stared at each other, unmoving as warm, charging energy swirled around us.

“Rocco has something!” Luca shouted from ahead.

We broke our stare down and jogged up to them. The little terrier was practically vibrating with excitement, his nose buried in the earth beside a massive oak tree. Luca approached.

“Si, si. This is promising.”He knelt beside the dog, brushing away leaves and debris. “Naomi, come. You will make the first dig.”

“Me? I don’t know what I’m doing.”

“Perfetto. The truffle, she does not care about experience. Here, use this.”He handed her a small hand rake. “Very gentle. Truffles are delicate, like a woman’s heart.”

Naomi chuckled. “How poetic.”

She knelt beside Luca, carefully scraping away soil. “How deep do I dig?”

“Not deep. Maybe ten, fifteen centimeters. Feel with your fingers.”

I watched her work, and there was something incredibly appealing about seeing her this way—focused but relaxed, willing to get her hands dirty for the experience.

“Wait,”she said suddenly. “I think I feel something.”

Luca peered over her shoulder. “Careful now. Like you are uncovering buried treasure.”

“Technically, I am uncovering buried treasure. An expensive buried treasure.”

Her fingers worked gently in the soil, and suddenly she gasped. “Oh my God, there’s really something here!”

“Let me see.”Luca took over the extraction, and moments later, he held up a truffle the size of a golf ball. “Madonna mia! This is beautiful!”

Naomi sat back on her heels, grinning and covered in dirt. “I found it?”

“You found it,”I confirmed.

“I found a truffle! I actually found a truffle!”Her eyes lit up and she looked so proud of herself that I wanted to kiss her right there in the forest.

Luca carefully placed the truffle in a cloth bag. “This one is worth maybe two hundred euros. Not bad for a principessa!”

“Princess?”Naomi laughed. “I’m sitting in dirt wearing clothes that are three sizes too big.”

“Still a princess,”I said.

Her eyes met mine. I winked and she blushed and diverted her attention away.

We continued deeper into the forest, the dogs leading us through increasingly dense undergrowth. Naomi’s initial hesitation had disappeared entirely. She chattered with Luca about truffle cultivation, asked me about the different tree species, and generally embraced the adventure with enthusiasm.

“So the truffles form a symbiotic relationship with the tree roots?”she asked.

“Si. They help each other. The truffle gets nutrients from the tree, the tree gets minerals from the truffle. Very romantic, no?”

“Everything’s romantic to you Italians,”she said.

“This is true. We see love everywhere—in food, in wine, in dirt mushrooms.”

“In dirt mushrooms,”she repeated, shaking her head. “You people are impossible.”

Bella started barking frantically about fifty yards ahead, deeper in the forest where the trees grew closer together. Luca frowned.

“This is not her excited bark. This is her warning bark.”

I moved closer to Naomi instinctively. “Warning about what?”

“Could be anything. Wild boar, sometimes they protect their territory. Or other dogs, hunters who don’t respect boundaries.”

We approached Bella’s location carefully. She was backing away from a thick cluster of undergrowth, hackles raised, still barking. Rocco had joined her, andboth dogs were clearly agitated.

“What is it, girl?”Luca spoke softly to Bella, scanning the forest.

That’s when I heard it. Rustling in the brush, too heavy to be a small animal. Then snorting, the unmistakable sound of something large and potentially dangerous.

“Cinghiale,”Luca said quietly. “Wild boar.”

The boar emerged from the undergrowth with its nostrils flaring and legs sprinting forward then sliding to a stop. It was dark and muscular, with sharp upturned tusks. It was forty yards away, but it had clearly decided we were a threat to whatever it was protecting.

“Don’t move,”Luca whispered. “Sometimes they just want to warn us away.”

I wanted to believe him, but this boar had other ideas. It lowered its head, snorted once, and charged.

Everything happened in slow motion and lightning speed simultaneously. The boar coming toward us, massive and fast. Luca dove left toward the dogs. Naomi froze in place directly in the boar’s path.

I grabbed the thickest branch I could reach, a dead piece of oak about the width of a baseball bat, and stepped between Naomi and two hundred pounds of angry pig.

“Stay behind me!”

I swung one, twice, three times, landing effective blows that made the boar redirect with a loud crying whimper.

“Christian!”

“Stay back in case it turns around!”

Luca was shouting in Italian, trying to get the dogs away from the confrontation. The boar turned back like I expected, shook its head, and prepared to charge again.

I grabbed Naomi’s hand and pulled her toward the nearest climbable tree, a massive oak with low branches. “Go!”

“I can’t climb a tree!”

“You can climb this tree!”