Christmas on the Last Frontier (Last Frontier Lodge #1) (3 page)

“I’d say it’s level,” she said with a grin.

“Would you tell me if it wasn’t?” he countered. He wanted to keep her talking—about anything. Because that meant she’d keep standing here beside him.
Get a grip, dude. You’re about to lose it over a woman you barely know.

She pursed her lips, those full, sensuous lips a magnet for his eyes. He had to force himself to look up. Of course, that meant looking into her bright green eyes.

“I would. I mean, you’re trying to fix it, right? You seem like someone who’d want to do it right.”

Gage couldn’t help but grin. “I definitely want to do it right. No sense in half-measures.” He paused and looked to the bay. The sun was high in the early afternoon sky. Clouds drifted lazily in front of the mountains. A cool breeze gusted when he looked back at Marley, blowing her hair wild. She ignored the tousled waves. Her nearness kick-started his pulse. Without the slightest effort, she made his body stand up and take notice.

“What brings you up here?” he asked.

“When I came home a few minutes ago, I saw you working on the sign. Just thought I’d see how it’s going.”

Her genuine curiosity and friendliness threw him. He couldn’t say why, but it wasn’t something he experienced much beyond his family. After several years in the military, his mother had tried to point out that he’d become less approachable. He’d ignored her though part of him knew she was right. Marley didn’t seem to notice and carried on as if checking on a neighbor she barely knew was perfectly normal. In a place such as Diamond Creek, it probably was. But this world wasn’t the world he’d lived in for years.

He damn sure didn’t know how to manage his attraction to her. After too many years of high-level missions as a Navy SEAL, women weren’t something he considered. His life was all work and no play. His last girlfriend had tactfully ended their relationship. He’d been too quiet, too withdrawn and definitely not emotionally available. Yet, he hadn’t encountered a single woman who affected him the way Marley did. And Marley—she did it without the slightest effort, no artifice, and appeared oblivious to the effect she had on him.

Looking over at her, he watched her absently twirl an auburn curl around her finger. When she caught him looking at her, she flushed and dropped her hand. He realized he’d yet to reply to her.

“If you’re wondering how it’s going, it’s been busy. I’ve gotten the lay of the land, so to speak, and now I have to get to work. I was hoping I’d be able to get the lodge up and running by the holidays, but I’m not so sure. I’m focusing on the outside work from today on, so I can get new exterior paint on before it’s too cold. After that, I have to decide what to do inside.”

Marley tilted her head. “I can see the buildings need a new coat of paint, but what do you have to do inside?”

“Gram did a good job of boarding the place up, but it’s dusty and needs a hell of a cleaning. I have to decide what to do about the furnishings too. This place was modern roughly twenty years ago, but now it’s like walking into a time warp. I’m not thinking that’s a great way to start if I want to make a go of it with the lodge. Assuming I can take care of everything in time for the holidays, then I have to figure out the website situation. This place closed long before the internet existed. My sisters insist I’d better plan to get something up online sooner rather than later, but I’m lost in that area. I don’t want to start too soon, or before I know the lodge will be ready to take reservations.” He ran a hand through his hair and sighed. The repairs, even trying to handle the decorating inside, he figured he could somehow make it work. The online thing—forget it. He’d argued with his sisters about it, but they were adamant he’d be silly to think he could get a ski lodge up and running without some kind of online presence.

“I could help with that,” Marley said.

Gage looked at her, her beauty hijacking his brain for a second before he forced himself to focus. “Huh?”

The effect she had on him was flat ridiculous. He was a man of precision and focus. He’d handled high-stress, high-pressure missions for years. Yet, all he could say to Marley was ‘huh.’

She nodded, a strand of hair blowing across her face. Since she didn’t offer further clarification, appearing to think he understood her, he had to ask another question.

“What do you mean you can help with that?”

“I mean, I can help you build your website. If you tell me what you want, we can have one up and running pretty quick.”

Gage stared at her. “You can do that?”

Marley smiled and flushed. “I’m a programmer. Building a website isn’t that hard. I don’t mean to take sides, but your sisters are right. You need a website, and you need it up and running before you’re ready to open. If you don’t do that, you won’t have a way to take reservations and set up a payment system. No one will even know the Last Frontier Lodge exists unless they happen to live in Diamond Creek. The locals love this place, but they aren’t your bread and butter. You need a presence online as soon as you can get it. You can’t leave it until the last minute. We can set it up so you post updates about when it will be ready to open.”

Gage stared at her for so long, he didn’t notice until she started to shift on her feet and glance away.

She cleared her throat. “Sorry if I overstepped there. It’s just...”

“You didn’t overstep. Sorry if it seemed like I thought you did. The whole website thing is so out of my territory that I kind of hoped I could ignore it. But if you’re really offering to help…” He battled the smile building inside. Marley’s offer was two-fold for him. He needed the help she was offering, but more than that he couldn’t help the anticipation of having an excuse to be around her.

Marley’s smile made his heart clench and his pulse gallop away again.
 

“I’m really offering. Tell me when you have some time. I can stop by with my laptop and we can get started.”

“We?”

Marley threw her head back with a laugh. “Not to worry. ‘We’ doesn’t mean you have to do anything other than take a look at some other sites with me and tell me what you like.”

“I think I can handle that. How about this afternoon?” He startled himself with the offer. An unfamiliar part of him was making itself known—a part that didn’t fit the tidy, controlled compartments he’d lived within during his years as a Navy SEAL. Impulsive, last-minute decisions weren’t part of the planned life he’d lived for years. But he didn’t care to question himself. Beyond legitimately needing her help with something he’d planned to ignore, he couldn’t deny how much he simply wanted to be around her.

Marley held his eyes for a long moment before nodding slowly. “This afternoon is fine. What time?”

Gage calculated what he had left to do and the fact that he desperately needed a shower. “Four?”

“Four works for me. I’ll head back to my place and see you then.” She gave a small wave and turned to look at the sign once more. “It’s nice to see that,” she said softly.

“What do you mean?”

“I missed skiing at the lodge. If you get to know people around town, you’ll find plenty of people are going to be beside themselves about this place opening again.”

At that, she turned again and started down the slope to her cabin. “See you soon,” she called, her voice lifting above the breeze.

He watched her go, her arms swinging at her sides, her hair a blowing curtain behind her.

***

Marley stood by the table where her laptop sat and stared blankly at it. A vision of Gage filled her mind. He’d been wearing faded blue jeans, his leather tool belt hanging loosely at his hips, with another t-shirt that molded over his body like a glove. Sweaty and dusty, he’d been a sight to behold. Somehow, she’d remembered her manners and managed to engage in normal conversation with him. Then she’d gone and offered to help him with the website for the ski lodge. She hadn’t even been thinking. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to help. It would be minimal effort on her part. Problem was Gage drove her to distraction and made her want things she couldn’t have. He was probably accustomed to beautiful women, not brainy girls with an outdoorsy streak. But now she’d gone and said she’d be there this afternoon. And a tiny part of her was thrilled!

What the hell were you thinking? Too close for comfort. You’re going to end up half-drooling over him and look like an idiot.

Lacey’s teasing that Gage might be the distraction she needed came to mind. But Marley couldn’t go there. Distraction or not, she was not his type. No way. He was all manly, sexy, and smoldering. She was the girl who buried her nose in books and computers. Though she didn’t know his story yet, he exuded dark and mysterious, precise and in control. If he knew she checked her locks repeatedly every evening and jumped at the sound of unknown noises, he’d think she was a bumbling idiot.

But you can whip up a website for him in no time. That’s all this has to be. You’ll be a friendly, good neighbor and keep your distance after that.

A few hours later, Marley walked to her car, set her computer bag on the passenger seat and drove up to the lodge. The afternoon light was fading rapidly. With summer gone, the fall nights were coming earlier and earlier. She hadn’t been home in the fall since she’d moved away over a decade ago. She’d forgotten how much she loved it—the cool bite in the air, the sharp scent of spruce, the sense that the quiet of winter was just ahead.

Moments later, she knocked on the main entrance door to the ski lodge. Gage opened the door almost immediately. He gestured her inside. Marley looked around as she walked through the entryway. The inside was as Gage indicated: a time warp. The furniture was covered with plastic, so she couldn’t see what was underneath, but the overall feel of the space was as she remembered, including a faded calendar on the wall behind the desk with pictures of mountains. The calendar was open to the month of October, the year nineteen ninety-four. Faded harvest decorations remained on the reception desk. She followed Gage down a hallway, passed through the restaurant area and into an office in the back. This room had been thoroughly cleaned and was furnished sparingly with a basic black desk and new leather office chair. A round table was situated nearby with chairs surrounding it.

She set her laptop on the table and looked around for an outlet. She met Gage’s eyes. “Do you have internet, or should I run back home to get my portable wireless device?”

He surprised her by nodding. “Oh yeah. I may be clueless when it comes to building websites, but I like my cable and stay in touch with friends and family online. Got to be a habit when I was in the military.”

So he was military. It didn’t surprise her at all, given his near physical perfection and the sense of precision he exuded. She filed that detail away and quickly logged onto his network. Gage drew a chair up beside her and watched as she pulled up various ski lodge websites. At first, he was quiet, but he quickly became focused, pointing out websites he did and didn’t like.

Not much later, Marley was contemplating how to find a graceful way to get out of there. Gage appeared oblivious to the effect he had on her. He had tugged his chair close to hers and frequently leaned over her shoulder to look at the screen as she built a template for the site. His nearness was distracting beyond belief. She was hot and flushed. The few times she turned to look at him, her pulse surged. His gray eyes were like the sky before a storm. His cheekbones looked sculpted from stone, his jaw was strong and square, and his lips…well, she couldn’t remember ever noticing a man’s lips. But when she looked at his, all she could think about was how they might feel on hers. His smile was rare, but when it happened, it tightened her nipples and spun a burst of wet heat—a ping of sensation that spiraled into the heat of desire she couldn’t seem to control around him.

She managed to keep herself half focused on what they were doing, but just barely.
Thank god you could do this with your eyes closed. Otherwise, you’d be useless about now. You need to move away from him. Oh my god, his arm feels sooo good. Get a grip!

Gage leaned over to point at something on the screen.

“Can you make it have a button like that one?” he asked, gesturing to another site she had up beside the one she was working on.

The heat and hardness of his arm practically singed her skin. She’d taken her jacket off—like a fool—and he kept brushing against the skin on her bare arm. She looked to where he was pointing.

“Oh yeah, got it.” She quickly pulled up options for an icon and selected a bright green button for reservations. “How’s that?”

“Oh, wow. That’s it. It works?”

Marley made the mistake of turning to look at him. He turned exactly when she did, their eyes colliding. The gray of his eyes flickered and darkened. She felt the heat of a blush race up her neck and face. Her pulse pounded, butterflies thronged in her center, and she couldn’t seem to get enough air.

The space between them felt electrified. She was so rattled, she started to push back from the table. When she went to move, Gage put his hand on her arm. The warm heat of his palm curling around her forearm was so delicious, she gasped. She couldn’t break away from the smoky intensity of his gaze. She tried to remember his question, but she couldn’t. When she opened her mouth to try to say something, he moved swiftly. His lips came against hers in a fierce rush. Her body craved his touch so desperately, she didn’t stop to think. Her mouth opened under his instantly. The moment she opened to him, his touch shifted from fast and furious to slow and devastating. The intense rush spiraled into a drugging passion.

Gage kissed with a thoroughness Marley had never experienced. He explored her mouth completely, his tongue sweeping inside. He pulled away just enough to catch her bottom lip between his teeth before taking her mouth again in a deep, open-mouthed kiss. Long pulse-pounding, breath-stealing moments later, he pulled away. Dazed and aroused beyond measure, Marley opened her eyes to find his inches away. She couldn’t look away. He looked startled. His pulse was visible in his neck, which relieved her only in that he seemed as out of control as she felt.