Falling (4 page)
Authors: Jolene Perry
But this is what my adventure year off is supposed to be about. Independence. Strength. Fun.
“How’s your side?” He kisses down my neck and slides his hands under my shirt. “Only been a few weeks, right?”
“Right.” I gasp as his hands unclasp my bra. “Sore.”
“You’ll have to tell me if I hurt you, because I’m not thinking straight right now.”
No asking or being careful.
Despite a few minor fumblings, we’re naked by the time we hit the bed.
It’s not just sex. It’s everything. He explores every part of my body, which means I explore every delicious part of his. We can’t get enough of each other, and he just keeps
going
. A bit of toe-curling, can’t-be-quiet, amazing
ness
.
Better than I thought it would be, and I thought he would be incredible.
I can’t very well ask him to leave when we’re done,
hours later
, but I roll over to my side of the bed so I can sleep because I don’t like sharing. I need my space. It hits me again what I’ve just done, and I don’t know if I should be shocked or proud of myself for letting go and jumping in.
His fingertips slide up my side, and down my hip, under my breasts, across my abs and back. Not for too long. Just long enough for me to relax, and long enough to know I want to do this again.
“Thanks,” I whisper. “Now stay on your side of the bed.”
He chuckles quietly before kissing my shoulder. “Anything you want.”
Again. That sounds pretty perfect.
We wake early, and I wonder how he was able to stay here last night, or if the situation with his wife is disintegrated to the point it doesn’t matter. A twinge of guilt slides in, but he did spend the night, and there were no odd phone calls. He interrupts my train of thought.
“So I was thinking last night.”
“Oh yeah?” I smile.
“Yeah.” He looks straight at me, and I’m once again eating up his confidence. “Anyway, I have a good friend, a nice guy who runs a lodge where I go almost every week for snowmachining.”
“Okay.” I have no idea where this is going, but his excitement is contagious.
“His little sister and weird neighbor help him out a bit, but I know his sister was dragged back to Juneau by their parents. This leaves him in need of help and a room to spare. The place isn’t great, but you’d definitely be safe out there and… Well, I might be able to see you a bit. You know, maybe get a little more alone time with you.” He leans in toward me and kisses me softly on the neck. His stubble from the day before sends tingles down my spine.
“You know I could probably just live at the Captain Cook Hotel. Massages and room service…” I don’t want to sound too interested even though I’m thrilled he’s looking for ways to be with me.
He continues kissing down my neck. “You could.”
His warm breath slides across my shoulders and then his lips start to make their way back
toward my mouth
.
“But,” he says between kisses, “if you were to go up there, we might get a little more of this.” He kisses me deeply as he rolls on top of me. His arms push him up, teasing me by keeping himself out of reach but our faces close. “And you’d still be making money. Not wasting it on massages I could do for free…” His lips brush across mine, and then my cheek and under my ear.
“Okay.” I’m breathless, and ready to do anything he asks. “Yeah, snowmachine lodge, I can do that. I guess it would be nice to be out of town for a while anyway.” It feels like the perfect solution. I’ll be out of town and still within occasional reach of Craig. I also won’t have to go home. I’m not an idiot, whatever is happening between us is not a permanent thing, and it’s better for it. I’m not ready to let him go though, not after last night.
HOW TO MARRY A MILLIONAIRE
When He Takes That Girl to That Lodge
I take my helmet off and a horrible feeling in the pit of my stomach tells me I’ve made a terrible mistake. This is not at all what I was expecting.
The place is a dump. It should definitely
not
be called a lodge. It should be burned to the ground so someone could start over.
The main lodge building is old, painted blue, and not nearly as big as I was thinking. It’s like a very large, square, two-story house surrounded by run-down smaller buildings that the owner probably tries to pass off as “cozy cabins.”
We’re two hours away from civilization, and we couldn’t even drive the car here. The last ten miles were done on snowmachine. This is insane.
My heart starts poun
ding
—
what have I gotten into?
Craig’s friends yell something to him and then take off down the hill on their machines.
“Don’t worry,” Craig says as he slaps me gently on the back. “It’s not as bad as it looks.” He’s smiling, obviously excited to be here.
“Yeah.” It’s better than waiting around at home for Matt Workman to show up again. Maybe.
“Oh, one more thing.” Craig turns.
“Yeah?” Nothing would surprise me right now.
Craig leans over and talks quietly. “His wife left him sometime last spring. I wouldn’t bring it up.”
“Okay.” That’s easy. I look around—not hard to understand why she took off. Whoever owns this place is probably as old as the buildings, and maybe just as crazy as this situation.
Jason, the owner, is
not
as old as the buildings. He might be a few years older than me, and a few years younger than Craig. If I could see him underneath his shaggy, dark curly hair, and ridiculous beard, he might even be decent looking, but I can’t. He’s got a nice body, surprisingly expensive jeans, and some old school Asics. I’m surprised, but the whole hairy Alaskan man thing is exactly what I expected. Just his age has thrown me.
“Jason. Good to see you, man.” Craig shakes his hand, and still Jason’s eyes float between the two of us a few too many times to be casual.
U
neasiness begins pooling in my gut, and I’m starting to think I’m screwed somehow.
JASON
Holy Hell, this has to go on the list of LAST things I need right now
I freeze when I step around the corner from the kitchen into the dining area. My heart starts a frantic rhythm over a girl. An obviously spoiled, way over-dressed for an Alaskan lodge, rich girl. I wonder if she has any idea how she’s going to stick out up here.
As she shrugs off her coat, and throws Craig a smile with a perfect set of teeth, I’m guessing she likes standing out. She’s pale, tall, lithe, moves almost like a dancer. This is
not
what I signed up for. Well, I didn’t sign up for anything—they just showed up.
“Jason!” Craig smiles his cocky asshole smile. “Good to see you, man.”
He reaches for my hand, and I take it.
“This is Dana. The witness I was telling you about.”
The moment Craig’s eyes slide back toward her, I know. So obvious. Asshole. And this time he’s bringing
me
into it. Wonder if he hooked up with this girl before or after she became a witness?
She reaches her hand out, and it takes everything in me to shake it. I know it’s a dick move, but I don’t look at her and stare at Craig instead.
“I’m Jason.”
“We’re all set up, right?” Craig asks.
“Yeah.” I clear my throat and take a glance at the girl again. High cheekbones, smooth skin, silk hair. I do not need someone this distracting here. I check her hands. Manicure. She’s probably never worked a day in her life. This
is
definitely
not what I need.
“So… my stuff?” she asks.
If I had to guess, I’d say she’s a bit thrown being out here as well. Maybe she’ll hate it enough to go away.
“My sister’s room is up the stairs. Last room on the left.” I turn back to Craig. He’s got to know I’m not happy about this.
“Why don’t you go check it out, and I’ll bring your bags in a sec, okay?” Craig rests a hand on her shoulder briefly before letting his arm drop. Her jaw sets for a moment in a look I recognize from Justine—like she’s about to protest because we all know she’s being dismissed so he can talk to me.
Her eyes shift to me briefly before she turns and walks upstairs.
I want to scream at the guy. Instead I ask, “How’s Taylor?”
I swear he winces because I don’t even try to keep my voice quiet.
“Fine. She’s fine. Working. Playing with the kids. You know.” He shrugs.
No more playing around. “Look, Craig, I appreciate that you’re trying to help this very young, very beautiful girl in a scary situation, but—”
“And Jason, I’m also grateful that
you’re
willing to help this girl who found herself in a scary situation.” Craig totally expects me to go along with him. The part of this that’s total shit is that he expects me to go along with it because we’re family, but he brought a girl up here and
my cousin
is his wife. Stupid ass.
“She’s a witness in a big case.” I knew he’d pull this. “The defendant followed her to work. He has to know where she lives.”
And he knows this is what’ll get me. I almost joined up with the FBI. Actually worked as a campus cop to put myself through Yale. “Craig, you know what it’s like out here on the weekends. It’s crazy. I need someone who can handle that.”
Craig doesn’t even pause. “She can handle it.”
“How do you know?” I fold my arms.
“I just know. Okay?” His voice is petulant. I swear the prick never left middle school.
“Fine, fine.” I wave him off and head back toward the kitchen. I need a beer. “But I’m serious, Craig. If she can’t keep up, I can’t afford to let her have the room.”
“You know I can hear everything you’re saying, right?” the girl yells down. “I graduated from Northwestern. It wasn’t easy. I’ve worked at five-star restaurants in downtown St. Louis as well as Evanston. I think I can handle a rush of smelly, hairy guys on a stop for cheeseburgers and pizza.”
Craig laughs hard. “Well, Dana, you’re in good company. Jason down here graduated from Yale, was accepted to Oxford and ended up in this dump as well!” He clearly thinks the whole thing is hilarious. “Though, I’d guess you won’t be stuck here for as long.”
Why does Craig insist on bringing this up every chance he gets? I didn’t
end up
out here, I chose it, and I’d choose it again after spending four years around people like
Dana
.
I pop the top off my beer and turn to face Craig. “I’m guessing I’ll be seeing you on your days off next week?”
“You guess right, my good man.” Craig backs up toward the stairs. “I’m going to go up and see how she’s getting settled.”
“Yeah. You do that.” I take another swig.
When fifteen minutes go by without Craig coming back down, I head to my apartment off the back of the kitchen. I do
not
want to hear whatever they have going on.
When Craig’s group leaves again, more than an hour later, I wander back into the L-shaped dining area with my laptop to see Dana leaning against the wall near the kitchen, looking very pale.
“You okay?” I ask, my big brother thing kicking in.
“Just need some ice for my ribs.”
What? Oh. The car accident he mentioned on the phone. “Sore?”
“From the ride in, and…” Her face flushes. “Just from the snowmachine ride in.”
My stomach turns over at the thought of what was in that pause and cheek flush. Does she know he’s married?
Not your business, Jason.
I reach into the back of the freezer and grab an old bag of peas. I hit the counter a few times to break them apart and drop them in a Ziploc.
When I slide them down the counter toward her, her brows pull down.
“Ummm…” She reaches out but stops.
“They’ve been in there for more than a year. I’m not eating them. It works better than ice anyway.” If Craig’s having sex with her, which I assume he is, it makes this all the worse. Not only is he cheating on his wife, but he’s screwing a girl with broken ribs? In MY lodge? Maybe all of this
is
my problem.
“Okay. Thanks.” She pulls her shirt up to expose tight abs and bruising that makes my stomach drop.
“Holy shit. Is that from your car accident?” Even though it obviously is.
“Uh, yeah.” She pulls her shirt down over the peas and bruising.
“And you’re out
here
?” I’m still staring like an idiot.
Her chin juts out and she looks me in the eye. Hard. “It’s not nearly as bad as it looks.”
“If you say so.” I sit back down, not wanting to be involved in whatever Dana has going on. “Why did he bring you out here if you’re still that bad?”