Frontier Inferno (4 page)

“Sit down at the table. You men always know when there’s something good to eat.” Andie pulled free and bustled around, slicing a loaf of bread, warm from the oven, and setting out a slab of butter. “This will get you started. Let’s see what else I have.” She dug a plate of thin-sliced ham and fragrant local cheese from the walk-in. “What a great surprise! You didn’t come here just for lunch, though, did you? What’s up?”

Paul chewed a big bite of buttered bread and stacked ham on a second piece, a serious expression darkening his features. “No. I got called up.”

Called up?

“Oh, no…I mean thanks for letting me know.” Andie faced away for a moment and when she turned back, she was smiling, but it didn’t reach her eyes. Placing a pitcher of iced tea and four glasses on the rustic wooden staff table, she said, “Let’s sit down for a meal with these men before they head off into the wilderness.”

Andie and Paul sat on one of the long benches, no space between them, communicating without words. In their closeness, they looked like a couple who’d been together for decades. Another frisson of envy hit her, but when Chris glanced over his shoulder at Heather, the gleam in his eye shoved aside any interest in someone else’s relationship. Her breath caught in her throat. She sat on his bench, close but not touching. To her surprise and pleasure, he took her hand and laced their fingers together.

So lost in the sensation, she jumped when Andie spoke again. “So when do you guys leave?” A tremble in her voice gave away more emotion than her stiff back. Paul tugged her closer and she rested her head on his chest. “It’s okay. I wasn’t prepared, although I should have been.”

They seemed lost in their own world and Heather hesitated to ask questions. But she’d said “guys.”

Paul stroked her hair. “Tomorrow. Chris is dropping Billy’s stuff off at our house later.”

Andie straightened again. “Hurry up and eat, then, so I can let Kathryn know I’m out of here. We’re not letting you go without a great dinner, are we, Heather?”

“No…of course not?” The short, dark-haired chef seemed to think they were on the same page and, without more information, she didn’t know if they were or not. But if it meant having time to spend with Chris, she was up for that.

With no more explanation, the men piled cheese and meat on bread and devoured the sandwiches in minutes. Heather ate one, too, but Andie refilled glasses and stayed uncharacteristically quiet, tearing apart a piece of buttered bread and rolling the bits into balls. Thunder crashed again and she shivered.

“Okay.” Andie slipped away from Paul and hopped to her feet. “Come on, we have work to do.”

Chris watched Heather trail out of the kitchen after Andie. He’d been busy with work and Billy, and hadn’t managed to get over to the hotel for the past few days, but that didn’t mean he hadn’t thought about the new girl in town. Although he’d tried not to…. As they’d ramped up their training exercises at the station, he’d listened with anticipation for anything Paul could share with him about the new nanny at the hotel.

And there wasn’t much.

According to Andie, Heather brushed aside any questions about her past, unwilling to discuss where she came from or why she’d come to Castle at all. Her tough urban clothing, Andie felt, was too new, too clean to give her a real inner-city feel. And Heather’s educated discussion of various topics and cultivated way of speaking made Andie think Ivy League.

But beyond that…nothing.

In the kitchen, with a white apron wrapped around her twice, too big, but sort of sexy really, and soft wisps of her gold and brown hair escaping from her ponytail to halo her face, Heather seemed softer to him, too. And she smelled great…like baking bread and cinnamon, except for her hair, which held a faint scent of coconut. He’d wanted to bury his face in it and breathe. When she’d left his side the week before, he’d felt the loss. No wonder he couldn’t stop thinking about her.

Man, had he screwed up. Scheduled to leave in the morning for base camp…he wouldn’t even have time to get to know her better. Stuffing the last of his sandwich in his mouth, he climbed over the bench. “We’d better head out. Billy will be getting out of school.”

Paul rose as well, but flashed him a grin. “Why don’t Andie and I bring him to the house and you can bring his stuff over in a couple of hours?”

His fellow fireman meant well, but how responsible would it be to let him tell Billy his dad was going away? Paul and his partners made it possible for him to do his job. If he hadn’t had the other two members of the trio to babysit, he wouldn’t have been able to be a smokejumper. Rex and Andie provided a safe, friendly environment whenever he couldn’t make it home at night.

A streak of lightning flashed and he counted. One. Two. Three. Four….
Crash!
  Another storm rumbled closer, but so far none had brought the rain the area needed. It was too early in the year for fire danger to be so high.

He wavered, not wanting to give up any time with his son, but also wanting to get a little with Heather. He’d be gone for at least a week before he managed to get back home at all, and he had no idea if she’d be there or not. She hadn’t indicated plans to move on, but somehow her edginess, whatever she tried to leave behind, told him she didn’t feel too settled.

“Chris.” Andie was busy untying her apron, but her attention focused on him. “Billy and I will get dinner started. He can make dessert.” And would the child prefer to spend the afternoon watching his dad gather his gear to go away…or bake cookies with Andie and roughhouse with Rex?

He nodded, decided. “Thank you.” Extending a hand, he helped Heather up from the table. “Keep me company while I get ready to go?”

She glanced from one to the others, eyes narrowed. If Paul didn’t wipe that damn smile off his face…at least Andie ducked her head and pretended not to be laughing at them. “I should clean up….”

He laced their fingers together again. “I think the kitchen staff will handle that. Thanks, guys. We’ll be over as soon as we’re—” He swallowed hard. “As soon as I’m done packing.” Towing the still-protesting nanny behind him, he headed outside. With only a couple of hours, he didn’t want to waste a moment. As the kitchen door swung closed behind them, his friends’ evil laughter broke loose and the look Heather gave him would have withered a cedar. But he didn’t dare slow down. What if she used the opportunity to escape?

They arrived at his truck without another word exchanged, but when he dropped her hand to open the door for her, she dug in her heels. “I feel like I’ve been shanghaied. Don’t I get a say about where I spend my afternoon off?” Her defiance was offset by the shiver she gave, and he cursed his thoughtless idiocy. Not only had he not given her a chance to get a jacket, she still had the big apron around her.

“Damn it, I was just so happy to have a little time to spend with you before I go away, I never thought. Let’s go back in and get your coat.” If she’d even re-emerge. After his gorilla behavior, she’d tell security to be on the lookout for the kidnapper and lock herself in her room.

But as he stepped away to give her space to pass him, she scrambled into the front seat. “You’d better have something in here I can wear.” Kneeling on the seat, she tossed her apron in the back and rummaged around in the mess where it fell. “Man, do you ever. Can I use this?”

She held up a heavy sweatshirt and he wrenched his eyes from the curve of her rear end. For a short woman, she was the whole package, as revealed when she turned and sat down. The black V-neck T-shirt cupped her high, rounded breasts, revealing nipples peaked in response to the cold. “Chris? When you’re done eyeing my chest, I’d like to get warm.”

It wasn’t as if he’d never seen a tight T-shirt or a sweet ass, but on her sassy self, they drew him like a bee to a flower.

And didn’t that make him poetic.
God
.

Without answering, he closed her door and headed around to the driver side. What possible response could he have given?
I’m done, go ahead
or, the truth,
I’ll never be done
. He hadn’t expected to be called up so soon or he wouldn’t have allowed a full week to get away from him. Even with Billy and his work at the fire department, he should have managed an hour here or there to see her. Because he hadn’t managed to keep her out of his thoughts for more than a moment at a time.

He’d planned it in his mind a hundred times, what he’d say, picked up the phone to call, but he kept thinking he needed a
reason
to call. Sure he could have asked how she was settling in, but he wanted to say more. Maybe ask her to do something. A date…but in Castle, Alaska in April, too late for most snow sports, too early for summer activities…. A local girl might like to go fishing, but would Heather? Putting the pickup in gear, he drove toward the around the lodge and out onto the dirt track that led toward his cabin, not far past Andie and the guys’ place.

The forest closed in around them, bare branches of deciduous trees brushing against the sharp, clean-smelling needles of evergreens as they bumped down the road. The question of how to get to his house was answered. Dirt. Bumpy, rutted dirt. She clung to the oh-shit handle and tightened her jaw to keep her teeth from rattling.

“H-how far is it from here?”

Chris’s blue eyes flashed amusement, and the corner of his mouth quirked. “Not far. It’s better in winter, on the snow machine.”

As he returned his attention to the road, driving faster than she thought wise, she tried to keep her own focus on the male eye candy—not a hard proposition. The heater warmed the cab and when he shrugged his jacket off, the white T-shirt he favored clung to his arms and broad chest, outlining each muscle as if he wore nothing. Her fingers itched to trace them, down to the six-pack abs she couldn’t quite make out. Her gaze drifted a little lower and landed on his lap. An impressive bulge tented his jeans.

“We’ll be there in a moment. You doing okay?” He’d caught her peeking at his personals.
Damn it
. Heat flooded her cheeks and she jerked her head back around so fast she nearly got whiplash.

“Fine…I’m great.” Struggling to think of something else to say, she swallowed the words that came to mind. And suppressed the dreams that had haunted her sleep. She’d just met the man and he’d done no more than hold her hand for a few moments, but in her fantasies they’d already been lovers. The distance between them, a couple of feet, seemed an unbreachable chasm. “So, does the school bus come out here?”

He glanced at her for a second and they rolled over a bump. Heather’s head hit the side window with a thud. “Oh, shoot. Sorry. The school bus…no, the bus runs out to the native village and a few places south along the highway. I have to drive him and pick him up.”

Oh, right.
Duh
. That’s where he’d been headed. She bit her lip.

“Okay, watch, right up ahead. I apologize in advance.” He steered around a bend and stopped. A clearing in front of them held a log cabin, but with peaked roof and an elaborately carved door, stained glass in small windows under the roofline. And….

“Gingerbread?”

He sighed. “Yes. Gingerbread.” The adorableness of the small house shocked her. Chris climbed out and came around to open her door. He tapped her chin. “Better close your mouth. It’s almost mosquito season.” Instead of dropping his hand, he cupped her jaw, his thumb caressing her cheek.

Heat surged from her core to her limbs. His Mediterranean-blue eyes captured her and held her hostage in their depths. Then his lips descended on hers and the blue disappeared, lost in the heat of his mouth and the soft pressure of his tongue urging her to open to him. In the distance, thunder growled again.

She’d be in Castle a little while longer, most likely gone within a week, and never see him again. He didn’t know that. She’d never hinted at her reasons for passing through, for being in Alaska to start with, and she didn’t want to deceive him. Flattening her palms on his chest, she prepared to push him away. To return to friendship; casual, no involvement.

She couldn’t afford to get involved. Not if she planned to leave in a matter of days. Well, maybe a couple of weeks.

Ohhh
…. His chest was carved of stone and tempted her to explore. For a long moment they stayed like that, her still on the edge of the seat, him standing in front of her, one hand holding her jaw.

Then he murmured, “Inside?”

She nodded and he kissed her again. On her eyelids, her cheeks, the tip of her nose. Chris scooped her up, one arm under her legs, the other around her shoulders as if she weighed nothing, and after kicking the truck door closed, he carried her past the silly, fairy-tale outer walls and into a different world. One where she spied leather couches and heavy, carved tables from the corner of her eye. Furnishings more suitable to the alpha male who already rocked her world.

His size, his ability to hold her like fragile glass…she’d never felt so safe. Swallowing tears at the temporary nature of their time together, she pressed her lips to his and floated away.

After a moment, or an hour, he let her slide to her feet, still kissing her. Then stopped. Heather remained leaning against him, absorbing his warmth for the cold times ahead. She sniffed and tilted her head back.

A soft smile played about his lips. “I don’t usually kiss on the first date.”

Was this a first date?

Tweaking her ponytail, he set her aside. “Come into the bedroom with me.”

Trailing after him, she smoothed her hair. The incongruity of his statements struck her as funny. Funnier than they deserved. But her emotions were as peaked as her nipples pressing against the lace of her bra.

They entered another room, and she halted. “Wait.”

He paused in front of a bed. A huge bed, carved from dark wood and covered with a heap of comforters. A place to spend the winter, wrapped in the arms of someone beloved. She shook her head.

“Wait?”

“You said you don’t kiss on a first date…but you lure the woman in question into your bedroom and have your way with her?”