Under Alaskan Skies
Read Under Alaskan Skies Online
Authors: Carol Grace
The images floated in front of Matt’s face, even though his eyes were closed.
Carrie with the sun shining on her dazzling copper-colored hair the first day he saw her.
Carrie with her face over a hot stove, the steam curling her hair around her face.
Carrie in the hot springs, her whole luscious body pink and warm and so desirable, he felt the ache of longing deep inside him. A desire he feared would be with him for a long, long time.
Carrie in bed with him, her face aglow.
He turned over and buried his face in his pillow. But the images wouldn’t stop.
Images of what he’d be losing when he left Alaska forever….
Dear Reader,
Happy New Year! January is an exciting month here at Harlequin American Romance. It marks the beginning of a yearlong celebration of our 20th anniversary. Come indulge with us for twelve months of supersatisfying reads by your favorite authors and exciting newcomers, too!
Throughout 2003, we’ll be bringing you some not-to-miss miniseries. This month, bestselling author Muriel Jensen inaugurates MILLIONAIRE, MONTANA, our newest in-line continuity, with
Jackpot Baby
. This exciting six-book series is set in a small Montana town whose residents win a forty-million-dollar lottery jackpot. But winning a fortune comes with a price and no one’s life will ever be the same again.
Next,
Commander’s Little Surprise
, the latest book in Mollie Molay’s GROOMS IN UNIFORM series, is a must-read secret-baby and reunion romance with a strong hero you won’t be able to resist. Victoria Chancellor premieres her new A ROYAL TWIST miniseries in which a runaway prince and his horse-wrangling look-alike switch places. Don’t miss
The Prince’s Cowboy Double
, the first book in this delightful duo. Finally, when a small Alaskan town desperately needs a doctor, there’s only one man who can do the job, in
Under Alaskan Skies
by Carol Grace.
So come join in the celebrating and start your year off right—by reading all four Harlequin American Romance books!
Melissa Jeglinski
Associate Senior Editor
Harlequin American Romance
UNDER ALASKAN SKIES
Carol Grace
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Carol Grace has always been interested in travel and living abroad. She spent her junior year of college in France and toured the world, working on the hospital ship HOPE. She and her husband spent the first year and a half of their marriage in Iran, where they both taught English. Then, with their toddler daughter, they lived in Algeria for two years. For Carol, writing is another way of making her life exciting. Her office is her mountaintop home, which overlooks the Pacific Ocean. She lives there with her inventor husband, their daughter, who just graduated from college, and their teenage son.
Books by Carol Grace
HARLEQUIN AMERICAN ROMANCE
836—FAMILY TREE
956—UNDER ALASKAN SKIES
Contents
Chapter One
Matt Baker inhaled the damp fresh air from the upper deck of the cruise ship. Up early that morning, before his parents and the other members of their party, he relished the quiet after an evening of dining and dancing, celebrating his parents’ fiftieth wedding anniversary in the first-class lounge. Along the shore of Alaska’s Inside Passage, the gray-green water lapped at the roots of the forested slopes. Above them, tall mountains loomed in the cool-gray sky. The ship was heading for the small town of Tongass where it would dock for the day, disgorging hundreds of passengers to swarm all over town, filling the curio shops or boarding buses for sightseeing out of town.
In the distance he heard the drone of a single-engine prop plane. Lifting his binoculars, he trained his eyes in the direction of the sound. A small float-plane was approaching. Not an unusual sight. The towns along the Inside Passage, like Tongass, Juneau, Ketchikan and Sitka, were located along Alaska’s Marine Highway, accessible only by air or water. There were no roads to most cities or villages in these remote areas of Alaska.
He imagined a logger inside the small plane, coming into town for some R&R at the local saloon or a pilot arriving to pick up sightseers, taking them out to view a glacier up close or to a river where bears pulled salmon out of the rushing waters. He leaned against the polished brass railing. As the cruise ship approached the dock, he kept his eyes on the float-plane.
Matt felt a stab of envy for the pilot. For what? For his freedom to go wherever he wanted? For the thrill of flying over some of the world’s greatest scenery? For his ability to leave the earth below and all his problems behind? He shook his head. He had no reason to envy anyone.
The floatplane’s engine idled and it slowed to land in the water a quarter mile from the docks, then taxied in on two pontoons, plowing a wake behind it. Matt hurried to the forward deck for a better look at the plane. He was curious to see who the pilot was and how he would tie up. It couldn’t be easy to maneuver the craft next to the dock. But he did it. Slowing the engine, the plane sidled up neatly to the pier, a slim figure in a jumpsuit gracefully jumped out, threw a rope around a post, secured it and did the same with another post.
Just then a ray of early-morning sunshine burst threw a cloud and sent a shaft of light across the harbor, outlining the pilot and his craft. Quickly adjusting his binoculars Matt realized with a start that the pilot was not a he. It was a woman, a woman with red hair gleaming like copper in the sunlight. A woman whose jumpsuit couldn’t conceal her generous curves. As he watched, she turned slowly, as
if she felt his eyes on her, and tilted her head in his direction.
When her gaze met his, he almost dropped his binoculars. He didn’t know her. He’d never seen her before. He’d never seen anybody like her before. And yet there was something about her. Something that set his pulse racing and riveted his attention.
Who are you? Where did you come from? What are you doing here? The questions ran through his head nonstop.
“Matt, where have you been? I’ve been looking all over for you.” The voice of Mira Lipton, the daughter of his parents’ best friends, startled him.
“Just watching our ship dock,” he said, reluctantly turning his back on the woman on the dock. It wasn’t really much of a lie. His intention had been just that. To watch the giant cruise ship pull in. Until the little floatplane distracted him. He snapped his binoculars into their case.
“My parents and yours have already gone to the dining room for breakfast,” Mira said. “But I wanted to wait for you.” She smiled up at him, and tucked her arm in his as they headed toward the main deck, reminding him that she’d not only been waiting to have breakfast with him, she’d been waiting for him to propose to her for a long time. He didn’t know why he hadn’t. They’d known and liked each other for years. But up till now he’d had some excellent excuses. Medical school, then rotations in the various specialties. Twenty-four-hour workdays. An upcoming internship in plastic surgery. A minuscule income to support a wife.
But now, now that he was on the downhill slope
of a long and expensive education, with a lucrative career ahead of him, he had no more real excuses. Why should he want any? To quote his mother, “Mira really is a lovely girl and nobody would be surprised if after all these years, you finally decided to get married.” And yet…and yet…
“So…what do you think?” she asked.
“About what?”
“You haven’t heard a word I’ve said,” she chided gently. Too gently. Sometimes he wished she’d stamp her foot and insist that he pay attention to her. Or demand to know what his intentions were. But then he’d have to say he had no such intentions. That he had too much else to think about right now. Such as the internship at a major teaching hospital and his father’s health.
“I asked if you were bringing your camera to the bald eagle preserve or if I should bring mine. They say we fly right over their nests.”
“Fly?” he said, suddenly alert.
“In a helicopter.”
“Oh, right.” For a moment he had pictured himself sitting next to the red-haired woman in her small plane, her copper-colored hair brushing his shoulder as she banked her plane over the eagle reserve for a view of the rare birds. Deliberately he shut off any such image. Ridiculous, daydreaming about a strange woman who was probably a forest ranger married to a lighthouse keeper when he himself had a perfectly fine available woman at his side. He studied Mira’s profile as they headed toward the dining room. Pale-blond hair brushed her cheek. Blue eyes and delicate features. She was not only pretty, she was intelligent
and came from a similar background. Their parents were best friends. What more could he want? He didn’t know. He just knew that deep down there was more. That he wanted to have it all. He just didn’t know what “all” was.
C
ARRIE
P
ORTER STOOD
at the foot of the gangway, shifting her weight from one foot to the other as she stared up at the gleaming white cruise ship. She willed someone to walk down and remove the gate that stood between her and the entrance to the ship and the person she desperately needed to see. Finally an officer in a blue uniform came walking toward her, a stern look on his angular features.
“I’m sorry, no visitors allowed onboard. We’ll be disembarking in a few minutes.”
“I have to see the ship’s doctor,” she said. “It’s an emergency.”
“The ship’s doctor is only available for passengers. I can take a message to him if you want.”
“I can’t wait. I have to see him now. It’s urgent.”
“Isn’t there a doctor here in town?” he asked.
“He’s down with the flu. I talked to him on the phone. He’s the one who suggested I try the ship.”
“Sorry. What about Ketchikan, Haines or Sitka?”
“Yes, they’re next on my list, but first I need to try the ship’s doctor. At least I need to ask him, then if he won’t come….”
“What’s wrong with you?” he asked with a frown. “You don’t look sick to me.”
She shook her head impatiently. “It’s not for me. A boy in my village is hurt badly. He needs to see a doctor. I’ve got a plane, but I can’t… I can’t…” She
clenched her jaw to keep from screaming or crying in frustration, which wouldn’t help her cause at all. She must keep calm, reasonable, but she must find somebody. Now.
She took a deep breath. “I can’t go back without finding a doctor,” she continued. “Please, could I just have a word with him? Five minutes?”
The ship’s officer stared at her for a long moment. Finally he shrugged and unlocked the gate. Once inside the luxury vessel, he gave her directions to the infirmary. Two decks down, turn right at the shore excursion desk.