by J. H. Croix
Madison’s head whipped up, and it felt as if sparks shimmered in the air between us when her eyes met mine from a few feet away. “Oh! Hi. What are you doing here?”
“Getting a room,” I offered. “I presume you’re doing the same. That’s what most people do at a place like this.”
Madison actually pursed her lips and lifted her chin. I saw the fire flash in her eyes. Once again, my body sat up and took notice as a jolt of lust sizzled through me. I didn’t know what it was about this woman, but she got to me. Big time. I honestly struggled to remember the last time I’d paid much attention to a woman. I was no monk, but I barely had time for a rushed breakfast these days. Being a single father didn’t allow for much free time, nor did being a hotshot firefighter. Throw in the reality that I was a cynical man, and it all added up to zero time for romance.
Madison’s lips curled into a smile. “Excellent point, Graham. I am here for the night.”
“I’m glad you’re not trying to drive in the darkness. It can dip below freezing at night now even though it’s only August.”
Jesus. Now, I sounded just like my daughter said—lecturey.
“I appreciate your concern. Nice to see you again,” she offered politely. She opened the door to the room beside mine.
I didn’t realize I was still staring until she lifted her hand in a little wave before she slipped into the room, and the door clicked shut.
After I let myself into my room and tossed my bag on the dresser, I decided to head down to the restaurant. There might be actual humans there. There were, but it was pretty quiet. I had a beer and a burger with fries at the bar and was headed back to my room when I saw Madison. Again.
She stopped in the hallway as I approached. She turned, and I felt as if she were assessing me when I came to a stop a few feet away. She cocked her head to the side, and for a second, just a flash, I thought I saw vulnerability flickering there. Then she bit her lip.
Fuck me. This girl and her perfectly straight teeth denting the plump cushion of her bottom lip sent fire sizzling through me. She took a step closer, and I could feel the voltage vibrating across the short distance separating us. “I have a question, Graham.”
“Yes?” I prompted, my voice laced with a ragged edge.
None of this made sense, but I couldn’t have walked away from her if my life depended on it.
“Can I kiss you?” She had a Southern drawl, and it slid over me like warm honey.
Okay, then. I didn’t know what I’d expected her to ask, but it wasn’t that. No matter how insane it seemed, I decided that kissing her was exactly what I should do. Because I would never see this woman again. Maybe desire had no place in my life, but I could kiss an absolutely gorgeous girl and walk away with a memory.
“Oh, sweetheart, I’ll kiss you,” I murmured, taking one stride and lifting a hand.
When my palm cupped her cheek, I could feel the heat simmering under my touch. I felt caught in a mist of fire. There was chemistry, and then there was this. We were fire in a bottle.
I slid my palm down, letting my thumb trail over the wild beat of her pulse. I was gratified to feel it, to sense that perhaps her reaction to me was as powerful and primitive as mine to her. I slipped my hand into the spill of her silky dark hair, cupping her nape as I watched the clear green of her eyes darken like a forest in the shade.
I took an incremental step closer and felt the soft curves of her against my chest. I was a hard man, and she was all warmth and lush heat.
She opened her mouth to say something—hell if I knew what—and I said, “Shh. You wanted a kiss.”
At that, her lashes brushed against her cheeks as she took in a shaky breath. I watched those lashes lift once more and saw the flash of fire in her green eyes. She tilted her head upward and closed the distance between our mouths.
When her lips brushed mine, that voltage sizzled, firing out sparks that spun into the need tightening every cell in my body. With a low growl, I fit my mouth over hers. I didn’t take it too fast, not just yet. This was just a kiss, but I intended to make it one she would never forget. Maybe I was cynical, maybe there hadn’t been much room for desire in my life, and maybe it had been too long since I’d really wanted anyone, but I loved kissing. It was the prelude to everything, yet entirely its own act.
The plush give of her lips underneath mine was intoxicating. The audible hitch of her breath in her throat and the just barely-there gasp when I teased the seam of her lips with my tongue nearly undid me.
Time slowed, and I felt suspended in that fiery mist where nothing else mattered, nothing but a girl who I knew hardly anything about. I knew her name and that she was from Texas, but that didn’t matter. I wanted her fiercely. When her tongue glided against mine like tender silk, I knew she kissed like a dream.
I didn’t know how fast it happened, but somewhere along the way, I turned Madison against the wall as I devoured her mouth. One palm was pressed against the wall as I learned her—the way she flexed against me, and the way she made these little sounds in her throat that drove me fucking wild, each one the lash of a whip against my desire, driving it forward.
By the time we broke apart, I was desperate for air and gulping in ragged breaths, just as she did. When I brought my eyes to hers again, we stared at each other. I saw my shock reflected in hers. I didn’t know what it was between us, but it was like nothing I’d ever felt. I couldn’t even hide my fear because, holy hell, what was this?
It took every ounce of restraint and discipline I possessed to move away from the imprint of her soft curves against me. I released my palm where I cupped her nape, my fingers sliding through the silky locks as my hand fell away.
She blinked, giving her head a visible shake as she straightened. “Well, I asked for a kiss, and you delivered,” she finally said, her tone almost wondering.
“Why did you ask me for a kiss?”
Chapter Three
Madison
Because I wanted to, and I’ll never see you again.
My own words echoed in my thoughts
Graham’s eyes skated over my face. I was already plenty hot and bothered, but his intense, searching look sent a fresh shiver over the surface of my skin.
After several beats of my heart, his lips curled up at one corner in a grin that sent butterflies twirling in my belly. Holy smokes. This man knew how to set every cell in my body simmering with fire.
I wanted more—more kisses, more everything, more Graham.
“Well then, Madison Glen, I guess I won’t be seeing you again.”
“It’s not likely,” I replied, trying to sound nonchalant when I felt anything but inside.
Graham took a step closer again, and my breath quickened. He lifted a hand, cupping my cheek. His thumb traced a sensual swipe across my bottom lip. I didn’t mean to do what I did next, but the urge was too powerful to resist. I nipped lightly at his thumb before he drew it away.
His eyes widened slightly, and a low laugh rustled in his throat. “I think we might be dangerous together, sweetheart.”
I couldn’t even formulate a reply. My brain cells had immolated.
“Good night,” he added as he stepped back.
My cheek and bottom lip tingled with a fiery pleasure in the aftermath of his touch.
“Good night,” I whispered the second I could move. Fumbling with the key card for my room, I hurried in, not even caring that I slammed the door behind me.
I pressed my back against it, trying to catch my breath and scrambling for my sanity. I lightly traced my fingertips over my lips, and I could’ve sworn sparks leaped against my skin. Sweet hell. That kiss itself was pure fire.
I lowered my hand, holding it over my heart, the rampaging beat thumping against my palm as I tried to catch my breath. That kiss had been a wild impulse. I’d seen Graham approaching me in the hallway and thought I could just eat him up. He was so delicious and sexy and just the kind of man who made me feel like he could take care of me. I had dee
ply underestimated the depth of chemistry between us. The voltage was still reverberating through my body.
Wilbur came trotting over as I tried to catch my breath and sniffed at my feet. I gave myself a shake before pushing away from the door. My knees wobbled a little as I walked toward my hotel bed and collapsed on it. He followed me, hopping onto the bed beside me.
“Well, that was crazy,” I said to the ceiling.
The ceiling had nothing to offer in return. All things considered, though, it was an excellent ceiling for staring. My eyes followed the grain of the wood. Although the ceiling didn’t have anything to say, Wilbur offered a soft woof at my musings.
I tried to remember the last time I’d kissed anyone. It was over a year ago or thereabouts. Back when I thought my stupid fiancé, Dirk, had actually loved me. It was funny how much could shift in a single year. Dirk’s kisses had never been all that satisfying. They’d been okay, but I’d told myself the rest of our relationship was great.
Ha! It wasn’t great. It was about as deep as a puddle when all was said and done. Dirk wanted nothing to do with me when my father’s connections started drying up along with my money.
I was chronically anxious about my current financial insecurity. More than that, though, I was ashamed of the person I’d once been. I couldn’t even hold our breakup against Dirk because I’d probably been as shallow as him.
Graham had just given me the best kiss I’d ever had in my life. I laughed to myself and kicked off my shoes as I rolled up into a sitting position. My body was still tingling. The reverberations from the fiery jolt of that kiss were still pinging through my system.
I didn’t have a ton of courage when it came to men. I’d thought maybe it would be fun to kiss Graham because I would never see him again, so it didn’t matter if the kiss was a disaster. It didn’t matter at all what he thought of me. And it had totally been worth it.
I glanced toward the wall between our rooms, realizing we might be sitting only a few feet apart. Awareness hummed to life in my body like a cluster of fireflies in the darkness. I didn’t have the nerve to do more than kiss Graham.
All I knew was his name. Abruptly, I stood from the bed and crossed over to where my laptop sat on the dresser. I fetched it and returned to the bed. I started to enter his name in the search bar, and my hands fell still. I wasn’t going to see him again. I didn’t need to figure out who he was. He would be a memory for me—the best kiss. Ever.
I fell asleep that night, resolving to leave early in the morning. As much as I told myself not to, I couldn’t help but wonder if I would see Graham before I left.
I didn’t. See Graham, that is. I had a restless night of sleep, so I didn’t even have to make an effort to get up early. I’d always been an early bird, but I felt as if I’d been chasing a good night’s sleep for months now. I would wake up with thoughts churning through my mind, worrying about all the things I could do absolutely nothing about, much less in the lonely hours of darkness.
Nighttime worrying was so unforgiving. The mind could be ruthless at night, kicking open doors into the past that were supposed to stay shut and opening imaginary pathways into worries about a future that didn’t even exist yet.
The sun was barely making its presence known when I walked out of the hotel. My breath frosted the air, and a thin line of silvery gold shimmered along the edge of the mountain range in the distance, almost as if offering a gateway between this world and another.
I took a breath of the bracing, crisp morning air and walked to my car, tossing my bag in the back seat and crossing over to the identified dog area. Wilbur did his business while the car warmed up. It was nice and toasty by the time I turned onto the road while he sat happily beside me in the passenger seat.
I drove south, watching the sunrise’s spectacular explosion of color from the east. That thin line of light widened with layers of orange, red, and gold mingling as the sun rose higher and higher in the sky before finally cresting above the mountains.
I felt like nature should have a drum and bugle corps for a sunrise like that. I passed a highway sign indicating Willow Brook was only a few hours away.
My stomach tightened with anxiety. I’d never even been to Alaska, much less to my late grandfather’s hunting lodge. When my mother had been dismissive and scoffed at my idea to move up here, I contacted the executor of my grandfather’s estate and confirmed the home had all the amenities. According to my grandfather’s attorney, it was entirely self-sufficient and generated by a combination of wind and solar power. He’d sent photographs, and it looked nice.
Nice or not, I was nervous, really nervous. My whole life had blown up, and I was trying to find somewhere to land. Maybe it was crazy, but I figured at least I had somewhere to go.
“We’re getting closer, Wilbur.”
My little corgi wiggled in his seat, casting me what I thought was a smile, but then he was generally cheerful. That was a good thing because lately, it felt as if he was my only friend. I supposed he was.
It was not pleasant to have life rip the foundation out from under your feet. In the span of months, I’d lost my job, my home, and the support of my family.
A few hours later, after a stop to fill my tank with gas in Anchorage and to give Wilbur another bathroom break, I saw the exit for Willow Brook—the place that was about to become my home. I followed the signs to “downtown” and actually smiled to myself. A warm sense of joy spun through me as I turned onto Main Street and saw the cute downtown area with shops and brightly colored signs. I smiled again as I passed Firehouse Café with bright red lettering on the sign and a cheery flag with flowers on it flapping in the wind. I’d been imagining that I would truly be in the middle of nowhere. While this was definitely far more wilderness than what I was accustomed to in Houston, obviously, there was a town here with all the amenities. There was a grocery store, a police and fire station, and even a sign for a hospital.
I had put the address given to me by my grandfather’s attorney into my phone GPS and simply followed what it said. After I drove through downtown, things thinned out. There were driveways and roads, but the houses weren’t crowded together here, that was for sure. Sometimes, I would go a few miles before I saw another driveway. When my friendly GPS told me where to turn onto Firefly Lane, it felt like I was far away from downtown even though only ten minutes had elapsed.
“You can handle this,” I murmured to myself and Wilbur.
Wilbur wagged his chubby little tail, and I took that as a sign that I could, in fact, handle this. An unmarked gravel driveway was where my GPS told me to turn. There was a mailbox, but it looked drunk and was tilting to the side. There was snow on the mountain peaks in the distance. My mind was spinning as I realized I had tons of things to deal with. For example, there was no way I could shovel a driveway this long. I’d have to find someone to plow, and I knew absolutely no one here.
“You can handle this,” I repeated to myself.
The driveway was roughly half a mile long. It ended in a circle, and there sat the house I recognized from the photos. It was a low-slung house, almost nestled into the trees surrounding it on a sloping hillside. The timber-frame structure had a bright green steel roof with an attached garage to the side.
I came to a stop and turned the engine off. I sat there as that soft ticking sound quieted while the engine cooled. Anxiety spun in my chest and stomach, and my heart was pounding out a rapid, staccato beat.
“Well, it’s now or never,” I said to Wilbur as I opened the glove compartment and fetched the key kept there in a small tin container.
Wilbur hopped out of the car after me and immediately began investigating the area. I was about to let him stay outside when I recalled our incident with the moose at that gas station. I could imagine Graham’s disapproving look when he first gave me his little lecture about safety.
“Come on, Wilbur,” I called.
He peed on a tree and immediately trotted up the stairs onto the wide porch that ran
the length of the house. There were two rocking chairs on the porch. I turned to look behind me, and my breath caught in my throat. The house sat on a rise, offering a view of the mountains in the distance and a lake glittering under the sun.
It was easier to avoid getting caught up in the spinning wheels of worry, recrimination, and regret when the natural beauty knocked me off that track. Turning back to the door, I slid the key in the lock, letting out a breath I hadn’t even known I’d been holding when the bolt smoothly slid open.
We stepped inside, and Wilbur promptly set out to explore. The sound of his claws clicking on the hardwood floor echoed as I looked around. The home was furnished, but it had the feel of a space where no one had been in a long time. According to the attorney, my grandfather hadn’t been here since he got sick and went into long-term care two years ago.
The furniture was covered in cloth drapes. I took a quick walk around. The front door opened into a tiled entryway with closets on either side. A wide archway led into what appeared to be the main living space. Windows covered the wall on the opposite side, offering a view of a field and trees. The field was covered in those fallen flowers with smudges of faded fuchsia covering the ground amidst a cluster of birch and spruce trees.
A stone fireplace was on one side of the living room, and bookshelves lined the other. All the shelves were empty at the moment. Another archway to one side led to the kitchen, which had counters on three sides and a small round table by another window. The appliances appeared fairly new, which kind of surprised me.
On the other side of the living room, a hallway led to three bedrooms. The bathroom in the hallway contained the laundry. I was surprised to find a lovely master bathroom with a soaking tub, complete with a window offering another pretty view.
I clasped my hands together, smiling as I looked around. My life might feel uncertain with the ground shifting under my feet, but I had a comfortable home.
