With a sigh, she stopped at the sleigh to retrieve Quik’s wet things. He would need them if he was ever going to go outside again. For all she knew, this was his only shirt. Project. She wrung the water out of the wettest gear. His coat alone weighed forty pounds. How he’d ever managed to keep his head above water until she arrived, she’d never know.
Laying the coat over her arm, she added to the pile until she was down to her own coat, now soaked because it had been under all the other wet stuff. She sighed as the water seeped through her clothing.
Standing in the middle of the Alaskan wilderness in a tank top wasn’t exactly keeping her Kringle-ness a secret. Hopefully Quik had been out of it enough that he hadn’t noticed. She closed her eyes. That was a horrible think to hope for! She was beat—that was all there was to it. The weight of the clothes made her stagger into the door. It slammed open. Lux froze in the doorway, peering over the pile in her arms to check the bed. Quik rolled and groaned but didn’t wake.
“Whew.” She hung clothing on the backs of chairs, over hooks, and off the stove handle. The woodstove needed wood, so she threw in three logs and brushed the dirt off her hands. She went back out to the sled to get her blueprints, which she set by the couch, wanting to keep them close. With that taken care of, she suddenly became day-after-Christmas tired. Eyeing the large bed with longing—the mattress looked so comfortable—she opted to take the couch.
She retrieved a pair of pajamas out of her bag and changed quickly before falling onto the lumpy cushions and drifting off to sleep. With any luck, she’d wake up before Quik and be able to cook something to revive him. Robyn would know exactly what to make. Lux vaguely remembered seeing a can of stew. Yes, stew would be good. She yawned. Just a short nap …
Chapter Ten
Quik slowly came into consciousness. For a while, the sensation of his mind outside of his body lingered, taking in the room and him in the bed. He understood it was warm, but he couldn’t get his body to wake enough to throw off the covers. Finally, he rolled over and pried his eyes open. Clothing hung all over the room. Even on laundry day, when he washed his clothes in the sink, he didn’t have this much of a mess. He groaned. His room hadn’t been this messy since he was fifteen. His eyes traveled around the room and landed on a patch of red on his couch. Squinting, the red came into focus, followed by a long and lean creamy-skinned body.
What the …?
The day’s events came back to him slowly. His ill-timed nap. The fire. The ice cracking. The cold. Lux flying him home. He rubbed his head. Flying? That can’t be right. He slowly sat up to get a better look at his guest. Lux’s hair hung in giant waves, like a beach beauty who had spent the day in the sun and surf. Her skin was the color of fresh cream with a tint of pink. He rubbed his eyes. Somewhere in the jumble of memories, he found himself holding on to her shoulders—they were soft and warm.
He threw his legs over the side of the bed and stumbled to the window to let out the excess heat from the woodstove. He cracked it open to allow the heat to escape. Lux must have thrown on several logs and fallen asleep. He filled the large pot with water and set it on top of the stove. It would heat faster there than on one of the propane burners. The room was full of moisture as his clothes dried out.
Now that he was on his feet, he wiggled his toes. Yep. They all worked. His fingers too. He touched his ears, feeling for dead spots. Nothing felt off. He’d need a mirror to really look for the telltale whiteness that indicated frozen skin. He glanced down at his bare chest and then over at Lux. She’d pulled him from the ice and stripped him down. The idea of her hands on him made his heart thud and heat pool in his lower belly. What good was falling into an icy lake if he wasn’t conscious to enjoy an attractive woman taking his clothes off? He scratched at his chin. He must have been through something, because he was reverting back to thinking like a man who’d been on assignment for too long.
He looked around for the only pair of jean shorts he’d ever owned or would ever own. He might as well throw them out in the snow and let a squirrel use them for insulation in its nest. There was no reason to be angry about the pants. They were pants and nothing compared to his life. He could almost remember joking about them with her, but that was all fuzzy. He’d said something and she’d smiled. It was the smile that grabbed hold of his thoughts. A smile like that wasn’t easily forgotten.
The split second he’d dropped through the ice, he’d known he was going to die and he’d blacked out. Not fainted. He never fainted. But when the cold water filled his ears, a switch flipped and he couldn’t stay alert. He stepped closer to the couch. Lux lay there without a blanket or anything. It was hot in here. She had on a green tee with a picture of the Hulk sporting a Clint Eastwood sneer. Under the face were the words, “Go ahead, make me green.”
He smiled at the pun.
When he’d first seen Lux, he’d been struck by her beauty and then knocked flat as she’d spliced into the church’s power and added a new breaker box, and he wasn’t sure where that windmill had come from—it was like magic. If he believed in such a thing. More than likely, the solitude was affecting his brain. He leaned close, catching a hint of peppermint cocoa. He bolted upright. She’d made him drink cocoa in the sled. Where did she get warm cocoa in the middle of winter in the middle of Alaska?
Lux sighed in her sleep. Quik took a step back, kicking a roll of paper. It unrolled right before his feet like a giant scroll. He leaned over to roll it back up and caught the words “North Pole Substation Project” printed in block letters in the bottom left-hand corner. He recoiled.
Had his past come after him? If he’d kept his nose out of high-level, confidential blueprints, then he wouldn’t be up here in hiding while his son grew up without a father. He moved back to the stove, pressing his backside into the warm metal to create as much space between him and that project as he could. He should roll them back up and pretend that he hadn’t seen anything.
He looked over his shoulder so his thoughts wouldn’t be drawn off track by the wonderful view on his couch. A substation at the North Pole? Could be for a scientific research facility. There were hundreds of scientists vying for time at the outpost to conduct physics experiments. Lux was certainly smart enough to be one of them.
He found himself standing over the papers, his eyes scanning the schematic. “That’s not right.” He tapped his chin. Lux had specified oil circuit breakers, but if this was going in at the North Pole, then dead tank gas circuit breakers would be ideal because of the lower ambient temperatures. His fingers itched to find a pencil and mark changes.
And over there. The latest developments in +660 kV DCEHV technology in China, showing that maintaining levels with advanced insulation technologies was possible. He scrubbed his face. Of course, she wouldn’t know that. The information was classified.
He picked up the plans and laid them across the table, flipping pages, looking for clues as to what this thing would power. On page three, he found specs for radiation proofing. Could be some form of nuclear power. Or perhaps something more sinister.
His heart sank. Lux wasn’t one of the bad guys. She couldn’t be. There was such an innocence in her eyes. And when he’d raised his voice, she’d ducked. Anyone military trained would have instinctually moved to block him.
He combed his hand through his hair and cursed.
Lux stretched and their eyes met.
For the second time that day, Quik froze. He’d been caught with his hand in the substation plans and there was no way to deny it.
Chapter Eleven
Quik glanced down at the plans and then back at Lux. She stretched her arms over her head, lengthening her thin body in a wonderful way. The worst part about noticing something like that was that Lux had no idea what her movements did to him. She wasn’t trying to seduce him, to draw him to her, and yet she’d done just that.
He glanced down at his bare chest and then at the bed, where his clothes were neatly folded in plastic bins.
Lux didn’t appear worried that he was looking at top-secret plans for a nuclear-electrical power substation. Nor that he was sitting there with his shirt off. Crap. Maybe she was used to military guys. Crap. Crap.
“Oh good.” Lux smiled and sat up. “You’re alive.” She rose gracefully and glided to the table, her eyes dropping to his chest and the tips of her ears turning pink.
“Thanks to you.” Quik jerked to his feet. Awkward or not, he needed some sort of barrier between them. He pulled a shirt out of a tub, not even bothering to check which one he grabbed before shoving his arms into the sleeves and pulling it over his head.
“How are you feeling?” She moved the tangle of red waves over her shoulder and started braiding.
“Fine.” Quik tipped his head, watching her fingers nimbly taming the waves.
“Good.”
“Why are you here?”
Lux’s plump limps turned down. Had he asked that before? He couldn’t remember. “You’re looking at why,” she responded. Looking around, she found the rucksack he remembered always being near her. She reached in and retrieved a hair band to finish off the braid. Once done, she flipped it over her shoulder and leaned over the table, indicating that he should join her. He warily took a seat. “I need you to help me build this,” she said.
Quik bolted from his chair. Steam rose from the pan and he retrieved the cup from the shelf. “Um. Do you want … something?” He looked around for his tin of hot chocolate.
Lux pulled a cup and cocoa powder from her bag. “Sure.”
“You keep a lot in there.” He eyed the bag, not quite trusting it. It didn’t look full.
She shrugged. “It’s good to be prepared. Especially out here.”
He lifted a shoulder. She had that right. He made them cocoa and leaned against the wall, preferring to keep as much space between them as possible. He couldn’t allow the attraction between them to cloud his judgment. “You don’t need me to build that; you need Bruce Banner.” He lifted his mug to indicate her shirt.
Lux looked down as if she’d forgotten what she was wearing. Maybe she had. She didn’t seem the type to obsess over every outfit like his ex-wife had—probably still did.
Lux cupped her drink in her hands. “Actually, I was looking for a Tony Stark.” She lifted the cup and challenged him over the rim as she took a sip of cocoa.
He remembered smelling peppermint and cocoa on her and wondered if she’d taste like it too. Don’t go there. “As you can see from my mansion, I’m ill-prepared to fund such a project.”
“I don’t need your money.” Lux set her cup down. “I need your brain.”
“I’m afraid that was frozen in a freak drowning incident just this morning.”
She clapped her hands. “I’ll take Captain America—any day, any time.” She grinned and her eyes crinkled at the corners. For some reason, Quik suddenly wanted to take on the man with the shield who made Lux sigh like that.
He shook his head. “What’s this meant to power, anyway?”
“A toy factory.” She met his gaze head-on, and he got the distinct impression she wasn’t lying. That would explain the name on the schematic. Although he’d never heard of the North Pole Toy Company before.
He shook his head, setting his empty cup in the small sink. “There are plenty of people you can hire. I don’t need the money, and I don’t want to be involved. I like my little corner of the world.”
“I understand wanting to live off the grid—trust me.” Her shoulders hunched forward. “It’s really just my family around. No one will ever know you were involved. I can promise you that.”
“Really.” He stared at her, writing his doubt across his face as if it were a whiteboard.
She swiped her finger in an X across her chest.
His eyes drifted to the plans. Curiosity was always a weakness for him. Apparently, so were redheads. “My Spidey senses are telling me there’s more to this than you’re letting on.”
She bit her lip.
“Aha!” He smacked the counter with his palm. “What? What’s this really about?”
Lux pressed her hands over her eyes and then dropped them in her lap. “Fine. We have to be up and running as soon as possible. Christmas is a make-or-break for us this year. If I can’t get this to work, then Christmas is ruined.”
“Christmas is ruined? That’s a bit dramatic for a bunch of toys, isn’t it?”
“It’s my family’s business. We’ve invested everything into Christmas.”
“Bleeding hearts unite,” muttered Quik. If Lux was playing him, if she were some sort of spy or agent, she was a darn good one. And she had saved his life, putting her own on the line to do it. She must be stronger than her lithe frame indicated to get him out of the water. He could just as easily pulled her in with him. He held out his hand.
Lux eyed it. “What?”
He sighed. “Give me a pencil.”
She reached into that bag again and came out with two folders, a purple textbook labeled Electric Power Substation Engineering and a mechanical pencil with a brand-new eraser.
He started at the beginning, slowly combing through the many layers of paper. Lux sipped her cocoa, watching him over the rim of the cup as she did so. The way her full lips pressed against the edge was a distraction he could do without—or maybe not. “You did well grounding.”
“Thanks.” Her smile was like a thousand-watt bulb.
“But your power input is much too strong.”
Lux shook her head. “If anything, it’s underestimated.”
“That can’t be right.”
Lux traced the edge of the paper with her finger. “There was one power source coming in before, but now there’s five.”
“Five?! Are you insane? You could blow up the factory with that much power.”
“I know. Why do you think I’m dumping all my time into this project?”
“Shut down a source.”
Her eyes widened and she rasped, “That’s not possible.”
He sighed. “You’re crazy.” Her whole family was probably crazy too. Ginger had seemed nice enough, and he’d met Lux’s mother briefly. Her little sister looked like a snow fairy with her white hair and purple eyes. The more he thought about it, the stranger her family seemed. They drove sleighs with reindeer and owned a toy company. Wow! They’d hopped right off the reality bus. “I’m telling you, you have to slow down the incoming.”
Lux met his gaze and for a moment, he was lost in her avocado-green eyes, stumbling through her gaze. “Quik, I know it doesn’t make sense, but you have to trust my stats. We can’t lose a power source. That would be …” Lux shuddered. “Disastrous and horrible,” she croaked, as if the idea were emotionally distressing.
He stroked his beard and leaned back in his chair. If she were building something dangerous, she’d be trying to amp up the power—not tame it. No matter what she was really up to, this toy factory thing was not sitting right with him. They’d have to make more toys than Hasbro. He couldn’t get involved. He couldn’t. There was too much at stake. Just by having her here he was exposing himself in a way that could cause problems for people he cared about. “I’ll make you a deal. I’ll help you with the plans and you leave me alone.”
Lux’s eyebrows dropped low. He could imagine they were attached to her heart and it had sunk in her chest at his request. No, wait, that was his heart. His heart was sitting low and scraped and scratched at the idea of never seeing Lux again.
Now that the words were out there, he couldn’t bring them back.
She swallowed once and nodded. “It’s probably for the best.”
Though it was what he wanted to hear, her answer didn’t make things better. Probably for the best could mean so many things.
It could mean, It’s probably better that I don’t see you again because I don’t like you.
It could also mean, It’s probably best we don’t see one another again because a hit man’s on my trail.
Or it could m
ean, It’s probably best if I don’t come back because I like you and might let you kiss me.
Though he shouldn’t, he was rooting for the last one.
So many possibilities in one little statement. It was a puzzle. Quik liked puzzles. Although he wished he knew the answer to this riddle, because he was at war with himself over whether he really wanted to kiss Lux or if that was the peppermint cocoa talking. He moved her book and files to the floor next to his chair and got to work.
Chapter Twelve
Lux affixed Dunder’s harness. “You’re ready to head home, aren’t you?” She rubbed his neck.
Dunder bumped her with his head to get her moving.
“I know. We need to get home.” She patted his backside and smiled up at the starry sky. Quik had taken hours to go over every part of her plan. He explained the changes she needed to make and complimented where she’d done well. For a while there, she was back in the classroom with the professor all to herself. A cute professor. Yes, his cuteness level had gone up several notches. The way he continually combed his hands through his bed head without realizing he only made it stand on end. Oh my—
“Sleigh bells,” said Quik as he stepped out of the house.
“Excuse me?”
“You put sleigh bells on the harness.” His cheeks were already turning pink in the cold and their breath mingled in clouds above their heads.
“Someone yelled the suggestion at me once.” Lux smiled shyly. She wasn’t used to teasing a man—especially one as smart as Quik. He could so easily think she was nothing more than a coed with a crush.
“Well. Most yelled suggestions are usually good ones.” He clapped his hands together and stomped his feet. “You’re really leaving now?”
Lux took the plans out from under his arm. “Yep.” There wasn’t a minute to spare. There were parts to order and she and the elves would weld what she couldn’t order. Langley was watching her, so she needed to figure out the best way to get supplies without looking like a terrorist.
Marrying Miss Kringle: Lux Page 5
