Lynx helped get them bundled into his truck, asking again if they were hurt. He let them know that he had a nurse practitioner—his wife—on standby if they needed medical attention. When they told him no, he still insisted on taking the time to look them over.
“You guys were damn lucky,” he muttered, driving them back toward the lodge. Once there, he ran inside for the keys to the cabin he mentioned.
“Are you sure you weren’t hurt?” Dare asked once they were alone. “If anything happened to you…”
“Stop. I’m fine. I’m more worried about you. If that branch...”
Lynx returned with the keys, stopping any further conversation between them.
What ifs chased their tails in Morgan’s mind. She could have lost him tonight. With that knowledge, what had bothered her so much in the last few days didn’t seem that important now.
Lynx drove around to the back of the lodge where a small cabin, not much bigger than hers, squatted on the banks of the Chatanika River.
“It’s not the most comfortable,” he said. “But it will do for the night. Besides, you two look like you can rough it.”
Lynx unlocked the door and ushered them in. It was a sparse one room with only a queen-size bed and not much else.
“It does have plumbing, so no outhouse to deal with,” Lynx said. “But what you see is basically it. There are extra blankets somewhere, I’m sure you’ll find them. Tomorrow I’ll call Aidan, my brother-in-law. He has a way with engines, and maybe he can get your truck running enough to limp you home or at least get you to Fairbanks.”
“Thanks, Lynx,” Dare said. “I appreciate it.”
“Well, I kind of feel responsible. BW is a legend around these parts, and since you two are at odds about the relationship thing, I should have known he’d make an appearance.”
“Sounds like this moose could give my dad some tips on matchmaking,” Dare said, looking skeptical as though he didn’t believe a word about a crazy matchmaking moose.
Morgan didn’t buy it either.
Come on, while animals were interesting creatures, and had been known to predict earthquakes, how in the world could a moose know she and Dare were at odds with each other and then create an accident to where they had to spend the night together?
Oh, God.
They did have to spend the night together.
Due to the Powder Heads, there was no room at the inn, so to speak. And she still a virgin. She stifled a hysterical giggle. You couldn’t write this stuff up. After all, who would believe it?
Lynx said his goodbyes and left them alone in the cabin. A cabin with one bed and no couch.
“I’ll take the floor,” Dare said.
“No, you won’t. I’ll take the floor. You could have died today.”
“No way in hell will I let you sleep on the floor,” Dare said, his green eyes chips of granite.
“Well, then. That leaves us sharing a bed.” This was not how she thought her first night of sleeping with a man would happen, and with the way Dare was behaving, they would actually be sleeping. Well, one of them would. She doubted she’d catch a wink lying next to him.
He stood still staring at her, and everything inside her woke up. She needed to revisit her ground rules and why she needed them because Dare looked like he wanted to devour her.
And she wanted to be devoured.
Suddenly he swore, and then strode purposely toward her. Part of her wanted to retreat, the other wanted to meet him halfway. Instead, she stayed rooted in her spot, gasping as he swept her up in his arms and buried his face in the crook of her neck.
“I don’t think I could have survived if something bad happened to you.” He held her tight against him, and then buried his good hand in her hair, pulling her head back so he could stare into her eyes. “Screw your ground rules. I love you, Morgan. I want to be with you. Always.” Then he kissed her, silencing any objections she had.
Not that she had any at the moment. Not with his words swimming around her and heating her blood.
Oh God, she did care about him. Too much. How had this happened?
She whimpered, grabbing onto him and holding on tight, never wanting to let him go.
Chapter 25
He hadn’t meant to touch her, but how could he not when he’d come so close to losing her?
Now he couldn’t get enough. Hell, he didn’t think he’d ever get enough of her. The taste of her, the feel of her in his arms, the way she sighed, whimpered, moaned at his touch.
Christ, how was a man supposed to think, reason, with a woman like her in his arms?
Dare fused his mouth against hers, and she welcomed him, his good hand streaking up under her sweater, struggling to strip it from her.
She took care of that for him, tossing the knitted material aside, leaving her encased in a lacy, white bra.
Virginal white.
Slow it down, man.
How? When everything inside him raged for him to take, to conquer?
“Morgan, if you’re going to tell me to stop, do it now,” he said, nibbling at her neck.
“I’m not going to do that,” she gasped. “I want this. I want you.”
Greedily, he took her mouth again, backing her up toward the bed. He knew he should temper his desire, but this overwhelming need to have her, to imprint himself on her, consumed him. He wanted to make her forget about the others on her list, and only think of him. Only want him, and not just for tonight, but for forever.
Her arms tightened around him like silken ropes. Breathlessly, she wrapped her legs around his waist, causing them to topple over onto the bed. Their lips fused again in a wild, desperate kiss. He tore his mouth free to suck and nibble at her throat, her collarbone, and the tops of her breasts still encased in the lacy bra. She arched her body against his, whimpering his name.
She was a delicious combination of dark needs and sweet innocence, and he should be damned for the elicit ways he wanted to take her, the things he wanted to do with her, the pleasures of the flesh he wanted to show her.
“Yes, hurry,” she said, tearing at his clothes.
Damn it, he shouldn’t hurry, but that was exactly what he wanted to do. No matter how much he wanted to, he couldn’t.
Not now, not their first time together. Her first time.
He released her and stood at the edge of the bed, looking at her splayed out before him.
“Stay,” he ordered when she reached for him.
He shed his clothes, tossing them to the floor, her eyes widening at the sight of how very much he wanted her. She wetted her lips, and he almost hit his knees.
Actually, being on his knees was exactly where he needed to be, where he should have been days ago. Kneeling, he pulled off her boots and stripped her out of her jeans, leaving her only wearing her white-lacy bra and panties. Seeing her like this, so vulnerable, those eyes that saw into his soul, wide with wonder and anticipation, had him tempering his desire.
He had to make this pleasurable for her. It was her first time, and he had to do everything he could to make it memorable. So memorable that she wouldn’t want to do this with anyone but him.
Blood pumped through his veins, hot and heavy. A type of madness overcame him, it seemed to rule her as well as she pulled at him, twisting her body, wanting him closer.
He bracketed her hands in his good one, and yanked them above her head. “Keep them there,” he demanded, then he released her, waiting a beat to see if she’d do what he ordered. When she did, he rewarded her with a quick kiss and then yanked off her panties.
She gasped.
He wanted to give her soft words, slow strokes, but he didn’t have it within him to do so. Instead, he set his mouth on her. She bucked under him, calling out his name.
But he was a man possessed with the need to have her. She cried out as his tongue found her, flicked that special spot, and lavished it until she writhed under his mouth, making demands of her own. He loved that about her. That she knew what she wan
ted, and he wanted to give her everything she demanded.
The taste of her was intoxicating, addicting, and he lapped her up until her nails dug into his shoulders. Her gasps and cries cresting into shouts of hallelujahs.
“Oh, God. Oh, God. Dare,” she gasped, grasping at his shoulders. “Please.”
“Please what, Morgan?” he asked, meeting her eyes, loving the slumberous, satisfied expression.
“Please, take me.”
Need whipped inside him, but he paused.
If he did this, would she leave him after the deed was done?
She wanted no strings, had told him so multiple times. What would happen if he did do what she wanted? Would he be tossed away like yesterday’s garbage? He wanted a lifetime of garbage. That didn’t sound right, but he’d take the garbage along with the other stuff, just to have her in his life.
“Marry me, Morgan.” He was still on his knees. Granted, on his knees between her legs, but it had to count, didn’t it? “I’m in love with you.”
“I can’t. You heard Lynx. Being a wildlife refuge officer requires that I move. I don’t know where I’ll be next year.”
“If that is all that’s stopping you, don’t let it. Me and my dogs are great at traveling.”
“You’d move out of Heartbreak, follow me around the state?”
“To be with you? No question.”
“You’d leave your family?”
“To make a family with you, in a heartbeat.”
She frowned, studying him, rising and bracing her body on her arms. “You’re serious, aren’t you?”
“I’ve never been more serious about anything—anyone—in my life. Morgan, I want you, as my partner, as the mother of my children, any way I can have you. I know that isn’t what you want, but maybe in time you could see yourself as my wife.”
“Oh, Dare.”
“Please, just give me a chance to prove I’m the man for you.”
“You don’t have to prove it. I’ve always known you were the one for me the first time you showed up to pick up my sister for a date. You were meant for me. Not her.”
“Then what the hell was all this stuff, asking me to take your virginity. No strings attached, laying down ground rules?”
“Well, I didn’t want to scare you off or pressure you. And I really wanted to sleep with you.”
“Jesus H. Christ, please pressure me. I love you.”
“I love you too. I think I always have.” She gave him a seductive, come hither look. “Now, what are you going to do about it?”
“Uh…” He seriously wasn’t going to do this, was he. “Nothing.” Apparently, he was. Shit.
She frowned. “Nothing?”
“Nope. We are going to do this right. You’re going to marry me first.”
“You can’t be serious? I’m mostly naked, and you’re going to turn me down?”
“Hell no. I’m going to pleasure you in every way I know until there is no possible way that you will not marry me. Then, on our wedding night we will finally rid you of what you think of as a limitation.”
“Good luck sticking to that.” She snaked her hand low, causing his eyes to roll back in his head.
“Not fair,” he groaned.
“Life isn’t fair,” she purred, taking him in hand.
Epilogue
Four weeks later, a double wedding was performed at the newly remodeled Forget-Me-Not Inn with Jack and Luke sporting huge smiles, along with their families. But no smile was bigger than Dare’s.
He’d gotten her here. Married to him, tied her down with every string imaginable. She was his, and he was hers. The wedding ceremony was over, and the reception barely started before he whisked her away.
They’d be leaving for a honeymoon in the morning for two weeks in Kauai, thanks to Gabi’s Hawaiin connections, but tonight was all about the two of them.
He rushed her into the barn and up the stairs, shutting Eska out with the other dogs for the night. He wanted no distractions. Tonight was about Morgan and no one else.
“That was mean,” Morgan murmured as he carried her into his bedroom. Now their bedroom. “She loves you.”
“And she’ll forgive me.” He set her down on her feet and stripped her of her wedding dress, a simple sheath of satin her brother, Derek, had whipped up at the last minute, having flown in from New York with not only Morgan’s dress but Gabi’s too. She’d looked stunning in it, but she took his breath away out of it. “God, you are beautiful.”
She wore only a slim, silvery camisole. Smiling, she reached for him. “You know, I’ve heard that not sleeping with a man before you marry him leaves you worried if he’s any good in the sack.”
“Really?” Dare inched her back toward the bed. It had been hell waiting, but the anticipation had been delicious. Over the last month, before the rushed double wedding, they experimented in all the pleasures of love making except full penetration, and he was more than ready, achingly so, to be inside her. He just hoped he didn’t disappoint his bride. “Well, you’re about to find out.”
“Thank God. You’ve tortured me enough making me wait.”
“You’ll thank me later, plus now you can tell our many daughters that we will have that you waited to have sex until you were married.”
“Many?”
“Oh, yeah, a few sons, too, if you don’t mind. We’d better get to practicing.” He swooped her up in his arms and tossed her on the bed, loving the way she looked splayed out before him. Quickly, he shed himself of the monkey suit, and joined her.
Gathering her up in his arms, he stilled. “Morgan, stop me if you feel apprehensive about anything.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me. After all the foreplay, I’m more than ready for you to do the deed.”
“The deed?”
“Whatever, just get it done.”
He brushed a strand of hair that had escaped her complicated updo behind her ear. “Sweetheart, this is new to me too. It feels like my first time. You have no idea the pressure to perform, to make this good for you.” No wonder Bart had turned her down, and he owed the man more than he could ever repay for setting her on the path toward him.
She pushed at his shoulders until he turned over, and straddled him. “Then let me take charge.”
Gladly.
And did she take charge. Rising above him, stripping off her camisole until she was as bare as him. Then leaning over him and blowing his mind—her mouth as it traveled down his body, her touch as she didn’t leave anything unattended, and her body as it slid down him, and then she rose above him like an earth goddess.
Just as she was about to take him inside her, he swiveled their positions, bracketing her hands above her head. “No, let me. Please.”
Slowly, ever so slowly, he breeched her inner folds, until he reached the barrier. Then he stilled, locking eye contact with her. “I love you, Morgan Waterman Wilde.”
“And I love you, Dare Wilde.” She held her breath and then gasped as he broke through her virginal barrier as gently as he could. Staying still, he gave her time to get used to his invasion. When she arched against him, he groaned, grounding his hips against hers, driving deeper into her.
“God, you feel so good,” he groaned, his voice hoarse.
“Not as good as you feel,” she returned.
And then there was no time for words or thoughts as he lost himself inside her. Inside the woman who had become his world, who he would follow wherever she wanted to go, be whomever she wanted him to be.
The orgasm built at the base of his spine, radiating out through him, but he held back. She had to come first, always and forever.
He locked his fingers with hers as everything inside him clenched with extreme pleasure, pleasure he’d never felt before with any other woman.
“Dare!” she screamed his name, her body tightening around him as her orgasm crested. He couldn’t hold his back any longer and with one final thrust, he followed her over, shouting her name and his love for her.
Later, what could have been hours or mere minutes, he didn’t know which since his world had exploded and then realigned into what had to be paradise. He held her tight in his arms, not willing to let go.
“Wow, oh wow. That was…wow,” she whispered, and then slapped him on his ass. “I can’t believe you made us wait until we were married.”
He chuckled, nuzzling her neck. “Honey, you have no idea how hard it’s been.” And then he got started making love to her all over again.
THE END
Watch for Wild Star (Alaska Wild Nights Book 7) coming out this fall featuring Brey Wilde, my heartbroken singer/songwriter.
Author’s Note
I had a great time giving Bullwinkle, my matchmaking moose in Moosed-Up and Mooseletoe, a cameo in Wild Streak, and revisiting the quirky town of Chatanika, Alaska featured in Shiver. It was fun revisiting Lynx Maiski and his nephew Fox and discovering where they’re at in their lives now. If you haven’t read these books yet, check them out.
For those who are interested in traveling to Alaska, Chatanika is an experience you won’t soon forget and makes for an adventurous day trip from Fairbanks, or spend the night in the Chatanika Lodge. Yes, it’s a real place.
Look for more cameos and possibly another book featuring your favorite matchmaking moose, BW, to be released soon.
All my best, and happy reading!
Tiffinie
About the Author
USA Today Beset Selling Author Tiffinie Helmer is always up for an adventure. Raised in Alaska, she was dragged “Outside” by her husband, but escapes the lower forty-eight to spend her summers in Alaska as often as she can get away with it.
A wife and mother of four incredible kids (now adults) and four furry babies, Tiffinie divides her time between enjoying her family, throwing her acclaimed pottery, and writing of flawed characters in unique and challenging situations.
Wild Streak (Alaska Wild Nights Book 6) Page 10
