by J. H. Croix
Jessa reached them, her eyes coasting over him and then landing on Becca. She surprised him by putting her hands on her hips and glaring at Becca. “I don’t need you to be my guard, you know. I can handle this myself,” she said firmly, a tinge of defiance in her tone.
Becca’s eyes bounced from Jessa to Eli and back again. “Fine.” She looked to Aidan. “Come on.”
Aidan stepped to her side, his gaze bemused. “Where are we going?”
“Out to lunch,” Becca replied with a grin. Hooking her hand in the crook of his elbow, she steered him to the door. “We’ll be back in about an hour.” With a wave, they exited the room, the door clicking shut behind them.
Eli’s heart was about to pound its way out his chest, but he forced himself to breathe and turned to face Jessa. Damn. She was beautiful. Her blonde streaked brown hair had an added streak of purple on one side and was pulled back in a loose ponytail with tendrils escaping and framing her face. She wore her usual leggings and a stretchy mini-skirt, both black today, paired with a fitted gray t-shirt that hugged every inch of her lush breasts. Making her ensemble just so her, she had on a pair of socks with cows all over them. The joy only she could elicit rose within him and he itched to touch her. But first, he had to make this right.
Her silver-gray gaze, slightly guarded, met his. “Hey there. I, uh, didn’t expect to see you here.”
He nodded slowly and managed to speak. “How are you?”
“I’m okay. You?”
He took a deep breath, marshaling every ounce of his courage. He felt so silly to be nearly paralyzed by this woman, but he was. She’d come to mean everything and he had to find a way to convince her to come back to Diamond Creek. He’d already planned to agree to some kind of long-distance relationship if that’s all he could have.
Another deep breath and he met her eyes, steeling himself to do the thing that scared him the most. “I haven’t been too good actually. I’ve, uh…” His words ran out. You’d better do this, man. Don’t chicken out now. Another breath. He was getting really good at this whole breathe through it thing. “I’ve missed you. A lot. I’m, uh, I’m really sorry I blew it when you came to talk to me at the harbor. If you can believe it, Ryan told me to stop being such an idiot. I don’t know how to explain, but because of how things were with my parents, I just decided it’d be better if I didn’t try to do the whole relationship thing. It was never anything to worry about until I met you. I, uh…damn, this is hard.” He paused and looked over at Jessa. Her gaze was pinned to him, her eyes bright with tears, and everything about her expression encouraging him to continue. So he did. “Look, I’m not sure what love is because I’ve never had any experience with it, but I’m pretty sure I love you…”
Jessa flew at him, flinging her arms around him. He lifted her and held her close, turning his head into her hair and just breathing her in. Tears clogged his throat and he swallowed against the tightness. The emotion almost overwhelmed him. Being able to hold her again after the week from hell was such a pure relief, he could hardly bear it. After several long moments, she leaned back and looked at him. She cupped her hands over his cheeks and smiled. “Wow! I didn’t expect that,” she said softly.
His heart swelled. “I didn’t expect you,” he finally managed.
She leaned forward and brought her lips to his. He felt as if he’d been underwater and finally came up for air. She was his air. The feel of her lips against his, her tongue stroking boldly into his mouth and her soft sigh when she drew away nearly undid him. She wiggled and slowly slipped from his arms and took a step back.
He’d pretty much wrung himself dry the last few days and didn’t even know what else to say at this point, so he just soaked in the sight of her. She bit her lip and glanced over. “I suppose you might want to know that if I knew what love was, it would be what I feel when I’m with you,” she said with a smile that morphed into a soft laugh.
He tugged her close and wrapped his arms around her again.
Later that night after takeout Thai dinner with Becca and Aidan, Jessa glanced over when Eli rested his head against the headboard and rolled it to look at her, his eyes somber. His muscled chest gleamed in the low light cast from a lamp in the corner. His brown hair was mussed from her running her hands through it after he’d taken her to an explosive climax and made her forget where she ended and he began. She was languid and relaxed, completely at ease.
“So, I had one more thing to ask you,” he said, his voice low and gravelly in the quiet room.
Her skin prickled at the mere sound of his voice. She turned to face him, crossing her legs and tucking the sheets over her lap. Her skin was bare and a bolt of need shot through her when he reached over and dragged a fingertip along the curve of her breast.
At her sharp intake, his eyes whipped up. “Couldn’t help it.”
“What did you want to ask me?”
“If you would come back to Diamond Creek…to stay with me.”
Her heart leapt when she realized he’d come all this way to talk to her and somehow she’d neglected to mention she always meant to return to Diamond Creek. The way he put his heart on the line meant all that much more because of what he hadn’t known. Tears pressed at the back of her eyes.
“Eli, I was already planning to come back. I just came down here to take care of a few logistics.”
His green eyes widened and then he smiled, a slow, breathtaking smile. “Wow. I feel like an idiot. I was all ready to tell you we’d find a way to make it work even if you wanted to stay here. So, you were going to stay in Diamond Creek even if things didn’t work out for us?”
She nodded, the wave of emotion easing inside. “I thought about coming back here, but I have more reasons to stay there. Don’t get me wrong, I really want things to work out for us, but staying in Diamond Creek is the right thing for me. I have more family there than here. Things are going great with the gallery, and it just made sense. After today, you couldn’t tear me away from there.”
She leaned over and slid a hand into his hair as she brought her lips to his. When she pulled back, she saw her own feelings reflected in equal measure in his eyes.
Epilogue
Jessa walked down the dock at the harbor. A whistling sound caught her ears and she turned to see an eagle flying alongside the dock, mere feet away from her. Her breath caught and she stopped to watch as the eagle angled to the side, its wings catching a gust of the breeze, lifting it higher in the air as it turned. She turned to make her way down the dock. Eli was visible ahead as he leaned over the boat railing and handed a small cooler to Ryan. She breathed in the salty air and sighed, a warm joy blooming in her heart.
It was one day past the anniversary of the fire that spun her life on its compass and pointed her in the direction of Diamond Creek and ultimately Eli. Ryan had started to walk up the dock, two customers following behind him. He grinned when he saw her. “Hey Jessa, Eli’s on the boat.”
“Hey you too! Are you home for dinner tonight or something else?”
“Home. Eli said he’s picking up pizza from Glacier Pizza on the way home. Jeff and Ben might stop by. Will that be okay?”
Jessa stopped and put her hands on her hips. “Did Eli say it was okay?”
Ryan nodded, his hair falling in front of his eyes. “Well, yeah, but if it wasn’t cool with you, you could say so.”
“Of course it’s okay! Just don’t leave dirty socks all over the place and I’m good.”
Ryan burst out laughing and waved as she continued walking. When she reached the boat, Eli was waiting, having climbed out and slung his backpack over his shoulder.
He dipped his head and dropped his forehead to hers. “Hey.”
“Hey. How was your day?” she asked, smiling widely because she couldn’t be near Eli and not smile.
He brought his lips to hers before answering. In a flash, what started as a soft kiss morphed into hot and sense stealing when he swept his tongue into her mouth and nipped at her lips. B
y the time he pulled away, she was panting and arching into him.
He chuckled softly. “Sorry ‘bout that. You kind of make me forget where I am.”
“Ditto,” she replied with a laugh. “I hear we’re having pizza from Ryan’s favorite place and maybe some company.”
Eli stepped away and adjusted his backpack on one shoulder as he curled his palm around her hand. They started walking slowly along the dock back toward the harbor parking lot. “Yeah. Couldn’t say no when he asked. He busted his butt today. We ran two charters—one this morning and one this afternoon. He never complains and just works. Makes it hard to say no when all he asks for is pizza and if his friends can come over. Hope you don’t mind.”
“I never mind. I don’t know why you worry about it.”
“Because it’s your house too now, and if you did mind, it would matter to me.”
They’d married a few months ago. Though Jessa had informally stayed with Eli for many months up to that point, she’d officially moved in after their honeymoon. The house was warmer now with her eye for decorating and some of her own furniture pieces to brighten up the space. She stopped on the dock and tugged him to face her. “When I married you, I knew Ryan was part of the deal. I love him too. He might not be my son technically, but he is in every way that matters. He needs to be able to have pizza and friends, so unless there’s some other reason to say no, then it won’t ever be because of me caring for some silly reason. Plus, all they ever do is stay upstairs. It’s like the lair of teen boys with video games, TV, and stuff everywhere. Maybe we could agree that I get to make him do laundry a little bit more?” she asked with a grin.
“Deal,” Eli said as he dipped his head for another kiss.
Later that night with Ryan and his friends ensconced upstairs with two pizzas and engaged in a lively battle on some video game, Eli glanced over at Jessa. They were out on the back deck. The air was starting to lose its warmth from the sun and a soft breeze blew a loose lock of hair over her eyes. She brushed it away and turned to face him, leaning against the railing. She spun the almost empty wineglass in her hand and smiled at him. In the smudgy gray light of dusk with the sun setting in a glorious burst of red and gold behind her, all Eli could think was she was the absolute best thing that ever happened to him.
He stood from where he sat by the small wrought-iron table and stepped in front of her. She took the last sip of her wine and set the glass on the railing. He reached for her hands, holding them both in his.
“Tonight was perfect,” he said.
Sometimes he felt silly because he felt so much with Jessa that words usually didn’t capture it. Plus, he hadn’t had much practice with words and feelings, not when they were paired together. Jessa didn’t seem to mind, so he kept winging it.
“Takeout pizza is always perfect, especially when it’s from Glacier Pizza. Although, I have to say living here has taught me the virtues of fish and moose and even caribou. I always promised myself I couldn’t sanction mass-production of meat, but this whole hunting, fishing thing you do, well, that’s something else altogether,” she said with a teasing grin. “I still can’t believe when I saw you last year with that grocery cart full of frozen foods. So not you!”
He chuckled, recalling his chest freezer had been broken and he’d wanted an excuse to find her in the grocery store. “Hey, I got to talk to you,” he said with a shrug. “That’s all I cared about.”
She stepped closer and slipped her hand up behind his neck, her silver eyes shining through the dim light. “I’m so glad I backed into you,” she whispered against his lips.
“Me too,” he said on a sigh as her lips met his.
~The End~
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Please enjoy the following excerpt from When We Fall, the next book in the Last Frontier Lodge Series!
Excerpt: When We Fall (by J.H. Croix; all rights reserved)
A rock came tumbling down the steep mountainside. Lacey Adams heard it before she saw it and quickly glanced up to see a small boulder hurtling toward her. She scrambled out of the way, only to lose her footing on the gravelly trail and crash to the ground onto her hip. “Ooomph!”
“How’s it going up there?” Quinn Haynes called out.
“Great, just great!” Lacey called in reply. She waited until the boulder came to a thudding stop against a spruce tree at the bottom of the slope before pushing herself up on her hands. Once she was back on her feet, she took stock and figured she’d have a hell of a bruise on her hip when they got to camp tonight. Otherwise, it was all in a day’s work for her. She and Quinn were leading a guided photography trip in Katmai National Forest. Katmai was renowned for its remote beauty and particularly for the brown bears that frequented the famed Katmai River Falls where remote video cameras recorded the massive bears feeding off salmon running through the river. They were many miles away from the river falls and trekking deep into the wilderness with a group of wildlife photographers committed to more pure forms of photography, namely capturing wildlife in more challenging circumstances than those of the convenient viewing platforms by the falls.
She’d volunteered to check this trail out before they took the group along this route to reach another mountain peak ahead. She’d confirmed what they suspected—the trail had been mostly washed out by the spring thaw when the melting snow turned into raging streams. The gravel here was loose, along with the rocks up above. If Lacey had her way, they’d take the slightly longer route through the trees. In her years of backcountry guiding, she’d learned it was usually wiser to go slow than to take potentially risky shortcuts. It was one thing to risk her own injury, another to risk that of her clients. She ran her own small business from Diamond Creek, Alaska and often paired with other guides she knew from her years of working in the wilds of Alaska. Quinn Haynes was an old friend and occasionally joined her on these trips. She hadn’t seen him in over two years when they confirmed this trip. He’d taken a break from guiding to finish his medical degree. Now, he had a fancy title to go with living on the edge. He’d spent the last year overseas providing medical care in war torn regions.
Lacey carefully made her way back down the mountainside and met Quinn at the bottom where he was waiting. Their clients had taken a short hike to a nearby field to watch and wait for wildlife to pass by. Quinn grinned when he saw her. “I’m guessing we won’t be using that shortcut. You okay?”
She had a slight limp from her hip’s collision with the rocky ground. She figured it would work itself out once they got moving again. “I’m fine. The slope is rocky and loose. Let’s take the longer way through the trees. Aside from not wanting anyone else to fall on their tail, I’d rather not worry about the expensive cameras they’re hauling.”
Quinn’s amber hair glinted in the morning sun when he nodded. His eyes, almost a precise match with his hair, coasted over her. “You sure you’re okay? You’ve got quite the limp.”
Lacey sighed. “I’m fine. Give me a few minutes.”
He turned to walk at her side when she reached him. They walked back toward the camp at a leisurely pace. Lacey’s hip started to loosen as she’d predicted. By the time they arrived at camp, her limp had almost disappeared. Quinn strode to his tent and came out with a thermos.
“Coffee for you,” he said as he handed it over with a grin.
Lacey plunked down in a camp chair and unscrewed the thermos lid. The coffee was plenty warm and dark. After a long swallow, she sighed and leaned back. “Thanks. I forgot you somehow manage to make the best coffee even when we’re in the middle of nowhere.”
Quinn chuckled and sat down across from her in another folding chair, his rangy form barely fitting in the chair. Lacey caught herself when her eyes began a slow investigation of Quinn. She didn’t know what it was because she’d known Quinn for year
s, but ever since he’d met her at the start of this trip, she was uncomfortably aware of how handsome he was. He was in superb physical condition, rugged and fit, every inch of him honed muscle. His skin was bronzed from days living in the outdoors. He was a man who threw himself into whatever environment he happened to be in—whether it was the wilderness of Alaska, the beaches of a remote island, or the desert somewhere.
It wasn’t that she hadn’t noticed he was handsome before, but she’d never had any physical response to him. The last few days had been downright annoying for her. If she had a few spare minutes and he was nearby, he was like a magnet for her eyes and her body hummed with a buzz of awareness. She mentally shook herself and lifted her eyes above the trees. It was early fall, yet still quite warm for Alaska. The sun was up, brightening the snow-covered mountain peaks of the Katmai Range. Conveniently, the wilderness gave her plenty to stare at other than Quinn.
They sat in the quiet with nothing other than the sound of water sliding over rocks in the background. A stream was close to their camp, offering a place to bathe and easy water access for drinking and cooking. They had two more nights here before they hiked out.
Later that afternoon, Lacey was leading the way back from their hike when both of her knees buckled suddenly. Weakness like she’d never felt before crashed through her body. She stumbled sideways and gripped a birch tree to steady herself. After several deep breaths, she felt almost normal, so she pushed off the tree and began walking again. She glanced behind her to see Quinn had stopped with their group and was pointing at something in the distance. He was a veritable font of information about the geology of Alaska, so he was an extra plus as far as clients were concerned. She breathed a sigh of relief because it didn’t appear any of them had noticed her stumble.
