Just This Once, Contemporary Romance (Last Frontier Lodge #3)

by J. H. Croix

  Gage sat beside Marley and stretched his arm across her shoulders. “No reception.”

  “Yeah, by the time I finally got her on the phone, she was almost to the top of the trail again,” Aidan added.

  “Garrett went to pick up Delia, so she could ferry Becca’s car up to the lodge,” Gage said.

  Aidan nodded. Marley seemed to notice his tension and grabbed the remote to turn on the television. The low murmur of the news didn’t keep Aidan’s thoughts off of Becca. All he could think about was how tired she looked when he found her. Even exhausted and in pain, she still carried her feisty spark, the spark that had called to him so many years ago. He was a patient man for the most part, but his patience was wearing thin. He was coming to terms with the fact that shoving his longing and desire for Becca into a tiny box in his heart hadn’t dimmed his feelings in the slightest. The pressure had built and built. Now he’d let it loose, his feelings were galloping on adrenaline.

  The word love feathered through his thoughts. Though he’d never doubted the possibility of such a feeling, even with Becca, it was hard for him to consider. So much of his life, he’d lived a life that didn’t leave much room for any kind of commitment. Being a Navy SEAL meant a commitment to his career over everything else. He’d embraced that commitment. It had been easy after both of his parents died. Ellie was the only anchor for him, but his quirky little sister with a giant heart didn’t demand much of him while he was running off on one mission after another year after year. He realized when he retired from the military and moved back to Washington that Becca might have wanted him closer than he’d been all those years. He’d quickly fallen into a pattern of visiting her at least once a month. Beyond her, the Hamilton’s were the next closest thing to family. Becca aside, he couldn’t thank Gage enough for bringing him so easily into the circle of his warm, welcoming and boisterous family.

  He leaned his head against the wall and willed the tightness in his chest away. Worrying about Becca for hours and finding her injured and in pain wasn’t helping his composure. He glanced over at Gage and Marley. Marley looked tired. She rubbed her hand on her low back, and Gage instantly turned a concerned gaze on her. She had months to go in her pregnancy, but she was far enough along that it was more than obvious she was pregnant. The look that passed between Gage and Marley was brief, but so intimate Aidan felt like he was intruding. He looked away. By the time he looked back, Marley was standing up to stretch and the nurse poked her head into the waiting room.

  When the nurse saw him, she gestured for him to follow. “Come on in.”

  Gage and Marley immediately followed. When the nurse turned and saw them, she glanced to Aidan, a question in her eyes. “It’s okay. All family.”

  The nurse put her hands on her hips. “Fine with me, but if Becca prefers not to have a crowd, it’s her call.”

  At a collective nod from the group, the nurse led them into the room where Becca was waiting. Becca waved from her seat on a padded table. “Nothing more than a dislocated knee and a hairline fracture in my wrist” she offered. “As for my knee, all I need is rest and painkillers.” She gestured to her wrist. “For this, I just need to wear a brace for a few weeks.”

  Relief washed through Aidan. Once again, a rush of emotion knotted his chest. He hung back while Gage and Marley huddled by the table.

  ***

  Becca rested her head against Aidan’s shoulder as he carried her up the stairs in the lodge. She was floating along on a soft cloud created by painkillers. She’d tried to insist on ibuprofen only, but the nurse and Gage had persuaded her otherwise. Aidan hadn’t had a chance to argue with her about it, so all of her momentary annoyance was directed toward Gage. Since then, the painkillers had erased her annoyance. She was so relieved to have the hours of pain fade away, she didn’t even mind being carried. Actually, it was rather nice. Aidan was all lean muscle and strength. She felt safe and secure in his arms. She could finally relax and she did.

  Aidan shouldered through the door into their suite and nudged the lights on with his elbow. He walked quickly to the bed and carefully set her down. He immediately started to adjust the pillows. Though she was half out of it, she desperately wanted a shower.

  “I need a shower.”

  His eyes whipped up to hers. “Now?”

  She nodded emphatically, although she wobbled a bit.

  He started to say something and stopped. “Shower it is. Let me get it running first, and I’ll help you in there.”

  Moments later, she hobbled at his side, her hand clinging to his elbow. She silently thanked the gods of pain medication because without it, she doubted she could get herself in and out of the shower, even with his help. He stepped inside behind her.

  The hot water was sheer heaven. Even though she’d been out of the rainy cold for a while now, the hours in it had sent the chill deep into her bones. The steamy heat of the shower chased it out of her. Aidan grabbed the soap and began sliding it over her body. He was careful as his touch coasted over her arm and down her legs. Desire drifted through her, muted by her weariness and the painkillers. She didn’t have it in her to act on it. Keeping one hand on her hip to hold her steady, Aidan soaped himself quickly and tugged her to him to stand under the water pounding down. Moments later, he dried her off efficiently.

  He adjusted the pillows to prop up her injured arm and helped her get settled in bed before standing up. “Okay, you need to eat. Should I call room service, or run to the restaurant and bring something up from the buffet?”

  She leaned her head against the headboard and looked over at him. Damn, he was handsome. His damp curls made the blue of his eyes appear deeper. She could look at him all day every day and never get tired of it. The strong, angled features of his face combined with his full, sensual mouth brought a hitch to her breath. He whipped the towel off from his waist, but for entirely practical reasons. Before she had a chance to savor the work of art his body was, he yanked on a pair of sweats and threw a t-shirt on.

  He turned back to her. “Well? What’s it gonna be?”

  “I don’t feel right making staff personally serve me. That’s weird. It’s like I’m taking advantage or something.”

  Aidan angled his head, his eyes quizzical. “Becca, you dislocated your knee and fractured your arm today. Pretty sure no one’s gonna give a damn if you feel like room service. Don’t think they’d care if you weren’t in this shape either. It’s no problem for me to run downstairs though. Just tell me what you want.”

  She pondered what he said and sighed. “But I don’t want you to leave.” The blinkers she’d been wearing for so long had fallen. She felt vulnerable and exposed simply saying aloud she didn’t want him to leave. It seemed silly, but walking alone in the woods made her internal arguments and pride seem inconsequential. The truth was Aidan meant a lot to her. A lot. If she could stand to face it, she might have to consider…love. She started giggling. The gift of painkillers was that instead of getting cranky and prickly, she giggled. It was much easier, really.

  Aidan arched a brow. “What’s so funny?”

  She shrugged and swallowed her giggles.

  He chuckled and came to sit on the bed beside her. He eased his hand onto her hip. “How about we order room service? Since you don’t want me to leave.” His eyes held a gleam. Underneath the thread of humor lay understanding.

  She nodded. “Room service is perfect.” As she spoke, her stomach rumbled.

  His eyes flicked down and back to hers. “When’s the last time you had something to eat?”

  “I had a snack bar on the way down the trail this morning,” she offered with another giggle.

  He leaned forward and caught her lips in a quick kiss before he stood up slowly. He strode to the counter and grabbed two menus. He handed her one and leaned on the table while he perused the other.

  A while later, after finally getting a decent meal, she relaxed against the pillows. Aidan started to close the curtai
ns. “Leave them open,” she said. He turned, a question in his eyes. “I like the stars.”

  He stepped away from the windows and turned the lights off before climbing into bed beside her. She was too sore to move much, but she rolled her head to the side against his shoulder. He dropped a kiss against her hair. She fell asleep, weary and achy, but wrapped in the comfort of his presence.

  Chapter 27

  Aidan woke early, very early, an unbreakable habit from his years in the military. He rolled his head to the side. The stars Becca liked were barely visible in the wispy light of dawn. The sun wasn’t above the horizon yet, but it was making its presence known with streaks of soft light reaching into the sky behind the dark mountains. The moon was just a sliver falling behind the mountains. He shifted his legs carefully and looked down at Becca. Her face was relaxed in sleep, her lashes dark against her cheeks. Her hair lay in a rumple on the pillow around her face. She slept on her back, propped up as she was by the pillows. The hand closest to him rested on his hip. He savored the small point of contact. He’d woken several times during the night to check on her. Each time, she’d been sleeping peacefully. He could only hope she was without pain.

  He’d sustained many injuries during his years in the military, but he’d never dislocated his knee. During a training exercise for the SEAL’s, a team member had the misfortune to do so. Aidan had watched a usually strong and steady man nearly crippled with the pain of it until the knee was popped back into place. That itself had elicited a cry of pain. Aidan had no idea how Becca managed to get her knee back into place by herself. But then, he knew her to be one of the toughest women he knew.

  He suddenly wondered where Oscar was and then remembered he was with Garrett and Delia. They’d decided it would be better if Becca didn’t need to deal with Oscar’s enthusiastic morning greetings. Until she was steady on her feet, they’d need to be careful with Oscar around because he could be too energetic at times.

  He glanced to Becca again and lifted his hand to brush her hair away from her face. Yesterday shouldn’t have rattled him the way it did. She’d taken a tumble and gotten herself back all on her own. All in all, he shouldn’t have even been ruffled by it, but Becca had such a strong hold on his heart, he’d been terrified.

  Her eyes opened, bright blue and hazy with sleep. “Morning,” she said, her voice raspy with sleep.

  “How you feelin’?” he asked.

  She carefully moved her legs and rolled onto her good side. “Okay. My knee’s sore, but it will be for a few days.”

  “How’s your arm?”

  She gently lifted her arm and brought it to rest on his chest. “Okay. My knee’s definitely more sore. This,” she paused and nodded to her forearm “isn’t so bad. The nurse said I wouldn’t feel too much pain with it. It’s barely a fracture.”

  He looked down at her arm in its lightweight brace and swallowed through the tightness in his throat. Damn. He glanced back to Becca, colliding with her gaze. In a flash, the moment went from sleepy to taut. Desire curled like smoke around them. He tried to tell himself now wasn’t a good time, but when she looked up at him and her tongue darted out to lick her lips, he couldn’t resist brushing his lips over hers. Just one kiss. That’s all he would give himself.

  ***

  Aidan’s eyes held hers. The air around them heated, desire prickled over her skin. In slow motion, his lips met hers. His touch was soft at first. She shifted her weight and leaned into him, sliding her tongue against his and sighing when he deepened their kiss. Long, hot, slow and sensuous strokes of his tongue sent sensation spinning through her body. When she tried to arch closer, he tore his lips away.

  Before she could ask what he was doing, he moved swiftly, carefully adjusting her to keep her propped on the pillows. She’d fallen asleep in one of his t-shirts and nothing else. He leaned on his elbow, his eyes coasting over her. “We need to stop,” he said, his voice low and tight.

  She shook her head side to side on the pillow. “I’m not going to break. Don’t go all protective on me.” At the spark in his eyes and the curl of his mouth, she lifted her good hand and stroked it up his bare chest to curl around his neck, tugging his mouth back down to hers. In the following moments, he nearly drove her mad. After kissing her senseless, he dragged his mouth down her neck as he teased along the edge of the t-shirt, the rough, calloused skin of his palms setting fires along every inch of her skin. He raised her t-shirt by inches until her breasts were bare. Her nipples tightened to beads, peaked and aching for his touch. He toyed with them—light strokes, soft pinches—before his lips closed over one. He sucked it into his mouth, his tongue swirling around it. She cried out, arching into the wet heat. He gave the same attention to her other breast before his lips, teeth and tongue meandered down her abdomen.

  She was soaked with want, and he’d yet to touch her center. She shifted her legs restlessly. His hand stroked across her hips as his lips found their way down. Need pounded through her. His name fell from her lips—her voice hoarse and broken. Finally, finally, he stroked a finger across her seam, dragging it through her slick folds. Back and forth, back and forth, he stroked incrementally deeper each time. Her sex clenched, desperate to feel his touch inside of her. Her head thrashing on the pillow, she cried out when he finally plunged his fingers into her channel. She almost came then and there, but he stilled for a beat. Her body leaned into the moment, nearly vibrating with anticipation. Just when she was about to plead, his fingers began to move. His mouth joined them, his tongue driving her wild. Shudders began to roll through her when he finally swirled his tongue over her clit with a deep plunge of his fingers. Her channel convulsed around him as she cried out.

  He slowly drew away, making his way back up her body with soft kisses. He eased himself to her side and lay still. She rolled her head. “You…”

  “That’s all we’re doing for now. Anything else, and you’ll end up hurting yourself by accident.”

  “But…”

  His eyes met hers. “There’s no halfway with you. If I’m inside you, I might not be able to hold back,” he said with a gruff chuckle.

  ***

  Aidan stretched his arm across the back of the booth, curling his hand over Becca’s shoulder. They were due to leave Last Frontier Lodge in a few days. Tonight, they were enjoying dinner in the lodge restaurant with family and friends. Becca was still limping a little, but she was otherwise on the mend. She’d spent most of her follow up appointment arguing with the doctor about how long she needed to wear the brace on her forearm.

  Ginger leaned across the table and topped off Becca’s wine. “So, you two finally seemed to have stopped dilly-dallying?”

  Becca took a sip of wine, her cheeks flushing. ‘What do you mean?”

  Aidan watched their exchange curiously. On the surface, by all appearances, he and Becca had been behaving the way a couple would behave. Yet, they hadn’t really talked about it.

  Ginger was a longtime friend of Marley and Delia’s. Aidan had quickly discovered she cut right to the quick of any topic, irrespective of its sensitivity. She arched a brow at Becca. “If you insist, I’ll just say it. I mean that you two were dancing circles around each other before and now you’ve finally gotten over yourselves. You’re clearly mad for each other, so you might as well stop pretending otherwise.”

  Becca flushed even deeper, but her mouth curled into a slow mile. “Okay. I suppose we’ve stopped dilly-dallying.”

  Ginger rolled her eyes and swung them to Aidan. “Are you as coy as her about all this?”

  Aidan shrugged. “I’m not much for public discussions of my love life.”

  Ginger burst out laughing. “You win!” She paused and took a sip of wine. “But you did say the word love.”

  Aidan groaned and shook his head. Don Peters, Delia’s father, approached their table at that moment, conveniently interrupting the conversation. Marley, Gage and Garrett were with them while Delia was busy working in the kitchen tonight.
Don leaned against the side of the booth. After quickly greeting everyone else, he turned to Gage. “Hot water heater blew out on the east wing. I’ll head up to fix it now before I finish up tonight.”

  Gage started to stand. “Nah, I got it. You…”

  Don cut in. “You have family here for only a few more days. Just keeping you in the loop. We should think about replacing that water heater. This is the third time we’ve had trouble with it in the last few months.”

  Gage nodded. “Right. I’ll order a replacement tomorrow. You sure you don’t mind taking care of this?”

  Don grinned as he turned away. “Not at all.”

  Conversation moved on. Becca’s thigh was warm against his. Aidan couldn’t help it, but every time she was near, his body hummed with need. It waxed and waned with the tides of opportunity. With two of her brothers right at the table, now wasn’t the time to let his body get its own ideas. He forced himself to focus on the conversation.

  Garrett glanced at Becca. “Are you two taking the ferry back to Seattle or flying?”

  “The ferry. How else are we going to get my car and Oscar back?” Becca asked with a grin.

  Garrett shrugged. “Oscar can fly, and you can make other arrangements for your car. You sure you’re up for that long of a trip?”

  Becca balled up her napkin and tossed it at Garrett. “I’m fine! It’s not like being crammed in a plane will be any easier. At least we can stop and stretch our legs on the drive. Plus, I want Aidan to see the Inside Passage. It’s amazing! You and Delia should take the trip sometime.”

  Garrett grinned, his eyes catching Aidan’s. “Make sure she gets enough rest on the trip, okay?”

  That earned Garrett another tossed napkin from Becca. “I can take care of myself. Do I have to remind you again that I’m technically older than you?”

  “Only by a few minutes,” he said with a shrug and a chuckle.