Mountain Angel (Northstar Angels, Book One)

by Suzie O'Connell

  “Hush up and hand me the lighter.”

  Aelissm gathered some pine needles and dead grass and made a nest in the ring of rocks in the center of their campsite. How long ago had her father brought her up for their first overnight father-daughter trip? The same summer she’d first met June. June hadn’t come that time, of course, but she remembered how cool it had been to have her dad and the lake all to herself. They’d used this same ring then and several times since. In high school, June had started coming up to the cabin with them and once, the two of them had camped up here all by themselves.

  “And we were too scared to go to sleep,” she murmured.

  “What’s that Aeli?”

  “I was thinking about that time you and I spent the night alone up here.”

  Her friend laughed. “And we thought we were such tough, independent tomboys. Taught us something, didn’t it?”

  “Yeah, having a man around to protect us is kinda nice.”

  They paused to watch the boys prowling through the meadow along the inlet stream. The warmth that churned through her as Pat indulged Luke in some one on one boy-time had become familiar, and even over the past two weeks she’d felt it. She could put a name to it, but wouldn’t right now. Not yet. Tonight, there was a different kind of heat she wanted to feel.

  “Do you want me to start the fire?” June asked. “I don’t know about you, but I’m hungry and I know Luke and Pat are, too.”

  Aeli returned her attention to the fire pit and strategically piled twigs over and around the nest of tinder. She took the hatchet off Pat’s pack and used it to splinter some of the larger sticks into kindling. After lighting the fire, she waited a few moments, blowing on it occasionally. When she was sure she had a strong blaze going, she scouted around for some larger pieces and soon had a small bonfire.

  “Dinner ready yet?” Pat asked as he and Luke returned.

  “Not unless you want it cold,” Aelissm replied. “Fire’s just about there, though. Git yer pokers ready.”

  “We’ve got them,” Luke announced proudly, presenting four slender willow branches.

  “Feeling better, Miss Davis?” Pat asked as he skewered a hot dog on the end of her stick.

  “Much, but if you get cocky about it, Mr. O’Neil, I reserve the right to change my mind,” she replied. “On second thought—”

  “Aelissm! Don’t you dare say it,” June warned.

  “What?” she said. Feigning innocence, she offered June a scandalized gasp. “You dirty-minded little wench!”

  “I didn’t think it first,” June replied tartly. “Pull your head out of the gutter because I’d really like to float by.”

  Luke looked at Pat questioningly, but the man wasn’t paying attention. He’d turned an amusing shade of pink, however. Aelissm silently scratched a tally mark in her mind for a win. She doubted either one of them had missed the conversation. Luke was old enough that his imagination could come up with all kinds of things to fit to the commentary and Pat…. Pat was apparently quite aware of her meaning and if the light furrow of his brows and half-lifted mouth were any indication, he wasn’t as certain regarding what he should do about it. A giggle escaped her.

  “She’s evil,” Pat remarked to June. “But I think that’s what makes her so cute.”

  As they roasted their hot dogs and entertained themselves with jokes, old stories and tales of recent adventures, Aelissm decided she was feeling deliciously mischievous. She forgot about Adam and the Bedspread and the upcoming finals for her class at the college. Her brain was marvelously devoid of all thoughts other than seducing Pat. Well, almost all other thoughts. There was still enough room left in her mind to enjoy a stunning evening with her closest friends. Embraced as she was by the arms of the mountains above her and the symphony of her home around her, how could she not be in a good mood?

  Pat presented her with an array of condiment packets June had pilfered from the Ramshorn and she chuckled as she took a ketchup and a mustard. Since packing condiment bottles was cumbersome and wasteful, she’d been prepared to choke down a dry hot dog. Instead, she was now enjoying the perfect camp-out meal. By the time she’d finished her first hot dog, both Pat and Luke had already scarfed their second.

  “Now, how come we never thought of this before?” she asked.

  “Well, let’s see. Until I started working at the Ramshorn, we didn’t have a ready supply of portable condiment packets to borrow.”

  “Borrow? How do you borrow these?”

  “Okay, fine. Mary said I could have them if I promised to bring you back in a better mood.”

  “Ha ha, very funny, June.”

  “It’s true,” Pat told her.

  “You’ve been a pain in the ass lately, Aelissm.”

  “Thanks a lot, June.”

  “You’re welcome. Here, have another hot dog.”

  “Can I have one, too?” Luke asked.

  When the adults all turned their gazes on him, he shrugged. “What? I’m hungry.”

  June handed him the package, laughing.

  “I really hope you’re not a sore loser, Aeli,” Pat said.

  “Excuse me?”

  “Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten our bet already.”

  Aelissm frowned, trying to remember. Then it hit her. She studied Luke as the boy fixed up his bun with one hand and held his third hot dog over the fire with the other. He’d grown a little since his arrival in Northstar, but not enough to suggest he’d be as tall as Pat proposed. Still… he had an appetite, and so far, she hadn’t seen much of where he might be storing it all. She was reminded of a cat crouched to spring and realized there was a good chance Pat would win their bet that Luke would reach six foot two.

  “Well, if I lose, it’ll be a hundred bucks well spent,” she replied.

  Pat narrowed his eyes, glanced from Luke to June and back to Aelissm and said, “We might have to give it to June to help keep clothes on him.”

  “Huh?” Luke asked around a mouthful of hot dog.

  “What bet is this?” June inquired.

  “We’ll let you know when we have a winner. Patience is a virtue, my dear friend.”

  “Now, that’s a fine sentiment, but coming from you….”

  “Hush. It’s my lie, let me tell it my way.”

  Her retort was met with a round of laughter and she had to admit it was nice to be free to be herself again. The past two weeks were her own fault. Yes, she’d been angry that Adam had been in Devyn so long without them knowing it and terrified to know that he was so close, but she could have risen above it and been a bearable human being. Pat had taken the brunt of her emotions, and to his credit, he’d sailed through it with admirable patience. It had been easier to blame him for not doing his job than to admit responsibility. Adam was a problem she should have taken care of long before her overprotective, beloved uncle had felt the need to send Pat here to protect her.

  On that line of thought, however, the logical part of her mind rightly argued that Pat’s presence in Northstar had been good for them both. How good had yet to be proven, but it was something Aelissm was determined to discover.

  “Pat, take a walk with me,” she said.

  “I’m still eating,” he replied, indicating his half-eaten third hot dog.

  “Bring it with you. June, we’ll be back shortly.”

  “Hey, you’re both adults and I’m not here to babysit you.”

  Aelissm bounced to her feet and offered Pat a hand up. He hesitated, eyeing her warily. When she wiggled her fingers, he took her hand and stood. She led him out into the meadow away from their campsite, wandering toward the lakeshore. They reached the log across the mouth of the creek before she paused. Pat said nothing as she walked across it, pointing her toes out with each step. Halfway across the log, she swiveled and faced him with her hands on her hips. He was watching her with the slightest of admiring smiles on his handsome face, the kind that glowed warmly in his eyes but barely touched his lips.

  “I’m
sorry,” she blurted. There, it was out.

  “Wow, Aeli, I really didn’t expect an apology so soon.”

  “Don’t be a smart ass,” she retorted, hurt by the defensiveness in his tone and the wariness in his eyes. Those beautiful blue-flecked hazel eyes…. Distance was the last thing she wanted to see in them. It gave her the courage to say what she really wanted to. “I wanted to tell you that I’m sorry for the way I’ve been acting. I really am. It wasn’t very fair of me.”

  “No, it wasn’t.” Pat sighed. “But I deserve at least some of your animosity.”

  “No, you don’t. I’ve been a bitch. I can admit that. I frequently do, even when I’m far less deserving of the title.” She drew a deep breath and met his eyes. “So here it is. I’m glad you’re here, Pat. And thank you, for everything you’ve done for me. I’m glad Uncle Bill asked you to come.”

  He didn’t seem to have a reply, so she stepped down off the log, strode up to him and kissed him hard on the lips. It was a gesture of friendship and gratitude, but when she angled her body against him, it promised more. When she took a step back from him, she found his eyes closed and his brows pinched in a frown. Slowly, he opened his eyes and turned his unfocused gaze out across the lake.

  “I hope this doesn’t sound callous, but I wonder if we’ll ever reach a point when we can just be us. Without the need to apologize or express our gratitude.”

  Aelissm considered his words. They’d both been through a lot and brought each other through the beginning stages of recovery. For Pat, his past was just that. Aeli’s was still happening. She wasn’t through with Adam just yet. When she was, what then? Pat would go back to Washington and she would stay here, teaching at the University in Devyn and running the Bedspread Inn. Would there come a time when they didn’t feel they had to say “I’m sorry” or “thank you”?

  “I think we’ll always be grateful for what we’ve helped each other find,” she said slowly. “And anyone who can go through life without feeling the occasional need to apologize is a selfish pig. But for us? Why can’t that time be right now? We’ve done a lot for each other and we may yet do a lot more. But—stealing a page from June’s mammoth book of philosophy—I think the constant need to express gratitude belongs in a shallow relationship. Between acquaintances. And I think we moved beyond acquaintance a while ago.”

  What was left unspoken made her pulse quicken. When she lifted searching fingers to Pat’s chest, she felt the pace of his heart increase to match hers. Tentatively, she flattened her palm, thrilled, relieved and afraid all at once. Was she ready to take that irrevocable step? The answer was a firm yes, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t worried about the consequences for both of them. Contrary to her earlier, private proclamation, she could not honestly go ahead with a to-hell-with-it attitude. Whatever pleasure they found, there would also be matching heartbreak. This wouldn’t last, no matter how badly she might want it to. The question was, would that pain be worth knowing what it was to give herself to Pat, body and heart?

  Yes.

  Better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all, eh? she thought.

  “Whatever happens, Aeli, you are right,” Pat said. “We’re more than acquaintances now.”

  “And you work under my uncle. How hard can it be to stay in touch?”

  “Not very. But it’s not over yet, Aelissm. I’m still here.”

  Not, I’m not leaving yet. He’d said, I’m still here.

  Her lips twisted in a smirk as her sense of humor bubbled free and she wiggled her eyebrows suggestively at him. “If Adam staying around will keep you here with me, then by all means, I’ll give him a down-payment for a house in Devyn.”

  “You know what, Aeli? June’s got you pegged.”

  “She has most people pegged, but do tell how she has me defined.”

  “You have no shame.”

  She laughed until her face and sides ached. “No, I don’t.”

  “That’s one of the things I love about you,” he said. He slipped an arm around her waist and before she knew it, he swept her off her feet and started back toward camp. She giggled the entire way back.

  June had cleaned up their simple dinner and broken out the s’mores fixings. She regarded them with one brow lifted, then smiled and shook her head. Luke watched them with unguarded amusement from his perch in a low nook of a nearby tree. Aelissm, still helpless and weak from mirth, glanced from June over to Luke and up to Pat and soaked up the simple love from her motley little family. They may be an odd bunch and one of them might be gone before long, but for now, they were all hers and she loved them all dearly.

  “Why do you put up with me?” she asked.

  “Because we love you,” June replied. “And because you have a pretty high entertainment value.”

  “Ah, now I feel all mushy inside. Pat, put me down. Luke, get over here and help me make some marshmallow torches.”

  “I think we over did it, Pat,” June remarked as she tore open the marshmallow bag. “She’s gone from one extreme of the Aeli Spectrum to the other.”

  “Would you prefer the demon spawn from hell?” Aelissm asked.

  “No!” three voices replied.

  “Then take what you get and quit complaining.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” June replied.

  As evening passed into sunset and sunset into star-spattered night, they intermittently darted around the meadow in a spirited game of tag and sat around telling all sorts of bad jokes around the campfire. Around ten, they tidied up the camp, made sure the food was tied high up away from their tents in case a bear decided to investigate, and headed out to the meadow one last time to star-gaze. Pat grabbed his pan flute and his and Aelissm’s sleeping bags and the rest brought their pillows. Careful to keep their fire within eyesight and running distance, they stretched out on a huge, flat boulder on the other side of the meadow.

  The night was cooling rapidly, so Pat unzipped his bag and the four of them snuggled close for warmth. It was about as perfect a night as Aeli could hope for.

  “It’s absolutely gorgeous,” Pat said. He tucked his arm around Aelissm’s shoulders.

  “I’ll never get tired of it,” June agreed.

  For a long time, they sat in contented silence, speaking only to point out a shooting star. After a while, Luke started yawning and he and June bid Pat and Aeli good night. Aelissm watched with a rising excitement as they made the trek back to camp. Soon, she would have the night, the lake, and Pat to herself. And soon, she doubted she would be content merely snuggling with him on the boulder, no matter how nice it was to be wrapped so warmly in his arms.

  When Pat took a deep breath, Aelissm levered her upper body away from him to look up at his face. She watched, mesmerized, as he lifted his pan flute to his lips and began to play. The notes drifted hauntingly across the bowl of the mountains and Aeli shivered. It was a beautiful song he played, slow and romantic. She leaned back against him and let the solid warmth of him soothe her as his music touched her heart.

  “You don’t have to seduce me, Pat,” she murmured to herself. “Say the word and I’m yours.”

  The playing continued for a little while longer before he lowered the flute again and asked in a whisper, “Are you sure?”

  “Yes,” she replied. “Make love to me.”

  “Aelissm….”

  “Listen to me, Pat. This is right. When you leave, I don’t want to watch you go, wondering and regretting that we never did more than kiss. I’d rather have one night with you to remember than cold emptiness.”

  There was no hesitation in the hand that stroked her neck, only tenderness and a thrilling urgency. When he lowered his mouth to follow his fingers, she shuddered in pleasure.

  “You’re not going to argue your way out of this?” she asked, more than a little surprised. “You’re not going to say we aren’t ready or that we’ll get hurt?”

  “We probably aren’t ready and we probably will get hurt, Aelissm. And I’m sure I’l
l feel guilty as hell in the morning, but you said no more apologies, right? We wanted to see where this would take us. And, god help me, I need you.”

  She was stunned at his admission, which made her want him more. She took his free hand and dragged it down between her breasts, then sought his mouth with hers. As they joined lips, hungrily devouring each other, Aelissm’s desire for him bloomed gloriously through her. She playfully massaged the inside of his thigh and he groaned low in his throat. Their hands sought every inch of each other’s bodies they could reach sitting as they were, until Aeli boldly straddled his lap. The truth of his need for her pressed firmly against her and her own desire flared in response. His hands burrowed under her shirt, stroking up her back and down again. The feel of his strong hands on her skin was ecstasy. He stoked the fire of her passion with expertise, tantalizing her senses as he raked his teeth over her neck and shoulder. She writhed against him, pleading for more.

  When Pat slid his hands down her sides and gripped her hips, she moaned, rocking instinctively against him. Gently, he lifted her off him and laid her on the cushioning sleeping bag. She barely felt the hard stone beneath it; she was too lost in his touches to notice anything else. Sitting beside her, he slowly, torturously unbuttoned her flannel and peeled it back from her shoulders. Eagerly, she sat up and stripped the rest off. In her haste, her feather pillow, snagged on the boulder, ripped open and a cloud of feathers wafted around them. She giggled.

  “Slow down,” he murmured huskily. “I want this to be right.”

  “How could it be wrong?” she asked dazedly.

  “I don’t want to rush you. I can’t make it painless, sweetheart, but I can arouse you until the pleasure overcomes it.”

  “How many virgins have you had to know so much about taking one?” she asked.

  “Just one,” he replied. “The night I lost mine.”

  All thoughts of his previous conquests flew out the window when he pulled her halter top over her head and slid searching fingers beneath her black lace bra. He lay down beside her, propped on his elbow. The newly risen moon glittered in his hair, making the dark auburn turn blue-black tipped in platinum. Vainly, she knew the moonlight had bathed her in delicate softness and given her skin the appearance of fragile perfection.