Noah’s Reckoning: Alaska Dating Games Book 3

by Doyle, S

  16

  Dyson’s Camp

  Cal

  I stared at the two of them. They were working together in Ark’s office. The door open. A single computer between them. Their backs were to me, as Ark liked to see out over the wells and the men working on them through the windows of his office.

  Ark was in charge of the keyboard, but Olivia was constantly pointing at something on the screen. She was kneeling on a chair next to him so she could easily reach over to show him whatever it was she wanted him to make a note of.

  Ark, incredibly, actually seemed to be listening.

  “Crazy, isn’t it?”

  I glanced over not realizing Daniels had come up next to me.

  “What the fuck are they doing?” I asked.

  “Collaborating,” Jackson answered.

  I looked at him as if he was insane. “When the hell did Ark start collaborating? With anyone?”

  “Don’t think Olivia is just anyone. Not to Ark.”

  That raised the hairs on the back of my neck. “You think anyone has caught wind of them?”

  “Nothing to see. They work out in the open. Fight over whatever they worked on while they’re eating in the mess. Then they head to their own rooms at night. The only difference is they only take a strip out of each other’s hide every other hour instead of on the hour.”

  I stood there looking for signs. A wayward touch. A lingering gaze. None of that. Just Ark barking a few things that Olivia took obvious took exception to if her flailing arms were any indication.

  “He wouldn’t hurt her. Certainly not by making her a target,” Jackson told me.

  “What do you think is going on?” I asked him.

  Jackson grunted. I figured that was answer enough.

  Not that I should care about the love life of any of my crew. It was none of my damn business. I only cared about this situation because Olivia was also part of my crew. I was responsible for her.

  Her. My crew. That was it. That was all I was responsible for and not one damn other thing.

  “Fuck,” I said, feeling ornery. “Ever since Angel and his damn contest, it’s like the fucking Love Boat around here.”

  “Love Boat?” Jackson asked.

  “Never the fuck mind,” I barked, hating that the reference made me feel old.

  “Hate to say it, Cal, but it’s a lot of fun. You might want to give it a try.”

  I snarled at him.

  He lifted his hands in an offering of peace. “Just a suggestion. I’m headed into town. Kate’s flying up tonight. You want to meet later for cards?”

  Because cards these days meant Kate and Jackson and Shelby and Eli. Fuck, Ark and Olivia might show up, too. One big, happy, fucking love fest.

  Not to mention who might be working at Bud’s tonight.

  I cursed inwardly as I immediately called up an image of her red, plaited hair and the freckles that littered her face. I had no business imaging what her hair might look like out of that braid. Where there might be other freckles scattered across her body.

  No business.

  I needed to get her to leave. Somehow. Someway. I’d been counting on the endlessly dark, endlessly cold winter to do the dirty work for me. Only I was starting to sense a stubborn streak in Vivienne that was stronger than steel. Certainly stronger than the weather.

  “Yeah, sure. Cards. Later.”

  I turned away from the sight of Olivia and Ark. From Jackson and what I knew to be his silent judgment and made my way down the hallway to my own office. I slammed the door closed only because it felt good.

  A release. Some damn release from all this pent-up tension inside me.

  I didn’t hesitate but walked toward the shelves behind my desk. I lifted the picture of us. Feeling the weight of it in my hand centered me.

  Hate to say it, but it’s a lot of fun. You might want to give it a try.

  “They don’t get it,” I said to my wife who smiled at me from seven years ago. “I did try it. It was fun. Then it wasn’t.”

  I touched the bridge of my daughter’s nose. She would have been twelve this year.

  Not for the first time I sat heavily in my office chair and wondered what she might have been like at this age. Still a goofball? Someone more serious? A girl who was staring down her teenage years with…trepidation? Nah, not my Em. There had been no fear inside that girl. Not an ounce of it.

  I felt my chest tighten. My throat close. I let the pain of missing them wash over me like an icy cold shower.

  It helped to focus me. To see clearly again, what my reality was and always would be.

  Having them. Loving them. Losing them. Grieving them.

  Nothing and no one was going to change that.

  Certainly not Vivienne.

  * * *

  Dyson’s Camp

  Later that night

  Ark

  “You suck at poker,” I pointed out cheerfully as we walked down the hallway together. I had talked Olivia into heading into town with me tonight. After three days of working together at camp, without an ounce of funny business between us, I was convinced we had maintained our veneer of professionalism among our co-workers.

  Did they know as soon as I dropped her off at her room, I went back to mine and called her?

  No.

  Did they know I’d purchased a vibrator for her that she kept in the nightstand beside her bed and I would often talk her into using it over the phone?

  No.

  Did they know a huskily moaned Noah in my ear was enough to make me come five seconds after jerking off?

  No.

  These were things we kept private. Hidden in the shadows.

  Which was why, tonight, a little social interaction wasn’t going to be taken as anything beyond Olivia getting a little stir crazy at camp and wanting to hang out with some other women.

  Shelby, Kate, even Eve had played cards with us tonight. Note to self: Eve cheats. And it’s not like she tried to hide the fact. More like she was astounded to be playing with a bunch of people who didn’t cheat.

  It was kind of hysterical.

  But Olivia was new to poker and, like all rookies, she sucked.

  I couldn’t have been happier about it.

  “Just you wait,” she warned me. “I didn’t become a rummy expert overnight. But when I nailed it…well, from that point forward, I took no prisoners. Including you. I plan to read up excessively on Hold ’Em and only then will I be ready for a rematch.”

  The thought had me worried. Olivia putting her mind to something she wanted to learn and conquer. I had the suspicious feeling I was going to be losing a lot of money to her in the upcoming months.

  Unless I could get her focused on strip poker.

  I smiled inwardly even as I stopped at her door. “Good night. Early start tomorrow. I want to get a jump on what we accomplished today.”

  Which was completely crazy but true. I had brought her here on totally false pretenses, but the truth was I actually liked working with her. Pitting my brain against hers. Her pushing me harder than I might have pushed myself toward even better designs. It was crazy to me but it was happening.

  “Yep. ’Night, Noah.”

  I watched her unlock the door, step inside then I heard her lock it behind her.

  Making my way to my room I said goodnight to a few of the crew in passing. Yep, nothing to see here. Just me heading to my room. Alone.

  Once there, I took a quick shower. I was already hard just thinking about what the next few minutes might bring. Toweling dry my hair I walked over to my bed, tossed the towel on the floor and stretched out naked. I picked up the phone and hit the number on the top of my recent page.

  “Hey,” I said when she answered. “How about you come over to my room and suck me off?”

  “Aw, is someone needing a little more than his own hand tonight?”

  She said it like she pitied me. She did NOT pity me.

  “I’m serious, Liv. This phone shit is getting old. I w
ant you on my dick.”

  “Noah,” she sighed. “What am I going to do with you?”

  “I think I made that clear. Fuck me.”

  “You know I can’t come to your room. These are your rules, remember?”

  Of course, I remembered. She was right. They were my rules. Only now I resented them. Resented the distance between us. If I marched down the hall, kicked her door open, told everyone she was my woman, then I wouldn’t need to give a fuck what people thought.

  Was I there? Was she there?

  Why was it so hard knowing the answer to that question?

  “I’m tired, Noah. I think I’m just going to go to sleep.”

  “You don’t want your fifty-fifth and fifty-sixth orgasm?” I asked incredulously. I always made sure she had two each night to my one. It was fun because she never thought she could get there a second time.

  “If we’re being technical it would be number fifty-four,” she said. “This will probably make you mad, but I faked that last one the other night.”

  I saw red cloud my vision. I jackknifed up in bed. “You faked it!”

  “You’re so hell-bent on making me come twice every time. I just couldn’t get there a second time, so I faked it so you would let yourself come.”

  I wanted to shred metal with my bare hands. I wanted to bring down the entire camp. I wanted to tear down her door, pick her up and bring her to my cave where I would make her come until she passed out.

  “If I were there with you, you can be damn sure you wouldn’t have FAKED anything!”

  She sighed. “Don’t be mad, Noah. I did it for you.”

  For me? Those orgasms were for her. The one thing I could give her easily. The one thing that didn’t require any thought or worries. Sexual pleasure. Simple. Straight forward. And she faked it?

  “The next time we’re together I’m going to spank your ass so hard for this.”

  “Noah!” There was a pause. “I don’t know how I feel about spanking.”

  “Well, you’re about to learn how you feel about it,” I growled into the phone.

  “Do I get a safe word?”

  “Yes, Don’tStopNoah. That’s your safe word.”

  “That doesn’t seem very safe,” she said, and I could tell she was trying to mollify me, but I would not be deterred.

  “Because you won’t be,” I assured her. Her ass was mine for faking it. For taking that from me.

  “Can we talk about something serious?”

  She had no idea how serious I was about smacking her ass. “Fine.”

  “I just got an email from corporate. They need me in Anchorage the day after tomorrow, early, which means I need to head back tomorrow.”

  Excellent, I thought. I would follow her to Anchorage where I would spank her ass red then fuck her until she came at least three times before I did.

  “So I was thinking tomorrow morning would probably be the time to do it.”

  “You want me to spank you tomorrow morning? I think we need to wait until I’m down in Anchorage, baby, because I can promise you, you are going to be loud.”

  “No. Noah, I need you to focus. I’m going to take the test tomorrow.”

  The test? It took me a second to register what she meant then suddenly it clicked. “You have a pregnancy test? With you?”

  “Yes. I wanted to wait a few more days, so I’ll feel a little more confident in the result. But I don’t want to leave without you knowing the outcome because that’s not something I want to tell you over the phone. Do you think if we spend a few minutes in my room tomorrow morning that anyone will suspect anything?”

  I didn’t care if they did. This was too important, and I wasn’t about to let her go through this by herself.

  “I’ll come down early in the morning,” I said. “We’ll do it together.”

  “You know you can’t pee on the stick for me.”

  I snarled and I could hear her soft laugh on the other side of the phone.

  “Goodnight, Noah.”

  “’Night, Liv.”

  I tossed the phone on the bed and thought about what tomorrow might bring. If I would be happy or stunned. Relieved or joyful. My emotions were all over the place when it came to Olivia. But I knew this.

  Whatever she needed or wanted, she got. No matter what. I had done this thing. I had come inside her without protection. I’d put her in this situation that could change her entire life. She would argue the responsibility belonged to both of us, and maybe it did to an extent, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that I had more to do with it. That last time in the cabin, I could have pulled away.

  Only I didn’t. I had liked filling her with my cum too much. Which was sick and twisted and I didn’t know what the hell it meant. I only knew it was the truth.

  This was good, I thought. Tomorrow would settle things.

  One way or the other.

  17

  The next morning

  Olivia

  Noah was pacing back and forth in my room. I was sitting on my hands on the bed so I wouldn’t be tempted to peak before the alarm on my phone went off.

  “This is maddening,” Noah muttered.

  I checked the phone. “Only another thirty seconds.”

  Counting down in my head, I thought, would help, but I was counting faster than the phone, which only frustrated me more.

  Finally, the phone alarm chimed. Both Noah and I froze for a second, but then I was moving to the bathroom. I had left the stick on the vanity. I took a breath before I reached for it. I could feel Noah coming up behind me, not willing to wait the second it took me to read the results.

  Nothing.

  No pink plus sign. No faint anything. Just…nothing.

  “I’m not pregnant,” I said.

  “Yes!” he shouted behind me. “Oh, thank God! Phew, that was close.”

  He wrapped his arms around me and lifted me, but I didn’t have it in me to celebrate.

  “Noah, stop.”

  He set me down then turned me to face him. “Wait. This is good news, no?”

  I nodded. “No, this is good. A relief, I suppose. A baby really shouldn’t come from an accident. But it’s done now, so you can leave, and I need to pack up.”

  “Yeah, sure. We should talk about that. When do you want me to come to Anchorage?”

  “Uh…sure,” I said, trying to get my brain to focus. I wasn’t pregnant. I wasn’t going to have Noah’s baby. That was a good thing. Better. For him obviously. “Let me get home and then we’ll talk.”

  “Right. I’ll call you tonight.”

  I nodded again. “Yep. Because that’s what we do.”

  He was looking at me funny, and I needed to hold it together for a few more minutes.

  “You okay, Liv?”

  “I’m great!” I said with maybe too much enthusiasm, but he was content to see my smile.

  He cupped my face in his hands and kissed me. It was hard and rough and delicious…and it told me how happy he was. Happy that I wasn’t pregnant. That there was nothing between us now besides sex.

  He pulled away then planted a kiss on my forehead.

  “We did it, babe. Survived yet another disaster.”

  I tried to nod but he was still holding my face in his hands.

  “I’ll let you pack,” he said. “You let me know when you need to head to the airport.”

  “I can get one of the guys to drive me. I don’t need you to waste your day. You’ve got some creative designing ahead of you.”

  “No worries, just come by my office when you’re ready to go.”

  I wasn’t going to be able to get out of him taking me. I knew that. “Okay.”

  Finally, he left. But not after I heard another ecstatic yes as he closed the door behind him.

  Noah was happy. He was thrilled. Of course he was. He’d escaped what would have been a disaster for him.

  I looked at the still-blank pee stick.

  No baby.

  I wrapped it in nearly a
half roll of toilet paper so no one would ever suspect it was there, even though everyone was responsible for dumping their own trash. Then I sat on the bed and tried to process what I was feeling.

  Except it was too hard.

  Because what I was feeling was simply a hollowness inside I’d never felt before.

  I needed to gather up my stuff. I needed to make my bed. I needed to think about what my day would look like tomorrow in Anchorage. I needed to consider if it was a good idea for Noah to come see me, or maybe I should give it—me—some time.

  A few weeks maybe.

  I needed to do all those things. Instead, I laid back, threw the covers over me and tried not to cry for a baby that never was.

  * * *

  Hope’s Point Airport—aka the runway.

  Ark

  I stood there too long watching the plane fly away.

  She was gone and it was like a kick in the gut. Not just because I wasn’t going to be seeing her anytime soon, but because, somehow, I knew I’d fucked up this morning. We weren’t pregnant. She should have been as thrilled as I was. We should have been doing the I’m-not-pregnant dance together. Instead, she was quiet, withdrawn. So inside her head I didn’t have a clue what she was thinking.

  And when I asked her about going to see her again, her response set my teeth on edge.

  We’ll see.

  What the fuck did that mean?

  I got in my truck and decided I needed to talk to a woman. I couldn’t say anything to Shelby because she would just kick my ass when I told her what had happened. Then she would tell Eli, who would absolutely kick my ass.

  I thought about calling my sister but, yet again, another ass kicking.

  There was Jenny. Interpersonal relationships weren’t necessarily her thing, still she was a woman. Besides, Jenny wouldn’t judge me, I thought. I could tell her everything then maybe she could help me make sense of what Olivia was thinking right now.

  I turned the truck in the direction of her cabin.