Death Cache

by Tiffinie Helmer

  “It’s only because you’re hungry,” Tern said.

  He failed to correct her because he was already tearing another bite from the thigh bone, not feeling one bit of guilt for his former childhood pet. They ate until there was nothing on the small bones of the hares.

  “Tern, you should open a restaurant,” Robert said, licking his fingers.

  “I’ve already got a business I’d like to get back to,” she said.

  “We should bunk down and get some sleep,” Gage said. “The cave above will provide us shelter and cover for the night.” Not to mention give them some temporary darkness. The arctic sun blazed as bright as if it was noon rather than close to midnight.

  Gage stamped out the fire, smothering it with sand before trekking up the hill after the rest of them.

  “It’ll be a mite cozy in here,” Robert said, peering inside the cave.

  “Yeah, and no offense,” Gage said, “but I don’t want to cozy up to you during the night. So boy, girl, girl, boy.”

  “Fine by me.” Robert grinned.

  Nadia and Tern eyed each other, did that silent communication thing women did, and seemed like they were about to object to the sleeping arrangements. While the temperature was currently pleasant, this was Alaska. Mother Nature changed her mind on the weather like a diva.

  “It snowed yesterday,” Gage reminded them. “We don’t need anyone getting sick because they’re being stupid.” It went without saying that the only one of this group he was sleeping next to was Tern.

  They crawled into the cave—Robert first, Nadia next, then Tern. Gage took the opening so he could keep watch. They had each packed their sleeping bags, tying them to their backpacks, and now unzipped them, laying them out on the floor of the stone cave, pulling the sleeping bags over the top of them.

  They settled in to sleep, and Gage figured he’d drop right off. No such luck.

  In the tight quarters, he could smell her. Fireweed and rosehips. She lay on her side, her back up against his. The heat from her body had him sweating with the need to turn over and spoon her from behind. Instead he pulled back the sleeping bag and let the arctic air cool him.

  Not that it did a lot of good.

  The view in front of him was priceless, but he’d pay anything to be back in Fairbanks with Tern tucked into her own bed safe and sound.

  An eagle flew with deadly stealth over the valley below, hunting for prey. He heard a scattering of animals in the woods as they also hunted for prey.

  And wished to God he knew who hunted them.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  Tern awoke, blinking in the shady darkness. The inky cave roof above her twinkled with quartz as though some mythical creature had tossed stardust and it had embedded within the rough stone. She smelled damp earth and sharp grasses. At some point during the night, she’d kicked free of her sleeping bag. Heat buffeted her from one side along with the musky smell of man.

  Gage. She cuddled into him, her body curling around him, and sighed with pleasure.

  Her gaze connected with Gage’s magnetic evergreen eyes and need shivered through her. A smothered groan and answering moan came from behind her.

  Were Nadia and Robert having sex?

  Gage nodded as though reading her mind.

  Are you freaking kidding me? Now? The rustle of their sleeping bags became rhythmic, and so did their sighs and muffled grunts.

  First Lucky and now Robert.

  Wait. Nadia had already gotten it on with Robert right after Lucky was killed. She’d sure loosened her inhibitions.

  Tern didn’t want to move, but she couldn’t stay here facing Gage. Not with him watching her. He’d see too much.

  She shifted to dislodge her leg from where she had wrapped it around his hip, but his hand grabbed the back of her thigh and pulled her in tight against him. He rocked his thick, hard erection against her sex, and it was her turn to swallow a moan. His eyes glowed in the dimness, much like a wolf scenting his mate.

  She couldn’t do this, couldn’t react sexually when two people were having sex next to her.

  She was going to kill Nadia. And Robert. So much for Robert being in love with her.

  Gage’s eyes never left hers as he slipped his hand under her t-shirt, and his fingers danced over her ribcage to her breast. He palmed her breast, daring her to object.

  She would not participate in an orgy. But then was it an orgy when you didn’t change partners? Or were orgies just about group sex? She wasn’t up to date on sexual fetishes.

  Nadia and Robert were getting serious and didn’t seem to care if they were discovered, by the sounds of it. They were past keeping quiet. Gasps and moans echoed off the walls of the cave.

  Gage caught her nipple with his finger, sucking in his breath finding it as hard as the pebbles they’d swept away to the far corners of the cave before they’d laid out their sleeping bags. He rolled her nipple between his thumb and finger, flicking the tip with his thumbnail. She closed her eyes from the pleasure of the small prick of pain. Biting her lip, she tried to keep in the illicit sounds demanding a voice.

  She was trapped, and the knowledge suddenly excited rather than diminished her desire. She couldn’t move, sandwiched as she was between the two bodies already joined and the hard body of Gage in front of her. He was tormenting her and he knew it. His eyes glinted, their fire burning in her, heating her insides until she melted.

  Two could play this game.

  She reached for him and her questing fingers found his erection. She wrapped her hand around the throbbing thickness.

  His eyes rolled back in his head.

  There, that was more like it.

  Then his hand slipped down her stomach, under the waistband of her pants and past the laughable barrier of her underwear. He found her heat. His lips descended and caught hers when she would have whimpered her surrender.

  Oh God, this couldn’t be happening. She wasn’t the type to have sex with other people in the room. Even if the others were occupied with each other, and couldn’t care less about her and Gage.

  His tongue swiftly breached her lips and engaged hers in a contest of wills. Her hand tightened around his shaft while her other clutched the back of his neck. The kiss turned rougher. His fingers thrust into her, and she arched into his demanding hand. He worked her, giving no quarter, demanding all, while sealing his mouth over hers, swallowing any sound she expressed. She shuddered as her soul soared past the rock walls of the cave to burst within the rays of the midnight sun.

  He held her tight against him, cushioning her fall back to earth against his heaving chest. Her hand grasped harder around him, stroking him from tip to base, determined to bring him the level of pleasure he’d given her. His mouth ground on hers as he surged against her hand.

  “Ahh, Tern!” Robert’s guttural shout slapped them back into the reality of the cold dark cave. Silence suddenly smothered the cramped space.

  Had Robert called out her name?

  “Get off me, you son of a bitch.” Nadia’s screech and the following smack riocheted off the stone walls.

  Gage jerked and pulled away from Tern, rolling to his feet outside the cave in one quick motion.

  Accusations and apologies ensued behind her, but Tern couldn’t make any sense of it. Didn’t want to. She quickly chased after Gage, righting her clothes as she stumbled after him.

  She didn’t want any part of what just happened between Robert and Nadia. But she’d had it with Gage. No more, she was nailing him down.

  Enough was enough.

  She found him about a hundred yards away, leaning against a boulder, bent forward as though he were in pain.

  “What the hell was that?” she asked.

  His head snapped up. His nostrils flared, and his eyes glittered with temper. For a moment, she wondered if she shouldn’t back up a few steps, but then she was too upset to heed the self-preservation prompting.

  “Why did you do that to me?” she demanded.

  �
�Do what?” His voice sounded as if a rope was tied around his vocal cords.

  “Why do you tell me that you can’t love me and then you love me like that?”

  “Please let it go, Tern.”

  “The hell I will. You say you don’t want to be with me, and then you hold me and touch me like that.”

  “Tern.” His tone warned, and his face tightened. “I can’t do this now.”

  Her heart was ripping from her chest, and he couldn’t do this now? “I love you, you son of a bitch.” She stepped nearer, wanting his touch, his heat, needing the man who’d loved her in the cave, not this cold one who stared and repressed what he felt for her. “I’ve been in love with you since you walked into my shop. This isn’t fair.”

  “You need to get the hell away from me. Now.”

  “I don’t give a damn about what you want. What about what I want?”

  Okay, maybe she shouldn’t engage the animal in front of her. Gage was stripped down to his Neanderthal ancestors, and that really shouldn’t excite her.

  “I just heard your name bellowed by another man as he climaxed,” he snapped. “You need to get away from me. I’m afraid of what I’m going to do.”

  He advanced a step, looming over her, and the rational part of her brain nudged her to flee.

  He clasped her upper arms, and drew her up on her toes. “Do you have any fucking idea how this feels?” he asked through gritted teeth.

  She slowly shook her head and something that was a mix of fear and excitement skittered along her spine.

  “I’m so hard I hurt. It’s taking everything I’ve got not to strip you bare, turn you over that boulder, and pound into you until you can’t remember another man’s touch. I fucking hate knowing Robert has touched you. That he’s been inside you. I want my hands around his neck until he’s unable to utter your name.” His fingers tightened around her arms as though he relished crushing Robert’s throat. She knew she’d have imprints in her skin tomorrow.

  She hung in his hands, holding her breath, almost wishing he would do the things he’d just threatened, and then hated herself for being titillated by the idea.

  He could do what he wanted with Robert. But nobody branded her.

  “You hypocrite,” she hissed. “How dare you throw my past lovers in my face? You didn’t come to me as a virgin.”

  His eyes bored into hers. A war waged there, as clearly as though she had ring-side seats to a clash of warriors tearing each other apart. He slowly set her back on her feet, and one by one his fingers released her. She caught sight of his trembling hands as he secured them in the front pocket of his jeans.

  His expression hardened with resolve, the wildness barely contained. “You’re right, I am a hypocrite. I can’t be around you and leave you alone. You’ve turned me into a man who manipulated by his baser urges. I want to kill Robert, at the very least, beat the shit out him. You have consumed my life. I can’t touch another woman without thinking of you.”

  Apparently neither could Robert.

  “I’m losing control,” he continued, “and I refuse to let that happen.”

  She stepped back with a shuddering breath, wishing more than ever that she’d listened to that prompting voice that told her to leave him alone.

  They regarded each other, she barely breathing and him struggling to calm his. What was it about her that brought out the obsession in Robert and the resentment in Gage?

  The reality of the resentment Gage felt for her tasted bitter as she swallowed the truth.

  She just stood there and blinked. She could see it in each line of his rigid body, the fire in his eyes, and the throbbing vein in his temple. Her heart seemed to slow until each beat pounded in her ears and she shook from the heavy force of it.

  Who did he resent more? Her or himself ? The one man she wanted to spend the rest of her life with resented her.

  Maybe even hated her.

  How far did his hate go? Far enough to rid himself of her?

  “So coming here was like the final test of your twelve-step program,” she said. Hurt overshadowed the anger and she relished the burn. “You had to see if you could resist taking a taste?”

  He took a step toward her, but then seemed to tighten the leash on his resolve and stopped. “It isn’t that simple.”

  Yeah, it was.

  It should have been as simple as boy meets girl. They fall in love, make a family, and live happily ever after.

  “I thought you were a different kind of man, Gage. One I could make a life with, have children with, but I won’t be with a man who hates that he loves me. I won’t let you break me.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  Gage watched her walk away, her shoulders straight, her stride sure, belying any hint that he could break her.

  Could anything really break that woman?

  He didn’t think so. Everything inside begged him to follow, yank her back into his arms and beg forgiveness. He wanted all of her. Wanted it so bad that it scared the shit out of him.

  The love he’d known was destructive, soul-sucking, and he couldn’t give into what he felt regardless of how much his heart and soul begged him to.

  But watching her walk away felt like part of him was being ripped out. With each step she took, more and more of his soul followed behind her.

  He covered his eyes with his fists, surprised to find moisture there. He shuddered with the pain coursing through him. His life would be finished if he gave in and partook of what she offered.

  Build a life together, have children together.

  She loved him.

  They were like drugs to each other. He wanted a life with her, but history had taught him his life wouldn’t be his own if he gave in.

  Anger and the need to throttle Robert still burned under his skin, but he was thinking more rationally. It wasn’t fair for him to attack Tern because of his shortcoming. He wanted to defend his woman. But she wasn’t his, and he refused to claim her. What kind of coward did that make him?

  She was right. He was a hypocrite. He’d had women, more than he should, and he had no business throwing her past mistakes that she’d made with Robert in her face.

  Shit, he’d have to apologize. Or did he just leave things as they stood? Tern hated him now. Wouldn’t that help create the distance that he needed?

  He turned and gauged the sky. There was no way to tell what time it was with the sun burning at the top of the world. Since they were up, they might as well break camp and get a move on. The sooner they were back in civilization, the better for all of them.

  The ways things were going, they’d kill each other before someone else got the chance.

  Tern crawled into the cave and started packing up her things. Robert lay spent on his sleeping bag and looked away when she glared at him.

  Nadia struggled into her clothes, muttering obscenities under her breath. She paused when Tern entered.

  “Hey,” she said.

  “What is with you?” Tern demanded, using her heartache over Gage to sling accusations at them. “How do the two of you have sex in a room—a freaking cave—with other people just inches away from you?”

  Nadia shrugged and finished buttoning her shirt. “It just happened.”

  Robert, at least, had the graciousness to seem embarrassed. “Sorry, Tern. It was one of those moment things. You understand?”

  “No, I don’t understand.” All the hurt and frustration of their situation boiled inside her. “Nadia, just a few days ago you were sleeping with Lucky. How do you jump from his bed to Robert’s?”

  Nadia narrowed her eyes, her fingers twisting the sleeping bag she was in the process of rolling.

  Robert came to Nadia’s defense. “I imagine the same way you went from my bed to Lucky’s. In less time, too, if I remember correctly.”

  His barb connected with his target. She wadded up her sleeping bag and grabbed her backpack, taking all her items out of the cave to pack. The sooner she was away from them the better.

>   Funny, how you never really knew someone until you spent time in forced seclusion.

  Gage stood outside the cave when she crawled out. He nodded at seeing her hands full of supplies. “Good, it’s time to head out.”

  “Whatever.”

  His brows furrowed. “Something wrong?”

  “You mean, what else is wrong, don’t you?”

  “Okay.” He seemed to come to a conclusion and wisely dropped the subject. He bent and hollered into the cave. “Pack up. I want to be out of here in fifteen.”

  There was grumbling from inside, but Tern didn’t stick around. She found a clear spot, tightly rolled up her sleeping bag, and secured it to her backpack. Then, with her gun checked and loaded and on her hip, she headed for the woods for a moment of privacy.

  Once in the cover of the trees, she breathed a sigh of relief. She took care of the call of nature and hiked back, taking a different route that ended with her coming out of the woods closer to the stream. Glancing up the hill, there was no sign of Gage, but Nadia and Robert were arguing for all to see. Tern gritted her teeth. She couldn’t tell what they were saying, but by the hand gestures she could imagine.

  Nadia suddenly dropped her gear and kneed Robert in the groin. Ouch. Robert hit the ground with a cry, his hands cupping his injured pride.

  Go, Nadia.

  Tern rotated back toward the stream.

  Why did the two of them hooking up bother her so much? She didn’t want Robert, and with him being occupied with Nadia he’d leave her alone. That was if Nadia let him close again after his unfortunate faux pas.

  At this point, Tern wouldn’t be surprised if Nadia made a play for Gage.

  She really shouldn’t be so quick to judge. She and Gage had gotten it on too. He’d brought her to climax in the same cave. He’d sent her to heights of desire and she hadn’t given a damn who was around. If Gage would have pushed it, she would have taken him inside her body and relished him coming inside her, regardless who was around to witness.