Stars Over Alaska

by Jennifer Snow

  Praise for USA TODAY bestselling author

  Jennifer Snow’s Wild River series

  “This first title in the Wild River series is passionate, sensual, and very sexy. The freezing, winter-cold portrayal of the Alaskan ski slopes is not the only thing sending chills through one’s body.”

  —New York Journal of Books

  “Set in the wilds of Alaska, the beauty of winter and the cold shine through.”

  —Fresh Fiction

  “Heartwarming, romantic, and utterly enjoyable.”

  —New York Times bestselling author Melissa Foster

  “Jennifer Snow’s Alaska setting and search-and-rescue element are interesting twists, and the romance is smart and sexy... An exciting contemporary series debut with a wildly unique Alaskan setting.”

  —Kirkus Reviews

  “Readers will enjoy the mix of sexy love scenes, tense missions, and amiable banter. This entertaining introduction to Wild River will encourage fans of small-town contemporaries to follow the series.”

  —Publishers Weekly

  “An Alaskan Christmas drew me in from the first page to the last. I tried to read slower so that I could savor the story and feel every emotion. I reveled in every nuance, felt the cold, the wind and snow, and loved the small town and the mountains... I can’t wait to return to Wild River.”

  —Romance Junkies

  Also by Jennifer Snow

  Wild River

  A Sweet Alaskan Fall

  Under an Alaskan Sky

  An Alaskan Christmas

  Wild River Novellas

  A Wild River Retreat

  An Alaskan Wedding

  For a complete list of books by Jennifer Snow,

  please visit www.jennifersnowauthor.com.

  Jennifer Snow

  Stars Over Alaska

  Table of Contents

  Stars Over Alaska

  A Wild River Match

  Excerpt from The Rancher’s Forever Family by Sasha Summers

  For my mom, the strongest person I know. Thank you for everything. XO

  Stars Over Alaska

  Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Epilogue

  Acknowledgments

  CHAPTER ONE

  Somewhere outside Wild River...

  FIFTY-SEVEN HOURS TRAPPED in a vehicle with Selena Hudson had Leslie Sanders contemplating just how important it really was to keep the woman alive.

  Selena continued to twitch in the passenger seat. She stretched her long legs out in front of her and scanned the surrounding scenery, which consisted of snow-covered evergreen trees as far as she could see. “How much longer?”

  If Leslie had to answer that question one more time, her head might actually explode. “Just a few minutes.” More like twenty, but each second cooped up in the vehicle felt like an eternity.

  “But there’s nothing around here. I haven’t seen a house or business or crappy gas station convenience store for over an hour. This area looks deserted.”

  That was the point.

  Leslie slowed down and scanned for the opening in the trees where the trail, just wide enough for a car, led into the forest. It had been a while since she’d driven out here by herself and this stretch of Alaska Highway was unremarkable.

  Seeing the opening at the last second, she took the sharp turn as carefully as possible on the snow-covered roads. Her all-season tires on her secondhand car weren’t a great match for the early spring conditions.

  Tall, thick trees on either side blocked the view of the setting sun and cast an ominous shadow ahead.

  “I thought you were trying to save my life. This place looks like something out of a horror flick.”

  Selena Hudson’s active imagination was an occupational hazard from growing up on movie sets. The Disney child star turned rom-com queen couldn’t recognize the real world when it wasn’t illuminated by fake lighting. “Believe me, this will be the safest place for you.” Hopefully Leslie sounded more convincing than she felt. The farther they’d driven away from LA, the less confident she was.

  “Is this even a road?”

  “Yes.” Not a great one. Her small car struggled to push through the three feet of snow. Her foot was pressed to the floor and the tires spun, lacking significant traction.

  “You sure this car can make it?” Selena asked.

  “Yes.” With a small miracle on their side. Getting out and walking the rest of the way didn’t appeal to her. “Just sit tight. We’re almost there.”

  Selena sighed but sat back against the seat.

  A few minutes and a lot of praying later, Leslie stopped the car and put it in Park in front of a small, secluded log cabin.

  “Tell me this is not where we’re staying.” Selena’s unimpressed expression was one Leslie had been prepared for. Only five-star, luxury accommodations were to the star’s liking. “The car ran out of steam, right? That’s why we’re stopping?”

  “Nope. This is it. My family’s cabin. It’s safe.”

  “Does it even have running water?”

  “Yes.” Hopefully. If the pipes weren’t shut off to avoid freezing during the winter months. Truth was, she hadn’t been here in years. Leslie’s decision to bring the movie star to the Alaskan wilderness outside of her hometown of Wild River had been an impulsive one. One she hadn’t gotten official clearance for and one that could very well cost her her job with the Executive Protection Agency in LA. One she hadn’t had time to fully prepare for. But she’d had to make the split-second decision and this was it.

  Of course she’d also had to bend the truth a little to get the movie star to go along with her insane idea to drive from California to Alaska, and now the look of terror on Selena’s face suggested she’d never be assigned another client again.

  But she’d taken the job to protect people and this had felt like the best and only response to Selena’s stalker moving in.

  “You said we were going to a ski resort.”

  Leslie nodded. “You can cross-country ski out here.” Her family kept skis and snowshoes in the small shed behind the cabin. Of course they’d need to shovel a path to the shed first.

  Selena stared at her. “You know that’s not what I assumed.”

  “Well, you know what they say about assumptions.”

  “Leslie! You lied to me. In fact, you lied about a lot of things. You took me away from Unicorn—who is an emotional support animal, by the way—and you said this road trip would be fun. It wasn’t. You said we could stop and see things along the way. We didn’t. You said this time together would bring us closer. Spoiler alert—I don’t feel closer to you at all.”

  Leslie cut the engine of the vehicle. “Look, I knew you wouldn’t come along if I told you the complete truth and there wasn’t time to get Unicorn before leaving town.” T
he star’s five-pound Chihuahua had been at the Posh Puppy Spa when they’d made their hasty exit out of LA.

  Selena’s pinched expression revealed her annoyance had reached a breaking point, but she wiggled in the seat. “We’re not staying here, but I really have to pee, so here’s the plan. We go inside. I pee. Then we get the hell out of here before Jason shows up in a hockey mask and murders us.”

  Leslie’s teeth clenched. She could accommodate the first two parts of that plan, but Selena was going to have to accept that they wouldn’t be leaving. Not until Leslie figured out what to do next. “Let’s go in,” she said. “I’m sure you’ll feel better once you see the inside.”

  “Don’t count on it,” Selena muttered. She stared out the window. “How are we even supposed to get to the door?”

  “Um...” Leslie glanced at their feet. Selena’s running shoes and her work shoes weren’t a match for the trek through three feet of snow.

  No one had been to the cabin since the summer before; her sister, Katherine, habitually came here for several weeks a year to regroup. She claimed that the pleasant acoustics and being surrounded by the natural exposed wood helped her relax, get away from the stress of her job as a homicide detective with the Alaska state troopers’ office. Outside of that annual visit, no one in their family really used the cabin anymore. Not since their father died and the family dynamics became tense. And definitely not during the winter months when access to the cabin and outdoor activities was limited, hence the lack of maintenance.

  Leslie knew the heat wouldn’t be turned on inside either and neither of them was dressed for Alaska weather, wearing only fall jackets and thin stretchy dollar gloves from the last gas station before they hit Alaska.

  Admittedly, she hadn’t thought the logistics of this rushed decision through carefully...or at all. It was a heartbeat reaction to a dangerous situation. Her fight-or-flight instinct kicked into high gear and she’d chosen flight, unsure of what they were fighting against. Her training taught her that going in unprepared was always a disadvantage and she hadn’t wanted to put Selena in more danger, waiting it out in LA.

  Selena’s gaze burned into hers. “Well?”

  She wouldn’t panic or look unprepared to her client. Stay cool.

  Leslie reached down to untie her boot. They had extra winter clothing and boots inside the cabin. They just needed to get there. “We’ll switch.”

  “Gross. Absolutely not.”

  “You think you can make it through the snow in those?” She nodded toward the bright pink-and-teal running shoes.

  “Nope. So, I guess you’ll have to carry me to the door.”

  This woman was officially out of her goddamn mind. “You want me to carry you?”

  “Look, becoming a bodyguard was your life choice. Therefore, you signed up to protect my body—all of it, any way you need to. And if you want to do a traditionally man’s job...”

  Jesus, they were back to this again. Selena’s disbelief and disappointment that she’d been assigned a female guard. For the first month on assignment, all she’d heard was Selena’s skepticism that Leslie could actually protect her in a life-and-death situation. Leslie’s credentials—five years as an Alaska state trooper, graduating third in her class at the academy, and her intensive twenty-eight-day protective detail training along with her black belts in jujitsu and karate hadn’t worked to ease the star’s mind. Leslie had learned to tune out the comments muttered under her breath and those said not so quietly when Selena was in a mood. If the star wanted reassurance that Leslie could do her job, this was her opportunity to prove it.

  “How much do you weigh?”

  “That’s rude.”

  Leslie scanned her. Five foot six, but supermodel thin, she couldn’t be more than a hundred pounds. Unfortunately, Leslie wasn’t a heavyweight herself, but she was strong and determined and that beat size any day. Or at least that’s what she’d told herself repeatedly over the last seven years through the rigorous and demanding training whenever she’d been tempted to quit.

  Leslie opened the door, pushing hard against the deep snow, then climbed out and trudged toward the passenger side. Wet snow fell into her boots and clung to the fabric of her jeans and the damp air chilled her. Snow started to fall and the big, thick flakes covered her thin jacket within seconds. She opened the passenger door and turned around, bending at the knees. “Hop on.” She’d piggyback Selena inside.

  “This is not how I meant.”

  “Do you want to get inside or not?”

  “Not really,” Selena said but she sighed and wrapped her arms around Leslie’s neck and her legs around her waist.

  Leslie gripped her tight and stood, then kicked the door closed with her foot.

  The temptation to “accidentally” drop Selena into the snowbank was so incredibly enticing, but if there was a sliver of hope that she could keep her job after this fiasco, Leslie was grasping for it. She wasn’t expecting a five-star review of her performance after this was over, but if she kept the woman safe, that had to count for something.

  She hoped.

  A former Alaska state trooper, working highway patrol for five years, Leslie had only ever known careers in protective services. It was in her blood—her mother had been the second official female state trooper in the northern state and her older sister and younger brother were in the force as well. Leslie didn’t want to be a cop anymore, and this new path suited her...and normally she enjoyed her job. Enjoyed the different challenges and obstacles, the element of high pressure and danger. It kept her adrenaline high and therefore reminded her she was alive.

  She was one of the best—an especially impressive feat given that she was a woman and smaller than the other agents at the agency. So far she’d excelled at all of the assignments she’d been given.

  But this assignment had quickly become her toughest one.

  With the others, she’d been hired as a security measure...extra precaution during high-stress and high-visibility times for the client. But this time, there was an imminent threat to the person’s safety.

  Failing this first real test of her skills wasn’t an option.

  The snow was even deeper than it looked from the car and Leslie sank up to her knees with each step. Her feet were going numb and she struggled to take a deep breath in the cold mountain air that was thinner at this altitude than any of the hikes she’d done in the California mountain ranges.

  Not much could prepare someone for the Alaskan wilderness in the colder months.

  At the deck, she reached along the top of the door, through the coating of snow and ice and found the extra key.

  “That’s safe,” Selena said.

  “We’re in the middle of nowhere and there really isn’t anything of value inside the cabin, anyway.”

  “Wow. Way to sell it,” Selena mumbled.

  Leslie unlocked the door and stepped inside. She immediately dropped Selena back to her feet and rotated her shoulders. Between the mounting stress and carrying the other woman, her back and neck were a mess of tense knots. She’d deserve a week off once all of this was over.

  She flicked on the lights and the place illuminated. Immediately Leslie’s stomach fell—memories of family time in that cabin rushing back at the worst possible time.

  This place had been the last place she remembered feeling happy—truly happy, like only a kid with no worries could be. It wasn’t big and luxurious like those belonging to wealthy families closer to the water’s edge, but it was cozy with its loft-style bedrooms with their slanted ceilings, a real wood-burning stove and exposed log interior. She and her older sister shared one room and her brother had the other. Their parents had the bedroom downstairs. A small living space with exposed wood on the walls and ceiling, skylights allowing the stars and northern lights to shine down on them, a wood burning fireplace and some comfy furniture that they’d mov
ed from the house in Wild River once it started showing its age. On the walls hung scenery photos of the surrounding trails and rivers. And several family photos from when she and her siblings were young—a lifetime ago.

  The place even smelled the same, despite no one being up there in months. The lingering scent of firewood and slightly musty surroundings. Her mouth watered and she could almost taste the s’mores they’d roast over the open fire every night.

  She shook it off. She wasn’t here on vacation or with her family. There was no time for nostalgia, she had to get her head straight and figure out what the hell she was going to do now that they were here...in the middle of nowhere, with no one to know where they were.

  “Stay here. I’ll get the things from the car.” Not that she needed to tell Selena not to help. For the last three months since she’d been assigned the star’s protective detail, she hadn’t had any success making Selena realize that Leslie was there as her bodyguard, not her personal assistant, not her personal valet when she shopped, not a shoulder to cry on when the latest co-star broke things off and not her friend.

  She trudged back through the deep snow to the car. After opening the back door, she reached inside for the several shopping bags of food from the last convenience store they’d passed before turning off the highway and escaping any sign of civilization.

  It wasn’t fresh mahi-mahi or whatever Selena’s macro diet demanded she consume, but at least Leslie was giving her the option to not starve to death while they were stuck here.

  Anxiety made her chest tighten. Just how long would that be? Being “home” or in close proximity was already stressing her out and the circumstances around it were enough to cause a severe panic attack. She hadn’t had one in over a year, but now seemed like the perfect time for old psychological ailments to return. She forced a chilly breath as she kicked the door closed with her foot and headed back inside the cabin.

  Selena still stood exactly where she’d left her. “It’s freezing,” Selena said, dancing from one foot to the other, rubbing her arms in her thin jacket. “Where’s the thermostat?”