by J. H. Croix
“Mind if I hop in your SUV?” I asked.
“I don’t think you can drive it out,” Daphne said as she stood planted in her boots and skirt in the middle of the road.
“Sure I can, princess. Give me those keys.” As I approached her, she stood her ground, the pink tinge on her cheeks deepening. “I can get it out, no problem.”
I kept on walking, and she spun quickly, hurrying to catch up with me. “Okay, the keys are in it. I’m sure you’ll have to move the seat back.”
Sliding my gaze sideways when I stopped to open the door, I said, “Oh, I’m sure about that. Mind if I try?”
“Be my guest,” she said, gesturing with her hand as she stepped back. “If you can get me out of the mud, that would be wonderful.”
The seat was practically kissing the steering wheel. I slid it back, climbed in, and started the SUV. After I closed the door, I rolled down the window. “You’re going to need to step back. Mud’s going to fly.”
She crossed her arms and arched a brow. “All right then.” She took several strides toward the other side of the road.
After starting the engine, I made sure the four-wheel drive was engaged. I tested it lightly to see if she had any traction on that one rear wheel. Not a damn bit. After a quick scan to get the lay of the vehicle’s controls, I shifted it into differential gear. As soon as I felt it click into place, I gave the gas pedal a little pressure and felt the strong grind of the axle.
In another moment, the SUV bounced forward, and I heard Daphne squeal. I couldn’t look her way just yet and eased the vehicle onto the road before I put it in park and cut the engine. When I climbed out, my mouth fell open. Daphne was covered in mud.
I bit back a smile. I didn’t know how the hell that happened. From where she’d been standing, she should’ve been clear from the mud spray. When I met her eyes, a look of shock held for a beat before she threw her head back with a laugh.
Fuck me. The princess had a deep, throaty laugh when she let it loose.
I chuckled when she met my eyes again as her laughter slowed. “Oh, my God. I tried to be helpful and walked behind to give it a little push.”
“You pushed?”
“No,” she said, looking sheepish as she shook her head. She lifted a hand to smear some of the mud off her cheek. Not that it did anything to help. “I got back there right when whatever you did worked. The mud splattered all over me.”
Daphne looked down. There was mud on her face, in her hair, and covering the entire front of her pretty blue blouse. There were splashes of mud on her skirt and her knees.
Hot damn, she looked sexy as hell covered in mud.
I was losing my mind. This inconvenient attraction to Daphne that came out of nowhere made absolutely no sense.
I tried to keep from laughing when she looked back up at me. She rolled her eyes, and that dimple made a sweet appearance when she smiled. “It’s okay. You can laugh.”
I chuckled softly. “I’m sorry. You just don’t seem the type to get all muddy.”
Her smile faded, and something flickered in her eyes, but she shuttered it quickly. “I aim to change that. Now, perhaps you can show me the way to the resort. If you didn’t notice, my dashboard seems to be flickering in and out. My GPS is broken, and there’s no cell phone reception here, so I wasn’t even sure I was headed in the right direction.”
“Well, gotta give it to you. You just kept on going.”
She nodded, her chin lifting a bit again.
“Follow me then.”
Chapter Three
Daphne
About ten minutes later, I stood beside Flynn and completely forgot I was covered in mud. “Oh, wow,” I breathed reverently. “It’s even prettier than the pictures.”
Flynn angled his unsettling, sharp gaze to mine. This was the closest I’d gotten to him, and his eyes were like none I’d ever seen. The blue was encircled with a dark rim, almost as if an artist had shaded charcoal around the edges. “It’s definitely nice,” he commented.
“Nice?”
He shrugged. “Okay, beautiful.”
The tiny hitch at one corner of his lips was enough to send my belly spinning in flips. Oh. My. God. If this man ever graced me with a full smile, I’d probably climb him like a freaking tree.
Heralded as one of Alaska’s premier outdoor expedition resorts, Walker Adventures was a stone’s throw from Diamond Creek, which I understood to be a town with plenty of restaurants and tourist attractions. But as I looked around, it was hard to imagine anything resembling civilization nearby. It truly felt as if we were in the middle of nowhere.
Spruce trees surrounded us. The resort, a massive timber-frame building, had dark stained wood siding with a blue steel roof covered almost entirely in solar panels. The building was the shape of an octagon with floor-to-ceiling windows on all sides and all three floors.
Flynn strode ahead of me and paused by the stairs, which led up to a wraparound deck. He’d insisted on getting my bags, hooking one over his shoulder and holding the other in his hand. “You ready to go in?”
I hadn’t realized I’d frozen in place while my eyes absorbed the scenery. With trees to one side, the resort was set in the hills and offered an expansive view of the mountains on the other side. Those same bright fuchsia flowers I’d seen on my drive grew in clusters along the hillside. An ocean bay was visible in the distance with mountains on the far side.
“Yes!” I hurried to catch up to Flynn.
In my rush, the heel of my boot caught on a piece of gravel. I kicked it aside and stumbled slightly when I reached him. Flynn reached out to steady me, his free hand curling around my arm. His touch felt like a hot brand, and heat rushed through me.
“Have you forgotten you’re covered in mud?” he asked, one side of his mouth tilting up in the slightest hint of a grin.
Oh, God. My body couldn’t deal with any smiles from him, and I definitely couldn’t handle him touching me. I swallowed as I tried to catch a breath. Although we were in rarefied mountain air, it suddenly seemed in short supply.
Looking down, I kept my sigh silent as I gathered myself. Dear God. I was an utter mess, literally and figuratively. When my eyes lifted to meet his again, and I saw the glimmer of warmth, I decided it couldn’t be all that bad. Although I’d been born and raised to care deeply about appearances, I’d learned in the most brutal ways possible that appearances didn’t matter. Not at all.
“I suppose I did forget about the mud,” I offered with a brave smile.
“Come on in then.”
Flynn gestured for me to climb the stairs in front of him. I figured the back of me looked better than the front, so I hurried up and waited by the doors.
“It’s not locked,” he said when he crested the top of the stairs.
“Oh,” I squeaked before reaching to open the door. Considering he had my bags, the least I could do was get the door.
I stepped inside with Flynn following me. The entryway was tiled in slate gray. Rows of hooks on both walls flanked the door with grates on the floor.
Flynn must’ve seen my puzzlement as I eyed the grates curiously. “That’s for during the winter. When people come in with snowy boots and gear, the water drains instead of pooling on the floor. Don’t worry; it’s not open to the outdoors. It’s only about two inches under the floor and feeds into our drainage system.”
“Oh, that’s handy,” I offered as I glanced up at him.
His gaze scanned my face, but I didn’t know how to read his expression. He seemed quite skilled at keeping his thoughts hidden. Being an expert at that myself, I never held it against a person. Holding one’s own counsel was important.
“Let me show you to your room,” he said as he walked past me.
He led me through the tall archway into another room. Just beyond the archway was a door on either side. The rest of the space was wide open. The hardwood floors gleamed under the sun shining through the windows. To one side, a small sectional sofa and a few c
hairs surrounded a soapstone woodstove. Another area had low bookshelves with more chairs, and then yet another area had a larger sectional couch with a television that came down from the ceiling. Without a single wall to divide the space, it somehow felt like three separate rooms due to the layout and flow.
I followed Flynn across the room to discover a pretty spiral staircase tucked in the corner. We crested the top stair, and he led me down the hallway before opening a door. The room had a view out over the field with the ocean glittering in the distance.
The clean, minimalist furnishings included a queen-size bed decorated in a fluffy cream-colored quilt with a nightstand on either side and a dresser across from the foot of the bed just beside the door where we stood. Flynn set my bags on the floor in front of the dresser and pointed at the door on the side of the room. “Shower’s in there.”
He turned, about to disappear through the doorway.
“Flynn.”
He turned back, and this man was, simply put, all man—raw, rugged strength exuded from him. There was a hint of grace to the way he arched his brow. “Yeah?”
“The website said there were meals.”
My words weren’t quite a question, but Flynn nodded. “Yes. There are meals, princess.”
I bit the insides of my cheeks to keep from reacting to that little nickname. There was no way he could’ve known I’d been given that very nickname when I was a little girl.
By the time I’d showered and changed into a pair of jeans with low-heeled boots and a mud-free cotton blouse, I could hear the murmur of voices and presumed another group of guests had arrived.
I didn’t know why, but I felt a little anxious. I couldn’t get Flynn’s intense and striking eyes out of my mind. And every time he called me princess, a flash of irritation struck, followed immediately by a little kick in my pulse.
With a mental shake, I paused at the doorway, the feel of the doorknob cool under my palm before I turned it. On the heels of a deep breath, I squared my shoulders and walked down the hallway.
A tall, lanky young man came out of another door at an angle across the hallway. When he saw me, he cast me a quick grin. “Hello there.”
I knew almost instantly that this young man had to be related to Flynn. He had the same amber hair kissed by the sun and those unique blue eyes with smoky edges.
“Hi,” I managed politely.
He dipped his head in acknowledgment and gestured for me to walk ahead of him. “You must be Daphne,” he said as we descended the spiral staircase.
“I am. How did you guess?”
“Well, the rest of the guests are here, and I haven’t met a Daphne yet. I’m Grant,” he offered when he stopped beside me at the base of the stairs. “Nice to meet you.” His hand engulfed mine as he spoke. He was just as tall as Flynn but appeared younger.
“Nice to meet you as well,” I said as I dropped his hand.
When I turned, I saw roughly ten people meandering about the common area downstairs.
“If you’re hungry,” Grant offered, “head on into the kitchen.”
Following where he pointed, I went through one of the doorways flanking the archway into the main entrance. Trays of hors d’oeuvres lined the counter.
Although the space felt homey, it was clearly an industrial kitchen with massive appliances. Flynn was doing something on the stove at an island opposite the counter against the wall, and from the large rectangular table by the windows, I could see the hillside with the ocean in the distance.
Flynn glanced up when I entered. Something flashed briefly in his eyes as I approached, but it was gone before I could interpret it. “All cleaned up, I see,” he said by way of greeting.
I felt the heat in my cheeks. I didn’t even want to think about my reaction to Flynn. It seemed all I had to do was get close, and I got rattled.
“Anything to drink?” he asked.
“Sure.”
“Beer or wine, or something else?”
“Wine, please. Red if you have it.”
Flynn nodded and turned off the burner under the pan he’d been stirring. In another moment, he was filling a glass with dark red wine.
“So, you fly planes, fetch errant guests when they get stuck in the mud, and cook?” I teased politely.
Flynn turned to pass the glass of wine across the counter to me. Our fingers brushed, and a jolt of electricity sizzled up my arm. Little licks of fire chased over the surface of my skin in the wake of that subtle touch.
His hand dropped away, and I curled my fingers around the wine glass to anchor me. His lips kicked up at one corner, and my belly was tickled by the butterflies that quickly amassed.
“I don’t usually cook, but it’s not because I can’t. I’m more in charge of the flying and the fetching errant guests. Our chef quit last week, so we’re shorthanded. I’m covering until then.”
“Oh.” Brilliant answer. To mask my nervousness, I took a sip of wine, but it was too quick and too much. I sputtered and felt the cool wine strike my blouse as it splattered.
I met Flynn’s eyes, which held a subtle gleam. “I seem to make a mess whenever I’m near you,” I managed. My cheeks were flaming hot, and I wished I could will the heat away.
Chapter Four
Flynn
“Toss me that lashing strap, would you?” I called over to Elias.
The lashing strap came sailing through the air, and I caught the hook. Leaning into the storage area at the back of the plane, I tightened the strap and checked to make sure the hook was securely in place. Elias came around from the other side of the plane, resting his elbow on the wing as I straightened and closed the door to the rear compartment.
“Later this week, we have a group who booked a trip over to Katmai. You up for that?” I asked.
“Of course. What’s the schedule until then?” he returned.
“Three flights tomorrow. How about you take one in the morning and afternoon, and I’ll take the other one in the afternoon?”
He nodded immediately. Elias Lowe would live in the air if he could. He was one of my closest friends and had joined me here the year after I left the Air Force. We served together, but I’d left the military before he did because I needed to come home and take care of my siblings seven years ago.
I loved being in the air as much as he did, and it helped with the money we needed. People paid a ridiculous amount of money for flightseeing in Alaska and trips to remote travel locations. It wasn’t cheap to fly, and the risks were high, but it was worth it. Aside from scrambling to get my family’s outdoor expedition business in order when I came home, I had three younger siblings to take care of. So far, I’d managed to pay for college for Grant and Nora. My youngest sister, Cat, was still finishing high school.
Elias ran a hand through his shaggy dark blond hair and nodded. “You know I’ll take every flight you throw my way.”
“Oh, I know all right. It’s just you can’t be in two places at once.”
“He’d like to think he could,” a voice commented.
Elias rolled his brown eyes as he glanced over his shoulder. Tucker Harrison came into view as he stepped through the entrance into the plane hangar. “What the hell are you guys doing up this early?” he queried as he stopped on the other side of the plane’s wing and rested both elbows on it.
“Working,” Elias returned with a snort of a laugh.
“The more apt question would be what in the hell are you doing up so early?” I countered.
Tucker shrugged. “I know. Didn’t sleep well last night. That new cook you hired is only mediocre at making coffee, by the way. Yours is better.”
“Noted. So, you up for a couple of transport flights?”
Tucker nodded. “Of course. The fewer people I have to talk to, the better.”
Elias slid his gaze sideways to Tucker. “We know that.”
Tucker cracked a quick smile. He had a dry sense of humor with his friends, but he kept his friend circle small and tight. Like Elias,
he served with me in the Air Force. When I’d heard from him three years ago, I invited him to come work with me, and he jumped on it. Tucker preferred to keep to himself, and Alaska was definitely a place that lent itself to that.
Patting the side of the small plane, I said, “You have mail and groceries for four villages. Might want to take a peek at the weather forecast, but I’m guessing it’ll be a two-day loop to get everywhere you need.”
“Works for me. If the plane’s ready, I’ll leave now,” Tucker offered, running a hand through his rich brown curls.
“This baby’s all loaded up,” I said, glancing over my shoulder at the storage area to make sure I hadn’t missed any boxes.
Tucker was already striding toward the small room that held various odds and ends, including gear. Not much later, he was steering the plane up into the clear sky.
Elias walked with me toward my truck in the parking area. “You taking the flight scheduled for this afternoon?” he asked as I pulled out my phone and scrolled through the schedule on the calendar.
“If you want it, it’s yours. It’s a family from New York. They were nice on the phone.” Glancing at my screen again, I added, “They’re supposed to be here in a half hour. Want to go grab some coffee first?”
“As if I would ever say no to coffee,” he said dryly.
We were in town, the town being Diamond Creek. While I had a small gravel landing strip out near the resort, it was solely for personal use. We didn’t do any official trips from there. The three plane hangars I owned here at the small airport in Diamond Creek were for my business’s seven small planes. Every now and then, I marveled at that.
When I’d returned from the Air Force after my mom died, the finances were a mess. She’d started an expedition business with my stepfather—who’d been a fucking asshole, by the way—and the business never quite got off the ground. When I came home, I figured I’d work with what we had—a huge chunk of land close enough to Diamond Creek to make it valuable, a partially finished resort, and three planes. In the seven years since, I’d finished building the resort and seen a surprising uptick in business with our flightseeing.