Snowfire

by French, Colleen

  She couldn't resist a smile. "Look, Alex . . ." Her gaze fell to the snow-covered ground.

  "It's all right, Gabrielle."

  "No, it isn't. I shouldn't have let you kiss me. It's not what I want."

  He stood up slowly, picking up the quilt. "It was what you wanted at the time."

  "I know, but . . . I mean . . ." Gabrielle looked off into the distance. "I want to be your friend, Alex, but nothing more."

  He threw the quilt over his shoulder. "Not you, too?"

  "Me, too, what?"

  "Your friend Jack was here not too long ago, giving me the same story."

  Gabrielle's cheeks colored. "What did he say?"

  "Don't worry about it. I'll keep my distance, I promise." He hobbled toward the door.

  A strange disappointment came over her as she stood there watching him disappear into the cabin. What's wrong with me? she asked herself. He's promised to leave me alone. But she knew what was wrong. As much as she hated herself for it, she was dying to kiss Alex again.

  The following afternoon Alex decided to try his hand at fishing on the Tanana. With a wooden pole and a bit of biscuit dough, he hobbled down the path toward the bank, promising to return with fish for supper. His feet were healing with each passing day, and he was regaining his strength. Every day he tried to get outside and go for a short walk somewhere, just to keep his muscles from atrophying.

  Waving to him, Gabrielle went back into the cabin to get a bucket. Deciding this would be a good chance to take a bath, she began to heat water to fill the ancient tub. Sliding into the heavenly water, she relaxed, closing her eyes. This is going to be nice, she thought. With this new agreement between her and Alex, he would be such good company to her. With winter settling in, she was glad to know she wouldn't be alone. Everything had all happened so fast; she needed time to adjust. By next winter, she knew she would be all right. By the time spring came and Alex left, she'd be over her father's death. And by then, Lucas Taylor would have completely forgotten about Rouge LeBeau and the map . . . she hoped.

  Sinking deeper into the tub, Gabrielle began to lather herself with sweet-smelling soap. Leaning back, she dipped her head into the water and scrubbed her scalp until it tingled. Finally, when the water had grown luke-warm and she began to shiver, she stepped out of the tub.

  At that moment the cabin door swung open and Alex came up the steps. Gabrielle stood frozen as his heavenly blue eyes moved over her slim, dripping form.

  Alex swallowed, murmuring beneath his breath. He knew he should turn away, but he couldn't. His gaze went from her bare feet, up her long, graceful legs to her rounded hips. He had never seen such a tightly clipped waist, such beautiful taut breasts. The bath water shimmered in the firelight playing off her silken, quiescent flesh, and Alex took a step forward.

  Gabrielle's eyes met Alex's, and she trembled, unable to tear her gaze from his. A warmth spread from the core of her womanhood, bathing her in a throbbing, incandescent heat. Her cotton towel hung from her fingers, but she was unable to raise her hand to cover her nakedness. Her tongue darted out to moisten her lips as she stared at him, wanting him to come nearer, yet frightened he would. She knew she should send him away, but when she tried to speak, her throat constricted until nothing but a squeak escaped.

  Alex could hear his own ragged breath. God, she was beautiful . . . those dark, oppressive eyes, those trembling lips that taunted him even when he slept. Images flashed through his mind, images of his limbs twisted with hers. He could feel his heart pounding beneath his breast, and the strain of his loins. He wanted Gabrielle like he had never wanted a woman before. Swallowing hard, he turned, stumbling down the steps, and slammed the cabin door. "Not now, not this way . . ." he murmured.

  After Alex was gone, Gabrielle stood in frozen silence. Finally, her limbs obeyed her will, and she raised the towel to dry off. She was still shaking as she pulled on her breeches and flannel shirt over her damp body. My God! I stood there and let him see me, let him stare at me! The word "whore" pounded her brain rhythmically as she fumbled with the buttons of her shirt. Tears stung her eyes as she fought them.

  "What's wrong with me?" she murmured. Had she been born a brazen hussy? Was it inherited? She cursed her mother beneath her breath as she searched through a crate for a pair of matching socks. Tears blinded her vision until finally she slumped to the floor. "I don't want to love him," she repeated over and over again. "Help me, Papa, don't let me love him. I'll hurt him; I'll hurt him just like Mama hurt you." Once the tears had started, Gabrielle couldn't hold them back. She cried for herself, for the loss of her father. She cried for what her mother was and what she could never prevent her from being.

  When Alex finally came back in the door, Gabrielle was sitting on the floor against the bed. She had long since stopped crying but still sat there, her head cradled in her arms.

  "Gabrielle," Alex called softly.

  She lifted her head, frantic words bursting from her mouth. "How dare you! You had no right!"

  "I'm sorry. But how long did you expect me to stay out there?" He stared at her, huddled there on the floor, her eyes red and strained from crying. His ardor cooled as he watched her brush frantically at her eyes. All he wanted to do was hold her, to soothe the pain of her clouded past.

  "It hasn't been more than an hour," she spat.

  "An hour! It's been at least an hour and a half, maybe two. In case you didn't realize it, it gets damned cold out there after dark." He shrugged off the caribou-hide parka he'd inherited from Rouge.

  "You should have left. A gentleman would have knocked first." She stood up, her hands trembling. The sight of him made her heart flutter. The depth of his eyes as he stared at her body would be forever branded in her mind.

  Alex could feel his anger rising as he took a step closer. "A lady wouldn't have stood there bare-assed looking at me!"

  Instinctively, Gabrielle raised her hand to strike him. The only thing that prevented her palm from making contact with his cheekbone was his iron-clad grip that caught her wrist in midair.

  "Don't you ever, ever hit me," Alex ordered through clenched teeth. "Because I'll hit you back, and I can promise you I'll hit harder."

  Gabrielle stared with numb incredulity. No one had ever spoken to her like that; no one would have dared. Her lower lip trembled as she forced contact with Alex's stormy blue eyes. They were grey now, with streaks of anger. "I'm sorry," she whispered.

  "I'm sorry," he returned, slowly releasing her wrist. With a rough impulsiveness, he pulled her into his arms, crushing his mouth against hers.

  Gabrielle clung to him, her blunt nails digging into his back as she strained against his hard male chest. When he pressed to deepen the kiss, she succumbed to the power of his embrace, forfeiting the control she usually held over herself and others. She was frightened by a physical contact she'd never had, but at the same time, she yearned to know.

  "Ah, Gabrielle, what am I going to do with you?" Alex breathed, his tongue darting out to taste the honey of her lips.

  "I don't know." She shook her head, lifting her chin to let him nibble at the soft flesh of her throat. "I don't know." Her dark eyes drifted shut, heady from the shivers of pulsing pleasure that raced through her veins. Boldly, she ran her hands over his broad back, exploring the field of taut muscles. She had never felt a man's back like this, and it was glorious!

  Alex brushed his knuckles against the outline of Gabrielle's breast, and she moaned deep in her throat. Hesitantly she accepted the thrust of his tongue in her mouth. It was a strange sensation, this mixing of breath, but it made her heart pound and all conscious thought fly from her mind. All she knew at this moment was Alex, his mouth on hers, his stroking hand, his whispered words.

  "Please," Gabrielle groaned as Alex lowered his mouth to her breast. She could feel his hot, wet breath through her flannel shirt, and she strained, arching her back, unable to resist the excruciating delight that filled her being.

  "Please what?" Ale
x laughed, his eyes shining as he raised his head to brush his lips against hers.

  Gabrielle lifted her heavy lashes, joining in his laughter. "I don't know. . . ."

  He smiled at her, and she returned the smile, lowering her head to the crook of his neck. Never in her life had she ever felt as secure as she did right now.

  "Come here," Alex murmured against her hair.

  "What?" She looked up at him.

  "I have to sit down." He caught her by the shoulder when she tried to back up. "I'm not through with you," he teased. "But my foot is killing me. If I don't sit down, I'm going to fall down." He lowered himself onto the wooden chair at the table and pulled her into his lap.

  Gabrielle lowered her head to Alex's shoulder again, inhaling his heavenly male scent. She toyed with the dark red curls at the nape of his neck.

  "What are we going to do about this, Gabrielle? I know I said I wouldn't touch you, but . . ." his voice trailed off.

  "It's my fault."

  "It's not anyone's fault, but the fact remains that you and I have got a long winter ahead of us." He sighed, pressing a kiss to a short tendril of chestnut hair. "I can make no promises, Gabrielle. Even if I could, I don't know what you want."

  She laughed, lifting her head from his shoulder to study his eyes. They were calm again, the streaks of anger gone as if they'd never existed. All she saw now was a sea of heavenly blue and a twinkle in their depths. "It's all right, because I don't know what I want either." She sighed, looking away. "There's so much I want to tell you. Yet I want to tell you nothing."

  Alex stroked her flushed cheek. "I know. Let's just take it easy. We'll take our time. We both have a lot to consider."

  Gabrielle gave a nod, slipping from his lap. She was surprised to find that her legs were still shaky as she crossed the room to the stove. "So where's the fish? You did bring home dinner, didn't you?"

  Chapter Eight

  "Come on!" Gabrielle shouted over her shoulder breathlessly. "You're holding the dogs back."

  Alex stopped in the sled tracks in the snow, breathing laboriously. "Go on without me. I told you I couldn't go far," he shouted to her on the crest of the hill. "Go up and around and then come back. I'll wait!" His breath clouded in the frigid air and rose above his head.

  Gabrielle clapped her mittened hands together to warm them, her dark eyes sparkling mischievously. The past three weeks had been a delightful dream. Alex had demanded nothing of her, and Gabrielle had never been so content. When she refused to speak of her past, he filled their evenings with tales of whaling ships and southern battlefields. They just took each day as it came, embracing it and reveling in each other's laughter. Neither spoke of the tie that bound them closer each day, or what would happen in the spring when Alex would leave.

  "Weakling!" Gabrielle accused. "Come on, just a little farther." She patted her lead dog's head, giving him a scratch behind the ears. The eight-dog team shifted in its harness, anxious to move on.

  Alex pulled his wool cap off his head, running his fingers through his bright head of hair. "Watch your mouth! You wouldn't dare say that if I were a little closer." His deep tenor voice echoed in the tree tops, and snow fell to the ground under the strain.

  "All right, I'll just go up a ways and come down along the river. It's about half a mile east of here. Think you can find it?"

  He picked up the stick he'd been using as a cane. Gabrielle had reset the splint on his broken forearm so that he could use it sparingly. "That where we're going to camp?"

  She gave a nod, preoccupied by the sight of his handsome clean-shaven face and brilliant cap of thick auburn hair. She smiled to herself. It was difficult to believe that she, Gabrielle LeBeau, had herself a man. True, they'd done nothing more than kiss a few times, but he was hers for the time being, just the same.

  Breaking herself from her thoughts, she waved and started over the crest. "Mush!" she commanded. The dogs leaped forward pulling the bent-wood sled behind them, and Gabrielle ran to leap on the back of the metal runners.

  Alex stood listening to the sounds of the jingling leather and metal harnesses and the howl of the dogs until they disappeared into the distance. Leaning on his make-shift cane, he turned east and started out through the fresh snow.

  He and Gabrielle had decided this morning to take advantage of the mild November day and hike up river with the dogs. They were going to camp on the bank of the Tanana and return to the cabin the following day. Though his legs still pained him, Alex had been anxious to escape the confines of the cabin. Outside, in the frigid air, his thoughts came easier. Out there in the bright sunshine and sparkling blanket of crystalline white, his life seemed to come into perspective.

  Thoughts of gold and his failure to reach his mining destination before winter plagued his mind. He knew there was gold somewhere north of here on the river, and he still intended to find it. His few attempts to discuss the possibility of gold on the Tanana with Gabrielle had been disastrous. She cursed the gold miners, accusing them of destroying the precious balance of nature on the river. She said they left their tin cans along the paths and slaughtered caribou and moose for a single night's meal, leaving the carcasses behind to rot. The gold miners supplied whiskey to the Indians and took advantage of them, robbing them of their dignity and making them dependent on the white man's society. Alex sighed, ducking beneath a low-lying branch. Gabrielle also said that there was no gold on the Tanana.

  Stopping to catch his breath, Alex loosened the neck of his parka. He could hear the river now, still rushing, but it was not as loud as it had been a few weeks ago. Parts of it had begun to freeze. Great chunks of blue-green ice flowed past the cabin each day. Many of the tributaries were a solid sheet of ice already.

  Reaching the Tanana's banks, Alex perched himself on a fallen log to wait for Gabrielle. Not more than an hour later, he heard the sound of barking dogs and her voice clear and sharp in the crisp air.

  "Beat me here did you?" she called as she leaped off the back of the runners. "Whoa! Whoa!" She slowed the dogs to a walk as she came into the clearing. "I would have been here sooner, but Caesar and Anthony got themselves tangled in the harness, and I had to stop and straighten them out." She got down on her knees and began to release the sled dogs one at a time.

  Alex kneeled beside her in the snow. "Show me how to do it."

  Gabrielle turned to him, lifting an eyebrow.

  "I want you to teach it all to me. If you've got another sled, I'd like to take it out. People learn best by doing, don't you think?"

  She smiled. "All right, your lessons start today. By spring you'll be the best musher on the river . . . next to me of course!"

  An hour later the dogs had been fed a mixture of ground fish and caribou and had curled into balls to sleep in the snow. Alex had built a fire and started roasting chunks of caribou he'd pierced with a long pointed stick.

  "Smells good," Gabrielle commented, rubbing her hands together for warmth. "It's the last of the caribou. I'll have to go hunting when we get back."

  "You always carry all of this stuff on your sled?" Alex indicated the tin container of frozen meat for the dogs.

  "Sure do. Enough at least for a day or two. I'd forgotten dog food the day I was sledding and found you. That's proof that an afternoon's outing can drag into days. My dogs mean a lot to me. I don't want them going hungry."

  "They look a little bigger than the ones I bought." He grimaced at the thought of all of that money gone to waste. Pulling a chunk of meat off the stick, he blew on it and popped it into his mouth.

  "They're mostly husky, but I like a little hound in them. They're larger, leaner, definitely faster. I'm becoming known for my dogs." She smiled with pride. "People on the river come to me when they're ready to buy."

  Alex nodded, offering the stick of roasted meat. "Have some, it's pretty good."

  Gabrielle accepted, taking a seat on a hide mat by the fire. She patted the place beside her. "Sit down. I know your feet must hurt."


  "They do, but it feels good to be out." He pulled up his collar to ward off the wind. The sun was setting already, disappearing below the line of trees in the distance.

  Gabrielle suddenly turned to look at the huddle of sleeping dogs. "Leopold . . . have you seen him?"

  "Who?"

  She scrambled to her feet. "Leopold. He's Tristan's brother. He's gone." She made a head count again just to be sure. "Only seven dogs. Leo's missing."

  Suddenly they heard a yelp and a crashing in the trees. Out of the woods came a husky, howling in pain. His back was covered in blood, his hide and one back haunch slit open. The dog raced toward his master, barking warning to the other dogs.

  A thundering sound filled the clearing, and Alex spun around to see a monstrous moose come crashing out of the forest.

  Gabrielle screamed at the dogs, and they leaped in the air, barking and howling. The camp broke into pandemonium as the moose charged forward, headed straight for Gabrielle and the injured dog.

  "The rifle!" Gabrielle shouted as she dodged right, dragging Leo by the collar to avoid the creature's deadly antlers. "It'll kill us!"

  Alex turned to go to the sled for the rifle, and Gabrielle screamed again. "Look out! Here he comes!"

  Alex threw his body through the air landing in a snowdrift with a bump. The moment his chest hit the hard-packed snow, he groaned in pain, praying he hadn't rebroken his ribs. Brushing the snow from his face, he turned to see the moose tip over the sled and send their belongings flying in every direction.

  Gabrielle whistled to the dogs, coaxing them toward the river. It was frozen on the edges now and seemed the safest place for her team. In the woods, she would lose them in the confusion, but here she could keep them together. "Get out of his way, Alex! Try to get the gun, but stay out of his way!" She slid down the bank, dragging a dog under each arm.

  Alex stumbled to his feet to stare at the frenzied animal. He stood as tall as a man, with a shaggy rack of antlers nearly five feet across. The moose lowered his head, and Alex grew still. He could see the gun lying in the snow, but to get to it, he would have to cross the moose's path.