Falling Fast, Contemporary Romance (Last Frontier Lodge Novels Book 4)

by J. H. Croix

  Contents

  Title

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Epilogue

  Excerpt: Stay With Me

  Find my Books

  Book List

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Falling Fast

  A Last Frontier Lodge Novel

  By J.H. Croix

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2016 J.H. Croix

  All rights reserved.

  ISBN: 1530652243

  ISBN 13: 9781530652242

  This book may not be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in whole or in part by any means, including graphic, electronic, or mechanical without the express written consent of the publisher with the exception of brief quotations included in critical articles and reviews.

  Dedication

  To those who remember what’s it’s like to learn to love again.

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  Chapter 1

  The snow swirled around Ginger Sanders as she raced toward the bottom of the ski slope. A bird flitting through the trees caught her eye and next thing she knew, one of her skis caught on its edge and she lost her balance. For another few seconds, she thought she could stay upright. She managed to slow down as she wobbled. Then, she happened to glance up and see the sexiest man she’d ever laid eyes on a few feet in front of her. Any balance she thought she had was promptly lost. She skidded sideways and landed with a hard thump, coming to a stop beside the skis belonging to the man in question. Her gaze traveled up, up and up until she found herself staring at sex-on-skis.

  The ski god looked down at her. Amber eyes with thick lashes met hers. His hair almost matched his eyes, brown gilded with gold. His features were elegant and strong at once, angled cheekbones, a blade of a nose, and a full, sensual mouth. The man’s body was well defined under his fitted, high-performance gear—all muscle and nothing else. As the man knelt down to check on her, Ginger was struck speechless. She’d like to have blamed her tumble in the snow, but truly it was just this man. He sent her brain and her body into a tailspin. She was almost dizzy just looking at him. Which was not good, not good at all. Where the hell did he come from? She’d never laid eyes on him, and she knew most everyone in Diamond Creek, Alaska. He must be a tourist visiting Last Frontier Lodge.

  She took a breath and pointlessly ran a hand through her hair as if she could somehow straighten the wild locks damp with snow. The ski god’s face came close to hers when he was at her level. Her breath hitched and her pulse took off at a gallop.

  “Are you okay?” he asked.

  Several beats of silence passed while she simply stared at him. Her cheeks heated when she realized she hadn’t managed to answer him. “Um…yeah. I think so.” Her words came out in a rapid jumble, the few she’d managed to string together.

  The man glanced at her skis, which were resting at an awkward angle in the snow. She moved her legs slightly. Aside from her hip throbbing from where she’d landed on it, she felt okay, although her legs weren’t too comfortable with the skis stuck to them.

  “Let’s get you out of these skis, so you can get your feet under you.”

  Before she could think, much less form another word, sex-on-skis quickly adjusted her skis and unfastened the bindings. He even carefully slid her skis off. He was not only sexy as hell, but quite helpful—a rather dangerous combination. Still kneeling, he caught her eyes again. “Now that you can move, how are you?”

  Ginger stretched her legs out and wiggled them. The cold snow underneath her was starting to seep through her fleece leggings. She looked up into those amber eyes, trying to ignore the electricity zipping through her, and nodded. “I’m, uh… I’m fine.”

  He held his hand out. Normally, she would have ignored it and clambered up herself, but this man seemed to have practically hypnotized her. His large hand curled around hers and steadily pulled her up. When she was on her feet, she looked up again and tried to gather herself. She couldn’t keep acting like a fool who could barely talk.

  “Thank you.”

  She was dying to know who this man was, but she was so flustered, she couldn’t seem to say anything else.

  His amber eyes held a subtle gleam as he watched her. He reached an arm over and brushed snow off of her shoulders. “You have, uh, a bit of snow on your back,” he said, gesturing to her back.

  “Oh, oh, right.” She pulled her gloves off and shook her coat. As she tried to reach around, she realized she had snow pretty much everywhere, including all over her bottom. She brushed it off and stomped her feet. When she looked up again, she could feel the flush racing up her neck and face. Every look in his eyes flustered her even more.

  Shit. Don’t blush like an idiot. What the hell is wrong with you? You don’t notice men. They are in the no-zone. Get a grip and act normal.

  As she was frantically trying to herd her scattered thoughts, Gage Hamilton, her best friend’s husband and the owner of Last Frontier Lodge came skiing over to her side. He stopped and looked down, his gray eyes warm and concerned. “You okay? Saw you fall there.”

  Gage’s question nudged her out of her trance, a thread of irritation rising. She hated having anyone concerned about her. “I’m fine,” she said archly.

  Gage’s eyes crinkled with his smile. He glanced to the man whose feet she’d landed by. “How’s it going, Cam? Getting a feel for the trails yet?”

  So the ski god had a name. Cam. Ginger wondered how Gage knew Cam.

  Cam nodded. “It’s going great. I’ve had a chance to ski every downhill trail so far. I was thinking of switching to my telemark skis and heading out on the backcountry trails this afternoon.”

  Gage grinned. “Perfect. We’ve got a good mix of trails out there. You’ll find some easy cross country trails and a few challenging ones where you’ll need those telemark skis.” Gage glanced to Ginger. “I know you fell at Cam’s feet, but did you get a chance to meet him?” Gage asked with a wink and a sly smile.

  Her cheeks flamed again, but she managed to roll her eyes. Cam might fluster her, but she could handle Gage. “We haven’t had much time to talk,” she replied, biting back a huff.

  Cam looked from Gage to her, meeting her eyes straight on. “Cam Nash,” he said with a nod.

  If Ginger didn’t know better, she’d seriously think Cam had special powers. Whenever he looked directly at her with those warm amber eyes, her belly fluttered and a soft buzz of electricity swirled between them. She suddenly realized she was just standing there with Gage and Cam looking at her
expectantly. Right, it was her turn to actually speak, something she usually had no trouble with. She was a speech therapist for crying out loud. An undergraduate degree and two graduate degrees had given her absolutely no training on what to do when a man robbed you of the capacity to speak by his mere presence. Once again, she gathered herself and called upon her manners.

  “N-n-nice to meet you. I’m Ginger Sanders. Are you here for a visit?” She managed to sound only slightly flustered once she got past the first word.

  Cam shrugged. “Not exactly. I took a job here for the winter.”

  Gage nodded enthusiastically. “Cam is a world class skier and backcountry guide. Can’t believe we lucked out and signed him on for the season. He’s getting our ski school up and running and will hopefully help me expand our backcountry trails.”

  Oh. Dear. God. Cam would be here all the time. She’d hoped this was a passing encounter with a sexy tourist who she might see once or twice more. But no, he’d be here all the time. Maybe this was just a weird thing from her fall. She’d be fine in a few minutes. She’d better be. She was at Last Frontier Lodge all the time. Gage’s wife, Marley, was her best friend, and the lodge had become one of the hottest local spots in town since it reopened. She couldn’t be mooning about over Cam. She wouldn’t. With her pulse running wild and butterflies twirling in her belly, she managed to smile politely.

  “That’s great! You’ll love it here.”

  A whole two sentences and she ran out of words. Under usual circumstances, she would’ve happily stood with Cam and Gage and chatted about Diamond Creek, how awesome it was to have Last Frontier Lodge up and running again, and so on and so forth. Instead, she glanced around quickly for her skis, only to find them held in Cam’s hand. “I, uh, should get going.”

  She reached for her skis, promptly knocking one loose from Cam’s grip. He caught it easily. “I can carry these back if you need,” he offered.

  “No thanks, I got it.” Her words came out rapidly. She practically snatched the skis from his hands and ran up to the sprawling back deck of the lodge. She must have looked like an idiot running in her heavy ski boots, but she didn’t give a damn. She was all kinds of rattled by Cam Nash and needed a few minutes to pull herself together.

  She put her skis away in the small shed Gage set aside for friends and family and made her way into the lodge. She shook her jacket off and looped it over her arm as she walked into the kitchen. Her friend, Delia Hamilton, was in the middle of kneading dough. Delia was married to Gage’s brother, Garrett, who’d fallen head over heels in love with her when he came to Alaska for a visit. Ginger caught her eyes. “Okay if I use your bathroom?”

  Delia nodded. “Of course!”

  Ginger walked into Delia’s office. Delia managed the kitchen and reception staff for the ski lodge, so she had one of the few private spaces downstairs in the lodge. Ginger stepped into the small bathroom and closed the door behind her. Leaning her hands on the edge of the counter, she stared in the mirror. Her shiny brown hair was a wild mess. She carefully brushed her fingers through it in a vain attempt to straighten it out. She took a deep breath, turned on the faucet and splashed cold water on her face in the hopes she could ease the heat suffusing her. By the mere age of twenty-eight, she’d been married and divorced. Her divorce had been full of ugly secrets spilling out, mostly the long list of acquaintances her ex had screwed around with. She’d thought she was good and done with men after that. Cam Nash had gone and proved her wrong, and he didn’t even know it.

  She’d committed herself to a life of freedom from men. Oh, she believed in love and happily-ever-after. Just not for her. It had all been going swimmingly. Two years had passed since her divorce and not once had it occurred to her she might meet someone who challenged her resolve. She’d found it quite easy to avoid men. No one she encountered appealed to her in the slightest. It wasn’t because there weren’t attractive men around. She lived in Alaska, which was filled to the brim with rugged, sexy men. So many, they had a damn calendar for them. She figured she’d developed a convenient immunity. Until Cam. Even now, a full five minutes away from his presence, her skin was still flushed and her belly fluttered at the thought of his amber eyes.

  Chapter 2

  Cam watched Ginger Sanders run off, her brown hair swinging about her shoulders. He glanced back at Gage. “Well, I guess she was in a hurry.”

  Gage looked puzzled, but he shrugged. “Guess so. Ginger’s a good friend. You’ll see her around a lot. Aside from the fact she’s Marley’s best friend, she’s probably our best source of local advertising around.”

  Cam was only just now getting a handle on himself. When Ginger had come skidding to a stop by his feet, he’d looked down into the most beautiful pair of blue eyes he’d ever seen—a bright, almost translucent shade of blue. Those eyes paired with her glossy brown hair and fair skin, she simply took his breath away. She had an understated quality to her beauty. There she sat, covered in snow, and he could hardly stop looking at her.

  He shook his head, forcing his attention back to the moment. He’d best get used to seeing Ginger because it sounded like he’d be seeing a lot of her. If there was one thing he couldn’t manage right now, it was anything to do with romance and women. He looked back at Gage.

  “Well, no wonder you’re so busy. Most lodges like this don’t have so many locals. Not only is the hotel booked, but the slopes are twice as busy with the local skiers. If Ginger’s responsible for your local advertising, she’s damn good at it.”

  Gage threw his head back with a laugh. “I’ll have to tell her you said that.” He sobered and looked up the slope Cam had just skied down. “Did you find the trail leading off to the side up there?”

  “Yup. It’s behind the small cabin up there, right?”

  Gage nodded. “That’ll take you through the trees and onto the trails for back country and cross country skiing. So far, I’ve got about twenty miles of trails, but I’d like to double that. The trees are thin enough, so we don’t need to do much cutting. We should be able to work around the natural lay of the land. Take a look and let me know what you think.”

  “That was my plan. I’ll head up there now as soon as I switch out my skis.”

  At that, he and Gage pushed off on their skis simultaneously. He followed Gage up onto the back deck of the lodge. While Gage went inside, Cam quickly swapped his downhill skis for his more versatile telemark skis and headed back out. Telemark skis were designed for variation. They could handle downhill and cross-country and had enough flex to tolerate rougher trails if needed. As he rode up the lift, he realized the lodge could charge for the view from the lift ride alone. Diamond Creek, Alaska lay on the shores of Kachemak Bay with mountains rising tall behind it and on the far side of the bay. The ski lift offered an elevated view. The pristine waters of the bay sparkled under the early afternoon sunlight. The spruce forest scattered over the mountains was lush and deep green, the snow standing out in contrast.

  Cam pushed off the ski lift when it reached its stop and skied onto the start of an interconnected map of backcountry trails. As he skied through the quiet forest, he breathed in the crisp mountain air. The air here held the subtlest hint of ocean. In all his years of skiing, he’d always skied in landlocked areas, so it was a new experience to be high in the mountains and see and smell the ocean. His mind was quietest when he skied, which is what brought him here to this remote corner of the world.

  Skiing had been the center of his world for most of his life. He’d been born and raised in the mountains of Utah and skied throughout childhood, chasing his older brother, Eric. Two years older than Cam, Eric had been Cam’s idol. They’d skied together and competed, taking turns winning. Their rivalry had been good-natured, though Eric took competition more seriously than Cam. One night, after Cam unexpectedly won a race, Eric had been sullen and silent on the drive home. When Cam asked him what was wrong, Eric glanced over right as a truck came around the corner on the icy
road. In a split second, the car clipped the corner of the truck and skidded, colliding with the guardrail and bouncing over. Eric hadn’t worn his seatbelt and was thrown from the car. He died on impact.

  Cam, on the other hand, had worn his seat belt. He’d sustained some nasty bruises, a jagged cut on his cheek, and a fractured arm. Since the day he walked out of the hospital, he could hardly breathe for the grief at times. He’d tried to make a go of it in Utah, but it was filled with one too many painful memories. He couldn’t stop skiing because it was the only thing that brought him a modicum of peace, so he’d been drifting from ski lodge to ski lodge, following the jobs. When he’d seen the ad for Last Frontier Lodge, he figured it was perfect. It was one of the few ski lodges he and Eric had never visited. They likely would have had it been opened during their heyday, but it had been shuttered for almost two decades until Gage reopened it.

  Cam stopped along the trail at an overlook. A small valley opened up beside the trail with a stream winding through it. It was frozen in the deep of winter, but the sun struck sparks off the ice. A pair of moose stood on the far side of the field, lazily nibbling on a cluster of trees. He lifted his eyes up beyond the field. The bay spread out before him in the distance with another mountain range rising tall on the other side. If he didn’t know there was a ski lodge nearby and a town at the foot of these mountains, he could convince himself he was in the middle of nowhere. He took a gulp of the bracing air and tried to push the pain of Eric’s death out of his mind. In his effort to think of anything else, his mind flashed to Ginger. Simply picturing her chased thoughts of Eric out of his mind. He couldn’t say why, but he couldn’t forget her eyes, so bright and with a flicker of vulnerability that called to him.