Wild Heat (Northern Fire)

by Lucy Monroe

She glared at him. “There’s more to me than my ability to talk on the phone and file.”

  “I know.” To prove it, he pulled her into a heated kiss.

  Somehow they were tearing each other’s clothes off, all that anger and frustration morphing into volcanic passion. He kissed her in a way that said all the things he wasn’t going to and she kissed him back, making promises he wasn’t sure she realized she was offering.

  They ended up on all fours, his body covering hers, his cock buried deep inside her. They mated like that for interminable minutes, but it wasn’t enough. He needed to touch her.

  Pulling her back, he balanced on his knees so he was kneeling and she was riding astride him facing away. Taking advantage of the position, he touched her everywhere, playing with her breasts and their sensitive peaks, delving between her lips to rub her clitoris the way she liked.

  She screamed his name when she climaxed. He shouted incoherent words of love in Chugach Alutiiq, the language of his mother’s people, thankful Kitty had never learned these particular terms.

  * * *

  Deep in thought, Caitlin descended the stairs slowly on her way to the dining room that evening.

  Tack had only dropped her off an hour before. She’d wanted to spend the evening together, but he’d refused, citing plans with his family he couldn’t get out of without explanations he couldn’t make. Didn’t want to make, more like.

  She just didn’t understand him.

  He’d been furious at the thought of her applying for a job that would take her out of Cailkirn, but then maybe that was more to do with not wanting to replace her at MacKinnon Bros. Travel.

  No, that was ridiculous. Tack would never get that upset over something business related. Would he?

  He didn’t make any bones about the fact that his life revolved around his family and his business right now, with no room for a relationship or time to even go looking for one. She knew his business meant more to him than money and success. He had a deep-seated need to prove his worth and had chosen MacKinnon Bros. Tours as the vehicle to do it.

  So maybe his anger had been about her leaving the tour company.

  But the passion they’d shared after their short but loud argument? It had been scorching.

  Did a man make love like that to a woman he saw as nothing but a casual sexual fling?

  The phone rang as Caitlin walked by the reception desk. She picked it up. “Knit and Pearl Bed-and-Breakfast, may I help you?”

  “I doubt very much you can help me. You were never very good at doing it the years we were married.”

  Caitlin’s hand froze on the old-fashioned handset at the sound of a voice she’d hoped to never hear again. “Nevin.”

  “You recognize my voice.”

  “Apparently.”

  “You haven’t forgotten me.”

  “What do you want, Nevin?” She tried to control her breathing, but her inhalations were growing more and more shallow as panic tried to claim her.

  “Is that any way to talk to your husband?” he asked in the icy tone that had often meant severe unpleasantness for her.

  Caitlin started to shake but did her best not to let that show in her voice. “You aren’t my husband anymore, Nevin. You never really were.”

  “The state of California would disagree.”

  “Whatever the legal documents said, you failed miserably in the husband arena.” She couldn’t believe she had the temerity to turn words he’d often thrown in her face back on him, but he wasn’t her jailer anymore.

  And she refused to forget that truth.

  She’d broken free and he wouldn’t trap her again, not even in her own mind.

  “Bold words for such a weak little slut.”

  “Two things I never was.”

  “I beg to differ.”

  “I don’t care. You know what? I don’t care what you want either. Call my lawyer if you have something to say to me.” Not that she expected the law firm to forward anything to her now that Caitlin no longer had them on retainer for the divorce.

  She hung up the phone on his protesting voice.

  Not surprised in the least when it rang again, she wanted to ignore it but knew if she didn’t answer, her gran or one of her aunts would. Caitlin was no more willing to subject them to Nevin than she ever was.

  “Say what you have to say and then stop calling, or I’ll file a harassment complaint,” she said instead of a greeting.

  Only after the words left her mouth did she realize how revealing they would be to someone else if it wasn’t Nevin on the other end of the line.

  “Have you forgotten everything I taught you of manners?” Nevin asked condescendingly.

  Relief and disgust flowed together inside her in a confusing emotional mixture. “My gran taught me manners.”

  “That crazy old bat?”

  “Do not insult my gran, asshole.”

  His audible inhalation said she’d scored a direct hit with her blatant disrespect.

  “You should take care how you talk to me, Caitlin.”

  “Why is that?” she asked with sarcasm.

  “Who do you think is the principal backer in that little movie deal that’s going to put Cailkirn on the map?”

  He was behind the fiasco movie deal Carey James had brought to town? Oh, that was funny. It really was. “Cailkirn has been on the map for nearly two hundred years.”

  “Don’t pretend ignorance to what I’m talking about. In a small backwater town like that, a movie production coming to town is going to be the fodder of all the important gossip.”

  “We don’t have the same definition of important up here as you and your sycophants do.”

  “Nevertheless, you do not deny knowledge of the movie production?”

  “No.”

  “Good.”

  “If you say so.”

  “Don’t be flippant.”

  “Screw yourself, Nevin. You’re the only one who would enjoy it.”

  She actually smiled at the avalanche of invectives her words instigated. Nevin preferred subtle cruelty to swearing. Caitlin had no use for subtlety with the monster she’d once been married to.

  When he wound down, she asked almost calmly, “What exactly are you trying to accomplish here, Nevin?”

  He didn’t need to know about the sweat making her palms slick, creating wet spots on the back of her blouse and under her arms, or the fine tremors in her fingers.

  His initial silence indicated her question shocked him more than her crude suggestion and accusation of sexual deficiency. “You need to realize I still have power in your life.”

  “No, you really don’t.” That was one thing she was sure about, something she’d had to fight too hard to make true to give up—ever.

  “Are you trying to say you don’t care if I pull the funding from this movie deal?”

  “Not a bit.”

  “I don’t believe you.” But his voice didn’t carry its usual arrogant certainty.

  “And I definitely don’t care what you believe.”

  “That stupid little town is too important to you for that to be true.”

  “You’re assuming I think making a movie here is a good thing.”

  “Of course it is.”

  “No.”

  “Your hometown needs this.”

  “No.” With Nevin, it was better to keep it simple.

  “The town is dying.”

  “In whose deluded imaginings?”

  “There are barely more than two thousand permanent residents.”

  “We have towns in Alaska with a tenth of that population.” She sighed, thinking maybe if she laid it out for him, he’d realize his little harangue was hopeless. “This town has lasted centuries without Hollywood. I’m pretty sure it can last at least a few more years the same way.”

  “You think you have all the answers.”

  “Honestly, Nevin? I don’t know what the questions are supposed to be. I left you more than a year ago. Our divorce fin
alized months ago. It’s over.”

  “You’d like to believe that.”

  “I do believe that.”

  “You owe me.”

  “You’re right. I owe you at least three broken ribs, a fractured wrist and clavicle, countless bruises, a boatload of emotional abuse, too many nights of painful and completely unsatisfying sex, but you know what?”

  His silence had a stunned quality to it.

  Why shouldn’t it? She hadn’t stood up to him since their first year together. Even then, she’d been so in awe of his wealth, sophistication, and lifestyle that she’d kept silent about most of the things she didn’t like.

  “You just don’t matter enough for me to want to repay you for all that you gave me,” she said, throwing back in his face more of the words he’d used to denigrate her so many times.

  “You wouldn’t be so sanguine if the cruise ships stopped coming to your port.”

  She wasn’t surprised he completely disregarded what she’d said. That would require acknowledging his own unimportance.

  “We’re the only port on this side of the peninsula. The cruise ships aren’t going anywhere.”

  “That could change.”

  “It could.” But she wasn’t worried about it. That threat had as little power over her as his first one. “However, it would take a much bigger player than you to make it happen. You might be something in LA, but up here? You’re nothing, Nevin.”

  “I have connections—” he started to splutter.

  “So do the people of this town. We may be small, but as I’ve pointed out, we’ve been here a long time. Whoever you think you’ve got in your pocket won’t go against the interests of their home state and relationships that go back generations, not months.”

  “Anyone can be bought.”

  “If that were true, I’d still be in California.” Nevin had offered her a great deal of money to drop her petition for the divorce, along with promises to change.

  Which this phone call proved had as much substance as his honor. None at all.

  “You weren’t thinking straight. Your disease had wreaked havoc with your rationality.”

  “My disease was the result of irrationality, not the cause of it.”

  “Was?” he sneered. “You expect me to believe you’re well.”

  “I don’t care what you believe.” When would that particular truth penetrate his thick skull?

  “You probably still look like a skin-covered skeleton,” he scorned. “I don’t know why I bothered to call you. No man could get an erection if he had to look at you while fucking you.”

  She winced at his coarse language. Tack didn’t have a lily-white tongue, but he had standards for the words he said around women and children.

  “You just keep thinking that.” She hung up, done with the conversation, even if he wasn’t.

  She waited a full minute to see if he called back. If he did, she planned to take the phone off the hook and pretend it was an accident if it was discovered before she put it back in the cradle later.

  But Nevin didn’t call back.

  Breathing a sigh of relief, Caitlin turned to head back upstairs. She needed to change into clothes that weren’t sweat soaked.

  She stopped short at the sight of Aunt Elspeth.

  Caitlin opened her mouth, but she didn’t know what to say. How much had the elderly woman heard?

  She didn’t have to figure it out because her aunt rushed forward and enveloped Caitlin in a warm hug and a cloud of Chanel No°5. “Oh, I’m so proud of you, Kitty dear. You were so strong. I’m sure I would have crumpled under whatever that awful man was saying, but you didn’t.”

  Shocked at her aunt’s words, Caitlin didn’t reply to them; she just relaxed into the very welcome embrace.

  Aunt Elspeth finally pulled away and stepped back. “Come, Alma gets so upset when we’re late to the table.”

  “I need to change my shirt,” Caitlin admitted, hoping that bringing attention to the proof of her nerves wouldn’t diminish her aunt’s pride in her.

  For some reason, the emotion was extremely important right now.

  “Of course, dear. I’ll just tell the others you had a disagreeable potential guest whom you had to turn down, so you’re collecting yourself.”

  “Um…”

  “It’s not a lie, not really. I’m sure that odious man would like to come up here and see you, but you weren’t having any of it.”

  “I doubt very much Nevin Barston would ever suffer the indignities of travel to such a backwater town.”

  “We can only hope, dear.”

  Caitlin shared that hope but could not be absolutely certain. It was a sobering realization. She’d been stronger on the phone than she’d known she could be, but how would she respond to her tormenter in the flesh?

  There was a reason she’d moved out when he was not in the country.

  * * *

  “Ten bucks says he got her number,” Egan said to Bobby as they came through the back entrance to MacKinnon Bros. Tours.

  Caitlin closed the drawer in which she’d been filing paperwork from past excursions and turned to face them as they came into the reception area. “What are you betting on now, Egan?”

  Egan stopped short, looking like he’d swallowed a fish…whole. “Oh, hey, Kitty. Thought you were gone already.”

  “Gran told me to put extra hours in here if I wanted to. She and my aunts just don’t need the help everyone thinks they do.” And she was hoping to see Tack when he came in from his excursion.

  “No kidding. They might be past the age of retirement, but those three are not slowing down,” Bobby said with admiration.

  “Not that I can tell, no.” Caitlin gave the two men as natural a smile as she could. She’d been on edge ever since the call from Nevin the night before. “So, what’s the bet?”

  “Oh, nothing—” Egan started to say.

  Bobby butted in. “There was this hottie flirting like crazy with Tack, even before we got the cruise passengers loaded in the vans. And Tack wasn’t exactly freezing her out either. Egan thinks Tack is going to get her number, but I figure he’ll just hook up with her. He’s got a reputation.”

  Hot and cold washed over Caitlin in quick succession, leaving her feeling faint. There wasn’t a chance she was going to let Tack’s brother and cousin see her reaction to their words, though.

  Funnily enough, Egan didn’t look so hot either.

  She forced another smile, this one not remotely genuine. “Oh, does he?”

  “You bet.” Bobby nodded for emphasis, his grin all masculine approval for another successful hunter. “He’s seen the inside of so many cruise ship cabins, he should get frequent flyer miles.”

  Egan smacked the back of his cousin’s head. “Dumb shit.”

  “What was that for?” Bobby demanded.

  Caitlin interjected. “Frequent flyer miles are for airlines, not cruise lines.”

  Bobby rolled his eyes. “Whatever. You know what I meant.”

  “Yes, I did.”

  Bobby glared at Egan. “There. See? I’m not dumb.”

  “That’s not…” Egan looked between Caitlin and his cousin and frowned. “Never mind.”

  “Do you two have your paperwork and customer satisfaction surveys?” Caitlin asked, with no hint she felt like puking at the thought of Tack flirting with another woman.

  A hottie, according to Bobby. Probably according to Egan too. After all, he hadn’t been betting against Tack and the woman getting together, just that his older brother would get the woman’s number.

  The guides handed over the paperwork and Caitlin got to work on inputting the customer feedback into the computer. She was still working on it when they left an hour later to take out their second tours for the day.

  Tack’s would end two hours later, so he didn’t have an afternoon tour scheduled. Tonight was one of his open evenings as well.

  Regardless of her lack of success the last time she’d asked him, she pla
nned to convince Tack to spend it with her.

  While they’d spent the very rare full evening together, he had even been the one to suggest it a couple of times. So, he wasn’t against it on principle.

  One thing had become resoundingly clear to her in the aftermath of Nevin’s call. Her relationship with Tack was nothing like the one she’d had with her ex-husband. Partly because Tack was nothing like Nevin and partly because Caitlin had grown stronger.

  So many of the obscure emotions that had clouded her inner motivations for most of her life were clear now. Caitlin could choose to give in to old pain or fight for new joy.

  No matter how the past eight years might have painted her, even to herself, the truest color of her soul was that of a fighter.

  Caitlin knew what she wanted and if she didn’t ask for it? That was on her. How Tack responded to her needs, that was on him.

  Something else Caitlin had come to terms with.

  Bobby and Egan’s bet only made it more imperative Caitlin talk things out with Tack. She needed answers to questions she’d just realized she had to ask.

  However, as the afternoon wore on and the time for Tack’s tour to end came and went, Caitlin’s mood grew progressively morose. There could be lots of reasons for him not returning to the tour office, but one of them wasn’t that he’d gone straight home. He would have exchanged the tour van for his truck.

  Which he could have done without coming into the office, she realized. So, she went out the back door to check the parking lot. Tack’s bright red four-by-four was in the same spot it had been that morning when she’d arrived for work.

  Caitlin walked back to her desk with thoughts chasing themselves through her head. She and Tack hadn’t said they were going to be exclusive. He’d never suggested they go without condoms even after she’d informed him she was on birth control to help even out her hormones.

  He’d stopped wanting to see her for sex every night. Was the real reason because he was getting it elsewhere, or planning to do so? Did a man share the kind of passion with a woman that Tack did with her and still look for sexual satisfaction elsewhere?

  But she was thinking about Tack. Not any man. If Taqukaq MacKinnon planned to see multiple women for sex, wouldn’t he have said so? Tack wasn’t dishonest. He didn’t hide his motives, not like Nevin.