Had she used the satellite phone while he’d been gone? Who had she called? Certainly not Mac, he thought with a stifled snort, because the princess would right now be bathing in one of the resort’s marble soaking tubs instead of heading to a lukewarm brook. He’d brought the phone, but hadn’t had a chance to check the call log yet, planning to do it while she was bathing.
Alec dropped the motor back to an idle so they could talk. “What about whoever made your IDs?” he asked, ignoring that her chin tilted stubbornly at his question. “Can you call that person and have him or her contact your father?”
“What do you mean, whoever made my IDs? I am Jane Smith.”
He snorted and sped up again. “Only for the last two years,” he muttered loud enough to be heard over the engine. “You do realize that if this all goes to hell in a handbasket, I’m the one who’s going to be in the direct line of fire, don’t you?”
Her head snapped up again. “What do you mean?”
“I mean that just as soon as Daddy gets over the shock of your being kidnapped and then returned safe and sound and intact, he’s going to come after me.”
“But you saved me.”
“And then I kept you.”
Up went that chin again. “I believe I kept myself.”
Alec wiped a hand over his jaw to hide his grin. Well, she had him there; he hadn’t exactly been keeping her tied up in his sleeping bag, now had he? And he much preferred her all stubborn and prickly to acting like a kicked puppy.
So okay then, he just had to figure out how to get them both out of this mess relatively unscathed. But he couldn’t really do anything until he found out exactly what had happened two years ago between her and Daddy—preferably from the person who cared enough about Jane Smith to have fabricated her a whole new life.
Because honestly, that person must have balls of steel.
Alec nosed the boat onto the gravel beach ten minutes later and decided they’d bathe down by the fiord instead of hiking up to the pool, as Jane’s limp had grown more pronounced on the walk to the boat and he was afraid she was more sore and tired than she was willing to admit. “You want me to check that cut on your thigh?” he asked as he helped her out of the boat. “The gauze can come off, but you should probably leave the butterfly bandages on a while longer.”
“I can take care of it.”
“Okay then, why don’t you splash around first and I’ll keep a lookout for two- and four-legged peeping toms,” he said with a wink, handing Jane her small satchel.
She arched a brow. “And who’s going to keep you from peeping?”
“You can,” he offered, waving toward a large boulder down the beach. “I’ll be sitting right there in the open, and the full moon will allow you to see my back’s turned the whole time.” He lifted the backpack he’d brought for himself. “I need to call Duncan, anyway, to talk about tomorrow’s bridge delivery.” He nodded at Kit. “And your furry friend can stand guard on the other side. It’s okay, Jane,” he rushed on when he saw her looking toward the dark woods. “I won’t let any bears or bogeymen eat ye, lass.”
Up went that chin again. “I’m not afraid of bogeymen,” she said, turning and walking toward the babbling brook. She stopped at the small waterfall spilling out of the forest into a shallow pool, turned to face him as she dropped her satchel and slipped off her jacket, then very deliberately—with provocative slowness—started undressing.
Alec looked down at Kit looking up at him. “What’s the matter, the boat ride mess up your land-legs? Go on,” he muttered, giving Kit a nudge with his knee. “At least one of us wolves might as well enjoy the show.”
Alec walked down the beach, hopped up onto the boulder, and unzipped the backpack, then pulled out the phone. He turned it on, then held his finger to the call log button—but instead of pushing it, he looked up at Whisper Mountain looming into the nighttime sky. Did he really want to know who Jane had called? Because the moment he discovered the identity of her friend, he would have to wake up from his salacious dream and deal with the reality of a runaway princess whose father sane men feared and fools died at the hands of; the only problem being Alec wasn’t exactly sure which category he fell into. Because honest to God, he was tempted to simply forget who Jane really was—at least long enough to help her deal with her father once and for all instead of having her spend the rest of her life hiding from the dictatorial bastard.
Aw hell, who was he kidding? What he really wanted was to keep Jane until she was so soundly imprinted on his brain that he’d go to his grave hearing her musical laugh and remembering the taste of her lips and feel her body pressing against his. He’d known her only two days, and already he was willing to throw himself in front of a goddamn bus to help her realize her true value.
Alec pushed the log button, took a deep breath and looked down, and frowned at the familiar number. Jane had dialed the Bottomless Mercantile & Trading Post? Had she called looking for Ezra? But the guy was over eighty years old. Sam, then? Had she been trying to reach Ezra’s son and Olivia’s father, Sam Waters? Alec hit the redial button and heard an equally familiar voice answer on the third ring.
“Trading Post,” Grundy Watts barked out. “We’re closing in twenty minutes, so talk fast, ’cause I got stuff to do.”
“Grundy, it’s Alec. I was wondering if a woman called there a few hours ago looking for either Ezra or Sam.”
“Alec?” Grundy said, his voice softening. “Well, how the hell are you, anyway? How come you ain’t been into town lately? You still owe me breakfast at the Drunken Moose, you know.”
“You filled that sea bass’s belly with lead when I wasn’t looking, you old cheat. Any idiot could see my fish was twice the size of yours.”
Grundy made a tsking sound. “And you’re twice the size of me and you’re still pouting like a little girl. Pony up, MacKeage, and buy me breakfast.”
“Okay, next week,” Alec conceded with a laugh. “But only if you tell me if a woman called earlier looking for Ezra or Sam.”
Grundy snorted. “I swear I don’t know what the ladies see in that quiet bastard. Hell, the guy still gives me the spooks, even after he helped me out with my…um, little problem last year.”
Bingo. “Did she talk to Sam?” Alec asked, glancing over his shoulder to see Jane splashing around in the pool near the falls.
“No, he’d already left. And when she asked if his cell number had changed because she’d tried it several times before calling here, I told her he was unreachable this evening,” Grundy said, his voice lowered in male conspiracy. “I think Sam got his social calendar screwed up and made two dates for the same night, as I saw him filch a bottle of expensive wine and a quart of strawberries out of the cooler before he left.” He sighed. “Only this lady sounded a bit young for him.”
Alec frowned out at the fiord. “Where is Casanova, anyway? He can’t very well entertain his women at home.”
“My guess is he’s up at Inglenook. I think he’s using the old groundskeeper’s cottage for his love nest.” Grundy snorted again. “It’s hard for a grown man to bring his girlfriends back to his daddy’s house. Although he might have done so tonight, since Olivia and Mac took Ezra with them and the kids to Midnight Bay for the weekend.”
“Okay, thanks, you old cheat. I’ll be in later next week to take you to breakfast.”
“Early,” Grundy said. “Before all the damn leaf-peeping tourists gobble up all of Vanetta’s cinnamon buns.”
“We’ll be at the door when she opens,” Alec promised with a laugh just as he hung up. He opened the call log again and scrolled down to see where Jane had dialed another number three times before finally calling the trading post, and then he sat staring up at the resort’s lights on top of Whisper Mountain. So, Sam was Jane’s friend, was he? Holy hell, the man didn’t have balls of steel; they were made of titanium if he was helping her hide from her father. “How are you doing over there?” Alec called down the shoreline. “You aren’t making the
trout blush, are you?”
“The water’s too warm for trout,” she called back with a musical laugh—which sent several foolishly optimistic blood cells racing to his groin again. “Oh, Alec, this is heavenly. I could just soak here all night.”
“You have ten more minutes, and then it’s my turn.”
Her answer was another laugh, followed by a good deal of splashing.
Alec dialed Duncan’s home, only to have one of the twins answer on the second ring. “MacKeage Construction,” the boy said in a winded rush.
“That you, Repeat?” Alec asked, taking an educated guess. “It’s me, Alec.”
“Alec!” Jacob cried. “Are you calling on the satellite phone? Where are you? You coming to visit and bringing me more rocks? I looked up that shimmery one you brought me last week, and the gem book said it was laba…labri…tite or something.”
“Labradorite,” Alec clarified. “It’s named after the Labrador Peninsula in Canada, where it was first found. What’s the book say about its powers?”
“Magic,” Jacob reverently whispered. “And protection.”
“That sounds like a good stone to carry in your pocket, then. Although it’s probably not as powerful as the one Duncan gave you from his mountain, so maybe you should just add it to your collection. Speaking of my esteemed uncle, is he home?”
Alec heard muffled muttering, then, “Why is it you only remember ye have a phone when it suits you?” Duncan drawled.
“Because Pete and Clarence and I are a well-oiled team and only need hand signals. Where is Pete, anyway?”
“He flew back to British Columbia two nights ago when his wife decided to go into labor several weeks early.”
“Hell, is everything okay? Have you heard anything?”
“Yeah, mama and babies are doing fine. Pete, however,” Duncan said with a chuckle, “may not recover. The guy was a basket case when Clarence and I put him on the plane in Bangor, and when he called this morning he still couldn’t string a coherent sentence together.”
“A girl or—wait, you said babies. Pete didn’t mention they were having twins.”
“One of each.”
“They had twins?”
“That’s what they usually call the little heathens when they come in pairs. So, why aren’t ye sleeping already? You’re going to be busier than a one-armed paper hanger tomorrow.”
“Yeah, about that; how about if you leave the twelve-footer for the next trip? That way I’ll only have to run four miles instead of seven.”
“How about you hop the cable? You grown soft since Afghanistan, or just lazy?”
“I’d like to think I’ve grown smarter.”
Alec heard a snort come over the phone. “Okay, we’ll only bring the bridges for the next two streams,” Duncan muttered. “Speaking of pairs, what’s up with the men you found, anyway? Talk in town is a lightning strike did them in, and that you’re the one who stumbled across them and called the sheriff.”
“Yeah, hell of a surprise. Have you heard anything about who they might be? They weren’t dressed for hunting or hiking, and I found a handgun nearby. They looked like they’d been fighting each other. One had a knife sticking in his thigh, and when I checked for pulses it appeared as if they each had a broken arm.”
There was a hesitation, and Alec assumed Duncan was looking around to make sure he was alone. “An execution?” Duncan said softly, not unfamiliar with damage control himself. “Or a falling-out among thieves, or maybe drug runners? The sheriff’s being tight-lipped, but Spellbound and Turtleback are crawling with state police and game wardens and border patrol asking if anyone saw two men hanging around fitting their descriptions.”
“And?”
“And nothing. Nobody saw anything.”
“What about missing boats or abandoned cars?” Alec asked. “Any speculation as to how they ended up in my neck of the woods? The closest tote road is six miles away. That’s a hell of a walk in street shoes for an execution or drug drop.”
“Which means you keep your eyes open for trouble, Grizzly Adams.”
“I’m hurt you didn’t notice I shaved today.”
“Maybe tomorrow I’ll raise the winch high enough for the rotor blades to give you a haircut. Or are ye finally turning into your old man?”
“You see me running around with two small braids dangling down the sides of my face, you have my permission to shoot me on sight,” Alec growled on a laugh. “Hey, toss a pillow in the chopper tomorrow, would you? I got back to the shelter today and found mine scattered all over my campsite. Anything happening at the resort I should know abo—” Alec slapped a hand over the phone’s mike when Jane let out a bloodcurdling scream, and turned to see her running up the beach toward him.
“What in hell was that?” Duncan’s voice boomed from the phone.
“Raccoons,” Alec muttered as he hung up and jumped off the boulder just in time to catch the naked woman when she threw herself at him.
“There’s something in the woods!” she cried as she proceeded to try burrowing inside his jacket. “Even Kitty was so scared that he ran off. It must be a bear!”
Apparently the only threats Kit felt confident going up against on land were two-legged, Alec decided as he contorted first out of Jane’s death grip and then his jacket. He wrapped it around her, then pulled her back into his arms, partly to keep her from thrashing him but mostly because she was so soft and cuddly and all but still naked.
Oh yeah, he was definitely going to hell for mentioning the bear.
“Easy now, there’s nothing in the woods that’s going to hurt you, I promise.” He kissed her forehead. “How about if I—” A god-awful commotion came from a hundred yards past the brook, quickly followed by a snarl that turned into a panicked yelp, which was then followed by a loud splash hitting the fiord.
“Ohmigod, Kitty!” Jane cried, thrashing again, only this time to get free instead of trying to burrow inside him. “We have to go save him!”
Alec took hold of the empty sleeves of his jacket to control her struggles. “The splash was too small to be Kit.” Was she afraid the orca-wolf would drown? “It’s likely only raccoons fighting over dinner.” He kissed her forehead with another chuckle. “I swear they sound meaner than wolverines when they’re having a family squabble.”
Jane relaxed into him, wrapping her arms around his waist and resting her head on his shoulder with a heavy sigh. “I’m not a very good woods-woman, am I?” She leaned back to look him in the eyes. “And I want so very much to be one.”
“Why?” he asked, brushing a lock of wet hair off her face. “What’s wrong with being just you?”
Her gaze lowered to his chin. “Because I want to be a woman you would like.”
Alec pressed his hands to her face and lifted her eyes back to his. “I like you just fine, Jane, just the way you are.”
“You…you do?”
He nodded and pulled her to him, only to find himself kissing a completely naked woman when she slid her hands around his neck and his jacket fell to the ground.
“Enough to make love to me?” she whispered against his mouth.
Seeing how every blood cell in his body shot straight to his groin, all Alec could do was cup her baby-soft bottom and press her into the evidence of his desire.
“I want you, too, Alec, so much that I ache.”
Nearly shouting with elation that he hadn’t been the only one who’d spent today in lust-induced pain, Alec swept Jane into his arms and headed for the woods in search of a soft bed of moss. He stepped into the trees, lowered her feet to the forest floor, and popped several buttons on his shirt trying to take it off as Jane kept equally busy kissing him. He tossed the shirt on the ground and dropped to his knees while bringing her with him, then ran his fingers through her wet hair to tilt her head back and pressed his mouth to the racing pulse on her neck.
Her gasp ending with an encouraging little sound of pleasure, Jane clutched his shoulders when he pressed her b
ack onto the shirt and carefully settled on top of her, her legs immediately wrapping around him. Alec found just enough firing cells left in his brain to realize that he not only had to get his own urgency under control, but Jane’s as well. The woman might still be a virgin, but she certainly hadn’t spent the last two years as a wallflower. And when her attempts to reach his belt buckle failed because she couldn’t squeeze her hands between them, she started ordering him to take off his pants. Well, that is when she wasn’t using her imperial mouth to drive him crazy by kissing his chin and cheeks and whatever else she could reach.
Christ Almighty, if he didn’t slow her down to a reasonable speed, the few remaining cells in his brain were going to abandon their post and join the party in his jeans. He captured her pushing and tugging and kneading fingers and, being mindful of the bruises on her wrists, pressed her hands up over her head with one of his, then carefully eased his tongue out of her mouth before she swallowed it.
He rested his forehead on hers. “Here’s an idea,” he rasped, only to snap his free hand down to her hip to stop her squirming. “How about if we just do a little necking first, before we rush straight to the good stuff?”
She stilled, and stiffened, and tried to slide out from underneath him.
Alec settled more intimately against her. “I’m one second away from disgracing myself, lass,” he whispered against her lips. “And I’d really rather not.”
“Oh. Oh, I’m sorry,” she cried, her eyes going as round as the full moon reflected in them. “I didn’t realize!”
He choked back a laugh and rested his forehead on hers again. “Never apologize for holding that kind of power over a man, Jane, because that’s where your true beauty lies. Will you let me give ye a small taste of that power tonight?”
She stilled again, a smile slowly lifting the corners of her mouth. “That sounds…delicious.”
Okay then; permission had been asked for and granted.
Alec took a fortifying breath and allowed his lower brain free rein, its first order of business apparently being Jane’s wonderfully full, conveniently naked breasts. “Damn, you’re lovely,” he murmured, kissing his way toward one of the luscious mounds as he palmed it—only to become so distracted that he lost his grip on her hands. But instead of going for his belt buckle again, Jane pulled the band off his hair and ran her fingers through it, then used her grip to guide his journey.
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