He couldn’t argue with that logic. He took her into his arms and heard the little grunt of air he’d forced from her lungs in his enthusiasm to get close to her, to reassure himself that she was alive and well and free of Jamison for good. ‘I think you might be right,’ he said. ‘I feel better already. Sure you don’t have some first aid training?’
‘Just good instincts,’ she said as she offered him the bottle of water.
He took a long pull, then handed it back. ‘You’re gonna have one helluva a black eye,’ he said, pushing the hair away from her face and examining it gently.
She ignored his comment and pulled away just enough to look up into his gaze. ‘I love you,’ she said with no preamble. ‘I have to tell you that. I wanted to tell you for a while, but I couldn’t, and after what happened … I was afraid I’d never get to tell you. I was afraid …’ Her voice drifted off. and she nuzzled back into his arms. This time she was trembling. ‘I love you,’ she whispered against his shoulder.
Harris closed his eyes and rested his chin against the top of her head. ‘I’ve waited a long time to hear you say that.’
‘I plan to say it a lot now that … things are settled. I hope you don’t mind.’
‘Can’t think of any words I’d rather hear, Stacie, and I plan to say them right back, often and with great enthusiasm. I love you, Stacie Emerson, and now that you’re safe, I don’t plan to let you out of my sight, oh, for maybe the next 50 years or so.’
‘Just try and get rid of me, Harris Walker. Just try.’
That’s how Kendra and Garrett found them, sitting on the bench, wrapped in each other’s arms. They were followed almost immediately by Dee and Ellis, and Marston and Wade, with Flannery bringing up the rear, an ice bag pressed to his swollen face. Then the ambulance came and the police asked questions and reporters were anxious for statements. Though even without interviews, they had way more of a story than they ever bargained for.
What felt like years later, they returned to Harris’ cabin, but instead of going inside, Stacie grabbed his hand and led him to the dock. ‘I don’t want to go in just yet,’ she said. Before he really registered what was happening, she unzipped her dress and stepped out of it. She’d lost the shoes hours ago. ‘I want to wash the past few days away before we go inside so I can start fresh in the place I love with the man I love.’
‘Sounds like a perfect idea,’ he said, kicking out of his shoes and shoving and peeling off the remains of the tux way faster than he’d put it on. He caught a delicious glimpse of Stacie’s backside followed by a heavy splash of water as she executed a cannonball that would have made any ten-year-old boy jealous. He followed suit and came up spitting water before pulling her naked and giggling against him. He kissed her throat, and ran his hands down to cup her bottom and lift her legs around his waist. ‘You sure you’re all right?’ he asked.
‘I am. I’m just so relieved it’s all over.’ She gave him a hard hug, and he held her tight, wrapped around him like she belonged there, like she was a part of him. At last she spoke. ‘I had nightmares that I’d be too afraid, that I’d be a coward when the time came, that I wouldn’t be able to do what I had to when he … When he took me again.’
Harris pulled her still closer and stroked her hair. ‘In the end Jamison was the coward, Stacie. In the end, he couldn’t take responsibility for his actions.’
‘I don’t want to talk about him, Harris. I don’t want to talk at all.’ She punctuated her words with a bite of a kiss that was possessive and demanding, and Harris responded in kind. In the passionate tangle of tongues and lips, Harris forgot to tread water and they both went under to surface again sputtering and laughing. She reached down between them, took his erection into her hand, and he caught his breath in a tight groan. ‘I need you to make love to me, Harris.’ She was practically climbing his body as he fumbled between her legs to find her open and receptive, slickened with arousal in spite of the cold water. ‘Now I’m free. Now we really can make love with nothing hanging over us.’ She sucked her bottom lip with a sigh as he positioned himself and eased up inside of her, feeling the perfect fit of her like a glove, like a second skin, like his second skin.
The water made their lovemaking awkward, and thrusting was a challenge, but her grip on him was tight and pulsing, and he found that by moving his legs in a scissoring fashion each time his efforts to tread water forced him upward, he pressed deeper inside her and each time he pressed up, she grasped hard onto him. The water was cold, and they’d been separated too long not to be needy for each other. All of the adrenaline of the evening translated itself into raw, impatient sex. They came quickly, both sputtering and spitting and struggling to stay above the glassy calm of the lake as they convulsed in each other’s arms.
The shed party clothes got left on the dock as they made a mad shivering dash for the house and for the warmth of the shower and more lovemaking, and then the bed.
The sky was just greying with dawn when Harris woke to find himself alone beneath the comforter. Icy panic gripped his stomach as he threw back the covers and stumbled naked to the top of the stairs. It was then that he smelled bacon cooking. Stacie stood wrapped in his plaid shirt with a spatula in her hand. She smiled up at him, raking him with a lusty gaze. ‘I’m starving. You want some bacon and eggs?’
‘Hell yes,’ he said. He slid into a pair of sweats and joined her just as she scooped the food onto two plates and served up the coffee. As Harris settled in next to her at the breakfast bar with a sloppy kiss and a grope of her nearly exposed cleavage, he was pretty sure he could get used to this. He knew one thing for damned sure. He had every intention of making sure that Stacie Emerson got good and used to it, because he wasn’t about to let her slip away now that he had her right where he wanted her.
Epilogue
Four Months Later
It was a hideous place, the place of nightmares, not the place for a park, not the place for a picnic, but nevertheless there was a gathering of people, there was laughter and chatter. There was the snapping of cameras and maneuvering of microphones by the press. Perhaps it was her imagination, perhaps it was only what she could see in her mind’s eye, but Stacie could swear there was a very slight haze of green now growing over the ruinous wastes of the Bald Hill clear-cut.
There was spontaneous applause as she stepped forward to the portable podium and looked out over the sea of people dressed for the great outdoors. The rain had stopped in the night and the mud under foot wasn’t nearly as bad as it could have been. She was extremely pleased by the turnout.
‘Thank you all so much for coming,’ she said, smiling out over the crowd. Then she turned to take in the surroundings. ‘I know it looks like something out of Dante’s Inferno at the moment, but you’re no longer looking at a desolate place. You’re looking at a place full of hope and promise. I was up here just last week helping to place erosion barriers, and if I’m not mistaken, I saw some of you up here doing the same. When I used to come here as a girl, the slopes were covered with lodge pole and ponderosa pine, Pacific silver fir, and Douglas fir. I used to pick huckleberries on these slopes with Ellis and Garrett Thorne. And over there –’ she pointed ‘– the rhodies, when they were in bloom, were so bright that you almost needed sunglasses to see them.’ She paused, looking around her again. ‘It’s a beginning; placing the erosion barriers is a beginning. And though the process will take time, when our children’s children are ready to pick huckleberries and hike these slopes so they can watch the stars from the rocky top, they’ll be able to enjoy what I did, what Ellis and Garrett did, what so many others did. This is what Vigilant Trust is all about. And though it was conceived by two men I adore, one who’s my dear friend and another who’s my husband –’
She had to pause once more as the crowd erupted in a spontaneous cheer, and she glanced down at the wedding ring Harris Walker had placed on her finger just two days ago. She wouldn’t have thought it could happen so soon, and a few months ago, she never t
hought she’d say yes to anyone, but it was right. It was as it should be, and if anything, the past few months had reminded her that there are no guarantees and no promises of tomorrow. You can’t put a price on the present nor on the privilege of being the keeper of someone else’s heart. She shot Harris a quick smile, and he smiled back.
When the crowd was quiet again, she continued. ‘Though Vigilant Trust was conceived by two men I adore, it’s people like you, every one of you, who make it a reality. Vigilant Trust is everyone out there who wants to leave a legacy to future generations that’s rich in biodiversity, that’s as endlessly beautiful and fascinating for our grandchildren and for their grandchildren as it was for me and for Ellis and Garrett Thorne. And, most importantly, we’ll leave those generations a legacy of living in harmony with the natural world so that all of us, feathered, furred, scaled or human, can benefit.’
She paused again, feeling the tightening around her heart she’d known this moment would bring, feeling the sense of laying to rest something that had ached inside her for so long she’d forgotten what it was like to be free of that ache. Everyone waited politely until she gathered herself. She looked up and smiled broadly. ‘Right now, you’re all standing on the edge of Zoe’s Woods. The trailhead will be where Wade Crittenden is standing over there with the red ribbon.’ She nodded to Wade and everyone turned to look. ‘Use your imagination if you would. Right now, you’re standing in what will become a field of natural grasses and wildflowers, just like it was before the erosion from clear-cut destroyed it. There’ll be a picnic table or two, and the rest will be left for nature to reclaim, with a little bit of coaxing from us, and from Vigilant Trust.’
Again there was applause, more prolonged this time. Then Stacie took the scissors offered to her by Ellis, who kissed her warmly on the cheek. She walked down to where Wade stood and cut the red ribbon that was staked symbolically across the place where the trailhead would be. There was another round of applause, and the crowd began to disperse, with those who had come to volunteer for the day’s efforts going to the edge of the logging road where several people in park ranger uniforms waited to show them what their jobs would be.
Wade was the first to offer an uncharacteristic hug. ‘Good news on all fronts,’ he told her. ‘Sportwide Extreme Adventures has booked their first eco-tours to Valderia and they’re employing an all-Valderian staff. Looks like the failed coup has been a kick in President Vasquez’s ass to protect the country’s wilderness and push through some serious reforms.’
‘Al sends congratulations,’ Dee said, giving Stacie a bear hug. ‘He says he’d do anything for you, but not tromp around in the gawddamned mud, and I quote.’ She was just off the plane from Atlanta, where she’d been observing the reopening of the first of Al’s refitted paper mills.
Stacie laughed at Dee’s poor imitation of Al’s accent, knowing full well that Al wouldn’t have missed the dedication if he’d been busy reopening his mill to be the first of its kind to use the Trouvères eco-friendly technology, another win-win deal from Pneuma Inc.
‘Oh, and he asked me to give you this.’ Dee dug in her daypack and pulled out a padded jewelry box, completely incongruous with the place.
Stacie opened it with her heart in her throat. Sure enough, it was the restrung pearls, and displayed in the box next to them was a matching bracelet. Stacie wiped her eyes on the back of her hand, unable to hold back a tear or two that the pearls were once again ready to wear.
‘He said he’d planned to give you the bracelet at the exhibition,’ Dee said. ‘But he thought under the circumstances the dedication of Zoe’s Woods was the perfect time to give them to you.’
As Stacie carefully closed the box and placed it in her bag, Kendra and Garrett group-hugged her, nearly smothering her in their congratulatory enthusiasm. K. Ryde was already hard at work on a PR program for Vigilant Trust that was nothing short of genius. But, of course, K. Ryde didn’t attend the dedication.
From where he stood talking to his daughter, who was there with the press, Martin Flannery gave her two thumbs up. And was Stacie mistaken or was Wade giving Carla Flannery the eye? OK, so she was a bit of a romantic these days, but stranger things had been known to happen.
Yes, stranger things had been known to happen, she thought as her gaze sought out Harris, and the butterfly dance in her stomach erupted at the sight of him. Her husband; he was now officially her husband. She still could hardly get her head round the thought. He stood a little bit away from the knot of friendly faces talking on his BlackBerry. He offered her that dry smile that always made her smile back, then he shoved the BlackBerry back in his pocket and came to her side, his eyes sparkling in a way that told her something was up.
‘That was Doug,’ Harris said as he gathered her to him in a deliciously possessive hug. ‘He’s seen our mountain lion. She has three kittens and he thinks if we’re lucky and we behave ourselves she might be up for receiving a visit from old friends. What do you say to that, wife?’
‘I say pack up the Jeep and let’s go, husband. Ingrid Watson won’t be coming here till next week to discuss her exhibition, and until then, there’s nothing that Jenny can’t do without me.’
She lifted her arms around his neck and he took her mouth in a long and lingering kiss.
‘Get a room, you two!’ Garrett Thorne teased.
Harris flipped him the finger with one hand while the other gave Stacie’s backside a solicitous grope.
‘Galina’s cooked up a feast back home,’ Ellis said. ‘It’d be a shame to let it get cold.’ He nodded toward the road and slid an arm around Dee’s waist as the procession headed in that direction. ‘Besides,’ he said, offering one of his winning smiles to Stacie and Harris, ‘you haven’t really had a chance to celebrate your nuptials with your friends yet. You caught us all by surprise.’
It had been a surprise, Stacie thought, but it was right. And when Harris had asked her to marry him after a picture-perfect Central Oregon day kayaking on the Deschutes River – well, neither of them could really think of any reason to wait. Stacie looked around at the small knot of friends, the people she had come to love. She would never have imagined a few short months ago that she could be this happy, that her life could ever be so full again. She sometimes wondered if it were only a dream. But then the man walking beside her with his arm around her waist leaned in close, gave her ear a humid kiss, and said, ‘I love you, Stacie Emerson-Walker. God, I like the sound of that, don’t you?’
And she did. She truly did. It was the most beautiful sound she had ever heard.
An Executive Decision Trilogy
By Grace Marshall
www.xcitebooks.com
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Published by Xcite Books Ltd – 2013
ISBN 9781908917850
Copyright © Grace Marshall 2013
The right of Grace Marshall to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
The story contained within this book is a work of fiction. Names and characters are the product of the author’s imagination and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be copied, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the written permission of the publishers: Xcite Books, Suite 11769, 2nd Floor, 145-157 St John Street, London EC1V 4PY
Table of Contents
Title Page
Contents
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
; Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Epilogue
Copyright
The Exhibition (An Executive Decision Trilogy) Page 32