On Thin Ice

by Cherry Adair

  "Okay, Musketeers," he shouted to his brothers, "get your asses in here. All clear at the house?" he barked into the lip mic to Jake.

  "Secure," his brother-in-law responded in his ear with his usual calm.

  Suddenly the barn was filled with noise and light as reinforcements arrived.

  "I can walk," Lily told him, voice raw. She didn't try to move.

  He dropped a kiss to her hair and tightened his arms. "I like you just fine right where you are. Get the garbage out of here," Derek told Hunt and Kyle as they strolled into the stall.

  "How come you always get to have all the fun?" Hunt demanded, not a hair out of place as he stripped weapons off bodies. Bad guys had been known to come back to life at the most inopportune moments.

  "Just trying to impress my girl," Derek said, holding Lily against his heart. "Kane? Check on Joe and Singleton back there while you're at it."

  He strode through the chaos of the barn as men came and went. A siren sounded. The local police. The feds would get involved, as would several other agencies. But things were contained. He strode across the wide area between barn and house, the snow and gravel crunching underfoot.

  Every light was on in the house as he ran up the shallow front steps, crossed the wide back porch and kicked open the kitchen door.

  "Marnie," he yelled at his sister. Couldn't see her, but he knew she was somewhere around. "Close your eyes, and keep 'em closed."

  His sister stepped into view. "Why? Oh! Ick!" She flopped into a kitchen chair and covered her pale face with both hands.

  "Jesus." Jake crouched beside his wife's chair and wrapped an arm about her shoulders, his attention on Derek and Lily. "Shot? Where's Kane?"

  "She doesn't need a doctor. All the red's Pekovic's," Derek assured them, his steps not slowing as he crossed the huge crowded kitchen and started for the stairs next to the pantry. "Get a report from the guys."

  "What can I do?" Tally demanded, waddling after him, hand on her belly.

  "Keep everyone out of my way until morning." He gave his sister-in-law a smile, which she returned.

  He bounded up the stairs, down the long upstairs hallway and into his bedroom, kicking the door closed behind him.

  "Like they don't know what's going on up here," Lily grumbled into his chest, face flaming.

  He strode into the sumptuous master bathroom. "A shower, you mean? Crank that handle, would you?" He shifted her so she could reach over and turn on the water.

  "That won't take 'until morning' by any stretch of the imagination," Lily told him as he released her legs and let her body slip down his. She held on to his neck, brushing her lips across his on the way down.

  "I don't know. Might," he told her, yanking off her coat and tossing it to the floor. "You're very dirty." He ripped the buttons on her shirt and stripped it off before she could squawk. Her soft, pale skin was stained an obscene red.

  Steam billowed from the room-size shower stall as she toed off her boots, and he finished stripping her at the same time. "Is this going to be a spectator event," she asked politely, "or are you coming in here with me?"

  "Oh, I'm coming. With you. In," he instructed, chucking his clothes at the speed of light and leaving them in a pile on the black marble floor.

  Lily stepped into the glossy black stall and adjusted the temperature, then lifted her face to the spray as Derek stepped in and closed the door. Her hair darkened and sheeted down her body like a second skin.

  "You lead a very dangerous life," she said, eyes closed as she tilted her head back under the water.

  Derek poured shampoo into his hand. "Not all the time." He rubbed up a lather between his hands and massaged it into the long strands of her hair. "That was damn clever of you to use the cell phone."

  "I know." She grinned up at him through runnels of water.

  "You must have nine lives," he told her ferociously, as he found the soap and started washing the blood off her precious body. He kept it as clinical and impersonal as possible. For now.

  "Hmm…"

  He laved her breasts; her nipples peaked and poked through silken strands of her long hair. Okay. He wasn't feeling as impersonal as he needed to be right now. He arranged her hair to expose her lovely breasts. "You've been very brave." He rubbed a soapy thumb back and forth across the pale pink buds. So pretty.

  She opened her eyes and shot him an unloverlike glare. "Hang on. Aren't you the one who called me a coward?" She put a hand on his hip to steady herself.

  "No." He couldn't resist the small pout on her succulent mouth, and leaned down to sip the water from her lips. The maneuver took several minutes as he had to have a quick taste to refresh his memory. There was a little battle of the tongues for supremacy. He let her triumph so they could both win. "I said you were acting like a coward," he whispered against her mouth. "Not that you were one. There's a difference."

  She rolled her eyes, but didn't move away when he ran the flat of his hand down her midriff. She reached up and used her teeth to tug at his bottom lip. God. She loved to live dangerously. He sank into the kiss even as his fingers tangled with the down at the apex of her thighs. She wouldn't let him in. "The only time I've ever seen you act that way is when you're trying to make me think you don't care about me."

  "I care about you." She wound her wet arms around his neck and pressed her body flush against his.

  The physical play was clouding his brain; he struggled valiantly to stay on topic. "Not enough," he told her, wanting to laugh despite the seriousness of the conversation. No wonder he loved this woman. She'd fight him to the bitter end until she finally got it. "Not the way I want you to."

  She leaned her body away from him a few inches. "I had wild and crazy sex with you several times. In the snow, no less. What more do you want?" How could a woman with such bravado in her voice still have so much vulnerability in her eyes?

  He pushed the soaking strands of her hair back over her shoulders, then cupped her face and tilted her chin up so she had to meet his eyes. "I want your heart, Lily. I want your love. Damn it, I want it all."

  "Oh, God—" She shook her head.

  "No?" Derek asked. He dropped his forehead to hers, his voice a deep rumble. "Why not?"

  Lily's throat felt raw and tight, and when she cleared it, she might as well have been trying to swallow ground glass. "I—I just can't." I can't give up that last little piece of me that will keep me marginally sane when you leave.

  "I don't believe that, and neither do you. You wouldn't have had wild and crazy sex with me at all if you didn't love me. You love me, Lily. You love me with everything in you. Heart, body and soul. Admit it."

  Her eyes met his. Held. Her mouth was dry, her heart pounded. Standing here naked with Derek, skin touching, she couldn't've been more vulnerable if she tried. "I'm scared," she admitted quietly, forcing herself to keep eye contact even though she'd rather be hiding under the covers in the dark. Alone.

  His whole body went rigid. "Of me?"

  His voice sounded so shocked, so hurt and even horrified at the idea, she shook her head again. "No. God, no. You were right when you insisted I have this crazy fear of abandonment. I thought you were full of it, for even thinking that, let alone saying it out loud. But I've kept thinking about it ever since Nome. Running it through my mind. I think—no. I know. You were right. People I love leave. And even while the rational, adult part of my brain knows that isn't logical, there's a piece of me that believes if I allow myself to love you, that eventually you'll… leave too."

  "Leave you? Hell, Lily, I've been waiting a lifetime to be with you. I've told you that."

  "No, you haven't."

  Derek grasped her chin with a large, wet hand. Lily stood her ground, chest tight. He moved in closer, forcing her to tilt her head back to see his face.

  "Well, what the hell did I tell you then?" he said.

  "L-lots of things."

  "I told you I want you." He cupped her face in his hand and made her look up at him. "Beaut
iful," he breathed. "I told you I need you." His clever fingers stroked her intimately, and a shudder of want zipped through her body. She held his gaze, and kept her thighs locked against him.

  "That's not enough, Derek."

  "Damn right, it's not," he told her, his voice thick. "I also told you I love you." He slid one hand under her hair to cradle the back of her head.

  Like a fish on a hook, she mentally struggled against the wonder of it. So close. Her heart told her the truth, but did she dare believe it? She wanted to cry. She wanted to scream. God. "You didn't mean that—"

  "Yes," he said firmly. "I most certainly did." He brushed his mouth over hers. "I've loved you since the first day I saw you, Lily. From the first instant I set eyes on you six years ago I knew we belonged to each other. I loved you then, and I love you more now. I haven't stopped. Not for a second. Not for a heartbeat. You're the only woman I've said those words to. Ever."

  Lily found herself backed against the wall as hot water sluiced over them. How could any woman in her right mind not accept the words he was saying? How could any woman resist him when he was beyond meeting her halfway? When his blue eyes were lit by a heated internal fire, and his mouth was but a breath away from hers? He offered her everything she'd ever wanted, if she was just willing to take that leap of faith.

  "I wasn't talking about just that moment," he said, his voice thick as he stared down at her. "Or for now, or for a while. For always, Lily. For always."

  The pounding of her heart was deafening in her ears. "Always?" she said, the single word on a sigh of breath, her entire body tensed.

  "Always and beyond—ompff," he muttered, stumbling back a step as Lily launched herself at him, jumping up to wrap her legs around his waist and her arms about his neck. "What are you doing?" he asked against her mouth.

  There'd been no other choice. "That," Lily told him, resting her forehead against his, "was my leap of faith." The doubts, the fears, any small nugget of reservation, melted away as she looked into his eyes. Here was home. Safety. Love. Commitment.

  He was her heart's desire.

  He grinned, that seductive, sexy, charming Derek grin that she loved so much and which made her heart smile. "Good for you. You sure as hell took your sweet time about it!" He kissed her, a sweet, drugging kiss that left her weak and exhilarated at the same time.

  "You are my adventure." He cupped her bottom and shifted against her. "You're my calm." He backed her against the cool marble wall. "You're my home." He pushed into her slick heat and stayed still because the sensation for him must be just as intense as it was for her. "I want to go to sleep with you at night, and wake with you beside me in the morning." He moved slowly inside her. "I want babies, and dogs and pets and chaos, and everything else that comes with a family. I want it all, Lily. Say yes."

  Lily lifted her hands to cup his face. His eyes were dark, and alive with emotion. "There was a lot of talk there," she told him gruffly, "but I didn't hear a question."

  His smile was slow and wicked and absolutely wonderful as he started moving inside her with purpose. "Will you marry me, Lily?"

  She looked into the eyes of the man she loved, and saw there love, promise and a long, happy future. "Why, yes, Mr. Wright," she said breathlessly. "I do believe I will."

  Epilogue

  Geoffrey and Sunny were married in Derek's great room, with the double doors open wide into the dining room to accommodate all their family and friends. Derek's housekeeper, Annie, with the help of Marnie, Tally, Delanie and A.J., had decorated the house in garlands of fresh flowers and twining coral-colored satin ribbon. The fresh spring fragrance belied the gently falling snow outside the windows.

  "That was beautiful," Lily told Derek as they rose to mingle with the guests heading into the dining room. The ceremony had been performed by a friend of the bride, an ordained minister they'd flown in from San Francisco. The wedding had been casual and low-key, with children of various ages and temperaments enjoying the attention of all their uncles and aunts in the same place at the same time.

  Marnie's two little girls, blond angels, had monopolized Derek's lap throughout the ceremony. Lily had been fortunate they'd allowed her to keep one of his hands for herself.

  An enormous five-tier wedding cake sat in the place of honor on the sideboard. Sunny, dressed in a smart cream-colored lace suit, held her new husband's hand and they stood by as each of Geoffrey's sons toasted them.

  Derek took his place last at the couple's side. Despite his yellow and purple eye, he looked dashing and handsome in a dark suit. Lily felt an almost overwhelming surge of pride and, blast it—yes—ownership. This is my man, she thought, heart suddenly racing with sheer, unadulterated joy.

  She wore a silky floral dress, and for Derek, high-heeled sandals, her legs and feet bare. He'd ogled her naked toes until she'd given him a little kick in the shin to get his attention off her feet and legs and back to the wedding.

  Derek waited while his brother Michael topped off several people's glasses. He met her gaze and gave her a look that spiked her temperature and made her hot and shivery inside. It was a miracle they'd made it downstairs to the wedding in time as it was. They'd spent most of the past two days in bed. Talking, planning. Making love.

  Derek gave her a small smile, his eyes heated with promise, the sapphire earring in his ear winking through his dark hair.

  He raised his crystal glass. Held her gaze for a second, promising her her heart's desire, then looked at his father and his new bride. Lily smiled from her heart.

  Everyone raised their glasses as Derek said, "A toast to my father and his beautiful bride, Sunny, whom we all welcome into the family with open arms and love. Our dad's been alone for a long time, and seeing how much he loves his new bride makes that wait all the more worthwhile." He smiled at Sunny's daughters standing near the door. All blond, all beautiful and all looking around at his T-FLAC associates with the same cool blue eyes.

  "We haven't just gained a mom, we've gained two lawyers, an investment banker and a race car driver." Everyone laughed.

  "Thank you all for schlepping out here to the wilds of Montana in the middle of winter like this. And while you've all partaken of my most excellent hospitality by being well fed and well watered," he grinned, "I'd like to offer you something else since you all happen to be here right now. And God only knows getting the Wrights and their assorted partners, offspring and friends all under one roof is a feat in and of itself…"

  Lily sipped the excellent champagne as Derek's voice melted over her like thick, dark chocolate. She'd never been so at peace with herself and her world as she was now. She looked around at the smiling faces of Derek's family and friends. She'd never seen so much open affection and love expressed. In a few hours the wedding party would be over. The guests would be back in their rooms at local motels and in Derek's bunkhouse, and she and Derek would be upstairs…

  "… the library," Derek finished. He came toward Lily with his hand outstretched. She gave him an inquiring glance as she laid her hand in his. His warm fingers closed around hers as he smiled down at her, only at her. As if they were the only two people in the room. Lily's heart almost burst with love for this man who hadn't let her hide any of her emotions. Even from herself. This man who'd made her face her own fears and stood beside her as she'd vanquished them.

  "Come with me," he said softly, leading her through the guests, who parted for them like the Red Sea. Lily barely noticed.

  "Anywhere."

  He led her down a short hallway, and pushed open one of the double doors into his library. Lily's heart leapt. She also wanted to be alone with him, but good grief—

  "The guests—" she protested as he pulled her inside the room. She got a flash of dark leather, and hundreds of books, brilliant flickering light and the fragrance of flowers. But she couldn't take her eyes off Derek.

  "Will be here in a second." He gave her a slightly uncertain look. "What are you thinking?"

  Lily stood on her
toes and rested her palms on his chest. Beneath her fingers his heart pounded steadily. Passion banked; she lifted her mouth to brush his lips with a kiss. She held his gaze. "I don't think. I know. I love you, Mr. Wright. I give you my heart, my body, my mind and my soul. I give you everything that I am, and everything that I can be.

  "I want to marry you, and make love with you morning, noon and night. I want to make a baby with you. I want to live with you, work with you and God only knows"—she smiled—"fight with you for the rest of our lives."

  "Me, too," he whispered, wrapping her in his arms. His mouth crushed hers in a soul-scorching kiss. They both moaned and pulled apart.

  A loud round of applause startled her and she blinked as they broke apart. Lily looked around, slightly dazed. The library was filled with people, candles flickered on every surface, flowers spilled from crystal vases and soft music rippled over the hum of voices. "Will you make an honest man of me?" Derek asked, turning her to face the minister who stood to one side of the fireplace in her flowing robes, watching them expectantly.

  Lily's smile was serene as Derek took her hand and drew her forward. Happiness and tranquillity filled every corner of her being. "You bet." Her heart swelled with emotion. "I think I've loved you forever," she told him quietly, her eyes for him alone.

  "Hell, I knew that." Derek brushed her damp cheek with his thumb and gave her a blinding smile, his heart in his eyes. "Forever and a day, my love. Forever and a day."

  Author's Note

  I hope you enjoyed reading Derek and Lily's adventure in the wilds of Alaska. For centuries human beings have pushed boundaries, explored new horizons and challenged themselves to do the impossible; they've worked in tandem with their animals to achieve boundless glory. The Iditarod seemed to be a perfect backdrop for On Thin Ice. I needed a setting that could act as another character to foil T-FLAC operative Derek Wright.