by Croix, J. H.
The first touch of his lips was soft—almost a question. The answer was a shock of sensation racing through her body, heat unfurling in a wave. She slid her hand behind his head, through the soft layers of his hair, and tugged him close. Her mouth fell open and she dove into the most intense, devouring kiss she’d ever experienced. He traced her lips with his tongue, delving in with deep strokes, their tongues tangling. She pulled away to catch her breath. His lips blazed a heated trail down her neck. Her breath came in gusts against his hair. Hot shivers skated across her skin and she shifted to get closer.
Suddenly, Darren pulled back. “We have to slow down,” he whispered.
Risa realized she was half in his lap. Her thoughts were a jumble. She looked into his eyes. Strangely, she felt like she’d known him for far, far longer than she had. The haze of passion began to clear in her mind. Whatever this was between them was a bit…too much. She carefully pulled away, her body protesting.
“Well,” she said, her voice thick with feeling. “I, uh…”
“Don’t know what the hell this is?” Darren offered helpfully.
She looked over at him, his eyes mirroring her uncertainty and dazed feeling. As startled and confused as she was, she felt an instant comfort with him. His eyes crinkled at the corners with his grin. She laughed and nodded. “Definitely not.”
Darren’s palm had been on her back when she shifted away and it remained there, a warm anchor.
Chapter 2
Darren strode into his office, kicking the door shut behind him. Seconds later, there was a quick knock and the door opened again. Sylvia Cunningham stood there with her arms crossed. Sylvia’s official title was administrative assistant, but she was affectionately known as the center of the universe at the station. Her husband Michael had retired as police chief over five years ago. She’d pretty much run the show with him for decades in Diamond Creek. Diamond Creek was much bigger now and growing every year, but back when Michael started as police chief, Sylvia had done her role on a volunteer basis for years, handling everything from dispatch to filing to occasionally dealing with unruly prisoners. During her thirty years here, she’d gone from being a volunteer to paid staff while the police force had grown from a one-man show to ten officers.
Michael had hired Darren to take his place when a back injury made continuing to work as a cop near to impossible. He’d reluctantly retired, but still checked in at the station several times a week. Sylvia’s appearance belied her steely nature. She barely topped five feet and had a cozy, motherly vibe. She was round and soft with bright blue eyes and white hair that bounced in a curly bob. Pretty much nothing intimidated her, and she was one of the kindest, most no-nonsense people Darren had ever known.
At the moment, she looked perturbed.
“Good morning, Sylvia. You’ve got a look. What did I do?” he asked.
Sylvia’s eyes twinkled, but she pursed her lips. “You forgot to put your reports in my office last night. Now I’m behind on data entry.” She sighed and tapped her foot.
Sylvia was trying her damnedest to get Darren to rely on her more for things like entering his reports in the system, but old habits died hard. Darren had come here from Seattle where administrative support was stretched so thin, he did as much as he could himself. After every other approach failed, Sylvia’s new tactic was to guilt him into it.
Darren reached for the stack of reports tucked beside his computer. He handed them to her with flourish. “I take a while to train. I’m working on it,” he replied with a grin.
“Did you get a cup of coffee yet?” Sylvia asked once she had the reports in hand.
“No, I…”
Darren was speaking to thin air. Sylvia had whirled out of his office. He chuckled and followed her to the break room. “Sylvia, you don’t need to wait on me,” he said as he caught up to her.
She turned away from the coffee pot and handed him a cup of coffee. “How about you add cream?”
Darren shook his head. After he’d added a dash of cream, he took a welcome sip of coffee. Travis Wilkes strode into the break room at that moment. The building that housed the police station was connected to the fire station though their entrances were on parallel streets. They shared a break room and storage in the connector between the buildings. Travis was a firefighter, emergency responder and fisherman. Like most Alaskans, he was jack of multiple trades. While Darren was mostly a cop, he was also a fisherman and did back up duty as a backcountry firefighter.
“Hey man, how’s it going today?” Travis asked, running a hand through his hair.
Darren shrugged and glanced at his watch. “It’s seven in the morning. So far, so good. Here’s hoping today’s quieter than yesterday.”
Sylvia beat Travis to the coffee pot as well and quickly served him a cup. Travis grinned and pecked her on the cheek. He looked back to Darren. “Yeah, yesterday had us running all over. Between the car accident and the fires up on the hill, I didn’t get home last night ‘til after ten.” He paused and took a sip of coffee, his blue eyes taking on a glint of mischief. “So it was nice of you to offer to take Risa home yesterday.”
Darren should have seen that coming. Travis was sharp and noticed everything. He also loved to tease. Sylvia had started to walk out of the break room and immediately turned, looking expectantly at Darren.
Darren shrugged. “She needed a ride. Why wouldn’t I offer her one?”
“Of course. Makes perfect sense. It wasn’t so much the ride as the fact that you couldn’t keep your eyes off of her,” Travis said with a chuckle before spinning on his heel and leaving through the door into the fire station.
Heat crept up his neck, but Darren ignored it. He glanced toward Sylvia who lifted an eyebrow.
“Sylvia, I offered a woman a ride after she had a car accident. Not exactly gossip.”
“That you paid enough attention to a woman that anyone notices is gossip,” she replied archly. Her eyes softened as she studied him. “It wouldn’t hurt you to find someone. You’ve got a heart of gold,” she said softly. She took a step and squeezed his arm before turning and walking away quietly.
The mere mention of Risa conjured her in Darren’s mind. When he’d walked down the short hill to find her car pinned in the trees yesterday, he’d been worried about whoever was in the car. The moment he saw her, he’d had to force himself to stay focused. She’d turned those dark brown eyes on him, and he could hardly look away. Her deep, rich brown hair was a messy bob, glinted with pieces of glass that she’d been combing out when he approached. Her lips were full and deep red, a contrast to her dark hair and eyes. Her wry smile held a hint of vulnerability underneath.
If he were being honest with himself, he would have to admit he’d leapt at the chance to offer her a ride to her brother’s house. Then he’d completely lost his mind. He’d never laid eyes on a woman and felt the kind of pull he did to Risa. His body had hijacked his brain when he turned off the main road and pulled into his own driveway. He simply couldn’t let her out of his sight without kissing her first. And damn if that kiss didn’t make matters worse. He’d managed to get himself under control and stop, but he couldn’t even walk into Trey’s house when he dropped her off for fear it would be obvious to everyone that he had a raging hard on. He felt a twinge of guilt thinking about the fact that Trey’s sister got him so hot, he could hardly think straight. Trey probably wouldn’t like to know Darren had to take a cold shower when he got home after kissing Risa.
Darren realized he was standing by himself in middle of the break room. He swore and walked briskly to his office, kicking the door shut behind him again. With a sigh, he sat at his desk, running a hand through his hair and clicking his computer on. He absently fingered the scar that ran along the side of his face into his hairline.
Chapter 3
Risa walked into the kitchen at Trey and Emma’s house. Her knees almost gave out when a small body hurtled against her legs from behind. “Aunt Risa!”
> She leaned down, meeting her nephew’s eyes upside down. “Hey Stu, what’s up?” she asked with a grin.
Stuart, her favorite and only nephew, giggled and released her legs. She grabbed him, lifting him for a hug. “You’re getting so big! I can barely pick you up anymore!”
Stuart wiggled, and she set him down, ruffling his brown hair, which had tufts sticking up all over. Her grinned at her with those eyes, so like her brother’s, soft brown with gold flecks. He quickly turned away and ran to the kitchen table, sliding into a chair.
“Mom’s in the shower. I’m ‘sposed to tell you there’s coffee ready.”
Risa had already made it to the kitchen to find Emma had set a mug out for her by the coffee pot. She filled it and joined Stuart at the table. “Your mom knows how much I like my morning coffee. So where’s your little sister?”
Stuart smiled widely. He’d had a few weeks of jealousy after Janet was born three months ago, but he’d adjusted and was now a very proud older brother. “Dad took her to his office so Lucy could see her.” He paused to sift his fingers through Tootsie’s hair when he twined around Stuart’s chair, purring madly. Tootsie was the orange tabby cat Risa had given to Stuart in the months after his mother died. That had been a rough and heart-wrenching time for Trey and Stuart. Helen, Trey’s first wife and Stuart’s birth mother, had died unexpectedly from an undiagnosed heart defect over four years ago now. Risa had wanted Stuart to have someone to comfort him. Tootsie seemed perfect, and he’d turned out to be the best kind of cat for a little boy. He was patient, tolerant and slept with Stuart every night.
Risa hadn’t stopped worrying about Trey and Stuart until Emma came along though. It had been hard to watch how the loss of Helen affected them. Trey was the kind of man who wanted to share his life with someone and whose grief had been deepened by witnessing his young son try to cope with the loss of his mother. Though they had moved on by the time Trey met Emma, Emma had brought the sun back into their lives. Risa sipped her coffee and smiled at that.
“Does your head hurt?” Stuart asked, pointing to the small bandage on her forehead.
Risa shook her head. “Not really.” She fingered the bandage, experiencing only residual soreness from the cut underneath. Thinking back to the accident, she realized she was quite lucky. Fortunately, alder trees were quite the bramble and slowed her car significantly on its way down the short hill. Trey had pointed out the alders had essentially served as a net for her car.
Thinking about her accident instantly brought Darren to mind, which flushed her straight through. She’d fallen asleep last night replaying his kiss. Desire coursed through her, and she shook her head. Now was definitely not the time and place for daydreams about the sexiest man she’d ever met.
Emma walked into the living room and toward the kitchen. “Morning,” she said, pausing by Risa’s chair to squeeze her shoulder.
“Hey there, thanks for getting coffee ready for me.”
“I’d like to say it was just for you, but I can’t get through the first hour of the day without coffee. So you’re welcome,” Emma replied with a grin as she filled her own mug and joined them at the table.
“Stu, did Dad tell you what time he’d be back?” Emma asked.
Stuart looked at the clock. “I think he said around eleven. Am I going to nature school today?”
Emma nodded. “That’s the plan. Landon will be there too. His mom told me when I saw her yesterday.”
Stuart’s eyes lit up, and he leapt from his chair. “When can we go?”
Emma grinned. “As soon as you’re ready.”
Stuart barreled down the hall to his room.
Emma turned to Risa. Emma was flat beautiful—tall and curvy with long dark hair and bright blue eyes. But with Emma, it wasn’t her looks that mattered. She was warm and kind and made Trey’s small family whole again. Risa adored her.
“Want to go with me while I drop Stuart off? We could stop and grab lunch somewhere.”
“Sounds good to me.”
A bit later, Risa walked alongside Emma into The Boatyard Café, a restaurant situated on a bluff overlooking Kachemak Bay. It was an updated diner with delicious food. They barely managed to beat the lunch rush, snagging a booth moments before a line formed at the entrance. Not long after they ordered, Susie Hammond, a friend of Emma’s, approached the booth.
Susie was quite obviously pregnant. She slipped into the booth with a sigh. “Hey girls, it’s a tight fit, but I made it,” she said with a grin. She turned to Emma. “Just so you know, I hate how tall you are.”
Emma rolled her eyes and shrugged. “I refuse to apologize for my height.”
Susie sighed and tucked her wild brown curls behind her ears. “You and Hannah made it look easy to be pregnant. I’ve discovered being five feet tall and pregnant is very different. There’s nowhere for my weight to go, but out. I feel like a beach ball. I cannot wait for this to be over!”
Emma chuckled. “Aren’t you due next week?”
Susie nodded vigorously, her brown eyes lighting up. “Yes!” She turned to Risa. “Hey Risa, how’s it going? I heard you made quite the entrance yesterday,” she said with a grin.
Their waitress stopped by to take Susie’s order. Risa waited until she was gone before speaking. “You could say that again. I swerved to avoid a moose and her babies and ended up going through the guardrail on the hill coming into town. My car’s totaled, but aside from this cut,” she gestured to her forehead “I’m doing okay.”
“It could’ve been much worse, I’m just glad you’re okay,” Emma commented before leaning back when the waitress brought their sandwiches.
“How are they getting your car out of there?” Susie asked.
“Darren said the tow crew would hook it to a pulley and drag it up the hill. Now I have to deal with the whole insurance thing and find a new car,” Risa replied with a sigh.
“Darren is such a good guy,” Susie said.
“I still can’t believe that man’s managed to stay single, nice as he is,” Emma commented before taking a bite of her sandwich.
“I know. Maybe it’s time for me to set him up,” Susie said thoughtfully.
Emma burst out laughing and shook her head. “It’s a wonder you’re an accountant. You clearly missed your calling. What if Darren doesn’t want to be set up?”
Susie shrugged. “According to Sylvia…you know the old chief’s wife who still works there?” At Emma’s nod, she continued. “She says he’s gun shy. Something about how he got hurt back when he was a cop in Seattle.”
Risa’s mind whirred. Just thinking about Darren got her pulse going. She was dying to ask about him, but that would guarantee too many nosy questions from Emma and Susie, so she kept quiet. Susie and Emma chatted about work, and Risa focused on eating.
“So Risa, how come you don’t move down to Diamond Creek?” Susie asked suddenly.
Risa shrugged. “I hadn’t really thought about it.” As soon as she answered, she wondered why she hadn’t. She’d stayed in Anchorage mostly out of habit. She and Trey had grown up there. After she’d attended college in Juneau, she’d returned to Anchorage and eventually found work managing an art gallery. She loved painting and while it didn’t pay the bills, the added income from managing the gallery kept her afloat.
Risa looked back at Susie. “You have a point. Maybe I should move here.” She looked between Emma and Susie. “Honestly, the only reason I’ve stayed in Anchorage is because I love my job. If I thought there was any chance of finding something like that down here, I’d seriously think about it.”
Emma was mid-chew on a bite of her sandwich, but she grinned widely and lifted her hand for a high five.
Susie gave her a satisfied smile. “Guess I should have suggested that sooner. I was thinking it’s nice to see you every month or so, but it would be even better if you were here all the time. I figured you stayed there because of…what’s your boyfriend’s name again?”
&n
bsp; Risa’s stomach felt hollow. She hadn’t told Trey and Emma about the mortifying end to her most recent relationship even though it had been months since it ended. She’d met Brad at the art gallery she managed. He ran another local art gallery. He’d been funny, charming and handsome. They’d started dating, and Risa thought perhaps she’d finally met a man she could bring home to meet her family.
While Trey was the model son, following their father’s footsteps into the Air Force and getting his law degree, she was the misfit in her family. After rising in the ranks of the Air Force, their father had gone on to start a law practice outside of Anchorage and was later appointed as a judge. Their mother had been an English professor first at a small college in Seattle and then later at the University of Alaska. Risa had no trouble academically, but it bored her silly. She scraped through college by a hair and the only time she felt interested and motivated was when she was painting.
As for her love life, it consisted of casual relationships that went nowhere. At thirty-one, she knew her parents expected her to settle down with someone in the near future. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to, but she hadn’t found anyone who made her feel good enough to stay in the relationship. Along came Brad who owned and ran his own art gallery and seemed on the surface to be a good guy. Little did she know that he was having a side fling with her friend Gretchen for most of their relationship. Risa had become friends with Gretchen through a painting group. She’d discovered Brad and Gretchen’s relationship when she’d stopped to pick up takeout one night after work. She’d believed Brad to be out of town. It was mid-winter and dark outside. They were sitting thigh to thigh at a table by the window of an adjacent restaurant with Brad kissing his way down Gretchen’s neck.