“Well.” Cassie took a few moments to collect her thoughts; Nick could see she wasn’t letting go of the last topic so easily. Then she turned to face him.
“I was pretty wasted on whatever drug they pumped into me. I don’t remember the details too clearly, but it was a dim hallway, carpeted, like really plush. I remember thinking something about six, so I’m assuming I saw something like a suite number to make me think I was on the sixth floor. The office was dim too, and....” Cassie closed her eyes in concentration. “And there were plants, and a big desk made out of dark wood.”
“What about people?” Nick asked gently.
“Two men brought me in. They looked like typical businessmen. Except for the scar.”
“Scar?” Nick’s brows drew together in a slight frown.
“One man had a scar, high up under his hair mostly, very jagged and pale. I can’t even think of what side it was on. The old man, he had white hair, that’s the only thing I remember clearly except his eyes. They were small and black, real beady and mean. It was almost like they were drilling holes in me.” She sighed. “I guess a lot of that was the drug. Hell, I might not have seen anything the way it really was.”
Cassie opened her eyes and sighed. “Nick?”
He realized he was staring at her with a deep frown on his face.
“Hmmm. I guess what I’ll have to do is check out the sixth floor of every high-rise in Juneau. See which ones match your description.”
“Well, it’s not the Bank Tower. I already went there. And what’s this ‘I’ stuff? If you go, I go.” Cassie put one hand on her hip, glaring at him.
“You went looking for those men? All by yourself? Cassie, where was your brain?”
“Hey! I’m here all alone, I couldn’t trust anyone. Who else was going to go? I had to start somewhere.”
“Cassie. You’re not alone anymore.” Nick took her hands, wanting to make her see just how dangerous this could be. “If you go back, they might kill you. You can probably identify them, or at least they’ll figure you can. What if they don’t want to take the chance of you going to the police if you turn up back in town? We don’t know who they are or what other things they might be involved in besides kidnapping. And I don’t want to take a chance on you getting hurt.”
Cassie pulled her hands away from his, her eyes flashing beneath drawn brows. “And you don’t think they’ll be suspicious of you? You think you won’t get hurt? I at least will know if I am walking up to one of those gorillas! Dammit, Nick. We go together!”
Cassie returned her hand to her hip in the face of his silence, not breaking her hold on his gaze.
He stood abruptly, pacing into the kitchen. Her eyes followed him as he reached into the fridge to grab a bottle of beer.
“Want one?”
“Please.” Cassie didn’t change the sharp tone of her voice, and if it hadn’t been such a serious topic, he might have laughed to ease the tension.
Nick returned with two bottles, and twisted one open before handing it to her. She took it in silence, watching him sit on the arm of the couch, open his bottle, and take a long pull from it. Cassie did the same.
Nick sighed and gave in, feeling a little like he’d just flown through a thunderstorm. “Okay. We go together, but the minute you ID the building, I’m taking you to a hotel. Or better yet, back here.”
“We’ll talk about that when the time comes,” Cassie said, taking another drink of beer. She looked at the bottle. “This is good. Is it imported?”
He shook his head, as much in answer as at her gracious change of subject. “Local.”
She set the bottle down on the coffee table and stood in front of where he sat, putting a hand on his arm. “Nick, don’t sulk. Let’s talk about something else, okay?”
Nick stirred at her touch. “I’m sorry. I just don’t want to see you get hurt.” He put a hand up and twined his fingers gently in the hairs at the back of her neck. “I’ve gotten rather fond of you in the last couple days.” He felt her shiver beneath his touch and leaned in to kiss her.
She leaned forward to meet him. Their bodies came together with only two thin layers of clothing between them.
Nick had only meant to give her a quick playful kiss, but she felt so willing, so alive to his touch that he quickly forgot his playfulness.
* * *
Cassie’s heart skipped a beat when their lips made contact, and she opened her lips to greet him warmly. Her arms snaked around his waist, and her hands felt their way up to his shoulders, caressing and kneading, pulling him closer.
She needed the physical touch of him, needed it like she had never needed anything before. It was a necessity beyond anything her mind could comprehend, beyond even her heart’s longing. Primal, it was the need to have someone tangibly close to ease the fears she had been holding at bay for too long. She needed to release the tension that had built up in her for four days. She needed to know she was not alone.
Nick broke the kiss and Cassie gasped, kissing his cheek, his chin, his neck. “Oh, Nick. I need you! Say you won’t leave me alone.”
Nick put his hands on either side of her face, leaning out of her reach so he could look in her eyes. She could see the desire burning there, but his body had gone still.
“I’m not going anywhere,” he said firmly. “But I think we ought to eat, and turn in for the night.”
After a meal of canned soup prepared and eaten in a curious silence, Cassie watched with surprise as Nick reached into a cupboard and pulled out a blanket and pillow. He put them on the couch, then escorted her up the stairs.
The light from below cast shadows up the wall of the loft bedroom until Nick turned on a lamp.
“I hope you don’t sleep walk,” he said. “It would be a rude awakening to step off the edge here.”
“I don’t,” she assured him as she looked around the room. The made bed and swept floor, the neatly hanging clothes in the open closet, the closed bureau with its dusted top all spoke of a man who kept a tidy home. Cassie thought of her own room, thrashed by simple apathy.
She heard a footfall and looked up to see Nick going back downstairs.
“Where are you going?” she asked.
“To sleep. If you don’t want to sleep in one of your new shirts, you can borrow one of mine. They’re in the top drawer. Goodnight, Cassie.”
“Nick?” Cassie walked to the edge of the loft. “You don’t have to sleep on the couch. I will.” She forced the disappointment from her voice. She had been so sure they would sleep together. Her body still craved the touch of another person. Specifically, Nick’s touch.
Nick turned to look up at her, standing halfway down the stairs. “No, I’ll be fine.” He chuckled and mockingly bowed. “Besides, a gentleman would never make a lady sleep on the couch.”
Something in the way he spoke made her wonder what she had done wrong. She had taken that kiss and the words he spoke after it to be a promise of sorts. Now he was going to sleep on the couch.
Well, she thought, her confusion turning to resentment. Let him sleep alone, then. She turned away, opening the top drawer of the bureau to get one of his shirts.
* * *
Nick watched from the corner of his eye as Cassie undressed and changed into one of his shirts, her shadow flowing up the wall. Shaking his head, he got another beer from the kitchen.
Lord, how he wanted that woman, desired her with a fierce aching in his belly. But he didn’t intend to do anything they would regret in the morning, and sleeping together just didn’t feel right. Cassie had been willing enough, but it had been more like she was running away from something or trying to bury her fears. He wanted her to want him for him, not for what he could do for her.
Did it go any deeper than the need?
Nick downed the beer and opened another. Why wasn’t this simple? He knew he could easily fall in love with her—why couldn’t things be perfect and uncomplicated?
Because life didn’t work that way, he told h
imself. The flight path of human relationships always risked a stall or, worse, a crash and burn. No exceptions to that rule. But good Lord! Abduction and intrigue? What an unusual snag in a man’s pursuit of a beautiful woman.
But what if abduction didn’t figure in? A junkie with paranoid hallucinations might lie to him to con him into taking care of her.
No. Nick shook his head, denying that possibility. Her fear played out as too real.
He returned to the couch when he saw the light upstairs go out. Pulling off his shirt and stripping off his jeans, he settled onto the couch with the blanket, attempting the impossible goal of getting comfortable on a couch made only for sitting. Someday he would figure out how to fit a truly comfortable couch in his plane to bring it up to the cabin.
Sitting up, he punched the pillow, then flopped his head onto it. He threw one leg over the back of the couch and stretched the other foot off the end. He sighed and stared up at the ceiling, knowing he would never get to sleep.
Chapter Seven
Nick opened his eyes with a start. The room had cooled as the fire burned down, so he knew he had fallen asleep at some point, in spite of the uncomfortable, makeshift bed.
What had awakened him? One foot had slipped off the couch and was chilling on the cold floor. When he lifted his foot to bring it back under the blanket, his toes unexpectedly encountered flesh. He jumped, turning to see Cassie sitting on the cushion at the other end of the couch, silhouetted against the moonlit window.
“Nick?” Cassie leaned and reached out a hand, placing it on his bare chest. “I woke you?”
“Um-hmm.” Nick couldn’t find his voice, couldn’t ask why she had come downstairs. She shifted a little closer.
“I’m sorry about earlier.” The silence fell heavily after her words, but again Nick couldn’t find a voice to answer. She sighed. “It must have seemed rather...easy of me. I don’t want to feel cheap to you.” She paused again, waiting for his response. He forced his brain to think of something, but by the time he opened his mouth to answer, she spoke again. “I’ll go, and let you sleep.”
Cassie stood to go, but Nick reached out and grabbed her arm. “No, wait.” She stopped and Nick gave a gentle tug to bring her down to the couch. “I’m still asleep. Give me a second.”
Cassie waited while Nick held on to her arm as he sorted his thoughts. “You were running away from your fear earlier.” Cassie remained silent, forcing Nick to press on. “I didn’t want to be just a place for you to hide, a temporary shelter. I wanted...I want being with you to mean we share special, real feelings. Does it?”
“Yes.” Cassie leaned toward him, covering his hand with hers. “It does.”
Nick raised his free hand to the nape of her neck, pulling her down to catch her lips with his. Her swift response shivered like liquid lightning against his skin. He released her to look into the pools of shadow in her eyes.
“Are we talking about love?”
“Maybe. Yes.” Her voice was husky with passion.
Nick sat up, taking her with him. He kissed her again lightly, running his fingers down her back and around to the bare skin of her legs. He felt the gooseflesh rise and smiled, rubbing his hands up her sides, feeling the suggestive outward curves beneath the shirt.
“Do you want me?” she asked, her voice trembling with desire.
He shook his head. “Not just your body. All of you.”
He wrapped one arm around her back and the other under her knees. Lifting Cassie into his arms, he stood and carried her up the stairs, his blanket falling to the floor by the couch. Gently, Nick set her down on the bed and stood gazing at her shadowed form against the white sheets.
* * *
Warmed by the heat of Nick’s body as he had carried her to the bed, now Cassie admired his shadowed outline above her. The lines of his body would tempt any sculptor, and Cassie wanted very much to touch those firm muscles. Smiling, she denied herself and waited, her body tingling with anticipation as she watched him cross to the bureau and then back to the bed. Her heart hammered in her chest as she recognized the shadowy movements of him stripping off his boxer shorts.
The sound of a package crumpling as he tore into it brought home the reality of the moment. She quivered in delight as he took an extra moment to slide the latex into place.
“How thoughtful.” She hoped he heard the sincerity in her whisper. She stretched to pull him down beside her.
Nick slid his hand down her stomach and lifted her shirt. Cassie sighed at the warmth of his hand against her exposed skin.
The sigh turned into a gasp as his searching fingers found her taut nipple and pinched tenderly, sending shivers of delight dashing into her belly.
She smiled to herself, reaching up to caress his jaw line. She could feel his smile as she traced the line of his lips, and she smiled again as he softly nibbled her fingers.
As his kisses claimed her lips, his hands explored her body. She responded to his fervor with a passion of her own. Her hands couldn’t get enough of his solid muscles and silky chest hairs. His heat against her cool hands drove her into a frenzy, the dance of his hands only adding impetus to her appetite.
* * *
Nick couldn’t believe the sensations Cassie aroused in him: a hunger for more of her, a desire to draw this out and make it last forever. But his body betrayed him with an undeniable need.
He rolled her onto her back and moved himself above her.
“You’re sure?” he asked, his voice rough with his aching need for her. He gritted his teeth, prepared to put all passion aside if she had second thoughts.
“Yes.” No hesitation at all. Cassie opened her arms and legs to greet him.
Nick groaned as he entered her, moving first at an agonizing slow pace along her sweet passage. He dipped his head and kissed her neck, licked her shoulder, and bowed his back to kiss her breasts, moving to a gentle rhythm suggested to him by her body’s reactions.
He concentrated on her, giving her every ounce of his attention to make it last longer, even when his greedy flesh demanded he rush to the total pleasure he knew awaited.
Cassie writhed under Nick’s careful ministrations, murmuring little love words as her hands ranged over his body. Just when he thought he could no longer stand the slow rhythm of his motion, she grasped his buttocks and pulled him closer to her, crying out that she was ready, now!
More than ready to give in to his driving passion, Nick quickened the pace, abandoning his careful control. He felt Cassie matching him stroke for stroke until she climaxed with a shudder, arching her back and crying out in a low voice. Nick drove in twice more, letting himself go. The moan that escaped his lips rumbled into a growl of pleasure.
He lowered his head to kiss her lips, then nuzzled her neck, wrapping his arms around her shoulders, resting some of his weight against her sweat damp body. Despite the need to remove the condom, he stayed inside her, not wanting to leave her delicious warmth.
“Oh, Cassie.” He sighed into her hair, inhaling the scent of her. “I’ve never felt this way about anyone. I think.... I mean, I don’t think it’s just lust talking....”
Her finger traced a heart on his back, interrupting his words, and he smiled as he recognized the symbol. “I’m in new territory too, Nick,” she said. “Is that strange?”
“Not in my book.”
Inevitably Nick had to move, sitting up to remove the latex. As he lay down again, he carefully shifted her so he could curl around her, wrapping her in his arms. Before long his deep, slow breaths indicated a sound sleep.
* * *
Cassie lay awake for a while with Nick’s breaths puffing evenly against her shoulder. She thought about him, about their earlier conversation, her life, and what her future looked like.
Undeniably she was falling in love, and she didn’t think she could go back to Seattle. It would be too much like running away from the future. She had nothing to lose in Seattle except a job she didn’t much enjoy, and she could hea
r that door slamming shut anyway. So now was the best time to make a change, wasn’t it? She had no idea what she would do if she stayed in Alaska.
And Nick.... She felt more for Nick than she had for anyone ever before. But staying with Nick for a few nights was one thing. What about for more than a few nights? Were either of them ready for that?
Cassie fell asleep pondering her future.
* * *
The late morning sunlight woke Nick, and for a brief moment confusion clouded his memory. He wondered at the warm, pliant body wrapped in his arms and at his wonderfully languid sense of well-being. When the events of the night before crystallized in his memory, a grin planted itself on his face. Opening his eyes, he saw Cassie’s black hair tousled across the pillow, across her face. He could see her brow and one eye closed in sleep.
Nick stroked a lock of hair away from her eyes, his grin growing broader as she sighed in her sleep, lips curving up in a small, sensual smile.
Carefully, Nick disentangled himself from her and got up to shower. He thought about waking Cassie so she could join him, but decided to let her sleep.
With the warm water coursing over his body, he pondered the previous night. He had never had such a gratifying experience. Even better, he knew Cassie had felt immense pleasure too. Just thinking about her response stirred desire in him, bringing a low chuckle of appreciation. He smiled, thinking of interesting ways to wake Cassie when he finished showering.
He stepped out of the shower stall, wrapping a towel around his waist. When he opened the door to the bedroom, he was surprised to find the bed empty.
Disappointment stabbed his chest, followed by a realization of the silence in the cabin.
“Cassie?”
No answer. He looked over the edge of the loft into the front room. No sign of her.
“Cassie? Where are you?”
Nick descended the stairs to look in the kitchen, but no black-haired beauty graced that room either. Then he noticed the back door ajar and walked outside, but no one walked among the trees, no one disturbed the squirrels and singing birds. Crossing to the front of the cabin, Nick looked out the window, then opened the door.
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