A Sweet Alaskan Fall

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A Sweet Alaskan Fall Page 31

by Jennifer Snow


  “The list of challenges for each team are the same: building a reliable shelter from your surroundings, surviving a simulated emergency, navigating an orienteering course and outlasting an isolation training exercise,” Mike said, reading from a clipboard.

  He started announcing the teams, and Kendra’s pulse grew faster with each pairing. She didn’t hear her name or Nolan’s...until they were the only two left.

  “The fourth and final team are Kendra and Nolan,” Mike said.

  No! Her hand shot up at the same time that Nolan said, “I’m not sure that pairing is such a good idea.”

  Cassie grinned as she glanced between the two of them. A sparkle in her blue eyes suggested she knew what they were trying to hide. “Is there conflict or tension between you two at the office?”

  Roger was studying them intently, so Kendra forced a smile as she shook her head. It wasn’t a lie—the tension had happened outside the office and it was more of a sexual nature... No one in the office knew about their previous encounter. At least Kendra had kept it to herself.

  “No...” Nolan said slowly, clearly choosing his words carefully so he wouldn’t sound alarm bells the first week on the job. “More like differences in how we communicate.”

  Like by not communicating? Was he serious? That was his problem. She communicated quite well. “Actually, I think it’s more of a difference of opinion on communication frequency.”

  Nolan shot her an odd look, which she pretended to ignore.

  “Do you two know one another?” Roger asked.

  “Sort of.”

  “Not really,” Kendra lied. “We just know of one another.”

  Cassie nodded. “Perfect. Then I think that this pairing is great. Use this weekend to overcome any preconceived notions you might have about one another and this...communication issue. You’ll see your working relationship in the office will be that much stronger.”

  Damn. Looked like they were stuck together. Nolan reluctantly shuffled across the group to stand next to Kendra. She took a large step away from him to keep a safe distance between them.

  “Does anyone have any questions before we start the first challenge?” Mike asked the group.

  Against her better judgement, Kendra raised her hand. “What if your partner just disappears on you?”

  Nolan let out an annoyed sigh next to her.

  Good, be irritated. She was. She was irritated that he hadn’t even had the decency to text her to say he wasn’t interested. Irritated that after three months of zero contact, he had the balls to apply for a position he knew she’d been working her ass off to get. And irritated that he seemed perfectly content to just sweep their history under the boardroom rug.

  “Well, the key is to stay together,” Mike said.

  “Right...but what if, for example, your partner doesn’t give you the right coordinates to follow and you’re just left to wander the great unknown alone?” Nolan asked.

  What the hell was that about?

  Mike frowned, looking back and forth between the two of them. “Well, again, the key is to stick together and not leave one another stranded...” He spoke slowly and carefully and then looked at the rest of the group. “Anyone have any other questions not related to the first and most important rule of staying together?”

  Everyone shook their heads.

  “Nope,” Kendra mumbled.

  “All good,” Nolan said.

  “Great. Then, let’s get started. First challenge is building your shelter. You can use anything from nature to construct a lean-to or debris hut that will serve as a place to sleep and rest during breaks, so make sure it’s sturdy and will last through various elements for at least the next two days,” Mike said. “This challenge will be timed and then each team’s shelter will be awarded points based on sturdiness, practicality and overall usefulness. Time starts...” he clicked a stopwatch “...now!”

  Kendra looked at Nolan, but he was already scanning the area around them.

  Okay, guess they weren’t going to talk strategy. Or talk at all.

  She looked at the other teams, already moving quickly to complete the challenge, and her competitive spirit flared.

  She squared her shoulders. Game face on. She could do this. Cavemen had done it before YouTube tutorials. She could figure this out. How hard could it be?

  Kendra headed toward an area of the forest where scattered tree branches lay on the ground, broken off from windstorms. Ignoring the dirt and sharp edges, she collected as many as she could hold and carried them back to the campsite.

  Now what? Making a lean-to sounded like it required something like a thick tree to position her branches against...but there were none in their sanctioned area. What was the other option? A debris hut. What the hell was that?

  Across from her, Nolan squatted next to a pile of leaves, bark and pine needles. He started to work, positioning a long branch against an old tree stump, then making an A-frame from two more branches and tying the three together with his piece of rope.

  Ah, that was what the rope was for. Got it.

  Kendra found another tree stump and repeated Nolan’s actions. Luckily, other groups were doing it, too, so it wouldn’t look like she’d had to copy him. This actually wasn’t so hard. She looked around to see if Roger was taking notice, but he was busy working on his own shelter with Alan, an older rep from their company.

  She started to place her other sticks along the side when Nolan turned to face her. “What are you doing?” he asked.

  The first words were spoken and she felt slightly victorious that he’d broken the silence first. “Making my shelter.”

  “This is our shelter,” he said, tightly.

  She pointed at his debris hut. “That’s your shelter.” Then pointed at her own. “This will be mine.”

  He placed his hands on his hips and her eyes dipped to where his shirt had risen to expose the side of his stomach. An image of running her tongue along that exact oblique muscle appeared in her mind and she quickly averted her eyes. “We’re supposed to build one together as a team,” he said.

  “I don’t remember that being part of the rules.”

  “Then you weren’t listening.”

  That was probably true... Still, the company couldn’t force them to stay in the same shelter if she wasn’t comfortable with it.

  Kendra narrowed her eyes. “I’m not sleeping with you.” Again.

  Lying next to him in a cramped debris hut with just branches and moss and a fire to keep them warm seemed like a disastrous idea. Too many nights she’d dreamt of being in his arms when she was nowhere near him. She was terrified she’d confess her feelings in her sleep or worse...curl into him during the night. His rejection was embarrassing enough. She didn’t need him waking her up by rolling her body off him in the middle of the night.

  He sighed. “Look, if it makes you feel better, we’ll put up a divider so you can have your space—which you obviously want...” His eyes burned into hers.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  He shook his head. “Nothing. Look, I’m not a good loser, and I think I remember that you like to succeed, as well, but we won’t if we don’t meet the challenges.”

  She clenched her teeth and sucked in a deep breath. “Fine, but we need a thick divider.”

  “Fine,” he said, going back to work.

  Kendra stared at his ass as he bent to pick up more branches to prop against the main support beam to create walls. God, that ass should be illegal. And what was it about gray, loose-fitting sweatpants on a man that turned her primal? It had to be the wilderness and the fresh air. Though it was really attractive that he seemed to know his way around the forest...

  “You going to help or stare at my ass all day?” he asked without even turning back to look at her.

  Was he giving her a choice?


  * * *

  HER “HMPH” ALMOST made him smile. So she had been checking him out. Good. She could get a good look at what she’d casually thrown away.

  Unfortunately, he was getting a good look, as well...at what he couldn’t have.

  He watched from the corner of his eye as Kendra disappeared into the bush to gather more debris for insulation. The combination of her looking so goddamn sexy in tight blue leggings and a fitted sweatshirt and being so unapproachable with her standoffish attitude had him conflicted with what to say or do. The ride out to Wild River had been intense as he’d tried to maintain a casual conversation with his new boss, but he’d felt her glaring into the back of his head from the back seat.

  And she hadn’t exactly been thrilled about them partnering up.

  Even if she hadn’t raised a fuss, he’d been planning on having a divider in their shelter. There was no way in hell he could lie in close quarters with her out there in the magnificently beautiful outback, under the promised starry sky, and not be tempted to touch her, kiss her, ask her what the hell had happened after she’d left his hotel room the morning after the best night of his life.

  She returned and dropped an armful of leaves and moss onto the ground, then set to work insulating the shelter. She was literally inches from him but seemed a million miles away. Despite the heat of the midday summer sun beating down on him, the coldness radiating from her made him shiver.

  Where was the woman he’d met in Seattle? The one who was so warm and outgoing that he’d stayed up long into the night talking with her. The one he felt he knew better after just one week than people he’d known his entire life. They hadn’t just gotten to know each other on a surface level, they’d shared their goals and passions, and they’d had so many things in common.

  Now they felt like strangers.

  He had to say something. The silence was killing him, but she obviously wasn’t interested in getting personal again...

  “So I heard you landed the account.” It had almost given him a reason to reach out—to congratulate her on the win—but he’d resisted. The hurt part of him wondered if that had been her strategy: get close to him so he’d back off the account. But it had only fueled him to push harder, and deep down he knew that wasn’t Kendra’s way. She’d hate to have gotten the account by default. She’d gotten it because she was a kick-ass sales rep and Webber Pharmaceuticals was the best option for the client. That was why Nolan had been so eager to work there himself. “Congratulations,” he added.

  “Told you I would,” she said, weaving the moss through the branches to hold it in place.

  “So modest,” he mumbled under his breath.

  She turned toward him and opened her mouth to say something, but Cassie and Mike moved into the center of the clearing.

  “Time’s up!” Mike called, hitting the stopwatch.

  “Step away from your shelters,” Cassie said.

  The awkward silence fell between them again as they waited for their debris hut to be inspected. Nolan wasn’t worried—he knew they’d crushed the challenge. He and Kendra worked well together, and they would continue to succeed if they could put aside their differences and personal history.

  Unfortunately, that was hard for him to do when he knew they were good together, period.

  “Great job on the shelter,” Mike told them after his assessment. “You two are leading in points.”

  “Yay!” he said turning to Kendra for a high five.

  Impulsively, her hand connected with his and she smiled widely. But her smile quickly faded and he was back to wondering if he’d imagined that entire week in Seattle.

  “Next up is your simulated emergency,” Mike told them. “Who’d like to be the injured one?”

  By the glares Kendra had been shooting him—between lustful gazes at his body—he figured she’d like to give him a real injury. “I think I should be the medic,” he said.

  She crossed her arms in annoyance. Of course she had a problem with it. No doubt, no matter what he chose, she would have argued. “Why do I have to be the damsel in distress?”

  “Because I have three different first aid training qualifications, so I think we could nail this one.” Of course, they’d all been Boy Scout badges, but he’d keep that to himself.

  She hesitated, obviously torn between wanting to win the challenge and not wanting to let him win this argument. “Well, I think that would be cheating.” She turned to Mike. “I’ll be the medic. What’s his injury?”

  Besides a broken heart?

  Mike scanned the clipboard. “Each team has been randomly assigned something different. Your team has a sprained ankle that leaves one of you immobilized a mile from camp.”

  “So we pretend he hobbled here and I wrap his ankle?” She shrugged. “Sounds easy enough.”

  Mike laughed. “No. The four of us hike out a mile and then he fakes his injury. Cassie and I will assess the challenge by how the two of you deal with it from that point.”

  Her eyes widened with panic.

  “Care to change positions now?” Nolan caught his choice of words a second too late. No doubt they were both thinking of a lot of different positions they’d tried during their night of passion. His cheeks flamed as he remembered one in particular. “I mean, can I be the medic?”

  She shook her head. “Nope. I’ve got this.”

  He sighed. “Kendra, stop being so stubborn. I’m like two hundred pounds.”

  “Well, lucky for you, size isn’t everything,” she whispered with an evil grin.

  Wow. The blows just kept coming...

  Fine. If she wanted to lose this challenge, it was on her.

  CHAPTER THREE

  TWENTY MINUTES LATER, Kendra was rethinking her decision, made purely out of spite and pride. They’d completed their one-mile hike away from camp and she was already winded. A mile on a treadmill did not prepare someone for a mile of uneven wilderness trail. She drained the contents of her water bottle and turned to Nolan. “Okay, let’s go.” The faster they completed this one, the better.

  Nolan nodded and then immediately launched into his award-worthy performance. “Ow...oh, the pain!” he said dramatically, falling to the ground, holding his ankle.

  Cassie smirked as Mike made a note on his clipboard.

  Kendra hid a grin. He was funny. That was one of the things about him that she hadn’t been expecting, but she was totally attracted to humor. He had an endearing goofy side that she suspected he didn’t reveal to everyone and that had made her feel special. He’d had her laughing all week and it had made the conference so much more fun.

  But his rejection wasn’t so hilarious, and she needed to remember that anytime she let her guard slip. This man just wasn’t into her and she needed to protect herself this time.

  “I said, ow, I think I sprained an ankle.” He lifted his leg in the air when she continued to stand there, lost in her memories.

  “I thought it was the other ankle,” she said.

  “Oh, right,” he said, switching legs.

  Game time. Game face. Focus on completing this challenge better than the other teams. “Can you stand?” she asked. If he leaned on her, she could support his weight back to camp. Of course, that would require touching him.

  He glanced at Mike, but the guide shook his head.

  No? What the hell did he mean no? What was she supposed to do—carry him?

  Oh snap.

  Nolan looked equally as nervous, but also a little smug as he said, “Apparently, I can’t stand.”

  Okay, don’t panic. Do not let them see you sweat.

  She crouched on the ground in front of him and glanced over her shoulder. “Give me your hands,” she said, reaching over her shoulders.

  “You’re going to piggyback me?”

  “Well, I can’t exactly toss you over one shoulder, n
ow, can I?”

  “Okay...” He reached forward and took both of her hands in his. Immediately, her flesh tingled at the contact. His were warm and slightly sweaty—the only indication that he might be nervous.

  She was. And not because of the challenge. In seconds, he’d have his arms around her neck and his legs wrapped around her waist. Not exactly the sexiest or manliest of positions, but they’d be body to body. Full contact. Maybe she should switch with him. Let him take over on this one. The mile hike out there had nearly killed her; this wasn’t going to be any easier.

  Mike and Cassie were watching. Waiting. Assessing.

  She wouldn’t wuss out now. She could do this. Mind over matter.

  “Kendra, are we doing this today or...?” Nolan asked.

  Right, time to get moving.

  She linked her arms beneath his thighs and stood, lifting him off the ground and shifting her weight forward so as not to tumble backward. She swayed to the right and took a few quick steps to regain her balance. Damn, only two hundred pounds? She couldn’t remember him feeling this heavy when he was lying on top of her.

  Nope, not going to think about that now.

  “You sure you got this?” he asked.

  “Yes,” she grunted. Unfortunately, his arms around her neck, his hands falling in front of her chest were throwing her off a lot more than she’d expected. Those hands had explored every inch of her body...over and over and over. Strong and confident. Pleasuring her and leaving her wanting more...

  “We can switch.”

  “I said, I got this.” As long as she didn’t think about how sexy his hamstring muscles felt beneath her hands or think about how his chest and abs were pressed against her back.

  Sweat instantly pooled on her forehead and she wished for a third arm to wipe it away.

  Damn, this was a lot harder than she’d expected.

 

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