Northern Rebel: Daring in the Dark Read online

“I don’t know how to explain it to you.”

  And it was there in his eyes—not just lust, but something that said that she stood out from other women. His words and his look acknowledged her uniqueness. She felt a warmth inside her she wasn’t sure she’d ever felt before.

  “I didn’t lead him on. I didn’t flirt with him. I never thought of him that way. He was married, and married is married in my book.”

  “And that might’ve been just the problem—you didn’t see him that way. That sucks. I can see why Good Riddance appealed to you. I also understand now why you just wanted to be left alone.”

  She could’ve kissed him for his attitude, his understanding. Actually, she could also kiss him simply because she liked kissing him and because she wanted to. In fact, she thought she’d do just that.

  He opened his mouth to speak and she cut him off. The man could definitely talk. “Come here, Marine.”

  “I’m right here, Blondie.” He was a devilish tease.

  “Scared?” she said.

  “Why would I be afraid of an itty-bitty little thing like you?”

  “You tell me. All I know is I invited you to kiss me and you’re still over there and I’m over here.”

  He leaned in closer and inhaled her scent, his breath warm. The energy of his skin mingled against hers, although they didn’t touch. She felt drunk from his nearness, the smell of him. He murmured into her ear, “I didn’t realize that was the mission.”

  She felt like a temptress. “Are you up to the assignment?” she whispered, brushing her cheek against the faint beard shadowing his jaw. A tremor ran through her at the slight, yet intimate contact.

  “There’s only one way to find out. First order of any mission is intel and recon.” He nuzzled along her neck and jaw, a leisurely exploration that left her breathless and hungry for more.

  His mouth found hers but instead of the kiss she so eagerly anticipated, he continued his reconnaissance. He focused on her lower lip. Nipping, licking, sucking, sending her spiraling into a vortex of desire. His mouth was warm, his stubble a delicious abrasion. He was driving her mad. She tried to lure him into an actual kiss. He chuckled against her as he evaded her. It was sensual play rather than rejection. “I’m leading this mission, Blondie.”

  He lazily traced the line of her upper lip with the tip of his tongue and she shuddered. She wrapped her hands around his biceps, holding on, feeling the play and bunching of muscle beneath her palms and fingers.

  “Okay, Marine. You’re in charge.”

  His lazy, sensual, arrogant laugh reverberated against her mouth. “There can only be one squad leader.”

  That wouldn’t work for her long-term, but long-term wasn’t what this was about. All that mattered was here and now.

  “All right, already. Just shut up and kiss me.” She slid her hand up to cup his neck.

  He splayed his fingers against her scalp. “Gross insubordination,” he said, even as his mouth finally captured hers.

  It was as if her senses had been starved for this...for him. The firm command of his lips on hers, the demand, the taking. Sweet and hot, his tongue delved into the recesses of her mouth and she welcomed him.

  Satisfaction coursed through her, catching her breath up in her pounding heartbeat.

  They broke apart and he leaned his forehead against hers. The seconds dragged out as they remained, forehead to forehead, their ragged breathing the only sound as heat swirled around them. Delphi kept her eyes closed, savoring the moment.

  She opened them when Lars lifted his head. He withdrew his hold on her and paused for a second, as if to caress her cheek, but didn’t.

  “Want to walk down and check out the lake?” he said.

  “Absolutely.”

  The air between them seemed to echo the throb inside her. As wonderful as the kiss had been, it hadn’t been enough, not nearly enough. But there was more to come between them physically, much more.

  That kiss was merely the prelude.

  9

  “YOU HEADING BACK to Atlanta when your stint is up here?” he asked as she shrugged into her light daypack. His was already on his back.

  “It’s nice to reconnect with Skye and this seems like a great place, but yeah. I’ll be heading back to Atlanta in September. I understand myself well enough to know that I won’t be able to take the winters or the isolation.” Packs in place, they set off down the gentle slope leading to the tranquil green-tinted water.

  “I hear you on the winters.”

  She nodded, the waning sun highlighting a smattering of freckles across her nose and the fine hairs along her jaw.

  “But all of that aside, I won’t let my former employer get away with this. I’ll regain my life in Atlanta, which includes a solid career. I’m not going to be run out of town with my tail between my legs. The dust will settle. I’ll have a new reference and I’ll have my life back. He and his wife can kiss my grits.”

  Her Southern drawl became more pronounced on the last bit. It was cute. He admired her spunk. “Atta girl. That’s the spirit.”

  She slanted a sideways glance his way. “Most everyone back in Atlanta said I was crazy.”

  She was bringing out protective instincts in him he didn’t even know he had. Maybe it was her independence, her need to handle her own problems. Or because she’d tapped into his situation and therefore he felt equally tapped into hers. It was more likely good old-fashioned testosterone because Lars was itching to put a beat-down on that jerk of a doctor.

  “Maybe it’s time for you to find a new set of friends.”

  She smiled. “Maybe it is.”

  “So, there’s no boyfriend to kick that doctor’s ass? You didn’t leave a brokenhearted man behind in Atlanta?”

  It shouldn’t matter what she’d left behind. He was out of here at the end of the week. He didn’t want to think too hard about why he needed to know so badly.

  “No. It’s hard to talk about dating when my career was swirling down the toilet. But I left a fish with my sister.”

  A fish? Lars cracked up.

  They’d reached the lake’s edge and stopped. Delphi looked at him as if he’d lost his mind. “What’s so funny about a fish?”

  “It was the lack of transition. I asked about a man—” he was incredibly glad there wasn’t one “—and you told me about a fish.”

  She laughed, her eyes sparkling. “I guess that came a little off the cuff. If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that life isn’t predictable. I certainly never saw myself in this situation.”

  Lars wasn’t sure whether he was just lucky or behind the curve, because he was precisely where he’d planned to be. They began walking along the shoreline, accompanied by the water’s rhythmic lapping. “That’s the same thing Liam said. He was madder than hell at the time, but he swears it’s all worked out for the best. Something about one door closing and another one opening.”

  “Yeah. I’ve heard that, too. It’s kind of hard to swallow, though, when you’re in it. Do things ever take you by surprise?”

  He’d been caught off guard once, but he’d learned quickly. “Not anymore. I can’t afford any surprises in my work. So I’ve learned to be thorough and anticipate every possible angle.”

  “So, what exactly do you do in the Marines? What’s your job?”

  “I’m a demolitions expert. If it’s designed to blow up and hasn’t, I go in and either blow it up or defuse it.”

  “No margin for error there.”

  “Exactly. That’s why I work hard to ensure no unanticipated events.”

  Delphi uttered a sound of delight. “Oh, Lars, look!”

  For a moment he stood transfixed by the look of childlike enchantment on her face. It reflected unguarded, unfettered joy. Hard to believe this was the same woman who’d been so closed off on the plane the day before. “The dragonflies—aren’t they incredible?”

  He dragged his attention away from her. A dozen dragonflies, give or take a few, skimmed the water
and flew in figure eights over the bank. “That’s too cool. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen dragonflies.” They simply hadn’t been part of the world where he’d been.

  “It’s almost like magic,” she said, a breathless note in her voice.

  He almost laughed, and then something about the place, the woman, the moment, struck him as otherworldly. As if she, this, was some kind of magic. He shook his head slightly to clear the notion. He’d obviously needed more of a recharge than he’d realized if he was susceptible to that kind of thinking, even momentarily.

  “Yeah.” Magic didn’t exist, but chemistry was a very real aspect of his world. The chemistry behind explosives. The chemistry between him and Delphi. That was real and tangible. The sexual response arcing between them, drawing them to one another, even now, was real and physical. So, the dragonflies were nice but he wasn’t buying into any magic thinking. “Since this is a magical spot—” the look she shot him said she knew he was indulging her and scoffing a bit but she’d indulge him because she was right “—we can watch the sunset from the shore. Or did you want to go for a swim?” The sun was steadily sinking toward the horizon. It wouldn’t be long before it was dark. “I brought a couple of towels. We can sit on them if you go with option one, or use them to dry off afterwards if you want to check out the water.”

  She wore a slightly dreamy expression, her face bathed in the glow of the last vestiges of the day. And he knew the same way he’d known with Liam that he was seeing a glimpse of the woman she’d been before her trust and career had been wrecked. She’d been a stranger before, because he knew. That knowing rattled him.

  Delphi slid her backpack from her shoulders. “I think the water would be nice. It’s not every day that you can swim in a thermal lake at sunset in the middle of Alaska with dragonflies dancing around you. Let’s go for it.”

  He’d thought they were just flying around doing what a dragonfly did, but okay. She began to undress very matter-of-factly. By the time Lars dropped his backpack and pulled out the towels, Delphi had her shoes and socks off.

  He shouldn’t stare, but he couldn’t seem to look away as she unzipped her jeans. Her bright green panties surprised him, but it was her pale shapely legs that knotted his gut. She stepped out of her pants and pulled her T-shirt up and over her head in one fell swoop. Damn!

  “Voilà,” she said with a bit of a smirk.

  Once again, she’d caught him by surprise. She stood there in a modest one-piece bathing suit. He had been expecting a bra and panties and the little devil knew it.

  That blew his “anticipate and not be caught unaware” mantra all to hell.

  “I thought you didn’t have a bathing suit with you.” Somehow it was disappointing to think that she’d lied to him, even if it was just a trivial matter of clothing.

  “I didn’t.” She flashed a smile his way. “I borrowed one of Skye’s.”

  “Ah.” She was talking about her friend, the town doc. Skye was the redhead married to the pilot. “It’s very conservative.”

  It was the same cut competitive swimmers wore, no plunging necklines or ruffles. And oddly enough, that made it all the more of a turn-on. It didn’t scream look at me, which made him look all the harder. She was compact and not exactly thin but curvy. He fisted his hand by his side, trying to keep from reaching for her. If he touched her now, they’d never make it into the water, and she wanted to experience the lake.

  “It is fairly conservative, but that’s Skye.”

  “What about you? Would this suit be what you had if you’d packed your own?”

  “No. This isn’t anything like my bathing suit at home, but it’s probably not a bad idea to dial myself back.”

  He knew she was talking about her experience with her former employer. For the short period of time he’d known her, he was already positive that none of the blame had been hers. “You have to be true to whoever and whatever you are.”

  “Agreed.” She dipped her toe into the water. “Although sometimes things get so mixed up, you lose sight of just who you are.” She circled her foot into the lake, sending ripples farther out. “Ah, this is nice.”

  A breeze kicked in and she crossed her arms as she waded out, moving tentatively. “I’m thinking there’s a drop-off...yes, here it is.” She began to tread water. She slipped below the surface momentarily and then emerged, her already short hair plastered to her scalp. She turned to him, laughing, exhilaration shining on her face. “Aren’t you coming in? This was your idea, after all.”

  Lars stood, drinking in the sight—her laughing eyes, the smile curving her lips, her sleekness surrounded by water and highlighted by the setting sun. He snapped out of his momentary stupor. “It was my idea, wasn’t it? I guess that means I should go in.”

  He pulled off his T-shirt and Delphi turned her back to him, facing the open expanse of water and the opposite shore. “What are you doing?” he said as he took off his shoes.

  “Giving you some privacy.”

  “I’m coming out in the water with you.” He shucked his jeans.

  “I know, but—”

  “You’re a nurse.” He pulled down his jeans. “Haven’t you seen it all?”

  “But you’re not in a bed—”

  “Why didn’t you say so sooner?” He cut her off, deliberately misconstruing her comment, teasing her, as he joined her in the lake. “That can easily be arranged.”

  They both knew a bed was where they were going to wind up. The way she’d returned his kiss, the look in her eyes...

  She laughed. “I meant a hospital bed. In an exam room.” She splashed him, yet one more time taking him unawares. He hadn’t counted on her playfulness. Her aim was surprisingly good—the water caught him on his lower face and shoulders.

  “You’ll pay for that,” he said, as he wiped away the droplets, joining in her game.

  “You’re going to get wet anyway.”

  “We’ll see how you feel about that in a few seconds.” He advanced on her.

  She backstroked farther out, watching him. “But I’m already wet, so there’s no need for you to do anything.”

  Everything tightened, thickened and quickened inside him at their double entendre exchange. “Oh, but I want to make sure you’re really wet.”

  Her glance challenged him. “I’ve taken care of it.”

  “It’s just not the same. Be ready.”

  “You have to catch me first.” She glided out away from him, toward the center of the lake.

  “No problem. I was a competitive swimmer in high school.”

  She stopped, treading water. “What? Are you serious?”

  It was just the edge he needed. He caught up to her. “Nope. Psych.”

  “That’s not fair.” Despite her protest, her eyes smiled at him.

  “I know.” He caught her and pulled her to him. She put her hands on his shoulders, holding on. Wet skin against wet skin, her curves fit against him, causing his breath to catch.

  “You’re shameless.” She, too, seemed breathless and he knew it was him, them, not the exertion.

  “I like that,” he said. “Shameless goes right along with amoral. Now prepare to get wet.”

  “Look. See. Already wet.” She pointed to her hair slicked against her head, as well as the fact that she was immersed in water up to her shoulders.

  Nonetheless, he tightened his hands on her waist. “Take a deep breath. On three, you’re going under. One...”

  She looked up at him, laughing, daring him to follow through. “You wouldn’t—”

  “Two...”

  “Lars—”

  “Three.” He dunked her. She squealed just as she went down.

  He pulled her back up. She broke the surface spluttering. “You really—”

  “Uh-huh. I told you.”

  She swiped the water away from her eyes. “I thought you were just psyching me again.” She pursed her delectable lips in a pout.

  “You aren’t really mad, are you?”


  She slid her hands to the back of his neck, cupping her palms. “I should be.”

  “But you aren’t, are you?”

  “I’m trying to decide.”

  Good God, but he wanted her. He’d been pathetically happy simply to rest his hands on her waist, to feel the flare of her hips beneath his fingers. How could he not kiss her, here in the lake, at sunset in the middle of Alaska, a place neither of them belonged? “Well, if you’re waffling, I guess I might as well go ahead. It’ll probably tilt the scales, one way or another.”

  She narrowed her eyes at him. She wrapped her legs around his waist, which brought her in even closer proximity. “If you dunk me again, you’re going under, too.”

  He was already under her spell. Maybe the idea of magic wasn’t so far-fetched after all. With one arm wrapped around her, he managed to do a one-armed backstroke until he felt the lake bottom beneath his bare feet. “That wasn’t what I had in mind.”

  As with the dunking, her eyes widened as he lowered his head to hers.

  * * *

  WARM WATER, CRISP AIR, hot kiss.

  She sighed into his mouth and kissed him back. Once again, it was like kissing in a dream, but this was real. It was the most incredible experience, buoyed by the water, floating weightless, the heat of his mouth, the press of his body. Just when she thought it couldn’t get any better, it did. This kiss was like no other.

  His skin was sleek beneath her arms and legs, his chest hard against her breasts. She curled her fingers against his neck, feeling the prickle of his short hair beneath her fingertips. His tongue, like a warm velvet probe, teased against her lips. Hungry for more of him, she opened her mouth. She feasted on his taste and the stroke of his tongue against her own.

  Finally they broke apart, both gasping for air as surely as if they’d been underwater.

  “We missed the sunset,” he said, as he swept his hands down her back to cup her buttocks.

  She didn’t care. For the first time in a long time, she felt free to enjoy her sexuality. For the first time in a long time she wanted a man, this man in particular. “It seems that we did.”

  The column of his throat was strong and tanned. Droplets of water clung to his skin. She leaned in closer and licked the moisture from his neck.