Under Alaskan Skies by Grace Carol Read Free Book Online Page A

it was knowing she didn’t have to put up a front for him. After all, she’d never see him again after tomorrow or the day after at the most.
    She looped her arms around his neck and pressed her wet cheek against his shoulder. He was so warm, so big, so solid. He smelled like the rain and the wind and the shampoo in her bathroom and a deep, dark, masculine smell that was all his. Her tears dried but she didn’t let go. Neither did he.
    He cupped her face in his hands and looked deep into her eyes. “I’ve never known anyone like you.”His voice dropped to a hoarse whisper. “Never seen anyone as beautiful.”
    Now was the time to be tough. She knew that. Now was the time to say thanks but no thanks, to smile and let go. Go make coffee. Go roll out the dough for the cinnamon buns. Anything but stand there and wait for him to kiss her. Because she knew he was going to. She could see it in his eyes. Hear it in his voice. Feel the vibrations in the air.
    But when it came, she wasn’t prepared. She wasn’t prepared for his mouth to take possession of hers, for the passion behind it, or for the way she reacted. As if she’d never been kissed before. She hadn’t. Not like that. His mouth was hard and hungry. As if making up for years of abstinence. As if he’d been waiting for her all his life.
    She kissed him back. Softly at first then harder and faster as if she didn’t have enough time. Deep down somewhere in the back of her mind she knew she was going to regret this. Maybe not tonight. Maybe not tomorrow. But soon and for a long time. Her knees were so weak she was afraid she would fall if he didn’t hold her.
    He pulled back just slightly. She was afraid he’d leave her there, deprived of his heat, his hard body against hers. But he didn’t. He trailed hot kisses from her lips to her ear and back. She moaned, and he invaded her mouth with his tongue. She met him thrust for thrust and she still wanted more. She wanted all of him.
    His hands slid under her sweater. Impatient, she struggled to take it off. She wanted nothing between them. Nothing.

    That was when she heard the knock on the door. Dimly, as if it belonged to another house, another time. She wished it did. But it was her house and it was now.
    She didn’t know how she got to the door to open it, but she must have, because Stan, a local logger who’d had a crush on her for years was standing there, smiling shyly.
    “Sorry to bother you, Carrie. But I heard you had a doctor here.” His curious gaze traveled over her wrinkled sweater and her flushed cheeks.
    “Oh…yes.” She ran her hands through her hair. Yanked at the hem of her sweater. “Hi, Stan. Come on in. This is…this is… Dr. Baker.”
    Matt looked as if he was not at all surprised to have a patient come knocking on the door in a remote Alaskan village. He didn’t seem to realize that his hair was a mess and the shirt he was wearing was tearstained. He was also breathing hard.
    “Didn’t mean to interrupt anything,” Stan said, his eyes moving from Carrie to Matt and back again. “But I’ve been having this problem with my eye.”
    “Uh… Stan, Matt, Dr. Baker I mean, is just here on vacation… I mean he isn’t…”
    “Come on in. Let’s have a look at it,” Matt said, overriding her, just as if he was the resident physician, on call and ready for patients. Although it was past nine o’clock and this was strictly above and beyond the call of duty.
    While she watched, Matt took charge. Leading Stan to the desk in the corner, he examined his eye under the gooseneck lamp. Then he asked Carrie to get the bag he’d brought from the ship. He asked Stan howlong his eye had been swollen and red, told him he had a case of conjunctivitis and after digging through the bag, he found the appropriate eye drops the ship’s doctor had provided just in case he needed them. He gave them to Stan with instructions to use them twice a day along with some antibiotic pills.
    “You ought to