Alaskan Adventure (Destination: Desire) (7 page)

Oliver came up after the meeting, offering a cup of coffee. “Long night?”

“About the same number of hours as always,” Gabe answered evenly, but he accepted the liquid ambrosia anyway. He was most definitely going to need it.

Everyone else filed out of the room, getting back to work, but Gabe wasn’t on duty until the bird watching trip that afternoon, so he propped his feet on the empty seat in front of him.

Oliver turned a chair around and mounted it. He grunted, “Lucky bastard. You hooked up with the hot redhead.”

“I’m not telling you anything,” Gabe returned mildly, though if he were honest, he’d admit he felt like a lucky bastard.

Sure, he’d been a bit disappointed that Anne judged his career choices with the same harshness he’d gotten from former coworkers. He was surprised by how much it stung. He’d always firmly believed that those who minded didn’t matter and those who mattered didn’t mind. The ache in his chest made that a lie for the first time in five years. He wasn’t certain what to make of it, but since Anne would only be part of his life for another two weeks or so, his unexpected and unwarranted feelings didn’t matter much. It
couldn’t
matter much, could it?

So, he was just going to relax and enjoy this for as long as he could. Anne was as amazing in bed as she was out of it. She was fun, uninhibited, and he’d done his level best to match her every second of the night. This was about having a good time, and he’d made sure they both had a damn good time.

Lucky bastard, indeed.

“You suck.” Oliver shook his head. “You got the only gorgeous, single woman on this cruise.”

Gabe made a scornful noise. “It’s not like you were making any moves toward her.”

“Only because you scooped her up the second she stepped on board.” The captain stabbed his finger at Gabe’s chest, though his gaze shone with wry humor.

“I can’t help if my parents dragged her over and introduced her.”

“Your mommy had to fix you up.” Oliver tsked. “That’s shameful.”

Gabe shook his head, giving his friend a pitying look. “Your jealousy is so sad to see.”

“Fuck you, man.” But Oliver couldn’t keep up the pretense and laughed.

“Thanks, I don’t swing that way, but your offer is touching.” Rising, Gabe slapped his buddy’s shoulder while Oliver tried to duck out of the way. Gabe grinned. “Speaking of my parents, I need to meet them in a few minutes.”

“If they find another hot chick, have them send her my way.”

“I’ll be sure to pass the request along.” Gabe set his empty cup on a tray for the housekeeping staff to pick up.

“Later.” Oliver scratched a thumb over his bearded cheek and yawned.

That just set Gabe off and he yawned so hugely his jaw popped. He shook his head, left, and loped up the stairs to the forward deck. His father was playing ping-pong against Anne while his mother and Bridget served as sarcasm-infused cheerleaders.

Gabe dropped a kiss on Mom’s cheek, patted Bridget’s shoulder and flopped onto a free lounger. “Who’s winning?”

“Your father, but Anne’s not really on her game this morning.” Mom tapped her chin.

Bridget added casually, “Maybe she didn’t sleep well. That’ll throw a girl off her stride.”

Yeah, as if he was stupid enough to comment on that one. Bridget’s look was just a little too knowing for his comfort. Then again, so was his mom’s.
Awkward.
He went with a neutral, “Mmm.”

Both women gave him the kind of sideways glance that only mothers could pull off to make their children squirm.
Oooookay
. Time to extract himself from this weirdness. He hopped out of his chair. “Hey, Dad. Take a break and let me give her some real competition.”

His dad huffed. “Competition?
I’m
winning, I’ll have you know.”

“By
one
game! And it was because the boat rocked too hard during the first set.” Anne protested from her side of the table. “I want a rematch.”

Dad swung his paddle in an arc. “Didn’t mess with my balance, did it? Just admit I’m better.”

“Never!” Anne hollered, laughter in her voice.

“A remat—”

“Save me from Mom. She’s asking questions,” Gabe whispered.

Looking between Gabe, Anne and Peggy, Vince arched his eyebrows. “You know it’s a temporary reprieve only. Your mother is a rabid pitbull with lockjaw when she sets her mind to something.”

“And we love her for it.” Gabe sighed.

Vince blinked. “Do we?”

“Dad.”

“Kidding!” His father grinned.

“Give me that.” Gabe jerked the ping-pong paddle from his father’s hand. “Go sit in time out and think about how much you adore your wife.”

“I love her so much I’ll rev her up and turn her loose on you at lunch. You’ll never survive.” His father smirked and went over to join Bridget and Peggy.

But Gabe ignored him because he was facing Anne for the first time since he’d left her bed that morning. She did look a little drawn and tired, slight circles under her golden eyes. She offered him a challenging smile. “You’re going down, Warren.”

He couldn’t help it. His gaze dropped to her waist and would have gone lower if his view weren’t blocked by the table. He’d certainly gone down the day before. And she’d liked it.

Catching his less than subtle change in focus, she laughed softly. “Pervert.”

“Proudly, yes.” He stroked his clean-shaven jaw. “No red marks today?”

“Nope.” She glanced over to see if their audience was watching them. Apparently not, thank God.

“Excellent.”

She swung her paddle experimentally. “You know what this thing might be good for? I never did get a chance last night.”

“I had protection with me.” Like her, he wasn’t necessarily interested in the
Fifty Shades
stuff, but if she changed her mind, he couldn’t say he wouldn’t be willing to give it a try.

“Such a good boy,” she purred.

“If what you told me last night means anything, I’m a very good boy.”

“Hours ago.” She flicked dismissive fingers. “It’s so hard to remember.”

“I’d be happy to remind you, if you’d like.” He twirled his paddle between his fingers. “Best three out of four? No rematches. Winner gets to be on top tonight.”

He smiled at her and she smiled back. He had no idea which of them had the more wicked expression, but he doubted anyone looking thought this was an innocent exchange. She hefted the ping-pong ball and swatted it at him.

Let the games begin.

Chapter Six

Frigid wind kissed Anne’s cheeks as she faced a massive wall of ice that reached the height of a four-story building. Excitement pumped through her veins, fizzing like champagne. This was one of the reasons she’d picked this cruise company, because halfway through the trip, they offered an ice-climbing expedition. And here she was. A waterfall had frozen in place, tumbling over the side of a cliff in a beautiful white-blue curtain. And she was going to climb it and look down from the top of that mountain for a view that would, without a doubt, be utterly breathtaking.

She couldn’t wait.

They’d scale the icy falls, hike for a few hours across the plateau at the top and then rappel down the far side, meeting up with the ship at the end of the day.

It was going to be
epic
. Anne was ready to break into song and dance, she was so thrilled. This was the kind of thing she lived for.

Remembering what Meg had said made her smile dim a little. Yes, she loved her adventures. It
didn’t
mean she wanted to give up her job and security to do this full-time. There was no future in this lifestyle. What happened when she turned fifty or sixty or seventy? Health failed eventually. This wasn’t the kind of thing one did forever. Only someone as impractical as her mom would think so. In fact, Dinah’s make up consulting was far more reasonable as a job than an outdoor guide.

There was a depressing thought.

“Hey, Anne. Is this right?” Bridget’s oldest son walked up, fiddling with his harness.

Gabe stood at the bottom of the ice, working with their other guide, who was climbing to the top to set the belay anchor for the rest of them.

“You have this buckle wrong.” She adjusted the offending clasp for the kid, and then checked him over to make sure everything else was secured correctly. Several of the other less experienced climbers came over to ask her for help, including an older teen girl that Bridget’s boy was drooling over.

The two wandered off talking, though the girl didn’t seem to notice the boy was hanging on her every word.

Gabe joined Anne, bumping her shoulder with his. “Nice work. Thanks for the assist.”

“Of course. I’m happy to lend a hand.” It honestly hadn’t occurred to her
not
to help. She was a teacher and she had many climbing hours under her belt—combine those two and she was unlikely to keep her opinion to herself. Luckily, everyone seemed to appreciate her pitching in.

Tilting his head back, Gabe squinted at the cliff. “Should be heading up in a minute.”

“How fast do you think you can climb it?”

He chuckled. “Sorry, I can’t indulge your competitive side. I have to pull the ice screws on my way up so we don’t leave junk behind.”

“Ah, you’re so smart and environmentally friendly, Camper Guru.” She batted her lashes at him. He growled at her use of the nickname, and she knew if they were alone, he’d probably try to swat her backside. “What? Intelligence is one of your finest features, Guru. That, and your ass.”

He smirked, turning to pull up the back of his jacket. As thick as his pants were, they still managed to cup his ass like a lover. “It
is
nice, isn’t it?”

“Very.” If she kept staring, she was going to start drooling worse than Bridget’s kid.

“Gabe, can you look at this? Pretty please?” The teenage girl turned on her coy flirtatiousness, and her young male admirer shuffled off. Gabe put on a good-natured smile and went to see what she needed.

From the side pocket on her coat, Anne felt her phone buzz. It took her a minute to yank her glove off so she could retrieve the thing and tap the screen to view the text. It was Julie.
How come we haven’t heard any more about this Gabe guy?? Meg said he rocked out with his cock out, but you’ve mentioned nothing in your emails. You’re killing us here.

Reception had been spotty at best on this cruise. Not surprising considering there wasn’t a real city for hundreds of miles. It figured that she’d get a perfect signal
now
, when she least wanted to answer questions. She tapped in a quick reply.
I’m about to climb up a mountainside and a frozen waterfall. Turning off the phone. Love you!

A mere split second later, Julie replied,
Wait!
Is Gabe there too?

Anne could turn off the phone and pretend she didn’t get the message until later, but that wouldn’t stop the harassment. It would just delay it. She sighed and answered.
Yes, why?

Julie came back with,
I want a pic of the waterfall and Gabe! Prove he’s the man candy you told Meg about.

Snorting, Anne rolled her eyes and whipped out another text.
No, I am not letting you long-distance ogle.

Her friend delivered a parting shot.
Oh, please. You’d NEVER let us get away with this kind of info withholding
.

True, Anne would have insisted on all the particulars. What if her friends were tangling up with dickheads? Maybe it was because she was the oldest child, but she couldn’t turn off her protective instincts. If she cared about someone, she was all up in their life and business. She couldn’t help it. But she also recognized that not telling her friends anything was making them worry about her. If nothing was wrong, why was she being so secretive? That was the question she’d be asking in their place.

Honestly, she didn’t know why she was being secretive. Maybe because she hadn’t had anything this good is so long, she was scared if she shared it, it might disappear. Every day had brought Gabe and her a little closer. They had so many interests in common, they made each other laugh, and he could keep up with her sarcasm and not be offended when she zinged him, unlike several other men she’d dated.

But they weren’t dating, were they? It was just an affair.

Maybe that was the real reason for the secretiveness—she was getting in over her head emotionally, and she was scared her friends might figure it out and caution her. She knew she needed to guard her heart better, but…damn it, she wanted to feel this
good
and not worry or need to be strong or responsible or have the whole world resting on her shoulders. Even if it was just for a little while. She wanted to be totally free, and that was how she felt with Gabe. Uninhibited.
Happy
.

Gabe came over, having extracted himself from the girl’s clutches. “What’s going on?”

She shrugged. “A harassing text message from one of my best friends.”

“Julie, Karen or Megan?” he asked.

Wow, he’d really been listening when she made off-hand comments about her friends. She hadn’t gone into much detail about them. She wasn’t sure how she felt about his attentiveness. Good, but bad because it felt good. Now that wasn’t fucked up, was it? “Um. It’s Meg, not Megan.”

“Got it.” He lifted his eyebrows. “So Meg texted?”

“No, it was Julie.”

“Okay.” He grinned. “What’s she harassing you about?”

To lie or not to lie? “Uh…you.”

“Me?” His brows rose higher.

“I’ve mentioned you to them. Very briefly.” Her lips twisted in a grin-grimace. “I said you were hot man candy. They want pictorial evidence.”

“Really?” His eyes began to twinkle with evil delight.

“Plus a photo of the waterfall. I think that second request is all they’re getting though.” She flipped over to the camera feature on her cell and aimed it at the frozen water that seemed to be trapped mid-flow down the mountainside.

Gabe stepped into her shot. “Why don’t you give them a two-for-one?”

She blinked. “You don’t mind?”

“This wouldn’t be my first man candy shot,” he said drily.

Jealousy flashed through her, forking like vicious lightning in her chest. Lots of other women had done this, shagged Gabe on a cruise, and taken pictures home to prove they’d really managed to lay someone that hot. Which was fine, naturally. She had no problem with that. He wasn’t the first man she’d ever slept with, and he wouldn’t be the last. The reverse was also true. There was no reason to be upset when he mentioned she was just one in a long line of conquests.

He stared at her, then broke into a roguish smile. “Of course, most of the women taking the sexy guide photos are old ladies and soccer moms, but who am I to deny them? At least you didn’t make up some lame excuse for why you need a picture of me for your album.”

“Brutal honesty, that’s me.”

“One of my favorite parts about you.” He glanced around quickly. No one was near them. He whispered, “That, and your ass.”

A chuckle bubbled out of her. Man, he was fun. She liked that he was rarely uptight about anything. Neither was she, except when it came to her mother. And, apparently, when thinking about Gabe boinking other women. She slammed the door on that thought as quickly as possible. Nope. Not going there. Not, not,
not
.

She blew out a breath, took a couple of steps back to get a wider view on the photo, and snapped several angles. She tapped the screen to look at the images. Beautiful. Nothing could really capture the splendor of the surroundings—or of Gabe’s sexiness—but the pictures were gorgeous anyway.

His arm came around her waist, a familiar weight after a more than a week of sexing it up. Unusual though, because he never got too touchy-feely while he was working. “How about a close up of us? Want me to take it? I have a longer arm.”

“Sure.” She handed over her phone.

“Ready?” He held it overhead, resting his cheek against her ear. “Say
man candy.”

She couldn’t help a laugh, and sang out, “Man candy!”

Bridget’s kid turned from where he was taking selfies with everything from rocks and moss to ice columns trailing from the waterfall.
“What
are you guys doing?”

“I’m enjoying my vacation, kid.” She winked and slipped away from Gabe. “Time to climb. Ready?”

“Heck, yeah.” He grinned with shameless glee. “This is the first time I’ve escaped my brothers since I got here.”

“Younger siblings.” She shook her head sadly. “Of course, Gabe here
is
the younger brother.”

A sage look molded the teen’s features. “That explains so much.”

Gabe’s dimples flashed, but he managed to keep a straight face. He brushed the front of his coat off, exuding all kinds of wounded dignity. “I’m going to help people who actually appreciate me. You two are beyond help.”

Anne tapped a few buttons and sent the pictures of Gabe to all three of her friends. They’d share and discuss no matter what, so she might as well get it over with. She wasn’t sure she wanted their critique of the photos. Gabe
was
man candy, but that wasn’t all he was. He was smart, funny, and…nice. But if she said things like that to her friends, they’d assume there was more than an affair going on. That was something she would have no idea how to answer. There couldn’t be more than hot sex, no matter how much she
liked
him, but tell that to her tangling, jangling emotions.

She switched off her phone and stuffed it into her jacket. No more thinking about that. She had ice climbing to do.

Gabe ran through all the procedures for how to use the tools and gear for the climb, emphasizing safety features, letting everyone practice going up a few feet while he corrected their technique. Everyone here had to have
some
experience, though several had never tried ice before. Anne had taken an ice climbing skills course several years before and had done mixed mountain and ice climbing in the Sierra Nevadas. This was her third waterfall, and even then she wasn’t the most skilled with ice. There was a young, über-blond couple from Denmark who’d scaled all kinds of heights, frozen and otherwise. They gravitated to her and started chatting while others practiced. Nice kids, excellent with English, thankfully, because Anne’s foreign language abilities were zilch.

With Gabe set to go last, everyone gave her sidelong glances until she volunteered to go first. Even the Danes gazed at her expectantly.
Okay, then.
This was what she got for exuding confidence and authoritativeness. She strapped on the bindings of her crampons, which added metal spikes to her boots, and stepped up to the frozen falls. Then she hooked her harness into the rope the first guide had left behind, and slipped the loops at the end of each ice tool—a small device resembling a pickaxe—around her wrists. Then she reached up and drove the tip of one tool into the ice. Lifting a foot, she stuck in the end of a metal spike. A quick boost and she was balancing on the frigid waterfall.

She fell into a smooth rhythm—right hand swinging her ice tool, left foot spiking into the frozen water, heaving her weight up, then left hand, then right foot. Her muscles ached from the strain of pulling herself upward, her breath puffed in little clouds, and it was times like this when she felt completely at peace. Her mind and body were in tune, focused on a single goal. All the bullshit in the world melted away. There was no family drama to deal with, no sibling squabbles to break up, no work politics, no outside pressure of any kind. It was just her and nature and nothing else.

The winds whipped at the bits of her hair that stuck out from under her helmet. She got about two-thirds of the way up the waterfall, swiveled at the waist, and took a good look around. The Danes were just beneath her and gaining fast, but she ignored that for a moment to just absorb it all. On the right, deep green forest and craggy rock formations spread below her; on the left, the dark blue water of Alaska’s Inner Passages. Small, pale icebergs floated in the water.

It was magnificent.

Utter bliss infused her, and a huge smile curved her lips. Adrenaline and joy buzzed in her veins. The feeling was indescribable. Honestly, this was better than some of the sex she’d had. Not sex with Gabe, of course. That was in a category unto itself.

She smothered a giggle. Wilderness and great sex. What more could a girl ask for?

This was, without a doubt, the
best
vacation of all time.

Dinner with his parents was a riot. After the ship had left his group on shore, it had continued on to the far side of the plateau they’d hiked, where another group had taken an easier intertidal shore walk. His parents had opted for the low-key walk. Apparently, his mother had decided to sit and rest on a boulder, only to find out it was just a particularly dirty little glacier. So she’d had to finish the trip looking like she’d had an explosive case of diarrhea. Being his mother—hey, he’d inherited his brazenness from somewhere—she’d brought the offending pants with her to show Anne and him. The way she told the story, with such offended dignity, just made it even funnier. By the end Anne had tears rolling down her face, and Gabe’s ribs ached and he could barely breathe.