Page 24

24

ALEX

A lex didn’t understand how all of this could feel so right.

Even lying squashed awkwardly in a tiny twin bed with Orson after another round of wall-pounding sex didn’t seem wrong. She slept deeply tucked tight in his arms and dreamed of bear cubs and meadows full of fireweed and bees. She woke to him stroking her with his fingers and they made quiet, slow love that didn’t wake the neighbors as the midnight sun streamed around curtains that were supposed to be light-blocking.

The second time they woke, they peeled apart reluctantly and packed to leave before the hotel could kick them out. They ate energy bars and made love one last time instead of having breakfast out.

Orson paused at the desk as they were checking out and put his nose in the air. He looked suspiciously after someone leaving hastily, pulling the hood of a sweatshirt that seemed too heavy for the warm day up over a ballcap.

“What is it?” Alex asked. The stranger’s behavior was odd, but the further north you went, the weirder people got. Her whole body had a pleasant hum of satisfaction, and she wasn’t on the job, so she was happy to let it slide.

Orson shrugged and looked at the clerk, who seemed to have missed his bloodhound act. “Probably nothing.”

They checked out and went out to the truck. Orson walked around to the driver’s side, and for a moment Alex wondered if he was going to insist on driving. Was it some kind of macho thing where after wild hot sex, he had to be all alpha?

But no, he only opened the door for her like a gentleman. Alex paused to kiss him gratefully, then got in and started the truck. Orson paused to sniff the air again with a furrow to his brow, then climbed into the passenger seat and turned on the music.

The road north was so noisy with gravel that it was driving and conversation, or driving and music, but not both.

They stopped at the last tree north and Orson snapped a photo of Alex with the standing dead spruce. “This is only the last tree until we’re down over the pass, right?”

Alex shook her head. “Nope, this is the very last tree from here to the coast. The climate is too brutal past the mountains for them to live. There are some scrubby alder and willows, but nothing more from here to the north pole.”

“The real north pole, not that Christmas city monstrosity?”

“Don’t cast shade on our kooky, festive community,” Alex warned him, punching him in the arm. “C’mon, it’s starting to rain and the pass can get sloppy if it’s wet. I don’t want to have to rush.”

Alaska wasn’t always blue sunny skies, but Alex thought it had a certain crazy beauty, even when it was socked in with low clouds and faded with light rain. At this time of year, the slopes were blanketed in rich green and fingers of white snow still lingered on the peaks. Orson stared as they drove higher and higher into the mountains and whistled at the avalanche warning signs. “That’s not a danger now, is it?” he said.

“Not so much,” Alex said shortly, concentrating on the road.

She wasn’t entirely happy with how the truck was handling, though she couldn’t put her finger on what was wrong. She considered getting out and checking it over, just for peace of mind, but they’d gotten a late start, and the rain was getting heavier. It was comfortable in the dry cab with Orson, lulled by the afterglow of their long night of hot sex.

She turned the windshield speed up a notch to improve visibility and turned off the music. “We haven’t talked about what happens next. Do we tell people at the office?”

“Oh!” Orson said with all the excitement of a kid finding a prize in a cereal box. “What if I do a big showy proposal in the middle of our first staff meeting? I’ll get a ring, go down on one knee…”

“I’m glad you suggested that now so I could tell you hell no ,” Alex said honestly. “That is not the kind of spectacle I appreciate. Business meetings are for business, not romance.”

Orson pouted.

Alex took pity on him. “I’d rather just show up with a ring.”

He brightened. “Let them draw their own conclusions? Do I get to kiss you at work?”

“I’m not a public displays of affection sort of person,” she confessed.

“Can I kiss you in your office with the door closed?” Orson countered.

“I share an office with the surveillance department now,” Alex reminded him.

“Oh, you are definitely getting your office back. I don’t need an office. I’ll stay home with the kids.”

“We didn’t decide for sure on kids,” she cautioned. “And this assumes I marry you at all.”

“Will you?” Orson begged. “Kids optional, will you marry me? I love you, Alex Vex.”

Alex felt cheated having this conversation while she had to concentrate on the road. It was getting narrow and windy. They had just crossed the crest of the pass and were starting downhill, a view of the north slope starting to open up between the mountains. The road was wet now, with little rivers of silty water between the gravel.

Just as Orson said, “Not to be a backseat driver, but should you be going this fast?” a warning light appeared on the dashboard.

The brake pedal, which had been increasingly spongy since Coldfoot, went straight to the floor without slowing them.

“Shit.” Alex wished she’d absorbed a better swearing vocabulary from some of her more colorful employees, because it felt rather weak as she turned into another curve, entirely too fast. A semi barreled up the road toward them, narrowing the road to a single lane. She struggled to keep the truck in their allotted space as it passed, spitting gravel and honking.

Pumping the brakes did nothing, and Alex felt her heart pounding in her throat. It was all downhill from here, with hairpin turns. On one side was a ditch that would roll the truck at this speed. On the other side was an insufficient-looking guard rail and a steep drop into a ravine. Could she scrape the truck along the guard rail to slow them? If it failed, that was the deadly side of the road. Should she try the emergency brake? Could she control the truck if she did? They were going so fast now that any crash was liable to be deadly. Turning off the truck would only kill the power steering and any control she still had, as well as the visibility that the windshield wipers provided. She downshifted, and the engine screamed, but the truck didn’t noticeably slow.

“Dammit, dammit, dammit!” Alex needed more time to consider her options and didn’t have any. The brake pedal continued to do nothing, no matter how she pumped it. There was no safe place to steer them off, nowhere to go, and another semi was starting up the bottom of the hill toward them. Alex wasn’t convinced she could keep them in their own lane as they gained more speed, and a head-on crash would be deadly.

There was one thing she had to do as she fought the steering wheel and the slippery gravel. “Orson, I love you. If we get out of this, I’ll marry you.” Alex wasn’t going to die without him knowing that.

“I love you, Alex,” he said promptly. “Do you trust me?”

That earned him a swift glance. “Yes.” Alex had never trusted anyone like this in her life, but she wasn’t sure why he’d ask that now.

To her astonishment, he unbuckled his seatbelt and then hers.

“Steer for the ditch,” he advised. Then he was reaching over her to open the door as he shifted into a massive bear that filled the truck’s cab. He wrapped her into a fur burrito and leaped out into the rain, dragging her with him.

Alex gave the steering wheel one final yank and let go, letting him enfold her in powerful arms.

She had to trust him.

And she did.