Noah’s Reckoning: Alaska Dating Games Book 3 Read online

  I sighed. “Fine.”

  “Good.”

  “I wasn’t trying to be unreasonable, I just thought we would be fine in separate beds.”

  “Let’s be very clear about this. We’re not in a bed together. We’re surviving in a sleeping bag. That’s all we’re doing.”

  Yep. That’s all we were doing. Surviving in a sleeping bag. Definitely NOT sleeping together.

  “Maybe we should sleep end to end.”

  “You liked my feet that much, did you?” he taunted me.

  “Hey, I was trying to help you out back there. Your feet were really cold.”

  “They were, and you did help. It was really selfless of you to give up your body to me that way.”

  Ugh. Give up my body to him. Why was it that when he said anything like that, my head went to dark and dirty places?

  I sat on the sleeping bag he’d unzipped fully. I had removed my boots and my coat to use as a pillow. He’d done the same. He laid down next to me and pulled the blanket over us. Then he pulled me closer against his chest.

  I stiffened.

  “Shared body heat, Olivia. That’s it.”

  I knew that. Logically, I did. I didn’t have to be a native-born Alaskan to know we needed to conserve our energy and maintain our body temperatures. But feeling him surround me like he was struck too close to one or two fantasies I might have had when my deep level of denials regarding Noah failed me.

  “We’re going to be okay, Olivia.”

  He thought I was still tense because of the circumstances. Not that I was trying not to enjoy being in his arms. That was good. I could only imagine how mortifying it would be for both us if he ever thought I’d entertained any sexual thoughts about him.

  “I’m not scared,” I told him.

  Which was odd because I wasn’t. We had food. We had water. We had shelter. Once Cal realized we never made it to the mainland from the rig, he would know there were only a limited number of places where we could be. This network of islands between the rig and the coast being one of them.

  “Good. Then relax and go to sleep.”

  That probably wasn’t going to happen. I closed my eyes and tried not think about how I felt. My nose was cold, but the rest of my body was pretty cozy. Noah’s body heat felt more like a furnace.

  I wondered if this was what Jenny experienced when she got to spend nights with Noah. Because that had to have happened already, right? After a month of dating. Noah didn’t strike me as a man who would be patient about waiting for sex.

  No, he was more of a slam-her-up-against-the-wall-and-press-his-whole-body-into-her kind of guy, so she would know he wanted her and how badly.

  Not that I’d ever let myself have that fantasy, either.

  Silly as it was, I felt a little guilty enjoying this so much. I knew he was only doing it to keep me and himself warm, but still, Jenny would be hurt to know how much I liked the sound of his breathing. The strength of his arms closed around me. His smell, which now was a little woodsy.

  Only Jenny wasn’t here tonight and there was no situation that was going to change that. In the end, I was able to relax and drift off to sleep.

  My last thought was wondering how many nights I would be able to steal this from Jenny.

  Did that make me a bad person?

  * * *

  Ark

  Fuck me, I was hard. I still hadn’t woken up enough to process where I was, but shit, I knew I wasn’t alone. I could inhale the scent of a woman.

  No, not a woman.

  The woman.

  With long, dark, thick hair I could run my fingers through. And a sweetheart ass I could grind my hard cock against. Damn, that felt good. So I did it again. I pushed against her harder and harder.

  I wanted to be inside her. I wanted to turn her over so I could see those killer blue eyes getting all dark and smoldering any time I elicited a response from her. Anger, desire. Sometimes it was hard to tell between the two.

  I nuzzled her neck. Took in that essence of the floral shampoo she used.

  I reached around her body to cup her full, luscious breast. There was too much clothing between us. Why hadn’t I gotten her naked first? Because I told myself, if I ever had the chance to get Olivia naked, I would take it. Damn the consequences.

  Not that she would want to have anything to do with me that way. She hated my guts.

  Wait. Why was she in bed with me if she hated my guts?

  “Noah?”

  God! The way she said my name. In that rough, throaty voice. I wanted to hear her say my name like that when I was making her come. Not that she would ever let me do that, either, because again…gut hater.

  “Noah!”

  Shit! I blinked my eyes open as it all came back to me. Olivia wasn’t with me. We had to sleep together because we were stuck in a cabin in the middle of a storm. Immediately, I moved my hips and my large boner as far away from her ass as I could.

  Then, of course, I had to release her breast.

  “Uh, sorry. Forgot where I was.” So fucking lame.

  “You mean you were thinking about Jenny?”

  “Jenny? No.” How the hell could I think about Jenny when all I ever thought about was Olivia? And why had she sounded so betrayed when she asked me that question?

  I sat up. “Don’t make it a thing. I’m a man. I woke up with a woman. Shit happens.”

  “You really weren’t thinking about her?”

  I glanced at her. Fuck, she was beautiful. Her hair was spread out around her head. Her eyes were that deep blue color they got. Her cheeks were pink, probably from being out on the water during the storm, but the rest of her skin was like porcelain. And those lips. Fuck me, what I wanted to do to those lips.

  “No. I told you. We’re not serious.”

  “How not serious?” she pressed.

  I sighed. It really was pointless to lie about it. “Not serious in that we’re not sleeping together. Okay?”

  I got up fully and made my way to the door, grabbing my coat along the way. I snagged my boots from in front of the fire place and shoved my feet into them without bothering to lace up.

  I needed to get out of this cabin now. I needed to not see her waking up after spending a night in my arms. I needed to lose my erection.

  “I’ll be back.”

  As soon as I opened the door, I realized we had bigger problem than me waking up horny.

  At least three feet of snow had fallen during the night and the storm was still raging.

  No one would come looking for us today. Which meant I was going to have to spend another night with Olivia in my arms.

  “Fuck,” I groaned, my head dropping.

  I stomped out into the cold a few feet away from the cabin. I needed to piss but I was still furiously hard. I contemplated jacking off, but fuck, it was cold for that. Ultimately once I took my dick out of my jeans, the cold did its thing. Done pissing, I zipped and thought about our food situation.

  We could ration the cans of soup, but the smart thing would be to prepare for the long haul.

  My guess is that the food cabinet would have what I needed. If not, we would need to find the key for the other cabinet.

  “How is it?” Olivia asked as soon as I opened the door. “I think I can hear the wind howling.”

  “It dropped about three feet of snow on us last night. And it’s still going. Although it’s hard to tell what’s snow fall versus snow drift.”

  “Three feet! What does that mean?”

  I didn’t flinch from her question. There was no sugar coating this. “It means we’re going to be here for a while.”

  Her eyes went to the locked cabinet. “Maybe there is more food in that one?”

  “We’ll find the key. But don’t worry about the food.” I knelt in front of the unlocked cabinet and opened it. I started poking around in the utensils. I tossed Olivia the deck of cards.

  “I’m pretty sure these aren’t edible, and I don’t know about you, but I’m r
eally attached to food. I guess we could go at least a week or so without it. That soccer team trapped in the caves under water, they survived like nine days—”

  “Olivia,” I said. “We’re not going to starve. I can hunt, set traps, put together a fishing tool. Trust me, we won’t go hungry. The island is small, but it will have enough game to feed us.”

  I checked under the pot and found what I was looking for. A roll of thin-gauge wire that could be used to make a snare, serve as a fishing line. Anything we needed. I pocketed it, shut the lid then started to lace up my boots.

  This time with the intent of hiking.

  “Okay, what can I do?”

  I smiled sarcastically. “I don’t know. What can you do?”

  I could see her mind spinning. “I can boil water,” she said clearly disgusted with herself.

  “Then you do that. I’m going to scout the island. Get a sense of the perimeter and set some traps. We’ll split the first can of soup today. By tomorrow hopefully we have a few catches.”

  “In this weather? It seems unlikely.”

  “Everyone’s got to eat, Olivia.”

  I was about to go when she pulled on my arm. Her teeth were clenched as if she was nervous. “Is it safe? I mean, what if a tree blows over and kills you?”

  “I’ll try to avoid the falling trees.”

  She stomped her foot. “Noah, I’m serious.”

  “Look, I’ll be careful. But we have no choice.”

  A sigh, then she nodded. I thought of the feel of her breast in my hand and tried to fight off the wave of desire. Me outside the cabin was a way healthier choice than me with her inside the cabin. At least for my sanity.

  “Do you think Cal is worried about us?”

  “He won’t like that we’re out of touch. But I’m pretty sure he believes we’re still on the rig.”

  “We should have stayed.”

  “Yeah,” I admitted. At the time I didn’t think we would have a problem getting to shore, but I knew better than to even take the risk. “We should have. I’m sorry.”

  She shook her head. “No, you were right yesterday. It was our decision.”

  I’m pretty sure Cal wasn’t going to see it that way. Especially when I told him my driving reason for trying to make it to the mainland was to avoid the temptation of having Olivia all to myself for a couple nights.

  So much for that plan. At least on the rig we could have had separate beds.

  I pulled a few logs off the wood pile and crouched to see if I could get a few of the embers to stir. I took a smaller piece and watched as it slowly caught fire.

  “When that piece is giving off a pretty big flame, you can throw the larger piece in there as well. That should hold you. An hour, two at the max, depending on how cold it is, and I’ll be back.”

  “I’ll be here. Boiling water,” she said, trying to sound overly cheerful.

  It was strange but right before I left, I had this crazy urge to kiss her. Not as some foreplay to making love, but as this natural thing a man might do when leaving his woman behind to go hunt.

  Which, of course, was crazy. Olivia was probably the last woman on earth I could call mine.

  5

  Olivia

  I glanced at the door, then back to my fingers where they rested against my stomach. My bare stomach because I had lifted my sweater out of the way. I had also undone my jeans and lowered the zipper.

  Because I was a horrible, horrible, filthy person. Here we were in this crisis situation and all I could think about was getting myself off. I had been so wet this morning waking up to feel Noah grinding against me and that feeling of neediness hadn’t really gone away.

  Was it wrong that he was out hunting for our food, which sort of only made me hotter, while I was here thinking about coming? He’d been gone about an hour. Now I was running a risk because of my indecision. If he did come back, he might catch me in the act.

  That would be hysterical.

  Noah: What are you doing?

  Me: Coming?

  Noah: Are you so desperate that a few bump and grinds on your ass made you resort to this?

  Me: Yes?

  This was not good. This was why I’d had absolutely no problem with Noah’s decision to try to make it to the mainland. What if my hormones got the best of me? What if, after a few days with him and a few nights in his arms, he would be the one to wake up to me humping him?

  And why wasn’t he sleeping with Jenny. Maybe Jenny didn’t want him?

  Impossible.

  Maybe he didn’t want Jenny? At least not like that.

  Well, I was going to have plenty of opportunity to find out with us spending all this time together.

  Right now, though, I had to decide. To come or not to come?

  An orgasm would help to take the edge off by the time he got back. I slipped my fingers down my pants then jumped at the sound of the door opening.

  “Fuck, it’s cold outside!” he said as announcement of his return. He was busy kicking snow off his boots, so he hadn’t noticed my scrambling.

  I lowered my sweater over my jeans so he wouldn’t be able to tell they were open.

  Then I stood and turned my back to him so he wouldn’t see how flushed my face was. “I have water,” I said lamely, picking up the kettle I had set next the fire to cool.

  “Good, I’m thirsty. And hungry. Let’s crack open that can of soup.”

  He was peeling out of his coat, with snow falling everywhere. There was a hook on the back of the door and he hung his coat there to dry. His boots he set directly underneath it.

  Orderly. Like any good engineer. And Noah wasn’t just a good engineer. He was the best. A fact he’d reminded me of only yesterday.

  I turned to face him with my semi-epiphany.

  “I think one of the reasons we fight so much is because I hate that you’re better than me. At everything apparently,” I said, waving my arms about. “Engineering, survival, fire making.”

  “Your pants are unbuttoned.”

  Shit, my sweater must have lifted when I raised my arms. I turned my back to him.

  “I must have forgotten to button them from when I had to make a trip outside.” LAME! And I referenced peeing in front of a guy. Awesome.

  “Olivia, I have, what six, seven years of experience on you? You can’t expect to be at my level…yet. And being raised in Alaska is different than being raised in Seattle. Can’t change that, either.”

  “I know that logically,” I said, pointing to my brain. “You have to understand that when you’ve had to swim upstream for as long as I’ve had to, nothing is as satisfying as being on top. I can’t be on top with you and I don’t like it.”

  His head dropped back on his neck as if I’d said something horribly wrong.

  “What?” I asked.

  “I can’t. It’s too easy. Look, Olivia, I don’t know what to tell you other than…I’ve seen your work. I’ve watched your process. And if you think for ten seconds I would have let you have full control over my rigs and my wells if I didn’t think you were up to the task, think again.”

  “Really?”

  “Yes, really. Now, can we get that can of soup going?”

  I nodded. “See, this would be the time where I would have to point out it’s sexist to assume that, as the woman, I naturally should be preparing the soup. However, I do recognize in this case a division of labor can’t be done across equal lines because I don’t have your skill sets. Therefore, me preparing the soup makes perfect and logical sense.”

  “Any day, Olivia,” he said, planting himself in the chair as I retrieved both a can and an opener from the storage cabinet.

  I opened the can, plopped it in the pot and set it over the hook on the fire.

  “Hearty Beef Stew,” I told him.

  “Nice. So what did you do to the kill the time while I was out?”

  I tried not to blush. I’m pretty sure I was blushing. “Nothing, absolutely nothing,” I answered with total hon
esty.

  * * *

  Ark

  It was after we’d eaten and we were both seated in the chairs close to the fire to stay warm as the storm continued to rage outside.

  One of the ways that helped to take my mind off Olivia was to think about the disaster I had left behind at the rig. Had I made a mistake? Impossible. I didn’t do mistakes. It was one of the things I loved about engineering. It was all math, all the time. And the numbers always added up.

  Only Lizzie’s capacity had started to change for some reason. The pressure building slowly until it became out of control. Was it the size of the hole I had drilled?

  “You had a notebook in the truck when I picked you up. You were jotting down numbers I was giving you. Do you still have it?”

  She shook her head. “No, I left it behind on the rig. Why?”

  “Just can’t shake what went wrong with Lizzie. I’m wondering if it was the smaller drill I used. I was trying to use it to prick the shale more cleanly. Less chance of spillage...now I’m wondering if that was a mistake.”

  “Wait. I’m on the cusp of hearing that Noah Aikens is about to admit to having made an engineering mistake?”

  I raised my eyebrows. “Not even close. I simply want to run some numbers.”

  “You think you can get back to the source of the oil another way?”

  “There’s still a lot of crude down there. It would be a shame to waste it. I’m wondering if a larger drill hole might work better to control the release of oil in a way to keep the pressure down.”

  Olivia shook her head. “If it’s a high-pressure spot it might not have anything to do with how you drill it. Going back would be took risky. Trying to control the earth is like trying to control the ocean.”

  “You’re saying it can’t be done?” I snorted. “I beg to differ. Lizzie was the first failure I’ve had.”

  “But it was still a failure.”

  I snarled at her but she only chuckled. “Fine. If you have numbers you want to jot down, just say them out loud and I’ll remember them.”