Chapter 24
24
Gunnar didn’t like feeling defeated. They’d come to Anchorage, but all they had was more questions. His father was apparently close by, but hadn’t bothered to show up himself. Someone had tried to mess with his truck. Someone had messed with official state databases. He and Ruth were running into dead ends everywhere they turned. It felt like they were rats in a maze, with someone watching their every move.
Someone had even gotten to Naomi. Overnight.
This was some scary shit.
He glanced over at Ruth, who’d been quiet ever since they’d left the Hiland Correctional Center. They were driving down a long stretch of nearly empty highway, traveling through the Matanuska Valley with its wide, winding river and vast farms. “You okay?”
“Mmm. I’m worried. Naomi wasn’t able to guarantee that the kids won’t be in danger from whatever Luke is doing. I wonder…” She trailed off, looking more troubled than he’d seen her this entire trip. She was in the middle of braiding her hair, her fingers moving deftly through the thick mass of curls.
“You wonder what?”
“Well, Kelly asked us to figure out who the new people are at the compound. One way I could do that is to move back. If I’m living there, I have a better chance of protecting the kids from whatever’s going on.
“No.” His reaction came so fast and sharp that it surprised him. “You can’t move back.”
She looked over at him in surprise, fingers pausing near the end of her braid. “Why not?”
“They won’t accept you. It would be like…like a baby chick who’s been handled by a human. The hen won’t take it back.”
She burst out laughing. “I can’t believe you’re using a chicken metaphor! You know chickens are my favorites, right?”
“I did not. Chickens? Not cats or dogs or, I don’t know, horses?”
“Do any of them give you breakfast every day?”
He conceded with a smile. “Okay, fine. Chickens rock. Anyway, you have to admit it’s a good metaphor.”
“No, it’s not, because I’m a full-grown hen myself. Basically a mother hen to those kids.”
“But the Chilkoots won’t trust you. Would they even let you move back?”
“I don’t know,” she admitted. “But I can ask. I can beg. Whatever it takes.”
What a terrible plan. He hated everything about it. Once she was on Chilkoot property, he wouldn’t be able to protect her. He wouldn’t even know what she was doing. They’d be completely out of touch, with no cell service and no WiFi.
Unacceptable.
“If Luke let you back in, he wouldn’t let you see anything important. And if he caught you spying on his people—” His stomach clenched.
A soft hand touched his arm. “You know I can take care of myself, right? I lived there for the first twenty-seven years of my life. I know how to survive there.”
“Yes, but that was before.”
Before what? He wasn’t sure. Before…before he’d felt this way about her. This fierce, protective, touch-her-and-you-die way.
“Gunnar.”
He looked over at her, seeing understanding on her face, but also determination. “I won’t be able to live with myself if I don’t do what I can to protect the children.”
He got it then—Ruth wouldn’t be Ruth if she didn’t put herself between her younger siblings and danger. Maybe that was why he…cared for her so much. “There has to be a better way. You can’t go back there, it’s not safe. What about Sarah? She needs you, too. So does Martha. And the sheep.”
And me. I need you.
“We can talk about it later,” she finally said. “I was thinking we should probably stay another night out here, so we’re not completely exhausted when we get home. Maybe in Blackbear?”
Now this plan, he could get behind. Maybe he could convince her not to go back to the compound by blowing her mind in bed.
“Sure. The Wagon Wheel usually has rooms.”
“And do they have, you know…” She lifted her eyebrows suggestively. It took him a moment to catch on, but then he laughed.
“Uh, no. But any drug store will.”
With a box of condoms acquired and stowed in his gear, they arrived at the Wagon Wheel sometime after sunset. The air was more crisp here at the foot of the Wrangell Mountains. It even smelled different, less like car exhaust and more like blueberries. It smelled almost like home, and he could tell that Ruth felt the same way. She kept sniffing the air too, her eyes brightening, and he realized that they both had a deep connection to this territory that only someone who grew up there could feel.
Even though they’d been raised in extremely different ways, it was a bond they’d always share. And it was something he’d never felt with any of the women he’d dated who had floated through town. It made things with Ruth…different. Deeper.
Safely locked away in their hotel room, they fell onto the bed together without a single word. Nothing needed to be said. He spoke to her in touches, in the tender way he took her clothes off, button by button, piece by piece. She spoke to him with her dreamy smiles and her unrestrained wiggles of delight. Ruth loved to be touched, and he loved touching her. The skin she’d kept hidden most of her life was so incredibly soft, like living velvet.
All of his wrenching and mechanic-ing had turned his palms into a mass of tough calluses, so at first he worried that his skin was too rough for her. But the way she moved under him told him she liked it, that his palms didn’t abrade her, they aroused her.
So did his lips as he moved from one newly exposed body part to the next, from the crook behind her knee to the curve of her lower back. He already had a few favorite spots on her body that he wanted to return to. The muscles of her back were so strong and sleek, like those of a swimmer. They reminded him that Ruth was a hard worker who’d spent her whole life on a farm, and had the strong body to show for it.
He also relished the smooth skin between her breasts, especially when his hands covered her nipples and he got to hear her gasps and whispers.
He brought her to orgasm twice before he allowed himself to position his extremely hard, condom-sheathed cock at her entrance. He wanted her so wet she might not notice the intrusion of a thick spear of flesh inside her body.
But of course she did, and it didn’t matter how many horses she’d ridden, penetration was a different matter. He felt her body tighten and clench, almost automatically, and even though that felt great to him, he forced himself to still. “Want me to stop?”
“No.” She shook her head, her red hair flaming across the pillow. “I can tell it will feel good. It’s already kind of tingly. Just…go slow, okay?”
“You tell me if I’m going too fast.” Clenching his jaw to keep control, he moved his hips to claim another quarter inch of her body. He wanted nothing more than to drive hard inside her, but he’d always rather throw himself out the window than hurt her. Balanced on that knife’s edge of lust and care, he eased in a little farther.
“It’s good, it’s good,” she gasped. “It actually feels good now. Can you…go a little faster now?”
Faster. Got it. But not too fast. Hell.
Rocking his hips, he found a pace that wouldn’t make him come immediately and that also wouldn’t trigger a backlash, and established a steady rhythm. Her legs came around him and she lifted her hips to meet his. Faster now. Deeper, harder. And then he couldn’t hold back any longer and exploded into her.
“Was that…okay?” he gasped when he’d gathered his wits back together and lay flat on his back next to her. “I kind of blanked out for a minute there.”
“It was wild.” Eyes wide, she dropped her head to the side so their eyes met. “I loved it.”
“Did you…have a climax? I couldn’t tell, I’m sorry.”
“I think I did. But it was different from the others.” She thought about it some more, then smiled. “I think we’d have to try it a few more times so I can get used to it. I’m more familiar with the other way.”
“This way, you mean.” He set his hand on the hot triangle between her thighs.
“Yes, but not now,” she said quickly. “I think that’s enough for the time being.”
He burst out laughing. “I hope you always say exactly what you want and need, Ruth. Never change.”
“In bed, you mean?”
“In bed, out of bed. Wherever you happen to be.”
“You know something?” She kissed him on his pectoral. “That’s the best thing anyone’s ever said to me. But you left out a part.”
“What part?”
“Except for the Chilkoot compound. That’s not how they operate. No one cares what I want or need out there.”
The mention of the compound dampened his mood. He sat up and looked at her seriously. “I don’t want you to go back there. We’re in this together, isn’t that what you said before? We should stay together.”
“That won’t work. They’d never let you in.”
“They don’t have to know. We can do what my father did. We’ll spy on them, scope things out from the woods. Make sure the kids are okay.”
“And if we get caught?”
“Then…we say you left something at the compound, and I was helping you, or something like that.”
“No, we can—” She broke off, her face slowly turning pink.
“We can what? What are you thinking about?” He pinned her back on the bed and braced himself over her. “I have ways to make you talk,” he said in a low, sexy growl.
“You have ways to make me moan,” she corrected. “And even scream. That’s not the same as talking.”
“Valid point. Please, what are you thinking?”
“Well,” she said slowly. “I’m still Luke’s daughter, and I’m sure he still believes he has to give me permission to…well, to marry. And he knows we have some kind of connection. It would all make sense to him. That could be our cover story if we’re caught. Of course, it wouldn’t be true,” she added quickly, turning red as a strawberry. Adorably red. “We won’t actually be engaged.”
“Right. And it’s only if we’re caught.”
“Yes. We’ll say that we kissed, and then you asked me, actually begged me to marry you,” she gave him a wicked smile, “and I said I need my father’s permission, so you’ll have to go beg Luke first. He’ll like that.”
Gunnar felt a slow grin spread across his face. That plan might just work, as a backup. Best of all, it would keep Ruth from thinking about moving back. “Then I guess I have only one thing to say.” He swung himself off the bed and dropped to one knee. “Will you pretend to want to marry me, Ruth Chilkoot?”