The Billionaire's Courageous Lover (Bold, Alaskan Men Book 3) (3 page)

Changing into jeans and boots along with one of her new, flannel shirts and a sweater, she practically skipped out of her new house, more than ready to fill up her new fridge with food. 

She went to the hardware store first, grabbed the tools she suspected she would need to put her furniture together.  She was so excited, she smiled at every person she passed. 

When she drove home it was still raining, and she couldn’t believe the amount of water that could be contained in the clouds, but she trudged up the stairs to her new home and brought her groceries into the house. 

She’d just started unloading the bags and finding places to store things when she heard a voice from the doorway. 

“Hello?” a female voice called out.

Andie stopped and turned around, spotting the two lovely women in her doorway.  “Hello?” she called back, wiping her hands on her jeans. 

“Hi!  I’m Violet,” the brunette said, and stepped into the house, pulling her wet boots off and padding sock footed into the room.  “And this is Tyla.  We were sent here to be your welcoming committee,” she said.

Andie was touched.  “How sweet!” she smiled. 

Tyla shook her head.  “Not so sweet,” she laughed.  “We were sent to give you horror stories of living in Alaska.”

Andie sighed, her excitement only slightly diminished.  “Knox?” she asked.

Both women nodded.  “But now that we’re here, we understand.”

Andie had no idea what they understood, but she was getting riled up again at the thought of that man! 

She bristled with irritation, wanting him to be here so she might…well, punch his arm!  “What did he tell you?”

Both women waved the man’s comments aside.  “Don’t worry about him.  He’s just being a curmudgeon.”  Violet walked further into the room.  “Looks like you’re stocking up, eh?”

Andie nodded, looking around and sighing as happiness came right back. 

For the next several hours, neighbors stopped by, dropping off baked goods and introducing themselves, some even bringing along their children and introducing them so that she knew who would be in her class come Monday morning.  All of them were so welcoming, and all said they were glad she was here. 

Some even gave her interesting advice about a block heater.  She had absolutely no idea what a block heater was, but she would look into that as soon as she set up her Internet service.  Others said something about how they were excited to have another wedding on the horizon, but she had no idea who was getting married.  And when she asked, people only laughed and shook their heads. 

By the time she was sitting down with microwave popcorn and a good book in front of her fireplace, snuggled up in her sleeping bag, she was exhausted from the amount of energy she’d used up today, as well as the stress of arriving in a new place. 

She tried to read her book but thoughts of that man, of how big and tall he was, kept sneaking into her mind.  In the end, she leaned back against her pillows and just let her mind wander. 

She didn’t realize that she’d fallen asleep until she heard the noise.  When she jerked awake, she looked around, trying to orient herself once again.  The fire was still warming up the room, but there were no other lights on. 

And then she heard it again.  It wasn’t really a noise so much as a… well, Andie had no idea what it was! 

She pulled herself out of her sleeping back and peered out the window.  There weren’t curtains, just wooden blinds, but…

What she saw made her eyes widen with horror!  She blinked, thinking her mind was playing tricks on her.  When she peered out again, sure enough, a giant black bear was peering right back at her.  He was just sitting by her car, his paw playing with the fake eye lashes on her headlights, and she wanted to scream but she was too terrified to make any noise.  She scrambled backwards, her fingers fumbling for her phone.  She dialed the emergency number on her rental agreement, her mind not even grasping that she was calling the grumpy lumberjack from earlier in the day.  All she knew was that this was an emergency and she had no one else to call.

“’Lo?” a sleeping voice answered the phone. 

“Bear!” she whispered with a strangled voice.  “Bear!” she said, a bit louder this time.

“Andie?” Knox asked, immediately slipping out of bed.  His body was already hard and throbbing since he’d been having a very erotic dream about the woman.  And now she was calling him?  Not good for his heart, he thought but he pulled on jeans as fast as he could.

“You’re inside, right honey?” he asked.

“Bear!” she told him again.  “What do I do?”

“Nothing!” he roared.  In a calmer voice, he shook his head, “Just stay inside and do nothing!  I’ll be there in a moment.  Just stay on the line so that I know that you’re okay.”

“Fine.  But there’s a bear!  And he’s messing up my eyelashes!”

Knox had just grabbed his gun by that point but he stopped cold.  “Your eyelashes?”

She nodded, unconcerned that he couldn’t see her confirmation.  “Yes.  He’s messing them up!  Please hurry.  I don’t know what to do!”

When he realized he was standing still while he was trying to figure that one out, he jerked back to the present.  Knox slapped his hand on the garage door opener and just prayed that the door would be open when he surged out of his garage.  “Okay, honey.  He won’t like your…eyelashes for long.  Just hang on.  I’m coming.  You’re inside though?  And the bear is outside?”

“Yes.  But he’s big!  He’s huge!”

His tires squealed as he tore out of his garage and barreled down the mountain, heading towards Andie’s house.  He had to shake the image of her in a skimpy nightgown, since that was what she’d been wearing in his dream.  Well, at least, she’d been wearing it initially.  It had fallen to the floor pretty quickly in his dream. 

“Talk to me, honey.  Tell me what’s going on!”

“He’s chewing on them!  Maybe I should just tell him to go away?”

“No way, Andie!  Just keep your door closed.  It might be a pregnant bear and she’s trying to find a place to hibernate.  They’re starting to get into that mode right now.”

“Hibernate.  Isn’t that sleeping for the winter?  She doesn’t look very sleepy.  Decidedly unsleepy.  She doesn’t appear to be in any hurry to hibernate, Knox.”

He laughed, enjoying her spunk even as he worried about getting to her in time.  “Just hang on.  I’m less than five minutes away.  Tell me what you did today,” he commanded, trying to get her mind off of the bear and…eyelashes.  He had no idea what she meant by that, but he wasn’t going to worry about it. She was probably just cold, wrapped up in long, flannel pajamas, and had imbibed too much wine with the ladies tonight.  He knew that Violet and Tyla had gone over earlier to welcome her to town.  He’d tried to get those ladies to explain the hazards of living in Alaska, but he suspected that the wine and cookies had detracted from any warnings they might have eventually gotten around to conveying. 

He pulled up outside of her house and looked around, staying in his truck until he knew where the threat was.  “Okay, honey, I’m here.  Where’s the bear now?”

Andie looked out her window again.  The bear was still there and with the movement of her blinds, the bear once again looked over at her.  “In front of my car.  He’s torn off one of the eye lashes now.” 

He’d driven down the street with his headlights off, not wanting to scare the bear, his pistol strapped to his belt, but his beanbag rifle in his hands.  “Okay, get back inside.”

Andie saw the black SUV creeping down the street.  “You’re not going to shoot the bear, are you?”

Knox sighed, but tossed his cell phone to the passenger seat, not even answering her question.  What did she think he was going to do to the bear?

Taking aim, he fired the first bean bag at the bear, hitting it right in the back.  When the bear roared, he fired again and again.  The bear eventually started running, but Knox continued to fire, shooting the bear in the rump over and over again with the specially made bean bags.

When the bear was far into the woods, he stopped but kept both his rifle and his pistol ready.  He walked to the door only to have it thrown open by the time he arrived. 

When he opened the door, a very soft, very warm and very sexy Andie threw herself into his arms.  “Thank you!” she gasped.

Knox clenched his teeth together as he absorbed the fact that Andie was not wearing flannel like so many other people in this state wore to bed.  Nor was she wearing a long tee-shirt.  In fact, she wasn’t wearing anything that a normal woman would wear to bed, and he pushed her into the house so that he could slam the front door shut, not wanting any of her new neighbors to see that she was wearing the sexiest satin nightgown he’d ever seen in his life.  In the brief moment between when she’d opened the door and when she’d thrown herself into his arms, his mind had instantly taken in all the pertinent details.  Her breasts were pressing against the material and her nipples were perfect points, making his mouth water with the realization that she was basically naked except for that thin material. 

“Thank you!” she whimpered again, trying to stop the trembling in her body but…a bear!  A huge, black bear that was hungry enough to eat her car’s plastic eyelashes!  How rude! 

Knox gritted his teeth and moved his hand up and down her satin-covered back, trying very hard not to react as his body was urging him to do.  “It’s over, honey.  You can go back to sleep.”

She pulled back and took a deep breath.  “He ate my eyelashes,” she laughed. 

Andie looked down at herself and realized that she was wearing only her nightgown.  “Oh!  I’m sorry!” she gasped, and hurried over to her sleeping bag, which was on the floor of her family room.  She grabbed another piece of satin and pushed her arms into the sleeves, tying the belt before turning around again.

Knox could barely breathe as he noticed that the robe was barely any better than the actual nightgown.  “You wear satin to sleep in?” he demanded, astounded and so turned on he could barely walk because his erection was pressing against the zipper of his jeans.  “Who does that?”

Andie crossed her arms over her chest, trying to hide from him now that the danger was over.  Ignoring his ridiculous comment about her nightgown, she looked up into his handsome features.  “You didn’t hurt the bear, did you?”

He rolled his eyes.  “It’s a bean bag gun, Andie.  They only ping the bear to scare it away, discourage it from coming into the towns, but they don’t do any real damage.”

She couldn’t believe how ingenious he was and her whole face brightened with that information.  “That’s wonderful!” 

He moved closer.  “You didn’t answer my question.”  He glared down into her smiling eyes.  “Why are you wearing a satin nightgown?”

She backed up a step, then realized what she was doing.  “Actually, you asked me who wears satin nightgowns.  And apparently, I do.  So that wasn’t your question.”

Andie heard a sound and wasn’t positive, but she suspected that it was Knox growling at her.  “Would you like a cookie?  I’ve been inundated with baked goods today.  I have plenty, and there’s no way I can eat everything,” she told him, waving her hand towards the kitchen where the counters were literally covered with plates covered with foil and plastic-wrapped cookies.

He didn’t even glance in that direction.  He couldn’t pull his eyes from her even if a gorilla were to walk into the room at this point.  “Don’t change the subject.”

She moved a bit closer, fascinated with the man.  He’d been so gruff earlier today, but at the first call for help, he’d jumped out of bed and rushed to her aid.  Not to mention, he was gorgeous!  He was tall and sexy, and the shirt he was wearing now showed off all of those amazing muscles that she’d been too distracted earlier today to notice.  So yes, she forgave him for being rude earlier today.  “What was the subject?”

She caught his eyes moving lower, glancing at her breasts and took a deep breath, lowering her arms.  All night, she’d been thinking about this man, wondering about him.  And he’d come to her rescue, no questions asked.  He was strong and handsome, too arrogant, but she could deal with that.  And she suddenly realized that this man…this handsome, sexy, and fascinating man was here and…she wanted him. 

Her new plan was to ignore everything her parents had taught her over the years and find her own way, discover what she wanted, and go after it.  No more “eminently eligible bachelors”, no more society functions where she would meet all the “best” people.  No more dinner parties or charity functions or boring, tedious garden parties. 

This was her new life.  She was going to figure out what worked for her, and do it! 

Right now, she wanted Knox.  She wanted him to kiss her and to have permission to run her fingers over his strong shoulders.  And maybe, most likely, she wanted this man to be her first lover. 

No more waiting for the right man to propose to her.  No more listening to her mother drone on about a man’s financial assets and discovering where his homes were located, which corporate or charity boards he sat on or who had better connections.  She was done with that mentality.  She hadn’t ever liked it. 

But she liked it here.  And she liked Knox.  She suspected that, deep down underneath that gruff exterior and grumbling attitude, he was a good man.  And she felt his loneliness almost as if it were a live thing.  She could feel it…because she felt it inside of herself.