The Billionaire's Courageous Lover (Bold, Alaskan Men Book 3) (6 page)

“No Andie!  There is one street in and out of Winthrop.  One!  If you get stuck there, you don’t just find another one.  And more than likely, with that tiny car, you’ll end up in a ditch somewhere and have to be towed out.”

She took a deep breath, trying to calm herself down.  “So you think I’m a wimp!  You think I can’t handle it!”

He thought she was gorgeous!  “I think you don’t know what’s coming and you will get hurt.”

She walked away from him, pushing her hair out of her eyes.  It occurred to her that she’d put her hair up.  Why was it falling all around her shoulders now? 

“Knox, I’m not a hot-house flower.  I’m strong and smart.  I won’t do things that are dangerous.  I know I’m a novice here.  But I can make it.  Already, I love this town and the views, the people.  I love my students.”

He shook his head gently.  “You won’t love it by the end of the winter.  Hell, you’re going to hate it at the beginning.”

She watched him carefully.  “How long did it take you and your three other friends to figure out how to live here?”

“I knew I wanted to be here the first time I saw the mountains.”

“But how did you learn to live here?” 

“I asked around, figured it out.”

“So if I ask around…”

The idea of her asking anyone for help made him see red.  His eyes narrowed and he eliminated the distance between them.  “You ask me,” he told her with absolute finality, getting angry just at the thought of her going to any other man for help. 

She paused and looked up at him, feeling that warm glow start to vibrate around the two of them again.  “Okay, so I’ll ask you when I need help, when I can’t figure something out.”

Not good enough, but it did soothe the furious beast that had reared its ugly head.  “And you’ll go home when you figure out that you can’t handle it,” he told her, not asking this time. 

She chewed on her lip for a moment, considering her options.  “Fine.  I’ll go home when things get too tough.  But if I learn something, or if I make it through the first snowfall, I get something from you.”

Knox tensed up, wary of whatever she might ask for.  “What?” he finally asked, still glaring down at her. 

But put on the spot, Andie wasn’t sure what she wanted.  “I don’t know.”  Oh, that was such a lie!  She knew exactly what she wanted! 

Unfortunately, she didn’t have the courage to say it.  Not again.  He hadn’t rejected her but…he hadn’t accepted her offer of an affair either. 

Knox groaned, thinking she looked too adorable to be sexy.  Especially with that anticipatory look in those beautiful, silver eyes of hers.  But somehow, she pulled it off.  This woman was lethal, he thought.  Those silver eyes could kill a man with the lust they fired up.  “Since it isn’t going to happen, I’m not worried.”  He moved closer to her, moving his hand to her cheek, his thumb rubbing over her delicate skin.  “I just want you to be safe, Andie.”

She loved the way he was touching her, the way he made her feel.  The burning, yearning sensation she saw in his eyes and felt deep in her stomach only made her resolve stronger.  “Not only am I going to be safe, but I’m going to thrive here in Alaska.” 

Her eyes challenged him like no one else ever had.  “I would love to see that.”  And a moment later, he was gone. 

Andie stared at the now-closed door, her whole body trembling with excitement, apprehension and…anticipation. 

“You just wait, Mr. Big Man Knox.  I’m going to figure this world out and there’s nothing you can do to stop me.” 

But after cleaning up the kitchen and getting ready for bed, she still walked over to the basement doorway and peered down into the dark depths.  Just in case, she threw a tennis ball down there, her shoulders relaxing slightly when the ball simply bounced around before disappearing. 

“Oh, I don’t need to catch anything,” she said to the very helpful man at the hardware store while she examined the inexpensive fishing pole. 

Since she was looking down, she didn’t see the horrified expression on his elderly face. 

“I just need to learn to throw…” she narrowed her eyes and tilted her head towards the man, “I mean, cast…right?  I don’t throw the line, I cast the line.”  When the man nodded his head, still looking confused, she smiled victoriously.  “Right.  I just need something to learn to cast the line.  I’ll be practicing whenever I can until I can get the hook where I want it to go.  Isn’t that the basics of fishing?”

The elderly man scratched his head.  He obviously didn’t want to insult the community’s newest member, but he wasn’t sure how to answer the pretty woman without hurting her feelings.  “Well, I guess that’s the first step.”

Andie smiled, excited to be learning her first new Alaskan sport.  “Okay, what else do I need?” she asked, eager to get started. 

The man shrugged.  “Well, warm clothes if you’re going to be near the water.  The wind is stronger there, and colder.”

Andie nodded.  “Anything else?  Any other fishing equipment?”  She hoped not.  She’d made a huge dent in her savings account buying her furniture and moving up here.  But it seemed that everyone around here fished, so she was going to learn to fish.  Any time she visited someone’s house, there were pictures of family members with an enormous fish held up with pride.  It looked strange to her, but hey, if the locals loved it, and she wanted to be a local, she was going to learn to love it as well! 

“Nah,” the kind gentleman said with his first smile since she’d walked in and asked the question.  “Just stay warm if all you’re going to do is cast your line.  Not much biting going on right now anyway.”

Andie paid for her fishing pole and lure then trotted out of the store, eager to learn her new skill.  She’d gotten her internet service hooked up this week and had been diligently studying up on fishing tips.  After last week’s dinner with Knox, she was determined to show him that she not only was going to stay, but she was going to learn everything she could about this new environment. 

Two hours later, Andie accepted that casting wasn’t nearly as simple as it looked.  So far, she’d gotten her hook caught on the bark of a tree behind her, an old log off to the right, the dock’s edge beside her, the rope tying up someone’s boat slightly out and to the left of her and her hat. 

Getting her knit hat caught on the hook had been the worst, since she hadn’t realized that it had gotten caught.  She’d been impatient by that point and had…well, her hat was now a snarled, wet mess at her feet. 

She now knew that the stupid hook and knit caps were a dangerous combination.  Getting a hook out of knit was… well, an exercise in patience.  Or impatience! 

Her hands were freezing even inside the gloves, her body was cold, she needed a new hat, and she was frustrated with this whole fishing stuff.  Mentally, she’d selected a target in the water ahead of her, just like the websites had explained to do. 

It didn’t seem like getting a stupid hook to land in a specific spot should be this difficult!  And what was the allure of standing at the end of a cold dock in the biting wind anyway?  It seemed pretty stupid to her. 

But she was going to do it!  She was going to master this ridiculous sport even if she got frostbite doing it! 

Could she get frostbite?  Looking around at the grey skies and the wind whipping the water up to little white tuffs, she suspected that it was indeed cold enough to get frostbite.  Okay, she’d draw the line at frostbite.  No sport was worth that much pain. 

She cast her line one more time, unaware of her tongue sticking out the side of her mouth as she concentrated on the effort. 

Another miss, but at least she hadn’t “captured” a tree again.  When the hook landed in the water, she counted that “cast” as a success. 

Reeling it in, just like the website had explained, she pondered what sport she would learn next.  Maybe fishing was more interesting during the summer.  But in Alaska, spring and summer fishing meant salmon and those suckers were big!  She didn’t think she wanted to catch anything that huge!  Not to mention, they had teeth!  They looked evil. 

No, she preferred fishing now.  Maybe she’ll catch something, maybe she won’t.  She’d read another article that discussed the joys of just being in a quiet area.  The solitude is what some fisherpersons enjoyed. 

Looking around, Andie could understand that.  It was nice and quiet here. Although it would be nicer if she had a hat!

Suddenly, she felt a tug on her line and looked down.  When her line started to spin, she wasn’t sure what she should do. 

But wait….reel spinning, line moving outwards…she’d caught a fish!  She’d actually caught a fish!  Screaming with excitement, she jumped up and down.  “I caught something!” she yelled out even though no one was around.  “I caught a fish!” 

She grabbed her reel and started to tug the fish back gently, just like the article had explained.  Pulling too hard might snap the line, not pulling hard enough and the fish could get off the hook. 

Carefully reeling back the hook, she watched, amazed while the water seemed to form a V as the line pulled in whatever was underneath the dark, churning surface. 

When she got the fish to the end of the dock, she carefully lifted the fish out and there it was!  Andie screamed with delight and excitement, jumping up and down as she held her first catch in the air. 

No one was around to see her “catch” but she didn’t care!  She’d done it!  She’d actually caught a fish!  Where was a camera when one needed it? 

Knox had gotten the call from George at the hardware store but he’d resisted going down to the dock to investigate.  So what if Andie wanted to learn to fish?  And why had George called him?  He wasn’t in charge of the fishing for the area. 

But in the end, he couldn’t seem to stay away.  He pictured her snagging a large fish and getting pulled into the cold waters, dragged down and…hell, he’d never thought that his imagination was that good, but knowing that Andie was down at the end of the boat dock with a new rod and reel made his mind flash with dangerous images of her hurt or pulled out to sea. 

When he heard the scream, his heart just about lurched out of his chest.  For a moment, he froze, trying to figure out where she was.  The second scream sounded strange, but he turned his head and spotted her.  She was still at the end of the dock, no hat, no gloves and she was jumping up and down as if…well, he had no idea what was wrong with Andie at the moment, nor did he care.  All he could think about was getting to her side and saving her from whatever danger had surfaced. 

He was sprinting down the wooden dock when she pulled something out of the water and jumped up and down again.  Was it bad?  Was she scared?  There shouldn’t be anything but…

A moment later, she had dropped her fishing line and threw herself into his arms.  Not just into his arms, but her arms were wrapped around his neck and her legs around his waist and she was still jumping around, making his body ache with need.  Even through the thick layers of his and her own clothing, he could feel her full breasts pressing against his chest and he closed his eyes, trying to not think about them.

But the way she was clinging to him made his honorable intentions very difficult.  And he couldn’t stop his hands from moving to her round bottom, his palms cupping the firm flesh underneath the denim of her jeans.  Damn, but no woman had ever felt this good to him.

“Honey, are you okay?  What’s wrong?  Are you hurt?” he asked, holding her close, thinking maybe something had scared her. 

But she just continued to jump in his arms, screaming something.  It took him a long time to figure out her words because of the desire pounding through his brain. 

“I caught my first fish!” she screamed when her feet hit the dock again and she jumped around as if she’d just won the lottery.  Her cheeks were rosy and her silver eyes sparkling with excitement. 

“A fish?” he repeated, pulling back so that he could look into those pretty, silver eyes of hers. 

Sure enough, there was no pain on her pale cheeks, just excitement that made those silver eyes sparkle.  “Yes!  I caught a fish!  My very first fish!  I wasn’t even trying to catch anything!  I just wanted to teach myself to cast my line into a specific spot, just like I’d been reading I should do, but I caught a fish!”

“A fish,” he repeated, still trying to come down off of the fear of her being hurt.  “You caught a fish?”

“Yes!  Look!” and she pointed to the spot behind her where a four or five inch silver fish was laying on the wooden dock.

They both stared and Andie gasped in horror.  As her fingers covered her mouth, she stared down at the tiny fish and all of her excitement was torn away in the face of her alarm.  “Knox!  I’ve killed it!  I’ve hurt its little mouth and…” she’d gone from excitement to tears in the span of perhaps half a second.  Scrambling out of his arms, she knelt by the fish that really did look like it was gasping for breath.  Possibly because it was!

“Knox, how do I fix this?  How do I get the hook out of its mouth?”

Knox still wasn’t sure what was going on.  “I thought you were excited about catching a fish,” he asked her, trying to catch up.  And get his mind off of her very delightful butt. 

She turned pleading, teary eyes up to him.  “How do I get the poor thing off the hook?  He looks like he’s hurting.”

Knox rubbed a hand over his mouth, trying to hide his amusement.  “Um…Andie, if you’re going to fish, you’re going to have to learn to take the hook out of the fish.”

Her eyes widened as he looked up at him.  “The hook?  Out of the fish’s mouth?  Isn’t that…kinda gross?”

He couldn’t help it.  She just looked too stunned and adorable.  Bending lower, he still tried to smother his laughter but he had mercy on her since this was her first fish.  Taking the fish, he lifted it up and, with his other hand, curled the hook out of the fish’s mouth.  “What now?”

She was kneeling on the dock, her whole body cold and miserable.  But looking at this poor creature, its mouth opening and closing, she felt even worse.  “If you throw him back into the water, will he survive?”

Knox chuckled.  “Possibly,” he told her.  With an easy toss, he dumped the fish back in the water.  And for his superhero actions, the fish swam away and Andie grabbed his arm as her excitement and relief surged through her. 

“He’s okay,” she cried, so relieved and yet, still ashamed at her thoughtless action.  “I hurt him but he’s okay.”

Knox stood up, lifting her up with him and he looked down at her shining hair.  “Honey, if you’re going to fish, then you’re going to have to toughen up about the fish.”

She shook her head.  “Nope.  Not going to fish then.”

He wasn’t exactly sure how to handle this but knew that laughing would be bad.  He didn’t want to hurt her feelings.  “But you eat fish and meat, right?”

She shrugged her shoulders.  “Yes, of course.  But that’s from the grocery store.”

He waited a moment, trying to see if she would make the connection, the realization that they were one and the same.  “And that meat is different?”

She shrugged her shoulders.  “Of course!”  And then she bent down to pick up her fishing rod and soggy hat. 

He wasn’t going there.  He and the guys all had boats and, during the spring and summer months, they would often go out deep sea fishing.  It was a thrill to pull in the large fish and then grill them up that evening.  With a sigh, he accepted that he’d have to lie to Andie during those meals, and just tell her that he’d gotten their catch from the grocery store. 

He didn’t think it was odd that he was already thinking of including her in those future meals.  Tyla and Violet had been there for the past few grilling nights and he knew that Andie already fit in perfectly with those two ladies. 

“Come on.  I’ll buy you a burger,” he teased, and put an arm around her waist as he led her off of the dock.