WILD MEN OF ALASKA

chapter TWELVE

Wren lay in the afterglow, more content than she could remember. This was right. Skip was her past and her future. Even the storm outside seemed to have calmed as though in agreement. She’d only been living half a life without him. This feeling coursing through her body was higher than any drug had given her.

“You okay?” Skip asked.

She laughed. “I should be asking you that.”

“Baby, I’m feeling no pain. You were freaking amazing.”

She smiled. She’d felt damn invincible.

Now she had to decide if she could trust herself enough to admit her love for Skip. She had disappointed so many people in her life. Especially him. She didn’t want to anymore.

“You won’t,” Skip said, brushing back her hair.

Geez. Whatever this thinking out loud thing was, it was damn annoying.

“Wren. I want a life with you. Have a family.”

“A family?” Kids? Her? That meant she’d be a mother. A child totally dependent on her for everything. No, she couldn’t do that.

His hand settled on her stomach. “We might have already created a little Ozhuwan.”

They hadn’t used protection.

“Are you on anything?” he asked.

“No drugs,” she choked out.

“I meant birth control.”

“Oh. No.” She swallowed, but it didn’t remove the lump that had formed in her throat. “Skip. I’m not mother material. Besides, I shot you. How can I be the mother of your children?”

“If I can forgive you for shooting me, you can forgive yourself for shooting me.”

“It isn’t that simple.”

“It doesn’t need to be that difficult. I’ve always loved you, Wren. Even at your worst, I’ve loved you.”

“Skip, I’m poison. Everything I’ve touched I’ve ruined.”

“That was then. You’ve changed. You’re sober.”

“For how long? I’ll always be an addict, and you are a trooper. Do you know the statistics for relapse? I have a seventy percent chance of using again.”

“And a thirty percent chance of not, which gets smaller and smaller every year you stay sober.”

“I move back to Egegik, and it will be a hundred percent. There’s a reason I haven’t been home.”

“He can’t hurt you anymore. You’re stronger, he’s weaker. I won’t let him near you.”

“You can’t protect me 24/7.”

“We don’t have to live in Egegik.”

She scoffed. “Right, your entire family is there. Generations of Ozuwans have lived in Egegik.”

“A lot have left too.” He reached for her hand. “It isn’t the same without you. Nothing is. I’ve waited a long time, Wren. If I need to wait longer, I will.”

Tears choked her throat, and she buried her face in the crook of his neck. “I’m not good enough for you.”

“Nobody’s good enough for me. I’m quite the catch. Besides, I want someone who will challenge me, and nobody challenges me like you do.”

“But—”

“No buts. Work with me. Tell me what you are really afraid of. Or have you been lying to me about the contractor dude.” He stiffened. “Are you in love with him?”

She gave a short laugh. “There is no contractor dude. Well, there is. But I hired him. He built me some bookcases, and now he’s working little by little on my kitchen.”

“There isn’t anything romantic going on?”

“Nope.”

“You haven’t slept with him?”

She leaned up on her elbow and looked at him, her eyes serious as the snow now softly falling outside the windows. “Skip, the only man I’ve ever slept with is you. There was this ‘almost’ incident in jail where this woman wanted—”

She didn’t finish as he reached up and pulled her down to him, sealing her words with a kiss that lit her internal furnace.

When he ended the kiss, he gazed lovingly into her eyes. “There’s been no one for me either. Only you.”

“You mean...”

“Yep,” he said with a silly smile. “The last person I had sex with—not counting myself—was you.”

“You haven’t had sex in five years?”

“You couldn’t tell how rusty I was?”

She shook her head. “Though it does explain the constant hard on,” she tried to joke.

“Wren, you were my first, my only. You’re everything. Marry me, love me, make a life with me.”

Her heart melted, and tears sprain to her eyes. “Skip.” Her words shuddered on a sob as the impact of his words sank into her. How could this man love her so much?

“Say yes. It’s such a short, simple, happy little word.”

She took his face in her hands and gently kissed his lips. “Yes.”

“Oh, thank you God.” He kissed her, relief and love mixed in with a desire that would never be sated. “Now, give me three little words that I’ve waited years to hear from your lips again.”

“I love you, Skip Ozhuwan. Only you, always you.”





They woke the next morning to the sun shining, snow melting, and the whoop, whoop of helicopter blades.

Skip groaned. “Sounds like the Coast Guard found us.”

“Do they have to be so damn reliable?” Wren asked with a sexy stretch. “I had plans for this morning.”

She leaned over and kissed him. He loved the feel of her pressed against him and the rightness of the moment. The promise of a new day, a new life, with the woman he’d always loved.

He moaned around her kiss, loath to break it off, but they needed to get moving. “Save that thought for later. We need to hurry and get dressed. Not only are they reliable, they’re damn fast too.”

Sure enough, they heard a man running up to the plane, his boots crunching in the snow.

Wren reached for her sweatshirt, but not before the man opened the door and was halfway inside the cockpit. With a squeak, she grabbed the covers and pulled them up to her chin, uncovering Skip’s nakedness.

“Morning!” The Coast Guard crewman greeted. “Glad to see you two made it through the night.” He nodded to Skip and tried unsuccessfully to hide a smile. “Officer Ozhuwan, I see you’re conducting the correct deferment method of hypothermia.” He addressed Wren, “Ms. Wren, nice to see you, and that the two of you are back together again.”

“Leroy,” Skip said, worried over how Wren was taking all this attention, “give us a few minutes, would you?”

“Yes, sir.” Leroy ducked out of the plane.

“Don’t tell me, that’s—”

“The kid you used to babysit, yeah.”

Leroy popped his head back into the plane, his eyes shut. “Sorry, just thought I’d mention your sister and her intended are impatiently waiting in the chopper. She is really, and I mean really, worried about the condition of her wedding cake.”

“Leroy, you might as well leave us here. It’ll be safer for everybody.”

Wren giggled, then laughed long and loud, falling into his one-armed embrace, where she’d always belonged.

The realization that he could be waking every morning with her in his arms, had emotion bursting forth. “Wren, before our lives become hectic with this rescue, the wedding, and Jim’s funeral, I need you to know that no other woman could impact my soul the way you always have, always will. I don’t want to lose you again.” He didn’t think he’d survive a second time.

The love in her eyes deepened, and she reached up to smooth the worry lines in his face. “You won’t lose me. I’ve missed you so much, Skip. You’re not just the love of my life, you are my best friend. Don’t worry, I’m strong enough now.”

Moisture collected in his eyes and throat. He hadn’t realized how afraid he’d been that he’d truly lost her five year ago. Or that after last night and the light of this morning, the reality of a future with him would be too much for her. He shouldn’t have doubted his resilient, little wren. “I love you with everything that is in me and as soon as we get through this week, I don’t want to wait another day to marry you.”

“Do we have to wait until then?” She gave him a crafty smile. “I’m sure your sister has a perfectly good priest we could maybe borrow after her ceremony. Want to elope with me?”

Bet your ass, he did.


THE END