Against the Wild Read Online Free Page B

come, accepted the job in Alaska with her eyes wide open.
    And yet she hadn’t been quite prepared for the heat that sparked between them the minute she had seen him walking toward her at the airport.
    She needed time. She wasn’t the sort of woman who could jump into bed with a man she barely knew. She needed to get to know him, feel safe with him, trust him. If she decided to act on the attraction she felt for him, their affair would be brief, just the few weeks she would be in Alaska—she was prepared for that.
    But she wanted the time she spent with him to be more than just sex. She wanted them to wind up at least as friends.
    They walked through the great hall toward the family wing of the house, stopped in the hallway outside the kitchen.
    â€œLane, this is Winifred Henry. She’s the lady who takes care of us.” He smiled down at the woman, who stood several inches shorter than Lane. “Believe me, we couldn’t get along without her.”
    A wide, welcoming smile bloomed on Winifred Henry’s round face. “Welcome to Eagle Bay,” she said, repeating Dylan’s earlier greeting.
    â€œThank you. I’m excited to be here. It’s a wonderful project.”
    One of the woman’s gray eyebrows went up. “Yes, but it’s also our home.”
    Lane didn’t miss the note of warning. Whatever she did, she needed to make sure it was a comfortable place for a family to live. “I promise I won’t forget that.”
    Mrs. Henry seemed to relax. She was in her early sixties and twenty pounds overweight, with thick gray hair pulled into a knot at the back of her head and plenty of wrinkles. She looked as if she had lived her entire life in the wilderness and it was exactly where she belonged.
    The older woman’s gaze ran over her, seemed to take in her fatigue. “I know you’re anxious to see the lodge, but I wonder if you’d like to get settled, rest a little first? Dylan can show you around when you wake up.”
    Gratitude swept through her. “That would be great.” She looked up at Dylan. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to be fresh, maybe take some notes as we go through the lodge.”
    He smiled. “Take all the time you need.”
    Lane followed the stout, gray-haired woman to an upstairs bedroom in the family wing next to what appeared to be the master suite. She wasn’t sure if that was an accident or part of a plan. Her suitcases were already in the room, she saw when Mrs. Henry opened the door. She hadn’t met Emily. Perhaps at supper.
    Closing the door behind her, she crossed the room to the window, looked down to see Finn outside in a big, fenced-in side yard he seemed to have fallen instantly in love with. In the corner of her room, she spotted an old blanket put there for him to sleep on when he was in the bedroom.
    With a yawn, she unpacked and put away her clothes, then slipped out of her travel-stained slacks and sweater and pulled on a pink fleece robe. The June days were sunny, with daytime temperatures in the low sixties, but the nights would be chilly.
    Padding across the room, she climbed up on the high, queen-size bed made of the same golden pine used to build the lodge. The dresser and bedside tables were pine. A hooked rug warmed the wide-plank floors, and the mattress was covered with a handmade quilt patterned in dark red and forest green. Lane found the room charming.
    The residential wing of the house had been remodeled a few years back, Dylan had told her. Which accounted for the en-suite bath. Nothing fancy, but according to Dylan eventually this wing would also be redone.
    Making herself comfortable on top of the covers, she fluffed the pillow and closed her eyes. Just a few minutes , she told herself.
    Lane didn’t remember sleeping for more than an hour, but when she jolted awake, she remembered that she had been dreaming.
    Something strange, she recalled with a frown,