Death Cache Read Online Free Page B

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    She opened her eyes and looked straight into Gage’s.

    Gage had ventured toward the lake to wash up after the long day. Though he hadn’t lingered in the glacial-fed water. He was headed back when he’d come around a bend and found her.
    Tern.
    The woman who haunted him. Kept him up more nights than he wanted to admit.
    Reclined against a log, bleached white from the elements, her long legs were stretched out in front of her, ankles crossed. Her face lifted to the heavens, thick dark hair, the color of raven’s wings with hints of fire within its depths, fell behind her. A serene smile played upon her lips as though she were the keeper of secrets. Her exotic almond-shaped eyes were closed. Her left brow bisected with a scar that she’d received as a child, gave her a rakish appearance that was damn right challenging.
    He should leave, now before she realized he was here, but he couldn’t move as he drank her in.
    Christ, he craved her.
    He’d purposely stayed away all these months. Though at the moment, he couldn’t remember why. Not when he wanted to sink to his knees, gather her up into his arms, and bury his face in her hair. Hair that smelled of fireweed and rosehips and drove him to distraction.
    The taste he’d had of her this afternoon had only left him starving for more. He should give up on this game and think seriously of hiking his way out of here. But ‘here’ was so far away from any part of Alaska that he’d ever been to, and it could be weeks before he stumbled upon another human being.
    He was stuck. Stuck with Tern. And stuck with the other men who had been important in her life. Maybe still were. The thought twisted his insides.
    Tern opened her eyes and looked directly at him. A sharp stab of desire stole his breath. She’d always had this otherworldly sense about her that had sometimes freaked him out. Like now. She didn’t blink, didn’t act surprised to see him standing there staring down at her. It was like she’d known he was there before she opened her eyes.
    “Gage,” she greeted him in that sexy come-and-get-me voice. It had undertones that sent blood pulsing to his nether regions. Just like that first time he’d seen her. She’d been behind the counter in her shop, head down, a black curtain of hair covering her face as she’d studied an invoice or something. Then she’d raised her head and looked straight at him, welcomed him into her world, and he’d fallen right then and there.
    Shit, he wasn’t strong enough to resist her tonight after fighting off her allure all day. “I thought you went to bed,” he said, the statement coming out like an accusation.
    “Nope.”
    Just the one word. Those mystical eyes of hers toured his body, from his damp hair, probably still in spikes from being rubbed dry with the towel hanging loose in his hand, to the clean clothes he’d donned after his cold dip. He sure as hell didn’t feel the effects of the cold now. He was back to the state of arousal that had drained the smarts out of his brain all day.
    “What the hell do you want from me?” he snapped.
    “Nothing.”
    “Nothing? It didn’t feel like ‘nothing’ on the glacier when you taunted me.”
    “Whatever.” She had the audacity to yawn.
    “Am I boring you?”
    “Yes.” She stretched and rolled to her feet in a movement so sensual that it had him clenching his hands on his towel to help remind him to keep them off her.
    He wanted to throw down his towel, grab her, and then he’d—
    Oh, hell, what was he doing? After all the time he’d forced himself to stay away, worked to get her out of his system, how did she still get to him so easily?
    “You left, Gage. We’re over.” She swept a strand of hair from her face, and he had the feeling that she’d like to sweep him away just as easily. “So what do you want?”
    He didn’t know what he wanted and that had his temper spiking. “Someone else already warming your bed, sweetheart?” He should shut up and