Wild Heat (Northern Fire) (4 page)

But hiding hadn’t done her any favors in the past and she was doing her best not to revert to what had ultimately become a self-destructive defense mechanism.

So, she ate. Very little and very slowly, but she kept at it and did her best to ignore her response to Tack.

Even if he didn’t hate her for the past, she was never putting herself at the mercy of a man again. Not even Tack. Caitlin was going to die a Grant now that she’d reclaimed her maiden name.

Besides, of all men, Tack deserved a woman who wasn’t glued together like a shattered vase.

T
ack shifted his tall frame restlessly, kicking off the blankets in the dark. Thoughts of Kitty would not let him sleep.

Even though his father and grandfather had built the bed for Tack’s comfort, he couldn’t settle tonight.

He was pretty sure the size of his bed had been a not-so-subtle hint from the older generations. It was the width of a king and had an extra six inches in length, definitely more than big enough for two people.

No one else had shared it with him in the two years since he’d moved into his custom-designed log cabin.

Tack didn’t have time for a relationship and kept his sex life to tourists or trips to Anchorage in the winter. A healthy adult male with a strong sex drive, if not inclination toward commitment, Tack had been a temporary visitor on a helluva lot of cruise ships moored in the Cailkirn harbor.

He didn’t bring casual sex partners to his cabin. Tack had every intention of sharing his home with a wife and family someday, but until then it was his sanctuary—the way it should be.

It didn’t sound like Kitty’s place in California had been a sanctuary for her. Not even a little bit.

Tack had spent eight years resenting her for ejecting him from her life the minute she got engaged to that bastard Nevin Barston.

Tack had never once considered that Kitty might have caused herself more emotional damage with that decision than she’d done to him. He sure couldn’t ignore that possibility now.

There was no damn question that she’d needed him the past eight years. No matter what Kitty had convinced herself to be true.

Her LA friends hadn’t had her back. That was for sure. If Tack and Kitty had still been friends, no way would Nevin have managed to crush her indomitable will and spirit.

It was a fair bet the man realized it, too, or he would not have pushed her into giving up her friendship with Tack. Assuming that was what happened.

Kitty had implied as much. And maybe eight years ago Tack would have said no one could force her to give up friends she wanted to keep. However, the Kitty he’d seen this evening was a far cry from the stubborn girl who had punched Benji Sutherland on the playground when the older boy had called Tack
chief
.

A smile twitched at his lips as he remembered. It hadn’t mattered to her that she was pint-sized compared to both boys or that Benji hadn’t had a clue he was being insulting. Kitty had laid into the older boy with impressive fervor and vocabulary for a six-year-old.

They’d all become fast friends by the second week of school, but Kitty’s actions had set a precedent. The feisty redhead had never stood by and allowed anyone to get bullied, not even the best friend that was near twice her size by the time they hit middle school.

Not once.

How in the hell had the girl who had stood up for the world stopped standing up for herself? One thing was for sure—Kitty needed a friend, and no matter how she’d treated him in the past, she needed him now. She’d made one devastating mistake, both for herself and for their friendship. He was man enough to admit to himself that in a way, Kitty had done him a favor.

He would never have stopped loving and lusting after his best friend if she had remained a big part of his life. Years of trying attested to that. Tack hadn’t been able to really let her go until she did it for him.

So, maybe he could forgive her for pushing him away. Didn’t mean he was going to give her another crack at his heart, but that woman was still way too close to broken for him to turn away from her now.

She needed to be reminded of who Kitty Grant was at the core of her soul, of the fearless woman who had talked him into attending university twenty-five hundred miles away.

Tack was just the man for the job.

No, he would not love her again, but damned if he’d stand by and watch Kitty Grant live like a wraith among the people of Cailkirn.

Tack cursed as he realized the new guide he and Egan hired hadn’t completely filled out the paperwork for his first solo tour. Both Egan and Tack had taken Bobby out on an excursion with clients to train him in the process.

Yesterday, he’d taken out his first small group of tourists from Anchorage on his own.

There was no excuse for forgetting the most important form of all: the personal indemnity release. Tourists did stupid stuff and no way was MacKinnon Bros. Tours taking responsibility for the results.

“What did that paper do to you?” a feminine voice asked from his doorway.

He didn’t have to look up to know it was Kitty. Her voice was unmistakable, even if it lacked the lacing of humor it always used to have.

“It’s not the paperwork. It’s who is filling it out—or
isn’t
, and that’s the problem.” He let his gaze slide up Kitty’s body on the way to meeting her eyes.

Couldn’t help himself or the stirrings of arousal it caused.

Her designer jeans were stressed in all the right places and the green top she wore with them clung to the curve of her breasts, its scoop neck cut low enough to reveal the top swells.

The quilted cream vest she wore open on top looked like silk and the zipper was gold.

It was the kind of thing tourists wore. Cailkirn residents? Not so much.

“Fancy for Cailkirn, don’t you think, wildcat?” The old nickname just slipped out, but he didn’t regret it.

He’d been careful not to use it before, needing to maintain distance from their past, but it was part of reminding her who she used to be, even if it hadn’t been on purpose. He’d given her the nickname when they were still in elementary school because she was always taking chances. She might have looked sweet as a kitten, but she was more full-grown mountain lion inside.

A small gust of air released from Kitty’s bow-shaped lips, glossed a tempting pink. “No one has called me that in years.”

“Considering that was
my
name for you, I’m not surprised.” It had always surprised him how few people realized who the real Kitty Grant—town sweetheart—was.

“It doesn’t really fit anymore.”

“Come on a hike with me. Don’t try to take the hardest trail or climb the highest point and I might believe you.”

She dropped into the chair he kept in his office for visitors. Which mostly meant his mom, who had a habit of coming by for short chats between his scheduled tours.

Kitty crossed her jean-clad legs and dropped a purse covered in
C
s—probably some kind of designer brand—to the floor beside the chair. “I never wanted you to think I couldn’t keep up.”

“Hell, Kitty, you pushed beyond my comfort limits more times than I can count.” He leaned back in his chair, stretching his legs out to make room for the inevitable growing erection between them.

His dick hadn’t gotten the message that the petite redhead was off-limits sexually and had been for a long time. Hell, last night when he’d finally fallen asleep, he’d had his first wet dream in years. Starring Kitty Grant.

It wouldn’t be so disturbing if it had been the girl he’d gone to college with. He’d had a few of those over the years—they hadn’t ended in nocturnal emissions, but he’d accepted a long time ago that his libido and his subconscious were always going to find fodder in her youthful beauty.

Last night’s dream had starred the new Kitty Grant, his imagination filling in the changes in her body. His need to toss his sheets in the wash before coming into work proved his sex drive responded just as viscerally to the older, thinner version of this woman.

A smile reminiscent of the old Kitty revealed even white teeth. “You never said.”

“Like I was going to admit I couldn’t do anything you could do.”

Her smile turned into a full-on grin and he felt like he’d won the caber toss at the Highland Games. “Good to know I kept you on your toes.”

“You did that.”

The smile slipped and then disappeared altogether as her expression turned introspective. “I don’t push boundaries any longer.”

It didn’t sound like the thoughts going on inside her head were happy ones. “Let’s take that hike and we’ll see.”

He quirked his brow but kept his expression serious to let her know he meant the invitation to be real.

“Um…” She looked tempted, but something around her pretty blue eyes told him she was going to turn him down.

Before she could do it, he changed the subject. “So, not that I’m not happy to see you, but what are you doing here?”

They’d come back to the hike later. She couldn’t hold out for long. Kitty might not have liked living in Alaska, but she’d loved exploring in the wild.

In fact, there had always been so few individual aspects to living here that she’d claimed to dislike that Tack and the Grant sisters could be forgiven for believing Kitty would go to California and realize how much she missed home.

Not one of them had expected Nevin Barston.

Kitty shook her head. “Happy to see me, right.” She winked but it wasn’t accompanied by the flirty expression it used to be…more cynicism now. “Aunt Elspeth sent me over with a currant cake.”

He jumped up from his desk. “And you left it out there with the hungry hordes?”

“I only saw Egan and some blond teenager.” Her tone implied she thought he was overdramatizing.

“Our newest guide, Bobby. Don’t you realize my brother plus an eighteen-year-old can go through one of Miss Elspeth’s cakes in about five minutes?”

Kitty’s small disbelieving shake of her head said she didn’t buy it.

“You’ll see,” he tossed over his shoulder as he hotfooted it into the main reception area for MacKinnon Bros. Tours.

“We saved you some,” Egan said, like he’d done Tack a huge favor.

Tack would be more appreciative if there was more than a small sliver of cake and crumbs on Miss Elspeth’s china plate.

He glared at his brother. “I see you left a piece for Kitty, asshole, and crumbs for me.”

Egan shrugged. “Well, if you don’t want the crumbs.”

Tack grabbed the cake plate with a smack to the back of Egan’s head.

His brother just laughed, showing he’d known exactly what he was doing and was proud of himself for pulling it off. Bobby almost looked guilty, but the way he licked his lips belied any depth to that emotion.

“Oh, I don’t need a piece,” Kitty insisted.

“Of course you do.” And Tack wasn’t the only one who insisted she take the last small slice.

Egan was already putting it on a small plate and Bobby had grabbed a fork and napkin for her. The two men had clearly devoured theirs holding the slices in their hands.

Looking overwhelmed and like she wished she could refuse, Kitty accepted the offering.

“
Aana
would have our hides if we neglected to provide you a portion of the food gift you provided,” Egan said, his Inuit heritage more evident than their Scots ancestry.

“Oh, I’d like to see your mother,” Kitty said, then grimaced. “If she’d like to see me, I mean.”

“Why wouldn’t she?” Egan demanded. “You were practically part of the family when you and Tack were kids.”

Kitty looked at Tack as if waiting for his opinion. The fact that she was so aware of the disservice she did their friendship touched him in a way that he wished it didn’t.

It was obvious she didn’t expect him to take up where they’d left off.

“
Aana
has already informed me she expects to see you for dinner soon,” Tack assured Kitty as he maneuvered her into a seat. “
Emaa
offered to bake a salmon in the old way to welcome you home.”

His grandmother had made sure that Tack and his siblings stayed in touch with their Inuit heritage. He loved her for it, and for how delicious food was prepared in the ways of her forebearers.

“She knows I’m back in town?” Kitty asked after taking a small bite, chewing it slowly and then swallowing delicately.

Bobby laughed. “This is Cailkirn, Miss Grant. The whole year-round population knew you were back in town within twenty-four hours of your arrival. It would have been even faster if you’d come in with someone who talks a little more than Nik Vasov.”

Bobby’s use of “Miss Grant” rather than “Mrs.” showed that the town knew about Kitty’s divorce and her return to the use of her maiden name as well as her return. And he was sure Kitty realized that too.

Kitty frowned up at Tack. “You didn’t used to be a gossip.”

“I’m still not, but it takes a braver man than me to withhold information like that from my mom. She was on the phone to
Emaa
before I even left the kitchen.”

One of the things Kitty had never pretended to like was how everyone in town knew everyone else’s business.

With just a little over two thousand year-round inhabitants, that wasn’t true in the strictest sense, but it always felt like it. And certain families
would
always be more aware of other families and their activities.

The rivalry between the Sutherlands and MacKinnons wasn’t just about the Highland Games in summer. Along with the Grants, families from the other two clans had traveled together from the Old Country to Alaska nearly two hundred years ago. They’d settled Cailkirn, aided by a couple of Russian trappers and a local Inuit village.

Later, a couple of key families from the Gold Rush had stayed to influence the development of the town. His mother’s Inuit tribe had eventually assimilated into the town, only establishing a separate village again about sixty years ago.

Through all of it, the Scots clans had maintained a friendly rivalry. It didn’t matter that they intermarried; each child was raised to be fiercely proud of their clan’s affiliation. Maybe because the original families had fled Scotland after the unsuccessful Insurrection of 1820.

They were rebels, determined to keep their clan identities and provide a better life for their children than they could have back in Scotland.

Kitty was a Grant. The townspeople would always be interested in her.

Surprisingly, she didn’t look annoyed about that particular truth right now, just resigned as she continued to eat her cake.

Egan and Bobby talked to Kitty about her plans now that she was back in Cailkirn. She reaffirmed that she planned to work at the B&B with her aunts.