Page 73 of One Last Chance

It took him a second, but he caught up fast, his arms going around her, his mouth opening to deepen the kiss, to add urgency and desire and probably everything he’d been thinking—she hoped he’d been thinking—since that moment when he’d reached out for help.

She just hadn’t realized that she’d been reaching out too.

His arms tightened around her, holding her as she softened her mouth, slowed them down a little. He still tasted a little of salted caramel, and in his arms she felt at once rescued and needed.

The wind picked up the fragrance of Alaska, the piney forest, the expansive breath of the mountains, the wildness of an untamed frontier and, yeah, maybe . . .

Maybe she did have an answer to his question.

“Ever thought about doing something different?”

Yes, yes, right now, she did.

“Okay, listen, I can leave you here and come back later or . . .”

Axel raised his head, looked toward the voice.

Moose stood in the parking lot, grinning.

“Thoughts on that?” He looked down at Flynn.

“I think I need a pasty.”

He laughed.

“But for the record, you’re a better kisser than Sully.”

He held out his fist as he took her hand.

She bumped it.

* * *

He didn’t have to be in the ocean to know that he was in over his head.

Axel lay on his wretchedly small single bed, staring at the slanted ceiling of his bedroom, the sunlight leaking between the gaps in the room-darkening shades because of course the sun just couldn’t leave him alone, even at midnight.

It kept him awake, his mind replaying the kiss.

The. Kiss.

How-dy. He couldn’t remember being kissed like that—or kissing someone else quite so . . . well, like he meant it, all the way down to his soul, if that were possible. Somehow, over the past three days, Flynn had awakened something inside him that he’d thought long dead.

He felt like a freaking hero.

And the way she looked at him didn’t help. First in the chopper, then at the airport—and what was a guy to do when she dissolved into tears? Having her in his arms, holding her?—

He didn’t even have to think about it when he kissed her, the urge just crashing over him, drawn in by those beautiful green eyes, her parted lips.

And okay, the memory of Sully kissing her first—yeah, even now, as he stared at the ceiling, he drew in a breath. Sat up.

He’d been one step from pulling the guy off her.

Okay, breathe.He had felt for Sully when he’d realized the truth. And Sully’s story about Kennedy . . . yeah, that made sense. Even the part about why he hadn’t talked to Deke.

Flynn had been quiet at dinner. Maybe too quiet, although she’d gotten on with his parents all right, helping his dad with the dishes while Axel and Moose secured the trash from the animals and put away the vehicles and Moose checked in with the Air One base in Anchorage.

No callouts, for now.

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