Page 69 of Wind Valley

But this wasn’t his turf. He didn’t have any with him. His supply was back in his bag in the Freshwater Lodge in Fairbanks.

“Condom,” he mouthed.

“I’m fine. Good time of month.” she whispered back. “Last sex was nearly a year ago. All exams good since then. “You?”

“All good.” Sex without a condom…that didn’t happen very often in his life. Even Milena the Belarusian spy had insisted on protection every time, and thank God for that.

If this one time resulted in pregnancy…well, maybe it was meant to be, was all he could think as her body enclosed his erection in warm, muscular tightness. And that was his last coherent thought for a while.

She came first, covering her mouth with her own hand, smothering her cry into nothing more than a squeak. He held himself back as long as he could to keep his focus on her. But her flushed face and swelling nipples, not to mention the squeeze of her orgasm around his cock, sent him on his own rocket ride a moment later.

He clenched his jaw tight so he wouldn’t let out the shout that wanted to break free. Pumping his hips up, up, into her channel, didn’t quite give him everything he needed, so he flipped her over, pinned her arms to the side, and ravaged her that way. The dew of sweat on her face, the sexy satisfied haze in her midnight eyes, the scent of sleep clinging to her, all of it added to a climax that blew his world apart.

And then she brought it back together again with her sweet kisses while he panted on the bed next to her.

“We were quiet, weren’t we?” she whispered.

“I didn’t hear a thing. I think I went deaf and blind for a minute there. I was in another world.”

She smiled at him, her face so flushed and relaxed, her eyes so starry, that he never wanted the moment to end.

But like all moments, it did. A shout came from the living room, the yowling of cats, then the noise of something clattering to the floor.

Maura sat bolt upright. “Pinky?” she called. “Are you okay?”

A stream of curse words was the only response she got. She scrambled over him and pulled on a plush set of pajamas and a pair of fuzzy slippers, then disappeared out the door.

He took a moment longer to pull on his clothes, so by the time he joined them, Pinky was sitting upright on the floor, holding an ice pack to his head.

“What happened?”

“He had a scare.” Maura looked a little spooked herself.

A chill swept through him. “Not another…?”

She shook her head quickly. “No. He thinks there was a lynx in the house.”

“There was a lynx in the house,” grumbled Pinky. “It was right there. I was about to stoke the fire, and I opened the window and there he was, staring at me. Right in the eyeballs. Looking like he had no idea where he was.”

“Are you saying he was in the woodstove?” Maura asked incredulously.

“Yah, that’s where he was. He jumped out at me and I stumbled trying to get away from him and fell down. Hit my head on something, not sure what.”

“I think it was the tea kettle,” Maura said as she grabbed it off the floor, where it lay on its side. She couldn’t see any of the cats; they must be in hiding. The Newfie was on his feet, looking very confused.

“Reminded me of the old days when Jeanine used to get mad at me and throw things.” Pinky pulled the ice pack away to feel his lump. “Where’d that damn lynx go?”

“Pinky, is this one of your pranks? Why would a lynx be inside the stove?”

“Ask him, not me!”

Maura shot Lachlan a pleading, how-do-we-deal-with-this look, but Lachlan had been scoping out the area near the couch, and had an idea about what had happened.

“The wind was coming from the east last night, right?”

“Yeah, that’s the weather side. The big storms always come that way. That’s why I ain’t got no windows that side.”

“So…” Lachlan gingerly opened the front door, which allowed a quantity of fluffy snow to tumble inside. He peered to the east. Just as he’d expected. “The wind piled up the snow against the western wall of the house. It’s like a giant dune. The lynx ran up it as if was a ramp, then climbed in the top of the smoke stack. They can fit into smaller spaces than you think.”

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