Wild Men of Alaska 01 - Impact

He loved the feel of her pressed against him and the rightness of the moment. The promise of a new day, a new life, with the woman he’d always loved.
    He moaned around her kiss, loathe to break it off, but they needed to get moving. “Save that thought for later. We need to hurry and get dressed. Not only are they reliable, they’re damn fast too.”
    Sure enough, they heard a man running up to the plane, h is boots crunching in the snow.
    Wren reached for her sweatshirt, but not before the man opened the door and was halfway inside the cockpit. With a squeak, she grabbed the covers and pulled them up to her chi n, uncovering Skip’s nakedness.
    “Morning!” The Coast Guard crewman greeted. “Glad to see you two made it through the night.” He nodded to Skip and tried unsuccessfully to hide a smile. “Officer Ozhuwan, I see you’re conducting the correct deferment method of hypothermia.” He addressed Wren, “Ms. Wren, nice to see you, and that the two of you are back together again.”
    “Leroy,” Skip said, worried over how Wren was taking all this attention, “give us a few minutes, would you?”
    “Yes, sir.” Leroy ducked out of the plane.
    “Don’t tell me, that’s—”
    “The kid you used to babysit, yeah.”
    Leroy popped his head back into the plane, his eyes shut. “Sorry, just thought I’d mention your sister and her intended are impatiently waiting in the chopper. She is really, and I mean really, worried about the condition of her wedding cake.”
    “Leroy, you might as well leave us here. It’ll be safer for everybody.”
    Wren giggled, then laughed long and loud, falling into his one-armed embrace, where she’d always belonged.
    The realization that he could be waking every morning with her in his arms, had emotion bursting forth. “Wren, before our lives become hectic with this rescue, the wedding, and Jim’s funeral, I need you to know that no other woman could impact my soul the way you always have, always will. I don’t want to lose you again.” He didn’t think he’d survive a second time.
    The love in her eyes deepened, and she reached up to smooth the worry lines in his face. “You won’t lose me. I’ve missed you so much, Skip. You’re not just the love of my life, you are my best friend. Don’t worry, I’m strong enough now.”
    Moisture collected in his eyes and throat. He hadn’t realized how afraid he’d been that he’d truly lost her five year ago. Or that after last night and the light of this morning, the reality of a future with him would be too much for her. He shouldn’t have doubted his resilient, little wren. “I love you with everything that is in me and as soon as we get through this week, I don’t want to wait another day to marry you.”
    “Do we have to wait until then?” She gave him a crafty smile. “I’m sure your sister has a perfectly good priest we could maybe borrow after her ceremony. Want to elope with me?”
    Bet your ass, he did.

    The End

Sample chapter for
    HOOKED
    a novel in the Alaskan Adventure series
    by Tiffinie Helmer .

    Prologue

    She’d always known she’d die this way.
    The strong tidal current dragged her farther into the unforgiving depths of the Bering Sea. She kicked and lashed until her limbs grew heavy, cold. Useless. Everything inside her screamed. She was too young. She had too much to live for.
    She had to kill that fucking bastard.
    Salt water burned and blinded. Filled her mouth and nose. Smothered and squeezed the life out of her.
    She’d cheated this bitch of an ocean fifteen years earlier, but she wouldn’t again. She’d never been destined to live through the sinking of the Mystic.
    Pain exploded in her chest, and her lungs flamed with the need for air.
    Blackness swallowed her.

Chapter One

    Sonya Savonski screeched her ATV to a stop alongside the dirt runway as the puddle jumper touched down. The prop airplane had just made the fifteen-minute hop from King Salmon to the small fishing village of South Naknek, Alaska.
    “That was not a fair race,” Peter hollered, parking his four-wheeler next to hers.
    “Only because you lost.”
    “I’m towing a trailer,” he pointed out, tossing his head to the side, and clearing his eyes of dark hair. At seventeen, Peter hated to lose at anything.
    “An empty trailer,” Sonya said. “It comes down to the better driver, little brother.”
    The plane taxied toward them, the noise deafening. The engines thundered down and welcomed silence