Wild Heat (Northern Fire) Read Free Page A

edges of Caitlin’s life, but this overwhelming need to react to a stranger’s situation wasn’t something she’d experienced in a long time.
    Caitlin wasn’t looking for a friend, or complications to her barely pulled together life, but her feet moved of their own volition, drawing her nearer the other woman.
    She reached out to touch Savannah’s shoulder and offer help, though heaven knew Caitlin wasn’t anyone’s idea of a hero.
    However, before her hand connected, the man turned back with a brusque, “Aren’t you coming? You’ll need to point out your bags for me. We’ve got to get on the road. The drive to Cailkirn from here isn’t short.”
    The Southern woman’s sigh of relief and whispered, “Thank God,” got to Caitlin in a way that nothing else had in a long time.
    Before she could talk herself out of it, she let her hand fall on Savannah’s shoulder, causing the other woman to stop and turn to face Caitlin. “Pardon?”
    “You’re going to Cailkirn?” Caitlin forced herself to ask.
    The woman’s gray gaze reflected the mix of emotions Caitlin had heard in her voice a moment ago as well as confusion. “I think so?”
    Caitlin nodded. “Come on, then. Let’s get our bags. We’re going to the same place and I’m going to talk your…friend”—she was uncertain what the relationship was at this point—“into giving me a ride.”
    Her original intention had been to rent a car and make the drive herself. Her brain was telling her that’s exactly what Caitlin should do. But she couldn’t help remembering all the times in the last few years she’d wished someone else had stepped in as a buffer between her and Nevin. She wasn’t sure Savannah needed one, not really, but Caitlin wasn’t walking away until she was sure the other woman didn’t.
    “Oh, I don’t know…”
    “Don’t worry. I won’t take up a lot of room.” Caitlin winked, proud of herself for making the comment without feeling the shame that still sometimes accompanied any reference to her body.
    “But—”
    “He won’t mind. It’s an Alaskan thing. Neighbors help neighbors. Especially in the small towns, but nowhere more than in Cailkirn.”
    They reached the luggage carousel and the bearded man.
    “Caitlin Grant.” She put her hand out to him. “I’m headed to the Knit and Pearl B and B. I would really appreciate a ride if you’ve got room.”
    “Nikolai Vasov.” He shook Caitlin’s hand. “I know the Grant sisters.”
    Caitlin gave Nikolai the polite expression that she’d perfected in her years with Nevin. “I’m not surprised. Most people in Cailkirn do. Moya is my grandmother.”
    Her grandmother and great-aunts had lived in the small town on the Kenai Peninsula their entire lives. With her grandfather and great-uncle Teddy gone, the three elderly ladies shared the spacious Victorian house that had been built on the original Grant homestead more than a hundred years before.
    As far as Caitlin knew, her aunt Elspeth had never lived anywhere else and her grandmother had lived in the Grant home since her marriage to Grandfather Ardal forty years ago. Aunt Alma had moved back into the big house after Teddy Winter’s death a few years after the turn of the century.
    It was a couple of years after the oldest Grant sister moved in that the sisters decided to turn the house into a bed-and-breakfast. Caitlin had been preparing to go away to college and her grandmother and aunts claimed they needed something to keep them busy.
    Caitlin realized Nikolai looked more than a little like the Vasov boy who had been a couple of years ahead of her and Tack in school. “Are you related to Alexi Vasov?”
    “He’s my cousin.”
    She nodded, vaguely remembering talk about Alexi’s uncle. Peder Vasov had left Cailkirn right after high school just like Caitlin’s parents. Somehow, both their children had ended up back in the town settled by Scots and Russians, integrating a small Inuit village along the way to