She’s the perfect combination of princess & warrior.
When single mom Jackie Walker meets her brother’s best friend, wilderness survival expert Scott Nielsen, she’s instantly attracted to the tall, blond outdoorsman. But she has no idea that he’s Dominant.
As Scott works to set up his new outdoors school at the Walker family’s remote lakeside guest lodge, he sees in Jackie the submissive she’s positive she’s not. And maybe the one he’s been waiting for.
Can strong, independent Jackie let go enough to allow Scott to show her a whole new world?
Here’s a wintry teaser from WARRIOR MINE.
Wringing her hands in front of her, Jackie paced back and forth by the windows as cold fear thrummed through her veins. The storm seemed to have increased in intensity, but she wondered whether it was just her imagination.
She’d received Scott’s text half an hour earlier, and she’d forced herself to walk away from the computer where his GPS location was being tracked on a map of the lake. Watching minute by minute wasn’t helping anything, and she had guests to attend to.
A glance showed her that Emma and Grant were still playing quietly, unaware of the danger Scott faced alone in the snow. Perhaps it was that, to them, strong and larger than life as he was, he was simply invincible. She envied them, she realized.
“He’s fine, Jacks.” Blake materialized beside her, handing her a mug of coffee.
Jackie accepted it, nodding her thanks. “I know. I just…” She shrugged, not knowing what else to say.
A loud bang from the reception area startled them, and a whoosh of cold air swirled into the room.
“Oh, thank God!” Jackie ran to the dining room door, several others following behind her. Across the reception area, the lodge’s front door had swung all the way open, banging against the wall. Snow swirled wildly on icy gusts around a lone figure in a black parka.
Jackie grabbed his arm and pulled him further into the room, then battled the wind to close the door. Hadley Pierce tugged down his hood and stomped to shake off the snow from his boots and clothes.
“C-c-cold,” he shivered, pulling off his heavy gloves.
“Come on, bud,” Dan Spinelli said. “Let’s get you by the fire.” He helped the man out of his coat and guided him into the dining room.
Jackie hung the coat on a hook and followed. “Where’s Scott? Putting away the snowmobile?”
Pierce pulled off his black knit beanie, uncovering his shaggy dark hair which stuck out in all directions. He dropped the cap to the floor and held his hands out toward the fire. “So fucking cold,” he muttered.
“Scott! Where’s Scott?” Jackie grabbed the young man’s arm and spun him around.
He blinked down at her.
“Dammit! Where is Scott?”
“How should I know?” he shrugged, turning back to the fire.
Jackie grabbed him again, whirling him around and slamming him against the stone of the fireplace. “You should know because he went out looking for your sorry ass when you went out in the middle of a fucking blizzard,” she growled.
Blake placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. “Easy, sis.”
Indignance flashed in Pierce’s eyes. “Look, all I know is, your piece of shit snowmobile broke down, and I had to walk all the way back here. I don’t know anything about Scott.”
He shoved past Jackie to return to the fire. “He’s a sorry excuse for a wilderness expert, you ask me,” he muttered.
Before Blake could stop her, Jackie spun the young man around once more and slapped him hard across the face. A second crack rang out before Pierce could recover from the first.
“You listen to me, you snot-nosed motherfucker.” Jackie waved her finger in his face.
Blake gently wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her away from the young man.
“He’s out there looking for you after you ignored his instructions. He told you not to go out in a blizzard. He’s risking his life for you, you sorry sack of shit!”
Pierce opened his mouth to reply, but Jackie raised her hand as if to slap him a third time. “Not another word. You keep your mouth shut, and you stay away from me. As soon as this storm’s over, I want you out of here, and I never want to see you again.”
She turned on her heel, heading to the office. Blake followed close behind her. “Jacks, we’ll just text him and tell him to come back.”
“Yeah, but it still infuriates me that one idiot created such a mess. And the snowmobile didn’t ‘break down’. He wrecked it on the rocks at the end of the lake. Scott found it.”
She tapped in the password and the screen lit up with a topographical map of the lake. Leaning closer, she blinked. The blip that had been Scott was gone. She refreshed the page, but there was no red path leading from the lodge to the end of the lake.
“What the…” Blake clicked a few things, but nothing changed the map.
On her phone, Jackie sent a quick text.
The douchebag just showed up. Hurry back now.
The message was immediately returned with an error notification. Receiving device unavailable. Try again later.
Jackie looked up at Blake, who shrugged slightly. “Something must be wrong with his sat-com.” He scrubbed a hand across his mouth as he sank into a chair. “So, we don’t know where he is, and we can’t communicate with him.”
“I’m calling the police,” Jackie said, determination in her voice. She tapped the number into the office phone.
After a trio of rings, someone answered. “Eliot Lake Police, Ned Hart.”
“Ned, thank God! This is Jackie Walker at Lake Miranda Lodge. One of our survival school students went AWOL in the storm, and Scott went out after him. The thing is, the guy wandered back, but Scott’s still out there. We can’t get ahold of him on the sat-com, and I’m frantic. Can you send someone out to look for him?”
There was a pause on the other end. Then, “Jackie, I can’t send anyone out in the middle of a blizzard. Now I’m looking at the radar, and it looks like this might all be past us in another couple of hours, but I’m sure you understand, I can’t risk the lives of my team in the middle of a storm like this.”
Jackie felt as though she’d been gut-punched. She fought to breathe.
“Jackie?”
She pulled herself straight and tall. “Fine,” she said softly, “I’ll just go find him myself.”
WARRIOR MINE by Pandora Spocks
Pandora Spocks 