Pushing Her Boundaries (22 page)

“No, it’s me talking, Maggie Anderson, the woman who hasn’t trusted a man since she was five years old, and the truth is,
that
no longer matters either. I’ve…Mace Williams, I’ve fallen in love with you.”

Without a word, Mace dropped the tarp. Oblivious of the falling rain, he pulled Maggie to her feet. Gripping her by her shoulders, his eyes sought hers.
Has time come to a standstill, or can I really see every single drop of water clinging to her long lashes?
“Maggie, say it again.”

“Say what?” Her smile teased him. “That I’m not mad at my father, or that I no longer want to kill Robert and Patty?”

“No, tell me you love me.” His lips descended upon hers and he took his sweet time ravaging her mouth.

When he finally let her go, Maggie cleared her throat. Her voice was hoarse. “I find it difficult to speak when you’re kissing me.”

“Let me make it easy for you. I love you, Maggie. I fell in love with you that first night.” He paused. “No, that’s not true. The moment I saw you sitting in the airport, I wanted to fuck your brains out.” She opened her mouth to speak, but Mace slid a finger under her chin and closed it for her. “It was on the flight, when that man died, and you were so cool and collected, so calm under pressure, that I knew I could fall head over heels for a woman like you. When we ended up together in the apartment and you made me that offer, Christ, it would have taken an army to drag me away.”

Maggie twined her hands around his neck, oblivious of the rain that streamed down her cheeks. “That seems so long ago, like it all happened in another lifetime.”

They stood close together in the rain, silent, the warmth of their bodies keeping the cold at bay. When at last the rain stopped, Mace lifted his head. “We have to get going, baby.”

“Yes, I know.”

Mace lifted the tarp to shake the water from it. Maggie grabbed the opposite edges and helped him. They folded it into a neat package. Mace carried it under his arm as he assisted Maggie down the muddy bank to the canoe. Together they righted the canoe and stowed their gear.

After stopping to clean the mud from her arms and legs, Maggie waded into the water and climbed into the bow. Mace shoved off and they paddled toward the portage.
There will be someone to help us, and tonight we’ll eat and drink and fuck until we drop and god help Robert and Patty, wherever the hell they are.

Chapter Twelve

Maggie brushed the hair from her face. The south wind had dried her curls, but swirling gusts kept blowing them back into her eyes. She’d hit the wall about thirty minutes before, but still her arm kept moving, automatically dipping the paddle into the water over and over, as Mace guided the canoe through an archipelago of small islands. She searched the shore for the portage.
It has to be somewhere around here
. She turned her gaze forward.

Shit, a boat.
There was a boat dead ahead. She flew around, nearly capsizing them.

“Mace,” she cried. “Look, Mace, a boat…there’s a boat, right there!” She pointed straight ahead. “Do you see it?”

He grinned at her and let out a shout. “That’s not just any boat, Maggie, those are park rangers. Fuckin’ park rangers, baby! Yell for help and paddle straight for them. There’s no way they can miss us.”

Maggie glanced back at Mace. He removed his baseball cap and began waving it wildly. Both of them shouted for help, and once they were certain the two men had heard them, they paddled with renewed energy. When a mere ten yards separated the two craft, the ranger driving the powerboat cut the engine and let his boat drift toward them.

“What can we help you with, folks?”

Maggie and Mace looked at each other and burst into laughter. Maggie eyed the cooler in the patrol boat. “Officer, I’m sorry if this sounds rude, but we’ve been stuck out here for three days with no food, no tent, and no clean water, so if you have anything edible in that cooler, would you mind sharing?”

“Are you Maggie Anderson and Mace Williams?”

“Yes,” said Mace.

“Well, shit.” The two rangers exchanged glances. “Grab hold of the side of our boat and we’ll pull you in here. C’mon.”

Mace and Maggie maneuvered the canoe until it slid up against the power boat. Mace and one of the rangers stabilized the Grumman while the other ranger helped Maggie into the bigger boat. He wrapped her in a blanket. Mace climbed in after her, and squeezed in beside her, sharing the blanket and her warmth. One of the men opened the cooler with the words, “Help yourselves,” while the other man tied their canoe to the side of the patrol boat.

Maggie twisted the cap off a bottle of ice tea. She gulped it down, drinking the contents of the bottle without a single breath. She noticed that Mace did the same with his bottle of apple juice.

“You have anything to eat with you?” asked Mace.

“Look under the seat. You’ll find a couple of sandwiches and some cookies in a waterproof pack. They’re all yours.”

“You have no idea how grateful we are,” said Maggie, watching Mace fish beneath the seat, searching out the food pack. Mace handed her a sandwich and two cookies. She tried not to shove the food in her mouth, and failed.
Oh my god, I don’t even know what this is, but it tastes like heaven.

Their canoe secured, one of the officers started up the boat, turned around, and headed south.

“There are going to be some pretty happy folks on the other side of that portage,” he said. “We were told you were dead, that you’d capsized and probably drowned. We figured we’d be out here today searching for your remains, if there were any.”

Maggie nearly choked on the sandwich. As Mace whacked her on the back, she heard him ask, “Where the hell did you get that idea?”

“Mr. and Mrs. Hauser. They were airlifted out around noon today and taken to a hospital in Ely. Stumbled into a campsite on the far north shore of the lake, half-dead. They’d been wandering through the woods for two days, no food, no water. Covered with insect bites and scratches. Once Mr. Hauser came to, he said they’d gone out with another couple and the two of you had capsized in the storm. He figured you’d drowned.”

“Are they going to be all right?” asked Mace.

“Yeah, suffering from dehydration and exposure, but they’ll be released in a couple days.”

“How…how on earth did they get clear up there?” Maggie was flabbergasted. “And what happened to their canoe and all the supplies? They had everything; we had nothing but a tarp and a single sleeping bag. They had enough food for four people for five days. Did their canoe capsize?”

“No, ma’am,” said the other officer, shaking his head. “Seems like Mr. Hauser had a GPS with him, which he insists was malfunctioning. He was trying to make his way back to Windy Point, but went the wrong direction. They went north instead of south. The two of them ended up a couple miles off the main waterway, stuck in a backwater swamp that nobody’s been down for ten years. They tried to paddle their way out, but the wind and the waves kept pushing them back.”

Maggie’s mouth dropped open. She and Mace exchanged glances.

“Don’t tell me they abandoned the canoe and all the supplies,” said Mace.

“Not the canoe. They left the supplies and tried to carry the canoe with them through the woods. They took the GPS and went to look for a portage Mr. Hauser thought was nearby, but since they were in the wrong place…” The officer shrugged. “And I guess you know how impassable these woods are. Their canoe is a lost cause. It’s a damn good thing they stumbled into an occupied campsite and the campers had a satellite phone. Mr. and Mrs. Hauser ran out of water the first night and all they carried with them to eat was a sandwich-sized bag of gorp.”

“Gorp?” Maggie began to giggle. “I’m sorry, did you say gorp?”

“They thought they’d travel light so they could cover more ground.” The officer shot her a grin.

Both she and Mace roared. Maggie couldn’t even speak; tears streamed down her cheeks. She finally croaked, “Gorp,” which caused the two of them to erupt in another paroxysm of laughter. Eventually, exhaustion catching up with them, they leaned against each other, relaxing into the rocking motion of the boat. Maggie closed her eyes.

“You folks ever been up here before?”

“No,” replied Mace. “Never.”

“So you managed to keep yourselves alive and well and find your way back, while your guides…” Maggie opened her eyes in time to see the officer shake his head.

“That’s about it in a nutshell,” Mace said.

“How’d you do it?”

Mace tightened his arm around her. “We work together very well.”

Maggie turned to gaze into a set of cool blue eyes that glowed with warmth. “We make a good team.”

“I don’t suppose you folks will come back up here after this.”

“Oh, I don’t know,” said Mace, shooting Maggie a wicked grin. “We might come back up here for our honeymoon. I think we’ve both grown quite fond of the BWCA.”

Maggie blinked. “Did you just ask me to marry you?”

“Didn’t you just say we make a good team?”

“Yes, but…”

“Maggie.” Mace slid his hands into her hair. He turned her face to his. “Shut up and kiss me.”

She remembered their first night together. Her voice was soft. “Is that an order, Mace?”

“Yeah, baby, it’s an order.”

His voice was rough, but the sound of him thrilled her. Maggie closed her eyes. “Yes, Mace. Yes.”

His lips bushed against hers. “My favorite three-letter word—y-e-s.”

THE END