Free Northern Escape by Jennifer LaBrecque

surprise, accentuating the faint tilt at the corners. “Go on a date with you?”
    â€œSure. I’ve only got a couple of days here so I don’t have any time to waste.”
    Her look was a mixture of wariness, amusement and banked heat. “What are we going to do on this date?”
    â€œGet to know one another.” He wanted to kiss her almost as much as he wanted his next breath, maybe more. “I happen to have the inside track on a great place in town that might run after hours. I was thinking a glass of wine and—” he nodded toward the silent jukebox “—maybe a dance or two.”
    She looked away, making it impossible to read her eyes. “And you were thinking when?” Her expression revealed very little. He had no idea whether she thought he was a total fool or not.
    â€œMaybe half an hour. I’d like to change out of my work clothes.”
    A slow, sensual smile that sent his pulse into overdrive tilted the corners of her lovely mouth. “Forty-five minutes.”
    Hell, he’d wait an hour as long as it meant she’d show up. “Meet me at the bar?”
    A sweet promise flickered in the depths of her eyes. “It’s a date.”
    Â 
    S HE’D LOST HER MIND. Obviously. Unequivocally. And she couldn’t remember the last time she’d felt this alive and this energized. God knows, he was the last man she should want and God help her he was the only man she’d wanted in a long, long time.
    Gus stripped out of her work clothes in double time and hopped in the shower. A date. She had a date. She laughed aloud at the sheer elegant lunacy of it. She had a date in her own restaurant after hours in the middle of the Alaskan bush with a man who had the potential to destroy everything she’d carefully built in the last fouryears. A man she’d barely known twenty-four hours. But Nick was no stranger to her. Spending time with him, working with him tonight… She was fairly certain he was the man she’d glimpsed in his writing.
    Gus toweled off and dove under the counter in her bathroom. Somewhere…she had…where had she put it…had it gone bad…ah, there it was. She opened the perfume. Nope. It hadn’t gone bad at all. She spritzed it behind her ears and, for good measure, down her cleavage. Making short work of the hair and makeup routine, she walked over to her closet.
    Every day in Good Riddance was pretty much more of the same—dark slacks and the shirt du jour. But not tonight. She dug into the back of the closet, past the clothes that had served her well enough for the past four years. Yep, there it was, buried in the back, the quintessential little black dress. She hesitated, her hand on the hanger. The last time she’d worn it, she’d attended a function with Troy.
    Squaring her shoulders, she determinedly pulled it off the hanger. She wouldn’t let Troy keep her from wearing a dress she liked, just as she’d no longer let Troy keep her from going on a date. She tugged the black jersey and spandex over her head. It still fit like a glove. She turned and twisted in front of the mirror…actually, it fit better than it used to. She slipped on simple jewelry and a pair of low-heeled black shoes she hadn’t worn since she’d worn the dress.
    Downstairs the door creaked open between her place and the airstrip office. When the restaurant was open,with all the noise, you couldn’t really hear it, but when it was quiet like this, there was no missing it.
    She took one final look in the mirror, touched up her lipstick, drew a deep breath and stepped out into the hallway. She opened the door separating her apartment from the stairwell leading to the restaurant and bar. Her knees felt kind of shaky as she went down the stairs.
    She stepped into the restaurant. Nick stood over by the bar. The lights were low, since she’d closed. In the corner, the lights twinkled on the