JESSIE ODELL STOOD in the corner of a beautifully decorated room in a converted barn on the Bar T Ranch, watching the grand-opening party rage on. She’d had enough of talking about her adventures and the famous people she’d met. That part of her life had ended when Alexi had slipped into the ravine on Everest. She’d pushed on, the thin air and her own drive compelling her forward, but she’d known once she got back to base camp the grief would hit her... It never had. She’d become icy inside and out and she’d known that her old life of making adventure films for television was over. She was tired of having every moment of her life played out for the cameras. She was ready for some privacy. This job at the new Cronus training center was a godsend.
“Don’t like parties much?” a man asked, coming up on her left.
“Not really,” she admitted. He was hard to see in the shadows. Just the silhouette of a man in a dress uniform. She could tell he had a strong jaw and dark hair, though. And he was taller than she was, which was saying something as she was five feet ten inches and wearing three-inch heels. Her mother had told her to never apologize or cower because of her height, and she never had.
“Me, either,” he said. “I’m Thor, by the way.”
“Jessie. So I’m guessing Thor isn’t your given name. You don’t look Nordic.”
He laughed and it made her smile. His laugh was full of joy, not rusty, like the way she’d felt inside since Alexi’s death.
“Yeah. I guess I should have introduced myself as Hemi. Hemi Barrett. I’m part of the astronaut training crew,” he said, stepping from the shadows and holding out his hand.
“You sound American, but that name is Maori, right?”
“Yeah. On my mom’s side. She and my pops met in Hawaii and I was raised in LA.”
His dark brown beard was close cropped and accentuated the fullness of his lips. Suddenly she realized she’d been staring at his mouth for much longer than was acceptable. She felt a spark of instant attraction she’d never experienced before. For her, sexual desire usually stemmed from knowing a man, and grew out of their friendship.
But this was different. He was different, and this was definitely lust.
His eyes were also dark. Orbs of melted chocolate, decadent and sinful. His skin was tanned and there were laugh lines around his eyes, as well as a one-inch scar on his forehead above his left eye. There was a mark around his left eye as well, she saw—a birthmark. The Maori people called those with these marks nga kanohi ora o ratou ma kua wehe atu, which meant “the living faces of those who have gone on before us.” Many believed that the wearer had been marked by the gods for greatness.
Her parents’ research had kept them in New Zealand for two years when she’d been in her early teens, and Jessie had learned a lot about the Maori.
He arched one eyebrow at her and she realized she must be staring at him, but didn’t care. She had grown up in nature. Her first instincts were always driven by the laws of the wild. In the animal kingdom and in life, she’d found she never regretted standing her ground.
His lips curled in a half smile and he took a step closer. She put her hand on his arm. She felt the strength in him under the fabric of his suit jacket and flexed her fingers on it. All the men she’d known were lean from surviving in the wilderness. Not like him—he was muscled, powerful.
His handshake was firm, but not intimidating the way some men’s were.
“Jessie Odell.” He said her name with a hint of awe. He must have seen her show or read one of her books.
“Yes.”
“Wow. I used to watch your parents’ show when I was a kid,” he said.
Well, thank God for that. She’d rather talk about her childhood than her last ascent on Everest. Jessie was a part of so many people’s childhoods because of those shows her parents, marine biologists and deep-sea botanists, had made. They had followed in the spirit of Jacques Cousteau and had brought her along on their yacht as they filmed their adventures.
“I bet you hear that a lot,” he said.
“Some. Other people want to hear what it was like to survive in the Arctic.”
“That’s cool,” he said with a wink. “But I’ve been to space.”
She laughed, and it surprised her. She hadn’t expected to. But he was right. She was hiding because she didn’t want to talk about herself in a room full of men and women who’d done something extraordinary, as well.
“What’s it like?” she asked.
“Well, you can’t hide out like this,” he said. “Buy me a drink and we can exchange stories. I want to hear about the time you were in the shark cage off Africa.”
“It’s an open bar,” she pointed out.
“Then you have nothing to lose,” he said.
“Okay, let’s go.”
They maneuvered through the crowd and she saw her friend Molly Tanner. Molly was dancing with her fiancé, Ace McCoy.
“Ace has it all,” Hemi said.
“Does he?”
“Yeah. He’s been named as commander of the first long-term Cronus mission. Molly has agreed to be his wife. He’s got this training facility up and running.”
“Do you want that?” she asked.
He shrugged. “That’s not really a first-date kind of question.”
“This is a first date?” But she felt a little embarrassed that she’d asked too intimate a question. Usually when she met people they were both on their way to do something daring, where the risks were considerable and there was a high degree of probability that not everyone would make it back alive.
“I’m hoping,” he said with a wink.
That put her at ease a little. He had charm—she’d give him that. With his looks and body he probably didn’t have to work too hard to get women to fall for him. “We’ll see. I still don’t know what kind of story you’re offering in exchange for hearing about ten-year-old me and a great white.”
“The time I did a space walk and became untethered...”
“Obviously you made it back,” she said.
“Obviously. But it was pretty dicey for a while. What’s your poison?” he asked as they got to the bar.
“I’ll have what you’re having.”
“Ah, I don’t drink,” he said. “I have to stay in top condition. How do you think I’m doing?”
She skimmed her gaze down his body. His shoulders were muscled, broad and strong, tapering down to a lean waist and long legs. She arched one eyebrow. “You look good, but it could be the cut of your clothes.”
He shook his head. “Play your cards right and I might let you see me out of them.”
She rolled her eyes at him. It was an over-the-top comment and he knew it. He ordered two cranberry juices mixed with sparkling water and then led the way to a high bar table a bit farther away from the crowd in the center of the room.
When they got to the table, Hemi handed her one of the glasses. Their fingers brushed and a zing went up her arm, leaving goose bumps in its wake. She tipped her head to the side to study him.
“To new friends and great adventures.” He took a swallow and emptied half his glass.
“New adventures,” she repeated, lifting her glass and taking a sip.
“Why are you at this party?” he asked. “Wait, are you one of the new trainees?”
“No. I prefer to keep my feet on this planet. There are still so many areas I haven’t explored,” she said, but she knew it was a pat line, no longer true. She’d lost the spirit for adventure. But this man, tonight, had awakened her sense of fun and excitement. She wasn’t too sure it would last, but fun sounded like a nice change of pace.
“Then what are you doing here?” he asked.
“I’m the survival training instructor. I’m here to make sure all of you spacemen and -women know how to survive in any condition.”
“Oh, I guess we’ll be seeing a lot more of each other, then.” He grinned, and her pulse sped up as she imagined how much more of him she’d like to see...
Look for PUSHING THE LIMITS, coming soon, to read the rest of Hemi and Jessie’s story!
Copyright © 2017 by Katherine Garbera