Although to be fair, he’d only been trying to eavesdrop on Podly’s transmissions, not hijack the little satellite. And he sure as hell hadn’t meant to make it fall out of orbit. But to have it crash so close to Pine Creek . . . that was just outright eerie.

Then to have his childhood idol welcome him into her home and treat him with nothing but kindness? Well, he definitely was going to hell for his deceptions.

Luke turned to let the hot spray cascade over his clean-shaven face and started washing his hair. Stone hadn’t believed him about searching for an old family camp; Luke had read the suspicion in the quiet lawman’s eyes before he’d even finished telling the lie. So he’d switched to the half-truth that he knew Camry MacKeage, and that he thought she lived in Pine Creek. Chief Stone had then loaded Luke onto his snowmobile and driven the machine right through town, into the TarStone Mountain Ski Resort, and right up to what he could only describe as a castle. Hell, they’d even had to walk across a drawbridge to reach the front door!

So now what was he supposed to do? He’d just spent the last five months searching for Podly: the first three going over trajectory data, and the last two scouring Springy Mountain. And he still didn’t have a clue where that satellite was; the damn thing could be at the bottom of Pine Lake for all he knew.

Once again, Luke fought the overwhelming urge to throw himself at Grace’s feet, beg her forgiveness, then ask her to help him find her satellite that he had lost. But then all he had to do was picture Greylen MacKeage’s piercing green eyes, and remember the lethal-looking antique sword he’d seen hanging over the hearth. Confessing might be good for his soul, but getting skewered by an enraged husband was another matter entirely.

Which brought Luke’s thinking around to their daughter; did Camry take after her mother or her father?

Her father, he would guess, judging by some of her more scathing e-mails—which had actually fired his desire to meet her in person.

That is, until today. Now he wasn’t so sure he wanted to lock himself in a lab with Camry, because if she had inherited any of her daddy’s highlander genes, one of them might not come out alive.

Maybe Grace was the MacKeage he should be trying to collaborate with. He certainly wouldn’t mind fulfilling his childhood dream of working with the legendary woman. It was Grace Sutter MacKeage, after all, who had turned him on to space travel when, at the age of twelve, he’d come across an article she’d written in a science journal, where she’d talked about her ongoing search for a more efficient rocket fuel.

But she was probably on the phone to her daughter right now, telling Camry about his unexpected and decidedly unceremonious arrival. And Camry was probably telling her mother to kick him out on his frozen ass.

How had his altruistic endeavor turned into such a fiasco?

All he’d been trying to do was unlock the secret to ion propulsion, but he’d ended up destroying the final piece of the puzzle instead. Did Grace even know her forty-year-long experiment was scattered over several square miles of densely forested mountain terrain?

She had to. The entire civilized world knew something had crashed in these mountains; he just didn’t know if Grace was aware it was her beloved Podly.

Finally able to feel his toes again, Luke shut off the water and dried off. He wrapped the towel around his waist, padded into the large, tastefully decorated bedroom he’d been given, and stopped dead in his tracks.

While he’d been in the shower, someone had set clean clothes on the bed, started a roaring fire in the hearth, and placed a tray of food on a table in front of it.

Oh, yeah. He definitely was going to hell.

Chapter Two

“I really don’t care what Jack found out about Lucian Pascal Renoir,” Grace said, dropping her robe and stepping into the shower. She popped her head out to glare at Grey in the bathroom mirror. “I’m more concerned where Camry is.”

“How in hell can ye have lived with me for thirty-five years and not learned some sense of security?” Grey said, his razor stopped halfway to his face. “Ye welcomed a complete stranger into our home, and even showed him your lab today.”

Grace closed the shower curtain, lathered her sponge with lilac soap, and stepped under the spray. “I don’t need a sense of security—I have you.” She smiled when she heard him snort. “And if you could have seen Luke when I took him down to my lab this morning, you’d understand why I don’t need to know everything about him,” she continued. “The man actually kept his hands in his pockets, as if he were afraid to touch anything, and spoke in reverent whispers. It took me nearly an hour to persuade him that he could spend the afternoon down there by himself, and even catch up on his e-mail if he wanted.”

The shower curtain suddenly opened, and her husband’s face—half covered with shaving cream—popped into view. “Ye left a rival scientist in your lab all by himself all afternoon?” He sighed heavily. “That’s what I mean, Grace. You’re too damn trusting for your own good sometimes.”

She pushed him out and slid the curtain shut. “You’re letting in a draft. And Luke’s not a rival scientist because I am not competing with anyone. We are all working toward the same goal of seeing mankind travel to other planets.”

The shower curtain opened again and Grey stepped in, stole the sponge from her, and started lathering his broad chest. “The man has been all but stalking our little girl for a year, and ye gave him complete access to her work right along with yours.”

Grace didn’t have the heart to point out that he was going to smell like lilacs all day tomorrow. “And as soon as you and Jack figure out where Camry is,” she said, “I intend to send Luke after her.”

Grey dropped the sponge in surprise. “You will not! Ye may have talked me into not calling her yesterday and demanding she tell us where she is, but when we do find her, I’ll be going to get her, not Pascal. I don’t trust the bastard. He’s been lying to us since he got here. He didn’t even tell us his real name.”

Grace wrapped her arms around his neck and leaned into him. “He told us most of his name,” she whispered, running a finger over his clenched jaw. “And he wasn’t lying about Camry getting fired. I called her former boss this morning, and he told me he had been forced to let Camry go because she was so harried and unfocused, she was disrupting everyone else’s work. I know you think you should be the one to go get her,” she said in a rush, placing her finger over his lips when he tried to speak. “But think about it, Grey. If you drag Camry back to Gù Brath before she’s ready to come home on her own, it will alienate her even more.”

“Then what makes ye think Pascal can accomplish what I can’t? Camry got so angry at the man that she stopped e-mailing him.”

Grace bent down and picked up the sponge, turned her husband around, and started washing his back. “Exactly. Luke must have hit a powerfully raw nerve for her to walk away from the rousing argument they were having. Don’t you remember what Camry was like last winter, Grey? She was so excited about her work and so angry at Luke, she could have flown to the moon under her own power. But then everything suddenly stopped last summer.”

“Because Pascal said he was coming to America.”

“Exactly. Coming face-to-face with someone she was that passionately involved with obviously scared the hell out of her.”

He turned around to glare at her. “Camry fears nothing.”