She pulled off her sopping-wet sweater and dumped it on the floor. This was the first time in the four and a half months they’d worked together that they’d had a situation like this—where they needed to get warm and dry pronto, and were too far from anywhere to do it quickly. He hadn’t expected Debbie to start stripping though. It was a good idea, but he just hadn’t predicted it.
Next, came her black turtleneck. He was trying to concentrate on the ice-and snow-covered road, but out of the corner of his eye, he saw that her bra was purple-and-white polka-dotted silk. He smiled a little, never having thought of her wearing bright and fanciful underwear.
She unfastened her bra and dropped it on the floor. He nearly missed the turn to the main road that would take him to Whitefish where Debbie lived. He really was trying to be a gentleman, but, hell, he’d worked with her for months, and lots of times when she was wearing a skintight diving suit, he’d envisioned what she would look like naked. Now she was stripping next to him?
Not that this wasn’t essential to their—well, her—good health, but it was wreaking havoc on his libido, despite how cold and wet he was. He was a wolf, after all. But he was going to have a damn accident if he wasn’t careful.
She used one of the towels they kept in the car when they went diving to cover her waist and another to dry herself off.
Thankfully, she was concentrating on pulling on a dry turtleneck and then a sweater, too cold to notice him glancing at her. They always kept a couple pairs of clothes in backpacks in the car for diving and emergencies. She struggled to get her jeans off next and then wiggled out of her panties, which matched her bra.
As soon as she’d pulled on the rest of her dry clothes, zipped her parka up to her throat, and tugged her ski hat on, she said, “Pull over. You’ve got to get out of your wet things too.”
“I bet you say that to all the guys you dive with.” He pulled onto the shoulder and they switched places, the cold outdoors feeling even icier.
She laughed. “If I were diving with Lou Messer, probably not. His brand-new wife told the sheriff if he paired Lou up with me, he’d be leaving the police dive force.”
Allan smiled. “I heard she checks up on him all the time, wanting to know where he is, what he’s doing, and if he’s safe. I’m glad I don’t have to deal with her. If I did, I’d probably say something and get myself in trouble.”
“Yeah, but everyone needs your expertise, so they’re stuck with you.”
He laughed. “Stuck with me, eh?”
“It can be a good thing. I still can’t believe you went back for Franny’s purse. The crew could have gotten it when they pulled her SUV out of the culvert.”
“You know how women are. She was probably afraid of losing her credit cards, cash, driver’s license, no telling what. Maybe a special keepsake she was afraid might be lost.”
Then it was Allan’s turn to remove his wet clothes. He moved the passenger seat as far back as he could to give himself more leg room and began the tedious project, his fingers numb with cold and the shivering impeding his progress.
“Well, it was sweet of you, but too risky.”
After he got a dry flannel shirt and wool sweater on and had yanked a wool ski hat over his head, he finally felt relief. Then he tugged at his boots, socks, and jeans. When he got down to his black boxers, Debbie said, “I figured you for white briefs.”
“I figured you’d wear a white lacy bra and matching bikini panties.”
“You looked!” But she was smiling when she said it.
He chuckled and pulled on a pair of blue briefs, jeans, socks, and a pair of dry boots.
All dry now, he was feeling a hell of a lot better. His hair was cut short, but Debbie’s was long. He was certain her wet hair was still making her cold, but the hat she wore would keep the heat from escaping in the meantime.
He got a call on his cell and fumbled to get it out of the console, realizing then he was still feeling some of the effects of the hypothermia. The call was from Paul. He and the rest of the SEAL wolf team members still did contract missions together, but they’d put that part of their life mostly on hold while they raised families. The shared responsibility of raising lupus garou pups was all too important to a pack like theirs.
Now wasn’t the best time to call because Allan was with Debbie, but Paul would know that. Which meant Allan was probably needed for a pack-related emergency. He worried that it had to do with Franny and her claim that the SUV sliding down the embankment hadn’t been an accident. With Paul’s broken leg still incapacitating him, Allan was taking up the slack.
“Allan, we’ve got a problem.”
“Okay. Just a sec. Debbie and I were just on a case, and we’re suffering from a mild case of hypothermia.” Which Paul would be aware of, because the EMTs who rescued Franny would have told him. But Allan couldn’t let Debbie know that Paul was aware of it. “We’re dropping by her place so she can dry her hair and get warmed up a bit and then I’m headed over to my cabin. Can I call you back?” Allan didn’t want to have to watch what he was saying.