“Almost there.”
At the top, the man quickly untied the rope from around me, then pulled a blanket from a four-wheeler, draping it over my head and shoulders before untying himself. My stomach heaved and the world went sideways. “I’m sorry,” I said before turning and emptying the contents of my stomach on the snow.
He held my shoulders, pulling my hair back as I heaved. Tears and snot were pouring from my face, but I didn’t care. Couldn’t care, as it took every last bit of energy I had to stay on my feet as the world spun crazily around me.
Very gently, he wiped my face with something before guiding me over to the four-wheeler and helping me climb on.
“Thank you.” At least I tried to say the words, but they could have just been lost inside my head. I wasn’t sure. I wasn’t sure of anything any longer.
Between the hat and dark googles, and the beard that covered the lower half of his face, I still couldn’t see him. I couldn’t tell what he was thinking. I couldn’t tell what kind of man he was. All I knew at the moment was that he had saved me. He had risked his own life to save a stranger. That was good enough for me.
“We need to get out of the weather. It’s about to get worse.”
I was incredulous. Worse than this? Was this mountain about to turn into an iceberg?
The off-road vehicle dipped as he sat down behind me, my ass nestled between his strong thighs. I tried to move away, but he hit the gas, and I didn’t have the energy or strength to do anything but settle back against his chest and huddle deeper into the blanket to keep the worst of the snow from smacking my already frozen face.
How he knew which way to go was beyond me, but when I peeked out, I noticed a set of tracks that were quickly filling in with additional snow. He pulled something from his pocket and held it up. A blue light flashed. A GPS, I realized. I needed to get me one of those.
Some time passed before I noticed a twinkling of lights in front of us, and in those minutes the adrenaline faded, causing all the aches and pains to reintroduce themselves. Every muscle in my body sang, but it was my head that was causing the most trouble. When we hit a hole and were jarred sideways, I reached up and pressed my skull with my hands, hoping to keep my brain from jostling around too much.
“Almost there,” he promised, one arm tightening around me. And even with all that had happened, and all the uncertainty still to come, I’d never felt so safe. Ever.
When he turned off the ATV in front of the cabin, the blessed silence nearly made me groan, and before I could attempt to climb off myself, I was swooped up in his arms. Six steps later, we were on a porch then… warmth. The sudden change of temperature caused me to shudder.
“Let’s get you warmed up,” he soothed, his voice a deep rumble as he sat me down on a long sofa in front of a roaring fire. A beautiful brown dog with a wide head and calm chocolate-colored eyes came forward, tail wagging as she inspected me. Her fur was soft under my fingers as I stroked her pretty head and scratched behind her ears. Within ten seconds, I was in love.
“That’s Maggie.”
His words brought my attention back to my savior, and as I watched, he kicked off his boots and shrugged out of his jacket, his gloves and wool hat landing on the hearth. The goggles came next, revealing eyes that were the bluest I’d ever seen.
I remembered watching Beauty and the Beast as a girl and had always loved the moment when Belle saw past the monster and looked into the beast’s eyes. Not that this man was a monster. Hairy yes, but that was where the resemblance ended. The beard and long hair gave him a rugged look, but beneath them were fine bones that I wanted to trace with my fingers.
Stop it.
It must have been the brush with death and the happiness to be alive that had me thinking so sensually, so vividly. So wildly. Because of my mother and the world she lived in, I avoided sex at all costs. I’d never met a man who’d so much as stirred enough curiosity to tempt me over to that dark side. To me, sex wasn’t a beautiful thing. It wasn’t a natural thing between two people. It represented greed and power and control.
I’ll make you feel good, honey.
I shivered at the memory of those words, but refused to let my thoughts go there. I turned my gaze back to the dog, who’d plopped her broad head on my thigh, looking up at me with instant adoration.
Even though my vision was still blurred, I could see my savior unbutton a thick flannel shirt in my periphery, shrugging it from his shoulders to reveal a — good heavens — light gray t-shirt that clung to his muscular chest.
My fingers began to tremble in Maggie’s fur, and I couldn’t make them stop. And although I was getting warm, my teeth continued to chatter. I had no control over my muscles and felt like an earthquake was going off inside me.
My savior dropped to his knees in front of me, concern in his blue eyes. He untied my boots and dragged them off along with my socks, warming my toes with his hands.
“You’re going into shock, but you’ll be okay, I promise,” he soothed, his voice a low rumble. “Look at me.”
I did, and he clamped his long fingers on either side of my face to keep me steady. Nausea churned in my stomach and I swallowed hard, willing myself to keep it down. It had been humiliating enough to vomit in front of him outside. I’d be mortified to do the same inside his home. On the lovely rug in front of me. On him.
“Your pupils are uneven but are reacting to the change in light. Is your vision blurry?”
I nodded. The edges of my vision were worse than what was immediately in front of me. It made me feel claustrophobic, like I was trapped when I clearly wasn’t.
Still frowning, he unzipped my jacket and pulled it down my arms. The hat came next, and he frowned at the blood on the t-shirt I’d wrapped around my head, but he didn’t remove it. “Let’s get you out of all these wet clothes first.”
I wanted to protest but found I couldn’t as he undid the button of my jeans, then lifted me so he could pull them over my bottom and down my legs. I was still shaking uncontrollably as his fingers touched the sides of my plain cotton panties. He frowned and looked up at me. “These are wet too. We need to get them off.”
He tossed a blanket over my legs, then waited as I tried to remove them myself, but for some reason, my hands wouldn’t do what my mind was telling them to. When it was clear I couldn’t complete the simplest of tasks, he removed my underwear for me. The actions were almost clinical in their speedy precision, and he didn’t look at the white cotton as he tossed them closer to the fire.
My cheeks flamed. “Th-th-thank y-y-ou.”