I wondered if it would scar, then imagined what my mother and sisters would think about all of this.
I could just see them all shaking their heads in despair.
Of course, it would happen to Stella.
Not that they wouldn’t be worried about me. I had no doubt that they were, but out of my perfect family, I was the one who had things…happen. And if somebody was going to be in a plane crash, it would be me. If somebody was going to escape a near-wolf attack, it would be me. If somebody would end up trapped in a cabin with a mountain man…
A door opened.
I rushed from the bathroom and came out just in time to see Lukas stepping out of his boots. He glanced my way, then went back to what he was doing. He took off his coat, and I felt my breath hitch in my chest as the material of his flannel stretched tight across wide shoulders as he hung the heavy outerwear up.
He really was a rather fine specimen of manflesh, I had to admit.
“Hi,” I said nervously.
He gave me a short nod.
“You…um…were you out looking for Hank by any chance?” I asked.
“I found the crash site.” He moved over to the fire and poked at the log I’d added, then tossed on another one. “It’s cold in here.”
“I know…I just woke up a little while ago. I put that log on, but I’m sort of used to central heat, not fireplaces.” It was a lame attempt at a quip.
He didn’t even smile.
“Was Hank there?” I asked when he offered nothing else beyond the fact that he’d found the crash site.
“No.” He shot me another look. “There were a lot of footprints – looks like a helicopter landed close by. I’d say he was rescued not long after the storm broke. If you hadn’t gone off chasing wolves, you’d be tucked up some place nice and warm right now.”
“I wasn’t chasing wolves,” I snapped.
The only sound he made was a low snort.
“I was trying to get to a spot that I could get bars on my cell phone,” I informed him. “My cell phone…”
Abruptly, I realized I hadn’t seen it since I took my tumble right after the encounter with the wolves. Shit. “I don’t have my phone. Do you have a phone?”
“No landline.” He jabbed at the fire again, then made a satisfied grunt, rising to his full height. He had to be close to six and a half feet. “No cell phone is going to work up here. I found a suitcase in the airplane. Is it yours?”
The question distracted me from the idea of trying to call for help – briefly. Turning my head, I spied the carryon I’d been lugging around since I’d left New York and a thankful sigh escaped my lips. I always packed a couple days worth of clothes in my carryon, thanks to the airlines losing my luggage a time or two. Most of my stuff was being shipped out, but at least I had a change of clothes. “Thank you,” I said, moving to get it.
He brought it to me and hefted it up onto the bed. I went to touch his arm.
He moved back – fast.
Feeling slightly stung, I turned my back on him and sat down, unzipping the carryon. Everything inside it was stilled neatly tucked into place thanks to the straps and the fact that I had it crammed tight. “I can clean up and change now.”
He didn’t respond.
“Was there a note? Any kind of message Hank might have left?” I asked. “Are they out there looking for me?”
“Not right now.” He glanced toward the window. “There’s a break in the storm, but it’s already starting back up. Look.”
I groaned at the sight of flurries swirling outside the window. I’d just seen the sun not even ten minutes ago. Tearing my mind away from the weather, I went back to the topic of Hank. “You’re sure he was rescued?”
“I didn’t see it happen personally,” he replied, his voice short. “But it looked like it. There were footprints inside the fuselage of the plane, and more than a few.”
Anxious, I got up to pace. “I need to call my family. If Hank gets into town and nobody knows where I am, they are going to be frantic. Is there anybody near here that has a phone?”
“No.” He blew out a breath and turned away. “I can’t get you to a phone, but I’ve got a shortwave radio that we can use to contact emergency services. They can figure out a way to get word to your parents.”
“Oh, thank God.” Relief flooded me. “And my boyfriend. Somebody needs to call my boyfriend,” I added.
His lips twisted into a sardonic smile, and abruptly, the dream from the past night flashed through my mind. You don’t want to eat me, do you?
The wolf had licked his lips as he looked me over.
Now, as Lukas turned his head and met my eyes, he gave me another penetrating glance. It was quick, over in a blink, but I felt like that look had seen clear through me.
“And your boyfriend,” he repeated in a monotone.
* * *
Ten minutes later, I had assurances from the nearest sheriff’s department that they’d get word to my parents and Aaron that I was safe. It sounded like the sheriff knew Lukas, judging by the rapport the two of them shared and I felt better with every passing moment.
After he’d put the shortwave radio away, I looked at him with a thankful smile. “Thank you.”
He just shrugged and went about making lunch.
I offered to help, but he brushed it aside. “Rest. You’re still injured.”
“It’s just a headache,” I said and offered my help once more.
“No.”
It was delivered so curtly, I backed off, retreating to the bed I’d used since I’d woken here. I didn’t lay down though. I unzipped my suitcase and went through it, finding the warmest clothes I had. “Do you need to use the bathroom?”
He made a go-ahead gesture, and I tucked myself into the small bathroom, away from the somewhat terse silence.
Maybe Lukas just didn’t know how to interact around people. If he lived here, then he probably didn’t run into a lot of people. How long had he lived here? Did he just not like human beings?
I could understand that.
Sometimes I didn’t like them myself.
But there was no reason for the two of us to barely speak or dance on eggshells as we waited for me to be rescued. Right?
So…we could talk.
Or at least I could – I’d ask questions, and we’d sort of get to know each other.
It wasn’t like I had anything better to do.
* * *
“Do you know how to have a conversation?” I snapped at him.
It was probably four or five hours later. I’d lost track of time, and he didn’t exactly have a clock hanging on the wall of his sparsely furnished cabin. He wore a watch, but I think he’d grown tired of having me ask, “What time is it,” after about the third or fourth time.
Over the meal he’d prepared for dinner – venison steaks with baked potatoes…soooo good – he looked up and met my eyes. “I know how to have conversations,” he said, his tone pleasant enough. Then he added coolly, “I just don’t like having them.”
Aggravated, I shot to my feet, grabbing my mostly empty plate and carrying it to the sink. I could have eaten more of the steak – there was a piece left on the serving platter, but it was really hard to sit and eat across from somebody who didn’t want to speak to you.
So I just wasn’t going to bother.
“I’ll take care of the dishes,” Lukas said when I started to fill the sink with water.
“I’m not helpless,” I responded, my tone as short as his was.
When he didn’t respond, I went about washing my plate and flatware, then the small baking tray he’d used for the potatoes. When I was done, I dried the dishes and put them away.
He was still sitting at the table eating.
I had a feeling he was taking his time to avoid me.
It was enough to give me a complex.
Tempted to just go and lie down, I wondered how much longer I’d have to deal with this – then something occurred to me.
“I’ve been sleeping in your bed.”
He tensed.
It was so minute, I might have missed it, but I was watching him closely – looking for a reaction, I guess.
I finally got one.
He slid me a look from the corner of his eye, then shrugged, the movement almost too casual. “There’s only one, and you’re hurt. I’m fine in the chair.”
“But I can–”
My attempt to tell him that I’d do fine in the chair – and hey, it was closer to the fire – was cut short but a heavy crashing noise, and the tinkling sound of shattering glass.
I jumped, a startled yelp leaving my lips, as a huge tree branch came crashing through the window just beyond Lukas’s right side.
He swore and twisted away, although it was maybe a foot shy of hitting him.
Heart pounding, I rushed to his side – or tried to. He caught me around the waist and scooped me up onto the table. “Shoes,” he said shortly.
The word made no sense. “What?”
“There’s glass all over the floor. You need more than socks on your feet.”
He brought me the hiking boots I’d been wearing on the plane, and I dutifully pulled them on, lacing them up halfway before I leaped off the table. He pulled his coat on, and I shifted nervously from one foot to the other. “What are you doing?”
He gave me an are you fucking kidding me look. “I need to get that out of the window so we can get it covered up.”
“Oh.” Clearing my throat, I looked from the heavy branch back to him. “Should I help?”
He shook his head, and a moment later, he disappeared out the door.
I sighed, then looked around.
Well, he’d said there was glass all over the floor. I could work on that.
* * *
It was freezing in the cabin by the time we were done. Lukas had boarded the window up from the outside, then come back inside with a sheet of plastic from somewhere. He nailed that into place, then rummaged up more blankets and added those to the window as well.
“It’s still going to be cold,” he said, not looking at me.
I dumped the last of the glass into the garbage can.
“It’s better than nothing though.”
Nervously, I glanced back at one of the other windows. “And what do we do if the storm gets worse and it gets a lot colder?”
Lukas didn’t answer, but his face was grim.
6
A hand glided up my side.
Aaron murmured my name. “I missed you,” he said against my lips.
Sighing into his kiss, I wrapped my arms around him and wiggled closer. He was so warm. Everything about him was warm and solid, and I felt cold and empty.
His mouth skimmed down my jawline, my neck, pressed against the pulse he found there.
“Aaron…”
One hand tangled in my hair, twisting it. The other slid between my thighs, and I gasped as he sought out my clitoris, rubbing against it, toying with it until I arched up, desperate for more.
Clothes fell away.
We kicked the blankets aside.
Curling my arms around the wide shelf of his shoulders, I tugged his mouth to mine, but he had begun a meandering path lower down my body. When he caught one swollen nipple between his teeth, I groaned. He tugged on it, stretching it out with his teeth before drawing it back into his mouth.
The sensations arrowed straight down into my core, heat licking at me until I was certain the flames from the fire had managed to reach us.
Flames…the fire…the fireplace…
His beard rasped along my skin, and that tickled another memory.
Aaron didn’t have a beard. I shoved him upright and found myself staring into slate-blue eyes. “Lukas,” I whispered.
He reached up to touch my mouth. “I want to kiss you again.” That was all he said, then he was kissing me, and it was a kiss that shook me to my toes.
Was this real?
It had been Aaron before–
Dream, I thought. I’m dreaming.
Then I stopped thinking because after Lukas kissed my mouth, he began to move lower on me, pausing to kiss the tip of each breast. That was when I realized that I was naked, and so was he. The fire burned in the fireplace like an inferno, and it was so warm in the cabin. I didn’t feel chilled at all. How could I with his hands and mouth roaming over me?
“I want to kiss you again,” Lukas said, but this time, he said it between my thighs. I was too caught up, too lost in the pleasure to be embarrassed, further proof it was a dream, I’d think later on. I’d never been comfortable with Aaron doing this, and he didn’t seem to mind that I didn’t like it.
But not liking it didn’t seem to be an option right now.
Lukas licked me, and my entire body lit up like the sky on the Fourth of July.
He licked me and pleasure flared inside, so hot, so bright, so all-consuming, I might have forgotten how to breathe.
Did it matter?
What did breathing matter when something felt this good?
He thrust two fingers into my cunt and twisted them. I came hard and fast, moaning, and then Lukas was on top of me, his mouth slamming down on mine as he drove inside me.
I cried out and wrapped my legs around his hips.
“I want to eat you up,” he growled against my lips.
And I thought of the wolf.
If this was what it was like when Lukas feasted on me, then I couldn’t think of anything I wanted more.
* * *
I woke up, panting.
I woke up with the dream clear as crystal, vivid as life, pulsing in my brain.
I woke up with my entire body clenched, right on the verge of orgasm, and it didn’t help that Lukas was pressed against me. I was lying on my side, and he had me tucked up into the cradle of his body – his cock was against my butt, and it was thick, heavy, and hard. It took everything I had not to press back against him.
He grumbled under his breath, and I squeezed my eyes closed.
Please don’t let him be awake, I thought desperately.
If he was awake, I just might die of embarrassment.
But he made no noise. His breath stirred my hair, and I continued to lay there, so aroused I hurt with it, but I was afraid to move for fear that he’d wake up.
Seconds crept by, turning into minutes. I counted a full two of them before I dared to move. He hadn’t so much as moved a muscle and other than that one sleepy grumble, he hadn’t made a sound either.
He was still asleep.
Carefully, I started to slip out of the bed. The second I stuck a toe out from under the covers, I almost changed my mind.
Lukas sighed and shifted, thrusting his hips against my ass.
I bolted out of bed.
I had no choice. It was either that or turn around and climb on top of him.
I wasn’t sure I was ready to handle the consequences of that – no matter what they might be.
I darted into the bathroom as the bed squeaked behind me and shut the door. I just barely managed to keep from slamming it, and once it was closed, I turned around and pressed my back against it.
What the hell?
What the hell…
* * *
“Is it always like this?” I demanded. Turning away from the window – one of the unbroken ones – I found Lukas staring at me. But the minute I met his eyes, he looked away. A few seconds of uncomfortable silence passed. “Well?” I prodded him.
“What?” he asked, sounding irritated. “Cold? It’s the Rocky Mountains. Yes, it gets cold up here.”
“I’m talking about the storm. How much longer is this going to last? I want to get out of here.” Realizing how rude that sounded, I hurried to explain. “It’s not that I don’t appreciate you saving me, or the hospitality…” Such as it was. He barely spoke to me. “But I’ve got a life to get back to. A job I’m supposed to be starting. My boyfriend must be worried, my parents.”
“The sheriff is g
etting word to your family,” Lukas said, not offering anything about Aaron. “And there’s nothing we can do about the storm. It’s out of your control, and mine.”
I’d gathered that much. It had stormed all day, the snow piling up outside while frozen rain turned the windows to sheets of ice. There was one good side to the weather – I think all the ice had frozen over the boards outside, and at some point, we stopped hearing the window whistling through the plastic and blankets. Maybe snow had plugged whatever gaps and the fluffy white stuff that held me prisoner was offering some insulation against the cold.
And it was cold.
Lukas had ended up giving me one of his flannel shirts and a pair of socks to wear over my own. My jeans did a good enough job of keeping my legs warm, and I spent most of the time by the fire, but my arms were freezing. Or they had been, up until he held out the black and gray checked flannel shirt.
“It’ll break soon,” Lukas said, and I thought I heard a note of reassurance in his voice. “These storms never last more than a few days.”
A few days. Closing my eyes, I dropped my forehead onto the mantle and stared down into the flames until it was too warm to stay so close.
A few days.
If I had to stay this close to this odd, compelling man who barely spoke to me, I just might go crazy.
* * *
I woke to an odd silence.
It took me a while to understand what was so odd about it, but finally, I realized the wind had died down.
It had roared and wailed like a grieving, angry woman for the past few days and finally, it had calmed. I could still hear it out there, but it was more of a whistle than a wail, and I hurriedly climbed from the bed. I didn’t see Lukas anywhere, so I swapped out the sweats he’d given me to sleep in for my blue jeans and hurriedly changed into one of my other shirts as well. While it had a plaid design, it was made of challis and had as much warmth as a dress made of tissue paper, so I pulled on the flannel Lukas had given me yesterday, and the socks too.