I was fairly certain he was favoring his left leg, and it was making me queasy. I wanted so badly to tell him to put me down, but I didn’t. Liam was surly, and I knew if I pushed the issue, he’d yell at me again.
Don’t get me wrong. I wasn’t someone who would roll over and let anyone yell at me.
But this was different.
Liam was clearly very agitated and borderline irrational. He knew we were both hurt, but he was so focused on me nothing else mattered to him. Fighting would only make this situation worse. I settled for holding myself up as much as I could to hopefully make me easier to carry.
“You weren’t this stubborn eight years ago,” I muttered against his chest, feeling a little surly myself.
A sound rumbled out of him and the breath he released as he spoke puffed out in a white cloud around me. “Yeah, well, eight years ago, I hadn’t lost you yet. I hadn’t lived without you.”
“Liam,” I crooned softly, putting my hand on his chest.
He paused and glanced down. Our eyes collided. His held something beyond pain. “I gave up on you, Bells.” That cold, stricken look gave way to hard determination. “I’ll never do that again. Ever.”
Pushing my hand out of the coat, I reached up, placing my icy fingers against his cheek. “I love you.”
He started walking again, more determined than before. My heavens, he was stubborn. I was damned, though, because that stubbornness coupled with his reasoning behind it melted me even in the center of an avalanche.
I don’t know how long he walked. It felt like forever. However, I was pretty certain my perception of time was sort of skewed. It didn’t help that the sky stayed dark, no hint at all in its shadows.
Eventually, Liam slowed. “Think you can walk a little?”
I suppressed an eye roll. “I’m pretty sure I can handle it.”
Carefully, Liam stood me on my feet, hands hovering around me as if he were afraid I would break.
“I’m okay.” I assured him, ignoring the pain in my shoulder.
He pointed past me. “We’re almost there.”
Following his direction, I gazed across the snow to a dark structure perched ahead. “Is that a house?”
“A cabin,” he replied, placing a hand at the small of my back to get me moving. “Years ago, one of the property managers lived out here. He was kinda eccentric and liked being out here on his own.”
“What happened to him?”
“He retired, moved to Florida to be near his grandkids. Guess he’d had enough of the snow.”
“And no one else moved in?”
Liam chuckled. “No one else wanted to live on the side of a mountain alone. Alex and I used to run around out here. Sometimes Paul would take us fishing a few miles down the mountain. Come to think of it, maybe he didn’t like being as alone as he said. Why else would he put up with two teenage boys?”
“Maybe he just liked you.”
“Maybe my father paid him extra to keep us busy.” He chuckled.
I giggled.
“Anyway, I don’t know what kind of condition the place will be in, but it will get us out of the elements for a bit. Get you warmed up.”
“Think there’s a first aid kit?”
His eyes turned sharply to me. “Are you bleeding?”
“No. You are.” I reminded him. “Liam?” I asked as the cabin drew nearer.
“Hmm?”
“How did you know where I was?”
“Alex came and found me. I guess those assholes were asking questions about you in the tavern, and he was worried. We went to your room.” He paused. “The door was open and there was broken glass… The bed was kinda messed up.”
I made a sound.
Liam stopped walking and turned abruptly. “Bellamy, did they… did they hurt you?”
I knew what he was asking. “No. They didn’t. He just hit me a couple times.”
An intense look swam over his features. I knew he was angry and I knew he hated this situation, but he managed to control it, to push aside the worst of it. “I looked out the window and I saw you. Your hair actually… You just passed close to one of the lights, and it was enough for me to see you.”
“And you followed.” I surmised, kind of awed. It almost felt like fate. For him to have been looking out the window at the exact moment I happened to walk in a spot where he could see.
“Of course, I followed. I almost didn’t grab any of my gear, but it’s a good fucking thing I did.”
“I’m sorry you lost your snowboard.” I knew he loved it. And now it was gone.
He made a dismissive motion with his hand. “It’s just a board. I have more at home.” Then after a pause, he said, much quieter, “Probably won’t even need one anyway.”
“What?” I wondered. Something about that quiet statement made my stomach flip. It seemed very ominous.
“Nothing,” he answered, then changed the subject. “I wonder if it’s locked.”
The cabin was literally just feet in front of me. I hadn’t even realized we’d gotten this close. I’d been too focused on Liam and what he was saying. This close, I was able to see it better in the dark. It wasn’t much, just a small log cabin that appeared a little weathered from being empty for a few years.
It had a single door in the front and two windows with no shutters.
Liam tried the handle, and it didn’t open. Without any hesitation, he punched through one of the small panes above the handle. The sound of the glass shattering made me wince.
“Liam!” I gasped. “Your hand!”
His arm was already through the hole he’d punched out, and seconds later, the door unlatched. Pulling his arm free, he held up his hand to show me it was fine. “I’m wearing gloves, sweetheart.”
I sniffed. I still didn’t like him punching things.
He held out his hand. I swear I saw a hint of amusement around his lips. “C’mon.”
I moved, and he whispered for me to stay close.
The pair of us moved into the dark cabin, my eyes seeking every dark corner they could find, just waiting to see if something moved.
“Anyone here?” Liam asked.
I scoffed. “Like they’d answer.”
Liam chuckled, backtracking a little to close and lock the door. I don’t know why he bothered to lock it. There was a hole in it. Once that was done, he went over toward the small, basic kitchen and opened a few cabinets. The sound of them opening and closing seemed loud and disruptive. I kept worrying it would somehow give away where we were.
I wondered again about Spidey and his creepy friend. If they had survived the avalanche. Liam seemed to think they were dead… but I knew.
I knew that if he and I could survive, then those men could, too.
The striking of a match brought me out of the shudder-worthy thoughts, and the glow of a flame filled the space as Liam lit an oil lamp. Soft, warm light filled the room, chasing away the worst of the shadows and revealing the small, sparse cabin.
“No electricity. But this will do,” Liam said, carrying it across the room to place in front of a fireplace.
The room dimmed again when he stuck the lamp inside the opening and followed it with his head. Seconds later, both he and the lamp came back out. “Well, here’s hoping the chimney is clear enough so this cabin doesn’t fill with smoke when I make this fire.”
“You’re making a fire?”
“You need to warm up, sweetheart. Come over here.”
Why did he have to call me that? Why did he have to call me that so tenderly while he was trying to take care of me? I couldn’t handle it. Not right now. Not much more. After everything that happened tonight, I was a bundle of overexposed nerves.
I followed his voice because I would literally follow it anywhere. Liam handed me the lamp and then went about using the few logs in the rack beside the fireplace and some paper that had definitely seen better days to start a fire.
As he worked, I glanced around the small cabin, noting a sofa, two chairs, and an old wooden coffee table. Near the door, there was a wooden coat rack, and across the space was a doorway I assumed led to a bedroom. On one of the walls hung a stuffed bird, its wings stretched out as if it were going to fly.
It was creepy. I tried not to look at it.
Liam appeared in front of me, setting the lamp on the coffee table not far away. The crackling of the logs in the fire drew my attention, as did the delicious heat already reaching toward me.
The flames were actually a good size, and I knew they would only grow stronger. My one hand wiggled free of the long coat sleeve, and I held it toward the warmth. I thought about tugging off the coat completely so the heat could get to the vulnerable arm and fingers against my side, but in the end, I didn’t bother.
I heard Liam moving around in the house, but I didn’t turn to look. I stared, almost transfixed by the bright-orange glow of each flame. The scent of burning wood and paper began to wrap around me, and I breathed in deep.
The pain in my shoulder cut the breath short, and I blew it out, stretching closer to the fire.
“I grabbed what I could find,” Liam murmured, coming close.
I turned, watching him set down a stack of towels and a heap of blankets that looked like they had been ripped right off the bed. Before coming to my side, he grabbed the blanket on the back of the couch and dropped it close by.
“Your teeth are chattering.” His voice was soft yet concerned when he reached for the zipper on the coat around me.
“My fingers hurt,” I told him, trying not to sound like a whiner. Maybe I was in shock I went from barely processing to processing all at once and blurting out stuff I would otherwise hold in.
“I know.” He lifted them and kissed them before returning to the coat. “That’s good. You need the feeling to come back.”
“What are you doing?” I asked as he peeled the coat off me. “I thought I was supposed to warm up.”
“This stuff is soaking wet, Bells. It’s gonna make it harder.” After he put aside his coat, he unzipped mine and started gently tugging it away.
I hissed a breath, and he stopped. His mouth was a hard line as his eyes roamed over me. “Your shoulder?”
I nodded, biting my lower lip. Without saying anything else, I peeled my coat off me the rest of the way. I wasn’t going to make him do it. He’d already done enough for me. Tears pricked the backs of my eyes, but I ignored them.
“All you have on under here is my shirt,” he growled, staring.
“I was waiting for you.”
He sighed. “I know. But this shirt is not enough protection against the cold outside.” He bent, untying the loose, barely tied laces on my boots and tugging them off. He cursed, but I didn’t acknowledge it.
I knew he was pissed to see I wasn’t wearing socks. Hell, I’d been lucky they let me put on pants.
Working back up my body, Liam unbuttoned my jeans and slid them off in one motion.
“Liam,” I said, my teeth knocking against each other. “Wh-what—”
“We need body heat, Bells.” His voice was clipped.
When he reached for the hem of my shirt, his eyes found mine, asking. I nodded once, and he tugged.
“I can’t lift my arm.” I said apologetically when the shirt was half off.
“It’s okay,” he told me gently, then worked it down over my body. When I was down to nothing but my panties, his eyes raked over me, but not in a heated way. It was as if he didn’t see my bare skin at all. All he was concerned with was injury.
When his stare fell on my shoulder, his eyes darkened. “It’s separated.”
“What?” I glanced down.
Something was off. It didn’t look like it should. It was swollen and a little… misshapen. Reaching up, I fingered near my collarbone and winced.
Taking my hand, he folded it between his, pulling it away from the shoulder. “It’s separated. Probably happened when the avalanche slammed into you.” He groaned as if it physically hurt him, too. “I’m sorry.”
“How do you know it’s separated?” I asked.
“I’ve done it a few times while boarding. You need to get an X-ray and get it in a sling. It needs ice, but I’ll be damned if I put anything cold on you right now.”
“It’s okay.” I tried to soothe him. Clearly, seeing my shoulder was upsetting him. “It doesn’t hurt much.”
He gave me a look, and I returned it.
“Can’t you just pop it back in place?” I asked.
“It’s separated, not dislocated. There’s a difference. And no, I’m not doing anything with it until we know how bad it is.”
Liam stepped back and pulled his shirt over his head, then the T-shirt underneath it. Next, he pulled off his hat and reached for the snow pants and boots.
When he was down to nothing but a pair of very formfitting boxer briefs, he shook out some blankets and tossed a thick one on the floor in front of the fire. He sat, spread his legs, and glanced up at me expectantly.
I barely noticed. I was too busy looking at his incredibly strong, suddenly bare body… concealed only by underwear.
“Bellamy,” he intoned.
I snapped to attention, glancing at his face.
He smiled knowingly. “Come here, sweetheart.”
I sat between his legs. The heat from the fully roaring fire caressed my cold skin, and I sighed. A towel landed on my head, and Liam began drying my wet hair.
“Dry your braids,” he instructed.
I reached up with the arm that didn’t hurt to finish as he grabbed me around the hips and pulled me into his body. I gasped the instant our skin met. Liam’s sharp intake of breath and the way he froze momentarily told me he was affected, too.
The towel fell from my head, and my hand dropped away. We gazed at one another, Liam holding my stare with his silvery eyes.
“Tell me if I hurt you,” he murmured, rubbing heat into my body with one hand while he held me against him with the other. He worked gently but thoroughly, somehow managing to avoid my shoulder.
“We need to get that stabilized,” he said, drawing back enough to look at it.
“It’s fine,” I murmured, snuggling back into his bare chest.
The skin-on-skin contact was sinful. It was enough to make me forget I almost died, was swept away by an avalanche, and now was hiding in some old cabin with no electricity until my limbs absorbed enough warmth to work again.
“Closer,” I whispered, pushing into him a little more.
He made a sound and lifted me into his lap. My legs locked around his waist, our bare chests smashing together. I pressed my cheek into his shoulder and slipped my good arm around his waist. Liam snatched a thick blanket off the ground and wrapped it around us, rubbing up and down my back.
My eyes slipped closed. The sound of the crackling fire, the feel of his skin, the warmth he seemed to generate even though he’d been outside, too…
“Bellamy.”
My eyes snapped back open, and the unfamiliar room came back into view.
“You can’t go to sleep, sweetheart.”
“Wasn’t going to,” I argued.
He chuckled. “Let me see your hands.”
Begrudgingly, I lifted my cheek and sat up enough to push my hands between us. Inside the blanket, he rubbed at my hands and fingers, trying to hurry up the warming process.
“How about your toes?” he queried a few minutes later.
“I’m not getting out of your lap,” I insisted. “They’re fine.” As if to prove it, I wiggled my toes behind his back.
Liam grasped my face and pulled it down. “How’s your head?” His stare bounced between my eyes. “Do you have a headache?”
“Not much,” I replied. “My shoulder hurts more than anything.”
How can he be so focused right now? How can he not be as utterly distracted by me as I am by him?
My eyes traveled downward to his chest and abs. His skin was soft and smooth-looking. I loved the way it stretched out across his chest, molding to all the muscle and strength beneath it. He’d turned into a man in the last eight years. His body was honed and experienced. The urge to run my hands all over him, relearn him all over again, eclipsed everything else in my mind.
“Your teeth aren’t chattering anymore.” He observed, rubbing the pad of his thumb over my lower lip.
“I guess you’re warming me up,” I purred. Unable to stop myself, I sucked his thumb between my lips.
He groaned. “Don’t make this harder than it already is, Bells.”
I raised an eyebrow and released his thumb. “What do you mean?”
“You know damn well what I mean,” he murmured, palming my hips and rocking into me. His rock-hard erection was unmistakable.
I rocked against him again, and pleasure rocketed through my core.
Liam moaned. His face fell into my neck, his lips grazing over the skin. Pulling back, he blew out a breath. “All I want to do is be inside you. To prove to myself you’re really okay. I know you’re sitting here with me. I know you’re mostly fine… but it’s not enough, Bellamy.” He glanced down. “I want to feel you come alive beneath my hands. It might not even be enough then.”
I caught his chin, pushed it up. “I’m not saying no.”
Silver lightning struck through his eyes. Temptation so strong passed over his face, but he shook it off. “I am.”
Before I could respond, he kissed the tip of my nose, then gently set me away. After tucking the blanket around me, he laid out our wet clothes and put our boots near the fire.
My eyes stayed with him the entire time, devouring everything about him I could. Not only was unbridled desire coursing through me, but he was my lifeline. Without him, I probably wouldn’t be here.
The thought made me shiver.
“Hey,” he murmured, coming back. “You cold again?” Liam sank down on the blanket, setting aside a white kit, and opened his arms. He had a blanket draped around his back so when he folded me close, I was wrapped in him and an extra blanket.
My eyes strayed to the first aid kit, and I sat back. “Let me clean up your head.”
“You first.” He grabbed the kit and opened it, pulling out some supplies to line up along the floor.
“I’m not bleeding,” I demanded.
“Yes. You are.” He glanced pointedly at my cheek.
“Guess that wasn’t Spidey’s blood after all,” I muttered.
“What?” Liam’s voice was sharp.
“I stabbed him in the neck with a pen. He pulled it out and hit me. I felt blood on my cheek, but I was hoping it had been his.”
Liam didn’t look thrilled. At all. “Yeah, well, it’s yours.”
Turning my head so he could see the area, he worked quietly at cleaning up the split in my cheek. I winced when he touched it at first, but the look in his eyes scared me. So I held it back and forced my expression to be passive as he tended to the tender flesh.
I guess being out in the freezing cold had been good for something. Numbing all the pain. Now that I was warming up and trying to clean up the wounds, the hurt was becoming easier to feel.
I don’t think I did as good of a job as I hoped concealing the fact my face hurt. Occasionally, the muscles in Liam’s jaw would contract as though he knew, and my belly would tighten.
“Why’d you call him Spidey?” he asked, reaching for a bandage.
I stared into the fire. “He has a big spider tattooed on the back of his neck.”
Liam moved on to my lip, dabbing. It stung, too, so I figured it must also be split. When he was done, he tossed aside the cotton pad and glanced down at my shoulder. “Try not to move that around, okay?”
I nodded and reached for the supplies.
His hand settled over mine, and I looked up.
“You need to tell me.”
My voice shook. “Tell you what?”
I knew.
He knew that I knew.
He knew I was trying to evade. Up until now, he’d let me, but all that ended tonight.
“Tell me why those men came here. Why they want to kill you,” Liam answered. “It’s time, Bellamy. You need to tell me everything.”