He kicked off his snow boots, pulled off his socks and then stood opposite me. He was a lot taller than me. He looked in my eyes and grinned. Then he whipped me up in his arms again and tore off into the water still wearing his jeans.

“Wait! No fair!”

Cade carried me out to where the water was thigh deep on him. He dipped down in the water crouched on his knees and held me across his lap to force my knee into the icy water.

The feeling was so intense I lost control of myself momentarily and screamed at the shock of how cold it was.

He just laughed and said, “Relax. Give it a minute and you’ll be fine. And your knee will be as good as new.”

“Argh! It’s so cold! Argh. I can’t take it, anymore. Let me up. Cade, let me up. Come on. It’s not funny anymore.”

But he kept a tight hold around my waist, both of us submerged to the waist in the freezing water. “You’ve got it. Just hang in there. You can do it.”

“I can’t! Let me go!” I screamed.

“Just one more minute. One minute and we’ll get out and get back to the fire. Just think about the fire. The warm blankets I’m going to wrap you in. And the hot drink of whiskey coffee that’s going to be warming you from the inside.”

Cade talking to me, encouraging me to accomplish something as simple as being braver than the cold caught me. I stopped screaming. My breath was frantic.

“Deep breaths. You can do this.”

After a couple of inhales, I began to slow down the pace of my breathing. I looked ahead at the creek ambling over rocks at the bank, the mountains in the distance and then to the beautiful, strong man holding me tight and telling me that I can do something difficult. He was trying to help me. I stopped fighting. And felt humbled by him, by my situation. He was a good person. I might have fallen in love with him at that moment.

“Good job. Well done. You’ve got another thirty seconds and then we’re out of here. I promise you, your knee will be a lot better. You’ve almost done this. Almost there, well done.” His voice was soothing, almost hypnotic. The freezing water swirled around us as I stared up into his eyes.

“Ok,” I whispered.

The truth was I was completely flustered by what Cade had just done for me. It may seem silly to anyone else, but it was one of the nicest things any man had ever done for me. Maybe I hadn’t been lucky in love before, but he seemed to genuinely care for me. He disregarded how cold he must have been himself to help me. His arm, the one that had been tightly wrapped around me, came up to gently trace my jaw.

I wanted him to kiss me. I needed to feel those full sensuous lips on mine, and after that much more; much, much more. I just needed him to kiss me first. I had to know that it came from him too. He has to be the instigator for this to work. In my head I was screaming for him to make the move. Do it! Please, do it.

“Time’s up. We’ve got to get out of this freezing water now.”

“Uh huh.”

I couldn’t believe I wanted to stay in the freezing water. Literally one minute earlier I was screaming to come out, but I would have given anything to stay put long enough to have a luscious kiss with this oddly gruff, strong, honest, caring, mysterious man.

He carried me to the bank and stepped into his own boots. He dropped down to a knee to pick up my socks and boots.

“Here, you carry these. I’ll carry you.”

With only the sound of snow crunching beneath his footsteps, his breathing becoming heavier. We didn’t speak, but it didn’t feel like silence between us. Our heads were filled with the ideas of what might happen next. At least, mine was. Maybe he was just thinking about being alone again, running off to his workshop to avoid me. I hoped he was thinking about us. I kept my arms around his neck and prayed he wouldn’t be able to find a way out of them.

The light was beginning to fade behind the mountain as we arrived back at the cabin. It left a pink glow over everything. I couldn’t have asked for a more romantic setting. Cade set me down onto the pallet of blankets and cushions on the floor. I didn’t ask for it because I refused to instigate this encounter. I’d never believe it was a genuine desire from him if I started it, but I swear, I gave him my most soft, green light, come and get it eyes I had.

“I’ve got to get the fire going to warm you up now,” he said, but he stayed kneeling down next to me on the floor.

I licked my lips and watched his gaze slide down to my mouth. “What about you? Don’t you need to come out of those wet jeans?”

He blinked. “Um hm. I need to do that. I … um … should take them off. That OK with you?”

We were talking about wet clothes, but we were not talking about wet clothes. We held each other’s gaze and made a secret, unspoken agreement that we were going to have sex. A buzzing sensation ran all over my body. I felt like I needed to do a huge, comedy gulp at the prospect of this beautifully sculpted man, who hadn’t been with a woman in a significant amount of time, ravishing me. At the mere thought of us touching made my body prepare itself for his entry. I felt myself become wet with desire for him.

Cade rose to stoke the fire on the wood-burning stove. He placed our boots nearby to dry them, and hung our socks on the line above. His movements were deliberate. As if he was doing it to test himself. All he really wanted to do was fall on me and take me hard.

I took off my sweater that was soggy around the bottom and sat there just in a t-shirt and wet panties. My knee was much better, or maybe it was just the feeling of anticipation raging through me over Cade.

He stood in the middle of the room. “Shall I make us a hot drink? To warm you up from the inside?”

I debated taking the bait on that one. I’d love nothing more than for him to warm me up from the inside.

“Yes, that’s sounds nice.” What the hell was wrong with me? The last thing in the world I wanted was a drink. And I think I could safely say the same for him. But something had happened to me. I’d suddenly turned shy. What I really wanted was to start this thing off so we could get over this awkwardness and here I was playing the coy maiden. Cade fumbled around in the kitchen area. After a few moments, I smelled something wonderful like vanilla and cinnamon.

“Wow, that smells delicious. Is that our drinks that smell so good?” I twisted around to look at Cade in the kitchen area.

“Um, no, I just lit a candle.”

“Oh.”

I saw him peel down his wet jeans and hang them over the line. His legs were long, lean and sculpted. He seemed distracted. “Do you mind if we wait on the hot drink?”

“No, that’s ok …”

Before I could finish speaking Cade crossed the room, took my face in his strong hands, and kissed me. It was like plugging my finger into a live socket. My whole body felt electrified. We were two pieces that were meant to fit together and we had denied ourselves for so long our coming together was violent. Our lips fell into each other’s and we devoured each other. We were like animals. Hungry, crazed. His lips felt more perfect over mine than I’d even imagined. Something feral, ancient, and stronger than lust filled my body.