Elle
I woke up early feeling chilled as breath wafted around my face. It had lightened slightly outside, but the sun hadn’t really come out yet. Instead, the light that filtered into the windows from the cracks and crevices I hadn’t managed to seal up well enough was gray and soft. It was a little bleak, and for a moment I felt just awful.
I had to remind myself I wasn’t home, not at mine or my parents’. This little cabin had been a Godsend last night, but it took a second to remember that this morning. I felt cold, there was a stranger sleeping on the couch at my back, and the dying embers of the fire were very few. It had gone out sometime in the night and that explained my chills.
Shivering, I forced myself to crawl out from beneath the blanket that I had decided to share with my mysterious and sexy stranger. It was a warmth thing last night, because even with the fire, it wasn’t so warm in there that I didn’t want a blanket. I figured if we were both nestled beneath it, even if we weren’t cuddled—my face flushed at the thought of our bodies wrapped together in a tight embrace, pushed close to one another, legs entwined—together the warmth from our combined bodies would heat the air beneath the blanket and help us both out.
It had worked and was probably the reason I wasn’t colder than I was, but now I had to leave the comfort of it and try to bring the fire back to life. I couldn’t risk letting it get too cool in here, especially since I didn’t know what sort of condition my new and unconscious friend was in.
As I got up, the chill instantly worse, I shivered and hurried over to where the stack of wood was. I’d used what felt like a lot of the logs, but there were plenty more and I hoped I’d only have to use a few more for today. Just until I got my car started—something I was dreading. My car didn’t do great in cold weather, and if the circumstances last night had been different, I would have tried to wrap up the engine block or something to keep it warmer through the night. It was something I’d learned on one of those camping trips. If you wanted to keep a car starting the next morning, make sure it didn’t freeze the night before.
Unfortunately, we’d been so desperate for shelter and the snow had been so bad the night before that I hadn’t dared risk going back out into it.
Even if it doesn’t start, I’ll probably have some kind of service once the storm’s passed, I thought optimistically.
I grabbed several heavy chunks of wood, then several smaller ones. I stacked them into a neat house in the fireplace. Grabbing the poker off to the side, I poked beneath my makeshift house until I stirred up the embers enough that they were glowing brightly. Then I grabbed the lighter in my pocket and lit the bottom of the house. It caught quickly, and I was grateful to see it spark up and begin to consume the fuel.
For a few moments, I stared at it, watching to make sure it was going strong and wouldn’t go out anytime soon, blowing on it occasionally to help it along. When I was satisfied the room wouldn’t freeze and I wouldn’t lose my fire, I glanced back over at my sleeping companion.
He looked better, I instantly decided. His dark hair was dry now, the coloring a little lighter and tinged with an undercurrent of red that worked well with his rugged features. His eyes were still closed, but I pictured the bright green they were beneath, how they had entranced me the moment I’d looked into them.
His breaths were even, his muscular chest rising and falling rhythmically. It made me feel a little better to think he was going to be okay. At least I thought he was.
Earlier, when I’d been trying not to wake up and face the cold morning, I’d heard him groaning in his sleep. He muttered and mumbled as he had been all night and I couldn’t help but wonder what he’d been dreaming about. Had he been having nightmares? Should I have woken him up? I wasn’t sure, but I hadn’t wanted to stir him from sleep if I didn’t have to. Although his fever had broken sometime in the night, I knew rest was important for him to heal. And in the gray light of morning and the flickering firelight, I knew he definitely needed some healing.
He was bruised and bloodied up a bit, telling me he’d probably been in some kind of fight. It was likely the reason he’d been lying in that ditch covered in snow when I found him, though I couldn’t be sure. Maybe it had been some kind of car accident instead.
Regardless of the reason, he was injured and I had decided to pick him up, which made him my responsibility.
Tearing my eyes away from him, I reminded myself that I needed to check to see if my phone had any service yet. I got up and stretched a little, starting to warm up, though the room was chilly still. I dug into my jacket pocket in search of my phone. When I found it, I pulled it out and turned it on. I’d turned it off in an effort to save what little battery remained, but as it flickered to life I saw it had been a mostly useless endeavor. My battery was flashing at two percent, which meant I didn’t have much time at all. I checked the service—no bars.
Damnit. My battery was dying, the electricity in this cabin was out, there wasn’t a charger in my car even if I could get it started, and on top of it all I didn’t even get a damn signal!
“Can things get any worse?” I wondered aloud.
I glanced at the man on the couch. He was still sleeping soundly. Thankfully, whatever dreams had been wracking him seemed to have stopped and he was now calmly and peacefully sleeping. Or at least that was how it seemed from the outside.
Deciding that I needed to check and see what was really going on outside, I first went to the large window from the front room. I pulled back the impromptu curtain I’d put up from the night before to see if I could assess the damage. Just from looking through the window, I could tell it wasn’t good. The snow was at the windowsill, meaning it was at least up to my knees and probably closer to my waist in all actuality. Which meant my car was probably buried up to the damn roof. Which meant I’d have to try to dig it out if we were going to leave today.
And what’s the point of that? I silently asked myself.
Assuming I could somehow dig out my car, which I doubted unless I could find a snow shovel around here somewhere, then I’d have to try to start the damn thing. Which I didn’t have a lot of faith in considering the block of the motor was probably frozen solid. I knew I should have braved the storm last night and tried to find something to wrap it up in.
But even if I could uncover the car, and even if the motor wasn’t frozen, and even if it ran just fine—which it didn’t do before the storm, much less after—there was still the matter of the roads being blanketed. The main roads, the highways and such, might be okay. They had likely spread enough salt out that the roads would be slick and probably icy, but not covered in several feet of snow. But the ones that led in and out of this little area of unused cabins? It didn’t look like there was enough traffic to justify it, which meant I’d have to clear those roads, too.
Not a very appealing prospect.
Even less appealing if I couldn’t find a damn shovel.
And if all of that wasn’t worrisome enough, there was the fact that the sky was still gray and overcast. What little sunlight was peeking through was still gray and I didn’t think that would change. Worse still, snow was still drifting down from those clouds. Meaning the storm hadn’t fully passed—or another one had come in to take its place.
“Which means more snow,” I whispered.
Deciding that if I was going to make an attempt at digging out my car—or getting anything out of it—I’d have to do it now, before the next blizzard decided to wrap us up like a cocoon in this little cabin for the next day or so.
I bundled up as best I could, made sure the fire was going strong, and briefly checked on the man sleeping on the couch before heading out into the snow. I was right: it was up to my hips. Moving through it was harder than it looked, and it didn’t exactly look easy.
When I first stepped outside, I looked around at the area and noted two things. The trees were noticeable only because their trunks weren’t holding snow like their limbs. And everything looked the same.
I stood on the porch, which was covered mostly by a snowdrift where the storm had pressed it in despite the overhang. I turned around in a circle until I came back to the front and noted that I couldn’t tell anything apart. If I got lost out there…well, I didn’t think I’d come back. I wished I had a compass or something, but it was back home in my emergency pack—which I ironically hadn’t brought with me.
I won’t need it for a quick trip to my parents, I had thought. Now I could kick myself for my own stupidity.
“I’ll just have to mark it,” I told the air. Thankfully, the snow was falling straight down instead of from the side. It meant the wind was down, which helped a lot with the cold. It was still frigid outside of course but at least it wasn’t biting. Pulling my coat tighter around me, I dipped back inside to find something that I could use as my proverbial bread crumbs to lead me back to the cabin.
I went to the kitchen first and looked around, but couldn’t find anything useful. Cutlery, the canned food I’d found the night before, some pots and pans and plates. Nothing that would work well for marking the path. I thought about just going out there and finding my car, then using my earlier footprints to lead me back, but that seemed like a really foolish idea. If I only took a minute or two, it would probably be fine, but if I ended up taking a while, then I’d be in trouble. The snow was still falling, meaning that my tracks could fill up before I had time to follow them back to the cabin.
You’re probably just being overly cautious, I thought to myself as I checked the last couple of cabinets in the kitchen. Still nothing.
I told myself that if I found nothing, I’d still be fine. The tracks would be deep since the snow was too deep and surely they would take a long time to fill up. But I was still nervous, so I moved from the kitchen to down the hall.
I hadn’t gone further than the hall because I’d found a closet with what I had been looking for. Spare blankets, quilts, and even a couple of pillows. Just past that was the bathroom, and after that I wasn’t really concerned with what was in the rest of the house. But now that I was on a mission, I acknowledged that looking back there was probably a good idea.
Starting with the linen closet again, I dug through it in search of something useful. Towels, pillow cases, some sheets. I paused on the sheets. If I had to, I could tie them together and use them to mark my path, but I didn’t really like that too much. I’d need a lot of sheets, and they were white to boot, meaning they’d be really hard to see in the snow. Still, I set them aside just in case.
Moving along, I made my way to the back room. It was a bedroom, as expected, and was actually pretty nice. It seemed a little dusty or at least had that feeling of disuse. Like this room needed to be aired out before guests stayed here or anything like that.
It was decorated like the rest of the cabin, with that rustic charm tourists were always expecting from little cabin getaways like this. There was a single king-sized bed pushed against one wall with a bedside table on either side of it. It was made neatly with several embroidered throw pillows that half matched the quilted blanket laid over the top of the mattress, colored in that red plaid that always reminded me of lumberjacks. The tables looked like they might have been handcrafted—or prepressed to look that way. There was a chest of drawers and a vanity across from the bed against the other wall. The mirror was ornate if a little small and the drawers beneath it were long with tarnished brass handles. There was one window at the very back of the room, wide so there was a nice view of the trees in the back, and on the opposite wall right next to the doorway where I stood was a closet.
I briefly looked around, moving pillows and blankets and checking in drawers for something I could use before moving to look inside the closet. There were several shelves and space to hang clothes. I was about to close the door and accept that I was just going to have to risk going without anything when I noticed that in the bottom of the closet on the floor was a basket. It was woven and looked like it was either a Christmas decoration or a prop for Little Red Riding Hood. I would have ignored it and been on my way if I hadn’t spotted some bright red yarn balled up and sitting prettily in the basket.
Yes! I thought triumphantly. That was exactly what I was looking for!
With my prize in hand, I abandoned that back room and headed back to the main room in the front. I checked on my sleeping friend once more; he still seemed the same, unconscious, but otherwise all right. Then I made sure the fire was going strong; it was. Satisfied, I braved the outside once more.
I closed the door tightly behind me, but made sure I had the key in my pocket, then I tied one end of my string to the porch. I began the trek back to my car. It seemed longer than I remembered, but maybe that was because I hadn’t been wading through snow up to my waist the night before. It took me a little bit, but I found my car and I was right. It was completely buried. The only reason I found it was because of the antenna sticking out of the snow, the little ribbon I’d tied to it hanging limply at the tip of it.
“Damnit,” I cursed, my voice sounding much louder thanks to all of the snow.
I sighed. There was no way I was getting my car out of this I realized quickly. Still, I made my way to the car and tied my string to the antenna, the only part really visible. That way I would be able to find it easily again if I had to come back out.
Shaking my head a little at all of the bad luck I’d been having the last twenty-four hours, I headed back, following the red string I had tied between my car and the cabin.
When I got back to the cabin, I was freezing. I stomped my boots at the door to knock off some of the snow, but my pants were soaked and so was the hem of my sweater. I knew I had to change out of my wet clothes unless I wanted to get sick, but didn’t have a lot to change into. I eyed the man still lying on the couch.
I could strip and lay them over the fire to dry, I thought, weighing the wisdom of being more or less naked in front of him. He was asleep, but he could wake up whenever.
Or I could try to find something to wear back in that closet. I’d found some quilts and things before; maybe they had sweats or something, too.
Deciding that was definitely the right move to make, I slipped off my boots and my wet socks, then headed down the hall in search of dry clothes. As soon as I left that main living room, I was freezing all over again. Holding my jacket around me to try to hold onto some of the warmth, I went into the hall and dug through the linen closet. I found those sheets again and figured I could use them to wrap up in if I had to, but I was really hoping for real clothing. I took them along with me as I made my way into the bedroom.
I looked in that same closet, hoping that the knitting stuff also meant there might be some finished knitting projects. It was a long shot, but it paid off. I was pleased to see a stack of three neatly folded sweaters.
“Thank God,” I muttered, then snatched them all up.
I headed back to the room quickly and headed to the fireplace. I began to shuck off my clothing as quickly as possible and hung them over the gate around the fireplace in hopes that some of it would dry. With any luck, I wouldn’t be stuck in an oversized sweater when the guy woke up.
When I’d taken off everything—panties, shirt, bra—I slipped one of the sweaters on top of me and settled as close to the fireplace as I could get. I still felt chilled to my bones, but the fire was beginning to help me thaw. I had my hands held out to the fireplace when I heard the voice behind me.
“What…where are we?”
I nearly jumped out of my skin, my eyes going wide as I spun around to face the man who had been sleeping since we’d arrived last night. “Oh my God! You scared me half to death!”
I watched as he struggled to push himself up into a sitting position. He was clearly still sore and was probably feeling kind of weak still since he’d only taken a couple of bites of stew the night before, but otherwise he seemed like he was doing okay. I watched as the blanket fell from his chest, exposing the thin fabric of his t-shirt to my eyes. I didn’t mean to, but my gaze dipped to the plains of his chest, slipping over the hard muscles there.
Jerking my gaze back up to his face, hoping he hadn’t noticed my sudden distraction, I smiled at him. “You’re awake. You really had me worried there for a minute.”
When he managed to sit up completely, he took a moment to take in our surroundings—log cabin, covered windows, the couch, and finally the fire where I sat warming my hands in nothing but some oversized sweater that smelled like mothballs. I suddenly flushed, realizing I didn’t have pants.
So much for the dry before he wakes up thing, I thought, embarrassment washing through me.
His eyes lingered on me, not the fire, and seemed to smolder like the embers I’d found in the fireplace this morning. I couldn’t tell what he was thinking, his expression an unreadable mask, but I noticed his full lips tug into the faintest of frowns. Did he not like what he saw?
Not that it matters, I reminded myself haughtily. He was a stranger. We were together only due to circumstance. It didn’t matter in the least if he found me attractive.
Still, the idea that he didn’t stung a little bit.
“What happened?” he asked finally.
I shook my head. “Well, I was driving home to…” I was about to explain all about my parents and why I’d dallied so long before getting on the road and how I’d gotten caught in the storm, but decided he didn’t want to hear all of that crap so I jumped ahead. “I found you in that ditch. Wouldn’t have seen you if I hadn’t been trying to get a signal on my cell.” I motioned towards my phone that was sitting on the table by the door. It was dead and useless. “I thought you were dead, but then you moved and I got you in my car. I pulled off at the first turn I could find. You were in really bad shape.” I fell silent, waiting for…something. An explanation, maybe? Just something to fill in his side of the night.
He took in my story for a moment, then said, “Thank you. I guess I owe you a lot.”
I smiled, feeling my cheeks warm even further. “Of course. I mean, it was definitely no problem. I’m just glad I found you.” I winced at how that sounded. Like I was in some romance novel and he was my romantic lead. “I mean, in time. I found you in time. You know, before something bad happened.” His eyebrows rose and I noted his bruises again. “Worse. Before something worse happened, because obviously something bad already happened and—”
I was rambling. Bad rambling. All over the place rambling. I felt that generally speaking I did pretty well with people. I was upbeat and fairly likeable, everyone told me so, and usually I didn’t have a problem with social engagements. Hanging out with people? No problem. Meeting new people for the first time? Got it under control. But throw me in what basically amounted to a one-room cabin with a dark and gorgeous stranger while I sat in nothing but an oversized sweater? Apparently that was not a situation I handled well.
I heard the man laugh a little at me, then cough to cover it up. He cleared his throat then and said, “Right. And does my pretty rescuer have a name?”
Pretty? My mind immediately latched onto that word and ran with it. It worked overtime to create these elaborate scenarios of him drawing me to him, brushing away my hair, telling me I was gorgeous, picture perfect, whatever. And then he would kiss me and hold me tightly to his chest until I felt like—
My face must have turned red from his compliment and the fantasy, but I hoped he didn’t notice. Or at least that he thought it was from the fire or something. Yeah right. Combing my fingers through my tangled, still slightly damp hair, I smiled at him and said, “Um, it’s Elle. Elle Finney.”
His eyes flickered, then he smiled a little. “Ciaran O’Connor.”
Ciaran. Finally, I had a name for my enigmatic stranger. I thought instantly that the name suited him. It had a powerful, almost dangerous ring to it, but it was sexy, too. Which just so happened to also describe him perfectly.
“It’s nice to meet you finally, Mr. O’Connor.”
His smile widened slightly, turning into a knowing smirk, and I suddenly had the very real impression that he knew I thought he was sexy. “Call me Ciaran, please. And, really, the pleasure is all mine.”
A shudder went through me. Not fair! No way was a cliché like that allowed to get me all hot and bothered! Before I had to struggle and find something to say to that, Ciaran shoved off the blanket I’d thrown across him and swung his feet to the floor. “Is the storm still bad?” he asked, glancing uncertainly at the covered window.
I shook my head. “Um, no. It’s still coming down a little, but the wind has died down and the snow is pretty light at the moment.”
At my statement, he nodded and pushed himself to a standing position. When he swayed like he might crumple back down, I leapt to my feet and hurried over to him. By the time I reached him, he had already steadied himself, but I reached for him anyway. I put a hand on his arm to steady him. “Take it easy!” I scolded him. “You were running a really high fever last night and you were in bad shape when I found you. Don’t push yourself.”
I half expected him to shake me off, because he looked like the kind of man who didn’t want to take any sort of help from the likes of me. But instead he just looked down at where my hand touched his bare skin just beneath his shirtsleeve. I noticed a twining Celtic knot tattoo on his bicep where I was touching and beneath that what looked to be one of those old Celtic crosses on his forearm.
Pulling back my arm, I shook my head. “Sorry. Just…just take it easy, okay?”
He took a moment to study me. I felt his gaze on me, stirring up something inside me that I would have to write off as hormones or something along those lines. “There’s no time for that,” he finally said to me, his voice that low, gravelly sound that sent shivers through me that I couldn’t help.
I looked at him inquisitively, then frowned. “What do you mean? No time to take it easy?”
He stepped away from me and I jerked towards him automatically, worried he was going to take a tumble or something, but he seemed steady. Or like he was working really hard to be steady. “Look, I’ve got something important to take care of. We need to get out of here. Is your car outside?”
I blinked at him. My car? Oh, yeah, it was outside. Outside and buried in what might as well be a cave in given the huge amount of snow piled on top of it. “Um, well, technically, yes,” I started, but didn’t get the chance to really say more than that.
He nodded at me, then stalked towards the door.
I watched him go and noted the rippling muscles along his back and shoulders as well as his firm rear end. I shook myself free from my distraction and hurried towards him. “But you can’t get to it!”
He spared me a glance as he noticed the stack of sweaters I’d brought with me from the back room. He looked through them, not really caring for them it would seem, but he found the larger of the two and slid it over his firm upper body. A sweater probably shouldn’t have looked good on him, but this one did. It was a dark forest green color and made his eyes really pop. I doubted he appreciated it in the same way I did.
“Seriously,” I pressed, trying to make him understand. “My car is buried in the snow out there! And even if you can dig it out, it probably won’t start. It’s a real piece of crap.”
His eyebrows rose in question at that, but he ignored the piece of crap part. “We really need to head out and that car is our best shot at it.”
I frowned. Why is he so eager to leave? I was about to ask him—because really what was this thing that was so damn important that he wanted to unbury my piece of crap car—but he spoke again before I got the chance.
“Besides, this storm’s probably going to get bad again tonight. If we wait to try to dig it out there’ll only be more snow tomorrow.”
I frowned. That was probably very true. Although the snow was soft and light now, there was no guarantee it would stay that way all day and night. And even if it did, that still meant snow was falling down on my car steadily, if not heavily. He was right, though I still didn’t think he should have been going out there to try to dig up my car. “Okay, then maybe we should check the front office and see if there’s a phone—”
But he’d already turned around and was pulling open the door. Instantly, a rush of cold air slid over me. My legs were still bare so I shivered as gooseflesh trembled across them. Ciaran glanced back at me. “Get back by the fire. Warm up. You’re wearing practically nothing.” His eyes flashed as they raked up my body, clothed only in that damn sweater.
A shiver ran through me and it wasn’t because that door was open. Instead, it was one of warmth and pleasure. “Um, are you sure—”
“Don’t worry. I’ll be back in a little bit.” He smiled and it was just as sexy as the rest of him. “Get warm.” Then he turned and left.
I called after him about the string that would lead him to the car, then accepted that it didn’t matter in the slightest what else I told him. He was determined to dig out that car.
I wasn’t expecting him to be so eager to leave me, I thought, feeling a little hurt. Which was silly. Of course he wanted to get home. Wherever that was. I was sure he had a thousand things going on back there and needed to get back to them. Especially since it was so close to Christmas in the first place. He probably had a family or something waiting for him.
I frowned. A family? Was he married? Kids? I didn’t think so. I hadn’t seen a ring or anything on his finger, but maybe he’d been mugged and his ring taken. Or what if he was a mechanic or something and just didn’t wear it for safety reasons? He looked like the kind of guy who was comfortable doing hard and gritty work.
“Which is not sexy,” I murmured to myself. “Definitely not sexy.”
Not that I believed myself in the least. I closed the door, but pulled back my makeshift curtains slightly so I could look out the window. I watched as Ciaran followed the red string towards my car, which I now realized was a lot closer than I had thought it was. I could actually see it from the window, though it was just barely. Ciaran struggled through the snow, widening the path I’d used earlier. When he reached the car, he began swiping at the snow on top of it with bare hands.
I winced. That couldn’t feel good. It made me feel like my fingers were freezing just looking at it. I watched him, wishing he’d give up and come back inside, but he lingered there with my car, trying to desperately dislodge the snow covering it. He managed to get the hood clear and part of the windshield before I noticed that he was exhausted. He leaned heavily on the car and finally just fell back into the snow.
“Ciaran!” I cried out. Furious, I grabbed my still wet boots and put them on without worrying about my pants, then jerked open the door. I raced out into the snow, immediately regretting not being fully dressed. But I didn’t go back. Instead, I pushed forward to get reach the car and Ciaran before we both froze out here in the damn snow.
I got to him a few moments later. He’d slumped back into the snow and there was sweat on his brow.
“Damnit, Ciaran,” I cursed as I helped him up. Thankfully he was still conscious, though he had to lean heavily against me as I began to lead him back through our trails in the snow. “If you have a fever again, I’m going to be really mad at you!” I threatened. I thought I saw him smile lightly, but I couldn’t be sure.
We moved as fast as we could back to the cabin and I immediately began helping him out of his clothing. I jerked off his sweater and his shirt before I realized he was staring at me intently. I froze. His torso was exposed now, the hard muscles looking even better than I’d thought beneath that thin cotton shirt. I realized that I’d been frantically undressing him and blushed furiously at the thought.
I stepped back from him. “Um, sorry, it’s just…” I broke off and tried again, gesturing back towards the fireplace. “That’s what happened to me. My clothes got soaked because of the snow, so I took them off so they could dry and…” I stopped again and forced myself to look up into his eyes.
He was staring at me with a knowing smirk, but I was surprised when his hands went to the jeans at his waist and undid the button there. My eyes went wide and I couldn’t help but sputter.
“Um, I mean, I can go in the other room so you can…” Can what? I demanded silently. Sure it was all well and good for me. This sweater was huge and came down mid-thigh on me—it was still mostly dry, though the hem of it was wet I noticed, and I realized I’d have to change out of this, too. It covered all the private bits on me. But what about him? No way were the sweaters I’d found going to be long enough to cover his…well, his crotch.
The thought and the movements of his hands had my eyes riveted there. Was it just me, or was there a slight bulge straining at his zipper?
Stop thinking about that!
I jerked my gaze away, turning to put my back to him. My cheeks were burning furiously. “I’ll, uh, find you something to wear.” Before he could say anything more, I dipped out of the living room and into the kitchen. I shut the door behind me, resting my back against it, and released a whoosh of air. Oh hell, I thought. I thought I heard something that might have been laughter—or maybe my own imagination.
Oh God, he’s laughing at me. I’m so stupid.
Shoving myself away from the door, I went to the hallway to see if I could find anything. I hadn’t before and didn’t think I would this time, but I could check those drawers and things, too. I searched the closet and still didn’t find anything that would cover his…privates. Moving on, I checked the drawers to the desk, too, but there was nothing there but socks. Literally, two pairs of mismatched socks. And they probably weren’t even his size.
At least not for his feet.
The thought went through my head before I could stop it and suddenly I was picturing him standing there naked with a sock over his—
“What is wrong with me?” I muttered, sitting heavily on the bed. My weight made the springs groan a little and I heard what sounded like scraping. I frowned. Scraping? I bounced a little on the bed and the scraping sound happened again.
Getting off the bed, I knelt down and found that there were a couple of boxes beneath it. I pulled them out and lo and behold, clothes! None were my size, of course, but there were some sweats in there and they would definitely cover his crotch and hopefully save whatever little remained of my dignity.
I pulled out several articles of clothing and rushed back to the living room. I pushed open the door and said, “I found some sweats. They might be a little small on you, but they should work just fine for now.”
I froze as soon as I entered the room. Standing there in his full glory, back to me, was a fully naked Ciaran. A shudder went through me. He was standing in front to the fire, making his body just a little more than a silhouette and emphasizing that his body was built perfectly. Those tight muscles of his shoulders. That narrow waist. That firm, squeezable ass.
But as soon as I had spoken, he started to turn towards the sound. And he didn’t just turn his head. No, he moved his full body until I got a good, full view of his front side, too. His body was cut from granite and damn if my own body didn’t react to it.
I held out the sweats, but couldn’t say anything.
He grinned at me. “I didn’t think you’d find anything.” He sounded slightly disappointed. “Are you going to give me the sweats or what?” He was smirking at me now, no doubt enjoying the fact that I was still staring–no, gaping–at him.
Shaking myself free of the spell his perfect body had cast on me, I chucked the sweats at him. He caught them easily, laughing a little as I made a point of turning around so he could slip them on. A moment later, he said, “I’m decent, baby. You can look now.”
I shuddered a little at the word baby, though I shouldn’t have. I didn’t need some guy I didn’t know giving me pet names! Though if they all said them in that low, gravelly tone, I’d probably let a lot more of them slide.
Doing my best to keep my blushing down to a minimum, I turned around and found the sweats didn’t help a lot with my sudden and intense attraction to him. They were low slung, barely hanging on his hips, and let me see a small trail of soft, feathery light brown hair tinged with red trailing down beneath the waistband of his sweats. His torso was still exposed, his muscles just as strong and cut as before and I had to work hard not to let my eyes linger on them for too long.
Clearing my throat, I headed over to the fireplace. I made a point of keeping some distance between us, but I was cold and I needed to dry off a little bit.
“Didn’t find anything for yourself, I see,” he commented.
I ignored it, though I caught his green eyes raking over my legs once again. Instead, I changed the subject. “Okay, now you’ve checked the car and nearly made yourself pass out again. Can we leave it?”
He didn’t say anything, making me look over at him. His expression didn’t look happy, his full lips tugging down into a frown. I waited for so long for him to answer that I finally just figured he wasn’t going to. Then he opened his mouth and said, “We can’t stay here forever.”
It was my turn to frown. “Not forever. Which is why I say we should check the front office. They’ll probably have a phone or something.”
“One that works?” he asked skeptically.
I hesitated. There was actually a really good chance that no, it didn’t have one that worked. But what else were we supposed to do? The snow was too deep to drive out of here even if we could miraculously get my car uncovered and running again. So I said, “Probably. I think this place is like a resort or something, so I’ll bet they have a main phone to use in the office.”
He didn’t look convinced, but he didn’t flat out argue with me either.
“Okay,” he told me. “Fine. Then we’ll warm up a little bit and try again.”
“Once our clothes are dry,” I reminded him. “And when you say we, you mean me, because you’re still not one hundred percent yet.” He opened his mouth to argue, but I shook my head. “I’ll check the office later. You’ll stay here and get warm.”
He didn’t look pleased at the order and I doubted for a moment that he would listen, but then he just offered me a half smile and said, “Alright, then. Deal made.”