Chapter 12
Lauren looked up from the report she was working on, thinking that she hadn’t gotten much done, her thoughts constantly straying to Seth and what he was doing. Time hadn’t helped the ache in her heart, hadn’t lessened how much she missed him, and it was affecting her work. It was frustrating that she’d let herself get in this mess, if it was only a love affair gone bad it might be easier, but she’d married him and somehow that made their separation all that much worse.
If nothing else she’d have to see him at the end of the year to have the marriage voided, something she hoped wouldn’t involve as much ceremony as the marriage had. Before her thoughts could go any further down that path, there was a knock on the door and Heather stuck her head in. She had a weird look on her face, half guilty and half proud of herself. Lauren had seen that look on Marci’s face and groaned.
“What have you done?” she asked, her heart pounding in her chest.
“Seth Montgomery is here to give you an update on the project before winter,” Heather said innocently, then added, “We do need an update, Lauren.”
Lauren knew that Heather was right, had been thinking of having her call Seth, but she knew that Heather had different motives. Her friend was only trying to help, she knew that, but she couldn’t see what good would come from seeing Seth. She’d heard that he was closing up the house for winter and heading to his cabin; his plans hadn’t changed, and neither had hers. She’d be out of here soon, cutting off ties with Alaska, except to come back and dissolve their marriage.
“Okay. Show him in,” she said, plastering a smile on her face, not wanting Seth to know just how much she missed him.
But when he walked into the room, she sucked in a quick breath when she saw him. He was even more handsome than she remembered, and desire flared deep inside her when his eyes met hers and stayed there, daring her to look away. It was beyond her to do so and before she knew it he’d come around behind the desk and pulled her to her feet and into his arms.
All the pain of the last month faded away when his lips came down on hers, warm and firm just as she’d remembered. Instantly, the passion between them erupted, coming to a boil as Seth’s hands roamed over her body, making her breathless and confused. But when Seth began to unbutton her blouse, she suddenly came to her senses realizing where they were and what they were about to do.
“Seth, stop, we can’t do this here,” she said, pushing him away and walking around from behind the desk.
Seth followed her, unable not to, now that he’d seen her again, felt that wash of happiness that she brought, he couldn’t seem to stop himself. He wanted to touch her, needed to touch her. When he caught up with her, he pulled her into his arms again. “I’m sorry, I can’t help myself when I’m around you,” he said, trying to kiss her again.
Lauren was not going to fall for his tricks again. “Then why haven’t you called me? You can’t just walk in here and do that,” she said, trying to get away from him.
“I was waiting for you to call. I thought that you were mad at me and when you had cooled down you’d call,” he said.
Lauren sighed, nothing had changed. “Did you ever think of calling me?”
“I did, almost every day, but….” He couldn’t tell her that he’d been being stubborn, it hadn’t seemed like it at the time, but now that she was in his arms, he realized that he’d been doing exactly that. Why he wasn’t sure.
Lauren finally managed to pull away from him. She crossed her arms over her chest, wishing that the ache in her breasts would go away. As mad at him as she was, she wanted him as much as ever, it made what she had to say all that much harder.
“Seth, I’m leaving. I’ve put in for a transfer.” She was so close to tears, she couldn’t say more.
“What?” Seth barked at her, then in a softer voice, said “But Lauren, I’ve been thinking about how we can make this work. I’ve made renovations to the cabin, you’ll see, it’ll be wonderful. You can work from there, then you won’t have to give up your job.”
Lauren was so tempted by what he was describing, but it still felt like too much of a sacrifice to her, uprooting her entire life and moving out to the middle of nowhere. “Seth, as nice as that sounds, I’ve got my mind made up and besides I can’t work remotely, I have to be in the office,” she lied, knowing that if he pushed her, she’d relent and that wouldn’t be the last time.
Heather, who had been shamelessly eavesdropping on Seth and Lauren, wanted to burst in and call Lauren on her lie, but before she could, Seth stormed out of the office. “I’ve never met a more stubborn woman. I give up. Here’s the update on the project, if you need me I’ll be at my cabin,” he said, and stormed out of the office.
Lauren heard the outer door slam and put her head down on the desk, letting the tears flow. When Heather came into the room, she didn’t even bother to hide them, just sobbed until she was drained. Heather handed her a tissue and waited until she’d gotten herself under control.
“Why did you lie to him, Lauren? I know what he did to his cabin for you. I don’t understand.” Heather was confused, so sure that her plan would work.
“Don’t you see, if he’d just called me, we could have made those changes to the cabin together, instead he did what he wanted. I tried to explain, but I just couldn’t make him understand.” Lauren hiccupped.
Heather understood. “Honey, I wonder if you’ve got this a little mixed up,” she said, smoothing Lauren’s hair off her face. “What Seth did wasn’t making decisions for you, it was taking care of you.”
Lauren thought about that and opened her mouth to reply, but Heather stopped her. “Don’t take independence too far, what Seth did shows that he’s concerned for you and your happiness, take it as it was meant, a compromise. Would it really be so bad to spend the winter working from his cabin, it’s not like you couldn’t leave if you wanted to.”
Lauren was silent for a long time, realizing that she might have been being stubborn. “I don’t know what to do now,” she admitted.
“Go after him,” Heather said, but Lauren shook her head.
“I just can’t do that.”
By the time Heather walked out of Lauren’s office, she too had decided that Lauren was the most stubborn woman she’d ever met and that it was time to do something drastic, so she called Marci to help her finish what she’d started. Marci was shocked to find out that Lauren wasn’t moving to the cabin with Seth.
“We thought he was making the renovations because she was coming with him,” she said, when Heather explained what was happening.
“They can’t seem to get together. They’re both so stubborn,” Heather lamented.
By the end of the conversation, they’d hatched a plan to get Seth and Lauren together once and for all. The first step was to pull Lauren’s request for a transfer and instead request that she be assigned as a field agent, allowing her to work from the cabin. Then she waited for Marci to put the second part of the plan into action, a wait of three painful days, before the phone rang and Marci was on the other end.
Heather buzzed her through with no announcement, so when Lauren picked up the phone she thought it was Heather. “What’s up?” she asked.
“Lauren, it’s Marci, and I need your help,” Marci said, making her voice tremble.
Lauren was a bit surprised to hear Marci’s voice, but then realized what she’d said. “What’s wrong?”
“Seth is hurt, but he refuses to leave his cabin,” she said, trying to sound really worried. “Maybe you can talk some sense into him. He hit his head and I know he needs stitches, but he refuses to leave the cabin.”
Lauren was instantly on her feet, her heart pounding in her chest. “How bad is he hurt?” She was trying not to panic, suddenly feeling a long way from Seth.
“I don’t know, he won’t let me look at him. He’s in a terrible mood, won’t tell me what’s wrong,” Marci said, pouring it on thick.
Lauren suddenly felt not only rising panic, but guilt to go along with it; she’d driven him away. She was probably the reason he was hurt. “Oh, Marci, it’s my fault. I’ve got to go to him. Can you send me GPS coordinates so I can find the cabin?” Lauren knew that she had to go to Seth, talk him into at least letting Marci look at him, he could be really hurt, could die.
At that thought she knew that she’d been being stupid, she loved Seth and if he didn’t love her, well she had all winter to make him love her. But if something happened to him, because of her, she’d never be able to forgive herself. Thanks to Seth and the videos she liked to watch on the internet now, she knew that she’d be able to find the cabin on her own. She hung up the phone before Marci could tell her that she had someone to take her, but sent the coordinates knowing that Lauren was a capable woman.
What Marci and Heather couldn’t know was that an unpredicted storm had blown in off the ocean, bringing with it what would be the first in a number of storms that would blanket the region in foot after foot of snow that winter, this first one the most powerful. Lauren, who although prepared to weather such a storm thanks to her new survival knowledge, had never seen such a storm and would find herself testing that knowledge to save her life.
By the time Lauren reached the turn to Seth’s cabin, she knew that she was in trouble, but she pushed on so worried about him that she didn’t stop to think of the danger she was putting herself in. The snow had been falling steadily almost from the time she got on the trail, but only now had the wind begun to blow, making it difficult to see more than a few feet in front of her.
But she could still see the trail, so she pushed on, going a slow and steady pace hoping to eat up the miles before the storm grew worse. But before it became impossible to see at all and she had to stop, the temperature had dropped dramatically and as she sat there she began to shiver. The wind whipping though even her cold weather gear and becoming even more fierce by the second told her that she’d have to build some kind of shelter if she was going to survive.
She didn’t dare go back, with visibility so poor she could circle and circle for hours. Staying put was the best idea, she’d wait out the storm then continue when it broke. It couldn’t be that much farther to Seth’s cabin, one night wouldn’t be that bad, and she knew what to do. Putting her skills to the test, she built herself a little shelter using the snowmobile, hoping that it’s warmth would help her survive and settled down for a long night.
Seth opened the front door and stepped into the raging storm, cursing Marci and Heather for interfering in his life again. Thanks to them Lauren was out in the storm, possibly freezing at this very moment and he didn’t know how he was going to find her. If she’d lost her way in the storm she could be anywhere, that thought made him panic enough that all the breath whooshed out of his lungs. Looking up into the angry sky, he let the snow and wind sting his face until his thoughts cleared.
The best place to start was the trail; if Lauren had left when Heather said she did, she might only be a few miles away. It was his only hope and a place to start, if he didn’t find her there, he’d have to come up with another plan, but for now he was headed for the trail. He’d only gone a mile when he saw a snow-covered hump in the trail, that mile had taken him hours and in that time almost a foot of snow had fallen, but the hump didn’t have that much snow on it.
He pulled his little Snowcat up to the hump and hope flooded him, it was a shelter made from a heat reflecting tarp. The tarp was draped over a snowmobile, ropes securing it tightly, the snow providing even more insulation it would a little warmer inside. The shelter was textbook perfect and Seth knew instantly that Lauren was inside, only she would have been so precise. Climbing off the Snowcat, he walked stiff legged to the shelter and called out over the storm, hoping to hear Lauren’s voice from inside.
He heard a muffled sound, then nothing else. Finding the edge of the tarp, he lifted a corner, trying not to disturb the snow that covered the shiny material. “Lauren, are you in there?” he asked, peering through the little hole he’d opened to see her lying curled on her side, her teeth chattering so much she couldn’t talk.
It was marginally warmer in the shelter, but not warm enough, and Seth knew that he had precious little time to get Lauren warmed up. Struggling through the snow, he went back to the Snowcat and got the supplies he’d brought and carried them back to the shelter, then carefully slid them in one after the other until Lauren was buried under a pile of survival gear.
Lauren watched Seth, her teeth rattling in her head, unable to stop the shivering that had been going on for hours. She was so tired all she wanted to do was go to sleep, but she knew that sleep would mean death, so she forced her eyes open as she’d been doing for what felt like hours. When Seth covered her with a heavy warm blanket all she could do was sigh and blink her tear-filled eyes at him.
When he climbed in with her, she could feel his warmth immediately and managed to scoot closer, but he pushed her away just a bit and said, “Lauren, I’m going to take your clothes off, I have to get you warm, I’ll share my body heat with you.” He pulled her coat off.
Hours later, Lauren finally stopped shivering and fell asleep in Seth’s arms, the warmth of his bare skin having penetrated her frozen body better than any other source of heat could. Seth relaxed as Lauren’s gentle snores let him know that she was asleep, it had been too close a call, and only now that he knew that she was going to be okay did he stop to think about just how close it had been.
Another few hours and Lauren would have frozen to death, the only reason she’d still been alive when he got there was that she’d built such a good shelter. A feeling of pride washed over him; she was such a smart and intelligent woman and he was proud of her, a feeling he’d never felt before. As it began to sink in that he’d almost lost her, he pulled her closer and she sighed in her sleep, making his heart swell with love.
It was that moment when he understood that he’d been resisting the love he felt for her, putting barriers up around himself in the form of his stubbornness. Lauren was being stubborn too, and maybe they both had very good reasons for that, but it had nearly cost Lauren her life. As the certainty that he was supposed to be with Lauren flooded his body, he swore to himself that they’d talk this out. If she loved him half as much as he loved her, they could make this work. He wasn’t going to give up easily now that he’d seen what it would feel like for her to be gone from his life.
When Lauren woke hours later, she was wrapped in Seth’s arms, her body sore but warm and the events that brought her here began to surface in her mind. Her stomach growled loudly and she realized that she was hungrier than she’d ever been in her life. The sound must have woken Seth, who leaned up on one elbow to look at her.
“How do you feel?” he asked, stroking her cheek with his thumb, a gesture that was so intimate Lauren felt love swelling inside her.
“I’m sore and hungry, but otherwise okay,” she said, looking at him, trying to hold back the tears. “How did you find me? I thought you were hurt?” she finally asked, realizing that he shouldn’t even be there.
“Heather and Marci made that up, they thought that if they got us together, we’d make up and live happily ever after,” Seth said, clearly still very upset with the two women. “Thanks to them I almost lost you.”
“I thought you got hurt because of me,” Lauren said, remembering her fear that he’d die because of her. “That’s why I didn’t turn back even when I knew that I should have.”
“Oh, sweetheart, we’ve made quite a mess of this,” he said, then smiled when her stomach growled again. “We need to talk, but first we better eat something.”
Lauren watched him prepare a hot meal for them, then gratefully took the food and ate it all, finishing a second helping before her stomach finally felt full. Seth put away the equipment and crawled back under the blanket with her, stripped off the clothes he’d put on to make their food, and pulled her into his arms. They lay quietly, Lauren’s head on his chest, before Seth spoke.
“Lauren, I’m sorry I’ve been acting like such a jerk, but when you appeared in my life I knew deep down that I’d never be the same and I resisted it with everything I had. I never dreamed that I’d find someone who makes me feel the way you do, and that scared me more than anything else.” Seth paused, trying to decide what to say next.
“I learned at a young age, that love wasn’t real, that money was. But I see now that love is something that is real, it’s impossible for me to explain exactly how I feel, but when I’m with you I feel complete. When we were separated it felt like I’d lost a part of me that I’d never knew existed, that was you, Lauren. I understand now that I love you, love you more than anything in the world. I’m lost without you in my life.” Seth had tears in his eyes, the power of his emotion just too great.
Lauren couldn’t help the tear that rolled down her cheek, Seth’s words making all the struggles they’d been through fade into the back ground, but she knew that he deserved an explanation. “Oh, Seth, I’ve been stubborn too. I grew up watching my mother do whatever my father told her to do, giving in to his demands no matter what they were. He wanted a big family and she gave him eight children while working two jobs, even though I know she didn’t want to do it. I promised myself that I’d never let a man rule my life, but then I fell in love with you and it was so tempting to just give in, but I couldn’t. I think I took it too far the other way.”
Seth understood now why Lauren had done what she had and relief washed over him, then he realized that she’d said that she loved him. “Did you just say that you love me?” he asked, a huge grin on his face.
Lauren had to laugh. “Is that all you heard?” Her heart swelling with love for him.
“No, but you see that was the most important part, because I’ve decided that it doesn’t matter where we live as long as we’re together. My cabin or your house, I just want to be with you,” he said, lifting her palm to his mouth and kissing it.
Lauren sucked in a breath as desire spread through her, followed by an overwhelming feeling of love for this man, who against all odds loved her too. “Make love to me, Seth,” she said, through her tears.
“Are you sure?” he asked, worried that it might be too much for her after her fight to stay alive.
“I need you” was her only answer, then she pulled his head down to hers and kissed him, all her need pouring out of her.
Seth was lost in that kiss, knowing that Lauren loved him making the passion rising inside him all that more wonderful. As her tongue teased him, darting in and out of his mouth, he groaned, loving that Lauren liked to bring him pleasure as much as he like to bring her pleasure. He covered her body with his and deepened the kiss, muffling the small cries of pleasure that escaped her throat as his hands began to roam over her body.
He stroked her back softly, making goose bumps raise on her sensitive skin, then moved to her ribcage. Sliding his hands up until his thumb grazed her stiff nipple, making her gasp into his mouth, then throw her head back, as the pleasure spread through her like a fire. His mouth found her neck, his teeth grazing the tender flesh as he kissed his way down to her breasts, finally taking one stiff nipple into his mouth, then the other.
The cold in the little shelter ceased to matter, the passion between them heating the air better than any heater ever could. Seth wanted to feel Lauren come apart in his arms, wanted to feel her body trembling with passion only he was capable of giving her, so he slid his hand down her belly and between her legs. When his finger slipped between her folds, she was wet and ready for him, but he resisted the urge to bury himself inside her and instead slid his finger deep inside her and used his thumb to gently rub her swollen and stiff clitoris.
Lauren was overwhelmed by sensation, her body beyond her control, as Seth took her to the height of passion, his mouth nipping and nibbling on her breasts while his fingers stroked and rubbed her. The passion boiling inside her came rushing over her, the tight spiral of pleasure spreading over her as her orgasm washed over her, leaving her panting and clinging to Seth whose pleasure only spiked when she trembled as he’d wanted her to.
“I’m going to make you do that again and again for the rest of our lives,” he whispered in her ear, making Lauren moan as desire flood through her again.
“Is that a promise?” she asked, playfully, her voice breathless with the and passion she for him.
“Only the first of many I’m going to make you,” Seth said, his desire to have her becoming overwhelming.
Seth rolled onto his back and pulled Lauren on top of him, then pulled her legs up so she was straddling him. She expected him to enter her, to plunge himself inside her, wanting him to do so, but instead he grabbed her hips and slid her back and forth over his swollen cock. Each time the tip of his throbbing length slid across her nib, a burst of pleasure rushed through her, making her passage throb with need.
Lauren, unable to control her need, rocked her hips, suddenly frantic for the burst of pleasure she could feel building inside her. When it came, it was so glorious that Lauren cried out Seth’s name and held on surprised when Seth drove himself inside her, clenching his teeth as her body gripped him. He’d been unable to resist that moment, knowing just how wonderful it would feel, but barely managing to hold on to his control.
When the last wave of pleasure had drained from her body, Lauren became aware of how deeply Seth was buried inside her, the fullness, all it took to put her back on the path of passion. Experimentally raising her hips then lowering them, a fresh burst of pleasure rocked through her, making her bolder. She felt awkward at first, but the pleasure she was creating was clear on Seth’s face so she continued, until Seth too began to thrust his hips, meeting each of her movements with one of his own.
So far gone that there was no hope of returning, Seth reached between them and found her clit with his thumb and began to rub it, the pleasure building layer upon layer, until Lauren’s breath was coming out in short gasps, her body completely beyond her control. With two deep strokes Seth let himself orgasm, his throbbing length spasming inside her, swept Lauren away, her body unable to resist the power of Seth’s.
Seth repeated her name over and over, his body thrashing with the power of the pleasure of her body so tightly wrapped around his and the spasms that repeatedly gripped him. When they finally lay still, Lauren was draped across his chest, completely spent but happier than she’d ever been.
When Seth finally got his breath back, he said, “I love you, Lauren. I think we’ve just begun a new Montgomery legacy, one of love, laughter, and hope.”
Her voice trembling, she looked into his eyes and said, “I love you too, Seth, and I think we’ve got a wonderful life a head of us. Legacy or no legacy, I know now that I’m right where I’m meant to be.”
They fell asleep in each other’s arms, unaware that the storm had blown itself out, too happy to be together to think of anything but the feeling of contentment that their shared love had given them. Two people so sure they’d wanted to spend their lives alone suddenly unable to imagine life without the other, dreaming of the life they’d share together as the sun melted the snow off their little shelter.
The end.
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