“Kinda hard, where you’re trapped by an avalanche and feeling a little cold.”
The way she angled her lips up to his told a whole other story. Despite what she would like him to believe, he heard the note of hope hidden in her tone. “You must be cold and if you freeze to death, I am NOT lugging your dead ass down this mountain.”
There his spunky girl was. He cocked a grin. “We both know you’d leave me up here to learn my lesson.”
When she smiled like that, everything seemed to fall into place and honestly, that scared him a bit. Hope was never something he wanted to play with.
“And you’ll have fully earned it for trying to argue with me practically wearing nothing but your birthday suit.”
Flustered looked good on her. All red, horny and so confused from the rush of old feelings. She didn’t have to verbalize everything he clearly read in her expression and the way she worked his body over with that heated look of hers.
Thankful for the change in conversation, he pulled her hand into his and lead them further away from the ice wall. The cold didn’t bother him, but he could tell she was having a tougher time with it.
“I’m the one who came up here to save someone and here I’m going to be the one saved,” he teased, clenching his fists at his sides to keep from reaching out for her and hauling her into his embrace.
“Drake, this is not the place to get naked and funky.”
“Really? You have other ideas of how to keep warm?”
Heat crawled up his neck as his balls grew heavy.
Mine.
Seven
With his arms stretched out, he wrapped her in a hug and buried his nose in her hair. For a brief moment, he returned to the last time they’d stood in this spot. He missed the days he could spend tucked away from the world with only themselves to worry about.
“Drake, there’s just too much to say. Too many layers to add yet another one that’s even more complicated than the last.”
Yet she didn’t pull away. Instead, she played with the long hair that brushed his neck.
“Layers were intended to be peeled back, sweetheart. I don’t have the energy to deny the need I have for you, Esmeralda. I can see it in your eyes too.”
Behind them were a few crates he could see she already rummaged through. He released her and in a couple of steps crossed the den.
He fisted the sides of a folded tarp. Glancing over his shoulder, he caught her admiring the view as he kneeled by the crates.
Spreading out the tarp, he made quick work of building a makeshift bed for the blankets and few rugs the locals left behind. “It’s not goose down, but it will keep us warm.”
“I’m surprised all that was in there.”
Standing at the edge, he slipped the flashlight from her hands and placed it where the beam hit the ceiling to create a waterspout of light to pour over them. He fisted her hair and pulled her head back gently until he held her mesmerizing gaze. “There’s a wild need in me to taste you on my tongue, touch you.” He bent to run the tip of his tongue over the shell of her ear as he slid the zipper to her suit down the length of her body. He came to a stop at the juncture of her thighs. “Take you beneath me.”
“And ruin me again? Ruin me for any other man? Put a baby in me?”
“All the above.”
Winding one arm around his neck while holding him off with the other placed over his heart, he felt the tension tighten her delicate body. They were both fighting a losing battle. The only question was when they caved under their fiery attraction, would they get burned?
In two tugs he had her arms free from the confines of her snowsuit only to reveal another sweater with a zipped front. With each new layer, he leaned into the brittle barrier of patience separating him from baring his teeth and ripping through every shred of clothing holding him back from her supple skin.
“Drake. Oh, God!” She tilted her head back and he wasn’t one to decline an invitation. He ran his lips along the juncture of her exposed neck and shoulder. Using his body as a shield from the cold, from her pussy to her ample breasts, he pressed them together.
“I’m going to bury you in so much passion you’ll never want another man to touch you.” His fingers tightened. “I’m not letting you go back to your cold kingdom, princess, I’m going to show you what it’s like to have a savage mountain man between your thighs again and once I do, you’ll never leave.”
Esmeralda stared up at him, her lips parted with raspy breaths rushing past her lips. “I accept your challenge.” She bit at her lower lip and fuck, his dick turned to steel.
“But Drake?”