Page 63 of Out of the Cold

As tempted as she was, it didn’t make any sense. What was she going to do, have him move into her cabin full-time?

The idea was way too appealing. Even now, as nervous as she was, she was having a hard time not staring at his chest. She wanted him, wanted his strength and his warmth, his essential goodness, all over her.

“Thanks, but I’m okay,” she lied. “No one would get near us without Hilde knowing.”

That last part was true, and she felt better as soon as she said it.

“If you get nervous, you only have to say the word, and I’ll be there.”

“Same goes. You know, if you get scared.”

He smiled, his eyes crinkling. “I appreciate that.”

“I’ll let you get back to sleep,” she said, standing.

He got up and walked with her to the door. She tried not to let her gaze drift down, but it wasn’t easy. She’d managed to have sex with him without seeing him naked, which was a crime. Now here he was, miles of bare skin over etched muscles. So effortlessly powerful, even at rest. He could probably rip trees from the earth with those arms, and his legs...

“Lucy.”

Her gaze snapped to his face. “Hmm?”

“You know how we said we were friends?”

She nodded and bit her lip, her face heating.

“The way you’re looking at me right now...” His voice was low, his eyes dark and heavy-lidded. “It’s definitely not the way my friends look at me.”

“Then they must be blind.”

His mouth fell open with surprise, and he laughed. “I’ll watch you until you’re inside.”

“You don’t have to do that. It’s freezing, and they’re gone.”

“Humor me.”

So she walked back, knowing his eyes were on her, and despite the fact that someone had been lurking around the cabin, she was too busy thinking about Gabriel naked to worry.

***

The blizzard startedon Christmas Eve. She’d heard the forecast and had gone to the grocery store, so she was ready to hunker down for a few days. She’d seen plenty of snow by now, but not coming on wind that blew horizontally. It was so heavy she couldn’t even see Gabriel’s cabin.

That night she dreamed of wolves howling outside the house, trying to lure Hilde into the woods. She woke up to the wind howling around the eaves, then fell back into an uneasy sleep, reassured that at least whoever had been creeping around the house wouldn’t be back while the storm raged.

In the morning, there was another two feet of snow. At their lowest spots, the drifts came up to her waist. And according to forecasters, this wasn’t ending anytime soon.

Her mother called at eight o’clock. “We’ve been wanting to call you for hours,” she said. “I can’t stand the thought of you all alone up on that mountain on Christmas. You should be with your family.”

“You know I wish I could have been, Mom. But it didn’t make sense. Anyway, it’s a nice change. I’m experiencing my first blizzard.”

“Are you safe? Do you have power?”

“Perfectly safe. And yes, I have power. Plus lots of flashlights and lamps if it goes out.”

Her mother held up the phone and her father, brothers, and their wives called out their hellos. The sound of her whole family together on the other side of the country, laughing and bickering, brought home how alone she was. She barely managed to keep it together until hanging up, and then she gave in and let the tears fall.

This was not okay. She was not going to cry all day.

She made herself pancakes, like her father did every Christmas morning, and while she was at it—and crying only a little—she whipped up some banana bread with overripe bananas.

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