Page 62 of Stripped

CHAPTER TEN

I woke shivering, dim light behind my eyelids. I opened my eyes slowly. I was on the boulder, Zane wrapped around me, my head on his arm. He was still breathing deeply, asleep, unaffected by the chill in the air and the cold rock. His body felt almost hot beneath me, a benefit of being a werewolf. A few feet from us, in a divot of the rock, a fire was smoldering down to its last embers. Zane must have gotten up while I was sleeping and built the fire to keep us warm. I tried to sit up, but his arm squeezed tighter around me, so I stayed where I was, despite the bone deep chill that was making me shiver, making my breath puff out in misty trails.

I breathed in the scent of Zane, enjoyed the feel of him under me and around me. I could so easily give in and stay with him. I could get so lost in him that I wouldn't even care if he wanted me there or not, I'd stay just to be in his orbit, just to be near him, like some love-sick teen who thinks a man will make everything better.

“Cold, sweetheart?” Zane pulled me in closer against his body, wrapping me up in his warmth. The sun was rising over the valley, turning everything pink and golden, lighting up our view like some amiable god had kissed it.

“Pink sky in morning, sailor take warning,” I said. “Is it supposed to snow today?”

He snorted. “That old wives' tale doesn't have any truth to it. It's going to be a beautiful day, look at that sunrise.”

He lifted my hair and pressed a kiss to the nape of my neck. He kissed my skin in a gentle rhythm moving from the back of my neck to my chin, then he turned my head toward him and kissed my lips, gently at first and then with increasing hunger.

The kiss warmed me from the top of my head to the tippy-tip tip of my toes and I forgot about the gorgeous sunrise or the fact that we were on a mountain top. All I could see and all I wanted and all I could think about was Zane and how quickly I could get him inside me. I spun in his arms and slid my hands under his shirt, needing to feel his skin against mine, even if I wasn't willing to take off any of my own clothes.

His motions were as frantic and desperate as mine. He pulled me on top of him, the blankets still mostly over me, keeping me somewhat warm as he unbuttoned my pants and helped me out of them. I straddled him and pushed his pants to mid-thigh. He held me above him, looking into my eyes. “Please, Zane.”

He produced a condom seemingly from thin air and slid it on. Then he pulled me down and thrust up, entering me in one quick move that felt so good, I bit my lip not to shout with pleasure. “This rock's not the most comfortable,” he said, though he didn't look the least bit uncomfortable. “You're going to have to do all the work.”

I didn't mind, doing all the work warmed me up and I loved the way my movements brought pleasure to his expression, made him tense and moan. It didn't take me long to get where I needed to be and I screamed with my release, my scream echoing around us and through the valley. “Hope they don't send a search party,” He said. He was smiling, but there was sadness in his expression, too.

He watched me, staying completely still, and I felt snowflakes land on my skin. I looked up to see them falling from the sky and all around us. It would have been a gorgeous, magical moment if it weren't so fudging cold. “No snow? Old wives' tale?” I asked.

He tightened his grip on my hips and grinned. “I'm not always right about everything.”

I moved, concentrating on bringing Zane pleasure before we both froze to death, but watching him come apart brought me to the peak again. He came with me, but we didn't savor the afterglow, because the snow was starting to pile up around us. We pulled up our pants and wrapped blankets around our heads and then we raced down the mountain.

Zane held my hand the whole way, even when we had to walk in single file, his fingers tight around mine. We couldn’t go much faster than a quick walk, because there was about a half inch of snow on the parts of the trail without tree cover and it was slick. We'd only gone a little ways when two big, brown wolves stepped into our path and growled. Zane growled right back and the wolves backed off a few steps.

Their fur rippled and, in moments, they were two naked men standing in front of us. Zane slapped his hand over my eyes, like I'd never seen a naked man before. I might have shoved his hand away, but he was being way too adorable and I found everything about him perfect in those moments before goodbye.

“Zane, dude. We were worried about you. Thought you and Abby had run off with Alice,” a gruff voice I assumed was attached to one of the two men said.

“Alice?” I said. “What happened?”

“No fucking idea,” the gruff voice said. “She's just gone, vanished. She took the clothes we'd given her and some food. The pack's all out looking for her now.”

“Can't figure out why she'd run. We were fixin' to take her back to Aspens Whiten in a few days.”

I had a pretty darn good idea why she'd run, and I felt like an idiot for not figuring it out sooner. I waited until Zane said goodbye to the two men before I spoke.

“She's gone to Leopold,” I said. “She's still under the compulsion.”

Zane frowned, but he didn't look surprised. “You can't think of another reason she'd want to go back sooner?”

“I know she wanted to get back to her family, but it's suicide to run into a dark forest.”

“Unless you've been compelled and don't know any better or you know someone's out there waiting for you.”

“And now she's out here in the snow and the cold.” I started off down the mountain. “We have to find her.”

“No,” Zane said, yanking me back. “You need to get a hot shower and some dry clothes and you need to stay in my house, under guard. If Alice's out here, Leopold could be out here, too.”

I hadn't thought about that. “She's my responsibility. If I'd been more observant or asked more questions, maybe I—”

“No. There's no way you could have known. Come on, you're shivering so hard I can barely understand you.”

“I'm fine,” I said, though I was shivering so hard my teeth hurt and... was that a bear on the path ahead of us? “Never mind, maybe I'm so cold I'm hallucinating.”

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