Page 91 of Rescuing Dr. Marian
He blew out a breath as I carefully removed his shirt. “The whole thing was my fault. I stepped wrong, and the rocks started moving.”
I ran gentle fingers over his skin, prodding just enough to make sure the damage wasn’t serious. “Thank god you found your footing.”
Foster’s hands came up to rest on my hips before moving to my belt and fiddling it open. “I wanted to get to you. Ineededto get to you.”
I fussed a little bit more over him while he pulled my clothes off, but it didn’t take long before we were sprawled out on the built-in bed platform with nothing but a Mylar blanket between us and the splintered wood.
We kissed for what seemed like hours, slow and gentle explorations with our lips, tender caresses with our hands. There were no more words spoken, just soft moans and pleas, the breathy call of a name or the sweet murmuring of an endearment.
For the first time since I met him, Foster let me see his true feelings without trying to hide them. His eyes didn’t flick away. His touch didn’t hesitate. Everything about the way he moved against me, held me, kissed me—it was all stripped bare of pretense.
It was careful. Reverent. Like he was trying to memorize the way we fit together, like this moment might be all we’d ever have.
And I let him. I let him map my skin with his hands, let him lose himself in the shape of me. I met him kiss for kiss, sigh for sigh, until the only thing I could feel was the slow, sweet ache of falling.
When we finally moved together, his body under me,insideof me, it wasn’t about release. It was about being known. Being chosen.
Afterward, tangled in the quiet with the cool drafts through the log walls mixing with the heat from the stove, I felt the rise and fall of his breath beneath my cheek and knew.
I wasn’t alone anymore.
No matter how stubborn this man could be. And no matter how much he might try to backtrack when the cold light of reality burst into our little fantasy world on top of this mountain.
He was mine, and I was his.
No matter what.
25
FOSTER
It had beena long time since I’d taken a punch. Long enough that I’d forgotten what it was like waking up the day after.
The radio squawked, waking me from a dead sleep, but it was my attempt to jolt upright that truly got my attention.
“Fucking fuck!” Every muscle ached. My body felt like it had been pummeled by boulders—which, of course, it had.
“Radio,” Tommy murmured next to me. I glanced down at him and noticed he was wearing a comical amount of the warm clothes I’d brought in my pack. I vaguely remembered waking up during the night to take a piss and deciding to bundle him up before stepping outside.
Now that I was freezing and mostly naked, I wondered at my reasoning. Chickie’s judgmental eyes said she wondered the same.
“Radio,” he said again without moving or even opening his eyes.
I reached for the radio hanging on one of the pegs.
“Blake here.”
“Helo inbound to your location. Ten minutes out. No need to scout a landing spot. I’m not taking any chances. Hoist or hover depending on the wind when they get there.”
“Copy that. We’ll be ready. Request K-9 harness if possible.”
I could rig Chickie to me with the webbing I had on me, but it wouldn’t be pretty.
“Already loaded. Will be good practice for your students. Let’s hope they like the two of you. Over.”
Tommy’s warm body moved against my back as he sat up and leaned forward to place a kiss on the back of my neck. “You got any extra clothes? Because I’m not willing to share. The comfy fairy visited me in the night, even though I didn’t do a damned thing to deserve it.”
I turned around and pulled him in for a real kiss. “I might beg a visit to that big family lodge of yours later just so I can soak in a deep tub with the hottest water I can stand.”
