Page 37 of Montana Rain

There.

The vague shadowy outline of the woodpile appeared. And I fell against it, bracing myself in the wind. It was up against a couple of trees, and I triple-knotted the rope around one of the trunks, making sure the line was nearly taut.

As soon as I was done, I filled my arms with wood and went back. But it wasn’t enough. Given the intensity of this storm, I didn’t know how long it would last, and we couldn’t keep coming out here every time we needed a bit of wood.

I pushed the door open just long enough to put the wood inside. Rayne jumped, but I didn’t stop. I just waved and shut the door. The space beside it was large and empty, which I’d thought was strange at first but now made sense. It was for things like this.

Keeping my fingers on the rope, I went back.

My coat was good, but it wasn’t fully built for this. The snow was soaking through it by the third trip. On the fifth, I was so cold I shook. One more. I could do one more. The amount of wood I brought should last us two days if we were careful, and I hoped we wouldn’t need more than that.

The wound in my leg ached with the strain. I hadn’t pushed it this far in a long time, and the throbbing nearly put me on my knees. But I was almost there.

Rayne was in the middle of putting more wood on the fire when I pushed in the last time. The wood she had was wet, but it would dry in the flames. Hopefully.

It was so much warmer in here than outside, but still not warm enough. My clothes were soaked and sticking to my skin. I felt like I was made out of ice.

I stared at Rayne. She still wore the pants and T-shirt she’d come here in, and even though I was half frozen, I couldn’t stop myself from noticing how fucking beautiful she was.

She looked at me, catching me in the act of staring. “Are you okay?”

“Cold.” I shook myself out of the thoughts of her and peeled off my coat, letting it fall to the floor. “I’m about to get naked to warm up faster, so you better turn around if you don’t want to see anything.”

Rayne stared at me, and a noticeable blush rose to her cheeks before she turned and went to the desk in the corner and sat facing away. “Thank you for doing that.”

I stripped off the rest of my clothes, not bothering to do anything with them. I could fix that once I was dry and not shaking. But I grabbed a couple of pieces of wood and set them down in front of the fire to dry more quickly.

“We should be all right for a couple of days.” The rug in front of the fireplace was soft, and I mentally thanked Rayne for turning around. I was cold, and it meant I might not make the best impression for the first time she saw me naked.

Smiling, I shook my head, running my fingers through my wet hair. That thought assumed she would see me naked. God, I wanted her to, but I wasn’t going to pressure her. At all.

“I hope we won’t have to do it again.”

“Me too,” Rayne said. “But blizzards are unpredictable. Especially ones so out of season. These types can either fizzle—or be way, way worse.”

I shuddered, a chill working through me. The heat of the fire felt good, but it would take a while before I was truly warm.

As if the universe looked down at me and wanted to make my life more difficult, the power failed completely. Though it was still midafternoon, the cabin was dark with the storm and the early-fading sunlight.

“Crap,” Rayne said.

“It’ll be okay.” I moved closer to the fire. “Just let me feel a bit less like a popsicle, and we’ll get the generator started.” Where she was sitting, I saw her wrap her arms around herself. “You should put on some warmer clothes if you have them.”

“Right.”

She carefully avoided looking in my direction as she grabbed her suitcase and dug through it. The rustle of fabric was such a fucking temptation, I had to focus hard on the embers beneath the flames to pretend both of us weren’t naked right now.

A few minutes later, I was dry enough to notice the dropping temperature in the cabin. I grabbed a throw blanket Rayne hadn’t used off the armchair and wrapped myself in it. “Let me get some clothes on, and we’ll work on this.”

“Okay.”

Clothes—dry ones—felt amazing. Like the strange sensation of going swimming for an entire day and then getting your clothes back on. I decided on sweats and a long-sleeved T-shirt since we weren’t going anywhere.

I came out of the bathroom to find Rayne laying out my sopping-wet clothes in front of the fire, already having moved the fur rug out of the way. “You don’t have to do that.”

“They need to dry out,” she said. “We don’t know what kinds of emergencies we could have, and as much as you annoy me, putting on wet clothes is something I wouldn’t wish on anyone. Not even the guys trying to kill me.”

I smothered a smile and went to help her, laying out the rest of what was there. “I’ll rotate them in a bit. Let me see if I can get the generator worked out.” I replaced the wood I had drying so we wouldn’t run out.

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