Page 42 of Montana Rain

I risked everything, pulling her as close as I could against my chest without crushing her. “I played water polo in high school before I went into the Navy. I would rather do literally any other exercise besides running. When I was a kid, I owned an iguana named Fred, and I cried when he died.” Rayne’s body went soft and pliant in my arms, her breathing evening out and slowing.

“I’ve always wanted to travel to Africa, and winter is my favorite season. But maybe the most important thing. As soon as I saw you, I felt like I knew you. You scare me too, princess, because I’m so far gone, this hero would do anything for you.”

Rayne moved in her sleep, shifting to be more comfortable against me. Even if it was never more than this, Rayne felt safe with me, and after everything, that was all I could ever ask.

Chapter 18

Rayne

Smoke.

Why did it smell like smoke?

I came to consciousness full of warmth and completely relaxed on a very comfortable pillow. When I opened my eyes, it was dark. Then I realized that was simply because my head was tucked under the comforter.

The pillow under me moved.

Oh my god.

I was on Cole’s chest, clinging to him like he was the world’s biggest body pillow. He held me too, hands gripping me tighter than I thought one could while sleeping. Our legs tangled together.

Last night felt like a fever dream. Did any of that conversation really happen? Or was it just my cold-fueled imagination?

Clearly, some of it happened, or I would still be on the couch and not in this nest of delicious warmth with a man I should not be this close to.

Lifting my head from beneath the edge of the blanket, I suddenly remembered what woke me. The air in the cabin was hazy with smoke, and I could smell it. Across the room, the fire in the fireplace was down to coals, the air freezing, but that wasn’t where the smoke came from. It came from…

The basement.

“Cole,” I croaked, untangling myself from him and desperately wishing I hadn’t because away from him, the air was frigid. “Cole, something’s wrong.”

He opened his eyes and came alert in the way only the military guys I knew could. “Shit.”

Leaping out of the bed, he was down in the basement in a second. Coughing sounded, and he came back, his shirt over his mouth and nose. “We need to clear the air. Can you get the big fire going again?”

“Yeah.”

I sprang into action, ignoring the cold quickly seeping into my fingers and toes. The only reason we had been cuddled together like that this morning was because we needed to stay warm. There was no other reason. None.

Not because we’d both made ourselves vulnerable and dropped the masks we showed everyone else. Not because he’d allowed me to see through the charade and admit the truth.

No.

The wood was much drier now, thankfully, and it didn’t take long to get the flames rising again. Cole opened two windows a sliver on either side of the cabin, and the smoke began to slide out, clearing the air. I pulled a blanket around my shoulders and huddled near the fire, waiting.

Cole grabbed wood and disappeared with his makeshift mask again. But it wasn’t long before he was back, face grim, shutting the windows now that the air was clear.

He grabbed a blanket from the bed and came to sit, turning me toward him so we were knee to knee. “You look like you’re about to tell me someone died, and considering there’s no power…”

“I don’t know what’s going on with it, but it won’t turn back on. Even with a fire going inside it, there’s no power coming from it. I wish I knew how to fix it, but I don’t.” He smiled briefly. “Hurts my manly feelings a little, but I’m not an engineering guy. I’m sorry, Rayne.”

“We have a fire.”

“I grabbed this.” He held out a phone that looked like a brick. A satellite phone. “Saw it was down there before. But it doesn’t have a signal either.”

Yesterday, I’d been nervous. Now, I was afraid. We were safe enough, but it was cold, and the wood pile was smaller than I had thought. It wasn’t burning faster, but we needed it more, so it would go quickly now that it was our only source of heat.

“Hey,” Cole said. He reached for me, his hand slipping behind my neck. His fingers were cool but not freezing since we were wrapped in blankets. “We’re going to be fine. We still have water, and I bought plenty of things that don’t need to be cooked.”

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