Page 47 of Undoing His Innocent Enemy (Hot Winter Escapes)

‘There is something I wish for you to see,’ he said, cryptically. But then he picked up the camera case she had brought in with her and pulled out her Leica. ‘Do you have space on the memory card?’

She frowned, surprised to see him handle the camera without sneering. She nodded. She’d spent the last few days checking through all the shots and deleting any she didn’t wish to download when she returned to Saariselkä.

‘Good,’ he said. And passed her the camera. ‘You will need it.’

He strolled to the kitchen area and produced a casserole dish from the fridge. He set it on the woodburning stove. After stoking the fire, he peered out across the lake at the gathering darkness. ‘We have an hour before it’s dark enough.’

For what?

Before she could ask, he added, ‘Do you want to use the hot tub while we wait?’

The intensity in his gaze, the dark arousal in those pure blue eyes, warm now with a need he couldn’t hide, told her all she needed to know about what he planned to do to her there. Perhaps she should say no, tell him she wanted a clarification of where they stood. Was this their last night or wasn’t it?

But somehow, she didn’t want to ruin this new truce. Didn’t want to think about the future. She was tired of pondering what might have been. Wouldn’t it be better to stay in the now? To enjoy the moment, to enjoy what theydidhave, and live the pipe dreams she’d weaved about them one last time before they could be dashed tomorrow? They’d built something precious over the past two weeks. Even if it was only a sexual connection for him it was so much more for her. And here was her chance to own it and enjoy it for a few more hours at least.

She loved him. And she didn’t want to hurt him. Didn’t want to press and probe at wounds that clearly hadn’t healed. And might never heal.

She forced a smile to her lips, grasped his shoulder and bounced into his arms. He grunted and caught her, the fire in his eyes dancing as she wrapped her legs around his waist.

‘Absolutely, but only if you join me there.’ She swept her gaze over the dramatic sweep of his brows, the high cheekbones and day-old stubble that made him look so breathtakingly wild and untamed.

You tamed him for two whole weeks, Cara Doyle. And he’s still yours tonight.

‘Try to keep me away,’ he said and let out a gruff laugh as he captured her lips with a hunger she adored, as if no other woman existed.

Was it any wonder she’d fallen for this bold, unknowable, insatiable man—who made her feel so alive and unashamed?

As he tugged off the last of her clothing and his own, then carted her outside and dropped her into the gloriously hot water, she forced herself to revel in the moment, to let the snow-laden beauty of the forest night add to the adrenaline rush of making love to him in the crisp winter light, and not to think of the empty space in her chest.

Or what tomorrow might bring.

‘There, can you see them?’ Logan whispered, pointing over Cara’s shoulder, feeling her body still beneath his as they lay in the hide he’d built especially to view the wildlife a few years before. A hide he had never imagined wanting to share with anyone.

Her awed gasp had emotion tightening his ribs as she spotted the wolves silhouetted against the leap of coloured lights on the forest ridge. Turquoise blue and a flicker of iridescent pink edged the pulsing emerald as the aurora borealis swirled and shimmered, cutting across the inky, star-studded night and providing the perfect backdrop to the hunting pack.

‘Oh, Logan, that’s... Absolutely stunning,’ she murmured. ‘They’re all white.’ He could feel her excitement as she lifted the camera to her face and began clicking off shots from their vantage point. ‘I’ve never seen a pack like it before. Are they all albinos?’

‘No, they are a rare subspecies, all but extinct now,’ he murmured.

His grandfather had told him as much when he’d spotted a pack like this as a teenager.

Wolf populations were growing in the south and east of Finland, with around two hundred of them now living in the wild—the tourist board even arranged photography trips so visitors could view them. But no one would ever see these wolves—and he’d wanted her to have this.

The alpha female paused and turned as if sensing their presence, then stretched her head towards the sky and howled, galvanising her pack for the hunt as a moose crashed through the trees in front of them, obviously scenting the wolves’ presence. For several seconds, the lead wolf’s snowy fur—usually camouflaged by the winter landscape—was aglow with the green and blue lightshow above her.

The natural wonder of the wolf though was nothing compared to the sight of Cara, eagerly photographing her and her pack. Not to Logan. He lay still and watched her face, the slight frown of concentration, the ice that had formed on her lashes as they waited, the glow of excitement in her eyes lit by the Northern Lights as she worked tirelessly to capture the pack before they dashed past the ridge chasing their prey.

He thought of the sight of Cara earlier in the hot tub, as she rode him, her body bowing back, her skin alive with sensation, her face a picture of ecstasy as she came. And later as he washed her in the cabin’s shower and she gave herself to him again, without holding back. And without demanding more from him.

And he knew he couldn’t lose her, couldn’t let her go. Not yet.

The pack and their prey disappeared into the trees, and she flopped over onto her back, her face lit by the ethereal lights of the Lapland night.

She lifted her gloved hand to his face, her eyes glowing with achievement. ‘Wow, Logan. Just wow,’ she whispered, her voice muffled by her scarf. ‘Thank you for giving me this.’

He could see the love and trust that had scared him so fundamentally two days ago. And suddenly he knew how to make her stay. What he could give her without exposing himself any more than he already had.

There was a way to make this work. All he’d had to do was find it.

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