Rocky Retreat

by Vivian Arend

  She blinked rapidly, the snowflakes on her lashes melting away. “I don’t think you’ve quite figured out how this game is played,” Rachel teased.

  “No? Let me show you exactly how the game is played,” he offered, lowering his voice and letting his attraction make promises he intended to keep.

  He helped her stand before glancing around to see where everyone else was. The game had surged toward the fort, and with all eyes on the assault, no one was watching as he tugged her toward the nearest barn.

  She came willingly enough, sighing as they stepped into the protected shelter. The space held a hint of warmth from small area heaters and the body heat of the animals, a sense of peace and calm carrying on the air as she curled her hand around his arm and moved against him.

  “Oops. I think we conceded the snowball fight. Running off in the middle like that.”

  “Somebody else will join in,” Lee assured her, bringing her with him toward the tack room. He swung the door open and let her in, then pressed her against the back of the door and pinned her in place with his body. “You’ve been driving me mad. I want to play a different game now,” he growled.

  Her eyes lit up as she glanced around, the dim light coming in the side window barely enough to let them see each other’s faces. The north side of the building was darker, and the temperature cooler. “You want to fool around in here?”

  Lee didn’t answer, just tossed aside his gloves and reached under her coat. He felt his way to the bottom of her shirt so he could tug the material out of her pants, separating the layers of her winter clothing. It took a bit of work until he found the bottom. “You’re wearing long johns,” he said with a laugh.

  “Of course I am. Top and bottom too. It’s damn cold out there. I wasn’t about to freeze anything off.” She squeaked as he finally succeeded and slipped his hands against her belly. “Oh lordy, your hands are cold.”

  “You can warm up on me in a minute,” he promised, his fingers tingling more from anticipation than from the heat of her body as he skimmed his palms upward and hummed in approval when he reached her chest. Her bra rubbed softly against him, the nub of her nipple a tight point through the thin layers. “I can’t decide which is sexier—you naked or covered in silk.”

  He closed his fingers around the peak, dragging a wavering moan from her throat and a responding pulse from his body. Damn, he wanted her.

  “It’s too cold in here to strip down,” she warned.

  “Who said anything about stripping?”

  Although he couldn’t resist shoving up the layers of material over her torso until he reached a nipple. He rolled his tongue around the teeny bud until she wiggled against him, her gloves discarded to the ground so she could thread her fingers through his hair and hold him close as he played.

  “It feels so good,” she confessed. “I love it when you touch my breasts.”

  Lee hummed his approval. “Keep telling me what you like, honey, and I’ll keep giving you more.”

  Only she didn’t need to speak. It was pretty clear she enjoyed everything he did to her. The way she moved against him, the slight tug of her fingers in his hair—God, all of it drove him higher and hotter. And when she moaned, deep in her throat, he wanted to rip her clothes off right then and there.

  Control.

  He clung to it, struggling to make sure she was on board, grateful that everything he did was met with approval. Another moan escaped her, another breathless gasp. He stood them up and pulled down her top to protect her from the cold.

  He eyed her snow pants.

  Rachel stroked her hands down his neck. “Why do you appear to be solving a puzzle?”

  He tilted his head up until their gazes met again. “Because I don’t want you to freeze off anything vital while we’re having a good time.”

  There was no way to get around removing one layer. His hands felt uncoordinated as he jerked down her snow pants and slipped one foot from her boot. She wore an older pair of long underwear, and he grinned.

  “Are you judging my fashion choices?” she demanded, laughter in her tone.

  Lee shook his head as he grabbed a shoeing tool from the counter. “I love what you’re wearing.”

  She squealed as he used the sharp tip of the tool to rip a notch in the fabric directly over her pussy. “Lee Coleman,” she shouted. “What the hell?”

  “I’ll buy you new ones,” he promised. He abandoned the tool, unzipping himself and setting his cock free.

  She wrapped her fingers around him and stroked as he fumbled in his pocket for the condom he’d put there earlier. “You are inventive, I’ll give you that much.”

  “Desperation inspires a man.” He ripped the package open before bumping her hands away, frantically rolling the latex over his length.

  “You’ll be lucky to keep it up in these temperatures,” she teased.

  He was still laughing as he leaned in and kissed her. Rachel gave back with just as much passion. Just as much desperation in her touch. It wasn’t only their mouths but their entire bodies connecting as she wrapped herself around him, lifting one leg and trying to line them up.

  Lee caught her under the knee, supporting her as she slowed the kiss. The urgency was still there, but knowing that in a moment he would slide into paradise, he could pause to make sure she was fully on board. He slipped his fingers between her legs, past the ragged edges of her fraying long johns to test her readiness.

  “Hmm, yes.” Rachel’s head fell back against the door as she tilted her hips toward him. His fingers moved through her folds, liquid desire coating him as he played. He teased the tight bundle of nerves as he held his body over her, guarding and controlling at the same time.

  “You like that, don’t you? You like it when you have no idea what I’m going to do next.”

  She made another noise of acknowledgment. “Because whatever you do next always makes me feel good.”

  Her words set him grinning, but it wasn’t words he wanted now, he wanted to be inside her. He bent his knees, angling his cock so he could thrust between her legs.

  Rachel helped, placing her hands on his shoulders and rocking in tempo against him, the passion in her eyes showing all too clearly she was impatient for the moment when he changed his angle and slid home.

  For a moment neither of them moved. They stared at each other, perfectly united, pleasure hovering like a heavy snowfall ready to descend and envelop them.

  “Do it,” she whispered, digging her fingers into the back of his neck. Urging him on with a squeeze of her internal muscles. “Do it hard.”

  Like a gate had been opened, he surged forward, her permission releasing the safeguards holding him back. He needed to go deeper. Needed to take her and make her completely his.

  There was a time for family and there was a time for this. This moment of intense intimacy. Just the two of them, the slick sound of him entering her body echoing off the walls of the tack room. Small gasps, low cries of pleasure.

  Icy coldness contrasting with scalding heat.

  Yet their pleasure wasn’t only centered on the physical. Their bodies were connected, but as he looked into her eyes it was more. He rocked harder, thrust deeper, but as her lips drew into a pout and her lashes fluttered, something more enveloped them. More than a hot encounter in a cold place.

  He cupped his free hand around the back of her neck and brought their foreheads together. He pounded into her, urged on by a steady stream of yes, yes, yes. The word jerked from her lips as if expelled every time his cock entered her.

  They were fully clothed for the most part. Winter boots, toques on their heads. Jackets done up. But his cock was inside her, and she was panting as if him stopping would kill her.

  Him stopping would kill him.

  Lee tilted his body back, forcing a hand between them so he could reach her clit and apply pressure as he continued to fuck her hard.

  Her fingertips scraped his neck a bare second before she jerked him to her lips, their mo
uths crashing together as she came. Her body tightened down on him so hard he lost it as well, his release rocking him.

  “Lee.”

  She tore her lips free to gasp his name, a cloud against the frigid air. He locked his knees and pressed her harder to the door so he wouldn’t do something stupid like collapse and send them both sprawling to the floor.

  His head rested on the door, hers on his shoulder as he held her in place until their heart rates dropped far enough he was no longer hearing drum beats echoing in his brain.

  She pushed on his chest, a lazy, satisfied smile breaking free as she held a hand against his cheek. “Lee Coleman. You certainly know how to show a girl a good time.”

  He nuzzled against her hand and sighed happily before pulling them apart and dealing with getting dressed. He helped rearrange her clothing into some semblance of order, although there was nothing he could do about the torn crotch of her underwear.

  They were both grinning like fools when he took her by the hand and led her from the room, the fogged window the only lingering evidence of their adventure.

  He paused for a moment as the impulse hit to stop and draw in the condensation. He resisted, but only because he figured it was too soon—Rachel would probably head back into the hills at a dead run if he were to go and place their initials in a heart.

  But holding back didn’t remove the urge, and it didn’t erase the realization that Rachel truly was the one for him. In the middle of fooling around he’d gone and done it.

  He’d fallen head-over-heels in love with Rachel Malone.

  And now…he just had to convince her to fall hopelessly in love with him as well.

  Chapter Ten

  Days passed in a blur of happy attention and dizzy anticipation. They didn’t see each other every day, but often enough she had grown more than comfortable with Lee’s presence in her life.

  A New Year’s Eve party where they kissed at midnight. Trips to Traders that didn’t end with them rushing out the door, but dancing until the pub closed before stumbling to the truck, barely able to keep their hands off each other. Ordinary evenings spent at her house or his, eating a meal then watching TV.

  Rachel had fun during her time with Lee, but she was enjoying the rest of her life as well.

  Even her job at the café was something to look forward to every morning. Simple though it might be, she liked what she was doing. She appreciated the people she worked with, and the people she served. She didn’t need the rush of excitement that Gary had tempted her with during their all-too-short relationship.

  She’d wanted to put her past behind her, and as the new year began, it seemed she was successfully doing exactly that. It was good to have a reason to celebrate, and it was even better to celebrate with Lee at her side.

  January passed before she realized it had been a long time since she’d seen her grandmother’s necklace. She racked her brain for the last time she remembered seeing it, but like a forgotten word on the tip of her tongue, the answer eluded her.

  Memory struck the next morning, sending an uncomfortable sensation roiling though her gut. She’d been in the middle of pouring coffee and paused for long enough to pull a chuckle from Lee.

  “I only get half a cup? Am I being rationed?” He slipped his fingers along her arm, his familiar touch raising goose bumps.

  Rachel shook herself alert. “Sorry, it’s not you. I just remembered I was wearing my grandmother’s locket when I went up to the cabin. I took it off and hung it on the wall by the bookcase for safekeeping, and I must have left it there. I’ll have to go back to get it.”

  Lee whistled softly. “You might have to wait until the spring. The snow’s only gotten deeper since we were there, and getting up that road —I’d only try it on a perfectly clear day.”

  Double drat. “It’s not that important.” She offered him a warm smile. “As long as I don’t forget where it is.”

  The scent of frying onions wafted past, and she worked to hide her rising discomfort. Maybe it wasn’t just the missing locket making her uncomfortable. There was a nasty flu bug going around, and so far she’d avoided it, but the twinge in her belly said her sick-free days were numbered.

  Lee rose from the counter and offered her his usual farewell wink. “I’d better get going on my chores, or my big brothers will be tracking me down with cattle prods.”

  “Telling you to mooooove your butt?”

  He laughed as she settled against him briefly, enjoying his firm hug and the kiss he gave her, ignoring the cat calls and whistles that had become another part of their daily ritual. Life was comfortable. Simple.

  She should have known better than to think it would keep going that way.

  It wasn’t something huge like Gary blasting into her life, tearing her apart. It wasn’t something terrible with her family. It was quiet and completely life changing, because sometimes that’s how the world works.

  After the first week of February, she no longer could say she’d escaped the flu. She was miserable, curled up in an easy chair after having warned Lee to stay away from her germs. She stared at the television without seeing it, nausea making her swallow far too often. Alone with too many thoughts.

  She missed him, and yet it was as if he was still with her.

  And that…

  …was it.

  Between one moment and the next she realized Lee Coleman was more than someone she enjoyed spending time with. He was more than someone she enjoyed fooling around with.

  She liked talking with him, liked dancing with him, liked drinking coffee and eating meals, and sitting quietly together—everything about them fit, and the revelation hadn’t required trumpeting fanfare or flashing neon lights.

  The truth had snuck up on her. He was important to her in ways she’d never expected, and she trusted him in ways she’d thought she might never trust a man again.

  That’s when the flu decided she’d had enough introspection time, and she had to race to the washroom to deal with an urgent bout of nausea.

  Yet not even five minutes later, someone spying on her would’ve discovered the most inexplicable thing. A grown woman sitting on the edge of the tub so she could be near the toilet, yet wearing a goofy grin because there was so much happiness bubbling up inside her.

  So, how did she tell him? Oh, God. Should she tell him? They’d been having fun, but he’d done nothing to indicate this was more than dating to him.

  Her eye fell on the calendar on the wall as she pondered. Would he be shocked to hear that she wanted more from their relationship? Only, wasn’t that logical—when two people enjoyed each other’s company the way she and Lee did, they should take it to the next level.

  Her gaze was stuck on the calendar as a sense of being slightly off-kilter struck, and she focused harder, trying to comprehend what part of her brain had already registered.

  The calendar showed two months at a time, and she’d circled the date of her last period in bold red. It was the only way she avoided being caught at work without supplies.

  Her stomach continued to complain as she rose to examine the dates closer. She ran her finger backward over the weeks, counting twice before a shiver of fear snuck in.

  When a third time counting once again added up to two weeks late, her nausea took on a whole new meaning.

  Melody had been right. She should never have held the baby.

  With her head spinning and her emotions jumbled, Rachel made her way to her bedroom and collapsed on the mattress. Lying flat out on her back, she stared at the ceiling and tried to figure out where she went from here.

  A baby.

  Oh God, she didn’t even dare think about how much she would like to have a child. Thinking about it would mean that it might be real. And if it was real, then she had a hell of a conversation she needed to set up with Lee. They’d used condoms every single time, but…

  Damn it. All the joy she’d felt not even ten minutes earlier seemed locked in ice. She wasn’t certain exactly how Le
e felt about her. Oh, she knew he liked her, but he was twenty-four years old. Had he even thought of having his own kids? And now she was about to throw a huge, life-altering change his way because she wouldn’t dream of not telling him.

  She wanted him. She wanted him in her life because he made her happy, and she liked herself when she was with him.

  But if she was pregnant—

  Like one of those old-fashioned spiral graphs, her thoughts shot off in one direction before looping back again and again. Nothing so elegant as a starburst was drawn, the messy tangle more like a heavy Gordian knot.

  She had no idea what the solution was.

  When the next day dawned bright and clear, the Alberta sky sparkling blue in spite of the frigid temperatures, Rachel dragged herself from her crumpled bed. She had fretted nearly all night. She needed to get out of the house, and her “nausea” seemed to be behaving itself.

  It wasn’t a solution, but it was something to do to distract herself. She picked up the phone and called Lee’s brother.

  “I don’t mind giving you a ride,” Trevor told her, even though his tone said he was confused. “But Lee’s only gone for the morning. If you wait until he gets back, he can take you.”

  She needed another day to sort things out before she saw him. “No, if you don’t mind, I’d like to go get the necklace now.”

  “No problem. I’ll pick you up in half an hour.”

  Rachel pulled on warm clothes, thankful Trevor had the truck well heated by the time he was outside her door. She avoided looking him straight in the eye, and he did her the courtesy of not diving into all the questions she knew he wanted to ask.

  A weird sense of comfortable awkwardness settled over them. Trevor knew damn well something was wrong, but he wasn’t rude enough to ask her straight out what it was. So they sat in silence until he turned onto the forestry road that led to the cabin.