by Minard, Tori
On the other hand, he was soaked through with the coldest water I’d ever experienced and it was starting to snow heavily, the rain completely replaced with flakes. We were both soaked. If I couldn’t get him inside, he wouldn’t last more than a few minutes and neither would I.
I grabbed him under the armpits and pulled him backwards up the slope. But I’d already worn myself out hauling him out of the river, and he was way heavier now he didn’t have the water to hold him up. I heaved and pulled and made it about a foot and a half before I had to stop. My arms were trembling with the effort.
“Shit,” I muttered. “Now what?”
I couldn’t leave him out here to die. But he wouldn’t survive if I didn’t get him dry and warm, pronto. And how could I do that out here? In a few minutes we were both going to be covered in snow. If only I had a tent.
Wait...a tent. There was an old one in the closet of the cabin. I saw it when I cleaned up after I first moved in. It might have holes in it, but it would be better than nothing. Maybe if I could keep the snow off us, I could warm him up enough that he’d awake and walk to the cabin on his own.
“I’ll be right back,” I said to Mr. Unconscious. “Don’t go anywhere.”
He didn’t even flicker an eyelash. I staggered up the hill to the cabin and raced to the storage closet. There were piles of old junk inside, accumulated over years of family summers up here. Inflatable pool toys, long deflated; extra kerosene lanterns; a box of fishing tackle, along with a rod and reel hiding in the back corner; and at the bottom on the floor, two tattered sleeping bags and an equally disreputable tent.
Awesome. We were going to stay in deluxe accommodations.
I threw a couple of logs on the fire in my wood burning kitchen stove to keep it going while I was outside with The Guy. Then I gathered up the things, somehow holding both sleeping bags and the tent all at once, and staggered back outside. The icy winter air cut right through my wet clothes, making me shiver. It was even worse than being immersed in the river. My jeans stuck to my legs and my feet squished in my sodden shoes. I was going to turn into a Nova-shaped icicle in a minute.
The guy in the red jacket was much worse off. He hadn’t moved at all since I’d left him. He really looked dead. His lips were blue, his face and fingers so pale they also looked bluish.
For the first time since coming up here, I wished I wasn’t alone. If I’d had a companion, I could have done more for this guy and done it quicker. As it was, I had to fumble around on my own and everything seemed to take ten times longer than it should.
I set the sleeping bags under the canopy of a young spruce tree to keep them out of the snow. Then I untied the tent bundle. What unfurled wasn’t what I’d hoped for.
I didn’t have a nice, big tent with a floor and a zip-up door. What I had was a pup tent and an old blue tarp. But it was better than nothing and at least it was simple enough that I wouldn’t get confused and end up tangling us in the tent like fish in a net. I’d never been very good at pitching tents.
Spreading the tarp on the ground next to the unconscious man, I then rolled him over onto it. Now he was face down, so I heaved him onto his back. He groaned and coughed. Water spewed from his mouth.
I’d placed the tarp under the spruce tree next to the sleeping bags, figuring we could use the extra shelter the tree would provide. Now I draped the pup tent over the lowest branch, arranging the fabric so it hung down to the ground on either side of the man. Okay. So far, so good.
But I didn’t have him undressed or in the sleeping bags yet.
My shivering had turned violent and my teeth were starting to chatter. I needed to get warm and dry, too. Crawling into the tent, I crouched on my knees beside him and whipped my utility knife out of my belt. I carried that puppy everywhere, all the time out here.
I used the blade—which I kept sharp at all times—to cut his clothing off him. The stuff looked expensive, although it was a little hard to tell when it was full of water. I didn’t care if he’d paid thousands of dollars for it. The clothes were coming off.
After I’d sliced through jacket, Henley, jeans and even boxers, I tossed the scraps out of the tent. I grabbed the sleeping bags and dragged them inside. One went beneath the guy for some insulation from the cold of the ground, which was seeping right through the tarp. I spread the other one over him and tucked it in.
Now for my clothes. All this moving around was awkward in the cramped confines of a pup tent. My hat was still dry somehow, but the rest of me was soaked and my fingers were going numb. I undressed quicker than I’d ever thought possible and crawled under the sleeping bag with my anonymous friend.
Okay. Now I was buck naked and pressed up against an equally naked unconscious stranger who felt a lot like a big block of ice. Still shivering, I tucked the sleeping bag around us, trying to seal out all the cold air. The top of the bag came just over our heads. Thank goodness it was extra-large, and seemed to be made of down. It might just save his life.
God, it was cold in here. The only heat available had to come from my body, and I was chilled too. But this was all we had at the moment, so it would have to do.
While I’d been undressing him, I’d been too preoccupied to pay much attention to his looks, but I had noticed with a corner of my mind that he was quite good-looking. Now there wasn’t anything left for me to do, and I could study him in detail.
There wasn’t much light in our little nest, but I could see the striking planes of his face, the hardness of his jaw beneath the dark stubble growing there, the high sculpted cheekbones, the length and thickness of his lashes. And I could feel the hard muscularity of his body beneath mine.
Boy, could I feel it.
He was like a stone statue under me, cold and hard with sculpted muscles. He must work out a lot. Like it could be his job, judging by how built he was.
His face looked vaguely familiar, but I couldn’t place him. Maybe he just reminded me of someone else. That happened to me a lot—I’d see someone I thought I knew and then realize they only resembled my acquaintance. That was probably what I had here.
Besides, if I’d ever met anyone half as good-looking as this guy, I’d definitely remember his name. Compared to him, Barry wasn’t even worth a second glance.
The situation was too bizarre, though, and he was too cold for me to get excited at being mashed up against his nakedness. It just didn’t feel sexy at all. My body still shook with hard tremors and I was scared that he’d never wake up.
What would I do if I couldn’t rouse him? My phone had been in my jeans pocket when I waded into the river and it was just as soaked as the rest of my stuff. I couldn’t call for help. I couldn’t leave him because he’d succumb to the cold long before I could get back. All I could do was lie here and hope my body heat was enough to bring him back.
“Look, I don’t know who you are,” I said out loud. “But you’ve got to hold on. I’m trying to get you warmed up.”
Of course he didn’t say anything.
“Don’t die on me, okay? I want you to live.”
It was like talking to a rock, but I kept babbling, telling him about the cabin and the river and how this was the first serious snow of the fall.
Was it only my imagination, or was it getting a little warmer inside the sleeping bag? I wasn’t shivering anymore, although I still felt cold. It seemed we were making progress.
Then he started to shake.
Chapter 7
Cold
Gage:
Cold. I was trapped someplace cold and dark, like a meat locker or a drawer in the morgue. All I could see or feel was cold darkness, everywhere, even inside me. Cold, hard darkness.
My mind drifted between wanting to escape that cold and wishing I could sink back into it and forget everything. At the moment, I was leaning toward the forgetting.
Someone was talking. The voice went on and on, soft and feminine, but I couldn’t understand the words. There seemed to be a heavy, clinging fog wrapped aro
und my legs as it tried to drag me back into the icy black. Although I couldn’t understand the voice, it pulled me upward, away from the cold and the forgetfulness.
And there was noise beyond the talking. A strange clattering sound, like nothing I’d ever heard before.
My body shook uncontrollably. I tried to hold onto myself, to stop the movements, but my muscles refused to obey. All I could do was lay there and tremble.
A small hand touched my face. Her skin was hot against mine. I noticed the rest of her pressed against me, then, from chest to knees. She lay over me like a blanket. Who was she? I’d never heard that voice before.
God, she felt good. If I didn’t feel like absolute shit, I would have been aroused. Highly aroused. I knew this, but it was an abstraction, an idea. True arousal was out of my reach.
I groaned. The clattering sound paused for an instant before resuming.
The woman gasped. “Are you awake? Can you hear me?”
My mouth wouldn’t work, wouldn’t form words, so I groaned again. And once again, the clattering stopped. Then started.
My teeth. That sound was my teeth chattering.
“Can you open your eyes?” she said.
Jesus. I just wanted her to shut up so I could go back to sleep. That was what I needed. Sleep. I was so fucking tired. My body felt as heavy as if someone had replaced my blood with lead.
“Open your eyes,” she said. “Come on. Please. Open them for me.” Her small hands clutched my shoulders and shook me.
“Leave me alone,” I muttered. But it came out sounding all mashed together, like one long, unintelligible word.
“Wake up. We can’t stay here. You have to wake up.” Small hands shook me again, harder this time.
All right. Fine. I’d open my eyes for her.
Yeah. I’d get right on that.
I struggled to pry my eyelids apart. A sliver of light entered my eyes. Victory. I tried to summon some enthusiasm for my accomplishment, but it was too much trouble. The sliver disappeared.
“Come on,” she nagged. “Open your eyes. I know you can do it. We can’t stay here. We have to get inside.”
What the hell was she talking about? Inside where? I was fine where I was.
Okay, not really. But I sure wasn’t getting up and going somewhere else.
A sharp object jabbed me mercilessly in the ribs. “I know you’re in there somewhere. I’m not going to give up until you look at me.”
Oh, for fuck’s sake.
I put everything I had into opening my eyes.
It was dark, but not too dark to see. The light felt gray and cold, just like my body. A girl lay on top of me and neither of us wore any clothes.
I squinted up at her. She had dark hair and eyes, a pretty face with a slightly pointy chin. She reminded me of a small, naked elf. I didn’t recognize her. Shouldn’t I recognize her, given we were naked and horizontal together? We must have done something intimate to be in that condition.
But if we’d been screwing, why did I feel so bad?
I was still shaking, my teeth rattling together. The exhaustion weighed on me, making it difficult to keep my eyes open. Yet I wanted to stare at her. She was more than pretty—her features were beautiful and completely free of make-up, which also puzzled me. The girls I knew wore tons of make-up at all times.
She gave me a dazzling smile. “You did it! You’re awake.”
I groaned incoherently in response.
“Now we just have to get you on your feet.”
Another groan escaped me. “Nah.”
I’d meant to say “not gonna happen” but apparently that was too much work for me at the moment.
“We have to. It’s getting colder. It’s snowing like crazy. We have to get inside where it’s warm.”
I kept squinting at her, trying to make sense of her words. We were outside? In a snowstorm. What the fuck, over?
“Come on,” she said, rolling off me.
I immediately missed her heat and the softness of her curves. But she was on a mission and there was no stopping her. She got on her knees and pulled the coverings off me. A sleeping bag. I got a flash of a voluptuous body just before she wrapped the puffy bag around herself.
“You can use the one you’re lying on,” she said.
I just lay there staring at her.
She frowned and extended a hand. “Do you need help getting up?”
In other circumstances, that remark would have made me grin wickedly. But grinning would take energy I didn’t have. Instead I continued to stare like a fool.
“Look,” she said, her voice growing sharp. “I know you feel terrible, but we can’t stay here. You’re still cold. You could die out here, and I won’t let that happen. So get up right now. The cabin is really close. I know you can walk that far.”
She was stubborn as hell.
I struggled to get myself propped up on my elbows. No idea where I was, who she was, or how and why I’d come to be here, but I decided getting into a warm cabin sounded like a fine plan.
“Clothes,” I said hoarsely.
In spite of the dim light, her blush was obvious. “Um ... I had to cut them off you. But I have your shoes.” She reached outside the tent.
There was a tent?
God, my head was a mess. I’d just noticed the fact we were inside some kind of tiny tent with a steep pitch that gave just enough room for the two of us. Glancing up, I saw that the fabric was draped over the branch of an evergreen tree. Its prickly green needles were just above my head.
She handed me my shoes. They were liberally dusted with snow. She wanted me to put my feet in those?
“It’s better than going barefoot,” she said, tapping the snow out of them.
They were fucking cold when I put them on, and completely wet, like they’d been dunked in an ice bath. She helped me wrap up in the remaining sleeping bag and we crawled out of the tent, me staggering like a drunk even though I was on my hands and knees. Walking in this state was going to be lots of fun.
Sure enough, it was snowing like crazy outside. The flakes were so thick and came down so fast, so heavily, it was like trying to look through a curtain. All I could see was blurry shapes that looked like trees. A lot of trees.
A rushing sound, like a busy freeway, came from nearby.
The girl grabbed me around my ribs and hauled me to my feet. She was stronger than she looked. And I was weak as a newborn puppy, swaying and wobbling as dizziness made everything spin around me.
“It’s real close,” she said.
That was a lie.
It seemed to take years of stumbling through the freezing snowfall to get to the cabin. All my effort, all my mental focus went to putting one foot ahead of the other and staying upright. Finally, a rough brown wall reared up in front of us, along with a short flight of wooden stairs to a tiny deck.
“Just three steps,” she said.
I was so tired; I just wanted to sit down on those snow-covered steps and rest. But I had her nagging me, tugging on me, and it was easier to go along with what she wanted.
Chapter 8
Unexpected Guest
Nova:
He was so heavy that by the time I got him into a kitchen chair, my legs and arms were shaking. The guy was six-plus feet of muscle and bone. Mostly muscle. But he was weak from hypothermia and maybe other things, and he couldn’t walk steadily. He kept weaving and swaying like he was drunk.
Maybe he was. Maybe that was why he’d fallen into the river in the first place.
If so, he was damn lucky to be alive.
I had to get him warmed up, both the outside of him and the inside. He needed to get completely dry and he had to drink some warm liquid to get the heat inside his body. But I needed to get warm and dry, too, or I wouldn’t be able to take care of him.
I left him in the kitchen while I climbed into my loft bedroom for some dry clothes. The fire had burned down quite a bit while I was outside with him, so when I returned to the kitchen
, I built it up again and put a pan of water on to heat for tea. He just sat there staring off into space, blinking every so often but mainly looking completely out of it.
“I’m going back out for your stuff,” I said, sticking my feet into my warmest boots.
He turned his head and blinked at me, his face expressionless. Damn, he was gorgeous.
How had I failed to see it before? I guess I’d been too busy trying to save him. He had high cheekbones and a squarish jaw with a dimple in his chin. I never used to like those, but on him it was charming. Sexy.
His eyes were huge, thick-lashed and bright blue, and his lips...holy hell, he had the most kissable looking lips I’d ever seen. They weren’t especially full, but they weren’t thin, either. They were perfectly sized and had this beautifully curved, sculpted shape that made me want to trace their edges with my fingertip.
Unfortunately, those gorgeous eyes of his were blank. It was like he didn’t know where he was, or maybe even who he was. The idea disturbed me. I hoped he didn’t have amnesia.
“Uh...so, like I said, I’m going to get your stuff. I’ll be right back.”
He just stared at me.
Okay, then. I dashed outside, pulling the hood of my coat up over my wet hair. The snow had deepened in the short time we’d been inside and it was starting to drag the tent down. I snatched up his half-frozen gear and dashed back to the cabin, shutting the door with a sigh of relief.
Then I remembered—oh, shit—I’d never gotten around to bringing in the firewood. But I had enough to last me another few hours, and I had to get some hot liquid into my unexpected guest first.
The kitchen felt almost hot after the miserable cold of that tent. He slumped in the chair, leaning against the log wall, his eyes closed, the damp sleeping bag still wrapped around him. I shucked my coat, draped it on one of the other chairs, and laid my hand against his forehead. His skin still felt cold to the touch.
Should I wake him up again? I wasn’t sure how to handle this situation. What would my parents do?
They’d probably check him for concussion, for one thing. Then, of course, they’d try to get as much hot liquid into him as possible, and for that he had to be awake.