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storm’ll be over by tomorrow. How long can that damn wind blow?”
She closed her eyes, feeling oddly reassured. The wind was getting to him, too. She wasn’t the only one freaked out by it.
Still, she suspected she wouldn’t sleep. It was too unnerving, this whole body contact. His long thighs were more unyielding than rope. The man was made of taut muscle, no give to him. The heat of his chest against her back kindled an unexpected furnace in her mind, her heart, her hormones.
It had been so long since she’d slept next to a man. There’d been a boy in college. Thom. She’d been crazy about him. He’d been crazy about her. The relationship had been hot and fast and wonderful…but then she’d gone off to med school and he’d gone off to his life. Both were on the same good-person track. They had goals.They had ambitions and responsibilities and family expectations to fulfill.
She’d called that relationship love , still thought it was. But it wasn’t the kind of love that actually eased loneliness. She’d never expected him to give up anything for her.
She’d never expected anyone to give up anything for her.
Neither did the man curled around her, she mused. Rick expected nothing from anyone but himself.
Yet he molded around her, as if valuing her warmth. His lungs released a long, slow sigh. His erection didn’t fade, which should have worked like a three-alarm fire between them. But it was so odd…Emilie had the strangest feeling that Rick needed this closeness even more than she did.
She didn’t know how tightly he’d been holding himself…until his whole body suddenly relaxed. As if for the first time in a long time, he felt safe.
With her.
That crazy thought was the last one she remembered.
R ICK WOKE FROM A DEEP SLEEP with a sharp sense of alarm.
The soft body of sleeping beauty draped around him should have aroused that sense of alarm—for damn sure—but it wasn’t that.
It was the silence.
In the dim light, the fire had burned low—too damned low; he should have wakened long before this. But the intense silence emanated from beyond. Outside.
He didn’t want to ease away from Ms. Sleepy Glue. Given any encouragement at all, he’d touch what heshouldn’t touch, slip inside her, let the natural heat take them both. His hormones were whining big-time over the deprivation. In fact, his hormones were downright nuts about that lean, compact body, the smell of her, the sleepy lure of her, the texture of her silky hair under his chin.
But a man didn’t take advantage of a vulnerable woman.
It was one of those stupid cardinal rules he’d never shaken.
So he slipped out of the covers, and immediately felt the burst of cold startle his skin. He fed the fire first, then hit the bathroom, and after a quick cleanup, unshuttered a window to get a good look outside.
It was a uniquely Alaskan morning. Didn’t look much like Christmas Eve. There was no tinsel, no red ribbons, no fancy lights. There was just an ocean of white snow, still as stone.
The sky, to the north, was a fistfight of clouds, knuckling together, circling in dark shadows, portending the next wave of storm. This blizzard wasn’t even close to over yet.
But there was a chance, for a few minutes, to get out. As he geared up, he checked on Emilie—but she slept and kept on sleeping. He suspected she hadn’t rested well in a blue moon.
His first step outside delivered both magic and menace. Nothing more beautiful than an Alaskan winter, no question. But you couldn’t breathe ice, and no amount of clothing totally protected from the cold. Rick knew he couldn’t last long, but a couple things had to be done.
The first was making sure he had access to thewoodshed—which didn’t take more than shoveling out the door under the overhang. That only took a few minutes, but the second problem—the biggest priority—was the lodge roof on the west side.
The lodge had been built right, with a high slant to the roof,
She closed her eyes, feeling oddly reassured. The wind was getting to him, too. She wasn’t the only one freaked out by it.
Still, she suspected she wouldn’t sleep. It was too unnerving, this whole body contact. His long thighs were more unyielding than rope. The man was made of taut muscle, no give to him. The heat of his chest against her back kindled an unexpected furnace in her mind, her heart, her hormones.
It had been so long since she’d slept next to a man. There’d been a boy in college. Thom. She’d been crazy about him. He’d been crazy about her. The relationship had been hot and fast and wonderful…but then she’d gone off to med school and he’d gone off to his life. Both were on the same good-person track. They had goals.They had ambitions and responsibilities and family expectations to fulfill.
She’d called that relationship love , still thought it was. But it wasn’t the kind of love that actually eased loneliness. She’d never expected him to give up anything for her.
She’d never expected anyone to give up anything for her.
Neither did the man curled around her, she mused. Rick expected nothing from anyone but himself.
Yet he molded around her, as if valuing her warmth. His lungs released a long, slow sigh. His erection didn’t fade, which should have worked like a three-alarm fire between them. But it was so odd…Emilie had the strangest feeling that Rick needed this closeness even more than she did.
She didn’t know how tightly he’d been holding himself…until his whole body suddenly relaxed. As if for the first time in a long time, he felt safe.
With her.
That crazy thought was the last one she remembered.
R ICK WOKE FROM A DEEP SLEEP with a sharp sense of alarm.
The soft body of sleeping beauty draped around him should have aroused that sense of alarm—for damn sure—but it wasn’t that.
It was the silence.
In the dim light, the fire had burned low—too damned low; he should have wakened long before this. But the intense silence emanated from beyond. Outside.
He didn’t want to ease away from Ms. Sleepy Glue. Given any encouragement at all, he’d touch what heshouldn’t touch, slip inside her, let the natural heat take them both. His hormones were whining big-time over the deprivation. In fact, his hormones were downright nuts about that lean, compact body, the smell of her, the sleepy lure of her, the texture of her silky hair under his chin.
But a man didn’t take advantage of a vulnerable woman.
It was one of those stupid cardinal rules he’d never shaken.
So he slipped out of the covers, and immediately felt the burst of cold startle his skin. He fed the fire first, then hit the bathroom, and after a quick cleanup, unshuttered a window to get a good look outside.
It was a uniquely Alaskan morning. Didn’t look much like Christmas Eve. There was no tinsel, no red ribbons, no fancy lights. There was just an ocean of white snow, still as stone.
The sky, to the north, was a fistfight of clouds, knuckling together, circling in dark shadows, portending the next wave of storm. This blizzard wasn’t even close to over yet.
But there was a chance, for a few minutes, to get out. As he geared up, he checked on Emilie—but she slept and kept on sleeping. He suspected she hadn’t rested well in a blue moon.
His first step outside delivered both magic and menace. Nothing more beautiful than an Alaskan winter, no question. But you couldn’t breathe ice, and no amount of clothing totally protected from the cold. Rick knew he couldn’t last long, but a couple things had to be done.
The first was making sure he had access to thewoodshed—which didn’t take more than shoveling out the door under the overhang. That only took a few minutes, but the second problem—the biggest priority—was the lodge roof on the west side.
The lodge had been built right, with a high slant to the roof,