Roommates Box Set #4-6

4. Drew

4

DREW

“Hurry,” Carter grunted. He was somehow holding back a branch that was bigger than the trunks of some trees. The strain showed on his face. Next to him, Zeus whimpered, no doubt picking up on everyone’s stress level.

Tristan wasn’t even in sight. He was under the tangle of branches, too, acting as a human tent pole. If Carter’s grip gave out, Tristan, Sierra, and I probably would be frozen under here until the spring thaw.

Sierra gripped my hand tightly, as if afraid to let me go. Her hands were ice-cold, but the strength of her grasp was reassuring. No clue what we would do if she were seriously injured.

“Can you pull her out?” Tristan asked.

Sure—if I wanted her to end up in pieces. With my hand still wrapped round hers, I inched forward. Branches whipped across my face and shifted dangerously underneath me. Her comparison to being in a nest seemed rather apt. But I had to get her out of there before we all froze to death. “Okay, I’m going to try to stand up.”

“Stand?” she echoed, sounding dubious.

“Well, maybe not stand all the way.” It would be like trying to put my head through the roof of a car. “But maybe I can get some of the weight off of you so that you can crawl toward me.”

“I’ll try.”

I counted to three and then pushed with my arms and legs, lifting my back as much as I could.

Sierra’s other hand emerged from the jumble of sticks, and then I spotted a pair of eyes so green that they appeared to be glowing. She smiled as she saw me, and it hit me that an incredibly beautiful woman was inching her way toward me. “Hi,” she said.

She had on a sweatshirt and leggings—definitely what I pictured a female writer would wear while in work mode. I just hadn’t anticipated how good it would look on her. But god, she must be frozen. I had on jeans, boots, and a shirt and sweater under my coat, and I was cold as hell.

My gloves were in my pocket where I’d stashed them when I reached for her hand. I wanted to wrap the poor woman in a hug to get some heat into her slender body, but first, I had to get her out of there.

“Can you flip over?” I asked. “I think there’s enough room. Then we could sort of crawl back the way I came.” Good thing Tristan and Carter were stationed along the way like checkpoints.

Sierra wiggled her hips and managed to roll toward me, getting her hands underneath her. It couldn’t have been easy, since the branches were slippery and seemed to move on their own accord; but she was making progress, until she cried out and her head snapped back.

“What is it?” God, what would we do if she broke a bone?

“My hair’s caught.”

“Oh.” I could see it now. She had her long hair in a ponytail that must’ve been neat at one point, but now it looked like she’d fixed it during a hurricane. I spotted the problem. One section had gotten caught by a branch that had splintered.

It wasn’t easy to hold up the canopy of branches and reach for her, but I did my best, snagging the trapped strands of her hair in my right hand. It was soft and silky and sort of a light brown color—except that didn’t really do the shade justice. Probably there was a fancier name for it—tawny? Honey-colored? All I knew was it was gorgeous. Hell, she was gorgeous, despite having scratches on her face and hands.

As I worked her hair free, a fruity scent reached me. Apples, maybe? Whatever it was, I was pretty sure that writers holed up in the middle of the woods weren’t supposed to smell that good.

Once she was freed, she plunged her hand into the rubble and emerged with her phone. Pocketing it, she continued to make her way to me on all fours. She paused when she was inches away from me. As I held the worst of the branches off of her, she reached up and tucked her ponytail into the hood of her sweatshirt and then pulled it up over her head.

“Good, that’ll protect your face.” I didn’t mention that it was the most beautiful face I’d ever seen. Under the scratches, her skin was smooth and even. Her lips were full, and though they were practically blue at the moment, I still ached to feel how soft they were. “Can you work your way around me?”

Around didn’t work, so she squirmed her way under me. My back ached as I gave her as much room as possible. Soon, she was working her way toward Tristan. The branches I still held up made my back ache, but it didn’t stop me from noticing how damn good her legs looked in those black leggings. But damn, I couldn’t understand how she hadn’t turned into a popsicle by now.

As she crawled along, I followed, trying to keep as much of the weight from the branches off her as I could. I heard Tristan introduce himself, so I knew she’d made it far enough to see him. I wondered what my friend thought as he got his first glimpse of our gorgeous neighbor.

Tristan raised his eyebrows at me as I neared him. The strain on his face made me hurry. We were all cold and exhausted, and we still had to make it up an ice-covered hill.

Somehow.

Excited yips told me that Zeus had spotted Sierra. Good. That meant she was almost out from under all of this. Tristan and I made our way after her, trying not to let branches snap back in each other’s faces.

And then I stumbled out onto the linoleum, extremely grateful to be on firm footing. Sierra was hugging the collie, and I turned to Carter to introduce him.

Shock hit hard as I took in his appearance. His face was red, and despite the temperature, he was actually sweating. The branch he was holding back was nearly as wide as my waist, and it must’ve taken a superhuman effort to hold it back for so long. The spikes from the crampons over Carter’s boots dug into the ruined floor, and his body trembled.

Tristan and I sprang forward. It took both of us to hold back the weight. We barely managed to hold on until he, Sierra, and Zeus were out of the way.

Sierra’s green eyes were wide as she watched Carter with concern, but she didn’t say anything as he shook out his sore limbs.

“Where’s your coat?” Tristan asked her.

“In there.” Sierra pointed to the jungle we’d just escaped. “My boots, too.”

Crap. If they were under that, there was no way we were getting them out. I pulled off my winter coat and handed it to her. I was five eleven, not quite as tall as the other two, so mine would probably fit her best.

Tristan spotted a scarf and a stocking cap on a hook by the back door and was able to skirt the fallen ceiling beams in order to grab them.

Sierra stood, and she was about five inches shorter than me. A good height difference, I knew from experience. She pulled down the hood from her sweatshirt, and Tristan’s eyes widened as he saw her long hair cascade around her shoulders. My coat swamped her, but at least it gave her torso some warmth, and the coat extended down almost to her knees. But below that, her leggings wouldn't offer much protection, and on her feet were a cross between a slipper and a boot. Unfortunately, they were soft like slippers, but at least they came up to mid-calf. But I couldn’t imagine how she could walk on ice in them.

Not that getting up the hill was going to be a picnic for any of us.

Once Sierra had her hat and scarf on, she frowned at me. “There’s a blanket in the hall closet. I think I can reach it. Maybe you could wrap it around your shoulders?”

“No,” Carter said. It was the first time he’d spoken since we relieved him of his great burden. “It’s slippery as hell out there.” That wasn’t news, but Carter actually had a plan for what to do about it. “When we’re climbing the slope, you need to lean forward, both for balance, and so that when you fall, you make damn sure you fall forward, not back. You’ll need your hands free to catch yourself.”

Right. So, no clutching a blanket. Oh well. It wasn’t a very masculine look in front of a pretty woman anyway.

Sierra patted the bulky pockets in my coat and then pulled out my gloves. “Here,” she said, handing them to me.

“You keep them.”

Tristan patted his own pockets, and then grinned. “I have an extra pair.” He handed me black cotton gloves that he sometimes wore under the thicker ski gloves he had. They were definitely better than nothing.

“We need to get going before it gets dark,” Tristan said.

“How do we get out?” Sierra asked, looking doubtfully at the blocked door to the deck.

“Same way we got in.” I gestured toward the open window behind the kitchen sink. The glass had cracked when the roof caved in, and we’d managed to get it open.

I hopped up on the counter and swung my legs out over the window. Once I was on the deck, I reached back to help Sierra through.

Carter lifted Zeus up next, and the dog wiggled out the window and landed with a skid on the icy deck. “Let’s wait over by the tree line,” I told Sierra, patting my leg so that Zeus would follow. Probably best not to have too many of us on the deck at once—who knew what the cave-in had done to the structural integrity of the building.

Shit, it was cold.

When the others joined us, Zeus trotted happily up the hill. The look on his face was almost comically surprised when he slid back down.

“Yeah, this is going to be fun,” Tristan observed.

“Remember, lean forward. Catch yourself if you fall. Try to go straight, you’re more likely to fall if you try to change directions,” Carter instructed.

Tristan pulled me aside. “Halfway up, I’ll give you my coat. You must be frozen.”

I clapped him on the arm. “Thanks. Let’s see how it goes. Maybe it won’t be as bad as we think.”

Yeah, right.

It.

Was.

Hell.

For every two steps I took, it felt like I slid back three. The only progress any of us seemed to make was when there was a tree trunk to hold onto.

Except for Carter. The metal spikes on his boots dug into the ice, and while he wasn’t making fast progress, at least he wasn’t backsliding every other step.

He took Sierra’s arm and all but pulled her along. Her slipper boot things didn’t give her any traction at all.

Zeus was the hero of the trip. He led the way, picking his way around the steepest spots.

Still, it took us nearly an hour to reach our cabin. By this point, Carter was carrying Sierra piggyback style. She was draped over him like a backpack, and she looked exhausted. I couldn’t even begin to imagine how hard it was to put one foot in front of the other in slippery fabric that didn’t have a chance of gripping the ice.

Carter had given me his heavy winter coat. It was too bulky for Sierra to wrap her arms and legs around, but it felt like heaven to me.

We trudged on and reached the top of the hill just as dusk was falling.

Sierra seemed barely conscious by the time we entered our cabin. Tristan and I lifted her off of Carter’s back as Zeus ran straight to the fireplace and plopped down. It was his favorite spot in the cabin, even when it wasn’t lit.

Our guest peeled off her gloves with fingers that were quite obviously numbed by cold.

The winter weather had taken its toll on my circulation, too, but I tried to think about what the exhausted young woman needed. “What can I get you? Water? Coffee?”

“Dry clothes,” Tristan said. “Everything we have will be huge on you, but at least it won’t be freezing.

Sierra nodded, but her expression was uncertain—and exhausted. Before Carter picked her up, she’d struggled along for nearly half an hour with those ridiculous slipper boots. Her feet must be icicles.

“The bathroom’s down the hallway,” Tristan was saying when Carter cut him off.

“She needs a bed.”

Normally, when Carter mentioned a woman and a bed in the same sentence, it had a much different meaning, but now, I saw that he was right. Sierra looked ready to pass out.

My room was closest, and by virtue of my not having been involved with this project as long as the others, the smallest. I opened the door and turned on the light.

Sierra moved toward it like a zombie.

The bed wasn’t made—who had time for that?—but I shoved the rumpled covers to one side, clearing a spot. She sat on the edge of the bed, looking like she was seconds from passing out.

Quickly, I knelt down and pulled the tattered remains of the ridiculous slipper boots off her freezing feet. “I’ll get you some socks.” It took me less than ten seconds to locate a clean pair in the small dresser, but when I turned back, Sierra had all but disappeared under the covers. Only her reddened face peeked out.

Tristan appeared with a thick blanket, which he placed over the quilt Sierra had burrowed under. Zeus followed him and was about to jump onto the bed when Carter called him back. “Let’s let her sleep,” he said gruffly.

I patted what might have been her shoulder under all those covers and turned out the light.

I still had no idea who this beautiful young woman was, or what we were going to do now that she was here, but one thing was clear.

She definitely needed sleep.