Chapter 29
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Noah’s lips were softer than I’d imagined, but the pressure was firm. He tasted of chocolate and rain and something wild I couldn’t name. My hands found their way to his chest, palms pressing against warm skin and hard muscle.
The kiss deepened, his tongue sliding against mine in a dance that made me forget about storms and lost phones and everything else in the universe. Noah’s arm wrapped around my waist, pulling me closer until I was practically in his lap, the blanket barely staying in place between us.
His hand slid up my bare back beneath the blanket, leaving a trail of heat in its wake. I gasped against his mouth, and he swallowed the sound, kissing me harder, more urgently.
We broke apart, breathless, foreheads touching. Noah’s eyes were dark, pupils dilated in the firelight.
“Still think this is a bad idea?” I whispered.
“Definitely.” Noah’s thumb traced across my lip one more time before his hand slid to cup my cheek.
His lips met mine again, and I melted into him, my fingers tangling in his damp hair.
His powerful arms wrapped around me, pulling me closer as the kiss deepened.
The rough wool of the blanket scratched against my breasts as he drew me closer.
I breathed in his scent, pine needles and wood-smoke and mountain rain.
A small sound escaped my throat as his tongue traced my bottom lip.
The wool blanket drifted further down my shoulders, exposing the top curve of my breasts.
Noah’s curtain cover loosened around his waist, falling open almost wide enough to …
WOOF!
Noah jerked back, startled, grabbing the end of the curtain to cover himself. We both turned to see Yeti smiling at us from on top of the mattress.
“Yeti, no,” Noah growled, almost as fierce as a wolf himself. “Lay back down.”
Turning back to face one another, Noah leaned in again, his lips finding mine. His hand slid down my spine, leaving trails of fire down to my …
WOOF!
“Seriously?” Noah broke away with a frustrated groan. “We’re fine. Go to sleep.”
WOOF! WOOF!
Yeti jumped down from the mattress and shoved her wet nose between us, tail wagging furiously and rubbing her damp fur all over our skin. I tried to push her away from me, but she used her wet, furry body to drive me back instead.
“Seems we have a chaperone.” Noah growled. “Thanks, Yeti.”
My body screamed in protest as I pulled further away, hiking the blanket back over my shoulders, immediately missing Noah’s warmth. “Maybe she’s right?”
No, she’s not right. Bad Yeti. Bad wolf-dog. Bad.
“Yeah …” Noah cleared his throat. “We should get some sleep. Early start tomorrow to beat any mudslides on the trails.”
I glanced at the narrow mattress in the corner, which was now empty since Yeti had moved between us.
“We could share? Just to sleep,” I added quickly. “Maybe pool our body heat.”
Noah shook his head. “I’ll take the floor.” His tone left no room for argument.
He grabbed Yeti by the collar and tugged her toward the other side of the small room, as far away from the mattress as possible. “Come here. You’re my pillow tonight as punishment.”
Yeti flopped down next to Noah with a dramatic huff, clearly unimpressed about being evicted from her spot on the mattress. Noah stretched out on the wooden floor, using Yeti’s furry side as a cushion.
I wrapped my blanket tighter and curled up on the mattress, stealing quick peeks of Noah on the other side of the room. The fire crackled, casting dancing shadows on the walls as I tried to slow my racing thoughts.
“Goodnight, Sam,” Noah’s voice came softly through the darkness.
“Goodnight, Noah,” I whispered back, touching my fingers to my still-tingling lips.
It didn’t take long for the fire’s warmth to lull me into a hazy dreamland. I don’t know what time it was when my eyes fluttered open, but it was still dark outside, and a sky full of stars had replaced the angry storm clouds.
Peering into the shadows, I saw the cabin had transformed, no longer a dilapidated shelter but a cocoon of warmth, the fire casting golden light. My rough wool blanket had fallen away in my sleep, leaving me naked, totally exposed. I wasn’t cold, though. It felt ... right.
“You’re awake.” His voice came from the darkness.
When I looked up, Noah stood over me, eyes dark and intense as he gazed down at my uncovered body. He wasn’t wearing the tattered curtain anymore. He was naked too, his muscular form sculpted in the firelight.
“Am I dreaming?”
He didn’t answer. Instead, a slow smile spread across his lips as he reached out, fingers tracing the curve of my hip, sending shivers up my spine.
“Is it okay if I touch you?”
“Yes.” It wasn’t just okay. By that point, it was critical to my sanity.
Noah lowered himself onto the mattress, his body hovering over mine. I arched my back, pressing myself against him as his lips found mine. The kiss was slow, deliberate, building a fire within me that burned hotter than any hearth.
His hands explored my body, his touch sending waves of pleasure through me. Every caress, every kiss felt like a dream, a fantasy I never wanted to wake from. The world outside the cabin faded away, replaced by the sensation of Noah’s body against mine, his breath hot on my skin.
Noah’s mouth traveled down my neck, across my collarbone, lower...
My fingers tangled in his hair, pulling him closer. His hands worked magic along my sides. He moved over me, his weight pressing me into the mattress. I wrapped my legs around his waist, pulling him closer.
Time seemed to stop as our bodies moved together, intertwined. I cried out his name, my breathless voice shattering the dreamlike silence as his weight settled between my thighs.
The firelight gilded his skin as he moved back up to kiss me again, his lips soft but insistent. I lost myself in the sensation, in the weight of him pressing me into the mattress, in the heat building between my legs.
Noah’s mouth grew more insistent, more ... wet? Surprisingly wet. And ... rough?
Wait.
This wasn’t right.
The texture was all wrong, like someone was dragging sandpaper across my face. And the smell ... Noah smelled like pine and rain and mountain air, not like ... dog breath and wet fur?
I cracked one eye open and found myself staring into Yeti’s soulful gaze as she enthusiastically licked my cheek, her tongue leaving a trail of slobber from my chin to my forehead.
“Ugh, Yeti, no,” I groaned, pushing her furry head away. “That is NOT the kind of kiss I was dreaming about.”
Sitting up, I peered across the room to spot Noah still asleep on the floorboards in the shadows, the empty LuxeLife cooler bag now serving as his pillow. The sound of gentle snoring confirmed he was still fast asleep, thankfully undisturbed by the very vivid dreams of his cabin mate.
I laid back down, heart still racing, and waited for my breathing to steady. Flopping her considerable weight half on top of me, Yeti pinned me to the mattress in a far less romantic way than Dream Noah had. She radiated heat like a furry furnace.
“Fine,” I mumbled, wrapping an arm around her thick neck. “You’re better than no cuddles at all.”
I buried my face in her surprisingly soft fur, the steady rhythm of her breathing lulling me back toward sleep.
KA-CAW … KA-CAW … KA-CAW
I jolted awake to a crow perched on the windowsill, staring at me with beady-eyed judgment. Sunlight stabbed through the grimy window behind it, and the fire in the hearth was now dead and cold. My brain struggled to reconcile the lingering heat of my dream with the very real chill of the cabin.
“Noah?” My voice emerged as a croak, scraping against a throat parched from sleep and ... other recent activities. The cabin responded with nothing but the creak of old wood and a scurrying noise that sounded far too rodent-like.
I sat up, wincing as my vertebrae cracked like bubble wrap being stomped on by a vindictive grizzly bear. My neck felt as if someone had twisted it into a fancy balloon animal shape.
“Yeti?” I called out, hoping for at least the wolf-dog’s company. “Anyone?”
I was alone. No Yeti. No Noah.
I hauled myself upright, clutching the wool blanket around me like a scratchy protective shield. The cabin looked smaller in daylight, every cobweb and crack visible in authentically distressed detail. Outside, the world glistened after the storm, dew-dropped and sparkling.
But no Noah. No footprints. No horses tied to the tree.
No wolf-dog. Just mountains and trees, stretching to infinity.
They’d probably seen thousands of abandoned women over the centuries, left to fend for themselves in rustic cabins.
In a million years, I’d just be another layer of sediment in their geological history.
“Here lies Samantha Li,” I said to the sky above. “Influencer. Died after losing her iPhone. And almost her virginity.” One of the clouds in the sky resembled a fluffy white question mark. “At least as far as her parents are concerned,” I amended.
Back inside, I surveyed the evidence. The fireplace held nothing but cold ashes, a sad reminder of last night’s warmth.
My clothes lay spread carefully across a chair, completely dry.
Each piece had been smoothed meticulously, like someone had painstakingly removed every wrinkle without the benefit of an iron.
Except for my inappropriate underwear. Those were still dangling on the chair. At least they were dry, though.
Noah’s clothes were gone. His boots, his saddlebag, and all trace of his presence had vanished with him.
My brain conjured multiple disaster scenarios simultaneously, each more catastrophic than the last. Was this some twisted mountain version of revenge for making him show me the authentic Colorado?
Or worse, had he regretted our kiss so much that he’d literally ridden off into the sunrise rather than face me?
The thought made my stomach sink as if someone had tied a boulder to my ankle, then thrown me in the lake.
I pictured myself years from now, wild-haired and feral, wearing nothing but the wool blanket and whatever I could fashion from pine cones, reduced to talking to rocks I’d named after reality TV stars.
I had a thought. Maybe Noah was out gathering breakfast? Maybe he was out there right now, picking fresh berries for muffins? Maybe he’d found a birch tree and was sapping it for syrup?
Clinging to this newfound hope, I let the wool blanket drop from my shoulders and reached for my underwear.
The red lace looked so ridiculously out of place against the rustic setting that I laughed out loud.
I held it up, remembering Noah’s expression when he’d placed it drying by the fire, a mixture of embarrassment and something darker, more heated. The same look he’d given me when …
The door creaked open behind me.
“Look what I …”
I whipped around, heart leaping into my throat.
Noah stood frozen in the doorway, eyes wide as saucers, mouth hanging open, and halted mid-sentence. “… found.”
For one eternal moment, we both remained perfectly still, like someone had hit pause on the universe. Me, completely naked, holding nothing but a scrap of red lace. Him, clutching something in one outstretched hand.
One Mississippi.
Two Mississippi.
Three Mississippi.
My brain finally caught up with reality, and I attempted to cover myself with the only thing within reach, the very underwear I’d been holding. Which, given its minimalist design philosophy, covered approximately nothing.
We both spun around simultaneously, backs to each other, me scrambling to locate my clothes, Noah apparently developing a sudden, intense interest in the leaky cabin ceiling above him.
I yanked on my clothes at world championship speed-dressing pace, almost putting both legs through the same pant leg in my haste.
When I turned back around, no longer distracted by mortified embarrassment, I finally saw what Noah was holding in his hand.
My phone.
“I found it on the trail,” Noah said to the wall. He held my phone up over his shoulder, still not turning around. “About halfway between the overlook and the meadow.”
As soon as my essential parts were covered, I lunged for the phone like it was the most important thing on Earth.
I wiped mud from the screen with my shirt hem, examining it from every angle for cracks or water damage.
When pressing the power button yielded nothing but a black screen, my heart sank.
“Is it going to be okay?” Noah asked, finally turning around now that I was decent. A flush still colored his neck, creeping up toward his ears.
“I think so,” I said, cradling the device like a wounded baby bird. “Just a dead battery, I hope. And the screen has a couple of small cracks.”
Noah’s shoulders relaxed slightly. “You can charge it when you get back to your room.” He finally dropped his hand from his eyes, though he seemed to look everywhere but at me. “I’ll bring the horses around front and we can head back.”
The memory of the kiss lingered between us, unacknowledged but impossible to ignore.
“Get back to my room? What, no more authentic adventures today?” I attempted to recapture our normal banter. “I figured you’d want to take me mountain lion wrestling. Or cliff jumping in one of those wing suit things. Ooh, or maybe we can go raft down a waterfall.”
Noah’s smile was bittersweet. “I think we’ve both had enough adventure for a while.”