Chapter 1
Rowan
Rain trickles over my hood and hangs on my eyelashes. I pull the cord of the hood tighter around my face so only my eyes are exposed, but water still manages to get in and trickle down my chin.
Every footstep is heavy as my boots squelch in the mud and rain pummels my body from all angles.
As I put one foot in front of the other, I curse the mountain roads. It’s my own fault for living remotely. Being away from civilization suits me, but my job is in town, so I have to face the damn mountain roads whenever I’m on shift.
The mountain roads that wash away and turn into mud baths when it rains hard like this.
I come to a rocky outcrop with grey boulders the same colour as the sky.
There’s movement between two of the boulders, and at first I think it’s a puppy because of the way it’s shivering and the shock of auburn hair that I mistake as fur poking out from behind the rock.
Rain slices off the granite that the puppy/human is sheltering behind, and they huddle closer into the gap between the boulders.
I pull my hood down further to brace against the cold and trudge up the path to where the thing is wedged in between two big rocks trying to shelter from the downpour.
The head moves as my boots come into their line of sight, and it’s not a puppy. It’s a woman. A soaked and shivering woman. The brown eyes she turns on me are as wide as a lost puppy’s, and with her rain-soaked hair plastered to her cheeks, she’s the saddest pup I’ve ever seen.
“Are you lost?”
She frowns, unable to hear me above the rain that’s pounding the ground around us. I crouch down to her level, and those big soulful eyes follow me.
Her teeth are knocking together, and her skin’s pale. There’s a blue tinge to her lips.
“Shit.”
The blue lips are a sign of hypothermia, and based on her rain soaked clothing and chattering teeth, I’d say she’s been out here for a while.
“Let’s get you somewhere warm.”
I offer my arm, and the woman regards it suspiciously.
I guess she’s weighing her options. Stay here and freeze to death or take help from a strange man who’s twice the size of her by the looks of it, wrapped up so tight in a coat she can only see my eyes.
I’m only glad my coat covers my tattoos, or she might take her chances on the mountain.
I loosen the cord of the hood and let it fall open so she can see more of my face.
“I’m Rowan Evans. I work for the Hope Fire Department.”
There’s a flicker of recognition in her eyes, and the frown eases from her forehead. She unlocks her arms from around her knees and takes hold of my hand.
Her skin is icy cold, and as I help her to her feet, I weigh our options.
I abandoned my pickup a few miles back when it hit a pothole and wouldn’t come unstuck. The downside of living remotely is the shitty roads.
My place has a warm fireplace, a hot shower, and plenty of food. But it’s another five-mile hike uphill. On my own it would take over an hour in this weather, but carrying a woman who may have hypothermia, it’ll take at least double that.
About twenty minutes back, I passed a side trail that leads to a ranger’s hut. There won’t be any hot water or fireplace, but it’s shelter from the storm and it’s close. I can get this woman there in about twenty minutes then do whatever I need to do to get the blood back to her lips.
As she looks up at me with those lost puppy dog eyes, I can think of one way to get the blood flowing to her plump lips.
But this isn’t the time to be thinking about kissing her. Especially because now that she’s standing up with her hair pushed off her face she looks familiar.
Her features have smoothed out, and she’s lost the roundness of childhood. It’s been a few years since I allowed myself to get this close to her, but the shivering woman clinging to me is definitely Fritha McKenzie, the daughter of the man who saved my life and the granddaughter of my current boss.
She stumbles, and I catch her. My arms go around the back of her knees, and I scoop her into my arms. She’s cold and shivering and weak, and I have to get her to shelter and get her warm as quickly as I can.
Fritha’s curves press against my body, and as I carry her down the path, she burrows into my chest like a puppy looking for warmth.