37. Chapter Thirty-Seven
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Anna
“ J esus Christ, Jeffers. Are you trying to catch hypothermia?”
I can tell his fingers are numb from the way he fumbles with the zipper of his jacket that he’s zipped for the first time ever, and his lips are a serious shade of almost blue.
It concerns me.
Almost as much as the ice currently melting from the ends of his hair.
“How long were you out there?”
He shrugs, his gaze unfocused as his jacket slides off his shoulders. “Dunno. What time is it?”
I draw in a deep breath with a shaking head. “Well past noon. You were gone when I woke up. I would have never guessed to check outside. Where it’s freaking freezing.” I walk to the stove, fetch the kettle, and fill it in the sink.
“Didn’t wanna wake you.” His jacket lands with a thwap against the back of the recliner. “You were out cold.”
Toby doesn’t look at me as he drags the little cart to the fireplace with a protesting creak under the weight stacked on top.
“Shit,” he grumbles. From my spot at the stove near the heating kettle, I watch him kneel at the hearth, jabbing the poker into the nearly spent logs. “You didn’t put any on this whole time?”
I shrug. “I didn’t know I was supposed to.”
He growls, and I swear I see his jaw tick through his beard from across the room, his eyes going to the ceiling. “You have to keep something on the fire, Anna. There’s no other heat in this place,” he says through gritted teeth and jams two logs into the fireplace.
That would be why it got so cold in here …
I’m so used to him taking care of it that I didn’t even think to check it.
Toby pokes, waits, and when the logs don’t do what he’s expecting, he curses some more. “Would you like a lighter?”
“Matches,” he growls, and I roll my eyes. “Top drawer between the sink and fridge.”
“Okay.” Popping open the kettle so that it doesn’t scream at me—because the noise is terrible but the water is the best from a kettle—I rummage through the drawer that’s in desperate need of organization and come up with a pack of super long matches.
Toby’s holding out his hand when I turn around, but he’s not looking at me.
So, in an attempt at levity, I throw them at his head.
The box pings off his shoulder instead and falls at his feet, explodes open, and the sticks all fly around the stone surrounding him.
I snort, my hand coming up to cover the noise and the grin when he looks up at me, completely unamused. In fact, he almost looks angry, those deep brown eyes landing on me for the first time since he stepped back in the cabin.
My stomach flips in response.
“The fuck?”
“You’re being weird. So, I thought …” My grin slips. God, he’s so confusing. “I was trying to be funny.”
Stone-faced, he stands from his crouch, and crooks a finger in my direction. “Come here.”
A chill races down my spine, my fuzzy-socked feet walking me straight to him.
“What?” I half snap, hands to my hips.
His brow raises as his arm does, his rough fingers curling around the back of my neck and yanking me forward. So close that my chest meets his, and his eyes darken.
“Do not ever let the fire go out again.” His breath caresses my lips as he speaks and desire pools low in my belly.
Which fire?
“Why?” I squeak out.
“Because.” Voice low, his grip curls tighter around the back of my neck. “You’re not freezing to death on my watch.”
With that, he releases me so fast I stumble back a step.
“The bedroom is going to take a while to get warmed back up,” Toby says like I’m not standing here trying to collect myself. “’Til then, you should stay out here.”
I’m nodding, but I’m not even sure what I’m agreeing to as I stumble back another step and drag in a cleansing breath. Except even that is filled with all things Toby. That citrusy-tobacco scent mixed with campfire and leather and I’m fairly certain my brain cells are scrambling even farther.
“Do you know how to start a fire?”
“Um.” My tongue feels too heavy to answer. Too ready to flop out of my mouth and pant instead.
Get it together, Anna.
“Take care of the damn kettle, then get your ass back over here.”
Nodding again, I scramble my way across the cabin, returning to his side with two mugs of hot tea.
Why does being this close to him turn my brain to mush?
“You have to build a teepee with the sticks like this,” Toby explains, stacking the smaller logs on top of the ash pile so that they come to a point. “The bottom needs air.”
“Okay.” I bite my lip.
I should not be this horny—
Oh my God, what is he doing to me?
“Kindling goes in the middle. Smaller sticks, paper, whatever will catch easy.” He wads up some stuff that looks more like dead pine needles and shoves it into the opening left between the upright logs. “Now you need to light it.”
My brows shoot up when he looks over his shoulder at me expectantly. “Oh, crap. Okay.” My hands freeze with the mugs still stuck to my palms until he chuckles and takes them from me.
Scooping up a match from the floor, I find the box on the other side of Toby’s crouch and strike the stick against the sandpapery side of the cardboard.
I immediately toss the small flame into the fireplace and gasp when it bounces off a log and lands on the stone.
“Crap!”
Toby’s quicker than I expect.
He snags the match before it can catch another one on fire and throws it into the mess of stuff at the bottom of the peaked wood. “It’s not gonna burn you if you take the time to aim.”
Huffing, I shove the box at Toby. “Here. You do it.”
“Nah. Needs another one.” His gaze catches and holds mine long enough that he tilts his head at the fireplace. “One more.”
Growling, I swipe the remaining matches from the hearth and keep one to light. This time, I take a moment before flicking it into the small flame, the stick landing on the opposite side from Toby’s.
It doesn’t take long for them both to catch the kindling on fire, the flames rising to meet the logs.
“If I hadn’t already put those other logs in there, you wouldn’t need the peak. Not in a fireplace like this.” I bob my head, but I’m too focused on watching the flames take over. “That’s what that metal rack in the bottom is for.”
“Okay.”
The fire builds, catching the bark of the logs and transferring to the two already in the bottom. Heat blusters out, licking at my face. I reach out, feeling the heat take over my extremities and lick at my skin.
“Mama.”
I’m slow to glance over my shoulder, and when I do, I find Toby’s hand held out in offering. There’s still a slight chill to his skin when my palm slides into his, but it still sends a swirl of warmth through me at his touch.
He pulls me to my feet and his arms envelop me, holding me close to his chest. “Why the hell didn’t you come get me?”
I shrug against his torso, my nose buried in his chest, his scent intoxicating. “Didn’t really think much about how cold it got in here. We’re in the dang mountains.”
His grip moves to my biceps and pulls me back enough to look down at me with a grit to his jaw. “I’m gonna need you to not get so damn distracted.”
“Wasn’t distracted,” I argue but tilt my head forward, seeking him out.
A lazy smile spreads across my face when he does exactly what I want and wraps his massive arms around me. My cheek squishes against his pec, my arms sliding around his trim waist.
It’s so tender, his touch at the back of my head, that it makes my heart pound.
So unlike Toby.
We’ve been intimate in all the physical ways one can when it comes to sex, but this feels like a whole other level of soul-deep connection.
There’s no dirty talk. No foreplay.
Just us. Here. In front of a fire, in a cabin, together.
“Fuck,” Toby rumbles on a rocky whisper, his fingers threading into my hair and tugging my head back. “What are you doing to me, Mama?”
Those deep brown eyes of his bounce between mine, so clear and soulful.
He really is beautiful.
All thick hair and a sinful smile …
I stifle my groan by biting my lip, my gaze clashing with his heated one. “Probably the same thing you’re doing to me,” I admit on a loaded whisper.
His other hand moves from my waist to my jaw, the roughness of his calloused fingertips scraping over my skin in a way that I feel it down to my curling toes.
When the move has me sinking my teeth further into my lip, his eyes darken. And when he backs us up to a wall and a gasp escapes me at the contact, he slams his lips against mine.
A burning kiss that sears me straight to my core as his tongue takes everything I’m willing to give and then some.
What is he doing to me?