Olivia
Chapter Three
Lucky gently puts me down on a bench inside the door of the cabin.
The relief at being inside rolls through my body and I can’t move.
He moves around the cabin; lighting the stove first, then lighting an oil lamp.
He locates a rolled up mattress on the bunk in the corner, and he unrolls it, beating out some of the dust.
“This is the cabin the Forest Service uses. Not Rotmere.” He crouches at the stove and feeds in some logs from the basket next to it. “Looks like nobody’s been up since the fire season.”
“You're good at this.”
“I’ve had a lot of training.” Firelight strokes the side of his face. The scars travel from his dark hair down to his jaw. “Now, we need to get you out of those clothes.”
I suck my breath in. “That's quite an opening. A little forward if you ask me.”
He grins and shakes his head. “You're soaked to the skin and have been for hours.” He adds another log to the fire, then helps me over to the bunk. “Cold, wet clothes aren’t going to help raise your body temperature.”
“You've done this before.”
“Some. I did search and rescue after I left the army, before I did corporate stuff.”
Lucky finds some blankets in a footlocker and shakes a couple of them out, finishing by hanging one over the bunk rail. He finds a towel in his pack, hands it to me, then goes and stands with his back to me, staring deliberately out of the window.
Removing the wet denim with one functioning ankle takes me some time, my hands shaking. Everything comes off except my underwear. I get the towel around me and sit on the edge of the bunk with my hair dripping down my back.
“Done.”
Lucky turns around. His gaze flicks over me once, quick and professional, but there’s something underneath.
“Give me your ankle.”
He kneels in front of me and I put my foot up on his thigh, wincing slightly. He wraps it with a bandage from the first aid kit. His hands are huge and gentle.
“So, you’re an ex-military pilot?”
“I'm a lot of things.”
“Where’d you learn to do that?”
He ties the wrap off. “Around.”
He sits back on his heels, looking up into my eyes and a frown creases his brow.
“You're still shaking.”
“I'm cold.”
“You're not shivering… you’re shaking.” He gets up. “That's different.”
“Look, I’m fine.”
“No, you’re not.”
He stands there for a second, then strips off his shirt and puts it on me. My eyes widen in surprise. The shirt smells of a woodsy cologne and clean sweat.
Scars run down from his neck across the whole right side of his ribs, shiny and pulled where it's old, then down under his belt. He’s hard and muscled everywhere.
“Move over,” he says. “I promise you, this is not a romantic move.”
“What a shame…” I raise an eyebrow.
“Sweetheart, you're cold and half in shock.” He gets in behind me and pulls the blankets over both of us. “This will help.”
He puts his big arms around me and pulls me back against his chest. Every part of me that's been braced and tense for hours suddenly lets go at the warmth of his body against mine.
All that warmth is overwhelming. I make a weird, small whimpering sound and he tightens his hold. Then he drops his chin near my temple and we stay like that for a long time, the rain pattering against the roof.
Eventually, I stop shaking, but he doesn’t move.
Lucky’s hand is spread flat over my belly, holding me against him, and I can feel his heart beating steadily against my back.
It’s much slower than mine. His thigh is behind mine, and when I shift my weight off my hip he makes a low rumble in his chest and goes still behind me. I shift my weight again to make sure.
“You shouldn’t do that,” he says.
“Do what?”
“You know what, Olivia.”
I suck in my breath. I've been Lily Torgan so long that hearing my name in a man’s voice makes my heart beat even faster.
“Did Maria tell you?”
“Yes.”
Cursing myself silently for telling her, I turn over. I wanted someone to know my real name, in case I didn’t make it off the mountain. It seems silly now. Now we’re face to face on the mattress with the blanket spread over us.
“So you know that Lily's not my real name.”
“Yes, I do. Since the plane, actually. I just didn’t know what your real name is.” His hand comes up and moves my wet hair back off my cheek, his thumb gently stroking my cheek. “And you didn’t go up there alone on the ridge by accident, either.”
“No.”
“You going to tell me why, or are you sticking with the elk story?”
I shake my head and drop my eyes.
“Okay.”
That's it. He doesn’t push me, even though I’m barely dressed and pressed against him. I put my hand flat on the scarring over his ribs.
“Olivia.”
“My name sounds good when you say it. Say it again.”
He says it roughly, half under his breath, and I can’t take it anymore. I tilt my head up and kiss him.
His hand slides into my wet hair and holds my head.
He kisses me back, not gently but like he’s been waiting a long time to do it.
My knee moves over his hip as I press closer, while his palm runs down my bare back and pulls me closer.
His tongue explores my mouth and I can feel how hard he is against me.
Then he stops, pulling his head back.
“No.”
I stare at him.
He's breathing hard, his hand still entwined in my hair. “You're half frozen and injured. This isn’t the time.”
“Lucky.” I push up on my elbow. “I promise you I’m of sound mind, if not of sound body.”
He laughs and pulls me in against his chest again, huge arms locked around me. “There’s stuff I haven’t told you. You’ll want to be of sound mind and body for that.”
“Well,” I say into his chest. “That makes two of us.”