Chapter 4
CHAPTER FOUR
Turned out being trapped in a closet with the only woman Nima had ever loved was, well, hot.
Though fully dressed, Mari had come against his hand.
He’d smelled her arousal, and the sweet scent had heightened his own desire.
She’d ground against him, placed his palm on one of her now-larger breasts, fitting his hand perfectly, like they were made for each other.
He’d kneaded and rubbed until her nipple pebbled from his caresses, just like it had years ago.
He still knew what she liked, and had pinched her hard peak as she’d climaxed, leaving her shaking and limp in his arms. Her reaction to his touch had nearly made Nima release in his pants.
But fuck, what had they done?
All these years he’d fantasized about being back with Mari and rekindling the love they once shared.
But this was wrong. All wrong. Mari knew it too.
She tensed as if ready to bolt. He loosened his hold, but should he let go of her?
What message would that send? He didn’t want to fuck this up any worse than it already was.
Before he had time to stress further, Mari pushed open the closet door and flew out of his arms. He followed, whispering a plea for her to return, but in the blink of an eye she’d fled the bathroom, crossed the bedroom and ducked behind the plastic sheeting.
Fuck! Nima could only take a few steps after her, stopping as if an invisible wall held him back.
He couldn’t call out to her or trail her into the party.
Nima stood in the center of the bathroom, fists clenched as anger and frustration boiled within him—all while Mari’s sweet scent faded. He had to make things right with her. He had to.
He wrenched open the squeaky cabinet, not caring about the awful noise the door made, and grabbed his phone out of the tool bag. Shoving it deep in a pocket, he crossed the room. Boots scuffed against the porcelain as Nima stepped into the jetted bathtub to access the window.
The outside temperature hovered near zero degrees, but Nima cranked open the window anyway. Hopefully, the house-sitter noticed and would close it later. But right now, all Nima cared about was finding Mari.
He swung one leg over the windowsill, then ducked to squeeze his shoulders through, eyeing the snow-covered ground two stories below.
Stars twinkled in a clear, cold sky, and a crescent moon illuminated the snow, creating a silvery winter landscape.
It would have been beautiful under other circumstances—when Nima hadn’t been stuck in a closet with his ex, when his dick hadn’t dropped, when she hadn’t climaxed in his arms after not speaking a word to each other in ten years, and when she hadn’t fled afterwards, as if in regret.
And when his heart wasn’t threatening to pound right out of his chest.
He quickly scanned his surroundings. Music and noise from the party filtered through the night.
Voices rose from the other end of the house where the driveway met the garage and front door.
Through snowy trees, he watched as a truck’s brake lights illuminated, the headlights switched on, and it pulled forward, driving away.
It could have been anyone, but in his bones, Nima knew it was Mari. She wouldn’t have stayed after what had just happened between them. Plus, the partiers were too young, not her crowd. He was absolutely certain she only came to see his tile work because she thought he wouldn’t be there.
Nima wedged the rest of his body through the open window—no small feat for a seven-foot yeti who could stand to do a little stretching now and again.
Then he jumped, hoping nothing hid under the snow on this side of the house—like a lawn mower, grill, or a pile of construction material from a previous home project.
A lot of Alaska yards had stacks of supplies.
Up in the frozen north, people hung on to extra materials.
He landed feet first in deep snow—no hidden objects beneath him, thankfully.
He quickly extricated himself from the impact crater, then, using his elbows, belly-crawled over the drift.
The maneuver caused his T-shirt and flannel to ride up and coated his fur in icy snow.
He normally loathed the unpleasant cold, wet sensation as it melted, but tonight he hardly noticed.
Once on his feet, he double-checked that his phone was still in his pocket before slipping around the front of the house, keeping low so partygoers wouldn’t see him. He snuck behind a large stack of covered firewood, then trudged through deep snow until his truck was in sight.
Luck was clearly not on Nima’s side. Two vehicles had blocked him in, plus he had to duck as an approaching car’s headlights flashed over his location.
He might not have been lucky, but his body practically vibrated with a fuck-ton of adrenaline pumping through him right now.
And he wouldn’t let anything stop him from speaking to Mari tonight.
He’d heard she lived at her grandparents’ old cabin.
It was miles away, and he’d have to travel there on foot, but he didn’t care.
As a boisterous group spilled from the newly arrived car, Nima retreated behind the trees, then sprinted through the snowy forest toward the cabin. He’d hike uphill through chest-deep snow if it meant finally talking to Mari.
“Nima’s stuck in the closet, Tseten,” Mari said into her phone as she paced her kitchen, annoyed that her voice still shook with emotion. The drive home had done nothing to settle her nerves.
Tseten, too calm for Mari’s liking, paused for a moment, then asked, “Let me get this straight. You were partying at the Blackwoods’ house with a bunch of college kids?”
Mari released an exasperated sigh. “You know I wasn’t there for the party. I wanted to see Nima’s work without anyone knowing. Don’t judge me.”
“I’d never,” Tseten replied, his tone earnest. He knew she cared about Nima. He’d provided updates about her ex all these years, after all, even when she claimed not to care. “Just like none of you judge me for the relationship I have with Rosa.”
“Of course we wouldn’t.” Poor Tset. He’d fallen for a woman in California who didn’t know he was a yeti.
They hadn’t exchanged pictures and didn’t have video chats, sticking only to audio—which seemed to happen with increased frequency.
It could spell trouble for Tseten one day, but for his sake, and Rosa’s, they all hoped it worked out somehow.
Mari took a breath. “I snuck up to the bathroom to see the tilework you’ve all been raving about. When I heard voices, I tried to hide in the closet, but Nima was already in there.”
“In the closet?” Tseten unhelpfully repeated. “Well, that explains why he never made it to my house. I’m en route back to Wildwood to look for him. He’s not answering his phone.”
Although Tseten couldn’t see her, Mari shook her head. “It must be on do not disturb or something because it didn’t ring or buzz—that I noticed—while we were in the closet.”
“You got in the closet with him?”
Yeti weren’t the only ones capable of growling.
“Yes. I didn’t want to get caught, and I couldn’t reveal Nima.
We were stuck in there for a while. The people who came up to, uh .
. . see the bathroom were not quick.” Well, the couple had come upstairs for a quickie, but Mari was not about to share that detail.
“The point is, Nima is still trapped in the bathroom closet, and we need to get him out. Can you help me create a diversion?”
Mari tried to think up a good plan, but her mind wasn’t cooperating. She kept recalling how she’d climaxed in Nima’s arms less than an hour ago. She ran a hand across her face as if that would wipe away the post-orgasmic tingle in her limbs and clear her thoughts. It didn’t.
“I hate to burst your bubble, but he’s trapped because he’s a yeti. How is another yeti going to help the situation? Why didn’t you call Toni, Gina, or Emma?”
Pinching the bridge of her nose, Mari flopped into a kitchen chair.
“They’re all out of town. Gina and Emma’s parents are visiting, and they rented a large house near Talkeetna.
Denzin and Toni are up in Denali for Christmas.
Helen returned to the Toklat Lodge tonight.
Jack and Pema are more than an hour away—I don’t want to call them unless we have to. ”
Tseten made a humming sound. “How do you know more about everyone’s plans than I do? What about Andy? He and Dawa would never close the cycling store with two holiday shopping days left.”
As Mari pondered this, her dishes rattled in their cabinets. She swore under her breath, recalling Nima’s tense reaction to the earthquake they’d felt together in the closet.
“Another trembler.” Fuck, she had to help Nima.
“Nima still doesn’t like earthquakes,” Tseten reminded her, not that she needed it.
“I know,” she said as she pushed stray strands of hair from her face.
“I’ll see if Andy can help, then give you a—” She paused, looking toward her front door as she heard heavy footsteps and crunching snow on her porch.
She glanced at the clock. Nearly nine p.m. In a low voice she said, “Someone is here, but I’m not expecting anyone.
” An uneasy shiver passed through her adrenaline-logged body as a loud knock sounded at her door.
Mari’s cabin stood at the end of a dirt road.
Emma and Yeshe lived over a quarter-mile away.
The location was remote enough that trick or treaters didn’t visit on Halloween, and no one made unannounced, late-night house calls, especially when all her friends were out of town.
“Stay on the phone with me while I answer the door,” Mari whispered to Tseten as she crept forward.
Though it was unlikely her visitor could hear her through the cabin’s thick logs.
“I’m only a few miles away,” he whispered back.
Mari appreciated Tseten’s brotherly protectiveness, and she felt braver as she slid the curtain aside to peek out the window.
A large figure stood on her porch, illuminated only by the silvery moon and colorful holiday lights strung around the eaves of her cabin.
She momentarily debated whether to turn on her outside light or grab her bear spray and wait for Tseten to arrive.
But then her visitor moved. Despite the subtle changes to her ex’s body over the years, Mari couldn’t mistake his silhouette.
“It’s Nima,” Mari told Tseten. “I’ll call you back.” She disconnected the call and tossed her phone onto the table. She grabbed the legal envelope full of divorce papers, flicked on the porch light, then yanked open the door.
Mari stepped outside, closing the door behind her, and then forced herself to look up at her soon-to-be ex-husband, whose . . . chest heaved. She paused, taking him in as he gulped mouthfuls of air, his breath condensing into frozen clouds around his head. “You’re panting.”
Nima pressed a hand to his side as if he had a stitch. “I ran,” he said, sucking in a deep breath, “from the Blackwoods. My truck is blocked in.”
Mari blinked. “That’s over five miles.”
“By road, maybe. I came through the woods.”
His route might have been shorter, but not easier. Her gaze traveled up brown, snow-crusted Carhartts to what looked like a fresh tear in Nima’s flannel shirt. “How did you get out of the bathroom?”
Nima stood to his full, impressive height as he exhaled. “I jumped out the window. Mari, listen, I shouldn’t . . . I don’t even . . .” He dropped his arms. “I’m sorry.”
She bit her cheek. “For what, exactly?” There were so many things to be sorry about. He might have jumped from a second-story window and run through the woods to find her, which was . . . well, gratifying. But it didn’t erase her anger and hurt. She needed to know what he was thinking.
He stared at her for a beat, and she forced herself to stay strong even though his aqua-blue eyes were ringed with sadness and regret. She knew the look. She saw it in the mirror every day.
“I’m sorry for everything,” he finally said.
“I’m sorry for how I behaved tonight and my lack of control around you.
” He ran a hand down his face. “I’m sorry for not coming to talk with you the second I arrived in Wildwood.
I’m sorry it took me a decade to return to our hometown.
Most of all, I’m sorry not to have cleared things up with you ten years ago after Nevada and for letting my best friend slip away. ”
Best friend, huh? Is that how he saw her? Did best friends give each other orgasms or get married? Mari inwardly rolled her eyes. Okay, sometimes they did, but she was oddly disappointed that he thought of her as only a friend. They were married, for fuck’s sake!
The tears stung like a bitch, and Mari was powerless to stop them. She simply wiped her cheeks with quick efficiency. “Well, friend, thank you for that apology. Maybe I should also have reached out to you, but given the circumstances in which you abandoned me, I just couldn’t.”
Nima’s face paled, turning a ghostly light blue. And if Mari wasn’t mistaken, tears tracked down his cheeks as well, disappearing into his white, furry beard. “You were more than a friend, Mari. You were—”
Suppressed hurt and anger got the better of her, and she cut him off, stomping her slippered foot on her snowy doormat as she shouted, “Your wife, Nima! I was your wife—that you abandoned.”
He had the audacity to look shocked. “My what?”
The rage inside her flared, and Mari paced away from Nima, needing space and distance from him while she seethed.
She stopped where the corner of her porch met her deck and sucked in a breath of icy air.
Then another. Finally, she spun around to face him again and held up the envelope.
“I need to move on, Nima,” she said, calmer now.
“Helen has drawn up divorce papers for us.”
But Nima still looked gobsmacked. “Divorce? I don’t understand. I—”
His words were cut off as the earth rolled beneath them.
Mari gripped the cold, snowy deck railing, holding on as the wooden boards lurched under her.
Her cabin’s windowpanes rattled in their frames, and the ground under her rumbled and groaned.
She seemed to hear stone grinding against stone as the earth moved.
“Mari, get off the deck!” Nima shouted as a large spruce tree cracked, the sound splitting the frosty night air.
She glanced up at the snapping tree before running toward Nima. The terror etched across his features as he came for her spiked her adrenaline a moment before something smashed into her back. She went down, the snowy porch rushing up to meet her face.