Chapter 16 #3
The thought of them all being out here, risking their lives for nothing should have pissed him off, but without this time alone with Nora, he’d never have had this opportunity to get to know her better.
It wasn’t just the sex, though his body craved her more now than ever.
It was more than that—a fascination, an obsession.
He’d never felt like this before.
It scared the hell out of him and he didn’t like it.
Who the hell willingly signed up for this shit?
He crawled through the short tunnel, dragging his pack behind him. Outside, Nora had rebuilt the fire and was now dressed in her own clothes.
He picked up his jacket from beside the entrance and pulled it on. His hat was there too. He tugged it on, resenting the fact it smelled like lemon soap and made him want her all over again.
“Your clothes dried?”
“Pretty much, but a bit on the frozen solid side, so I’m warming up here for a minute or two while I boil water.” She smiled brightly.
So that’s how it was going to be.
He stared at her as she stoked the fire. As much as he wanted to offer to hold her in his arms and warm her up that way, it no longer felt appropriate. She’d pulled on her cloak of aloofness, and he wasn’t stupid enough to try to breach it right now.
He dug out his buried rifle case and brushed off his snow camo top before pulling it over his head. Then he went through the motions of checking the weapons. Made sure they were ready to fire while she heated water for breakfast.
Her eyes scanned their surroundings, bouncing off him every now and then. She wrapped her arms around herself and shivered, caught him staring, but he didn’t turn away.
She hunched her shoulders and looked into the trees above them.
He exhaled, feeling defeated. “There’s been a possible sighting of Eastman and Summer over in Hastings.”
She frowned. “That doesn’t make any sense.”
He shrugged.
She clenched her jaw, stared into the trees. The snow had stopped for now, but it was still overcast. Chance stood beside her like the loyal companion he was. Sebastian saw the exact moment his hackles went up, and the dog let out a low growl.
Nora grabbed her dog’s collar. “Cougar. Up in the trees. Do you see it?”
It took Sebastian a moment to spot the tawny mountain lion that was so well camouflaged. When he did, he took a couple of paces closer to Nora.
“I see it. What do we do about it?”
Nora raised her arms. “Don’t shoot it for starters. Appear to be as large as you can and look them in the eye. I’d suggest yelling, but as we’re not one hundred percent certain Eastman isn’t around here somewhere…”
The animal looked pissed. “He’s trying to stare me down.”
“He’s curious as to what we’re doing in his environment.
And he probably views us as a danger.” She looked at him.
The first direct eye contact since she’d woken up from her nightmare.
She looked quickly away as if realizing the fact.
“He won’t turn his back on something that might be a threat, and we shouldn’t take our eyes off him or seem afraid because it makes us look weak. ”
“Yeah, no one wants to appear weak.”
She flinched, but Sebastian let it go. He pulled out his Glock 17M MOS because he wasn’t taking any chances, raised his arms, and they both moved toward the wild animal.
Nora bent down and efficiently packed a snowball.
“Stay.” She released Chance’s leash. The dog quivered, but he didn’t move. His gaze never left the cat, his instincts recognizing a predator. Nora threw the snowball at the cougar and scored a solid hit in his face.
The animal dropped to the ground and bounded away, disappearing into the forest.
“Nice arm.” Sebastian nodded with approval.
“Former varsity softball pitcher.”
“Impressive. Do we need to worry it’ll come back?”
“They tend to avoid humans, but it never hurts to watch your back in the wilderness.” She sent him a smile and then seemed to remember everything that had happened last night, and the smile disappeared.
He wanted to beg her for an honest conversation, but maybe he wouldn’t like what she had to say. Maybe it would be better to let the whole thing drop and just move on.
“We’re on snowshoes for now,” he said instead. “How long to reach the mines?”
She grimaced at the reminder. “Twenty minutes? We’ll have to head upstream to cross the river where it’s narrower. I suspect after last night’s cold blast, the surface is solid enough again.”
“I’m testing any ice before we cross. Understood?”
Her face lost all expression, but she nodded.
No way was he watching her fall in again. No fucking way. “Let’s pack up the gear, eat something, and get on our way. The sooner we eliminate the mines the better.”
“Of course.” Her voice was wooden.
Chance looked from her to him and back again with a tentative half wag of his tail.
Sebastian wanted to get back to his team not least because he didn’t want to be tormented by her treating him like he was some insensitive prick. Especially as now he felt like an insensitive prick.
Fuck.
It would be better if he kept this completely professional from now on. To forget the feel of her skin, the touch of her lips.
Never gonna happen again, pal.
“In the meantime, I’m going down to the river one last time to see if I can spot your missing ski.”
“What are you going to do if you see it? It’ll be frozen in place.”
He shrugged. He didn’t care. He had enough pissed-off energy to breathe fire, so he didn’t think it would be a problem.
“Watch out for that big cat.”
Her pretty eyes observed him, cautious now, as if measuring his anger. “You too.”
Fuck.
Fuck.
Fuck.
He holstered his weapon and strode away as self-disgust welled up inside.
The last thing he wanted to do was to scare her.
He was all too aware of the genes he carried, along with the incessant background fear that he was more like his father than he wanted to admit.
This woman had already been through enough, he just wished he could make her realize none of this was her fault.