Cade looked at me a moment, then out towards the creek. He bounced his knee, which I’ve never noticed him do before. He was thinking about something.
“Before we go anywhere, let’s see if we can get your knee fixed up.”
“How? I mean I know exactly what’s happened to it. I’ve twisted it like this before at work and it’ll heal by itself in time.”
“Let’s go to the creek.”
“What? I’m not going in the freezing cold water!”
“Yeah. I think you are.” He beamed his white, straight teeth at me.
This man was quite the enigma. He took freezing baths in the creek while there was a hot spring, lived in a messy cabin, ate tin food, and yet took exquisite care of himself physically. He looked so good and tasty; I was totally prepared to go marching in that icy water if he said to. He stood up and crossed to my side of the fire, putting himself directly in front of me. He smiled down at me, an evil smile.
“What are you doing?” I asked nervously.
Before I knew what was happening, he scooped me up from my tree stump seat and carried me towards the creek.
“Argh! Put me down. Cade, please put me down,” I screamed, but he just laughed and a sense of fun started to pour into every cell in my body. I clung to him as he jogged with me in his arms, his feet thudding in the snow.
He got right to the edge of the water and pretended he was going to throw me in. Instantly, I fought against being tossed and gripped onto his broad back. I pressed myself against him completely. We were so close I could hear his heart and it was beating fast.
Our laughter subsided suddenly and we were left standing in the snow, our bodies stuck to each other. The quiet trickling water beside us made for a beautiful moment. I looked into the gold specks in his eyes, then let my gaze deliberately slip down to his sensuous mouth. I couldn’t make it clearer that I wanted him to kiss me.
He swallowed hard. “Let’s get your knee fixed. Hold onto me and I’ll lower you in the water.”
I didn’t let my disappointment show. “What about my jeans?”
“They’re going to get wet … unless you take them off?”
I played along. “Hmm. That’s your idea, huh? Bring me out here in this freezing water, and get me to take my clothes off?”
“Trust me. You’ll feel better for it. Come on, at least, take your boots and socks off.”
“Don’t worry, I’m not shy. I’ll take my jeans off. Besides, who wants to walk back to the cabin wearing freezing wet jeans? Unless you were planning on carrying me back too? Well, I better not count on that, I never know how long our moments of being friends will last before I piss you off again.”
He put me on the ground, and kneeling down in front of me pulled my boots off while I held onto the thick cords of muscles in his shoulders.
“You might want to keep away from the socks. They could stink,” I joked.
He pulled the first off and looking up at me brought it to his nose and inhaled. For a moment I was frozen by that purely animalistic, completely primal action. I saw his eyes darken, then he put his head down and removed my other sock. He stood and took a step away from me. I swallowed hard. The air around us had changed. It was throbbing with our awareness of each other.
I whipped my jeans down to my ankles. Stepping out of them, I picked them up and draped them over his shoulder. The more intimate parts of me were still concealed by my big coat, but my legs were bare. He looked down at them.
“Well, that’s a sight for sore eyes.”
I laughed at his response. “Oh, God, I can’t believe it. That’s the first compliment you’ve ever given me. I tell you what, I’m going to hold out for a better one before I start counting them.”
He looked at me hungrily, and if I had been with any other man I would have known that a kiss was on its way, but I’d been burned too many times by him and I wasn’t going there unless he led me there by the hand.
I hugged myself. “So, what am I supposed to do, just stand out here in the freezing cold and hope that my swollen knee goes down? Or am I supposed to drop myself in this water, oh wise, mountain man?”
“Um, yeah, wade out to the middle so you can get your knee under the water.”
“You’re kidding me? No, cowboy, that’s not how this is going to work. If I’m going in, then you’re coming in with me. Boots and socks off! Let’s go!”
He smiled and turned his chin down flirtatiously.
“Alright then. You asked for it.”
Katrina
He kicked off his snow boots, pulled off his socks and then stood opposite me. He was a lot taller than me. He looked in my eyes and grinned. Then he whipped me up in his arms again and tore off into the water still wearing his jeans.
“Wait! No fair!”
Cade carried me out to where the water was thigh deep on him. He dipped down in the water crouched on his knees and held me across his lap to force my knee into the icy water.
The feeling was so intense I lost control of myself momentarily and screamed at the shock of how cold it was.
He just laughed and said, “Relax. Give it a minute and you’ll be fine. And your knee will be as good as new.”
“Argh! It’s so cold! Argh. I can’t take it, anymore. Let me up. Cade, let me up. Come on. It’s not funny anymore.”
But he kept a tight hold around my waist, both of us submerged to the waist in the freezing water. “You’ve got it. Just hang in there. You can do it.”
“I can’t! Let me go!” I screamed.
“Just one more minute. One minute and we’ll get out and get back to the fire. Just think about the fire. The warm blankets I’m going to wrap you in. And the hot drink of whiskey coffee that’s going to be warming you from the inside.”
Cade talking to me, encouraging me to accomplish something as simple as being braver than the cold caught me. I stopped screaming. My breath was frantic.
“Deep breaths. You can do this.”
After a couple of inhales, I began to slow down the pace of my breathing. I looked ahead at the creek ambling over rocks at the bank, the mountains in the distance and then to the beautiful, strong man holding me tight and telling me that I can do something difficult. He was trying to help me. I stopped fighting. And felt humbled by him, by my situation. He was a good person. I might have fallen in love with him at that moment.
“Good job. Well done. You’ve got another thirty seconds and then we’re out of here. I promise you, your knee will be a lot better. You’ve almost done this. Almost there, well done.” His voice was soothing, almost hypnotic. The freezing water swirled around us as I stared up into his eyes.
“Ok,” I whispered.
The truth was I was completely flustered by what Cade had just done for me. It may seem silly to anyone else, but it was one of the nicest things any man had ever done for me. Maybe I hadn’t been lucky in love before, but he seemed to genuinely care for me. He disregarded how cold he must have been himself to help me. His arm, the one that had been tightly wrapped around me, came up to gently trace my jaw.
I wanted him to kiss me. I needed to feel those full sensuous lips on mine, and after that much more; much, much more. I just needed him to kiss me first. I had to know that it came from him too. He has to be the instigator for this to work. In my head I was screaming for him to make the move. Do it! Please, do it.
“Time’s up. We’ve got to get out of this freezing water now.”
“Uh huh.”
I couldn’t believe I wanted to stay in the freezing water. Literally one minute earlier I was screaming to come out, but I would have given anything to stay put long enough to have a luscious kiss with this oddly gruff, strong, honest, caring, mysterious man.
He carried me to the bank and stepped into his own boots. He dropped down to a knee to pick up my socks and boots.
“Here, you carry these. I’ll carry you.”
With only the sound of snow crunching beneath his footsteps, his breathing becom
ing heavier. We didn’t speak, but it didn’t feel like silence between us. Our heads were filled with the ideas of what might happen next. At least, mine was. Maybe he was just thinking about being alone again, running off to his workshop to avoid me. I hoped he was thinking about us. I kept my arms around his neck and prayed he wouldn’t be able to find a way out of them.
The light was beginning to fade behind the mountain as we arrived back at the cabin. It left a pink glow over everything. I couldn’t have asked for a more romantic setting. Cade set me down onto the pallet of blankets and cushions on the floor. I didn’t ask for it because I refused to instigate this encounter. I’d never believe it was a genuine desire from him if I started it, but I swear, I gave him my most soft, green light, come and get it eyes I had.
“I’ve got to get the fire going to warm you up now,” he said, but he stayed kneeling down next to me on the floor.
I licked my lips and watched his gaze slide down to my mouth. “What about you? Don’t you need to come out of those wet jeans?”