Reaching out, he caught her hand in his. ‘It’s not your fault, Nia. I should have listened, and I didn’t, and I’m sorry. Sorry for putting you in danger.’
He tightened his fingers around hers, wanting, needing, to feel the warmth of her skin.
‘It’s just that once I make up my mind, I find it hard to change it. You might have noticed I have a bit of a thing about that…’
He’d been trying to lighten the mood, but as she looked up at him he felt his heart slow, and all at once he was conscious only of how badly he wanted to pull her closer.
And not just to comfort her.
He let the silence drift as their eyes met. Hers were soft with whisky and fatigue and something else—something that made his thoughts turn to slow flurries.
Unthinkingly, he leaned forward, his body tingling as her lips parted. Around them the air shivered, the heat from the stove pushed against them—
They both jerked apart as a familiar sound broke the silence.
A text alert.
Her phone, not his.
‘I should—’
‘Of course.’
He watched, his pulse jumping with a sudden and disproportionate agitation, as she checked the message.
‘It’s Allan,’ she said, looking down at the screen. ‘He just wants to know if we got back okay.’
They hadn’t. And when Allan found that out, then what?
Those ATVs did exactly what their name suggested. They went anywhere, on any terrain. It would take two maybe three hours tops for a rescue party to reach them.
He felt himself tense. If Nia wanted to be rescued.
She was edging away from him, texting back.
‘What are you saying?’
/> Her eyes lifted to his and his hand moved from her waist to her hair, his fingers sliding among the strands.
‘Just that we’re safe, and that we’ll be fine until morning.’
Until morning.
In other words they would be spending the night together.
He felt his groin turn to stone with a speed that was predictable and painful.
And pointless.
What had happened had been a one-off, right?
Loosening his grip, not wanting her to feel that he was hard again already, he nodded.
‘Yes, we will.’
He forced his gaze away from her face, from the swell of the breasts that she had so recently bared to his mouth, to the far less arousing pile of logs that were stacked with aesthetic symmetry on either side of the wood burner.
‘So, first I’m going to get that fire going properly, and then we should see if there’s anything to eat.’