“I don’t have any equipment and, between the snow and the cold, chances are one or both of us would end up with hypothermia before we made it back to town. When you’re that cold, your brain stops functioning, and it’s easy to get disoriented. We could get lost.”
“We’restuckhere?” And the cabin seemed to be getting smaller with every breath she took.
“They said they’d be back Sunday. Hell, if the weather clears before then, we can hike out.”
“Ifthe weather clears before then? There’s no guarantee of that. It might not let up for the entire weekend.” Sunday seemed an eternity away. “We’re trapped here. Together.”
“You and I work better in close quarters—the closer, the better. Maybe you should think of it as a chance to finish what we started the night of Avery’s party, instead of throwing a snit.”
It felt curiously like the earth had fallen away beneath her. “A snit?A snit? This is nota snit.This is a totally and completely rational response to being stranded here with a man Idespise. And I wouldn’t touch you if you were the last person on earth!” She was screaming at him by the end of the sentence, but she didn’t care because he just stood there, as solid as a rock against the waves of her anger.
“Right. Because you’ve been so successful keeping your hands to yourself up to this point.”
“That was then. This is now. It’s different.”
“Whatever you have to tell yourself to sleep at night.”
She wished she had a chair at hand so she could bean him again.
…
Ryan took one look at her narrowed eyes and recognized this as an argument he wouldn’t win. Since he was far too tempted to yank her into his arms and prove Bri had no problem touching him whenever he got too close—which wouldn’t help the situation any—sticking around wasn’t the best course of action. So he turned on his heel and started for the door.
“Where are you going?”
He gritted his teeth and tried to remember why he’d wanted to spend more time with this woman. “I’m going to go chop some firewood so you don’t freeze your prissy little ass off tonight.”
Her outraged gasp was music to his ears—especially since this timehewas shutting the door onher. Petty as hell, but there was no denying the satisfaction he got from the action. This woman had come along and made judgments about his reasons for leaving town that were so far off base part of him wanted to dig out his accomplishments and throw them in her face to prove he wasn’t some worthless POS who ran away from his problems. Even if hehadrun from Wellingford ten years ago, the world didn’t begin and end in the little town in central Pennsylvania, no matter what she seemed to think.
The satisfaction at pissing her off faded as he trudged through the snow to the lean-to. There was some wood already chopped but the pile wouldn’t last more than a day or so. He reached for the first log and cursed. Another packet of condoms had been tucked into the top of the stack. He couldn’t figure out what Drew and Avery thought was going to happen in a lean-to in the middle of winter, but apparently they were optimistic.
He shook his head and got started. He needed the physical aspect of chopping wood to get his mind off the woman in the cabin behind him. She got under his skin in record time but, even annoyed as hell, he still wanted to shove her against the nearest wall and have his way with her.
How they could connect so well physically but barely stand each other mentally was a mystery to him. He couldn’t decide if he wanted to fight with her or fuck her until they both forgot their issues.
Which made him the biggest idiot of all.
Chapter Seven
The words blurred before Bri’s eyes no matter how much she tried to concentrate. She wished she could blame it on the fact that she was tired and hungry, but the source of her problems was the man currently hauling firewood into the cabin to build a fire.
Though he was easily six feet from her, she could barely draw a full breath. Smothered. That was the feeling putting pressure on her chest until her breasts ached with it. It must be.
Ryan stacked the wood and then grabbed paper from the pile next to the fireplace and stuffed it into the crack. “What the fuck?” Before she could ask him what the problem was, he reached farther into the fireplace and came back with a string of condoms. Her face flamed as he tossed them at her. “Someone thought we were going to be banging in some really weird places. There was some out in the firewood, too.”
“Lovely.” She toed them under the couch, wishing her mind hadn’t jumped to the ways they could utilize the newest batch of condoms—and the ones in the fruit basket.
He pulled out a lighter and lit the fire. Almost immediately, heat licked through the room, warming her when she hadn’t even realized she was chilled in the first place.
Before she could thank him or ask what he planned on doing next or any of the other words that sprang to her lips, he stood and moved to the kitchen. Maybe she should just stay silent. No one ever got into trouble by keeping their mouth closed.
She dropped her gaze back to her book, but the story held no more appeal than it had five minutes ago. With a sigh, she closed it in favor of looking around the room. The cabin really was cozy, the large windows giving a gorgeous view of the surrounding snow-covered trees that made her want to curl up with a flannel blanket and a cup of tea.
Except she wouldn’t be doing any relaxing with Ryan’s presence saturating the cabin.
He dumped a can of something into a pan and then grabbed a box out of the cupboard. As he started adding ingredients, she reluctantly climbed to her feet and went to investigate.There’s no other form of entertainment in this place. I might as well see what he’s up to. Her questionable logic firmly in place, she slipped onto the barstool across the island from him.
Bri stared at her fingernails, the dark-pink paint she’d put on for her blind date already starting to chip off. She wanted to make a smart comment, but nothing came to mind except how good he looked in that fitted white thermal shirt. It clung to his shoulders and biceps, highlighting them in a way that seemed designed to remind her of how his muscles felt under her fingers. So she went with a generic, “What are you doing?”