“We can do them later.” He stood and held out his hand.
Laura let him lead her to a mud room where he found her a jacket, gloves and a hat. There was even a pair of gumboots, which with the aid of two extra pairs of socks, sort of stayed on her feet.
Outside the sun was doing its best to creep from behind cloud cover. She caught her breath at the first lungful of crisp air. It was so cold her teeth ached.
“Tell me again why this is a good idea,” she said, wrapping her arms around herself. “It’s meant to be spring, but it feels like the middle of winter again.”
Dallas laughed, his breath misting out in puffs of white. “It’ll be fun. Don’t you enjoy having fun?”
Laura thought about her mother’s social schedule and shuddered. “Not when I’m at home. While I’m at the apartment, my life is a bit more relaxed.”
“But you have toted wood before?”
“No. You’ll have to give me instructions.Brr, it’s freezing out here.”
Dallas hooked an arm around her waist and planted a kiss on her lips. His mouth was cold, yet a zip of heat arrowed down her body. “I’m going to enjoy teaching you to get dirty.”
“I get the impression you aren’t talking about chopping wood.”
“And you’d be right,” he whispered, dipping his head to steal another kiss. “Let me grab the chainsaw.”
Dallas kept her busy. She carted cut pieces of log to the shed next to the cabin while he cleared the tree off the driveway. After half an hour, her shoulders and arms ached in concert with her butt, and her brain vibrated with the whine of the chainsaw. Splotches of mud, from where she’d stomped through puddles, decorated her bottom half like badges of honor, and she was warm now. Very warm. Gawking at Dallas’s backside, seeing the ripple of muscles while he worked the chainsaw heated her through more than her exertions.
The silence when he stopped working was absolute.
“Looks as if we’d better hurry,” he said, his gaze wandering the darkening sky. He grabbed an armload of wood, and she followed suit. Ten minutes later, they were done. “Thanks for helping.”
“You’re welcome. It was fun.” She grinned at him, then spoiled everything by tripping. Her arms windmilled and she saved herself from a face-plant by catching herself with her hands. Her splash into a puddle—deeper than it looked—was the final indignity.
“Are you okay?” Concern filled his rugged face, and it was all she could do to stop herself reaching out to test his stubble beneath her fingertips. The exertion had given color to his cheeks while his blue eyes glinted with secrets.
“No, I’m not. I have water seeping through my clothes. You’ve worked me like a slave, and I’m sweaty.” The quirk tugging at the corners of her mouth spoiled her litany of complaints. She hadn’t had so much fun in years.
He grinned and offered her a hand up. “You’ve done a great job.”
“I notice you didn’t refute the slave status.” God, she loved the way his grin lit up his eyes and made the shadows fade away. So pretty. Was it soppy of her to want to stare into his eyes?
Hell yeah. Of course it was.Temporary, remember?
Once upright, she pressed against him and slid a sneaky, muddy hand beneath the hem of his rugby shirt. He yelped at the cold. Laughing, she danced away and headed for the cabin at a fast trot.
At the thundering sound of footsteps, she sneaked a glance over her shoulder and saw he’d almost caught her. “You’re too fast.”
“You’re slow.”
“You try running in oversized gumboots.” A laugh huffed out of her when his hands settled around her waist. “Why didn’t you have sex with me last night before we went to sleep? Why did you wait until this morning? Damn, I didn’t mean to blurt that out. Broken filter.”
“But you want to know the answer?”
“Yes.” She didn’t understand why he’d attended to her needs and taken nothing for himself.
“Laura.” He tugged her to a stop and turned her to face him. “Questions don’t bother me. I want you to feel happy and confident about our interactions. Occasionally, I’ll want to surprise you.”
“You haven’t answered my question.”
“I wanted to look after you,” he said simply. “I’d spanked you and your emotions were all over the place. It was my responsibility to care for you.”
“But—”
