“But did you say it because you meant it, or is that just a thing you say?”
Blaze’s big hand stroked her hair away from her forehead, but he didn’t sit up. “I mean what I say, but I respect what you say, too.”
The whole world was too much for Sarah to understand.
True to his word, Blaze cocooned Sarah in the quilt while he wrapped a fuzzy throw blanket around his waist and tinkered inside a closet built next to the bathroom’s wall. When a quiet whirring began, Blaze ran water into a stock pot and set it on the stove. After a click, a blue flame sprouted underneath the pot.
Sarah called over to him, “I can get the water ready. You don’t need to do that for me, and I can heat some for you while I’m at it.”
Blaze strolled across the cabin’s one room and, bracing his hands on the arms of her chair, loomed over her. “I told you that I always take care of what’s mine. Until we arrive back at your farm, you’remine.Now, rest there like the tired, sleepy good girl you are, and I’ll be ready for you in a moment. If you’re a naughty little brat, I’ll tie you up in that quilt until I’m done heating the water.”
Sarah was tired but a little shocked, too. “Didn’t you use your ropes to rescue Starlight’s colt?”
His blue eyes glittered with iciness, and his growing smile held a hint of evil. “Not all of them.”
Oh, jeez, his grin was terrifying. Maybe it was better back when he didn’t smile.
She snuggled down in the quilt for what seemed like just a minute, but it must’ve taken at least half an hour for that massive pot of water to boil.
More time must have passed because Blaze’s short hair lay on his forehead in damp clumps, and he was wearing dark blue loose pants and a lighter blue tee shirt when he was standing in front of her.
Blaze lifted her in his arms in a bundle, quilt and all, and carried her to the cabin’s small bathroom. The freshness of soap wafted from his clothes.
The six inches of clear water in the tub steamed in the cold air. He extricated her from the quilt and helped her step into the bath, then washed her body, first running the warm washcloth over her face and shoulders and then down her body, pausing to smooth the nubbly cloth over the peaks of her breasts. Placing her on her hands and knees, he massaged the rough washcloth over her ass and between her legs until her body was tightening with need again, but indeed, a part of her mind was relinquishing herself as Blaze washed her body because it was his to own.
When she looked up at him from where she kneeled in the tub, his gaze was sharp, and her body trembled.
He whispered to her, his voice hoarse as if he were keeping himself from raging, “Stand up.”
Sarah complied, and he helped her step out of the tub with her fingers clenched in his fist, and then he wiped down her body like he was polishing every inch of her skin.
He wrapped her in a towel and led her out by the fire. In the warmth of the flames, he dressed her in the clean clothes he’d brought from his house, which were also too big for her but in black.
The tiny kit he’d given her with the toothbrush and a mini-tube of toothpaste was already lying in the bathroom on the small sink, and he left her alone.
After brushing her teeth and using the bathroom, she padded back out to the cabin’s main room.
Blaze was sitting on the floor, his back leaning against the front door. “Take the bed.”
That was ridiculous. “I’m smaller than you are. I can push the two chairs together or something.”
“I said,you will take the bed.I don’t want to spank you and leave you frustrated and unsatisfied, but I will.”
Yeah, after that bath,mission accomplished.“You can sleep in the bed, too. If you don’t want me to touch you, I won’t. It wouldn’t occur to me to reach over and grab you or anything. If I move around too much, Muffintop bites me.”
“I’m standing guard.”
“Does that mean you’re not going to sleep at all again?”
“I will rest.”
“I can take the first shift of standing guard.” Sarah gestured toward the chair with the wadded-up quilt on it. The window behind it had turned a shade of dark gray instead of forest-night black. “I think I took a nap.”
“Sleep for a while in the bed. After we’ve rested, we’ll pack up and drive back to your farm.”
“Sitting over there against the door isn’t even the best vantage point. If someone breaks in, you’ll be firing across the cabin towardme,”she pointed out. “If you come over here to the bed, you’ll have a proper line of fire away from both of us, with mostly log-cabin wall for a backstop.”
Blaze’s eyes darted left, then right, and then he sighed and stood, coming over to sit on the floor with his back against the bedpost.
