No one would come looking for them in a blizzard. No rescue would risk more lives for the chance of finding them.
‘I hope you’re happy now,’ he grumbled but Katherine’s response was unintelligible. Her skin getting a bluish tinge.
‘Dammit!’ He placed Katherine gently on one of the couches and raced to the closest room where he ripped a thick duvet from the bed and returned to her. ‘I need to get you out of these clothes.’ A sentence he never thought he’d say.
The snow had dampened them, making them a hazard. He removed her jacket first, flinging it across the room as if it was to blame for all that had befallen them. He took off her shoes then stripped off her socks, blouse, jeans and lastly her thermals, exposing her fair skin. Her toned body. Soft dips and peaks of her abdominals that she obviously worked hard for. Lukas had never thought he would ever be in this position: exposing Katherine like this. Once maybe, for a fleeting moment when he first saw her in the paddock and was struck by her absolute beauty. But he hadn’t spoken to her. He hadn’t wanted to. He hadn’t wanted to be attracted to someone he would never allow in his life. Not when he was already in a vulnerable place. And now here he was, wanting to run the backs of his fingers down her face, along her body.
But he couldn’t do that. He wouldn’t. Not when they hated each other so much. Not when he knew she wouldn’t want him to touch her at all if they weren’t in this emergency. This want was a physical reaction and he was able to control his body. So he checked that her underwear was dry and when he was satisfied that it was, he wrapped her in the duvet.
He cradled her face, forcing her to look at him. ‘I need you to stay awake. Can you do that for me?’
She nodded her head yes, then shook her head no.
‘Try.’
He left her on the couch and went to the fireplace. Thankfully there were dry logs stacked beside it and he quickly got a roaring flame burning.
‘That should do it.’ He stood and stripped his own clothes, then picked up Katherine and sat with her on the rug in front of the fire with his back against the sofa. Her skin scalded his despite how cold she was. And with tense muscles, he wrapped the duvet around them both.
‘You’re freezing,’ he said, wrapping his warm legs around her cold ones and rubbing her chest, trying his best to get warmth into her. But the contact of her skin on his made him tingle everywhere they touched. He ignored it. It was just the temperature difference that made him feel that way. Nothing more. She was the reason they were in this situation at all but when he looked down at her half-open eyes that looked like they were barely seeing anything, some of that anger melted away. He just needed her to warm up. To get her fire back.
Why do you care?
Lukas had no answer. All he knew was that he needed her to be okay. That he would only feel relief once she was bickering with him again. He didn’t want to recognise how good he felt having her in his arms. This embrace, while it wracked him with worry, also calmed him. His mind had been going a million miles an hour since his contract hadn’t been renewed, but right now, he didn’t think about how he had been wronged. All he thought about was Katherine.
He could feel her slowly warming up, so it was probably safe to leave her long enough to make her a hot tea.
‘Are you still with me?’ he asked softly over her shoulder.
‘Hmm’ was all the reply he got.
‘Can you sit here by yourself for a bit?’ He tried to push off the warm rug, but Katherine’s weak grip tightened around his wrist.
‘No. Please don’t go.’
Lukas could feel the shock on his face. Here was the woman who hated him asking him to stay. That look of vulnerability on her face, lit only by the fire in the dark cabin, was difficult to bear.
‘I’m just going to get you some tea.’
‘Stay with me,’ she begged. ‘Please.’
And against his better judgement, he sat back down, adjusting both their bodies so they were lying on the rug. Warm.
‘I’m not going anywhere,’ he promised, knowing how temporary a promise it was because as soon as she was back to normal, as soon as it was safe, he would very definitely go back to keeping his distance from her. This reporter who—no matter how beautiful she was—was as unscrupulous as they came.
CHAPTER FOUR
Warmth. Too much warmth. Katherine could feel heat radiating on her back. A heavy weight draped over her. A weaker heat warming her face. None of this made sense.
She forced her eyes open and as her sight cleared, saw the dying embers in a fireplace she had no recollection of settling before. That was obviously the source of the warmth on her face but couldn’t be responsible for the heat on her back. And as the fog lifted from her brain, she felt the softness of a cushion under her head. The hard, unyielding muscle of a well-toned arm under her neck. Another arm over her torso.
Heart racing with confusion and apprehension, Katherine followed the line of the muscular arm to a bare, sculpted chest. She shut her eyes.
‘Please, God, don’t let it be who I think it is,’ she prayed and when she opened her eyes, was met with the sleeping face of Lukas Jäger. She swore and tried to push away, but when she threw the thick duvet off herself, she saw that she was only in her underwear and clutched the covers to her chest.
‘Calm down,’ a sleepy voice said. She watched him roll to his feet, clad only in a pair of tight black boxer briefs.
‘Please tell me we didn’t,’ she whispered tightly.
