Oh crap.
The angry hiking had worked for her for a bit. A decent distraction, especially since she’d spent the last hour or so picking the hellish thorns from her skin. The bastards had pierced her through four layers of clothes—including the damp coat she’d finally thrown back on for protection.
But suddenly she was faced with the truth of what had happened in the last couple of days. She’d developed an unlikely attachment—attraction, lust, whatever the hell you wanted to call it—to the big, messed-up man in front of her.
A crush. Only far more desperate than that.
And the worst part, right now, if she was being terribly honest, was that given the choice between eating chips and drinking wine in a soft bed or having this man on the hard ground, sober and starving, she knew exactly which one she’d go for.
And it wasn’t soft or crispy or smooth going down.
Must be the head injury. There was no other explanation. “Hell,” she muttered.
“You okay?”
She focused on his drawn brows, the thick beard covering the concern on his sun-gilded face.
A quick nod should have been enough to get him moving again, but something about this guy gave him access to truths others never saw. Leo’s secrets were a wide-open book for Elias Thorne.
And that was not okay.
“Turn around,” she said grumpily. “Keep walking.”
“What’s wrong? What do you need?”
“Just go.”
“Is it your head?”
Yes. Yes, it’s my head…my neck, my back, lick my pu—I’ve lost it.Singing Khia lyrics in the wilds of Alaska. Totally screwy. “Head’s fine.”Aside from the obvious delirium happening here.“Think we could just…” She put out a stiff hand. “Keep going?”
His eyes did a quick circuit of her body. Must have found nothing out of order, because they then focused in on her face. Which was probably another story. She couldn’t get the panic off it fast enough.
“Look. I’m having some…unpleasant thoughts.”Liar.They were pleasant as all get-out. So pleasant, she’d stopped thinking about the killer prickle bushes and the mud and the enemy for a while.
He was walking back toward her now, and she didn’t want that. She wanted him to keep going, to put some actual distance between them and the helicopter search centered above the lake. She wanted to get around this mountain to where the yeti claimed the temperature was higher and actual spring was underway.
If she could thaw out, maybe she couldthink, instead of toiling through this hellish terrain, where cuddling with yetis seemed like a half-decent idea.
“Let’s just get around the mountain, yet—Eli—Thorne!” She shook her head. “We need to get past this thing, and I’m sure I’ll be just fine. Good as new.”
His brows rose, lowered, went up, and dropped again, as if he were trying to translate an indecipherable set of hieroglyphics on her face. After a few more seconds, he nodded.
“Whatever you say, boss,” he said before taking off again, constant, kind, dependable, easy.
And hell if that didn’t mix up one very attractive cocktail.
***
Mud, cold, injuries, and the constantly sweeping helicopter turned the journey into a slow, ugly grind along the river and up to higher elevations. Well, up a thousand or so feet. They couldn’t go above the tree line until the aircraft headed home for the day.
Which was bound to happen soon, given that they’d need to refuel.
The worst part was that he and Leo had probably walked no more than a couple of miles from the lake, and while this hike would usually be a piece of cake for Elias, his backpack weighed him down like it was filled with lead weights and his body was a mess.
He’d carried heavier, gone farther. Normally, he could do this trek in his sleep.
“What’s wrong?” Leo had taken the lead a while back, as if she couldn’t wait to get this over and done with. Right now, she stopped and narrowed her focus on him. “You look weird.”
