My face pruned further.What the hell?This wasn’t a damn community pool—you couldn’t just pee whenever you wanted.
The warmth and pressure at my back vanished, and I shivered in the sudden cold. Why was it so freezing? It was spring, the last I’d checked.
With a sway, I forced my eyes open once more, determined to solve this mystery. My vision slowly adjusted to the intense white light. I leaned forward to shield my eyes from the object in front of me, my forehead bumping against something rubbery and plastic. The thumping in my head was incessant, and I felt more hungover than I had on my twenty-first birthday in Vegas.
With my eyes shielded from the light, I blinked furiously, feeling actual ice chips flake off my eyelashes. When the world focused, I was looking down at my lap. My legs were straddling a leather-like seat. Gloved hands rested against my thighs. I wiggled my fingers, realizing the hands were mine.
Lifting my forehead from the cold, rubbery plastic, I braved the light and looked up again. The sheer whiteness of the world was painful, causing me to recoil at the sight. A cluster of whipped cream-topped evergreens came into focus a little way off. Each branch emerged, eventually revealing a sparse forest surrounding the area, the trees topped with snow. Wind gusted, blowing sparkly ice crystals across the flat, open clearing before me.
Jesus Christ, was thisheaven?
Pressure returned to my back, and a hand rubbed in circles. It reminded me of something my mother used to do when I was sick, and it relaxed me. This touch, however, was much firmer than my mother’s had been, and a bit more…something.Not familial, but still full of caring.
I didn’t have the mental space to figure this out right now. I moaned and then grumbled, shying away from the touch.
Peeing, right? Peeing was still a priority.
“There are a few small trees just to your right,” the gravelly voice offered.“I can help you get over there, and you can use nature’s facilities.”
I was placing the timbre of the voice, small bits of memory trickling back in.“Wait… Gray?” I asked.
“Yes,” he replied.
I grumbled like a child. Fuck my life.I didn’t want him to see me like this.
And what was this exactly? Was I really hungover?
I turned my head to take in more of what surrounded us. That’s when I registered the obvious and very apparent fact that we were nowhere near New York—nowhere near civilization at all, it seemed. Spring had not yet arrived in this place either. It was like traveling back in time.
I drew in a long, fortifying breath. It was time for me to snap out of it. I sat back, working my tongue in my cotton-like mouth before speaking again. I felt grumpy.
“What the actualhell,Gray?” I murmured. I could feel myself gaining momentum, the fog lifting one inch at a time.“Whereare we?”
Crusty icicles clung to the few bushes and trees in our general area. A fluffy layer of new snow sat on top of everything, like whipped cream on a snow cone. No path was visible, just untamed woods and open fields.
I looked left, my neck stiff, then right. Apparently, the vibrating thing between my legs was a snowmobile.
An overwhelming need to scream and rant, to throw a tantrum like a child in a department store, overcame me, but every movement was painful. Images of the sudden attack by two men, and the ensuing fight in my bedroom returned: my head cracking against the tile, my arm wrenched at unnatural angles, and my oxygen being cut off. Everything felt stiff, becoming stiffer as each memory resurfaced.
Taking stock of what I wore, I didn’t recognize my oversized pants, gloves, shoes, or the coat wrapped around me. A flash of red silk peeked out through the half-zipped jacket—my pajama top—but where were my pants? In their place was a pair of snow pants, and I couldn’t feel the silk beneath them. They were extra cushy, though, especially around the bottom.
“Where are my pants?” I barked with little bite.
Before Gray could answer, a long, torturous, feline yowl of utter pain and longing erupted behind me.
Mr. Beans?
With renewed quickness, I spun. There was a large sled latched behind us with a kennel strapped to the front. Behind the kennel was a mound of several other items covered by a tarp.
Gray cut between me and the kennel, his face coming into focus.“You peed your pants while you were passed out. I had to remove your pajamas and get you something clean…” he paused, seeming to search for the right words, “…and put a diaper on you.” He grinned roguishly, if that’s what you’d call it. It had a mischievous hint of satisfaction in it that I didn’t like.“That’s why I said you can just pee if you aren’t up for moving. You’re covered in that department…” he motioned toward my lower half with a casual gloved hand as though this were The Price Is Right and that was the prize.
My jaw dropped open, so startled by his explanation that the world flipped upside down. I fell backward off the snowmobile into the packed snow with a grunt and a subsequent yelp. I heard shuffling before hands gripped the sides of my jacket and righted me.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
Things were literally falling into place, and panic ripped through me like a machete through tall grass. Shaking him off, I gathered enough strength to clamber away from him a few feet. I kicked out in warning.
“Get the hell away from me,” I said, slow and measured.
