His Frozen Heart: A Mountain Man Romance Page 3

  All I could think of was sliding my body over his. I actually wanted to grip onto his back and feel the bulge of his muscles, how wide and warm he was. Then I wanted him to lay me down by the fire and take pleasure in my body again and again. I wanted to see how strong he was as he moved inside my body. And I was never like that with men. Ever. Usually, I detested them, their hungry eyes, and their cheating ways.

  But with him?

  I just wanted to bring him back to the land of the living, to show him all he was missing by marooning himself up here all alone on this inhospitable mountain. I want to … Yes, yes, I was definitely suffering the effects of some sort of concussion.

  “There’s a can opener in that drawer right there.”

  “What?” I blushed crimson.

  “The soup,” he reminded, his brow furrowing.

  “Oh. Oh yeah, well … if you’re not eating, I don’t want to.” I looked at him surreptitiously. Had I made my attraction obvious by the way I had stared at him? I checked my lip for drool. All good there, but it was a good thing I was under a layer of blanket because my nipples felt like they were hard enough to show through my parka. He had me aching.

  “Fine. I’ll eat with you,” he decided, with a resigned sigh.

  Dropping the blankets down on the floor, I noticed Cade looking at me then. I touched my hair and wondered if he thought I was attractive. Lots of guys did, but I wanted him to find me more than attractive. I wanted him to feel an undeniable urge to ravish me. The same crazy urge he aroused in me. I took my boots off by the door and hung my coat next to his. Then, I adjusted my big, chunky sweater over my hips and pulled at my leggings while he watched me. I couldn’t help it, my movements were deliberately sensuous.

  “I’ll make the soup,” he said curtly.

  “Well, let me help.”

  “I said I’d make it.”

  An awkward silence wedged between us. I didn’t know where to put myself. There was nowhere else to go in the one room cabin, apart from a level above, which you accessed by climbing a ladder. From where I stood I could see that it appeared to have only a mattress and no room for anything else. If you rolled out of bed in the night you would end up on the ground floor.

  Katrina

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lj6Y6JCu-l4

  I watched him open cans of Campbell tomato soup and pour them into a pan with a blackened bottom. By the time the warm familiar smell filled the small space I couldn’t take the silence any longer.

  “So, I guess I never said ‘thank you.’ For getting me out of the car.”

  He kept his back to me filling soup into two enamel bowls and didn’t say anything.

  I took a deep breath. I might as well try to squeeze blood out of stone. “So, thank you. I guess I would have frozen out there.”

  “Here.” He handed me a bowl and a hunk of dry bread and sat on his stool. I looked around for another chair.

  “I don’t do a lot of entertaining,” he said. “Do you want to sit here?”

  “No, no, I’m fine. I’ll just sit on the floor.”

  He grunted and turned his attention back to his food.

  “So, I guess you prefer being out here by yourself?”

  “Yup.”

  “Do you ever have people come to visit you here? Old buddies, friends?”

  “No.”

  “No one? Not even family?”

  He said nothing.

  “Have you got any family?” I asked, dipping my stale bread into the soup.

  He didn’t answer but lowered his eyes to me. That’s when I noticed how unusual they were, hazel with golden flecks in them. He put his empty bowl down on the floor and stared at me cold. “Don’t you know it’s rude to pry?”

  I swallowed the food in my mouth. “Well, excuse me. Don’t you know it’s rude to make your guest feel unwelcome?”

  “You are not my guest.”

  He was right. I hadn’t been invited, but I couldn’t help feeling wounded by what he said. I wanted him to want me here. I turned the hurt into anger. There was no need for such behavior. I was taking a little too much of his shit. I put my bowl down and jumped up.

  “No, I’m not your guest. No, I wasn’t invited here, but I was brought here against my will. While I was unconscious! How do I know you didn’t club me over the head with a tree branch … and … and drag me here like some Neanderthal caveman so you can enjoy the pleasures of a woman while you live out your mountain man fantasy?” I fumed, but even as the words left my lips they sounded ridiculous.

  He stared at me incredulously. “You crashed your car. You were unconscious. What the fuck was I supposed to do? Leave you there to freeze to death? And I assure you this is definitely not my fantasy. If you think you’re being held here against your will, then please, walk out. Go on, it will be my pleasure.”

  Asshole. He didn’t need to be that categoric and absolute. Now I was beginning to actively dislike him. My hands balled into fists of frustration.

  “Are you kidding?” I yelled. “There are bears, mountain lions, and God knows whatever else out there, not to mention the snow storm coming down if you hadn’t noticed.”

  “I have noticed. So, sit down, shut up, and stop making so much damn noise.”

  We were both silent again. I think I was shocked that I had initiated such a heated and unreasonable argument given my circumstances. I kept thinking if my rescuer had been a little old man or a woman, I would have been totally different. I would have been grateful and polite, and been more than willing to sit quietly without disturbing them until morning came. It was just that he was so sexy, so beautiful, with his chiseled cheekbones, his gorgeous eyes and his aloof, masculine manner that I wanted to know him and for him to know me. And when he made it obvious he didn’t want any such thing I couldn’t help needling him for a reaction, even if it was only anger.

  “You’ll have to sleep on the floor,” he said curtly.

  “Yeah, okay. I noticed you only have one bed so I figured I’d be bunking on the floor.” I couldn’t help the sarcasm in my voice.

  His eyes narrowed dangerously. “Why? Do you think I should give you my bed?”

  “No, that’s not what I meant,” I backtracked. I should learn to hold my tongue around him, or I was just going to make this so much harder.

  “You think I should be chivalrous or something?”

  “Well …”

  “Now you’re having a fantasy.”

  “Look, I’m fine with the floor. I don’t need you to do anything. You’re the one that thinks you’re some hero, saving me from the frozen wild of my car.”

  “Let me tell you something, Blondie, none of this would have happened if you hadn’t been driving too fast over the pass. If you snapped your chains you must have been driving like a bat out of hell. What were you thinking?”

  I sighed, embarrassed to tell him about the sleaze-ball on my tail.

  He shook his head disgustedly.

  “I had to speed up, okay? There was this guy—”

  “Oh, here we go. There’s always a guy.”

  “He was following me,” I flared up.

  “God, I wish I’d left you in that car. Now, I’m going to have some love-sick fool who’s been tracking your scent busting in here. If you’re thinking of making your boyfriend jealous, be warned I am not playing along.”

  “He’s not my boyfriend.”

  “Well, whatever he is to you.” His voice had become hard and disinterested.

  “He’s nothing. He’s just some guy who thought he knew me. He was following me like a creep. He scared me, actually. I was trying to get away.” I brushed a tear off of my face before he noticed I was crying. “I don’t, um… I don’t have a boyfriend anyway, since you asked.”

  “I didn’t.”

  “Well, no you didn’t. You assumed. I’m just correcting you.”

  He didn’t counter offer the information, but looking at his surroundings it was pretty clear I was the only human interact
ion he’d had, male or female, for a while. He ruffled the hair at the back of his head. I had to force myself to look away from him, so that I wouldn’t stare. The simple way he moved was sensuous, almost like an invitation, to me. He walked to the door and opened it. A strong gust of freezing wind blew into the cabin. He propped a snow shovel just inside and secured the door against the storm.

  “What’s that for?”

  He smiled mockingly. “In case I have to shovel snow to clear a path out the door in the morning.”

  “Oh.”

  “I’m turning in. I’ll drive you into town in the morning first thing.”

  “Okay. Yeah, I better get some sleep too. Thanks again. You know, for helping me.” “Whatever.”

  “Good night,” I said softly.

  He stopped halfway up the ladder to his bed and looked down at me. I saw in his beautiful flecked eyes that he wanted to say something more, but he must have changed his mind. Even so, I sensed the tiniest bit of tenderness surface when he said, “Good night.”

  I dreamed of my sister, Anna. We were in our old family home. She had climbed to the top of a rickety old tree that grew in our backyard, but she couldn’t figure out how to get back down.

  “Stay there! I’ll come for you,” I yelled, but she wouldn’t listen.

  She was crying and trying to find a place to put her foot. In reality, my sister uses a wheelchair, is fed through a tube, and breathes through a trach. But in my dream she was normal. Her body was not yet ravaged by illness.

  “Please, just wait there for me,” I begged. “I’ll climb up and carry you down on my back!”

  “No! You can’t. We’ll both fall,” she cried frantically.

  Suddenly there was a faraway rumbling sound. It sounded like a freight train for a moment, then it increased, and filled the air all around us. Like a tornado coming from all directions. I looked around me in fear. There was nowhere to run. The force of it made the tree Anna was in shake. My legs were frozen like they were in buckets of cement. The limbs began to drop from the tree. Anna lost her footing and tumbled down.

  I bolted awake before she hit the ground. The rumbling and vibrating sound of my dream was still going on. It took me a moment to remember where I was. My breath quickened with terror and I jumped to my feet. What the hell? As quick as I was up all went quiet again. I stared around me in frightened disbelief. Moonlight reflected off the snow filled room with peaceful blue light.

  “Avalanche,” Cade said, from above.

  My head jerked upwards. “What?”

  “It’s over. Go back to sleep.” His voice was calm, devoid of all emotion.

  Oh, my God, this is crazy. What am I doing out here?

  Cade

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sw54Pdh_m8

  I woke up that morning with a rage going on inside. The thought of her sleeping just below me was enough to keep my blood frenzied and coursing through my body. It left me with a steaming hard on. I felt like stone. How the fuck am I ever going to get this down with her below.

  I rolled over and studied her.

  Her face was turned slightly towards the morning light, and she looked beautiful, like an angel, or a goddess. I could have lain there watching her forever. I should have offered my bed, but she had a way of rubbing me up the wrong way. Talking of rubbing, I was dying to relieve myself. I always slept naked and my hand fisted around my cock.

  Oh, fuck it. This is bullshit.

  Keeping my blankets wrapped around me, I climbed down the ladder. Stark naked underneath two layers of wool plaid and barefoot, I paused when a floorboard creaked. She stirred and twisted beneath the blankets, leaving the gentle curve of her neck exposed.

  That’s it. I’m over the edge.

  I turned on my heel, pulled the door open, and hurdled the thigh high snow blocking the doorway. My feet plummeted into the thick snow as I ran farther into the white wilderness. I pushed myself naked through the thick powder the whole five hundred yards from the cabin to the creek.

  Ah, the joys of mountain living.

  My blood was running so hot for Katrina, the freezing cold water of the creek was the only thing to cool me right down. I dropped my blankets at the bank, placed my feet on the round stones that sat a few inches below the water, and shuffled myself out. The paper-thin layer of ice cracked, and I dropped in through the hole in the ice.

  Oh FUCK! Icy water lapped around my balls, and my erection subsided instantly.

  The creek was just deep enough to wade through up to my chest. I splashed water with my arms out wide. Anybody would think I was crazy.

  Hell, maybe I was.

  I let a woman drive me from my warm bed to a near frozen creek first thing in the morning. It was so damn cold it was impossible to stay long. I waded back to the bank where I’d discarded my blankets, and wrapping them around me quickly, I retraced my steps back through the snow.

  My plan was to go back into the cabin for some clothes, then go out to the workshop without waking her up, but when I walked in she was sitting up and in the process of pulling her sweater back over her. Her arms up in the air and her breasts were exposed. Her nipples were like pebbles. Why the hell was she not changing behind the blanket I’d thrown over the washing line running across the cabin especially for her?

  I felt like I had to go back to the creek and start again.

  She pulled her roll neck down from her face. My blood was racing again. I was staring at her like a deer in the headlights when I realized she was staring right back at me. Not because I’d walked in on her dressing, but because my blanket had come open. There should have been nothing to see except my balls and dick shriveled up and red with the cold, but in fact, I was already way past at half-mast. Maybe she would think it was morning wood. I gathered the blanket up around my waist and went for my jeans, T-shirt, and flannel shirt.

  “You’re all wet,” she observed. “Where did you go?”

  “A dip in the creek.”

  She arched a dirty-blonde eyebrow. “Jeez. You must be losing it up here all alone.” A look of mischief came into her eyes. “Or maybe I should call you Ice-man.”

  I glared at her and she changed tack.

  “I put some coffee on the stove,” she said. “Hope that’s ok.”

  I may have let out a grunt. I even felt like a fucking bear this morning.

  “I can’t go anywhere in the morning without having coffee first,” she added conversationally.

  This woman had a way of making my hackles rise. “And where do you think you’re going?”

  “Um … I thought you were taking me into town so that I can call someone about getting my car towed? That was the plan, right?”

  Without explaining what should have been obvious to her, I went ahead and finished dressing.

  “It’s just … I thought you couldn’t wait to get rid of me, so I figured we’d be going into town first thing this morning.”

  I rolled up the sleeves of my flannel shirt as I crossed over to the radio. You can’t pick up much on the radio out here, but there should be enough coming through the airwaves to let the weather report explain to this city chick why she will not be going anywhere this morning.

  “I don’t understand. Can you just say something, please?”

  I turned on the radio and adjusted the dial to find a signal.

  Cade

  “Officials are warning of further avalanche danger in parts of Colorado’s high country because of heavy storms bringing in an extra three feet of snow and strong winds to the mountains. Reports suggest some slides haven’t run this large in twenty years. There is approximately a mile of Dogwood Pass covered over by snow. So that has been closed completely until further notice. There have been no fatalities reported so far, but avalanche watch is issued at this time as this winter storm moves into the mountains.”

  “Oh. So, I guess that means we’re stuck here?” she said quietly.

  “Yeah.”

  “Well, for how long?”
r />   “Long as it takes.”

  “What about food? What are we going to eat?”

  “Trout.”

  “Trout? Oh, my God, I cannot eat trout until we’re rescued.”

  I found it funny to see her flustered. She’d been acting cool, like this was some kind of weird adventure she found herself on and now the reality was setting in that she would not have her modern comforts and amenities for an indefinite period of time. No Facebook, no Google, no Tinder. It was kind of funny when she wigged out.

  “What are you laughing at?”

  I shrugged.

  “Great. Just great. I’m glad you find this situation so funny. This is not exactly what I had planned for the weekend. Stuck out in the sticks in a one room cabin with someone who has been the most unfriendly rescuer since the Beast rescued Belle.”

  “God help me, just my luck that I’ve got a damn Disney princess in my cabin. I bet that’s just what you’re after too. Girls like you want some kind of fairy tale romance. You go around looking for ‘the one’ because you think that’s what you deserve, a fairy tale perfect world. Well, listen up, little girl because I can tell you right now that isn’t how life works.”

  Her eyes had become wide as she stood there taking in everything I said. I could almost see the cracks appear across her dreams as I shone a ray of realistic light on them. I remember seeing that hope and longing in women’s eyes before, yeah before it all went to hell. I never wanted to watch that again.

  “You don’t know anything about me,” she muttered bitterly.

  Then she came closer and squared up to me. She was much smaller than me, but she had the pop of a firecracker. My cock stirred. Fuck her. She got within centimeters of me. Her green eyes were blazing. She had a passion for something, I just wasn’t sure what yet.

  “Don’t judge me just because I’m not from here because I can tell from your voice mister … that you aren’t either. Not many lumberjack, mountain men types going around sounding like they were educated back east at an Ivy League university. So, how long have you been out here, living off trout and wiping your ass with aspen leaves? Does it make you feel like you’re above everyone else just because you live off the grid? Is that it?”