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She glared at him. “We can't afford to lose product, and I'm not always alone. Sometimes Simon is here. I always manage to keep warm. You don't have to worry about me.”
“Somebody obviously needs to.”
“We have a huge fireplace inside the house, and I’m an expert at keeping it going.”
She shivered, and his concern for her shot up a hundredfold. What was he thinking arguing with her in freezing weather? They could fight after she was warm again.
“We need to get you back inside.”
Rushing her, he steered her back through the first two barns and out into the snow. He kept one hand on her and one on the rope. All the way back to the house, he kept thinking he should fire her for her own good. Instead of giving her the ranch, he should kick her off the land. He hated thinking of her staying in the house by herself without electricity for even a brief period. She was strong and independent and could handle herself, sure, but no one should be staying alone in that house. If something terrible happened to her, he'd never forgive himself.
Just like he couldn't forgive himself for his mother's death.
∞∞∞
“Get out of those wet clothes,” he said, bossy as usual.
Checking everything outside had taken longer than she had thought it would, so they were both close to freezing. Hypothermia would set in if they didn't get warm soon. He stoked the fireplace until it was blazing hot while she struggled with her shirt.
Numb from cold, her fingers didn't want to work. She fumbled with the buttons, losing her grip on them again and again. A shiver shook through her entire body. Without a word, he pushed her hands aside. She would have protested, but she couldn't stop her teeth from chattering long enough to form sounds.
He undid her buttons with ease and removed the shirt from her freezing flesh. Instead of letting her take care of the rest, he removed everything except for her bra and panties, stripping her down in no time. Then he took off his own clothes until he got down to his boxers. It all happened so fast, she didn't have time to get embarrassed.
Within seconds, he wrapped them both in a large, soft blanket. She was in his strong arms at last. It might have been romantic if they weren't on the verge of freezing to death.
“B-body heat,” he said. “We need to share body heat.”
She nodded. Of course, it wasn't romantic from his side. He was just playing the hero again, saving the damsel. As a doctor, he had probably seen hundreds, if not thousands, of nude women. It was just another day in the ER for him.
“Warming up?” he asked, while rubbing his hands up and down her back.
“G-getting there.”
The blanket slipped off her shoulder. Before she could fix it, he bent down to kiss the exposed flesh, shocking her. Heat burned her cheeks. She was feeling a lot warmer now. He moved the blanket to cover her again and held her close. The craziness of the situation created nervous laughter in her chest that had nowhere to go but up her throat. Once she started giggling, she couldn't stop.
If she had only known all she had to do to get Jared's attention was almost freeze to death...
He leaned back far enough to look down at her face. “What's so funny?”
“This,” she said. “Us. When I woke up to find the power out, I certainly didn't expect the night to end like this.”
Her statement made him chuckle, and her hands came around to rest on his ribcage beneath the blanket. Skin on skin, her fingers slid down his hard abs. She couldn't help herself. Jared was still the most stunning man she had ever seen, but it wasn't just his physical appearance that drew her like a moth to a bug zapper. The beautiful things he'd written in his letters returned to the front of her mind. Once again, her schoolgirl fantasies blazed to life.
He pulled her down with him on the floor in front of the fireplace with the couch behind their backs. They continued to share the blanket as they fought to get warm. His hands rubbed her bare flesh, causing friction. At first, he was sort of rough about it. He was in hero-mode, a doctor working to save a life, but things slowly changed. The rubbing turned to caressing.
She rested her head against his shoulder and sighed. “Sleepy.”
“No!” he snapped at her, and she jumped. “You aren't sleeping until I'm sure it's not hypothermia. Stay awake.”
“But I'm tired.”
“Talk to me.”
“About what?”
“Anything.”
She thought about it and realized he was right. Jared was holding her nearly nude body against his. Thinking about falling to sleep was not normal. She'd been dreaming about this for years, and it was finally happening. Something was wrong with her.
