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Chapter Nine
Sophie
“The snow finally stopped,” I said that afternoon as I pulled back the heavy curtain covering the single window in the cabin.
The sun was out, shining brightly off the white snow, which was so tall that it almost reached the bottom of the window. I’d never seen anything like it. It was both beautiful and intimidating.
Connor came up behind me, and I felt every nerve ending in my body fire to life. He leaned closer to look out the window too, his warm breath fanning over my bare neck and sending a shiver down my spine.
“Wow, that’s really something, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, and I have to admit that this isn’t exactly the worst choice for a retreat,” I said lightly. “The view really is something special.”
I turned to look at him, our face just inches apart, and all thoughts of the weather fled my mind. All I could focus on was how much I wanted to kiss him again. But I knew I shouldn’t. Despite what we’d said about ignoring the consequences and enjoying ourselves, I couldn’t help but think it was a bad idea to sleep together again and mix our business relationship with even more pleasure. And I knew that if we kissed, it would lead to that.
I needed to keep distance between us, but it was so damn hard to do that in this little cabin. And I suspected that Connor had an opposite agenda. He wasn’t even trying to disguise the heated looks he was throwing my way.
Did I really think this attraction was one-sided just a day ago?
Clearing my throat, I side-stepped away from him and the window. Going to the kitchen, I started to riffle through the cans of soup in the pantry, trying to choose what we should have with the protein pack of pulled pork I’d found in the emergency bag earlier.
“You know, we’re really not that far from the lodge,” Connor said, still staring out the window with his hands on his hips. “I might be able to dig through it and get to the building.”
“It’s got to be as high as my chest,” I pointed out.
“Well, I didn’t say it’d be easy, and I’m not exactly eager to do it today. But—”
“Ow!Shit,” I cursed.
While he’d been talking, I’d tried to open the package of pork with a knife, since I couldn’t find scissors in the cabin. I had been careless, cutting myself on the palm of my hand. I grabbed a dish towel off the counter and pressed it tightly against the cut as it started to bleed. It stung, and I gritted my teeth as Connor hurried over.
“What happened?” he asked, hovering next to me anxiously. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah,” I replied, even though I hadn’t really looked at the laceration before covering it with the towel. There was something about seeing an open wound that seemed to make it hurt more.
“Let me see,” he said, holding out his hand so I’d give him mine.
Cradling my arm close to my body, I shook my head and backed up a step. “I’m sure I’m fine.”
But Connor didn’t give me a chance to deny him. Taking my wrist, he pulled my hand closer to him and gave me a stern look when I still resisted.
“I need to check to see how deep the cut is,” he said in that take charge voice of his. “Now, just relax.”
“You’re not the boss of this cabin,” I said stubbornly, making him laugh at how childish that sounded.
“Well, you got me there,” he drawled, but didn’t release my hand.
I cringed as he pulled the towel away, exposing a shallow slash across my palm. The second the air hit it, the wound started to throb. It was bleeding heavily for a cut that wasn’t very deep, but I figured that was because of where it was.
“Okay, it’s not bad,” he said after examining my hand a few minutes. “I’m just going to clean it and bandage it up. But we should rinse it off under the tap.”
I let him lead me to the sink, where he turned on the cold water and shoved my hand underneath. The water caused a sharp pain on contact but a moment later, the coolness helped numb the sting. I let out a slow breath as the blood washed away. Connor’s touch was gentle as he held my hand in place, his thumb rubbing over the pulse on my wrist.
“I feel so silly for letting this happen,” I said, but the caring look on his face when he met my eyes wiped away all of my concerns.
“Don’t think of it like that. Frankly, I’m relieved that I’m not the only one that can make mistakes.”
“What do you mean?”
