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“I’m the reason that we’re here in the first place,” he said, his brows furrowing. “You didn’t even want to come.”
“It’s not all bad,” I assured him, my mind flashing to the heat and passion in his eyes as he came hard and deep inside of me last night. “Being snowed-in with you isn’t exactly the worst thing in the world.”
Connor’s free hand went to my jaw, tilting my head back before closing the distance between us until his mouth covered my own. It happened so fast that I didn’t have a chance to stop him, and I melted into the warm kiss. It was brief but demanding, and when we pulled apart, I could see guilt and worry battling with his desire for me written all over his face.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“I’m just now realizing how dangerous this situation can be. What if you seriously hurt yourself, and I couldn’t help you?”
“It’s just a little cut,” I said, pulling it out of the stream of water and shutting the faucet off. “It’s even stopped bleeding.”
“It’s something little this time, but I need to get you out of here to keep you safe.”
There was an urgency to his movements as he grabbed the first aid kit out of the emergency bag and opened it up, rifling through the contents impatiently. I was starting to get the feeling that my small accident was freaking him out. I crossed the kitchen until I was standing in front of him and put my uninjured hand on his cheek, forcing him to focus on me again.
“Hey, talk to me,” I said gently. “Why do you seem so rattled?”
“I feel like I was just reminded of how cut off we are here,” he said with a shake of his head. “I’m not going to lie, I was looking at our isolation as a good thing, a chance to break free of the confines of real life, but I’m starting to see that it’s a problem.”
I wasn’t sure what to say to make him feel better because I knew he was right. There was something appealing about this little cabin, being hidden away from the rest of the world, but we couldn’t stay here indefinitely.
“You didn’t happen to see a snow shovel anywhere when you went through the cabin yesterday, did you?”
I nodded, finding it hard to believe that we’d only been here a day. “Yeah, in the closet by the door. There’s all sorts of caretaker supplies.”
Connor pulled out some antibiotic ointment and a bandage that would wrap around my hand. He made quick work of taking care of my cut before going to the closet. A moment later, he pulled out a black snow shovel with a metal strip on the bottom of the blade. He leaned it against the wall by the front door before putting on his coat and the gloves I found yesterday.
“Are you really going to start shovelingnow?” I asked incredulously.
“Sure. Why not?”
“I don’t know. It’s Christmas Eve. And the sun will be going down in a few hours,” I said, trying to reason with him.
“Then I have a few hours to get as far as I can.”
“Connor, you don’t have to do this just because I hurt myself.” I wasn’t sure why I was even arguing with him, but I knew that I didn’t want him to feel guilty about all of this. A part of me felt like coming to this isolated mountain was the highlight of my year.
“I’m going to take care of you, Sophie,” he insisted. “Don’t worry.”
Connor opened the door and my jaw dropped. The tightly packed snow had been blown against the door, and it was indeed about four feet high, just as the weatherman predicted. I couldn’t imagine how Connor would get through all of that.
But he didn’t hesitate, and as I headed back into the kitchen—making sure to be careful with the knife this time—I found myself watching him work on shoveling a path. There was something so sexy about this protective, hard-working side of him. Of course, as CEO of Renshaw Manufacturing, he’d already proven that he wasn’t afraid of hard work, but this was different. He was more focused and determined than I’d ever seen him, using his powerful body to try to rescue us.
God, I wanted to run my hands over that body again, to trace the hard lines of the muscles that he was using to move load after load of snow out of the way. My longing for him was all-consuming, but I tried desperately to force it to the back of my mind.
He worked for hours, barely stopping to eat dinner when it was ready. Then, he went right back out, continuing even after the sun set and the only illumination he had was the light spilling out from the open doorway. The temperature dropped even more as night fell, but I refused to close the door and cut off that source of light. Instead, I kept feeding logs to the fire and stoking it until the flames got big enough to keep me warm, despite the cold air coming inside.
I just hoped all of his work would pay off. If he got all the way to the lodge and managed to find a way inside, I just prayed that there would be a working landline there, or some other way to communicate with the outside world.
By the time Connor finally called it quits, it was late. As he came back into the cabin, his clothing wet from the snow, he looked utterly exhausted. His nose and ears were bright red, and his short brown hair was windblown. I peeked outside before he shut the door to see that he’d made a lot of progress, cutting a path through the snow, but the lodge was still quite a distance away.
As soon as he was inside, Connor started to strip—taking off his boots and gloves before hanging up the coat on a hook by the door. I took his clothes as they came off—not even bothering to hide the fact that I was checking him out—and hung them by the fire to dry. When he was left in only his boxers, I had to clench my fists to remember to keep my hands to myself, even though I ached for him.
But he was freezing. I could see him shivering, and I mentally chastised myself for letting my lust for him divert where my attention ought to be.
“Come on,” I said, as he pulled on a pair of fleece pajama pants that we’d found in the dresser. “Let’s get you closer to the fire.”
“Actually, I think I’m just going to get in the bed. I can’t remember the last time I pushed myself this hard, and I’m beat.”
