AllFreeNovel
Share Us
To hear Ryan call her beautiful made her skin flame with more heat than the fire burning in the hearth.
“It’s hard not to stare when we work together, but seeing you like this. Naked, free, uninhibited… I don’t know how I could ever let you put clothes on again—oh shit.” He shook his head. “Put these on. Shit, shit.”
Was he serious? Looking at her was enough to short circuit his brain? She couldn’t hold back her smile of pleasure. And then she realized he was handing her a pair of white boxers and charcoal sweatpants. “You want me to wear your shorts?”
He glanced back at her, the glint of challenge in his eyes. “It’s another layer. Just put them on.”
Feeling more accommodating than usual, she slipped her legs through the holes and pulled the elastic waist up to her hips, folding it over twice in an effort to keep them up.
Ryan swallowed hard and handed her the sweatpants.
When she had them on, he seemed to regain his focus, and she felt a little less than beautiful. The white turtleneck was next, then the fleece, and finally, the icing on the ugly cake, a pair of huge, white athletic socks. Fully dressed, she glanced at her reflection in the window and grimaced. It wasn’t fair. Ryan couldn’t look sexier, walking around in his faded jeans, loose shirt and bare feet, and she looked like Frumpzilla. “Why don’t you have more layers on?”
“Because I don’t need them. But I think you do. And right now, I trust my judgment over yours.”
There it was. The zing she’d been waiting for.
“I’ll give you that one, because you earned it saving my life. But don’t get any ideas about throwing this poor judgment business in my face every time we disagree.”
Ryan winked at her. “I get it for two days, and then I’m done.”
Two days to let him gloat was fair. There was no way they wouldn’t be rescued by then. “I can live with that.”
“Good. Sit down.” He plugged the blow dryer into an outlet on the wall beside them and pulled a small, black comb out of his back pocket.
Her brows knit at the sight of it. It was better than a fork, but running through her rat’s nest of hair with that fine-toothed instrument of torture was a task she didn’t relish. Extending her hand with a reluctant sigh, she waited for the comb.
“I’ve got it.” Ryan circled her chair. When she tried to follow him with her questioning gaze, he palmed the top of her head and turned her to face forward. “I can see where the worst knots are this way.”
The idea of a man jerking a comb through her hair, her incredibly unruly hair that hadn’t been combed in over twenty-four hours, made her stomach clench. Her mind race with visions of bald patches and bloody clumps of matted hair strewn around her. About to protest, she stopped when his gentle hands began to work gingerly through her tangled locks.
Starting at the ends, he was patient, his touch softer than she would have thought possible. And, amazingly, it felt good. Soon, her neck rolled back on her shoulders, and she gave in to the pleasure and relaxation of the pampered treatment. Ryan moved through the layers of her hair, silently teasing out the strands until they hung in damp tendrils around her face.
“A girl could get used to this,” she groaned in sleepy bliss.
Ryan chuckled behind her and turned on the blow dryer, sweeping it back and forth around her head.
He was too good to be true. “Don’t even tell me your extensive resume includes a stint as a hairdresser.”
“No, afraid not. Comb and dry is as far as I go. Lean forward. I want to get underneath.”
Bending as instructed, she felt his fingers run through the heavy mass at the base of her scull, pulling the strands up to let the air circulate beneath. “You do this for all the girls you get trapped with on the side of a mountain? I’m serious,” she said, adding a little volume to be heard over the blowing air. “Where did you pick up the salon skills?”
“It’s just sense. That, and I’ve seen it done a few times.”
“You pay attention to everything?”
“I guess so. I like to know why people do the things they do; what makes them tick.”
Even as the hot air blasted through her hair, a shiver crept over her skin.
There was a part of her that wanted to know what he thought of her, wanted to hear what he thought was good. If there was some warm spot she didn’t know about that he had the insight to recognize. If he could help fix that cold, hard part of her she couldn’t seem to stop forcing to the surface of her personality.
Chapter Five
January 23
It was morning again. Only this was a morning unlike any Bethany could remember. Sprawled across their bed, she was naked, her legs intertwined with Ryan’s, her body held in his solid embrace, the rhythmic drum of his heart the only sound to permeate her consciousness. It was heaven; something she could get used to rather easily if she let her guard down enough. Something she would be certain not to do during the course of this liaison.
