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The hole had already started to freeze over, a thin layer of black ice crusting the top. She guessed the temperature hovered right around zero—and that was with the sun out. By nightfall, it was going to drop dangerously cold. Negative double digits and that was not factoring in windchill. She had hoped they’d make it to Solitaire by morning and stay tomorrow night at The Iditarod Roadhouse in town. One last night of comfort and warmth before the miserable trek out to find Dr. Will’s plane. But that wasn’t happening. Ellis wasn’t in any shape to travel. They wouldn’t be going anywhere until morning now.
The snow had melted and even started to boil. She’d lost track of time staring out over the lake, re-living her fear.
Time to get back to work.
She finished filling the hot water bottle and crawled into the tent to check on Ellis. His lips were a startling shade of blue she’d only ever seen on a corpse and he wasn’t shivering anymore. Bad signs. He needed more warmth than the hot water bottle.
Cursing under her breath, she stripped down to her underwear and slid into the sleeping bag. It was like snuggling a block of ice. Goosebumps immediately rippled across her skin, but she wrapped her arms around him and held on, offering her body heat. He needed to warm up, but if it happened too quickly, his heart could stop.
Surprisingly, she liked his heart beating. Bet he preferred it that way, too.
She rubbed her palms up and down his arms, creating friction. Massaged his hands to get the blood flowing to his blue fingers again.
“C’mon, Ellis. Warm up.” She continued talking to him, mostly nonsense. As much to comfort herself as to keep him with her.
He was stronger than she’d given him credit for. After falling through ice, the average person had less than fifteen minutes before losing consciousness. The colder the water, the shorter the timeframe. He’d been in the water too long—too many long, horrible minutes, where she had watched helplessly from the shore—and he passed out only after making it back to land.
He’d bounce back from this.
He had to.
At some point, she must have drifted to sleep herself—the inevitable crash from too many spikes of adrenaline too close together. She didn’t even realize she’d passed out until she started awake to the sound of a male voice murmuring near her ear.
“Hello, beautiful.” His voice was gravel and slurred with sleep and sent a tingle through Bree that had nothing to do with the cold. She stiffened.
What a liar.
She wasn’t beautiful.
She was different.
Weird.
Beastly Bree.
Never beautiful.
She opened her eyes and lifted her head to tell him off, only to discover he wasn’t talking to her. Moonbeam had nuzzled in on his other side. Her head rested on his chest and she stared at him with eyes full of adoration as he stroked her fur.
He was talking to Moonbeam, callingherbeautiful. Of course. Moonbeam was a gorgeous dog.
Bree’s indignation melted away. It left a bittersweet pang of disappointment in its wake, but she ignored it. She pushed away from him, intending to climb out of the bag. His skin had warmed. He didn’t need her body heat anymore. But Ellis’s gaze shifted to her and she remembered she was only in her sports bra and very unattractive underwear. And he’d see all of her. See the line of tough, gray and brown mottled skin running the length of her body. He’d know just how ugly she was.
God, why did she care? It didn’t matter what he thought of her. Nothing was going to happen between them. For one thing, she didn’t need or want a man in her life. And even if she did, she wouldn’t pick Ellis Hunter.
Before she could make up her mind to get out of the sleeping bag or not, he caught her hand.
“Hey,” he said, voice still rusty with sleep. “Thanks for sticking around and pulling my ass out of the water.”
She opened her mouth. Closed it again. Did he think she was so heartless that she’d leave him to freeze to death? What did that say about her people skills? Nothing good. Maybe she should try being nicer to him.
She couldn’t think of anything else to say but, “You’re welcome.”
A smile pulled at the corner of his still pale lips. “No lecture on how stupid I was to jump in?”
“No. You saved my dog.” She couldn’t help herself— she had to touch him. She cupped his cheeks in her hands and waited until his startled gaze met hers. “Thank you.”
“Uh, anyone would’ve done it.” He averted his gaze. Was he embarrassed? She hadn’t expected that from him.
