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As they tipped over the edge, he yelled something back, but she couldn’t make out words. She imagined he was swearing at her. Hell, she was swearing at herself and her dogs and praying to any deity who would listen.
It wasn’t a ninety-degree drop here like where she peeked over, but it still wasn’t an easy grade. More like seventy degrees. The sled crunched over ice and rock, bouncing after dogs who were more sliding than running. She lost her footing, hit her face on the crossbar, and bit her tongue. The taste of copper bloomed in her mouth, but she still hung on as she dragged behind the sled. She couldn’t do anything else but let go, and she sure as all fucking hell wasn’t doing that. So she hung on and felt every rock and jagged sliver of ice on the way down.
Norte reached the bottom and didn’t stop. It took him a second to find his footing again, but as soon as he did, he was single-handedly pulling the rest of the team down. She saw the hunk of ice at the bottom that each dog slid over before landing. The sled would catch air when it hit that. She had to get back up on the skids before it did, or she could end up underneath when it landed.
Arms shaking, she hauled herself up and hooked an arm around the crossbar. She pulled one foot up but couldn’t find the runner. Her arm gave out and she almost flew off the back, but a hand shot out and caught hers. She looked up to see Ellis leaning over the back of the sled.
“I got you!”
But not for long. She could feel him tiring, his grip loosening. If he lost his grasp, she’d drag him right off the sled with her. “Let go! I’ll be okay.”
His pale lips compressed into a stubborn line and he shook his head once. Then his hand tightened on hers and he started slowly, painfully, pulling her up. In the light of her headlamp, she could see what the effort was costing him. Sweat sparkled on his upper lip. He was putting himself in danger for her. Again.
Oh, the stubborn man. She didn’t know whether she wanted to kiss him or kill him. Maybe she’d do both once they were safe.
She sucked in a breath of cold that seared her lungs and heaved herself up, letting go of his hand to loop an arm around the crossbar again. Her right foot found the runner first, but it was enough. She pulled herself upright and found steady footing just as the sled hit the ramp. Since they were no longer zippered securely in the sled bag, Ellis and Aleu went weightless. For an endless moment, as they floated in the air, time— along with her heart— seemed to stop. Then the sled landed with an unhealthy crack and they crashed back into their spots.
The dogs continued to run. They dragged the broken sled another mile across river ice before she stopped them. “Whoa!”
As much as she wanted to get away, she had to repair the sled and make sure none of the dogs were hurt or they’d never make it to Solitaire.
Until she dug the replacement snow hook out of her gear bag, she had to find another way to secure the sled, so she tied it off to a sturdy tree. She turned to check on the dogs and discovered her knees had gone to rubber. She leaned against the tree and gave herself a moment to just breathe.
Muscular arms closed around her and she breathed out a soft sigh of relief as Ellis held her tightly. Yes, she was a strong, capable woman and always thought she didn’t need anyone. She could do it all herself. But until that moment, she never knew how nice it was to have someone to lean on when she was on the verge of losing it.
After a handful of heartbeats, she tried to pull away. “I’m okay now.”
“I’m not,” he muttered and held her tighter.
“I know.” Again, she tried to back up, but he wasn’t letting go. “That’s why we have to get you to Solitaire—”
“Bree. Stop. Just stop for a minute.”
She gazed up into his face. In the bright spotlight of her headlamp, he looked like a ghost with dull, sunken eyes. “We can’t stop.”
“We can take a minute. When your crazy-ass dogs dragged us over that cliff, I realized— not for the first time this trip— I might not make it home. Going by how I feel right now, it’s more than a good chance.”
“Ellis—”
He shushed her with a hand over her mouth. “Let me finish. You are as crazy as your dogs. You’re smart and… and amazing and the most capable woman I’ve ever met. You crash-land planes on ice, survive storms without shelter— I thought you were dead when we got separated. I laid there with Moonbeam and Aleu and thought we were all dead because I don’t have the experience or skills to get us out of here. I mourned for you. My heart broke at the thought of never seeing you again.”
A lump clogged up her throat. She didn’t know what to say to that and thankfully, she didn’t have to say anything because he continued:
“You have zero reason to hide from the world. If they punch at you, you punch back. I know you have that fight in you. I’ve seen it. Show them you’re more than some stupid disease. If I’m gonna die out here, I didn’t want to go without letting you know that. And, because I’m a selfish bastard, I need to have a taste of you.” His hand slid around to the back of her neck as his other pulled her headlamp off and dropped it to the snow.
He kissed her forehead, right on top of her Morphea. She thought she’d be self-conscious about the dent there, but as his lips traced the line down to her mouth, all she felt was a delicious flutter of anticipation. Something had shifted in her over the last day. She no longer worried he’d make fun of her or find her disgusting. Somewhere along the way, she’d started believing him when he said the scars from her skin disease didn’t matter to him.
He claimed her lips in a kiss like nothing she’d ever experienced before. It was heat and ice. Power and control. His power, her control.
When they broke away, she pressed her forehead to the front of his parka. “You’re not going to die out here.”
He laughed softly. “Stubborn woman.”
“Stubborn man.” She stood on her toes to lightly kiss his mouth. “I’ll build a fire to keep you warm while I fix the sled.”
Yes, a fire might draw unwanted attention, but she couldn’t ask Ellis to sit here for a couple hours without warmth. She built it small, but it was better than nothing. Then she moved on to tend to the dogs.
She knelt in front of Norte, took his face in her hands, and kissed his snout. “I love you, you crazy old dog.”
