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It wasn’t right. He was never still. He was always talking and joking and laughing. Always full of life. She hadn’t liked that about him when they first met. He reminded her of all the experiences she’d missed out on by shutting herself away from the world. She hadn’t wanted that reminder, had wanted her solitude and nothing more.
Meeting him had changed her. For better or worse was anyone’s guess, but she wanted to experience at least a sliver of the life he had. Preferably with him by her side, making her laugh while he showed her the ropes. He made the world a less frightening place.
“Will he be all right?” she asked.
Nobody answered.
20
How the hell am I alive?
It was Ellis’s first coherent thought when he opened his eyes. Light blinded him and he squeezed them shut again with a groan. Maybe he wasn’t alive after all. Weren’t you supposed to see a white light when you died? Except he was damn sure his light wouldn’t be white. He’d lived too selfishly to look forward to pearly gates. It’d be all fire and brimstone for his sorry ass.
So, yeah. He was still alive.
And for the first time in recent memory, he wasn’t cold.
He lifted his arm and discovered his hands wrapped in bandages. A tube snaked from his inner wrist and, as he traced it to a bag hanging over his head, his foggy brain finally clicked online.
Hospital.
Bree had somehow managed to get him to a hospital. Which meant… he looked at his bandaged hands again. Frostbite.
Did he still have all his fingers?
He tried wiggling them. They all seemed to be there, but he couldn’t be sure without taking the bandages off.
What aboutotherparts?
He attempted to sit up—
Annnd there it was. Holy shit, the pain. Like someone had whaled on his chest with a baseball bat. He fell back against his pillow with a groan.
“You’re awake!” Bree jumped up from the chair beside his bed and reached down to grip his hand. Hers were also bandaged. Her cheeks and nose were pink and wind-burned, which made her scars stand out more. Still, she was beautiful to him. He wished she knew it.
“The dogs?” He winced. His voice sounded like rocks. “Aleu?”
“She sprained her leg, but she’s okay. She’ll be lead boss bitch again in no time.” Bree soothed a hand over his forehead, brushing back the hair that had fallen in his eyes. “They’re all okay, Ellis. Better than you.”
He believed it with how awful he felt. “How long was I out?”
“About twelve hours. You stopped breathing and I had to give you CPR.”
Well, that explained the chest pain. “With mouth-to-mouth?” He tried for a grin. It pulled at his cheeks. His skin felt tight as if he had a bad sunburn. “Sorry I missed that.”
She huffed out a laugh. “Don’t even joke. You would’ve died out there.”
“I didn’t.” He turned his palm toward hers and squeezed her hand as best he could with all the bandages between them. “Because of you.”
She shook her head. “It wasn’t me. I wouldn’t have gotten you here in time. You were too cold. It was pure luck that someone heard my mayday from the plane and launched a rescue. They found us just in time.”
“They found us because of you.Yousaved me, Bree. You and those amazing dogs. And here I thought you didn’t even like me.”
“I don’t.” But her smile betrayed her.
“Not even a tiny bit?” he asked, doing his best impression of Peanut’s puppy dog eyes.
“Maybe a little,” she said and then surprised the hell out of him by leaning over to kiss him. The kiss betrayed her, too, and he grinned up at her when she drew away.
