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Dakota didn’t fight me as I shifted the glass and the pills to one hand and used the other to help her up to a seated position. I dropped the pills into her hand, and once she placed them in her mouth, she took the glass and sipped some water.
When she handed it back to me, I asked, “Have you eaten anything?”
She put her head back down on the pillow. “I have no appetite.”
“Do you need me to do anything else for you?”
Her teeth still chattering, Dakota replied, “I’ll be okay.”
That wasn’t exactly the response I was expecting. I mean, I knew she’d be okay, because I fully intended to be by her side until she was. I’d been wondering if there was something she needed or wanted that might help to make her feel better.
“Do you have a favorite pair of socks I can grab for your feet? It would help to cover them.”
I wanted to say that I thought I saw surprise wash over her at my question, but she was trembling so much I could have been seeing something that wasn’t there.
“I don’t have a favorite,” she answered. “Anything will work.”
“Top drawer?” I asked, jerking my head toward her dresser.
Dakota bit down hard on her lip, which did little to help her shivering. Eventually, she replied, “You’ll see my underwear.”
I offered a smile and returned, “I can promise you I’ve seen far worse than a pretty woman’s underwear. I’ll grab the socks and be out quickly.”
I could have sworn I saw a feeble attempt at a smile before I moved to the dresser and pulled out the socks. I was quick about it, but that didn’t mean my eyes hadn’t shifted to the side that had hints of lace and satin mixed throughout.
Returning to the bed, I lifted the covers at the bottom, found her feet, and curled my fingers around one of her slender ankles. After slipping the sock on to one foot, I did the other and readjusted the covers.
“Thank you,” she rasped.
“You’re welcome. Anything else I can get you?”
There was a long pause—mostly filled with her struggling to stay warm—before she insisted, “You’ve already done so much.”
I found that to be a strange reply, and I wasn’t quite sure how to respond. Part of that was because I genuinely didn’t know how she could believe I’d done so much at this point. But the bigger part of that was because I couldn’t stand to see her body fighting so hard to get warmed up.
An idea popped into my head, and while there was plenty about it that should have given me reason for pause, I ignored all of it. Instead, I reached down, took off my boots, and stood to round the bed. Without asking her, I climbed in behind her and reached out to her.
There was no missing the way she tensed when she felt my hand on her or when I hauled her body close to mine, and it was obvious she was struggling with it when she asked, “What are you doing?”
“Helping you warm up,” I answered.
Dakota didn’t argue. She didn’t scoot away, and she didn’t tell me to get out of her bed. In fact, within minutes, I noticed that she’d managed to relax, and it wasn’t long after that when she stopped shivering.
Sometime after that, she whispered, “Jack?”
“Yeah?”
“Thank you.”
I squeezed my arm around her and replied quietly, “It’s my pleasure.”
It didn’t take long for the exhaustion to pull Dakota under, but when it did, I couldn’t seem to let her go.
NINE
Jack
Nothing had turned out like I expected when I first left my cabin earlier today.
