Caleb: Military Heroes (The One I Want Series Book 3)

by Ellie Masters

  “Sorry.” She stepped to the side but didn’t acknowledge him otherwise.

  He thought maybe they’d head back out together. More than enough deadwood littered the ground, but it was tough to find with a foot of snow covering everything. He had resorted to tugging on low hanging branches this last trip out. They’d be harder to burn, being green wood and all, but a hell of a lot easier than plowing through the snow with the toe of his boot.

  "Sorry?" he said in a deep rumble full of too much anger. Time to tamp that down, but she didn't make it easy.

  "What?"

  "That's all I get? Sorry? Come on, Cat, you can do better.” He shouldered past her in a rush to empty his arms. He would need them to shake some sense into her.

  "What's your problem?" She stomped the snow from her boots and bent to attach her snowshoes.

  The adult thing would've been to turn around and address what bothered him, but Caleb felt like he was eleven again. Their first major fight had been at the mouth of this cave. For the life of him, he couldn't remember what they had argued about, except it ended with a bunch of shouting and him leaving her on the mountain alone. She didn't speak to him for a week, and he remembered the gut-wrenching agony he had lived with for the seven longest days of his life.

  This felt worse.

  He should turn around, talk to her, shake some of that sense into her, and clear the air between them. He should just grab her and take that kiss he desperately wanted. Obviously, she still had feelings over the way he had left, but they were grown adults now. He shouldn't be storming off like a child, but he was. And she wasn't trying to stop him.

  His anger seethed and his blood boiled. If she cared at all, she would have followed him out. His step faltered as a possibly swirled around in his head. Maybe she didn’t care? Maybe, she had moved on?

  The next half hour, he ripped limbs off nearby trees and snapped branches with the fury heating his blood and worry stirring in his heart. What they had couldn’t be gone. He refused to consider it. He damn well wouldn’t accept it. If Caitlyn thought to brush him off, she was in for one hell of a fight.

  She wasn't at the cave when he returned.

  Sally looked up at him, her face pale and drawn. Jen huddled beside her, and he was glad to see they had removed their wet jeans. What they had not done was lay them out to dry.

  "Where's Caitlyn?" He bent to a knee, stacking the wood near the fire. Next, he laid out their clothes to dry. They would need them to layer later that night.

  Jen shook her head. "I thought she was with you?”

  "I headed out without her. She didn't say anything to you?"

  "No." Jen looked to the pile of wood. "Can we add more to the fire now?”

  "Yes, let me show you how.”

  He spent the next few minutes explaining the finer art of building a fire to the girls rather than chasing after Caitlyn.

  "Jen, see those rocks over there?" He pointed to a stack of stones the size of her head toward the back of the cave.

  "Yes?"

  "We're going to make a heat sink."

  "A what?"

  "It's a way to store heat. Stacking stones by the fire allows them to heat up. That heat then reflects back to the interior of the cave, keeping us warm. It’s like a poor man’s radiant heater. As the rocks heat up, you can place them around you where they'll keep you warm. They’re good for putting at your feet, too. Or you can put them at the small of your back. Just something extra to help keep you warm."

  "Where did you learn all of this?" Jen stopped her sniveling long enough to look impressed.

  “Just learned it growing up." The truth was he learned most of it from Caitlyn’s father and then again in survival school. Pain stabbed in his chest with the weight of Caitlyn’s father’s passing. He never had a chance to say goodbye to the man who had been such a large part of his childhood.

  The minutes ticked by with still no sign of Caitlyn. If she'd been anyone else, he would've been worried, but she knew how to handle herself, and he didn't have time to search. Not when they didn't have enough wood to get them through the night. He still had several trips left. Thinking about spending the night reminded him to check in with Sheriff Johnson. When he opened his cell phone, there was no reception. Not ready to head back out, and wanting to wait for Caitlyn’s return, he turned to Sally.

  "Can I check on your ankle?" He didn't know if Caitlyn had checked after their hike to the cave.

  "It hurts, but not as much as earlier," Sally said.

  "Well, let's make sure everything is okay." It was best to make sure there was no sign of frostbite.

  Sally hissed as he pulled back her wet sock.

  "You can't keep this on."

  "But it's so cold."

  "Hun, this is cotton. Like your jeans, it gets colder as it dries." A quick examination of her foot and he was glad he insisted on checking. "You've got signs of frostnip."

  "I have frostbite?“ She jerked her leg out of his hands to look at her foot. “Am I going to lose my toes?"

  "Not frostbite, just frostnip." He made a cradle out of the stones Jen had brought over. "We need to get your foot warm, without burning it. The sensation is not what it should be, so we need to be careful.”

  "What does that mean?"

  "It means don't stick your foot too near the fire. You can’t feel cold or heat right now, and if you put your foot too close to the fire, you could wind up with burns.“ He waved Jen over. "I need to get more wood. You sit with Sally and keep an eye on her toes. Don't let them get too warm, and Sally..."

  "Yes?"

  "When circulation comes back, it's going to hurt. No way around it."

  She gave a tight nod. "Okay."

  He checked in on Bear. The dog rested but was too far from the heat of the fire. As gently as he could, he shifted Bear over the uneven cave floor, putting the dog closer to the heat. The bleeding seemed to have stopped and he said a silent prayer of thanks. They would be losing light soon and he wasted enough time waiting for Caitlyn to reappear.

  "I'm headed back out," he announced. "I won't be gone long."

  A few steps out of the cave, he searched for Caitlyn's tracks. Her snowshoes made that challenging with their shallow imprint on the snow. With a little perseverance, he found her trail.

  He told himself that Caitlyn could take care of herself. He was not going after her, but he followed the path of her snowshoes. Every now and then, he collected wood and stacked it in piles along his path. He would grab the firewood on his way back to the cave.

  The path took him straight up the ridge. What the hell was she doing? He couldn’t figure it out and reminded himself that he was most definitely not going after Caitlyn, even if that was exactly what he was doing.

  Chapter 9

  Caitlyn

  Tension pulled at Caitlyn's shoulders and a tight knot formed under her left shoulder blade. She stretched sore muscles but didn't stop. She was on a mission and the hike to the ridge challenged her on many levels.

  Endurance wasn't the issue. She could hike for days in the rugged terrain.

  Exposure wasn't a concern. She had appropriate gear for the worst winter storm.

  Leaving an injured Bear with strangers? That felt wrong on so many levels.

  Caleb’s sudden reappearance had her twisted in knots. She didn't want to think about him or what his sudden reappearance meant.

  The air might be below freezing, but after one look from Caleb her entire body heated until it burned with a fire even legends couldn’t touch. Only he could provoke such a powerful, and unwelcome reaction, reminding her how incredible it had felt when his hands explored every curve of her body. Or how she felt when the heat of his gaze swept her away.

  She should've been nicer to him back there. More welcoming? No, she didn’t owe him any apologies. The stress from the attack, her concerns over Bear's injuries, and the arduous hike to the cave had sapped her strength. She didn't have anything left for emotional spillage or concern
over his feelings.

  Her brave and protective mutt deserved a medal. Bear saved her and the girls. Leaving him in the cave ripped out her heart, but it was for the best. He belonged beside her, but getting word back was the only solution for getting him out of this. With no cell reception down by the cave, she had been left with few options.

  While Caleb gathered firewood, she made the decision to hike to the ridge. Reception was only marginally better up there and it had an added benefit. It kept her separated from Caleb.

  The radio crackled as she called Sheriff Johnson, but it failed to establish a connection. Best used line of sight, there were simply too many ridges and valleys between her position and Bear Creek. One bar, intermittent at that, and her cell phone didn't look any more promising.

  After several failed attempts, she decided to hike higher up the ridge. It hadn't been her intent to be out this long, and she regretted not letting the girls know what she was doing. Caleb had been a dick, pestering her with inane questions. Didn't he realize this wasn't time to catch up on old times?

  She composed a brief text, letting the sheriff know how to find them and sent it. Hopefully, the text would make it through if her call didn't connect. On her third try, she heard Sheriff Johnson's gruff voice.

  "Caitlyn?"

  "I've got the girls. We’re safe.“ She kept her words short and to the point. "One has a broken ankle. Bear's injured. Found shelter in a cave.”

  “Good. What happened to Bear?”

  “Mountain lion. Oh, and Caleb's here."

  "Got it." Silence on the other end had her thinking she lost reception, but his voice came back. “Listen, Caitlyn, the storm is due to peter out in the middle of the night. We'll send a team to get you at first light. You good?"

  "Yes. I left markers from my snowmobile down to the creek and up the ravine. You should be able to follow easily.”

  "Will do. You be safe, okay?"

  "Yes, sir."

  They ended the call and she shivered. Night fell fast in the mountains and she would be pushing it to make it back to the cave before she lost all light.

  She retraced her steps along the ridge and headed down the slope which would lead back to the cave. Halfway down, Caleb appeared over a rise. When he looked up, a storm flashed in his eyes.

  "Where the hell have you been?" Anger speared through his words and brought her to a halt.

  "Well, hello to you, too." She didn’t appreciate being chastised by him.

  "Come on, Cat, don't be like that."

  "Don't be like what?" Although, she knew exactly what he meant. She was being a bitch. But it was the only way to keep her feelings at bay. If she opened those floodgates, it would take her back to a very dark time. The first years after he left, she’d been devastated. After her father’s death, she found new purpose, and buried any remaining feelings for Caleb beneath the pain of losing her father. She couldn’t go back.

  She crossed her arms over her chest and stared at Caleb, desperately trying to hang on to her righteous anger. There was one problem with that. With the sun dipping below the horizon the temperature dropped fast. In the eerie hush of the mountains, there was only their ragged breaths to cut through the tense air, which made her painfully aware that Caleb was back. She couldn’t ignore him. She couldn’t pretend. She had to face the flood of emotions barreling down on her. And she had to do that alone.

  "You know what I mean. No Hello, how've you been, Caleb? Nice to see you after all these years? You've been a frigid bitch since you saw me."

  "What did you just call me?"

  "You heard me, and it's the truth. What gives? Why the cold shoulder, one- and two-word answers, and all the rest?”

  She let her arms fall to her sides and headed down the hill. Rather than stopping beside him, she pushed past with an angry glare and audible huff. He grabbed her and spun her around. The clips of her snowshoes gave way and she fell face down toward the snow. She cried out, windmilling her arms, and grabbed the nearest thing for support. As she went down, Caleb came with her, twisting her around.

  The fall would've hurt, except for the foot of snow which cushioned them as they landed. Her spin landed her on her back with Caleb's muscular body lying over hers. She pushed at him, but he didn’t move.

  "Get off of me!"

  He pushed down, but his arm only sank in the snow.

  "Get off!" she cried out.

  "Hun, I'm trying." But he didn't seem to be trying very hard. He shifted to the left, then to the right as she pushed against his shoulder.

  "Just roll off." She pounded the palm of her hand against his chest.

  His low, throaty chuckle surprised her and pissed her off. There was nothing funny about this. He was too close and that brought back memories which didn't need to be remembered.

  They surged to the surface.

  "Stop laughing at me.” With both hands on his shoulders, she shoved. Instead of moving him, she succeeded in burying herself another half-inch into the snow. Cold pricked at her ears and snow fell on her cheeks.

  His laughter deepened. "You know what?"

  "I don't care what, just get off." Breath dragged into her lungs, and it wasn’t from scrambling to get out from under him.

  His finger traced the line of her jaw; too soft, too gentle, too much of a reminder of what she’d lost. The sharp rush of feeling coiled in her gut, that surge of excitement that came whenever he touched her knocked her off-balance, and for a moment she forgot how much she hated him.

  "I don't think so. In fact, this is perfect.“ The smugness in his tone gave her pause.

  In an instant, she remembered. The trembling of her lips stilled. The slight quivering of her chin stopped. His touch always tender, never hesitant, and divinely reverent made her want to retch.

  "What does that mean?" she demanded.

  “Since I have you where you can’t run away, how about you answer my questions?"

  "Just get off." She sounded petulant and hated it, but the truth was, he had her exactly where he wanted. She couldn't move. He was on top and she was completely at his mercy.

  "Why you've been acting like an ass?" He pressed her for answers.

  "I haven't been—“

  He placed a hand on her shoulder, forcing her deeper into the snow. Once she had leverage, she would work her knee between his legs and slam it into his nuts.

  There was a problem with that plan.

  Her legs were spread and he was nestled between them. Their hips pressed tight together. If she wiggled, would she feel the long, hard length of him?

  Don't wiggle!

  No need to make a compromising position worse. He shifted his weight, pressing down on her hips. His thigh pressed between her legs.

  "Caleb! Don't do that. You're getting snow in my pants." He wasn’t, but an alarming warmth throbbed at the apex of her legs.

  His eyes twinkled. The deepest blue, they were his most disarming feature. Although now, with the way his body had filled out, there were other features impossible to ignore.

  "Answer my question." He had the upper hand and he damn well knew it. There was no way she could get out from under him.

  "I haven't been acting like an ass." He'd been the one who barged in on her rescue and was trying to take it over.

  He placed a finger over her lips. Electricity sparked and sizzled as long dead nerves woke up and took notice.

  Caleb dipped his head until his lips were entirely too close. The warmth of his breath whispered against her cheek. Feelings stirred within her, sensations she would rather ignore. Only, it was impossible to dismiss Caleb. He had stolen her heart when she was eleven, introduced her body to the pleasures hidden within at sixteen, then shattered her heart two years later when he walked away.

  Angry?

  She was beyond simple anger, but not because he had left. She hated that she cared at all. Her father raised her to be stronger than this. She didn't need a man to help her through life, and she damn well didn’t need C
aleb.

  "You have been a cold-hearted bitch from the moment you saw me. I get what happened to Bear. I understand not saying anything until you looked after him, but afterward? How long are you going to stay mad at me?"

  "What does it matter? It doesn't concern you."

  "Seems like it concerns me a whole hell of a lot. You and I—“

  "There is no you and I. You saw to that."

  "There, now we're talking."

  "No, we're not talking."

  There was no way in hell she was talking about this with him.

  She tried to shift his weight, but he didn't budge. Beneath the layers of his coat, the sculpted muscles of his arms had her biting her lower lip wondering what the rest of him looked like.

  He had the same chiseled jaw. Those heart-stopping eyes stared down at her, swirling with unspoken emotion, and those lips curved into a smile, lifting with that irresistible smirk of his.

  Then, he did the unthinkable. He pressed his lips together and slowly licked them. It was all she could look at, and he knew it. The bastard had done that on purpose, reminding her of all the sinful things he could do with those lips.

  But she wasn’t falling for it.

  Walking kryptonite, he had been stealing hearts since the eighth grade, but his heart had always belonged to her. She didn't want to think about any other hearts he may have stolen in the intervening years. Not when she didn't have anything, or anyone, to throw back in his face; and heaven help her if he got it in his head that she'd been waiting for him.

  She had not been waiting. The day he walked out of her life was the day she kicked him out of her heart.

  Or tried to.

  As for other men, other lovers? The lack of suitable candidates in Bear Creek explained why she never dated.

  "Look, it's getting late.” Maybe she could reason with him? “We're losing the light, and unless you've gathered enough wood to get us through, we still have that to do. Also, I want to build a screen to block the wind from getting inside the cave."