Ice

by Stephanie Rowe

  Didn’t care where they were.

  He was taking her. Now. “You like your sex in bed with candlelight, don’t you?”

  Her cheeks burned brighter, her hands bracing against his chest, unsure whether to push him away or pull him closer. “Cort. We can’t go down this road. We can’t. I have to leave, you’re going to fly, and someone’s stalking me and my family, and—”

  “And we have right now. We have this moment.” He dropped his head and kissed the hollow of her throat.

  “But what about—?”

  He lifted his head. “You never know what tomorrow will bring. You get a chance to live now, you take it.”

  “That’s exactly the attitude that destroyed my family.”

  “Did it?” He grabbed her hair again, holding her head captive as he leaned closer. “Or did it give them joy every day? Would you rather exist in a shell for a long time, or truly live for a short one? Feel the wind in your hair, run through life with laughter in your heart? Wouldn’t you love to allow your spirit to soar free and then follow it, without fear, without hesitation?”

  “When my family talks like that, I hate them. I feel inadequate, and I don’t understand.” Kaylie stared at him. “But you make it sound…amazing. Like the one thing I’ve been searching for my whole life, but never found.”

  “Maybe it is.”

  And this time, when he kissed her, she kissed him back.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  A little voice in the back of Kaylie’s mind shouted at her to stop.

  To push Cort away.

  To think about the ramifications.

  About the morning.

  About the moment she would have to walk away.

  About the terrifying flight they’d just had and the fact that it hadn’t bothered Cort in the least.

  About the fact that Cort was so much more than she’d thought. That crossing this line with him a second time would trap her emotionally.

  He is so wrong for you!

  She kissed him anyway.

  Gave him everything she had.

  Cort’s mouth was hot and demanding. His hands were caressing her back, and his erection was hard between her thighs. His kisses were so intense, as if he couldn’t survive another moment without her. A most incredible sensation. To be needed. To be wanted. To be taken against all common sense, simply because he didn’t have the willpower to resist her.

  Not breaking the kiss, Cort anchored his hands around Kaylie’s butt and stood. He squeezed them both between the seats, and then they were down in the cramped back, on blankets, on duffel bags. He grunted, shifted, and her bag went sailing through the air, hitting the windshield before it dropped with a thud somewhere up front.

  And then Cort was on her, the weight of his body pinning her to the floor as he kissed her again. His hips were between her legs, his hand was beneath her shirt, moving across her ribs, cupping her breast. His tongue was demanding, and Kaylie welcomed it, holding him close, closer, fighting against the voice in her head trying to stop her. Trying to keep her from falling.

  Cort broke the kiss and looked at Kaylie. His hair was tousled, and his gaze was intense in the dark shadows of the interior. “I’ll give you one chance to say no, and then there’s no turning back.”

  An opening.

  A chance. To walk away.

  To do the right thing.

  To be the responsible, safe adult she’d worked so hard to be for so long. To protect herself.

  One shake of her head, and he’d roll off her. Climb back into the front of the plane. She saw it in the hard set of his jaw and knew he would walk away.

  An icy coldness made her shiver, and she knew she couldn’t do it.

  Couldn’t let him leave.

  Couldn’t give up this moment.

  This wasn’t for her parents.

  It wasn’t to prove herself to be something she was or wasn’t.

  It was because she simply wanted him. So much. Right now. With the wind howling, the little plane shaking, and the rain pounding on the metal, Kaylie knew what she wanted. She looked up at him, at the strength of his body as he braced himself over her, and repeated his words back to him. “You get a chance to live now, you take it,” she whispered.

  The smile that creased Cort’s face shattered the final protections around Kaylie’s heart, and she knew there was no going back.

  Cort lowered himself onto her ever so slowly, his gaze heated and intense, as if he knew he had all the time in the world. And then he kissed her, the most erotic, seductive, intense kiss she’d ever experienced. It was slow and tantalizing, his tongue licking around the corners of her mouth, sliding between her lips and back out, interspersed with the deepest, most deliciously tantalizing kisses. Hot. Wet. Like liquid heat sliding down her nerve endings, igniting her body cell by cell. A slow building of fire and passion, until her whole body was trembling, every fiber tingling, damp heat building between her thighs.

  Cort was heat. He was fire. He was utterly without inhibition, and she could feel him coaxing her to drop her own inhibitions. To stop thinking. To simply feel. To embrace. To turn off her mind and lose herself in the sensation of his body pinning her down, in the strength of his shoulders beneath her hands, in the roughness of his whiskers as he kissed her.

  Cort was daring and adrenaline, and he was without apology or hesitation. He made her so aware of how little she was living. He made her realize how tightly she held herself, and she felt the first thread of that control begin to unravel as he continued his seduction.

  His fingers brushed over her throat as his mouth continued its magic, and she heard her jacket zipper being lowered, inch by tantalizing inch. His mouth left hers, following the path of the zipper. Kiss by kiss, he worked his way down her body, the heat of his mouth burning through her sweater as the jacket bit the dust.

  His mouth was on her belly, hands spanning her hips. And then Cort was working his way back up, but this time, he kissed her bare flesh as he shoved her shirt out of his way. Her stomach trembled as his tongue circled her belly button. Liquid heat pooled low and hot, building as he kissed along her ribs and between her breasts, his wrist resting on her nipple, drawing hot nerve endings to life.

  A quick movement and her bra was undone, and his mouth…

  “Oh, God.” Kaylie couldn’t stop herself from arching up as he sucked on her. She was barely aware of the shirt and bra coming off, her entire body overwhelmed by the sensations rippling through her. Her self-control was slipping with each kiss. Moment by moment, he was stripping away her defenses, and Kaylie knew he would consume her completely if she didn’t fight it. If she didn’t hold on.

  “But I don’t want to fight it,” she whispered.

  “Then don’t.” Cort’s voice was gravelly and rough, as if he was on the edge of control himself. The realization made another surge of heat pool between her legs, and suddenly Kaylie had to touch him. She needed to feel the hard strength beneath his skin, his muscles rippling as he touched her with such gentle passion.

  She tugged his shirt out of his jeans, and within a fraction of a second, he had it off. Boots hit the side walls of the plane, his and hers, following by jeans and underwear, and then there was nothing between them. Nothing but skin. Hot and warm, he sank onto her, his kisses deeper and more intense, no longer slow and teasing. The need was building, hers and his, and she kissed him back just as fiercely.

  His shoulders were taut, his muscles flexed. She ran her hands down his arms, over the ripples of his biceps. Raw strength, hard steel beneath his skin. She ran her hands down his back to a hard ridge.

  The scar.

  Kaylie tensed, remembering the brutality of the injury and how it wrapped around his back and his side. An accident that should have killed him.

  Cort didn’t seem to notice her hesitation, shifting to the side to wrap his hand around the back of her leg, bringing her knee up as he kissed her. He slid his hand along her thigh and licked his way down her body, his teeth g
razing over her breast as his fingers slipped inside her.

  Her body responded instantly, and she threw her head back, gasping at the invasion, at the rightness of him inside her. He thrust again, her body clenching, spiraling. She clutched his shoulders, and she froze at what she felt beneath her hands: His upper back was rough, a mass of scars. His burns. Marking him forever as a risk taker and a dangerous man.

  She realized he’d stopped kissing her, that his fingers had stilled inside her. He hadn’t lifted his head, but he paused, waiting for her reaction to his scars, to the irrefutable evidence of who he was.

  She propped herself on her elbows and spread her palm across his scarred back.

  Then she pressed her lips to the scars.

  He instantly tossed her onto her back as he kissed her so fiercely, she felt like he was going to strip her soul right out of her, and she embraced it. Completely and fully. His scars, his life, his past, his body, his passion.

  Kaylie took it all in and let it fill her completely. She felt a part of her shift, then simply dissolve. And she became someone she didn’t know. Someone of raw emotion, heated desire, and uncontained need.

  For the first time in her life, she was truly alive. She was no longer thinking, but simply being who she was and following her spirit…. And finally, after a lifetime of searching, she finally understood what it felt like to be at peace with who she was.

  Cort whispered her name and moved between her thighs. Kaylie didn’t hesitate, kissing him fiercely, her hands clutching at him. He broke the kiss and pulled back. “Look at me,” he said. “Know you are with me.”

  The instant she opened her eyes and met his intense gaze, he thrust deep. One move and he was sheathed inside her. They were forever bonded.

  He didn’t move for a minute, and they locked gazes, her body trembling at the feel of him so deep inside her. Last time had been desperate and needy, tainted by grief and loneliness. Two strangers brought together by trauma. This time…This time it was them.

  Cort.

  Her.

  Because they both wanted it.

  Kaylie’s throat tightened, and emotions filled her, emotions she couldn’t and didn’t want to identify, but they filled her until she felt as though her skin was stretching, barely able to contain them.

  A smile flicked across Cort’s face, and he bent his head and took her mouth in a seductive kiss as he slowly withdrew, sliding out like a carnal tease. Then he thrust again, harder this time, and she forgot everything but him. The feel of his body, the taste of him, the strength…his fire, his passion. The kiss grew more intense, he sank deeper each time, again and again, until her mind and body was screaming for him, for only him, consumed by the magnitude of his presence and how he made her lose herself. She was no longer herself, she was him, she was passion, she was raw, elemental need and fire, her body and her soul one need, one being, one existence, tied inextricably to the life force that was Cort.

  He thrust one more time, and her body exploded. All she could do was cling to him as he hammered her, went rigid, shouted her name, and filled her with all he was.

  As he collapsed on top of her and pulled her into his body, all she could think of was that she’d lost everything that had kept her safe for so long. Raw and exposed, she knew she was going to pay for what she had just done.

  But as he cradled her against him, his leg wrapped around hers, his lips feathering her temple, she decided not to care.

  Not yet.

  There would be time for that. The future would come, no matter what.

  But right now, in this moment…she was happy.

  Kaylie was going to leave him.

  Cort knew it in the marrow of his bones.

  The minute this situation with her family and Sara was over, if they survived, Kaylie was going to leave.

  And it was wrong.

  She belonged here. In the wilds. Not in a concrete prison built of fear and bad memories.

  Cort pressed his face to Kaylie’s hair and inhaled, breathing deep the scent of flowers she carried with her everywhere she went. It wasn’t roses, carefully cultivated in a greenhouse. It was wildflowers in a meadow, the air heavy with the moisture of a spring rain. Of new life. Fresh buds.

  Keeping his eyes closed, Cort ran his hand down her arm, over her bare hip, a smug satisfaction rising when he felt her shiver and realized she couldn’t resist his touch.

  If he could keep her naked and in his arms, she would never leave.

  He grinned. Worse ways to go.

  “Cort?”

  “Mmm.” He nibbled her neck, the tiny hairs at the base of her skull tickling his lips.

  “I wish—” She wrapped her fingers around his wrist, where he had his arm around her belly. “I wish I were someone different.”

  He stopped kissing her, his mouth hovering over the nape of her neck. “Why?”

  “I wish I were the person you just made love to.”

  Scowling, he rolled her over so he could look at her, something tight beginning to form in his chest. “What are you talking about?”

  Her face was still flushed, her eyes at half-mast, like a sated lover. She trailed a fingertip across his forehead and down his jaw. “You’re so beautiful.”

  He resisted the urge to bring that finger into his mouth. “Don’t change the subject. What did you mean?”

  She blinked, and some of the haze faded from her eyes. “Why are you mad?”

  He took a breath to calm himself. “I’m not mad,” he said evenly. “But that was you I was just inside. It was you who was writhing for me, who gave herself over to the moment, to me.” His voice grew harder. “Don’t try to tell me that I seduced you, or that you were too scared to think straight, or that I somehow manipulated you—”

  “No.” Kaylie put her hand on his lips. “I’m not saying that. I just—” She sighed. “I wish I could be like that all the time. That I really was that person.”

  “You are—”

  “No. I can’t live like that.” She laid her hand over his chest, over his heart. “You make me want to be you.”

  He set his hand over hers, holding it in place. “I don’t want you to be me.”

  “Yes, you do.” She looked up at him. “You want me to have sex in the back of airplanes while a storm is raging. You want me to fly with you. You want me to live on adrenaline and nerve, right by your side.”

  He scowled. “You underestimate yourself.”

  “How would you feel if I asked you to be home for dinner at five every night? To sit with me by the fire and read? To fly only on nice, sunny days and land only on paved runways?”

  He ground his jaw. “You don’t really want that.”

  “Dammit! Don’t tell me what I want.”

  He flipped her over, pinned her beneath him, furious. “Listen to me, sweetheart. I’ve had enough of you selling yourself short. You’re not some fragile flower who needs to hide behind four walls and a fancy pair of shoes.”

  “Get off me!”

  He let more of his weight settle on her. “You’re scared. You deserve to be afraid. But by God, I’m not going to let you rob yourself of truly living because of something that happened when you were sixteen.”

  “You’re not going to let me?” She hit his shoulder, but he didn’t even flinch. “I have news for you, McClaine. I stopped allowing anyone else to mold me when I almost died on that mountain. Neither you nor my family is going to make me into—”

  “I’m not going to make you into anything. It’s already there. You just need to let it out.” He bent his head, let his breath mix with hers, felt her go still beneath him. “I’ve touched the very core of who you are, and I know a fire burns deep within you. Maybe it’s not about flying or taking crazy risks. But it’s more than the life you’ve been letting yourself live. I know that for sure.”

  That very fire he was talking about flared in her eyes, and then she slammed her heel into the back of his calf. He swore as his muscle knotted up, and he knew
then the truth.

  He was keeping her.

  Something in the back of his mind reminded him that that was the exact thought he’d had about Valerie. That he could force her to stay.

  No.

  This time was different.

  This time, Kaylie needed to stay.

  If she didn’t, her soul would die.

  “Damn you, Cort McClaine.” Her voice was low, furious. “Don’t you dare try to manipulate me, to turn me into the woman you think I should be.”

  Something outside caught his attention, and he slammed his hand over her mouth. “Shh!”

  Her eyes widened, and she stared at him.

  He waited.

  And then he heard it again.

  A thump against the side of the plane.

  Not a branch or a rock.

  A person.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  “Get dressed!” Cort commanded as he grabbed for his clothes.

  Kaylie lunged for her pants, not bothering with her underwear. “What is it?” A bear. God, please let it be a bear.

  “Someone’s outside.” Cort was already dressed, his boots on, as he grabbed his rifle from a rack on the side of the plane.

  “Someone—” Kaylie shot a glance at the front of the plane. “Do the doors lock?”

  “Technically, but it’s designed to keep the doors from flying open in flight. Not for keeping out anyone who wants to get in.” Cort checked the gun, then grabbed a huge knife from another pocket on the side of the plane. A knife much like the one that had been in her seat.

  She stared at it. “Where did you get that?”

  He strapped it to his hip. “Standard issue for the bush.” Cort turned toward her as she yanked her jacket on over her bare upper body. “I’m going out there. You stay put, and don’t leave for any reason.”

  “But—”

  The door on the driver’s side flew open with a crash and they both whirled toward it, Cort’s rifle up and ready.

  Waiting.

  The wind smacked the door against the side of the plane and then back again, making Kaylie jump.