An Early Spring

by Ann Lister

  “Colby Hansen,” Nick hollered.

  “Yes, that’s me,” a faint voice cried. “I’m Colby Hansen.”

  Nick stepped to the side of the groomed trail and peered over the snow bank. He saw a woman sitting up against a tree, clutching onto her ankle. Blood stained the snow nearby.

  “Colby, my name is Nick Gaffney. I work with the search and rescue team for the resort,” he said. He slid over the ridge of the trail and began carefully side-stepping his way down the steep embankment toward her. “Are you hurt?”

  “Yes,” Colby replied, trying to keep the pain and panic out of her voice.

  Nick slid down to where she was propped against a birch tree and knelt in the snow in front of her. Colby had her knees pulled up to her chest; head bent over her legs; bare fingers rubbed at one ankle. He did a quick visual assessment, then tried to see her face. He had learned long ago the importance of a patient’s facial expression when doing a medical evaluation and dipped his head lower in hopes of catching a glimpse of hers.

  “Where’s it hurt?” he asked.

  “I feel like an idiot,” she said, her eyes still downcast.

  Nick pulled off his gloves, then placed the tip of his index finger beneath her chin and started to lift. “Look at me, please.”

  Colby swatted at his hand and pushed it away. Her head shot up and her gaze finally met his; the deep violet-blue of her eyes fusing with the warmth of his chocolate-brown. The impact of her beauty almost knocked him off balance.

  Holy shit! I’m fucked.

  Straight, shoulder length blond hair stuck out beneath her black knit hat; tears made her cheeks glisten, and her full bottom lip had a subtle quiver. And, then there were those eyes, now staring back at him with anger, panic, and fear.

  “I didn’t mean to scare you,” he said. “But I need to see…” He swallowed hard and cleared his throat, trying to regain control of himself; his thoughts.

  Damn! Where the hell did my brain go?

  “How do you know my name?” she asked, and looked back at her injuried leg. The chiseled features of Nick’s handsome face making her momentarily forget about the searing pain in her ankle.

  “My team was ordered to evacuate the cabins on the mountain due to an approaching winter storm,” he said. “Your co-workers at the cabin gave me your name and advised us that you had ventured off on a solo hike.”

  “So, you must be the unlucky bastard that drew the short-straw to come find me,” Colby said with sarcasm.

  Nick tipped his head at her. “I’m not sure what you mean by that,” he said, even though he knew exactly what she meant. “Can I lift your leg?” he asked.

  “Why do you need to do that?” she asked.

  “To assess your injuries,” he said.

  He lifted Colby’s leg by the calf muscle and set it onto his muscled thigh. He unzipped the side of the boot and eased it off her foot; then set it beside her leg. Colby flinched when he took her foot in his hands and gently began manipulating her ankle, all the while watching her body language for signs of serious pain.

  He did his best not to hold eye contact with her because doing so muddled his thoughts. This had to be a first for Nick. He’d administered medical care to countless beautiful women of every color, shape, and size, but never felt aroused just by being near them - until Colby. Something about her awakened every one of his senses; the floral scent of her hair, the heat of her body; looking at her made his mind wander into places he couldn’t allow himself to go while on the job. Ever.

  “What the hell are you doing?” she asked, and sharply pulled her foot from his grasp. “That hurts!”

  He reached for her leg again. “What else hurts besides your ankle?” he asked. His eyes surveyed several rips in the fabric of her tight, black ski pants.

  “My shin hurts a lot, but my ankle hurts more.”

  Nick removed his backpack filled with medical supplies from his shoulders and set it in the snow beside him. He pulled out a pair of scissors and set them against the cuff of Colby’s pant leg.

  “Don’t think for one minute you’re cutting into these,” Colby said coldly. “These are three hundred dollar ski pants!”

  “They’re already ripped and I need to get at the lacerations on your leg in order to treat the injury.” He said the words with firmness, and griped her calf tighter. “I can either cut the pants to the knee or you can take them off for me - which would you prefer?”

  Nick held his breath. If she stripped off the pants now, he’d likely do something stupidly unprofessional, like pitch a tent in his pants and embarrass them both. Her pupils flared and her lips tightened. From anger, he imagined. Anger at him. He calculated the probability of seeing steam roll from her ears at any moment and smiled to himself at the cartoon visual he had created in his head. Then his thoughts turned carnal, as he wondered what other parts of her anatomy he might be able to make hot enough to steam.

  Get a fucking grip, Gaffney!

  Colby stared at him, not wanting to back down, but the idea of removing her pants for a man she didn’t know - even under the guise of getting medical help, did not sit well with her. Not today and certainly not for this Nick Gaffney character.

  “Fine! Cut the God damn pants,” she said, and dropped her head back to rest on the trunk of the tree.

  Nick tugged at the fabric of her pants and realized how much stretch it had, then decided he might be able to slide the pant leg up over her injury without having to cut into it.

  “You do realize, I am here to help, right?” he asked. His fingers eased the material over her shin, exposing three deep lacerations in her skin. Then he gently removed the thick winter sock from her foot and propped her foot back against his thigh. The lacerations were still bleeding and Nick went to work cleaning the blood off her leg.

  Colby winced in pain as he touched her ankle and the area around the shin wounds. “I’m sure the others were hoping you wouldn’t find me and I’d freeze to death out here.”

  “Why would you say that?” Nick asked, and removed a new roll of gauze from his medical bag.

  Colby rolled her eyes in irritation. “I’m the one that hates the outdoors and look where I am! I’m the only one that didn’t want to come on this stupid office retreat and I’m the one that was ruining everyone's good time.”

  “If you hate the outdoors so much, then why would you come to a ski resort in the middle of winter?” he asked.

  Colby lifted her head and watched Nick wrapping her leg. His long, tanned fingers carefully smoothed the gauze; fanning over her skin, lingering a bit too long - at least that’s how it felt to her. The heat radiating from his fingers was unsettling and she wondered if she should say something.

  When she didn’t answer his question, Nick looked up at her. She seemed flushed and distracted, but didn’t appear to be on the verge of passing-out or going into shock. Her gorgeous eyes just stared back at him spreading warmth through him and his cock began to stretch.

  Fuck. Try and stay focused and on task.

  “Why’d you sign up for the trip?” he asked again.

  “This trip wasn’t optional,” she said.

  Nick finished wrapping her shin, then carefully slid the sock and boot back onto her foot. For now, he’d use the boot as a support brace for her ankle. Once he was done he pulled the walkie-talkie from the holster on his hip.

  “Gaffney to base,” he stated.

  “Yeah, Nick. Go ahead,” the supervisor at the medical building replied.

  “I found Colby Hansen. It appears she slipped off the trail and sprained her ankle. She also has a couple of deep lacerations on her shin. I’ve got her stabilized and will wait for medical transport.”

  “That’s great, Nick, but we can’t send medical transport up there for you now. We’ve got about an hour before this storm hits us hard. You’ll have to take her back to the closest cabin and wait for the storm to pass.”

  “Shit,” Nick said quietly to himself, then he lifted the w
alkie-talkie to his mouth again. “Affirmative. I’ll transport the patient back to her cabin and wait for further instructions.”

  Colby sat upright in the snow. “No one’s coming for me?” she asked.

  “Not today, and you’re in no condition to walk down this mountain, so it looks like we’ll be spending the night at your cabin.” Nick sighed in defeat and started repacking the medical supplies into his bag.

  “Excuse me?” Colby said. “You’re not staying with me!”

  Nick stood up and brushed the snow from his ski pants. The thought of spending the night in a small cabin with her was not sitting well with him either. If he managed to keep his clothes on and his hands to himself, it would be a miracle.

  “I’m afraid you don’t have a choice in the matter, Colby,” he said, and forced a smile onto his face. “Until I’m able to hand you off to our medical team, you’re my patient and where I go - you go.”

  “I can’t believe this!”

  “How much do you weigh?” he asked. His brain began to sift through the best options to get them both safely back onto the trail above them.

  “That’s none of your business,” Colby said.

  Nick shook his head. She was full of sass and he liked that; made him want to kiss the sass right out of her mouth.

  Jesus! What might that sassy mouth of hers taste like?

  “I see, you’re not going to make this easy for me, are you?” he said. He stepped beside her in the snow and slid his gloves back onto his hands. “Do you think you can stand up for me?” he asked, and extended his arm to her.

  Colby glanced up at him and briefly considered her options, not liking any of them, and grabbed onto Nick’s forearm using it to lever herself up. As soon as she came to her feet, she stumbled from the pain in her right ankle.

  Nick circled an arm around her waist and secured her against him. The subtle scent of her perfume filled his nose and he loved the way she felt against him. A perfect fit, he thought.

  “Try not to put any weight onto that ankle,” he said, trying to balance her against his hip. “And slide your arm around my neck.”

  Colby shifted her weight and made an attempt to position her arm around Nick’s neck but he was too tall for her to comfortably reach. She tried again and lost her footing in the deep snow. She fell into him, her chest to his, and pressed him to the trunk of the tree. Soon as her hips squared with his, his cock surged to life. Part of him wanted to hold her there and grind her against him and suck those luscious lips into his mouth. Just one taste. That’s all he needed.

  Christ! Who the hell am I kidding?

  “I’m sorry, that was an accident,” Colby said quietly.

  “No worries,” he said.

  She eased herself back a few critical inches, but not before her brain absorbed every nuance about him; the aftershave that smelled like pine trees and musk, his muscles hardened in all the right places holding her so securely in place. And then there was his body heat, permeating through his clothing and warming her from the inside out. She turned slightly and rubbed up against something else; something very hard and hot, and her face flushed at the thought of what that hardness might be.

  And then it started vibrating.

  “That’s my cell phone,” he said. He smiled warmly at her and tightened his arms around her waist. “I’ll call whoever that is back later.”

  Colby firmly pressed her hands against his chest, creating more distance between them. He allowed for the extra space, but continued to hold her balance for her with his hands on her hips.

  “Looks like you won’t be walking up that incline,” he said. “So I guess that means we move on to ‘Plan B’.”

  “And, what’s your ‘Plan B’, Nick?”

  “My best calculations put your weight at around 115 pounds, so that means I’ll be carrying you up the embankment,” he said, and handed her his medical bag to hold.

  Colby shook her head. “No, I don’t think you’ll be carrying me.”

  Nick chuckled. “I didn’t say you were going to enjoy it, but that’s my Plan B.”

  Before Colby could protest further, Nick slid his gloved hand between her thighs and lifted her over his shoulder. “It would be much easier for me if you relaxed and let your body go limp,” he instructed, ignoring the sharp squeal that escaped her mouth. “And, don’t drop my medical bag. I’ll be needing that later.”

  She continued to verbally protest his action and struggled in his grip against his shoulders. The firm placement of his hand between her legs was both alarming - and amazing; at how quickly the heat of his touch was reaching the farthest tips of her limbs.

  Nick shifted Colby again. “Colby! You need to relax or I’m never going to get you back onto that trail.”

  He waited until she settled and did his best to concentrate on anything other than how close his fingers were to her pussy and the warmth of her thighs heating his fingers right through the glove on his hand. Her body was strong and toned, and as much as that aroused his curiosity, it wasn’t going to make their trip up the incline to the trail any easier with that thought taking up space inside his head.

  He carefully set his footing in the snow to start up the embankment and squeezed the firmness of her inner thigh. “Ready?”

  “You better not drop me!” she said.

  “I haven’t dropped anyone yet, Colby, but you need to stay relaxed for me.”

  One step led to two, as Nick navigated his way up the incline. A few minutes later, he reached the groomed surface of the trail and eased Colby off his back. “Keep your bad ankle raised,” he said and offered his arm to her for balance.

  Colby chose to ignore Nick’s direction and set both feet onto the trail. The searing pain in her injured ankle caused her to twist her feet in the snow and slip. Nick lunged, scooped her up with one arm, and caught her before she hit the ground.

  Nick laughed. “You don’t like to follow instructions, do you?”

  Colby covered her eyes with her gloved hands. “This trip has been a nightmare from the start and it looks like it isn’t going to end very well, either!”

  Nick slipped his medical bag over her shoulders. “It’s not that bad, Colby,” he said, turning his back to her and crouching on the trail. “Hop on,” he directed. “Now, you’re going to get a piggy-back ride.”

  “Seriously? A piggy-back ride?”

  “Yes - unless you’d like to hop on one foot all the way back to the cabin, but you’ve already proven you can’t manage that task, so you’d be wise to accept my offer and climb onto my back.”

  Colby muttered several curse words to herself, expressing her dissatisfaction with the situation, and secured herself against Nick’s back. She slid her arms around his neck and held on tight. Nick slowly rose to an upright position.

  “It’d be nice if you could loosen your grip on my throat, Colby. I do need to breathe.”

  She rolled her eyes and attempted to relax. It was unnerving to be this close to Nick, when she knew absolutely nothing about him. She tried to concentrate on anything other than him, but it was an impossible feat. She could feel the physical strength of him and the gentle sway to his stride, as they moved silently along the trail back to her cabin. She found the rhythmic and fluid movement against his back unexpectedly stimulating, and a familiar pulse began to throb deep in her womb. She could smell him again, the faint herbal scent lingered on the skin of his neck. Soft wisps of his dark hair tickled her face every time the wind blew.

  “You’re awfully quiet,” he said. “How you doing back there?”

  “I’d rather be walking on my own terms, but I’m fine,” she said in a cool tone.

  “Where are you from?” he asked, trying to start conversation.

  “Why do you want to know?”

  “I’m simply trying to fill the silence while we walk back to your cabin,” he said. Her continued suspicion of his actions was starting to bother him.

  “Los Angeles.”

  “What
do you and your co-workers do for work?” he asked.

  “We’re computer linguists.”

  “What the hell is that?” he asked. His fingers spread across the underside of her thighs to get a better grip on her legs. The rubbing of her body against his back and the way her legs fit so perfectly into the palm of his hands was a huge distraction to him doing his job effectively - a distraction that he knew would not meet with the approval of his supervisor.

  “I translate computer software into foreign languages,” she said flatly.

  “Sounds complicated.”

  “Not really. I speak five languages fluently, so it’s easy.”

  “Which ones?”

  “Russian. French. Italian. Spanish and English.”

  “Impressive.”

  Colby rattled off a quick dialog in French to Nick.

  “I’m guessing you just told me off in French. Am I right?” he laughed.

  “Pretty much.”

  “That’s harsh, Colby - considering I’m only trying to help,” he grinned. “Does your mother know you talk like that?”

  “Tienes ojos asombrosos,” Colby articulated in a drawn-out slur, this time using Spanish to describe the warmth she felt in Nick’s brown eyes.

  “Thank you,” he replied. The heat of her comment stiffened his cock further. He did his best to tamp down his arousal and failed. Miserably.

  “For what?” she asked.

  “You just said I have amazing eyes.”

  “You speak Spanish?”

  “Enough to know what you just said.” He was unable to remove the smile from his face. Her bark was definitely worse than her bite, and God Almighty, he wanted to experience her bite - all over his body.

  Colby closed her eyes, thankful he couldn’t see her embarrassment. “I guess I better stick to a language you can’t understand.”

  “Yes, that would be considerate - especially if you’re going to say something nasty about me.”

  “Duly noted,” Colby said.

  Nick continued on the trail, noticing how the snowfall had significantly increased since they had started moving toward Colby’s cabin. The precipitation had already diminished his visibility by half and the winds were picking up as well. He hoped the weather would hold out long enough for them to make it back to the cabin without problems.