by Kait Nolan
She felt him. The touch of his gloved fingers against her skin, a bloom of pain. Which meant he was here. Not in a dream or a hallucination, but flesh and blood. He’d saved her.
“Okay.”
“Stay awake. I need you to stay with me, baby.”
“Can’t.”
“Laurel!” She could hear the alarm and command in his voice and knew she was scaring him, but she was too tired to do more than trust that he’d carry out his promise. So she let herself slide into complete oblivion.
Chapter 13
All the way up the mountain, Sebastian had cursed the rain. Now he cursed the snow and the continually plummeting temperatures. They couldn’t get back down in this, and Laurel wouldn’t survive if he didn’t get her body temperature back up. He had one shot, and he prayed with every step that it would be enough.
He almost missed the cabin in the dark. Mother Nature had made greater strides in reclaiming the old bootlegger’s cabin since the spring. A sapling of some kind grew right up through the porch boards, and a whole host of overgrowth had tangled to make a natural screen. But it was still standing. Quickly tying Brego’s reins to a rail, he strode up onto the porch. Many of its boards were rotted. The only door to the place was closed. The knob turned with effort, and it swung open a couple of inches before stopping. Putting his shoulder to it, he managed to make a gap wide enough to get through.
Sweeping his light, he made a quick assessment of the place. The roof was still intact. Puddles on the floor in places made it clear there were leaks, but there were no gaping holes. The wide-planked floors were a bit warped, but seemed stable. The few windows in the place had cracks, and there were a couple of missing panes. A table and two chairs occupied the front corner, by an old-fashioned wood stove. There was no other furniture, the place having been cleared out long ago, but it would get them out of the wind and snow. But what the hell to do with Brego? There was no guarantee the floorboards would stand up to his weight, and the last thing they needed was damage to his legs in the middle of all this shit.
Hurrying back outside, Sebastian circled the perimeter. And in the back struck gold. A lean-to had been constructed between the cabin and the wall of the mountain. Little more than a tin roof stretched between the two, but brush and trees made a natural screen on either side that blocked most of the wind. Getting the gelding in here would be a bit of a squeeze, but the nook it made would get him out of the worst of the weather for the night.
Laurel groaned as he untied her from the saddle and slid her down. She roused enough to curl into him as he lifted her up and carried her into the cabin. He stretched her gently on the floor.
“Don’t leave me,” she rasped.
His heart twisted. As if he wouldn’t ride through hell all over again just to find her. “Not going anywhere. Just gotta get my pack.”
He brought it inside, setting his flashlight to lantern mode and digging out a reflective blanket and self-heating handwarmers. Ripping open both packs, he shook them until they activated and unzipped her coat. She whimpered again as he peeled off her wet clothes. Her skin was icy to the touch and her lips had a bluish cast, but the worst of the injuries appeared to be scrapes and bruises, which was a fucking miracle. The danger now was complications from exposure.
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry.” For so many things. But there would be time for recriminations later.
Gentle as he could, he wrapped her in the reflective blanket, tucking the warmers beneath her armpits. She needed more, but that was going to take time. His gaze moved to the wood stove. Did he dare try to start a fire? Who knew when it had last been used. The chimney could be full of birds’ nests or who knew what detritus. But they needed a heat source. Finding no evidence of vermin inside it, and hearing the wind whistling through the vent above, he decided to risk it.
With quick, brutal efficiency, he shattered the chair. Breaking the remaining bits down small enough to fit into the stove, he stuffed them in and added some tinder from his pack, grateful beyond measure when it caught. As soon as he was certain it would keep burning, he returned to Laurel. Behind her closed lids, her eyes fluttered as he checked her pulse. Slow, but strong. Satisfied she’d be stable for the next few minutes, he hurried outside, trying to radio back to the farm again. Something was interfering with the signal, and he could only hope they’d seen his flare. For now, he had to deal with his horse.
Brego balked a bit as Sebastian tugged him toward the thick cluster of trees.
“Come on, big man. I know you want out of this miserable weather as much as I do. You trusted me enough to bring me up here. Trust me a little further.”
Snorting, the gelding bobbed his head and stepped forward, into the trees. Once out of the wind and snow, he heaved a huge sigh, as if he realized it was finally time to rest for the night. Slicing off a cedar bough with his tactical knife, Sebastian used it to quickly brush off the snow. His mount deserved more than just this, but it would have to wait until he’d seen to Laurel.
“I’ll be back to bring you some water as soon as I can.” Before he went back inside, Sebastian pressed his face against Brego’s neck. “Thank you. Thank you for carrying me up here, for risking your life to save hers.” He gave himself a minute. Sixty little seconds to let the fear he’d been holding back for hours flood his system. That he wouldn’t find her. That she’d be broken or dead. All the horrific scenarios that had played through his head on that frantic ride.
This was his fault. He’d known that as soon as he’d seen Ginger. If he hadn’t pushed Laurel, hadn’t been so fucking insecure, she would have waited to break the news. It might still have turned into a shitshow, but she wouldn’t have been alone. He’d have been there with her. For her. She’d have turned to him in her upset instead of riding out under poor conditions on the one horse in his stable she couldn’t have known would flip out.
Knowing his time was up, he shut all of it away, compartmentalizing it to take out later, when all of this was over. He’d found her. She was safe. She was going to be okay. There were countless other things to deal with, but for now, that was all that mattered.
Laurel woke to warmth and pain. Confused, she struggled through layers of sleep. Sebastian’s scent surrounded her, soothing the disquiet that lingered from dreams she couldn’t quite remember. One big hand cradled her head, and she could feel the faint warmth of his breath stirring the hair at her temple. Everything hurt, but tangled up with him, still more than half asleep, she couldn’t find the willpower to do more than burrow closer, skin to skin.
“Laurel?”
On a groan, she tucked tighter against him. “You need a new mattress.”
“You’re awake. Thank God.” His voice was ragged, fraught with an exhaustion and relief that didn’t make any sense to her.
Dragging herself the rest of the way awake, she opened her eyes.
They weren’t at his house. They weren’t even in a bed. And he didn’t need a new mattress. He was the mattress. She was stretched out atop him, wrapped tight in some kind of blanket. A sleeping bag? That would explain the restriction of movement. They lay on a hardwood floor in a room that looked like the set for an old western movie. Everything was dark but for the glow cast by an old wood stove in the corner. A bunch of clothes appeared to be laid out beside it.
“Where are we?”
“Bootlegger’s cabin. It was the closest shelter when I found you.”
Everything came back to her in a rush. The fall. The storm. Nearly dying.
“I thought you were a dream.” But the heart that beat steadily against hers proved otherwise.
His arms tightened around her, and his voice shook. “I thought I was too late.”
Given that she’d been lapsing in and out of consciousness, he probably hadn’t been far from it. How much longer could she have lasted?
“I didn’t think anyone could even be out looking for me in the storm. I thought I’d freeze before morning.” Shivering with the memory, she snuggled cl
oser to his heat, tangling her bare legs with his. “How did you even find me?”
“Ginger came back without you.”
“She made it back? Oh, thank God.” If the mare had been hurt or killed because of her foolishness, she’d never have been able to forgive herself.
“I’ve been through a lot of shit, faced down terrorists, arms dealers, and all sorts of enemy combatants. But I have never in my life been so scared as I was when I saw that empty saddle.”
And he’d ridden into the face of a storm to come find her. No matter the harsh words they’d thrown at each other, he’d still come for her. Still risked his life to save hers.
Emotion clogged her throat. She loved this man. Totally. Completely. She’d held off telling him before, reasoning that it was too soon. But while she’d been trapped on that ledge, faced with the prospect of dying, all the logic, all the rules and bullshit had been stripped away. The only thing in her mind, as her body got colder and colder, was that she wouldn’t get to see him again, wouldn’t get to tell him how she felt. She wouldn’t waste any more time.
Propping herself up just enough so she could look into his face, she took a breath. “Sebastian.”
He curled his hand around her nape. “Wait. I need to say something.”
The intensity of his gaze had her swallowing back the words again. “Okay.”
“I’m sorry. I’m so fucking sorry for not trusting you. For getting all up in my own shit and—”
“We should have talked first. Before my parents ever got there. I should have made it clear to you that I was going to finish my last semester. I should have made it clear that I was going to avoid dropping the bomb about the job until after Christmas. You expected one thing, I did something else, and you reacted.”
“So badly. I’m so sorry for that.”
She worked her hand free to cup his cheek. “You reacted like someone who’s been hurt before. Someone who put his trust in another person and got left behind. Maybe you should have believed in me, but I should have been more careful with you.”
“Laurel.” He drew her brow to his and she closed her eyes, feeling her world tip back to rights. They were going to be okay.
His fingers stroked down her nape, as if he needed the assurance of being able to touch her. “I feel like I need to explain this. It just got...so big. First there was the equine therapy center, then the idea of expanding the operation off Logan’s farm—I wasn’t sure I wanted any of it. Until you said you want to stay. To run it with me. It didn’t seem so big when I saw you by my side. You’re a force of nature, after all.”
She couldn’t help it. She snorted. One corner of his mouth lifted in a semblance of his rare smile, then he sobered again.
“The more time we spent together, the more that vision of you and me, doing this together—the more that became real to me. I don’t think anything in my life has ever been so big, so real, so important. And then…”
She could see it now, where his mind had been as he’d listened to her casually chat with her father about courting other job offers for after law school. This earnest, honest man who didn’t come from a life of social masks and double-speak. “And then my parents showed up, and I acted like none of it ever happened. I made you think I might just turn around and go right back to that life.”
He offered a sheepish, wobbly smile and swallowed. “I felt like I’d built a castle in the air.”
Her heart ached at the idea that she’d hurt him, even unintentionally. “Oh Sebastian, I’m sorry.”
“No, I’m sorry. I know you, your bravery, your integrity. I should have trusted you. Trusted us. I just… I’ve never loved anyone before. Not the way I love you.”
A bright burst of joy exploded in her chest. He loved her.
Turning her head, she pressed a kiss to his palm. “I was going to say it first. I love you, Sebastian.” She watched the answering joy come into his eyes and couldn’t hold back a smile. “I know there are a hundred more things we should probably discuss, but at the end of the day, the only thing that matters is that I love you, and I’m alive to say it because of you.” Brushing her lips softly to his, she whispered, “Thank you for coming after me.”
“I’d have ridden into hell itself to bring you home.”
He kissed her, worshiping her mouth with a devastating gentleness that had her forgetting everything but the taste and feel of him. Needing more, she strained toward him and cracked her knee against the floor.
“Ow!”
Sebastian froze. “You okay?”
“You mean other than being sexually frustrated by this sleeping bag? Yeah.”
He huffed a laugh. “Sorry. I wasn’t setting out to seduce you. You were hypothermic. This was the safest way to get your body temperature up. It was a feat to squeeze you in here at all.”
She squirmed a little to test the theory but had to concede he was right. “It’s a tragic waste of nakedness. Stupid all-weather, subzero, down-filled condom.”
The laugh turned full fledged, shaking them both. “I promise, I’ll spend a few hours making it up to you as soon as we get home and settled.”
“Home.” She sighed the word, settling back against his chest, head tucked under his chin. “You know, Henry David Thoreau said, ‘If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.’ I want to go home with you, build the foundation for that vision you were talking about.”
“The one where we live happily ever after?”
“Once we deal with my father.”
His arms tightened around her, one hand going back to her nape. “Don’t you worry about that. I have every confidence you can sell ice to an Eskimo. You can totally talk your dad around. And I’ll be right by your side, because after this scare you’ll be lucky if I let you out of my sight for the next fifty or sixty years.”
She snuggled against him, feeling all the stress and strain melt away. “I’m good with that.”
Chapter 14
“Lieutenant Donnelly, come in. Over.”
Sebastian snapped fully awake, mentally braced for action. But he was no longer in a war zone. Not waiting for an extraction for his team. A warm weight draped over him, her hair spilling across his chest. Laurel. Beneath his palms, her back rose and fell in a slow, steady rhythm. Early dawn light filtered in through the windows of the cabin.
From somewhere to his right, the radio crackled again. “Damn it, Sebastian. Answer me.” He recognized Harrison’s frustrated voice.
Laurel groaned, nuzzling into his chest, even as he reached for the radio. His bare skin pebbled to instant gooseflesh. The fire had gone out sometime in the night.
“Good morning to you, too, Captain.”
“Thank Christ. Status?”
“We’re both okay. What are you doing on this channel?”
“Sheriff briefed us last night. They saw your flare but when nobody could raise you on the radio, we were ready to roll come first light in case the situation called for it. ”
“Negative. I’ll be able to get her down myself.”
“Do either of you need medical?”
Laurel shifted propping her chin on his pec and blinking at him with sleepy hazel eyes.
“She should probably get checked out, just in case, but it’s not ER worthy. We’ll be on our way as soon as I can get gear packed up. Whoever mobilized can go on home.”
“Roger that.”
A new voice came over the line. “Can we talk to her?”
At the sound of it, Laurel lost the bonelessness of sleep.
Sebastian took his finger off the mic button. “I know you may not want to talk to your dad right now, but he probably needs to hear your voice. And if not him, your mom and Logan and Athena will.”
On a sigh, Laurel nodded. “Dad?”
The silence stretched out so long, Sebastian wondered if the radio had gone out again.
“Are you okay, baby?”
; Her lips pressed into a line. “I’m alive and all in one piece.”
Did her father recognize she hadn’t answered the question?
“Thank God.” Laurel’s brows drew down at the shaking in his voice. Sebastian was willing to bet Lawrence Maxwell wasn’t prone to displays of emotion.
“Thank Sebastian.” Her words held the whip of a closing argument. “We’ll see y’all when we get down the mountain.”
“Donnelly out.”
Before he even set the radio aside, she was attacking the zipper and scrambling out of the sleeping bag. As the frigid air hit his skin, he wanted to swear. But other than hunching her shoulders, Laurel didn’t make a peep of complaint as she hustled across to where he’d laid their clothes out by the stove last night.
“Are they dry?”
“A little crunchy, but yeah.” She shimmied into hers almost before he rolled out of the bag, but he still noted the assortment of bruises painting her skin. They were a stark reminder of what she’d been through.
The images that evoked left him feeling gut-punched over everything that might have happened. So many variations where she didn’t come out of this alive. Where he was too late. Where he’d failed.
“Sebastian.” Laurel’s arms came around him and he buried his face in her hair. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. I just—” He held her close, careful not to squeeze too tight. “You could have died.”
“But I didn’t. I’m safe and whole because of you. I’m okay.”
He pulled back far enough to study her face. “Are you okay? You seem…a little off.”
She ducked her chin. “I’m just dreading facing everyone. I feel stupid for riding off like that. Like I had a tantrum and did something reckless, and messed up everyone’s Christmas.”
Shit. It’s Christmas Day. In all the chaos, he’d forgotten.
“You didn’t know Ginger has a phobia of storms. And I’m pretty sure whatever you said to your dad—however you said it—was justified. Speaking of, you should know he and I, uh, had some words before I left.”
