by Noelle Adams
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Excerpt from Stranded in the Woods
KENT HEARD PENNY CALLING out again, and she sounded closer now. When he turned the next curve, he saw her, a bundled form carrying a ridiculously large bag and limping forward through a veil of white flakes.
“What the hell, Penny?” he roared. She was covered with snow. How long had she been out here, and why hadn’t she called him sooner?
Penny didn’t say anything in response. She just fell forward into the snow.
He’d reached her by then, and he bent over to grab her by the shoulders and haul her up.
“Hey!” She was blinking quickly and spitting out snow. “Be careful! I’m not a sack of potatoes, you know.”
He couldn’t see any of her body beneath the long, heavy coat she wore, but her wool cap was askew, her reddish-brown hair was soaked and caked with snow, and her cheeks were as red as her lips normally were. She was scowling at him dramatically.
“I was trying to get you out of the snow. You’re complaining about that?”
“I’m complaining because you jerked me around. I’ve already fallen four times, and I don’t feel very good at the moment.”
“Then you’ll want to get inside, I assume. Or would you rather stand there and yell at me?”
“I can yell at you as we get inside. You really think I’m not capable of doing both at the same time.”
“I’m sure you’re capable of it.” His hair and beard were covered with snow now, and the wind was making his eyes sting. He wanted to get out of the snow almost as much as he wanted to get Penny out of it. “So start walking.”
She scowled at him again, but she did put one foot out in front of the other in the right direction. He walked beside her, putting an arm around her to support her and keep her moving. She was limping, he realized after a few steps.
She was limping a lot.
“What hurts?” he demanded.
She stopped and looked up at him, blinking as if she were confused. Her face was all lush dips and curves, rounded cheeks, big blue-gray eyes, a dimple in her right cheek. He didn’t remember her ever being this pretty in the past, but maybe his vision was affected by the urgency of the situation.
“What do you mean?” she asked.
“I mean, what hurts? You’re limping.”
“Oh. I turned my ankle, and it’s a little sore. And I pulled a muscle in my leg. But I’m fine. I can make it.” She started to walk again, and because he was watching, he saw her wince as she took a step. He believed her when she said she could make it, but it was going to be slow and it was going to hurt her.
He stood and processed his options for about thirty seconds, but there was really only one reasonable course of action to get her into the house quickly.
He’d lived alone too long to second-guess his first instincts. He took one long step and moved directly in front of her. Then he leaned forward, grabbed her by the waist, and hauled her up so she was draped over one of his shoulders. Then he walked quickly toward the cabin.
As expected, Penny squealed at the sudden move. “What the heck are you doing, Kent!”
He almost chuckled at the words, at the memories. She’d never cursed back in school either, always replacing the real words with “heck” and “darn” and “shoot” and “freak.” Evidently that much hadn’t changed.
“I’m getting you inside.”
“But I can walk!”
“I know, but this will be quicker.”
YOU CAN FIND OUT MORE about Stranded in the Woods here.
About Noelle Adams
NOELLE HANDWROTE HER first romance novel in a spiral-bound notebook when she was twelve, and she hasn’t stopped writing since. She has lived in eight different states and currently resides in Virginia, where she writes full time, reads any book she can get her hands on, and offers tribute to a very spoiled cocker spaniel.
She loves travel, art, history, and ice cream. After spending far too many years of her life in graduate school, she has decided to reorient her priorities and focus on writing contemporary romances. For more information, please check out her website: noelle-adams.com.
