Unable to help herself, she cupped his face and kissed his jaw. “So fierce and protective over the woman you don’t quite know what to do with.”
“I know you’re still fighting the memories.”
“It’s better. So much better.”
“Are you sure?”
“Very.” She began to stand up, but he held her back.
“Just sit still a minute.”
“Why? You want to have your merry way with me?” she teased as he reached up and unzipped her jacket.
“I’m checking on your arm.”
“It’s fine-” But she hissed out a breath when he pulled her arm out of the jacket and then pushed up her sleeve, which was stuck to her arm by her own blood. “Oh boy.”
“You must have gotten scratched by one of the poles when you fell.”
Her head swam a little. “I don’t like blood.”
“Just a scratch,” he repeated calmly. Reaching up, he turned her chin away, back to the amazing view. “Just keep looking at the moon. Look for falling stars.”
She tipped her head up and gasped when she actually saw one. “There!”
“Make a wish.”
She closed her eyes and did just that, and when she opened them again, he was looking at her.
“What did you wish for?”
“You believe in wishing on falling stars?”
“Yes.”
She smiled. “The stoic, pragmatic Cameron Wilder, a dreamer, after all.”
He let out a low laugh. “On my way back to Wishful, the night I met you, I wished on one. And if you tell anyone that, I’ll deny it.”
“What did you wish for?”
He met her gaze. “To feel something.”
She held her breath, caught, lost in his eyes. “Is it working?”
“I think it just might be.”
She felt her heart click and lock into place. For him. “I wished for great sex. Tonight. And if you could tell my guide, I’d really appreciate it.”
With a rough laugh, he nudged her chin upward again. She blinked the sky into focus, the way it lit up the entire valley floor below with a bluish tinge-“Ouch!”
He’d sprayed her with something from the first-aid kit in his backpack and was now pulling out some gauze and tape. He ripped a piece of tape off with his teeth, then held it there while he wrapped her up, but not before twice again having to nudge her face away. “There.” He smoothed down the tape. “Good as new.”
“Then why does it just now hurt?”
“Aw, let me see.” Shocking her, he leaned in and kissed the bandage. “Better?”
She stared into his eyes. “No, I think it needs some serious TLC.”
His gaze heated, and as always it put her own insides on a slow, delicious simmer as he obediently leaned back in and kissed the spot again, then an inch above her bandage.
And an inch above that. “Better?”
“Not yet.”
With a soft huff of laughter against her skin, he tried pushing her sleeve up higher on her arm and couldn’t, and while she battled disappointment, he proved just how resourceful he could be by reversing his efforts and slowly pushing the sleeve down from above while holding her gaze prisoner.
The shirt gave way, slipped off her shoulder, and only then did he break eye contact and once again lean in, pressing his lips to her bare skin.
She sucked in another breath.
“Cold?” he murmured against her flesh.
Was he kidding? He could have stripped her naked out here in the thirty-degree night and she’d have still been sizzling hot. “No, don’t stop making me feel better.”
On a half groan, half laugh, his lips trailed up her shoulder, ending up in the crook of her neck, which gave her a set of goose bumps that still had nothing to do with a chill and everything to do with sheer lust. She tugged off her gloves and slipped her fingers inside his jacket.
“Katie-”
“Dream on if you think you’re going to back off now in some misguided protective gesture. Yes, this is big and scary and new, for the both of us, but we’ve tried ignoring it and can’t. Let’s try something else, Cam.”
“I don’t-”
“Don’t say you’re a quitter, because the man I’m looking at has been dealt some pretty rough blows and he’s still standing. The quitting thing is bullshit, Cam. And don’t try to tell me you don’t feel this thing between us either.” She looked politely at the bulge behind his zipper.
With a groaning laugh, he pressed his forehead to hers. “I was going to say I don’t have any way of protecting us from being seen.”
“No one’s up here. We’re all alone, and I’m a big girl. I’m ready for this. The question is, are you?”
Cam stared at her, his heart thudding hard and fast in his chest again, as it had when she’d nearly fallen. “You really are the most remarkable woman I’ve ever met.”
“And I’m something else too.” She shrugged out of her jacket, leaving her only in the long-sleeved silk long underwear shirt that was already hanging off one shoulder. “Want to guess?”
“Katie, it’s butt-ass cold out here.”
“Then keep me warm.” He yanked down the zipper of his jacket and pulled in her shaking body, holding her up against his body to share the heat he had in spades, only to realize she hadn’t shivered in cold, but excitement.
Which, in turn, fueled his. As if it needed fueling. He was already so turned on he couldn’t see straight. He certainly wasn’t thinking straight or he wouldn’t have leaned back against the rock, pulling her onto his lap so that she straddled him, and then kissed them both stupid.
So stupid…
Her hands were running over him, everywhere she could reach. “You’re only wearing a T-shirt.” Which she shoved up beneath his jacket. Then she pressed her mouth right over his heart, which gave one hard lurch.
“I get hot on snowshoes. But not nearly as hot as I am right now-Jesus,” he breathed when she licked his nipple. “Katie, listen. We should-”
“Yeah, we should.” Surging up, she covered his mouth with hers, showing him exactly what they “really should,” and with another low, rough groan, he slid his hands beneath her shirt to touch warm skin. God, she was sweet, so damn sweet-
“We should do whatever we want,” she murmured, her hands already doing whatever they wanted. He tried to catch them, but she was fast and nimble and greatly determined. “You can complain about how much you hate all this later,” she told him, kissing his jaw, his ear, her hands eating him up wherever they touched. “God, this fresh air is invigorating.”
“Actually, that’s you. You’re invigorating.” His hands skimmed over her hips to her ass, squeezing, pulling her in closer so that she rubbed against his zipper, letting out a sexy little moan of pleasure.
“Why, Cameron Wilder,” she purred. “I do believe you’re as excited as I am. Do you offer this service to all your clients?”
His eyes closed in sheer pleasure when she sucked his ear-lobe into her mouth. “Only the hot ones-” He hissed out a breath when she bit his ear, then soothed the ache by sucking it into her mouth, and just like that, he was a goner.
Or more likely, he’d always been a goner for her. He didn’t know how, but in two seconds flat, he’d slipped beneath her silk shirt, unhooked her bra, nudged it aside, and then, oh yeah, filled his palms with her warm, full breasts.
She gasped, and he lifted his head. “Too cold?”
“No. Yes.” She laughed breathlessly, arching her hips against his. “Just don’t stop.”
He didn’t, and she repaid him by slipping her hands down his torso to his lower abs, her fingers playing with his waist-band, which was loose enough that if she wanted to, she could-