I woke the next morning to rain pounding on the roof of our shelter once again. I was dismayed to find that although I was curled up in the same position I had fallen asleep in, I had obviously scooted as close as I could get to Mason while I was sleeping since my butt was snuggled up to his side and my head rested on his arm.
I started to pull away, but his arm held me snugly into place. "You're not darting away this time," he said, blowing gently on my hair.
"But I'm invading your space and you can't be very comfortable with my head crushing your arm," I said, trying to move away again.
"Why do you keep doing that?"
"What?" I asked confused.
"Um, I don't know, pulling away," he said with just a trace of sarcasm.
"Because, you're hurt among other things…" I said, letting my voice trail off.
"What other things?"
I sighed. "Like the fact that we're stranded in the middle of nowhere and no one knows where we are, which reminds me, you never answered my question yesterday. How could they not know we're missing?" I asked.
"They may be under the assumption we're holed up somewhere waiting the rain out. Rick trusts me enough to keep you safe until this cold front passes," he said, sounding bitter.
"You're doing the best you can."
"Right, because I'm some hero by letting us fall off the side of the mountain."
"That wasn't your fault. I thought we were going to die," I admitted, recalling my terror from the fall.
"So did I, to tell you the truth," he confessed. "Do you know what I was thinking as I careened down the mountain, crashing into everything imaginable?"
I shook my head against his arm.
"All I could think was that I was never going to experience the love my parents shared before they died and that scared me. I've spent weeks pushing you away, fighting the attraction I felt, convincing myself that you would only cause a kink in my life.
"Did you say 'attraction'?" I asked glibly.
He chuckled before asking his own question. "Are you trying to tell me it's one-sided?"
I merely shook my head, unsure of how I exactly wanted to answer that question. Our relationship was unlike any I had ever experienced. I was used to the typical four-step dating ritual—meet, flirt, date and then declare any feelings. Mason and I had blurred the steps and I was scrambling to readjust.
"Kimberly," he said, breaking into my contemplation.
Tucking my embarrassment away, I flipped over to face him. "No, you're not alone in the whole attraction thing," I said, ducking my head slightly.
He reached over with his free hand and lifted my chin. "I'm not used to this shy you. Where did the sassy girl go?" he teased.
I smiled at him "That sassy girl never existed before I met you," I admitted.
"Aww, so I bring out the rebel in you," he said, tugging me back down in his arms.
I snuggled in. I was done with overanalyzing the situation. "It's raining hard again," I said, voicing my concern over the never-ending rain.
"Yeah," he said in a strained voice.
"Is that bad?" I asked, tilting my head back to look at him.
"It just means we may be stuck here a little longer than I anticipated. Can you think of anything we can do to fill the time?" he asked suggestively.
I snorted unladylike. "Sure, I'm sure you are on top of your game with that leg," I teased.
"You doubt me?" he teased back, tightening his arm around me.
"Um, hell yeah," I said, laughing. "How long will we be here?" I asked, returning back to the matter at hand.
"I'm guessing when we didn't make it back the other night, Rick is probably assuming something happened and we needed to hunker down to wait out the rain. He knows as well as I do that the continuous rain will make the trails treacherous. It needs to stop raining long enough to let the ground dry out," he said softly.
"I need to do something about your leg," I said, sitting up. "It can't stay open and exposed like that. It was bad enough when I thought rescue was coming right away. You'll get an infection if you don't already have one. We need a piece of the raincoat that's outside that I can at least drape over it."
"I thought about that too. I'm not thrilled about you going back out in the rain. You're already getting sick. I could hear it rattling around in your chest last night."
He was right. I had been trying to ignore my scratchy throat and aches and pains, but they were making their presence annoyingly known.
"It's just a cold," I muttered.
"Maybe right now it is, but the cold wet temperatures could easily turn it into pneumonia," he said, sounding serious.
I laughed. "We have bigger fish to fry with your leg than some silly cold," I said, pulling my raincoat on.
He looked at me sternly, obviously not liking my glib attitude. "Kimberly, I'm serious. I don't like you going out in the rain."
"Yeah? Well, I don't want your leg to fall off from an infection," I countered, not liking his sudden bossiness. I pulled on my damp socks and shoes.
"And I don't want you coughing out a lung when you get pneumonia," he said, matching my tone.
"Lucky for me, you're not the boss of me," I said, throwing my hood on and stomping outside.
Still fuming, I climbed up onto the big boulder where I had laid the raincoat the night before and started tearing a section off the bottom where it was the most ragged. My frustrated state made the nylon material no match for me, and within a few minutes I had several suitable pieces. I was tempted to teach Mason a lesson by staying out longer, but the wind kept whipping the rain into my face, chilling me. By the time I crawled back into the cave with Mason, my teeth were chattering. He didn't say a word, but instead, held out his arms so I could crawl into them. I tossed my raincoat back down on the ground and climbed into his embrace as he rubbed my back through my multiple layers of clothing to warm me. He cradled my chilled hands and I sighed with relief as they started to warm back up. I kicked off my wet shoes and soggy socks and without asking permission, snuggled my feet up against his leg.
He yelped when my icy feet made contact and I stifled a giggle.
"We need to do your leg," I said, yawning loudly.
"Rest first," he said, keeping a firm arm around my waist.
"I'm fine," I said before biting back another large yawn. "Why am I so freaking tired?" I asked, rubbing my eyes.
"The trauma of the last few days. Ordinarily, after a spill like you took, you would be resting in a nice comfortable bed for several days, not searching for shelter or dragging someone's deadweight around. You haven't allowed your body a chance to recover," he said. "Not to mention, you're sick," he admonished.
I wanted to protest, but before I could get the words out, a cough rumbled up through my chest.
He sighed as I bit back a smile. Okay, so maybe he was right. The frigid temperatures and continuous rain weren't helping my condition.
Mason continued to rub my back as I slowly fell asleep. My dreams intertwined with reality as I dreamt that his hands explored more than my back. I began to respond to his touch in the dream and yearned for it to never stop as my body shifted closer to him. I woke when Mason's hand stopped moving as he shifted slightly. Waking fully, I was mortified to see that I had hiked my leg up onto his good one and was pressing intimately close to him. Not daring to move, I hoped against hope that he was asleep and had missed my lap dance.