Wild Men of Alaska Collection - By Helmer, Tiffinie Page 0,11
on another sweatshirt.
“Take it off,” Skip said.
“It’s dry.”
“If any part of it is wet, your body won’t warm up. So, be safe and take it off.”
Was it wrong that there was a big part of her who wanted him to say that in a less impersonal way?
“Fine.” She struggled out of the Under Armour. The cold sucked the breath out of her. She shivered into a long-sleeved t-shirt and followed that with another sweatshirt. Her jeans were next, and the Under Armour pants. Goose flesh was red and splotchy on her legs before she covered them up with a pair of black heavy sweats with Bristol Bay printed down the side of one leg. Wool socks followed. She was feeling much better when she turned to face Skip.
He was a mess.
Much like a two-year-old who’d just learned to change himself, his jeans were off and he was struggling into another pair. They weren’t going on easily with only one good arm and his skin being wet. He still had on his soaked shirt. She should have thought how hard changing his clothes would have been before she’d changed her own. Now she felt like mud on the bottom of his boots.
“I’m sorry, Skip.” She reached out to help pull up his jeans. He sighed with what she assumed was relief and let his good arm drop away, letting her take over.
She buttoned the jeans and went to pull up his zipper. Well...he hadn’t lost his balls out there in the freezing sleet. Hello. Her fingers jumped away, and she swallowed. “Uh...you’re going to have to zip up your pants.”
“I can’t,” he said. Was there laughter in his tone? “Not one-handed. If you hold onto the crotch, I can pull up the zipper.”
“I’m not grabbing your crotch.” Fire flamed in her cheeks. She wasn’t cold anymore. “Your jeans are too small to zip up anyway.” Oh God, had she pointed that out? She wanted to die.
“It’s the crotch talk.” His words didn’t have laughter in them now. She recognized that tone. It jumpstarted areas of her body she thought had been put on the shelf.
“Listen. I’m not touching that. You’ll just have to leave your pants unzipped until...things are back down to size.”
“Things haven’t been down to size since I first saw you in the airport.” His nostrils flared, and he took a step closer to her.
She backed up, her shoulder bumping into the top of the seat hanging above her. “Not my problem.”
“The hell it isn’t.” He reached out with his good arm and hauled her against him, making sure she felt exactly how she affected him. “Do you have any idea how hard it’s been not touching you?”
“This isn’t good for your arm.”
“I’m feeling no pain in my arm. But there’s a serious ache farther south.”
“Skip—”
“Just let it happen, Wren.”
He leaned down, paused as he looked into her eyes, and then kissed her softly, his lips a perfect fit over hers.
She shuddered and leaned into him. This was like coming home. Oh, how she missed this. Being held by him, loved by him. The rich earthy scent of rugged outdoors, cool ocean breezes, with a hint of salmon berries infused her lungs as she breathed in his essence. How did he smell the same after so long?
The heat of him seduced her closer. He groaned and breached past the seam of her lips, his tongue hot and devastating as he deepened the kiss. He pulled her into his hardness, ground against her and groaned again. His breath became choppy, his fingers digging into her hip as though he needed to be part of her.
Blood surged in her veins, and she became dizzy. Her breath caught as his hand slid up and under her sweatshirt, bypassing her layers, and finding her skin.
Heat, delicious heat infused her body, killing any chill she had left. She wanted to feel that heat everywhere. Get naked with him and—
Wait a minute. What the hell were they doing? His shirt was wet against her front. He was kissing her, more like devouring her, and they hadn’t seen each other in five years.
Her hands came up and pushed against his chest, creating a little space to break the kiss. “We can’t.”
He met her eyes, his unfocused, clouded with desire. “Yes, we can.” He leaned in to kiss her again. She pushed harder against him. His eyes narrowed and cleared a bit as he took a moment to study her. “It’s the dude, isn’t it?”