Wild Men of Alaska Collection - By Helmer, Tiffinie Page 0,16
she turned and climbed through the cockpit. Opening the door, wind and snow swirled in, and then she was gone, and he was alone in the cold, in the dark, and in pain. But the pain had transferred from the physical to the emotional. He wanted her back. Now. He wanted to follow her out there.
What if something happened? What if she tripped and hurt herself or lost the hold of the rope and couldn’t find the plane in the blowing snow? She hadn’t been able to see the plane when they had returned from depositing Jim.
Jim.
Holy shit. She was right. They should have tossed him over the bank. Right now, Wren could be fighting for her life against a bear. It was early yet for them to all be in bed. Just the other day, he’d spotted a sow and her cubs. Jim’s scent could have brought one close. Bears sense of smell was eight hundred times that of humans. There were wolves running about too.
What the hell had he been thinking to let her go out there alone? She didn’t even have a weapon with her to help protect herself. He grabbed his coat and struggled into the one arm. He couldn’t get it to stay over his bad one. Frustrated, he tore the thing off and threw it on the bed of cushions.
She’d been gone too long. What if she hadn’t tied the rope properly and the knot worked loose with the wind?
That was it. He was going out there.
Wren shuddered in the cold. There was nothing more bitterly cold than baring your ass in a blizzard. She’d finished her business and had her clothing back to rights when a large hulking creature stalked her way.
A chill that rivaled the storm shivered through her. Skip should have listened to her. Jim should’ve gone over the bluff. She dropped to her knees and inched to the left, where she remembered the plane being.
If the bear caught her scent, she’d lead him right to Skip.
She grabbed the rope and struggled to untie the knot from around her waist, but the bear lumbered closer. Shit. She needed to get free, run. But where? Then she heard her name. At least she thought it was her name. One thing she did know, bears didn’t speak.
She squinted against the slicing snow and instead of seeing a bear, the outline formed into a man.
“Skip Kolenka Ozhuwan! You scared me to death. I thought you were a bear. What are you doing out here, and where is your coat? Are you insane?”
“Apparently.” He shivered. “You were taking too long. I thought maybe you were in danger.”
“It isn’t like women can just whip it out and pee anywhere. It takes some finesse. Besides, I can take care of myself.”
“I was worried.”
“Have a little faith. It’s not like I’m out here trying to score a line of coke.”
“That thought never crossed my mind.”
Suddenly she was ashamed of herself. He’d come looking for her because he’d been concerned, and she was jumping all over him. “I’m about froze to the bone. Can we continue this inside?” But when they returned to the closed confines of the plane, she realized there was no putting off going to bed with him.
CHAPTER TEN
“How many layers are you going to put on?” Skip asked.
As many as it takes. Wren struggled with a second pair of socks.
“I’m cold,” she muttered, when in truth she was sweating. How was she going to sleep next to him?
They had unzipped Jim’s sleeping bag they’d found in his survival kit and had it laying like a comforter over the cushions that would keep the cold from the ground seeping from the metal of the plane into them. It was actually quite cozy. Over the sleeping bag was a Mylar blanket they weren’t going to need.
Wren couldn’t find another reason to postpone going to bed. She lay next to him, their shoulders and hips touching due to the slope of the plane underneath them. Her nerve endings sizzled to life, laying the length of him. She tried to move, giving him space, but no matter what she did she ended up touching him.
“Are you going to squirm all night?”
She didn’t bother answering him. She just might.
“I’m going to turn off the light.”
“Okay.” She hated that her voice sounded timid. She could do this.
“Wren, relax.”
The light clicked out and darkness closed in.
Right. Like that was going to happen. She clutched the covers to her chin. With the darkness,