Rocky Retreat (6 page)

There was no way they were getting off the mountain that day.

In spite of the cold, by the time she’d made it halfway to the outhouse, Rachel was toasty warm. The snow might be light and fluffy, but it grew amazingly heavy when she had a full load of it on the shovel. It took her three to four motions to clear a foot. Like partaking in some ancient kung-fu training, she alternated sides while lifting until both her arms felt like limp noodles.

Behind her Lee was demolishing the woodpile. Every time she paused, it was like having her own personal
Survivorman
show for entertainment. Even though the temperature was below freezing, he’d removed his winter coat, covered only with a thick flannel jacket over his shirt. She couldn’t see his actual muscles, but it was obvious they were there. He moved in a steady rhythm, raising the axe overhead and swinging it down with breathtaking force, splitting thick chunks of wood into smaller and smaller pieces.

She finally made it to the door of the outhouse, admiring her handiwork as she headed back toward him. Although, her meager path through the snow seemed minor compared to the task he’d accomplished as she checked out the pile that had grown to an alarming size.

How much wood does he think we need?

Lee paused, dropping the axe head to the ground and leaning on the solid ash handle, a trickle of sweat rolling down the side of his face as he examined her trail, no other indication he’d been working like a dog. “Looks awesome,” he said.

“That’s what I said,” she teased, loving the way his eyes lit up. She pressed on. “What can I do next?”

For the next umpteen minutes, she carried wood from the door of the cabin to restock the supply by the stove. Lee remained outside in his boots, passing logs in two at time. She tried to hurry so she could open the door the instant he returned, and by the time they were done, she was warm through and through.

“Are you coming inside?” she asked.

Lee glanced at the sky before answering. “If you don’t mind pulling your stuff back on, why don’t you come for a walk? It may be the last chance before we have to hide inside.”

She slid back into her outdoor gear and joined him on the path. “It’s going to be a very short walk. The snow is up to my thighs,” she pointed out.

“We won’t go for too long, but look what I found.” Lee caught her by the hand and brought her past the woodpile to the back of the cabin. A thin layer of snow dusted the ground, the towering pine trees guarding the cabin wall.

Rachel spotted his surprise just as Lee gestured at the wall. “Snowshoes. Oh, that’s exciting.”

“Have you worn them before?” he asked.

“A couple times. They didn’t look like that.”

He brought down a pair, helping her balance as she placed her feet on the webbing. “These are old-fashioned beavertails. You won’t be able to walk very fast, but they’ll get the job done.”

He led her out from under the protective branches and onto the snow. Their feet still sank into the powder, but only an inch or so as Rachel stepped cautiously in the unfamiliar contraptions.

Lee guided her toward where she’d first seen him topping the hill the previous night. “I want to check the east terrain.”

Rachel felt like a waddling duck as she worked to avoid stepping with one snowshoe on the giant loop of the other.

Lee squeezed her hand. “Watch your feet for a couple steps to see how large you need to stride then after that, don’t look.”

“Don’t look. You want me to fall flat on my face.”

“If that’s the worst thing that happens, why not?” He let go of her fingers and moved ahead of her, creating a trail for her to follow. He glanced over his shoulder and offered her a grin. “If you fall down, you’ll get right back up.”

Rachel considered his words as she followed. In more than one way, that’s exactly what she was doing.

As they broke over the top of the north ridge to gaze down into the valley below, two things struck her.

One, they were in a pretty amazing place. The hill fell away so rapidly she could see for an extended distance. The hillside the cabin was on dropped to rolling foothills that were much lower and softer than the jagged peaks at their back. Beyond the foothills were the ranchlands and grain fields that stretched all the way to Manitoba, pristine and idyllic. Like a painting on the wall.

The other thought was
exactly
how isolated they were. “We really are in the middle of nowhere, aren’t we?”

“Right smack dab,” Lee agreed.

They stood in silence as their breath created a white fog around them, the clouds overhead moving fast enough to be time-lapse photography. The sky darkened as wisps of white gathered and thickened, turning to grey with blackness in their cores.

The temperature seemed to plummet between one breath and the next.

Lee caught her hand in his. “Come on. We need to get inside.”

By the time they’d walked the ten minutes it took to get back to the cabin, the wind had returned, fluttering the collar of her jacket and sending icicles down the back of her neck.

They hurried inside and hung up their things, arranging them around the stove. The wind howled in protest, rattling the shingles on the roof, but inside it was so warm Rachel had to move her chair to the far side of the table.

“Since the storm is back, we’ll have to entertain ourselves some other way for the rest of the afternoon.”

Even as she spoke, she realized what her words would do to him. Rachel glanced up, knowing in an instant she wasn’t wrong.

That flash in his eyes—it was clear how honest he’d been. This wasn’t about him
pretending
to want her. He really did, and that helped soothe a few of the jagged edges Gary had left by cheating. If she’d been enough, he wouldn’t have strayed, right? But Lee’s expression clearly told her Gary was the problem, not her.

She was grateful for the reassurance, but they needed something to focus on other than the sexual tension between them. “Cards? Since that’s the only game I can find.”

“Sure, and when we get bored of me beating you, I’ll tell your fortune.”

He took a sip of his drink before she could see whether he was smiling or not. “So, you’re a fortuneteller along with your many other talents?”

“Of course. It’s the only way to survive in a large family. Knowing what people will do next let’s me anticipate.”

“Just means you’re good at observing. You can’t really tell the future.” She stole his drink off the table, making a face at the bitter liquid—coffee without cream or sugar. “So, Mr. Fortuneteller, tell me whether the newest Coleman is a boy or a girl.”

Lee leaned back in his chair, folding his hands behind his head. His biceps bulged against the cotton of his long-sleeved T-shirt. “That? That’s simple. Gabe and Allison had a boy.”

She laughed. “How do you know?”

Gabe leaned forward and grabbed the cards, shuffling them as he spoke. “Because this is their first, and them having a boy is a subtle dig at Blake.”

“Blake? He’s a cousin, right?”

“Yeah, oldest of the Six Pack Colemans. He and Jaxi had three girls before they got a son, so it stands to reason everyone else in the clan will have a boy first, just because fate wants to play a joke on Blake.”

“You’re mean.” Rachel shook her head. “Blake doesn’t seem the type to care if he had boys or girls.”

“Hell, no. He loves those girls like crazy, but it’s still one of those things we’ll tease him about. Because that’s what you do with family—torment them every chance you get.”

He was still shuffling the cards. “Then go for it. Tell my fortune.” She leaned her elbows on the table and looked at him intently. “I’ll ask you a question and you use your super fortunetelling skills to give me an answer.”

“Deal,” Lee said. “What’s your question?”

“When will the next earthquake hit?”

A laugh burst free. “We live in Alberta.”

“It could happen.”

“
And
that’s not very personal,” he complained.

She raised her brows. “That’s a
very
personal question. When an earthquake hits this area, everyone will be shaken, including me, so I want to know. Oh, fortuneteller Lee Moonshine Coleman, what do you see in my future?”

He offered the deck. “Cut them for me.”

He laid the cards in a circle in front of her. Six of them, face up. She was giggling softly by this point because his expression had gone completely serious as he examined the layout before them.

Rachel snickered. “I can hardly wait to hear you bullshit your way out of this one.”

Lee offered her a wink. “Remember, you asked for this.”

He tapped a finger on each of the six cards as if he were thinking intently.

“Maybe your fortunetelling hat needs extra batteries?” she teased as he hesitated.

“No, that’s not it at all.” He shook his head, concern rising on his face. “It’s just…I’m trying to think of the easiest way to break this to you.”

Rachel leaned forward and looked at the cards, curious to see what he was up to. “You’re good, but I don’t know how you’re going to pull off a fortuneteller reading from a set of cards with a total poker value of zero.”

He adjusted the cards into a line, calling out their face value. “Two of spades, four of hearts, six of diamonds, eight of clubs—you don’t see the pattern?” He went on before she could answer. “Well, of course not. You’re not a mystical sees-all and knows-all fortuneteller. Not like
me
.”

Rachel laughed.

His lips twitched before he pulled back into his perfectly somber role.

“Your fortune contains not only a skip sequence of two, four, etc., but the cards hold the perfect ranking of spades through clubs. What this tells me is your earthquake will build and build until—”

He pointed to the two remaining cards, which happened to be the queen of hearts and the jack of spades. “Until this happens.”

She stared for a moment before shaking her head. “Nope. I’m not getting it.”

“You will.” Lee rose to his feet and hauled her out of chair. Rachel shrieked in surprise, laughing as he tossed her toward the bed and she bounced on the mattress.

In an instant he had her pinned under him, the sleeping bag below her back cool this far from the stove.

“Well, this is a surprise,” Rachel said, satisfaction in her tone. “What does this have to do with an earthquake?”

Lee played with her hair, his gaze dancing over her face. “The next earthquake will occur in less than half an hour.”

Whoops
. “Lee?”

He kissed her question away. Lingering over her lips until she wrapped her arms around his shoulders, the cold forgotten because of the heat of his body.

He didn’t stop with her lips this time. He moved lower, easing along her jawline, nuzzling her neck as his fingers worked the buttons of her shirt. When he slipped a hand under the fabric, his palm was cool against her skin, but that was fine because she was suddenly far more heated than the small stove could account for.

“I take it this means we’re finally fooling around?”

Lee nipped at her earlobe. “No, but I need to make the earth move. I have my reputation as a fortuneteller on the line.”

She could work with this. Especially as his hand cupped her breast, and a sigh of happiness escaped.

She should’ve saved her air because a second later he’d shoved her shirt and bra out of the way and his lips were wrapped around her nipple. She gasped, the sensation causing the heat in her body to spike rapidly.

“My
God
, that feels good.” She rolled toward him, threading her fingers into his hair as he alternated between one breast and the other. No hesitation in his touch. Nothing but approval in the noises he made as he broke off to stare down in satisfaction.

“I’m an idiot,” he confessed in a whisper. “I swore we’d wait, but I want this. Tell me I can touch you. Tell me I can—”

“Touch me,” she demanded. “Anywhere. All of it. Now.”

His lips were on hers again, and her brain got tangled up in his demanding kiss. Then the talented man moved his hand, teasing her breasts for another moment before skimming over her belly and heading under the edge of her sweatpants.

She’d never been more thankful for elastic waistbands in her life.

He groaned against her mouth as his hand slipped through her folds, fingers sliding in the wetness between her legs. She was turned on and there was no way to deny it. No reason to deny it either, since he was the one who’d caused it in the first place.

“So soft. So soft and wet.” He slipped a finger into her, his thumb settling over her clit, and Rachel shuddered. “Oh yeah. Let me see what you like. I fucking love it.”

“Not as much as I do.” Rachel breathed the words out the first chance she could, but it took a while because he was tormenting her tight bundle of nerves like it was a trigger. His fingers stretched her, his fingertips rubbing just right and causing electric zings to shoot from her core to everywhere else in her body.

She glanced up to discover he was staring, his attention fixed on her face as he brought her to the edge of pleasure. “Does this mean you’re the jack?” she teased when she could speak.