A scream echoed over the mountain, and heightened terror propelled Jacob’s aching legs up the trail toward the sound. His knee throbbed in agony as daybreak arrived. The morning sun’s brilliant rays lit upon a scene that stole his breath. Two grappling bodies tumbled toward the precipice called Garnet Cliffs.
He grabbed a fallen tree branch. Clenching his fingers around it, he smacked the bigger of the two figures on the back. It growled. Jacob hit him again, harder. The monster flung Destiny away and turned toward Jacob, who watched in horror as her screaming, twisting body sailed over the edge of the cliff.
Baring his teeth as his hatred toward the man on the ground boiled over, Jacob pounced. With his bare fists, he beat the snarling form and managed to bloody the monster’s frozen lips. Fingers bent, and then snapped. Destiny’s attacker yelled in pain as the two men rolled across the snow-covered ground, growling and screaming.
Crushed beneath the body of a very angry man, Jacob’s bad knee throbbed in agony. Rolling free, Jacob cradled his knee with both arms in a vain attempt to protect it from further damage. Too late. Destiny’s attacker rose to his feet and staggered in his direction. Massive fists clenched below a face contorted by rage.
Unable to move, Jacob held his breath. The moment the monster’s shadowy form loomed above him, a flying missile glanced off the beast’s temple. The man screeched, wobbled, and then fell from the cliff, while spewing a litany of curses.
Jacob listened as the man’s voice faded away until he heard no sound—nothing but the wind. Soon, even the bitter gusts of air fell quiet. Surrounded by the profound silence of the once-windy ridge, Jacob lay on his back in the snow and gave in to the pain. Both the agony of his bruised knee and the sense of deep loss, from witnessing Destiny’s fall, threatened the release of hot tears. Catching his breath, he forced himself back up into a sitting position.
“What do I do now?” Then a question popped into his mind. Where had the rock come from that hit the bastard in the head? As he pondered the mystery, a scraping sound echoed up from below the precipice. Crawling toward the edge, a sudden horrible thought made bile rise in his throat. Was the monster climbing back up the cliff?
What greeted him, instead, was the very pale face of the woman of his dreams, clawing her way to the top.
“Destiny!” he cried, “you’re alive!” Tears sprang unbidden as he lay on his belly at the edge and reached down. She stared up at him in shared amazement.
“Jacob? Is that really you?”
One boot skittered up and lodged in a crack in the cliff’s rocky face. She pushed up, stretched as far as she could, and grabbed his offered hand.
“Your hand’s so warm.”
“I wore gloves, unlike you.”
“How about sharing them?”
With one big pull, she flew into his embrace. Crushed together, they huddled on the cold ground. He cuddled her in silence until she let out a small, contented sigh.
“I hope you brought an all-terrain vehicle or a helicopter to get us back, because I’ll be dead in about twenty minutes.” Destiny murmured.
Her body relaxed. The arms that clutched his waist went limp. His body froze in horror at the thought of her dying. Again. He shook her and then assessed her pale face, blue-tinged, cracked lips, and shallow breaths. She opened her eyes and managed to give him a smile.
“That animal is done for. Not you. Together we are stronger. We proved it. I came to your cabin to talk to you. You’re not going to avoid important issues by dying on me.”
Destiny just looked up at him. “You came to see me?”
“Yes,” he replied. “I figured out what happened once I arrived. I grabbed your flashlight and followed your tracks. I even found your emergency backpack.” He nodded toward the bundle on the ground. “Bright pink. Nice touch.”
She actually smiled at his statement.
With no more time to talk, Jacob reluctantly let her go, pushed himself to his feet, and gingerly hopped to the backpack. The reinjured knee screamed its disapproval with every step.
Once he’d dumped all the items on the ground, he grabbed the little tent. With a shake, it sprang into shape. He weighted the corners down with rocks, and then hopped over to Destiny. His gaze locked on her wet jeans before spying the ripped ski jacket and shirt.
“Strip.”
“What?”
“Strip and get into the tent,” he demanded. Turning his back to her, he broke open the small package holding the foil rescue blanket.
Destiny hesitated. “Fine. I’ll do it…only because I remember the lecture my friend, Josie, gave me about hypothermia.”
“Sounds like a smart friend.”
“She’s the paramedic who told me how to care for your injury, after your fall.” She turned away and struggled with the laces of her hiking boots.
“I can’t feel my feet at all,” she chattered, “and my fingers are screaming for me to stop.”
He leaned down, unlaced both boots, and then again turned away. When her shed clothes hit the ground, he kept his eyes averted as he wrapped the emergency blanket around her naked body. Leaving her garments in the melting snow, she crawled into the tent. Jacob carried the clothes to a fallen log and a nearby stump, brushed off the loose snow, and spread them out under the morning sun. When they dried, he’d lead her down the trail and back to the safety and comfort of her cabin.
A brisk wind blew across the plateau’s flat peak and prevented him from building a fire. He peeked inside the tent. Destiny huddled under the foil blanket, shaking like a leaf.
“I can’t get warm,” she whispered, “I have no body heat left.”
Jacob saw fear in her eyes for the first time. A powerful need to protect this woman surged through his body. It was the same urge that made him race from her cabin. He’d thought his response was that of an ex-police officer, but now he knew better. His drive to find her had been more than an ingrained sense of duty.
I love her.
Gazing at blue eyes locked in uncertainty, he prayed they made it off the mountain in one piece. He slipped all the way into the tent and parked himself, being careful with regard to his reinjured knee. He removed his ski jacket and flannel shirt, and held back a smirk at the hungry stare she leveled at his bare chest.
“What are you up to?”
Removing the blanket from her, he pushed her to the floor of the nylon tent. Jacob curled around her, pressing his warm length against her pale, frost-tinged body.
A groan erupted as her icy skin chilled him. Then his head filled with erotic images. Shaking them clear, he wrapped the blanket around their bodies.
“My body heat should thaw us both,” Jacob whispered. Destiny’s moan of pleasure preceded her hands, which slipped under his armpits.
“Do you mind?”
“No, you’ll warm up quicker.” He closed his eyes to the pain. Her icy fingers hurt, but the bulge swelling beneath his belt gave the discomfort a run for its money.
He scolded himself. How dare he think of her in that way? She clutched him in the darkness of the small tent. Her shallow breaths tickled his neck. He pressed light kisses to the top of her frost-laden hair while he caressed her rigid back. Her muscles trembled and then relaxed, as the space heated up fast.
“When you get warmed enough to walk, we’ll hike to your cabin. After we call the police to report—”
“I don’t want to think about him. Please.”
“Don’t give him another thought. After we hike down, we’ll get you in a nice, hot shower, and then…”
Pleasure-filled memories of their shared shower pulsed inside his head. “So beautiful.”
He’d whispered these words straight from his heart, hopefully too quiet for her to detect. To calm her concern, he hugged her close.
“I think I’ll sleep.” She closed her eyes. “Maybe I’ll dream of a green meadow, daisies, birds singing, and—”
“And what?”
“Never you mind. Let’s just say, pleasant thoughts.”
Did she notice the bulge straining behind his zipper? Could she hear his heart slamming inside his chest? He slowed his breathing as he relished her touch for what it was.
Salvation.
A short time later, after the temperature inside the tent grew comfortably warm, Jacob’s fingers roamed over her body as he checked for injuries. She’d lost the bandage on her palm during the attack, and the wound bled. He rolled from the tent, and then opened the first aid kit in order to treat her wounds.
“The wind’s died,” he called to her. “The sun has warmed the air.” Standing one-legged and half-naked on the melting snow, he basked in the beams of bright morning light.
***
Destiny emerged from the tent and stared. His naked back, broad and muscular, was the first thing she spied. Those muscles moved in harmony as his arms held up her backpack while he searched inside. His trim waist flared slightly at the hips, as he stood with his weight on one leg, while she feared he’d reinjured his leg. Lowering her gaze to the round buttocks molded by his jeans, the thrill that had raced down her spine two months ago was nothing to the stimulation zipping through her body at this point in time. She’d seen those thighs unclothed. She’d had that perfect body pressed against hers as she straddled him on her little bed. She’d tasted the salty texture of the skin encircling his nipples. She’d smelled the musky scent of his arousal.
Padding barefoot to his side, they stood together outside the tent. He turned and smiled at her, and her toes curled. At least her feet had thawed, and she smiled back. The pain had grown manageable, though she hopped foot to foot.
Jacob held her injured hand as if it would break, then expertly bandaged her palm. Cocooned in the rescue blanket, tears leaked down her cheeks as the love she felt for this man welled up. Jacob’s concern crossed his face in the form of arched eyebrows and an open mouth.
“Calm down, my love. You’ve survived a horrible ordeal, and we’ll get you home safe.” He pressed a kiss to her bandaged palm. “Did I hurt you, honey?”
Honey? My love?
The cold and pain forgotten, Destiny let the blanket fall and threw both arms around his neck. His encircled her as he dragged her into an amorous embrace. They stood beside the cliff, watching the sun rise higher in the sky. Jacob and Destiny cuddled in each other’s warmth until a horrific scream interrupted their passionate interlude.