I have to offer,” he said. “Now, my advice to you would be to get naked right here at the door and drop your clothes where they are. Because there’s only one dry towel left, and I imagine you’d rather have it for yourself and not bring all the water and mud into the cabin.”
“Did you strip at the door?” she asked.
“No, I just wish I had.”
Paige laughed and motioned for him to turn around so she could start stripping. She’d do anything right then to be warm and dry.
He turned to the side and held up the towel between them. She didn’t think she’d ever taken her clothes off that quickly. Not that it was easy, since everything was heavy with water and her fingers were practically numb.
But she got them off, leaving them in a sopping pile on the floor in the doorway, then took the towel and wrapped it around herself.
He just grinned and handed her the dry clothes.
“Is that a real bathroom over there?” she asked.
“There’s no hot water, if that’s what you’re asking. But there is running water. Rainwater collection system on the roof, so there’s no shortage of water now. Some semblance of a shower, if you could stand the cold. But there is a toilet that flushes and everything.”
“That’s it. I’m in love with this place,” she said, heading across the room for the bathroom. “If there were dry socks somewhere, I’d be in heaven.”
“I’ll see what I can do,” he promised.
“And a fire? Dry socks and a fire? You are my hero!”
“Simple girl, are you? Easy to please?”
“Today I am,” she promised, shutting herself into the tiny bathroom.
He’d found a candle in the bathroom and left it burning. The room was tiny, primitive, but clean. She rubbed herself down briskly, dismissed completely the idea of a cold shower right now. Maybe once he got a big fire going, she’d try it. For the moment, she hurried into the boxers, the sweatpants and the flannel shirt.
They felt fabulous. Better than any designer gown she’d ever tried on.
Then she went to work trying to squeeze what water she could out of her hair.
Finally, she wrapped it in the towel and went into the main room.
He had a fire just starting to burn in the giant stone fireplace and she knew they’d soon be warm, given how small the cabin was, once the fire really got going.
She sat down on the raised stone hearth, and her hero presented her with luxuriously thick, warm socks.
“Ahhh!” She moaned in pure ecstasy, then exclaimed, “That’s it. It’s official. I would do absolutely anything for you!”
“Red, I haven’t even made you a cup of hot coffee yet, but I’m about to. What is that gonna get me?”
“I don’t know. What do you want?”
“Well, if that fire was going and this place was even halfway warm, I’d have dried you off myself and not given you any clothes to wear. I’d have taken you straight to bed. But I was planning on being gentlemanly about it and warming the place up first, maybe getting some food in you, and then getting you naked. That was my plan.”
“That sounds like an absolutely glorious plan.”
Okay, just like that.
They had a plan.
A highly satisfying plan.
Travis figured there was only one other thing he absolutely had to do before hauling her off to bed, and that was to try to get hold of someone at the ranch house, just so they’d know he was okay and not waste time trying to find him.
He was sure they had better things to do right now, to make sure everything else on the ranch was okay. He could wait. He might be very happy waiting here with her, letting someone else take care of things for a change.
After all, how many times did he find himself stranded with a gorgeous, willing woman?
It was definitely a first for him. Years of good clean living and hard work were being rewarded right here, he decided. He deserved it and he intended to enjoy it. She would, too. He’d make sure of it.
But first, he took her satellite phone and dialed the ranch. Nothing but static greeted him, despite repeated attempts.
“Try it outside,” she suggested, warming herself by the fire, just starting to catch well and throw off some heat and light. “There’s just enough of an overhang on the roof to keep you dry, and point the antenna toward the mine. That’s where I finally found a signal.”
“Okay. Be right back, Red.”
He got outside. Lord, it was a miserable day out there, but he was smiling, whistling, even.
He did as she suggested and pointed the antenna toward the mine, and sure enough, there was something of a signal. His housekeeper, a fierce-looking, no-nonsense woman named Marta, answered.
At least, he thought it was her.
The line crackled with static.
“Marta, it’s Travis. I’m holed up in the hunting cabin near the Eagle Mine. I’m fine. Tell the men to see to the animals and not to worry about coming to get me until they can.”
She said something. He thought she got it. Then asked, “Everything okay there, Marta? Look, tell Jack that the creek near the mine is a roaring river right now, not to be in a hurry to try to cross it to get to me. I’m fine.”
He hoped she got that, because the static only got worse. He clicked off the phone and let it be.
He realized he hadn’t said anything about his pretty trespasser, but then, what was the point? Nobody there really needed to know, he reasoned.
It was his ranch, and he’d decide for himself what to do with her once they were out of here.
Travis sighed and looked out into the mess of the storm.
He intended to enjoy himself in what time they had here. They’d figure out the rest later.
She sat on the hearth and used the towel to dry her hair as best she could, then finger-combed it to get out the tangles and separate the strands in hopes it might dry faster.
The fire was soon roaring. With that and the light from the half-dozen candles that she found scattered around the room, she could finally see, after hours in the dark and the ghostly gloom. When she had a mug of hot coffee in her hand, her life was nearly complete.
Paige was so busy thinking about what was to come between them that it was only after he’d gone outside and then come back in that she remembered something she should have already discussed with him.
He really had her completely distracted, thinking only of how much she wanted to be curled up in that bed with him naked in his arms.
She looked up as he came back into the cabin, her thoughts warring between him and what she wanted from him, versus her own family and what she’d come here to do.
And she hated asking this of him, bringing this into it, but she had to. She looked up at him and said, “You didn’t tell anyone at the ranch what I was doing, did you?”
“No,” he said.
But he’d gone still by the doorway, staring at her.
When he stepped closer, into the fall of light from the roaring fire and the candles, she could finally really see him. Not like that glimpse she had through the binoculars when she’d quickly, guiltily looked away. No rain falling between them now, no fog, no storm and no darkness.
He was tall, his body lean and beautifully muscled, hair dark, eyes dark and unfathomable at the moment.