“Yes, you are,” he said with a laugh.
“Don’t you think it’s pretty bad to take advantage of a sick, knocked-out girl?”
“I needed to get you warm, Grace,” he said with a sigh. “So I stripped us both—your clothes were soaked anyway—and held you for a good hour under about a dozen blankets. I think I sweated off ten pounds, but you eventually stopped shivering. Then I changed the bedding around you and washed off before coming back in here.”
“That’s kinda nasty,” she said with an attempt at a giggle. It sounded more like a dying frog.
“I kept you alive,” he reminded her.
“Thank you, Cam,” she said, her laughter gone. “I mean it—thank you. I don’t want to imagine what might have happened if you hadn’t shown up.”
“I could never let anything happen to you, Grace. You realize that, right?”
He moved from behind her, and she wanted to moan her displeasure, but he pulled her so she was lying back down, then crawled in with her, holding her tightly.
“You’ve always been a hero,” she told him, curled up against his chest, enjoying the warmth of his arm across her back.
“I’m certainly no hero, and I will be the first to tell you that I’m not having heroic thoughts with you lying here naked in my arms,” he said with a strained voice. “But right now I need you to close your eyes and get more rest.”
Grace did exactly as he asked and shut her eyes, his scent and warmth carrying her off into a blissful slumber.
Out of bed at last.
Grace dressed in her warmest pajamas, threw a blanket around her shoulders, and slowly made her way down the staircase. Cam was nowhere to be found, so she wandered out to his sunroom, where she was entranced by the winter wonderland before her.
Snow covered the land, the buildings, the trees, and mountains. It made everything look so fresh, so clean. In the heated sunporch, she could gaze at the beauty while staying nice and warm in her small cocoon. Why didn’t the sight of snow make her afraid now? The human mind was sure hard to figure out.
“Is it safe to come sit with you, or are you still grouchy because I woke you and made you drink that tomato soup?” Cam asked as he joined her.
“Yes, I’m still a little steamed about that. You’ll have to take your chances.”
“Okay, but only if you share that blanket.” He pulled the blanket open, making her grumble, then sat next to her, stretching his legs out and throwing his arm along the back of the sofa as he got comfortable.
“Brave man,” she groused, unwilling to admit that the sofa had just become a heck of a lot more comfortable with him sitting there next to her.
“Yes, I’m quite the stud,” he said. “I’ve been known to save lives.”
Grace couldn’t help but laugh. “Your ego is certainly in check,” she told him, then swatted his hand away from her thigh. “And you can keep your hands to yourself.”
“I like touching you. You used to like it just as much as I did,” he reminded her, his fingers running along the top of her thigh, causing a shiver to rush through her.
“I can’t say I remember liking that,” she lied.
“You liked more than my touch, Grace. You loved my kisses, too.”
“They were okay,” she said, now completely lying. They were always fantastic.
“Ha!” he chuckled, bringing his arm around her and twining his fingers in her damp hair. “I remember when you used to chase me.”
“I most certainly did not,” she informed him huffily. “You were the one chasing me.”
“That’s not how I remember it, Grace. I seem to recall you hanging out at the ranch a lot during roundup season. I think you just wanted to take a look at me after work, when I was shirtless and sweaty.”
This time an almost girlish giggle escaped her. She just couldn’t pretend that wasn’t true. She and Sage had loved hanging around the Whitman ranch, where the boys would be working, half the time without shirts, and, man, had the view been perfect! If only she could go back to those days of innocence.
“I was only here to look at your brothers. They filled out much quicker than you.”
“Well, it’s true that Sage’s eyes never strayed far from Spence,” Cam said. “But, Gracie, yours were all over me. Right from the beginning.”
“You were scrawny, as I recall.” She wasn’t admitting defeat.
“The secret is that I put a little more effort out when you were around. I had to make sure to show off, because watching you waltz around in your tiny tank tops and short shorts had my mouth watering. Damn, it still makes my heart thud to remember those days.”
Her own heart began pounding just thinking about that time, the time before the first kiss, when flirting was second nature, and she’d felt so feminine and powerful in her young womanhood. She’d watched him gazing at her, and she’d loved the power of knowing she was turning this handsome guy on.
“Do you remember our first kiss?” he asked as his fingers slid against her neck. She stopped trying to brush him away.
Revisiting the past like this was a terrible idea, but she couldn’t stop herself from enjoying the journey while Cam was at her side.
“There were so many, I don’t know if I can remember the first.” Of course she did. What she really was fishing for was to see whether he remembered.
“It was just before you turned eighteen, and if I recall, that was the summer you decided to wear clothing that showed all your curves,” he said, looking at her and giving a salacious wink.