Page 10 of Stuck With Mr. Frosty (Delectable Protectors #5)

MIA

I roll over, wincing when my ankle tightens. It feels worse than it did yesterday. As I groan, Honey shifts beside me, yawning and shuffling closer, her tail wagging.

With a grin I run my fingers through her fur. I could get used to waking up with a dog in the bed. I always wanted one when I was younger, but Mom said it would be too much work. She never wanted to deal with a dog when she was the only one trying to provide for our small little family.

“Hey, girl,” I murmur, laughing when she stretches and crawls closer. Her tongue drags over the side of my face. “Yeah, good morning to you too. Why don’t we go see what there is for food for you?”

Honey’s ears perk up and she bounds out of bed, pawing at the closed door. I stare at it for a moment, not sure I want to go out there and face Aiden. Yesterday was humiliating beyond all reason.

I shouldn’t have been out there in that storm. As soon as it started snowing, I should’ve turned around and gone back to the cabins. Instead, I kept going, thinking that I could make it, turning myself around.

And now I’m in a tiny cabin with a man I barely know. I want to get to know him, though.

Maybe the long walk back to the resort is going to make him see that I’m not the person he thinks I am.

As I swing my legs to the side and try to stand, my ankle gives out. I fall back to the bed and grit my teeth. The pain is horrible, but it doesn’t feel like anything more than a severe twist.

I let out a breath and get to my feet again, this time able to hold myself up. It’s a slow limp to the door, but I manage, pulling it open and giving Honey enough room to dart out before I follow her.

“You’re up.” Aiden glances my way before crossing the room and looping his arm around my waist. “Come on. Let’s get you settled. It’s not like we’re going to be going anywhere anyway.”

“We’re not?” I try to ignore the butterflies in my stomach.

His fingers drift along my ribs through the thin material of my shirt.

Tingles run through my body. If I didn’t know any better, I would think that the way his fingertips brushed along the underside of my breast was intentional.

I’d think that it’s a subtle touch designed to drive me crazy, not the touch of a man who’s just helping me to the couch.

I ease down onto the couch. “Thank you. Now, why aren’t we going anywhere?”

Aiden goes to the window and yanks open the curtains, showing off the wall of white outside. “Storm got worse. I used the emergency radio to tell Carter that we’re fine so he doesn’t try to send out a search party.”

I nod and grab the throw pillows, stuffing them under my foot to keep it propped up. “How long do you think we’re going to be here?”

Though I want to get to know him, I want the ability to put distance between us.

I don’t want to spend the rest of the day too close to him.

Getting carried into that bedroom and finding out that we’d have to share was horrible.

And then he put me into bed, let Honey get in with me, and turned around to walk out.

Somehow, that was worse than if he had climbed in bed with me.

I don’t think I would’ve been too interested in keeping my hands to myself, but it might’ve made for an interesting time.

“Shouldn’t be more than a day. Maybe two. Give the snow some time to settle.” Aiden comes over and sits on the coffee table, pulling my foot into his lap. “How is it this morning?”

“Still hurts.”

He laughs, his big hands massaging my foot and ankle, the callouses on his hands rough against my skin.

A shiver rolls down my spine. He keeps prodding at my ankle, moving it this way and that.

“Yeah, I didn’t think it was going to feel great.

You really had it wedged in there. You’re going to have to tell me how you managed to do that. ”

“One wrong step, I guess.” My cheeks feel like they’re on fire. “It’s not like I went out with the intention to get caught between the rocks and then bust up my ankle. Sometimes these things just happen.”

“Oh, they do.” He gently puts my foot back down on the pillows. “I meant what I said last night. I’m sorry for how horrible I was at the party. There’s no excuse.”

I press my lips together into a thin line, studying him. “Why’d you change up like that? I thought we were getting along? You were having a good time, and then all of a sudden, you were accusing me of being vapid.”

“Yeah, well, I’m an idiot.”

“Huh.” I glare at his back as he stands and walks over to the kitchenette, rummaging through some of the food in the cabinets before going to his bag. “Does telling people that you think you’re an idiot usually get you out of explaining yourself?”

He stiffens, his tense muscles visible under the tight-fitting thermal shirt he wears. “Yeah. Usually.”

“Cool, well, just so you know, that’s not going to work with me. So, I guess you should tell me why that happened.”

Aiden clears his throat, pulling out a few breakfast MREs from his bag. “Didn’t think much about it. I have a hard time dealing with people. Got in my own head about some other stuff. You just happened to be the unlucky person in my path.”

“I was the only person in your path.”

He prepares the French toast MREs, setting them to the side to finish heating up. When he turns and faces me, leaning back against the counter, his muscled arms crossing over his chest, I clench my thighs together. I try to ignore the feeling building low in my body, but it’s hard to ignore.

Aiden looks at me, his gaze seeming to burn straight through me.

“Well, yeah, there’s that. Look, I don’t know what’s going on with either of us, and I’m not good at this friendship thing, but you seem like it’s something you want, and I’ve been told that it could be good for me to have some more friends, so… ”

The corner of my mouth twitches. “That might be the most you’ve ever said to me.”

He rolls his eyes and gets up, but he can’t quite hide the smile on his face fast enough. “Honey, you want some kibble?”

“I just want you to know that I’m going to tell everyone that you want to be my friend. They’re not going to believe it. All of them are going to be thinking that I’m making it up, but don’t you worry, I’ll make sure they know.”

Aiden pulls a bag of kibble and a bowl from his bag, filling it up before tucking the bag away. He grabs the bowl of water he set out for her last night, cleans it and fills it with fresh water.

He glances at me as he sets the bowl down. “You could tell them whatever you want, but I doubt any of them are going to believe you.”

“Maybe not, but somebody has to.” I smirk and shift on the couch, nodding to the fireplace. “Want to show me how to light that since we’re going to be here for a while?”

He goes back to the food and turns it out onto plates before bringing the food and a set of forks over. “You don’t know how to light a fire?”

“Please. I just spent endless years of my life in the hospital and in college. I have no clue how to do any of the wilderness stuff my mom did. She used to teach me when I was younger, but when I got to be a teenager, I stopped wanting to spend time with her on the slopes. I spent way too much time hanging out with kids my age.”

“I didn’t know your mother.” Aiden sits down on the other end of the couch. It’s still not close to me, but it’s better than it was last night. “But I did know of her. Never met anyone with anything bad to say about her.”

Unless my eyes are deceiving me, he keeps glancing at me with interest shining bright in his eyes. There’s a tension that lingers in the room, making my heart beat faster.

“Thank you.” I take a bite of the French toast.

“Is she why you did that trail?” Aiden moves closer to me, his feet on the table, brushing against my good one.

Another shiver runs through my body, my blood freezing in my veins before it all goes rushing at once.

“Yeah.” I force the word out, trying not to focus on how warm the room seems to be getting despite the fact that the only heat in the cabin is coming from the wood stove.

“Why?” He puts his empty plate on the table, shooting Honey a warning look when she starts to lick the syrup from the plate. She doesn’t pay him any mind, continuing on her mission.

I smile and finish my own food, shrugging. “Don’t know.”

“Now who’s the one copping out?” He gets off the couch and kneels beside the fireplace, motioning to the ground beside him. “Come on. I’ll teach you how to light a fire, and you’re going to tell me all about what the hell possessed you to send yourself up a trail called Devil’s Pass.”

I swallow hard and ease off the couch, kneeling down beside him, careful not to jostle my ankle too much. “I didn’t know it was called that. I just remembered where the entry point was and what it looked like from all the paintings Mom did.”

Aiden grabbed some old newspapers and paper towel tubes and ripped them into small pieces. “This is the tinder. It’s stuff that’s easy to burn, and it’s what you’re going to put down first.”

I nod, taking some from him and placing it into the center of the hearth. “Okay.”

He grabs some tiny sticks and stacks them in a cone shape on top of the tinder. “So, if you only saw Devil’s Pass in paintings, what made you think that you’d be able to climb it?”

“I’m in pretty good shape. I like to stay active, even though I don’t have time for a whole lot these days.”

“Kindling.” He nods to the little sticks. “You want to make sure that they’re burning good before adding a log, so you start increasing the size of the sticks until you can get up to the logs.” Aiden pulls a lighter from his pocket. “This is a whole lot easier to do if you have this.”

I laugh and take the lighter from him, flicking it and igniting the tinder, watching it catch the bottom of the kindling cone on fire. “Yeah, I’d say that’s pretty easy.”

He adds thicker sticks to the cone. “Still doesn’t make sense why you stayed out there once the storm started up.”