Page 5 of Trapped (Snowbound with a Stranger #2)

Next Steps

Erin

“The fire’s gone out.”

There should have been more alarm in my voice as I noticed the cinders, but the warmth of his body was so consoling that it didn’t seem to matter. I rose over his chest, squeezing his dick, which was still lodged inside me.

“Should I put another log on, sir?”

“You’ll do no such thing.”

An impish smile met my gaze.

“I need your body heat.’

“But, sir?”

Giving in to the tug of his arms, I relented and folded back over his hard body with a sigh. It wasn’t such an ordeal to be flush against the man who’d just rocked me to the stars, but some distant part of my head was aware that my concern was valid. The cabin needed a heat source if we wanted to stay alive.

“We need a plan.”

My fingers brushed over his chest hair, imploring him to see reason. The magic we’d carved out in the dusty wooden lodge was truly a joy, but nothing more could bloom from the dynamic if we didn’t survive the frozen onslaught.

“I know.”

His attention flitted to the roof as though the answers to all our problems resided there, but they didn’t. I had already checked.

“We need to save the firewood as much as we can. If the temperatures outside stay below freezing, then the snow won’t thaw, and that means we’re stuck here.”

My lids fell closed at his gloomy prognosis. I understood that he was right, but hearing the words aloud was gloomier than I’d imagined.

“We need to eat too.”

I sensed the hesitation in his voice, the quandary obvious. If we didn’t eat, we’d never stay warm, but with such little food left, it was another resource to be rationed.

“I have fruit in my bag.”

Twisting toward the rucksack, I recalled how close I’d been to abandoning him and missing out on the recent intimacy. I’d been so determined, so hellbent on getting away and finding Chelle, but between his palm and the ice, there’d been no choice but to cede.

Breathing in his spicy scent, I wondered how I’d have fared had I had the opportunity to leave. Bravado liked to think I’d have made the hour-plus trek in my woefully ill-prepared outfit, but experience warned of a different outcome. I thought I’d been worldly wise enough to survive Chelle’s invitation, but I knew without Eli’s guidance, my chances of still being warm and alive would have been significantly reduced. As much as I wanted to dismiss my inexperience, it showed. I hadn’t even brought adequate waterproofs with me when I’d packed.

“So, now you want to stay, little girl?”

His wry tone drew my focus back to his face.

“I still want to get out there and make sure Chelle’s okay,”

I told him.

“But let’s just say you made sticking around more appealing when you stopped telling me what to do and let me ride your cock.”

“What makes you think I’ve finished telling you what to do?”

His lips twisted.

“I was clear about how this is going to work.”

“You’re impossible.”

Breaking free of his embrace, I slid from his tempting cock.

“I’m just saying, I prefer this to the spanking.”

“Sure.”

Shaking his head against the pillow, I sensed he was holding back what he wanted to say.

“I remember how much you hated that.”

“I did hate it.”

Climbing out of the bed, I found my feet, suddenly conscious of how cold the cabin had become while we’d been entwined.

“You had no right.”

“We’ve been through this.”

He rose to full height beside me.

“You got what you deserved, little girl.”

“You’d better be joking.”

His inherent gender bias was maddening, and naturally, the fact that I found his old-style macho behavior simultaneously arousing only compounded the problem.

“There’s no way I deserved to be treated that way!”

He smirked, turning to tug the top cover from the bed. “Here.”

Draping it around my shoulders, he wandered past me, all bulging biceps and ripped abdominals.

“Save your body warmth.”

“Don’t change the subject,”

I hissed, trying not to allow my stare to linger on his muscular back as he fell to one knee in front of my pack. The man looked good enough to eat.

“I’m looking for food.”

He didn’t even glance up as he yanked my bag open.

“What fruit did you bring?”

“Eli.”

My hands balled into fists as I gripped the blanket closer around me.

I appreciated the cover and his concern, and I realized I’d just suggested what to eat, but his ability to deflect from the most important topic of conversation, second only to the matter of our survival, was enraging. I adored the sexy chemistry between us, and especially the way he’d started to open up, but I couldn’t abide his take-charge approach when it could see me face first over his thighs.

“Want to rephrase that, little girl?”

Peering up at me, one of his dark eyebrows arched, daring me to defy him. I didn’t need to ask what my so-called insolence would likely earn me; my racing heart sped up as if to confirm the point.

Give me strength! Is that what they taught him in spy school?

Biting back on my frustration, I blocked out his smug stare. There I was trying to discuss my physical welfare, and he was trying to change the subject. If the guy had genuinely worked in espionage—and he certainly seemed to be a potential candidate—then how had that worked? I couldn’t imagine him throwing an asset over his lap if they didn’t agree to his terms.

“Do you really think what I call you is the most significant issue right now, sir?”

My pussy clenched beneath the blanket, aware how much I liked the label, even if I wasn’t prepared to admit it aloud.

“I know that aside from keeping you safe, my key motivation is your surrender, beautiful.”

He rose, towering over me as he presented one of the bananas I’d packed. “Here.”

He thrust the fruit at me.

“My s-surrender?”

I could hardly believe what I was hearing, though, after previously calling me his property, I shouldn’t have been shocked. I enjoyed the depraved dynamic between us while we attempted to ride out the big freeze, but I had no intention of surrendering. Succumbing to his will between the sheets was one thing, but I wasn’t planning on becoming his slave.

“Is that what you think this is?”

“Take the banana.”

Barking the gravelly command, he managed to blow out a breath as though he was the one who was exasperated. He spun on his heel, heading for his bag as I muttered my reply under my breath.

“You could have said please.”

Stilling, he glanced over his shoulder, his gray eyes boring into me.

“What was that, little girl?”

My heart beat faster at his glare, but I refused to back down. Manners cost nothing.

“I said, you could have said please, sir.”

Once again, I added emphasis to the word he wanted to hear so badly, my tone in contradiction to the nervous energy snaking inside me.

“True.”

He turned to look at me in one smooth motion.

“I could have been more courteous, but you could equally be more compliant.”

“How am I not being compliant?”

“That tone for a start.”

He folded his strapping arms—the same ones that had so recently wrapped around me—across his chest.

“Keep that up and see where it lands you.”

Tossing the banana to the bed, my hands rose to my hips.

“I can’t have the use of physical force hanging over my head the entire time we’re here.”

“Physical force?”

A conceited expression lit up his otherwise irritatingly handsome face.

“We’ve been through that as well, little girl. No harm has come to you.”

“You held me down and hurt me.”

I pressed my thighs together, trying not to remember how else his ambush had affected me.

“I can’t just get over that.”

“Why aren’t you eating?”

His focus flitted to the fruit flung on the covers behind me.

“Stop changing the subject!”

I wanted to screech with irritation.

“You’re either barking instructions or deflecting.”

“I’m looking after you.”

His hands fell to his side.

“Though God knows you don’t make it easy, do you?”

“Me?”

Was he being ironic? He’d done nothing but avoid talking about what really mattered, proving that nothing about Eli was ever easy.

“We both need to eat, and I’m sharing with you, sir.”

His face softened.

“That's kind.”

“I am.”

Usually. I held back the final word, cognizant of fresh heat pooling on my cheeks as he held my gaze, though how a man who’d already seen me strewn over his lap could cause embarrassment was totally beyond me.

“You just seem to bring out a different facet of me.”

By my own stubborn standards, the insistent friction between Eli and me was growing troublesome. Even if I didn’t have to worry about the low-lying threat of his palm, constantly butting heads wasn’t helping us out of our snowbound situation.

“That’s funny.”

His laughter washed over me.

“I was thinking something similar about you.”

“Really?”

Standing there, he seemed just as brooding and foreboding as the man I’d first met on the bridge. It wasn’t obvious how I’d changed him.

“Oh, yes.”

He smiled.

“You have broken through much of my armor, little girl, though goodness only knows how.”

My sentiments exactly.

“I can’t imagine anyone I’d rather be stuck here with.”

He pressed his lips into a hard line, suggesting there was more he had to say on the subject.

“Well, thanks?” I guess.

“Let’s start over, shall we?”

He gestured to his bag.

“I have a few energy bars with me, so we could share those as well.”

“Sounds good.”

Having actual carbohydrates sounded bloody excellent. I’d have considered killing for a basket of bread right about then.

“Thank you, sir.”

“Thank you, little girl.”

He nodded his appreciation.

“Things can be a lot simpler between us if we both remember our manners.”

I couldn’t disagree on that point. We needed to turn our attention to staying alive beyond the few miserly pieces of wood we had left and the handful of provisions. The sooner we reached an accord, the better.

“Please, sit down.”

He signaled to the bed.

“I’ll bring an energy bar over.”

Retreating to the bed, I perched on the edge when the backs of my calves met the remaining covers, watching as he searched his rucksack. Clenching my cheeks, I refused to allow my mind to linger on how sore my ass was, or the reasons behind the tenderness. I appreciated a more convivial atmosphere between us and knew it would assist with formulating a plan, but deep down, I still wanted answers to the questions he’d denied me.

Why did he think it was acceptable to yank me over his thighs when I’d wanted to leave? Why had a man I’d more closely associated with quiet capability resorted to spanking when I’d sought to defy him?

And why did I love it so much?

My brow furrowed at the latter and most disturbing query. I had no resolution for that one. Even if Eli apologized for tanning my backside and resolved to never manhandle me, I couldn’t understand my body’s reaction to it. For every facet of me that had sought to spit in his face, there was another that had longed to yield and enjoy the submission, and that simply wasn’t comprehensible.

Raised to be an independent woman, I’d learned to provide for myself, and I hadn’t needed a second opinion since the useless Ray had exited my life. Colliding with a man like Eli had been something of a culture shock. I was hugely attracted to his quiet know-how and couldn’t deny how fucking hot his body was, but I couldn’t abide the latent chauvinism that seemed to simmer inside him.

“Here.”

Lost in my thoughts, I hadn’t noticed his short journey back to the bed, but the jolt as he sat down beside me abruptly reminded me, as did the energy bar he pushed in my direction.

“Thanks.”

I glanced down at the orange lettering on the wrapper.

“The banana is—”

“I have it.”

He thrust the fruit into my peripheral vision, already peeling back its yellow skin. Breaking off a third of the banana, he handed me the remainder.

“This is for you.”

“But I’ve got too much,”

I murmured as he laid the fruit on the blanket covering the top of my thigh.

“We should have fifty per cent each.”

“This is fine for me,”

he insisted.

“Have what you want of the energy bar, too.”

“You need to eat as well, sir.”

I didn’t know much about muscle, but even I knew he needed to eat a significant number of calories to grow a body as tempting as his.

“I said, I’m fine.”

Reaching over the blanket, he squeezed my knee as he chewed on the end of the banana.

“Now, do yourself a favor and eat.”