Page 14 of Winter’s Heart (Three of Hearts #1)

“Yours is on the counter,” Petar pointed to another mug next to the stove.

“I’m going to get her some warm socks and a blanket.

” He was gone before Jacob could say it was a great idea.

He hunkered down beside Nikki so his face was level with hers, groaning as his numb legs protested at the movement.

“How are you?” he asked, scanning her pale features for signs of hypothermia.

Her lovely countenance told him everything he needed to know.

Her cheeks were ashen, but her teeth had stopped chattering, and while the lines around her eyes were drawn with tiredness, there remained a tiny spark in them that lifted his heart.

Her long, blonde hair was a snarl of tangles where it’d flapped free below the balaclava, making her look even more girlish and vulnerable.

“Better now. Your friend makes the best chocolate. He may well have just saved my life.” She gave an appreciative slurp and then licked her lips, drawing his gaze down to her mouth.

Her lips were recovering some of their pink color, and he watched, fascinated, as she swept a drop of chocolate from the corner of her mouth with her tongue, pulling it inside where she savored the taste.

Fixated, he could do nothing but stare at her lips.

He could barely believe it, but even now, half-frozen and running for his life, all he could think about was what it’d be like to kiss those lips.

He’d wanted to taste her back at his hut, but now the urge was even greater, the ridiculous notion that they’d just escaped from a dire situation driving him to want to capture the moment right now, while he still could.

Nikki’s breath hitched as she caught him staring at her mouth, and she bit her bottom lip, her gaze locking onto his.

Something fiery flared in the depths of her ocean-blue eyes.

God, she was sexy, and so damn tempting.

With the face of an angel, so innocent, yet there was a core of steel and passion coursing just below the surface; he could feel it.

“What are you…?” Her voice was a whisper.

What indeed? He closed his eyes, trying to break the spell. But her fingers found his cheek, rasping against his three-day growth, and —

A door banged behind him and Jacob sprang to his feet, backing away from Nikki just as Petar bustled into the kitchen, arms full of blankets.

“Here, this one is for you.” His friend tossed a gray fleece blanket in Jacob’s direction, then bent over Nikki, reverentially draping another blanket around her shoulders.

Jacob turned to face the countertop, pretending to untangle the thick material and wrap it around his shoulders, while he gave the bulge in his pants a chance to retreat.

What had he been thinking? That was the second time he’d come close to kissing her.

He retrieved his mug, his glacial hands welcoming the warmth of the hot drink into his palms. A coffee drinker, he screwed up his nose as he took a sip of the sweet, creamy liquid, but was quietly surprised.

The last occasion he’d drunk hot chocolate had been when he was a kid, but Nikki was right; this was damn good stuff.

He could feel the sugar reviving him already.

Petar was now on his knees, helping Nikki pull a woolen sock gently over her sore foot.

Jacob took a chair next to Nikki, giving his friend a hard look as he continued to fuss around her.

A surprising sliver of jealousy wormed its way through his gut as he watched Petar tend to her.

Not something he was used to, especially when he was on the job.

But he seemed unable to control that hint of possessiveness when it came to this woman, and he wanted to growl at Petar to get away from her.

Petar must’ve felt the vibe of Jacob’s growing ire, and rose to his feet with a small frown in Jacob’s direction, leaving Nikki to pull on the other sock by herself.

Dragging out a seat on the other side of the table and stretching out his long, pajama-clad legs, Petar said, “So, are you going to tell me what’s happening? ”

Nikki stopped, the mug half-way to her mouth, and shared a look with Jacob, uncertainty in her gaze.

“Do you mind if we close the curtains?” Jacob asked.

It was a Swedish tradition to leave a small lamp burning in the window, possibly stemming from the belief it would send out its golden light like a beacon in the snow, to help guide people lost in a blizzard home.

Usually the drapes also remained open, but tonight Jacob needed privacy.

Jacob could feel Petar’s growing puzzlement, but he got up and did as Jacob requested, twitching the curtains shut and making sure not even a chink of light was visible. He sat down again and stared pointedly at Jacob.

“It’s okay, we can talk in front of Petar.

I trust him with my life,” he assured Nikki.

Petar was Sámi, like himself. There was an unwritten code; they would do anything to protect their community and the people in it.

Once his mother had brought him and his sister back to rejoin the family, even though Jacob may have moved away to join the police force, he would always be Sámi in the clan’s eyes.

Nikki’s gaze darted between the two men, narrowing when it came to rest on Jacob. “Well, I guess I trust him with my life then too.”

Petar gave a grunt and sat up straighter, but to his credit, said nothing.

Jacob quickly outlined the day’s events, starting with his phone call from the deputy commissioner and ending with their harrowing flight on the snowmobile. All the while, Nikki watched him with those big, trusting, blue eyes of hers.

“Shit. That’s intense,” Petar replied when Jacob stopped speaking. “That must’ve been tough even for a hardened police officer.” He switched his gaze over to Nikki. “But it must’ve been damn scary for you.”

She merely nodded, perhaps not wanting to relive it all over again.

“Yeah, intense is one word for it,” Jacob butted in, dragging his friend’s attention back to himself. “Look, mate, I hope I haven’t brought trouble to your door, but we had nowhere else to go. I mean, I couldn’t go to my mother’s because—”

Petar held up his hand. “Of course you shouldn’t involve your family; I completely understand.

You know you’re always welcome here, no matter what issues you might drag in behind you,” he added with a cheeky grin.

“And who doesn’t love a bit of drama now and then?

But you know I can look after myself, so don’t you worry about that.

” Petar sobered quickly as he spoke. “And you also know I will keep an eye on your family, so don’t worry about them either. ”

Yes, he could look after himself, Jacob knew, and it was one reason he’d come straight here.

Petar was tough, a true Northern Sami man.

He could hunt, survive in the wilderness, and even kill a man if that was ever necessary.

Then there was the fact that the clans would protect Petar.

This was one unbreakable little community that looked after each other and had each other’s backs.

If the gunmen turned up, they would soon be run out of town, or worse; they were the ones who should be afraid.

But the sooner Jacob could be out of here, the sooner Petar would be out of immediate danger.

Which led him to his next request. “I need to borrow a car,” Jacob said flatly.

He knew he was asking a lot. In this small town, a vehicle was essential to get around.

There was no public transport to speak of, except buses that infrequently traveled the main roads between the remote communities, out to Lule? on the coast, or to the larger cities further south.

Petar’s job as the manager at the local pulp mill, which was fifteen miles out of town, meant that he used his car every day to drive to work.

Jacob would leave his friend in the lurch by calling in this favor.

Petar had a snowmobile, of course, but those were for emergencies only in freezing weather such as this.

Apart from stealing a car, however, he couldn’t think of any alternatives.

They needed to get to Lule? in a hurry, and a vehicle was the only way to do it.

Petar scrubbed a hand across his forehead. “I was afraid you were going to say that,” he said with a sigh. “Of course you can have my Volvo.”

“What about my hire car? Can’t we use that?

” Nikki interrupted. It was the first time she’d spoken since Jacob had started his story.

Jacob had watched the color slowly come back to her face, her skin losing that pale, translucent look from her exposure to the freezing temperatures.

The heat of Petar’s kitchen and his hot chocolate were doing the trick to revive her.

Jacob felt a stab of regret that he’d been the one to inflict such suffering on her.

If he could’ve kept her warm and safe in his hut until morning, he would’ve.

They’d had no choice but to flee, however, and he hoped with all his heart that her hands and feet weren’t permanently scarred from this experience.

Which reminded him he should take another peek soon.

“They’ll most likely be on the lookout for your vehicle,” Jacob said softly.

“Oh.” Comprehension dawned on her face.

“I’ll arrange for someone to get it back to the hire company in the next few days once you’re safe.

” Then as an afterthought, he turned to Petar and added, “Can you please let Andreas Eriksson know he doesn’t need to collect Nikki from his hut tomorrow.

Tell him as little as possible about the reasons why,” Jacob added.