Page 26 of Because You Loved Me

He handed her his phone, open to the map app. “Here. You tell me.”

Noa looked from him to the phone in her hand. She waited a beat for him to elaborate. He didn’t.

* * *

They drove in silence, with the exception of Noa relaying the instructions from the map. She wasn’t a stranger to snowy roads, but as a city girl, Noa didn’t spend much time, if any, on the backroads in the mountains.

More than a few times, she would have been frightened if she’d been behind the wheel, but Asher obviously knew what he was doing and less than thirty minutes later, they pulled up in front of a snow-covered cabin tucked into the forest.

“Where are we?” She handed him his phone back.

“Got me.” He shrugged and turned the truck off. “Stay here for a second.”

Without waiting for a response, Asher shut the door behind him and picked his way through the snow to the front door.

A million questions flashed through her head, but Noa was aware that she wasn’t in any position to be asking much of him. Not after he’d finally agreed not to take her back to her wedding. She was also painfully aware that she hadn’t given Asher much of an explanation for the night before, either. Or anything, really.

She watched while he pulled a key from his pocket and wrestled with the door for a moment before pushing it open. He disappeared inside, but a second later, reappeared and made his way back through the snow to the truck.

“Are you going to tell me where we are?” she asked the moment he opened her truck door.

“I told you, I don’t know.”

“Should I be worried that you’re going to kidnap me, have your way with me, and leave me for dead?”

“Looks like the ship has sailed on the kidnap thing, intentional or not.” He stopped and gave her a wry look. “As for leaving you for dead, if I wanted to do that, you’d currently be a bridal popsicle on that forestry road back there.”

It probably would have been a wiser decision to keep her mouth shut, given the situation she was currently in, but Noa couldn’t help but notice he hadn’t addressed the third part of her question. “So you do plan on having your way with me?” She winked, feeling bold now that she wasn’t at risk of being delivered back into her fiancé’s waiting arms.

Asher’s nostrils flared, and he sucked in a breath. A sound that may have been a low growl slipped from his throat a moment before he reached into the truck and once more lifted her into his arms.

“I can walk.”

“The hell you can.”

Noa half expected him to flip her over his shoulder again. A move she wouldn’t object to, despite her previous reaction. Something about the way he manhandled her was doing all kinds of things to her insides.

This time, Asher cradled her in his arms, pressed up against his hard chest. He carried her as if she didn’t weigh anything at all, despite the fact that her dress alone was probably twenty pounds.

He picked his way through the snow to the front door of the cabin and across the threshold inside, where he finally set her on her still frozen feet.

“Did you just carry me across?—”

“Not a word.” He spun around and held up a finger.

Again, his nostrils flared and this time his pupils were blown, clouding his eyes with desire that she could recognize even in the dim light. His gaze traveled down her body. She knew he couldn’t see her feet and that even if he could, he wouldn’t be able to tell just by looking at them that she couldn’t feel her toes.

Still, he shook his head and muttered, “Fuck. You need to warm up.”

He moved across the room, to the built-in rock fireplace on the far wall. There was a stack of wood piled next to it, along with a lighter and a bucket of kindling.

“I hope like hell this chimney isn’t blocked.” Asher knelt on the wood floor in front of the fireplace and got to work while she stood there, just inside the door, feeling useless and, all of a sudden, more than a little self-conscious.

Doubt flooded through her.

What was she doing?

At this moment, she should be raising a glass of champagne to a toast with her new husband.

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