Page 39 of Her Property

All signs told her to wait, to stay put, to keep out of it.

But Cat’s feet moved forward. If she hurried, maybe she’d get to his place before the rain hit. She began half-jogging in the direction of Jake’s cabin. It was a half-hour trek to the camp, she’d timed it yesterday on her walk. But the cabin was closer, maybe twenty minutes. Going fast would hopefully cut even more time.

Branches crackled around her and the trees next to the drive moaned as they bent back and forth.

She was ten minutes in before she realized how stupid this idea was. Besides the creeping doubt that she was even doing the right thing, the wind had grown stronger than ever.

She should have turned around right away. Now she was too far in.

There was a crack overhead as a branch split from a tree. It landed with a thud on the ground in front of her, making her jump.

Shit.Rain began to splatter through the naked branches of the trees, needling at her face and scalp.

What have you done, Cat? What the hell have you done?

Panic rang through her. She needed to turn around. But when she looked up, she froze.

Jake was standing in the road before her.

Jake

“What were you thinking?” he yelled over the wind as he pulled Cat’s body towards him. He tucked her into his side, leaning forward against the wind and rain. Even in this storm, amidst the physical danger and his fear something might have happened to her, his heart hammered with the feeling of her there in his arms.

Safe.

This was what he’d been wanting for the past two days. He’d wanted her here, next to him. He knew he’d lost the camp. Spending one last moment with her was the only good he could see coming out of this.

What wereyouthinking?” she shouted back. Her voice was almost lost in the roar of wind around them.

I was thinking of you.

He’d gone out to see her for a different purpose. He was going to tell her he was giving up. Now that she was here, all he could think about was her, next to him.

How much he wanted her. How much he’d wanted her from the beginning.

They crashed through Jake’s front door in a whirl of leaves and howl of wind. He slammed the door behind them with his boot.

They separated, but stayed standing only inches apart, facing one another. Cat’s hair was blown out all around her, her cheeks ruddy with cold and slick with rain.

An electricity that had nothing to do with the storm crackled around them. Everything he’d wanted to say fell away.

Jake swept her up in his arms and took her mouth with his. The sensation of her lips against his ripped through him, searing his whole body with lightning-white heat. He crushed her body to his, feeling her breasts press up against his chest while he flicked his tongue against hers, nipping at her lips. When she moaned, his cock strained against his zipper.

“I don’t know about you,” he said against her lips, “but I’m freezing.”

He dipped his face to her neck, drawing his tongue against her skin, up to her earlobe.

She moaned again as he breathed into her ear. “What do you have in mind?” she said.

“Something they do in the mountains when a climber—” he pushed off her sodden coat, “—is at risk of hypothermia.”

“What’s that?”

“We need to get skin to skin.”

Catherine let out a breath, and he pulled away. He had to see her.

Her sweater—a delicate white knit—was thin enough that the points of her nipples lifted the fabric. He brought his hands down pinched them between his thumb and forefinger. She closed her eyes again and tipped her head back.

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