“I know you’re tiring,” he panted between breaths, his gaze zipping around ahead of them, charting a course that provided them with plenty of cover. “You can’t rest now.”
Behind them, gunshots rang out and she ducked. She stumbled into his side and he pulled his arm up, hauling her up with it, and yanked her against him. He turned with her, tugging her behind a tree, and plastered her to it, pinning and shielding her with his body. He peered around the broad trunk, breathing fast as his senses stretched out around them. Wind whipped past them, chilling his nape and his damp hair as it hurled snow at them, fat flakes that were growing more numerous as the seconds ticked past.
Knox inhaled a deep breath and looked over his shoulder towards the head of the valley. The storm would hit soon and it was going to hit hard. He didn’t have much time to get Skye to the lodge.
He looked down at her, grew painfully aware of how he was pressed against her and how she was looking at him.
How warm and soft she was.
Gods, he hadn’t been lying in the cabin. She was as beautiful as he remembered. She was older now, but if anything, she had only grown more beautiful. He touched her reddened cheek and frowned as he found she was freezing, the coldness of her skin against his shattering the moment and kicking him back into gear. He jammed the gun down the back of his pants and pulled her hood up for her, covering her hat and her braids, and lingered with his hand close to her face.
“Ready?” he breathed.
She nodded and he grabbed her hand and broke east, towards the mountain, hoping to throw the males off their trail. They hollered to each other in the distance, closing in fast. He kept running with Skye, his pace slower now, matching hers. The wind grew stronger, catching snow that had already fallen and swirling it up into the air. It gusted through the trees, causing the dark green canopy to sway and shed snow in places.
The storm hit as they reached an area of the forest where the trees were spread out, allowing the wind and the snow to gust down to the ground to batter him and Skye. The voices of the males grew more distant. Knox kept ploughing forwards, heading into the wind now. He grimaced as snow bit into his face and peered into it.
He brought his arm up and shielded his face with it as he ran, trying to keep his vision clear.
“How can you see where you’re going?” Skye panted, sounding as tired as she felt on his senses.
Senses he was relying on more and more as the blizzard set in, stealing his sight from him.
“I know this valley like the back of my hand, remember?” He looked back at her, worry arrowing through him when he saw how tired she looked and how she was struggling to keep going.
“Where are you taking me?” She frowned and glanced around them, squinting as she tried to make out the forest.
“The lodge.”
She missed a step. “Private property. Remember? Trespassers will be shot… or whatever you said.”
“It is private property.” He slowed a little for her, sure that the three males wouldn’t be able to spot them in this storm. He couldn’t see shit in it, so he doubted they could see more than a foot in front of their faces. “My property. Or at least it belongs to me and some friends.”
Skye stumbled again.
Knox stopped, his heart thundering, blood pumping hard as he fought the fatigue running through him. The temperature was dropping fast and he needed to get Skye to shelter. He couldn’t afford to rest. He couldn’t afford to waste a single second.
“Here. Get on.” He turned his back to her, offering it to her as he crouched slightly. He had thought it was better than carrying her princess style, but she still huffed. He looked back at her. “Get on, Skye. You’re slowing me down and maybe one set of footprints in the snow will throw them off our trail.”
His right eyebrow arched.
“In fact.”
He went to the nearest fir, broke off a low branch that looked long enough, and strode back to her. She had huddled down into her jacket and tucked her hands beneath her arms, looked close to turning into a popsicle as she leaned into the wind and snow.
“Take this and hop on. You can cover our tracks behind us.” He held the branch out to her, and she took it and stared at it. He turned his back to her again. “Now, get on.”
She huffed. “No. If you want to cover our tracks, then we’ll need to be walking anyway.”
Knox grunted and looked to the forest canopy, seeking help there or maybe a sign from his ancestors, some way of keeping his temper in check as Skye pushed every damned button he had. “What is it with Grayson men and stubborn women?”
“Grayson?” she murmured, sounding intrigued.
So he might have never told her his last name. Another black mark against him probably.
“If you get on, I’ll tell you my whole damned life story.” He crouched again, making it easier for her and making it clear that he wasn’t going to give up. He looked over his shoulder at her, his eyebrows drawing down. “Either you get on my back or I carry you. Choice is yours.”
That had her rich brown eyes widening, revealing the flecks of gold that spotted the dark backdrop of her irises. Those eyes had bewitched him once and they still held power over him, made him want to stare into them forever to chart every spark of gold they contained and how they seemed to change with her mood or the lighting.
This time, she didn’t put up a fight. She strode up to him, her eyes slowly narrowing, revealing she wasn’t happy about being carried by him or his threat to hold her tucked against his chest, as if she was a fair damsel. She never had liked anyone making out she couldn’t take care of herself.
She angled the branch away from him and clambered onto his back, and the moment he reached back and caught her under her thighs, he wanted to groan and his bear side instantly calmed. He straightened and started walking, tried to ignore the heat of her against his back or how her thighs were clamped tightly against his hips or how she was trying to throttle him with her right arm as she angled her chest away from him to sweep their tracks into the deepening snow.
He tried and failed.
The feel of her against him felt so good that it felt wrong. He shouldn’t take pleasure from this, but by the gods, he did. All of his focus kept shifting to her as he quickly covered the uneven ground. He tried to keep it on his surroundings, not wanting to allow Karl and his men to get the jump on them, but it was impossible with her pressed so close to him.
And the scent of desire and spark of arousal he had felt in her back in the cabin stamped on his soul.
What had she been thinking about to rouse such a fierce passion and need in her?
Had she been thinking about him? About that night?
That little seed of hope that lived in his heart bloomed at the thought she still wanted him, grew stronger and made him braver.
“How much further is it?” She turned her head and her warm breath fanned his nape.
Knox growled low, every inch of him instantly hardening in response to the feel of her breath on his nape. Awareness shot through him, had his focus locking onto her, and the world narrowed down to only her. The part of him that had calmed when she had touched him grew restless again, his primal instincts firing to make him want to twist her in his arms and kiss her until she surrendered to him.
He squeezed his eyes shut and trudged onwards, attempting to shut down those instincts. Unfortunately, closing his eyes didn’t help. He saw a flash of that moment in the cabin, when it had hit him that Skye was wearing her chestnut hair in twin braids that revealed the nape of her neck.