Another had her edging closer and demanding more with her throaty moans.
In one swift move, he threw her down on the couch and stretched his body over hers, pressing her into the cushions. Each inch of his hardness found a spot on her softer body to tease. His muscled chest on her breasts. His firm hips trapping hers. The hard lengths of his thighs applying the perfect pressure to her own.
His warm oak-colored eyes blazed far hotter than any fire he’d built in the cabin. “I shouldn’t be kissing you right now.”
“No. You should be trying to stop Aries from eating all the snacks.”
The spark in his eyes cooled a bit before he turned his head to stare at the floor, where Aries was devouring the cheese and meats.
“He’s not eating the tomatoes,” Hunt said in a dry voice.
She burst out laughing. A true, deep belly laugh that took her by surprise, and Hunt too, if his expression told her anything.
He dragged his gaze over her face. “You’re so damn beautiful when you smile. And when you laugh…”
She searched his face, waiting for the rest of his sentence. “What?” she murmured.
“You make me want to make you laugh more.” The confession, followed by the stamp of his lips over hers, had her drowning in sensation.
His lips moved over hers with a confidence she’d never known from former boyfriends. Now those guys seemed blundering and incompetent. Boys.
Hunt was a man.
When he swiped his tongue over hers, a tug low in her belly had her moaning out. He answered with a rough groan that vibrated through her entire body.
All of a sudden, he broke the kiss. She arched up to drag him back down for more, but he turned his head and looked across the room.
She followed his gaze to see Aries standing there, nose to the crack between the door and frame, his tail stiff.
“Does he need to go outside?” Her whisper came out raspy, as if kissing him had done more than make her lips swollen and her insides tingle.
Hunt swung his head back to stare down at her. God, he was ruggedly handsome. He stole her breath away right this minute, with that serious set of his jaw striking a chord deep inside her.
“I need to take him outside.” He rolled off her and straightened to his full height. She lay there, watching him slip on his ski jacket. When he opened the door, the scent of icy rain washed through the cabin.
After Hunt and Aries vanished, Freya lay there, panting. That kiss…had been more than a kiss. It had been foreplay and more desire than she’d ever experienced in all her days.
What made her crawl across the couch to him? She was never so bold.
She’d never wanted to kiss someone so badly either. Either Hunt was different or that blow to her head had stolen her sanity. All the caution she walked through life with she’d tossed out the window when it came to kissing her rescuer.
And yes, he was different from the men she knew. He was steady, solid. She trusted him. He was real.
She stared at the ceiling, processing that revelation. Hunt had saved her out of the goodness of his soul. He’d kept her from hypothermia, kept her safe and warm and fed. Basic human needs that had been a struggle in her life ever since she was a child and was placed in that first foster home.
When he’d kissed her, he’d fulfilled another human need—to be touched and shown affection.
They didn’t even know each other well, and she couldn’t think why he’d want to kiss her. She surely frustrated him with her memory issue, and if he discovered she was keeping secrets where Colby was concerned, he wouldn’t be too happy. She just wouldn’t share that part of her life. Hunt didn’t deserve to be dragged through the muck of her past or current situation with Colby.
Long minutes passed while the blood in her veins cooled. She touched a fingertip to her lips, still feeling the pressure of Hunt’s lips on hers. If she closed her eyes, she could recall each brush of his tongue and the impassioned crush of his mouth.
A few more minutes passed. They didn’t return. Finally, she stood and straightened her clothing. She went to the front window to look out. Her breath fogged the glass, so she absentmindedly drew a little smiley face there.
She straightened. What made her doodle a smiley face? True, she was a known doodler. At work, she scribbled all over notebooks and scraps of paper. She couldn’t recall ever drawing a smiley face, though.
But right this second, she was smiling on the inside from those heated kisses that quickly started to spiral out of control. Another few minutes and who knew what she and Hunt would be doing.
Where was he?
Getting worried that he might have slipped on ice and broken a bone—or worse—she paced to the other windows looking for him. When more minutes ticked by, she threw on her coat and boots with resolve and flung open the door.
Hunt and Aries were just emerging from the trees. The few hours of Alaskan sun had faded, so his face was in shadow.
He looked up at the cabin and saw her standing in the doorway. He waved her back inside. In no time, his long legs cut across the snowy yard and he reached the cabin.
One glance at his expression had her pressing a hand to her chest. “Is everything okay?”
He gave a jerky nod and closed the door behind him, shutting out the wind and chill, but she felt a door shut between them too. He was no longer looking at her like he wanted to tumble her into bed just to hear her moan in pleasure. The little flames that had been dancing in his eyes were extinguished, and his jaw was tense when he stared down at her.
He regretted kissing her. That could be the only reason for his behavior.
He’d used the excuse of Aries needing to go out so he could get away from her. Once he had that distance, he’d realized he didn’t really like her.
Dropping her gaze to his wet boots, she stammered as she scrambled for something to say. “Well…I’m tired. I think I’ll go to bed early. Goodnight, Hunt.”
When she made her escape and closed the bedroom door, she braced her spine against it and closed her eyes, castigating herself for believing, even for a few short minutes, that Hunt would enjoy her company.
It seemed like the only person who did was Colby…and he was stalking her.
Chapter Seven
Hunt glared up at the ceiling over the couch. The rain had stopped hours ago. He could no longer hear the howl of the wind and only detected the dripping of melting ice on the eaves.
They’d be able to travel down the mountain today, but all of a sudden, he didn’t want to.
He wanted to fling open the bedroom door, stride to the bed where Freya slept and gather her in his arms again. The kisses they’d shared had been…
Mind-blowing was the first word that popped into his mind.
“Smoldering” and “out of control” were close contenders in describing what she’d felt like in his arms as her tongue tangled with his.
Then the dog had run to the door. The way Aries stood so stiff with his nose glued to the crack where a small draft blew fresh air in alerted Hunt that something was definitely off.
Not wanting to alarm Freya, he’d calmly told her that he was taking Aries out. But once out there, the dog stuck his nose to the ground and started tracking something. He spent a lot of time smelling the spots of the yard where the rain had melted off the snow and created puddles.