Belle
My sleep was deep and dreamless, as if my body needed all its energy to heat me up and restore my body functions.
I registered vaguely that Mason dressed me and carried me inside the house, but it was dark then and lifting my eyelids had felt as hard as lifting the drone itself.
His comforting words that I shouldn’t worry about anything made me sleep until a desperate thirst woke me up.
It was dark in the room with nothing but a sliver of light coming from underneath the door. Trying to sit up, I felt weak and made a sound of frustration.
“Belle, are you alright?” I recognized Mason’s deep and slightly rusty voice before a lamp was turned on.
“I’m thirsty.”
“I placed water on the side table for you.” He nodded toward the glass and scratched his stubble with a yawn.
The glass felt heavy and my hands were shaking as I drank.
Without a word, Mason placed his hand on top of mine to steady the glass.
“Thank you.”
“Do you want more?” He took the glass and reached over me to put it back on the side table. His torso was still naked. Lifting the duvet and looking down I saw that I was wearing nothing but my panties.
“Where’s my clothes?”
“Indiana and I undressed you to give you our body heat. You had hypothermia.
“So that wasn’t a dream?”
“No. We sandwiched you in between us.”
“Did Indiana suffer frostbite?”
“No, why?”
“I thought I heard him talk about getting frostbite, but it’s all so blurred. Was Aubri naked too?”
“No, just you, me, and Indiana. We weren’t fully naked though.”
“Did you carry me in here?”
“Yes. About two hours ago. Thor helped me carry some of our things while I carried you. The storm had settled down a little by then and we decided that it was safe to get you inside. I thought that since I found you and you asked me not to leave you, I’d stay with you throughout the night. Are you still cold? I’ve been holding you close all night, but I was overheating so I took a small break.”
The last part came out sounding as if Mason felt a need to explain why he and I were half naked in the same bed.
“I didn’t want to break my promise to you. I wanted to be there when you woke up. I promise that I haven’t touched you in any sexual way or done anything inappropriate to you.”
I rolled to my side facing him. “Thank you.”
Mason propped himself on an elbow. “Are you feeling better?”
I covered my shoulders with the duvet and answered truthfully. “It’s just my hands and feet that feel cold now.”
“That’s to be expected. You heat up from the core and it takes longer than you think. I once had hypothermia, so I know.” While talking he moved his pillow closer and opened his arms to me. “I’m happy to be your personal heating device.”
I was overwhelmed by Mason’s level of care for me. He’d always been protective by nature but until tonight he’d never touched me much.
“You sure you don’t mind?” I asked hesitantly.
“Belle, just get in here.”
When I curled up against him with my cold hands to his warm skin, he closed his arms around me and pulled me tight. It felt surreal to be half naked with this ripped and muscled giant. I knew from Aubri and Freya that Mason was feared by many of the soldiers he commanded. But to me his masculine scent smelled of safety and comfort.
Touching the sprinkle of trimmed hairs on his chest, I muttered, “I’ll bet Victor wasn't hard to convince to give up his side of the bed.”
“No, he wasn't.”
We were quiet for a long minute and then I whispered. “I thought I was going to die trapped in that snow.”
As I lay with my head on top of him, I felt Mason’s words rumble in his chest. “You would have died if we hadn’t gotten to you.”
“But how did you get to me? How could you dig a tunnel like that? I couldn’t even dig my feet out of the snow. It was so hard.”
“Every house up here has a snow melting machine. It’s basically a laser that melts snow on the roof and clears pathways. Even though houses up here are built with sturdy materials the frost can linger for months. Packed snow weighs a ton and could lead to a roof collapsing. About five years ago we went hunting and one of our dogs got buried in snow, which was the first time we used the tunnel function of the laser.”
“Did the dog survive?”
“Yes.”
“I’m so lucky that you found me in time, Mason. I don’t know how to ever thank you enough.”
“Don’t! If anything, you should be angry that we put you and your delegation in danger. We should have postponed the competition as soon as the weather changed.”
Maybe he was right, but I couldn’t possibly be angry with the man who had risked his own life to save mine.
An overflowing feeling of gratitude and appreciation made me want to hug him. With us lying down all I could do was wrap my arms around his chest. When I released my hold, my hands slid over his hard muscles and with my ears still pressed against him, I could hear his heartbeat speed up.
“What’s the matter?”
“What do you mean?”
“Your heartbeat picked up like crazy.”
Mason hesitated before he answered, “It’s probably because I’ve never been this close to a woman.”
“You’ve slept in tents with some of the other women.”
“This is different. You’re touching me. Belle…”
“Yes?”
“I want you to know that I’m honored that you trust me this much. You could have woken up and gone back to the couch. The fact that you chose to stay and trust me to warm you up means a lot to me.”
“Why wouldn’t I?”
“I’m well aware that people around the world think of us Nmen as freaks. We’re huge, crude, and have a bad reputation because of all the lies that the Motlanders fed their children about us for generations.”
“I didn’t grow up hearing those rumors and I never saw you or the others as freaks.”
“Hmm… then maybe I shouldn’t have told you, but it’s just that ever since we met at the first summit, I’ve felt protective of you.”
“I know. That’s why I considered you a friend.”
Mason played with a lock of my hair. “If things were different…”
I waited for him to finish his sentence but when he didn’t, I lifted my head. “You were saying?”
“Never mind.”
I was pretty sure that he was hinting at his promise to marry a Northlander, but since we French didn’t marry at all, I let it go. “Now I feel bad about what I said.”
“When?”
“When we had that argument after the welcome reception. I told you that I would survive without your help, remember?”
He kept rolling my hair around his finger while his chest lifted in a sigh. “I’m so sorry you had to experience something that awful. I hate the thought that you were alone out there in the valley, buried in snow. Everyone thought that you had died, but I kept hoping for a miracle.”