“Are you ready?”
“As ready as I’ll ever be. Exactly how cold is it out there?”
“The thermometer says eight below. With the wind chill, it’s probably more like fifteen below. We won’t stay out long, just enough to get some fresh air.” She gaped at him and Micah chuckled softly. “As long as you don’t have any exposed skin and you’re dressed in layers, you’ll be fine.”
Olivia nodded as she tucked her camera into a padded carrier. “I learned the hard way the first time I did any cold weather photography.” She stuffed some small disks in her shirt pocket.
“Cold kills the batteries,” she said in response to his curious look. “So I always keep extras on me. The closer they are to my skin the warmer they stay. And warm is good.”
Micah’s breath caught. Lucky batteries. What I wouldn’t give to be one of them, snuggling up to those luscious breasts. He handed her one of the wool hats he’d pulled out of the downstairs closet.
“Here, try this on.” I need to distract myself from this female before I pounce on her.
The cherry-red-colored one had drawn him just because of the color of her lips. She pulled it on, tucking her hair up under it, making sure her ears were covered. Micah moved closer, wrapping a matching scarf around her neck. He let his fingers trail across her jaw, pretending not to notice her own swift intake of air.
Olivia’s eyes seemed to double in size and he realized he still held the ends of the scarf. He dropped them and stepped back, pulling his own wool hat on. His knuckles tingled from grazing her soft skin.
She tucked her hands into the red mittens he handed her and they stepped out onto the porch. Micah pulled his fingerless gloves on then took two pair of snowshoes down from the rack by the door.
“We need to be down on the walk to do this. You don’t want to try to navigate stairs in snowshoes.”
Her smile warmed him from the inside out, shooting straight to his cock. Micah sent up a prayer of thanks that they were outside in the cold. The bitter temperatures were going to be his friend. He knelt in front of Olivia.
“The important thing is to make sure they stay on.” He cupped her calf in his hand. “You have great muscles. Do you work out?”
Her smile nearly melted the snow underneath him. “No, I just walk a lot when I’m doing my shoots.”
Micah finished fastening the snowshoes on her feet. She listened attentively as he explained how to walk in them. He pulled a pair of mittens on over the fingerless gloves after he fastened his own snowshoes.
They stepped carefully into the snow, Micah holding his hand out to Olivia to keep her from falling over. She followed his motions as he led the way around the lodge. She laughed when she wobbled and he fought the urge to step back and pick her up. The idea of her body curled in his arms raised his internal temperature to thermonuclear.
“You’re doing great, Olivia. Let’s keep this short though. It takes more out of you than you know. You need to get used to it first.” A click answered him. Glancing over his shoulder, he saw that he was the focus of her lens. He laughed when she gave him a saucy grin.
Micah took her down the path he knew she’d run the night before. He dropped back to be beside her but nothing on her face indicated that she remembered the evening. He wondered why she didn’t say something. He knew she’d scented him that morning. Normal shifter behavior but she was anything but a normal shifter.
They walked the path for ten minutes. Olivia’s eye rarely left the viewfinder of her camera. She seemed fascinated with the way the sunlight streamed through the snow-encrusted trees. He wondered if she would show him what she saw through that lens.
Her hair lit up as the sun touched the few exposed strands. Micah imagined pressing his lips into her sun-warmed tresses when they got back inside the lodge. Glancing at his watch, he knew they needed to head back.
“Time to go in, Liv.” Shortening her name came naturally. Rarely did he feel this at ease around anyone much less a woman he’d only known for less than twenty-four hours. She smiled at him as she obediently turned around. Or tried to.
The look of surprise on her face when she stepped on her own snowshoe and toppled over had Micah roaring with laughter as he reached down to help her up.
“Laughing is not very nice, ‘Mr. I Was Born Doing This’.” Olivia’s mouth quirked at the corners belying the anger she tried to lace into her words. One hand held her camera high overhead as she accepted his hand to pull her to her feet. She dusted off her shapely rear. “So I take it you have to watch your feet when you make directional changes?”
“Absolutely, and I wasn’t born here, Liv. I grew up in New Mexico. But when I found this place, this area, I knew I was meant to be here.” He looked around, taking a deep breath. “This is my home.”
Olivia stood perfectly still, a look of such yearning on her face he almost gave in to his earlier impulse to pick her up. She definitely brought out protective urges in him. Micah moved as though to draw nearer to her and tripped on his own snowshoe. Her laughter as he pinwheeled his arms to keep his balance drew him in almost as much as her scent. He gained his equilibrium again and shelved his desire for this woman. For right now, he needed to get them both back inside.
Micah chuckled as he led the way back to the front doors of the lodge. She stumbled against him just as they reached the stairs. Catching her, he reminded himself that they were outside in subzero weather and she hadn’t given him any sign of real interest yet. Still, if only she didn’t have the scarf up over her mouth. It would have been the perfect moment to kiss this fascinating female. Instead he unfastened his snowshoes then hers and hung them back up on the rack as Olivia tried to catch her breath.
They went back into the lodge and removed their outer layers. Olivia placed her camera, still in its bag, on the table.
“Do you need to warm that up?” Micah indicated the camera but Olivia put a protective hand over it.
“No thanks. It needs to do that slowly or the condensation can ruin it. I paid too much money for that baby to screw up another one.”
Micah watched Olivia shiver. “Come on, I’ll make you some cocoa.”
“It’s really cold out there.”
He steered her toward the kitchen. “You’ll warm up soon enough. In fact, you can sit by the fire if you’d rather. I’ll bring the cocoa in to you there.” He pointed toward the living room, hoping she’d refuse and join him in the kitchen.
“That would be lovely.” She smiled up at him and Micah fought the instinct to pull her into his arms and nuzzle his face into her hair. Her eyes flashed-definite interest in a shifter. He stood perfectly still to keep from drawing her into his arms and delivering the kiss he’d thought about on the porch.
Her neck convulsed as she swallowed hard. Her eyes lost the glint and she waved her hands vaguely between them as though she were warding off unwelcome feelings.
“I’ll just go wait in here.” She turned her back on him, moving into the living room.
Micah took a deep breath, closed his eyes briefly, then whirled around and nearly ran down the hall to the kitchen. The last thing he needed to do was get physical with one of his guests. However, the more time he spent with her, the more convinced he became that she was a shifter, specifically, the she-wolf he’d seen and scented in the woods.
He made quick work of heating some milk, adding cocoa powder and sugar. Stirring the concoction until it was frothy and steaming, he added a little vanilla and cinnamon, thinking of Olivia’s sweet spicy scent as he did so. Pouring the mixture into two large mugs, he moved back down the hall.
She sat on one of the large footstools near the fire, her knees drawn up and her arms wrapped around them. Lifting her head, she smiled as Micah came into the room. He took three steps across the room and knelt beside her stool. He handed her one of the mugs, setting the other one down on the floor.