She swung her legs over the side of the bed, pulled on the soft jogging pants he had brought her, and stood up to pull them up to her waist. She nearly fell down instead.
Her forehead throbbed, and her knees threatened to buckle. Grace immediately sat down and grabbed her head to make the room stop spinning.
Well, this wasn’t working. She needed to move more slowly.
She was on her third attempt to stand without throwing up when the cabin door opened and Grey walked in with an armful of firewood. Grace slowly shuffled her way to Baby. She was smart enough not to pick him up, but maybe she could rub his back and he would stay asleep, giving her brain more time to get her muscles under control. Her head was still throbbing, but at least the room had stopped spinning.
“Are ya truly this stubborn, lass, or has the cold affected your thinking?” Grey asked from right beside her.
Grace swung around and would have fallen if Grey hadn’t caught her. She swayed against him, clutching his jacket, and looked up into steeled green eyes. But her rebuke turned into a squeak of surprise when he swept her up in his arms and carried her over to the table. He sat her in a chair and slid the bowl of stew in front of her, then shed his jacket and returned to Baby.
Grace stared at her lunch. This was not going well. The bond they had formed on the mountain last night was fading. Stubbornness—on both sides—had replaced cooperation.
Grace looked up to see Grey holding a now wide-awake Baby in the crook of his arm as he rummaged around in her bag for another bottle. She took a spoonful of stew and all but moaned at the feel of it sliding down her throat, realizing just how hungry she was. Grey settled across the table from her with Baby, who was also happily eating, and Grace decided it was time to try another tack with the man.
“Reverse our positions,” she suggested to Grey, who lifted his gaze to her in question. “How adamant would you be right now to get back on your feet and regain control of your life?”
He shook his head. “It’s not the same, Grace. You’re a woman.”
Grace looked down at herself in mock surprise. “I am?” She smoothed down the front of her shirt.
“Imagine that. What has being a woman got to do with wanting control?”
He set Baby on his shoulder and began rubbing the infant’s back as he shook his head at her again. “It’s a fact of nature, Grace. Women are simply weaker. Physically,” he quickly added when she opened her mouth to protest.
Grace snapped her mouth shut and leaned back in her chair, crossing her arms under her breasts. She didn’t know if it was the full belly she had now, or the anger growing inside her, but she was feeling much stronger all of a sudden.
“Which is why our positions are exactly as they are now,” he continued. “I had the endurance to get us off that mountain.” He leaned forward, his brows dropping and his eyes darkening. “And I still have enough strength left to put you in that snowcat, take you to Gu Bràth, and keep you there until you can take care of yourself and your son,” he finished in an even-toned whisper.
Grace stood up, either to prove to herself that she could or to get away from his veiled threat, she didn’t know which.
“That’s archaic!” she sputtered, refusing to be intimidated. “Brute strength is not how you solve a problem.”
He leaned back in his chair, rubbing Baby’s back again, and shrugged. “It usually works for me,” he said softly.
Grace picked up her empty bowl and carried it to the counter on the far wall of the cabin. It amazed her how well her muscles were working now; nothing like a little outrage to get the blood flowing.
She shouldn’t be surprised by his attitude. The moment she’d sat beside Greylen MacKeage on the plane, she had guessed the man was a bit of a throwback. What had she thought? That he looked as if he made his own rules and that he pounded problems into place when he couldn’t solve them any other way?
Yeah. That was the man she owed her life to.
And his arms suddenly moved gently around her, pulling her back against his warm and very solid chest.
Grace turned within his embrace, looked to see Baby sleeping in his crate again, and closed her eyes, setting her hands on Grey’s chest in an attempt to hold him away.
Or was it her own urges she was trying to hold at bay?
She knew what he was doing and didn’t like it. His threat hadn’t worked, so he’d ply her with kisses instead.
Which is exactly why she couldn’t go home with him.
Her emotions were too fragile right now; she was in no condition to spend the night in Greylen MacKeage’s bed. And if she went to Gu Bràth, that is exactly where she’d end up.
She lifted her face and gave him a smile. “I can’t get involved with you right now, Grey.”
His arms tightened around her, his head lowered, and his lips covered hers in a searing kiss. The room started spinning again; it was not caused by her head this time but by her heart. And it was all she could do not to rise on her tiptoes and kiss him back.
His tongue sought hers, sending a shiver through her body. Like up on the mountain yesterday, Grace’s body yearned to respond; passion ignited, radiating from her soul into her senses. She kneaded his shoulders with her fingers and tried to push him away.
She might as well be pushing a mountain. She was suddenly floating on air, and it wasn’t until she felt a hard surface against her bottom that Grace realized Grey had set her on the counter. He moved her knees apart with his legs and nestled himself firmly against her.
“It’s too late, Grace,” he said, staring down at her with eyes the color of winter spruce. “It’s already begun, and there’s no going back. Forget what your mind says, and listen to what your body is telling you.”
She stared into his bottomless, deep green eyes, and it took Grace a moment to remember that she must fight her attraction to Grey, not feed it. “But I can’t. I have…there are issues I need to deal with.”
His right brow lifted. “Baby’s father?”
Grace’s forehead started to throb again. “Yes. Baby’s father,” she admitted. It was true, just not in the way Grey thought.
“Do you love him?”
“No.” Which was also true.
“Are you running from him? Are you in danger?”
“No.”
He blew a sigh over her face that moved her hair. “Then what’s the problem?” he asked, his patience obviously wearing thin.
“The problem is I have a four-week-old baby, I just lost my sister, and I’m coming home for the first time in nine years. I need this time to get my life back in order.”
“I can help.”
“No, you can only complicate things. I have decisions to make about Baby, my job, and Baby’s father.”
He kissed her again, probably because he didn’t care for what she was saying.
And she kissed him back, probably because it was easier than arguing with him. Grace wiggled forward on the counter, pressing herself against Grey like a cat curling up to a stove. He trailed his mouth down over her throat and nuzzled the side of her neck. Grace arched against him, wrapping her legs around his waist, only to moan at the feel of him pushing so intimately against her.
She wondered why they both didn’t simply burst into flames.
How could something so not right feel so wonderful? Grace had the overwhelming urge to rip off both their shirts and rub her body all over his. She grabbed his hair and pulled his mouth back to hers, driving her tongue inside and pulling the taste of him back into herself. She decided to start with his shirt and reached for the buttons, popping the top two in an effort to feel his skin under her fingers.
At that moment of contact she did burst into flame; the air around them glowed with white light, time suspended, and Grace’s heart pounded with an excitement she’d never experienced before.