The other guy goes back to the fire, but the dark-haired man is still watching me fumble to close this shirt.
"Do you need some help?" he offers quietly.
I let my hands drop and just nod. He reaches out and does the buttons up, his fingers just barely brushing the bare skin of my stomach, coming millimeters from my nipples. I have to fight the urge to step forward so he does touch me, but I think I'm regaining some sanity.
Hypothermia psychosis, I think. Even if I've never heard of it, it probably exists, right?
I get my jeans off without much fuss — this shirt is basically a dress. The sweatpants they lend me are also much, much too big, but I manage to secure them well enough with the drawstring.
Meanwhile, there's a roaring fire in the fireplace, and the dark-haired man leads me to a couch. The lighter-haired one has an enormous, fake-fur throw, and he sits me down on the couch, still feeling a little stiff from the cold, and then sits next to me.
"Feeling better?" he asks gently.
I swallow, nodding. The other man sits on my other side. Suddenly I'm sandwiched, in the middle of two of the most excruciatingly attractive, sexiest men I've ever seen in my life, in a cabin in the middle of nowhere.
"Yeah," I say. "Thanks for finding me."
He smiles, an easy, friendly smile. Something stirs in my chest, and I look down, smiling at the floor.
"We never did introduce ourselves," he says. "I'm Logan, and Sir Silence over there is Knox."
"Hi, Logan and Knox," I say, because I'm not quite sure what else to say. "Thanks for the rescue."
"Absolutely," says Logan. "But now that you're okay I've gotta ask — what the hell were you doing out there?"
Chapter Five
Logan
Rose sighs and looks into the fire for a long moment, like she's trying to remember for herself what she was doing out there. I've got one arm around her shoulders, sitting on her right, and Knox is sitting on her other side, his arm protectively around her waist, all three of us under a massive fake-fur blanket.
I'm glad for the blanket, because right now it's rumpled so the other two can't see my massive, aching erection. When Rose took her shirt off it was all I could do to not to go over, push her down on the table and take one delicious nipple into my mouth, biting and rolling it between my teeth as she sighed for more.
"You're gonna think I'm dumb," Rose says softly.
Knox grunts, like he's agreeing with her, but I squeeze her shoulder in my hand.
"We won't," I reassure her.
And I shoot Knox a glare over her head.
She nearly froze to death, you can cut the gruff caveman act, I think.
Rose bites her lip and pushes a strand of hair out of her face. We're both just staring at her, the small, white, delicate teeth digging into the fleshy pink of her lip.
And I can tell: we're both thinking about her lips, swollen with rough kisses, her mouth as she cries out in pleasure, totally and completely under our control...
Wait. Our control?
We've shared a woman before, but she was nothing like Rose, I can already tell. Rose is shy, sweet, and innocent, all big eyes and cautious smiles. Absolutely not the kind of girl who'd jump into bed with two huge, rough mountain men.
And especially not us. Rose needs someone who could be... gentler.
"I work in Ragged Point, but I live in Oakville," she says, her voice soft and careful. "It's kind of a long drive to go through Bluejay Pass, on the real road, and I knew this storm was coming, so... I decided to take a shortcut I thought I remembered."
She took a shortcut with a snowstorm coming? I think in alarm.
Practically on cue, the wind howls around the cabin, rattling a window. Rose jumps, and on her other side, Knox's arm tightens.
So does mine.
"Only it turns out that I didn't actually remember the shortcut," she says. "And my dad's old truck broke down, and he'd taken out the — uh, the blankets that he usually keeps there weren't in it, so..."
She shrugs, looking into the fire.
"You should always keep blankets in your vehicle, at least in the winter," Knox says, his voice a low growl.
Rose looks up at him, eyes wide.
"I know," she says. "They were there last time I checked."
"Someone took them out?" I ask, getting angry.
I can't believe someone would do that. Around here, everyone knows that sometimes cars break or heaters fail — and if you're stuck in the middle of nowhere, freezing to death isn't hard.
"I share the truck with my dad sometimes," she says, swallowing. "I mean, it's technically his, so I guess I'm just borrowing it. I'm sure he meant to get new ones or something, these were pretty ratty. It was just an accident."
"It nearly got you killed," Knox says. His face is hard, his mouth set in a line, his eyes flashing. I can tell he's almost as upset as me.
"Good thing we came along," I interject, before Rose can get upset.
Knox is my best friend, but there's a reason he's a wilderness ranger. He's much better with trees than people.
"Yeah," she says. "Thanks."
And she smiles at me, her blue eyes lighting up. For a moment, I can't breathe.
"We should call someone, let them know you're okay," Knox says, actually having a good point for once. "You still live with your parents?"
Rose nods.
"But my dad's not home, and he wasn't answering his cell phone earlier today," she says.
She pauses.
"I'm not quite sure where he is, actually," she finishes quietly.
I frown, alarm bells going off in my head.
"Is he missing?"
She shakes her head.
"Nothing like that," she says, smiling sadly. "But he's not around much. Usually off with one woman or another, mooching off of them until they kick him out."
"And your mother?" Knox asks.
"Good question," Rose muses.
"So you were going to take a dirt road shortcut over a mountain, while it was snowing, as the storm of the century was starting, and no one knew where you were?" I ask, disbelief in every word.
"I told you that you'd think I was dumb," she says, her voice even quieter.
She swallows hard and stares into the fire.
"I wasn't thinking straight," she goes on. "I'd just worked a double down at the diner, so I was tired and hungry, and my mind has been elsewhere lately. Plus, I haven't been sleeping well, and I just... it was dumb. I know."
I'm nearly overwhelmed by the urge to kiss her on top of the head, just to let her know that here, now, with us, she's safe. I can't believe that there's no one out there who cares about this sweet, innocent, fucking gorgeous girl.
Over her head, I lock eyes with Knox, and his jaw flexes. Looks like he's thinking the same thing as me.
"You've had a hell of a day," I tell Rose, stroking her hair with one hand. "How about some tea, and then you can go to sleep?"
"Thanks," she says again, her voice still soft.
I make all three of us cups of tea, and as I do, I can hear Knox on the couch, murmuring to her, Rose's soft voice replying. They're only talking about the snow storm outside, but she's leaning against him, her neck stretched out as she looks into his face, and I'm jealous.
We drink tea, Knox and I on either side of her, chatting lightly about the cabin, the forest, the snow outside. When we finish, Knox takes the mugs away and now Rose leans against me, my whole body in turmoil.
"Sleepy?" I ask.
She nods.
"Come on," I say, standing and offering her my hand. "Let's go to bed."
We've only got two beds, and I'm offering first.
"I can sleep on the couch," she says, suddenly nervous.
"It's not very comfortable," I say. "Besides, your body temperature isn't quite high enough yet. I don't want to leave you out here alone."
"I'm okay, really. I don't want to impose on you..."
I smile at her.
"No imposition," I promise.
Chapter Six
Knox
Logan leads Rose into our bedroom while I wash the mugs in the sink, then put them in the dish drain. It puts me into a black mood. I'd already thought of this, that she probably needs to share someone's body warmth, at least tonight.
I'd just wanted it to be mine.
I can hear them talking in the bedroom. Rose laughs. So does Logan, and I stay out in the kitchen so I don't have to go into the bedroom and watch her snuggle up next to him.
But the thought flashes across my mind one more time. Rose, on her hands and knees, looking up at me. Logan sliding into her from behind as her eyelids flutter with pleasure, her mouth open. I guide my cock towards her lips and she opens wide, sucking me desperately as she moans.
Fuck. Now I'm so hard I'm afraid my zipper might break, and worse, what I'm imagining is totally impossible.
Rose doesn't seem like she'd so much as kiss a stranger, let alone have sex with one.
Let alone have sex with two at the same time. She's innocent and sweet, kind of shy. Her own parents have forgotten about her, so it's up to us to protect her.
Protect her. Not fuck her.
I listen to the murmurs of Logan and Rose getting into bed, grinding my teeth as I do, but I walk over to our shortwave radio and flip it on.
Static. The snow's coming down hard and heavy, and the wind out side is howling — I'd probably be more surprised if it were working.
Doesn't matter. None of us is going anywhere for a few days at least, and as soon as the radio is working again, we'll call it in, let anyone who's worried know that she's okay.