How was the that possible?
The first one had demanded everything she had, and she’d given it freely. Now he was giving back, stoking the fire deep inside her, urging her to burn bright.
She’d swear the raindrops falling on their skin should sizzle off, evaporate from the searing heat between them—
Rain.
Out of nowhere, dark clouds had rolled in and opened up above them.
If she had any faith at all, she’d say someone didn’t like them kissing.
5
Pulling further away Bjorn’s tight embrace, Britt blinked up at the sky. Where had those storm clouds come from?
His reaction was delayed, but once he noticed that the heavens were crying all over them, he leapt to his feet. With the most polite of curses—as he was still very much a monk, despite kissing like a man starved for sin—he swept her into his arms.
“Into the cave,” he barked out like an order, although she didn’t have a choice in the matter since he was carrying her.
Britt barely had time to ask about the dragons before the leathery flap of wings told her they were flying for cover of their own.
“They’ll be fine,” Bjorn said, his voice strained as he deposited her back on the ground at the mouth of what looked like a large cave. An overhanging rock provided some protection from the rain, but they’d have to move further into the top of the mountain if the wind picked up.
“And will we?” She smoothed her hands down her midsection, urging her quivering belly to chill out.
He didn’t answer. That didn’t help.
“Bjorn?”
He dashed into the rain, his feet sliding on the wet rock. Britt’s heart leapt into her throat as he skidded toward their lunch and blanket, now soaked. At least he’d already tucked the rest of their food back into the satchel, so he didn’t need to gather it up, just snatch and dart back into the cave.
It was still foolish.
“You should have left it,” she gasped as he shook off the raindrops.
He gave her a baleful look. “The blanket may not dry enough to be of use to us, but this is our only food until the storm passes. No way am I letting you go hungry.”
“Oh.” That was smart. And kind. “But running on the wet rock like that…”
He grinned at her with a boyish playfulness she hadn’t seen before. “Worried about me?”
Yes. “I think you might be a bit of an adrenaline junkie as well.”
His grin got wider, but then it fell away. “We should start a fire. We’ll be here for a while.”
She glanced around. “With what?”
He moved past her, into the gloomy damp darkness. She could just make out his form as he stooped low, leaving the blanket there and returning quickly with an armful of small logs and sticks.
“That’s convenient.”
“I come here from time to time. A few times I’ve slept overnight.”
That made sense. There probably was nowhere on the planet closer to the heavens.
Which reminded her that he was a monk—not that she’d ever forgotten, it just had slipped from top of mind while he’d been devouring her mouth. “I’m sorry. That we’re going to be here for a bit. Will it cause trouble for you?”
“No.” He gave her a clear, unblinking look that told her a lot. It said this would be fine, but this would also be the end
“Then I’m sorry about the kiss,” she said stiffly. “That was…complicating, I suppose.”
“You have nothing to be sorry for.”
“Of course I do. We got carried away out there, but now it’s clear you don’t want to be up here with me.” It wasn’t really, but the words were spilling fast now, faster than she could think and review them and not say something she’d regret.
There was zero chance she’d escape being trapped in a cave with this man who’d gotten deep under her skin without him knowing how a simple kiss had affected her.
Nothing simple about that kiss.
Fair point.
How a crazy, off-the-charts, world-rocking kiss had affected.
How dare he—
“Enough thinking, Britt.” He sighed, a new line appearing on his forehead as he frowned at her. “Your ears are smoking. I don’t want to know what the gears are doing inside that beautiful brain of yours, but let’s get a fire going. Then we can talk.”
The next hour passed in silence. He started a fire and she rigged a drying rack for the blanket from some sticks on the pile of wood near the back of the cave.
Bjorn’s imposed quiet time gave her a chance to take stock of their temporary lodgings. The cave was the same height and width as an average room, but much longer. Dry, with as flat a floor as one could hope for in a space carved out of a mountain top.