NocC 017 - Caridad Pineiro - Night of the Cougar - Harlequin 2012-06 Read Online Free PDF

against her breast and bit the tip.
    A wave of pleasure roared over her body and transferred itself to him as her muscles tightened and caressed his cock, dragging him over with her.
    She sucked in breath after breath, eyes closed as she waited for her body to calm. She savored the feel of him tucked inside, making them one.
    One, she thought, as she had a year earlier. From the moment she had met him, loved him, she had known they were meant to be one.
    With her release fading, she opened her eyes and finally noticed the new damage to his body: the slashes along his ribs and along his collarbone, the fine line and pinprick dots from stitches.
    She traced her fingers along that line, wincing as she imagined the pain the injury must have brought him.
    He cradled her cheek and said, “Don’t, Jamie. The pain is long gone.”
    “But you’re not, thankfully. You’re here and alive,” she said, and then blurted out, “and you didn’t return my calls.”
    Sadness crept into his gaze, darkening the emerald to almost black. “Let’s not talk about this now.”
    The crash of a log in the fireplace pulled her attention from him. The fire had eaten the wood greedily and now had to be fed.
    She reluctantly moved away from him, tossed several more logs onto the fire and then returned to his side, easing against him. Pleased when he wrapped his arm around her back and tucked her close, she rubbed her hand across his chest, relieved by the warmth there and the heavy, solid beat of his heart beneath her palm.
    “Rest, Galen. We’ll talk later.”
    “Later,” he echoed.

Chapter Five
    Jamie woke alone.
    The fire had been freshly stoked and was filling the room with heat and the delicious smell of wood smoke. She sat up, holding the comforter to her body, and looked around.
    The shutters had been thrown open and bright winter light filled the room, but Galen was nowhere she could see.
    She rose and noticed that he had left his dark blue terry-cloth robe and slippers nearby. Since she couldn’t find her clothes anywhere, she eased on the slippers and the robe. She wrapped it tight around her and walked toward where she heard a repetitive thud and crack.
    Peering out at the large deck, she realized someone had cleared a path to the steps through nearly a foot of snow. Walking outside, she followed the path to the edge. With each step, the noise grew louder.
    At the railing, she looked down to find Galen about fifteen feet away, splitting logs with an immense ax that he hefted with ease. Up and over his head he picked up the ax and then drove it deep into the log. A sharp twist and the wood easily cracked in two. With another brisk move, he split those pieces in half with the same spare, economical motion.
    Beautiful, she thought again, admiring the play of muscles across his bare upper body as he worked. The snow around him glistened with the late morning sun. A chill nipped the air, but the sun was warm enough to start melting the snow off the branches of the pines surrounding the lodge.
    Jamie breathed in deep, loving the aroma of the evergreens and the icy clean mountain air.
    He must have heard her. He stopped and looked up, his eyes shadowed by fatigue and—if she was reading him right—concern.
    Hefting the ax in one hand, he grabbed the handles of a log carrier with the other and strode toward her. He carried the large load of wood as if it weighed nothing and walked up the steps. Carefully, he rested the ax against the deck railing and placed the log carrier down.
    As he did so, she noticed the tracks along the deck and down into the snow. Animal tracks. A big animal, she thought, noting the size of the paw prints and the depth of them.
    Galen tracked her gaze. She had seen the tracks. With Jamie’s intense sense of curiosity she would want an answer about the paw marks. Especially when she bent and held her hand over one, her eyes widening when she realized how small her hand seemed compared to the imprint.
    Galen