I snorted out a laugh and shook out my drying curls. “If I didn’t die the night of the crash, I’m not going to die now. I think I’ll be fine until you can make your way up here in a real car.”
“Good. The highway is supposed to open up sometime this evening and I made sure to keep my morning clear tomorrow, just in case. I’ll head up the mountain and check you out, then bring you back to Surrender so we can work on a way to get you home.”
If Ben found my bag and my purse, it shouldn’t be that hard to get me back to Denver. If he didn’t, I was going to be in a bind. I didn’t have any other form of ID than my driver’s license, so there would be no renting a car or getting on a plane if that was lost to the Montana winter. As much as I hated it, I was going to have to call Zeb Fuller, Hyde’s dad, and ask him to come and get me because there was no way I was riding a Greyhound through the mountains for hours on end. Just the thought of all those switchbacks made my tummy tighten.
“Sounds like a plan. I would call when you’re on your way. Ben doesn’t seem too fond of trespassers and likes to greet visitors with the business end of a shotgun.”
There was a chuckle on the other end of the phone. “Sounds like he’s finally starting to fit in around here. See you in the morning, Echo.”
The line went dead just as the door swung open, revealing a panting and soggy-looking Ben. His dark hair had glittering white flakes of snow clinging to it and his off-center nose was tipped red. He kicked the door closed with his boot and I gasped in shock when he dropped my chevron-striped weekender on the floor by his feet. It was filthy, covered in all manner of dirt and debris, but the zipper was still closed and it didn’t appear to have any holes in it. I was excited at the prospect of putting on my own clothes and a pair of underwear, but none of that helped me get home.
“No purse?”
His steely gaze tracked my movements as I started toward the bag. “It was a mess. It’s been snowing the last couple hours, so it was hard to find anything. The only reason I found this was because I tripped over it.”
I sighed but managed a weak smile. “That’s fine. You didn’t have to go tromping through the woods for this in the first place. I appreciate the effort even if it means I’ll have to get creative getting home.” I bit down on my lower lip and looked at him from under my eyelashes. “The doctor called. He’s coming up in the morning to look me over and take me into town.”
“You won’t have to get too creative.” He reached behind him and pulled a familiar-looking wallet out of his back pocket. Now, it looked like it had seen better days. The leather was torn, half of it looked like it was missing and it was stained with lord only knew. But I could see my driver’s license and my credit cards were still in the remaining slots. “I dug around in the car and found this wedged under the back seat.”
I gasped at him, jaw dropping open in disbelief. Not at the fact he’d found my ID, but at the fact he had risked his neck crawling around in the demolished SUV. I took the last few steps that separated us and snatched the tattered leather out of his hand, tossing it on the floor next to my bag. “Are you insane? What were you thinking messing with that car? It could have shifted and slid the rest of the way down the mountain. You would have gone with it.” I was practically screaming at him but I couldn’t pull it back. I worried about him, scared that he was wasting what little time we had left on foolish tasks so he didn’t have to face the inevitable conclusion of our time together.
“Hey, I told you I was a problem solver. It’s what I do, it’s what I’m good at. You needed something fixed so I fixed it, no matter the cost…that’s how it works.” He cocked an eyebrow and tilted his chin defiantly. “I think the words you’re looking for are ‘thank you’.”
Angrily and desperately, I closed the space between us. I grabbed the front of his shirt and used my hold on the fabric to pull myself to the tips of my toes. I slammed my mouth on his and immediately tasted snow and man. His lips were chilly and his beard was damp from being outside, but his tongue was warm as it tangled with mine and his breath was hot as I stole it from him. He immediately took over the kiss, owning it, controlling it, feeding it with the scrape of his teeth and the twist of his tongue. His icy hands grasped each side of my face and held me to him as I wrapped my fingers around his wrist. His pulse hammered furiously against my fingertips, each beat another second slipping away, marching us toward our separate fates. I’d wasted a lot of time with the people in my life that I cared about; I refused to do that with this one. I only got him for a few heartbeats; I was going to make them matter.
When I pulled back, we both had heavy-lidded eyes and whisper breaths. I leaned forward so I could rest my forehead on his fuzzy chin, and rubbed it against the springy facial hair that lived there. I found the gentle scrape of it comforting and arousing. I wanted to feel it across the rest of my skin.
“I’m going to be gone in the morning, Ben. This is not a problem you have to fix. This is an experience you need to have before the opportunity passes. If your purpose was to save me then consider it mission accomplished.” I pulled back so I could look up at him, seduction and salvation clear between every blink and in every breath. “Let me be the reward for a job well done. Let me show you that you are worth a second chance, that everyone can be saved, before our time runs out.” I let go of his wrist and reached for the scar on his neck. I traced my fingers over the mark and brushed my thumb along his Adam’s apple as he swallowed hard. “There’s a reason that we were thrown together, Ben. We were supposed to be here. We were supposed to save each other.” I pressed into him as hard as I could and moved my mouth to that ravaged side of his throat. “This is not a mistake; it’s a moment we will have forever.”
“You honestly think sex is going to fix everything that’s wrong with us, Pop-Tart? Because I gotta tell ya, in my experience sex is where a lot of those problems I ended up having to fix in my old life started.” He was on the edge; all I needed to do was push him over.