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He kisses me slow and sweet, with so much tender, toe-tingling care I barely notice the wind whipping around us as he lifts me into his arms and runs so fast it feels like we’re flying.
I’m flying…
Falling…
Fretting as I realize I’ve already broken my “no romance” promise to the Goddess.
I feel terrible, but also…sleepy.
So very sleepy.
Yes, sleep is the answer. I’ll close my eyes and when I wake this will have all been a dream. I’ll be back in my room, alone in my bed, alone as usual—as ever, as always—the one Wonderfully sister who will never find love, the woman who will age into her role as the spinster auntie her nieces and nephews love to tease about the long gray hairs on her chin.
“Because that’s what happens when you get old all alone,” I mutter into the wool of Baron’s sweater. “You grow a little old lady beard, and no one cares enough to get after you with a pair of tweezers. It’s so…sad.”
He rumbles something in response that sounds a lot like a promise, but I can’t make out the words, which is probably for the best.
If Baron’s just promised to tweeze my old lady goat beard, I don’t want to know about it.
I close my eyes and sink into something deeper than sleep, something so dark and final it might be scary if I weren’t currently cradled in the strongest, safest arms I’ve ever known—arms I know won’t let me down, not even in my dreams.
Chapter 2
Baron
A man about to break a promise.
A big one…
The moment I’m through the door, I’m barking orders. “More wood on the fire. Then head to town and get the doctor.”
Laura groans in protest, and I snap, “Now, Laura, there isn’t time to argue. If she dies because you wasted time complaining about not wanting to go into town in the snow, I’ll never forgive you. Never.”
Head hung in shame, Laura shuffles quickly through the living room into the kitchen and then out to the wood pile on the back porch. Thankfully, the fire hasn’t gotten too low and the coals are still hot. If I can just get Annie warm, there’s a chance she’ll come back to me.
Come back to me…
The thought doesn’t make any sense. Annie Wonderfully is a stranger. I barely know her. But as I cradle her in my arms on the edge of the couch, carefully removing her soaked, icy clothing, I can’t remember the last time I felt this…full.
Full of fear and worry, yes, but also longing and determination. Death won’t claim this woman. Not yet. Not if there’s anything I can do to save her.
You could turn her. It’s not too late. Then she’d never have to worry about freezing to death.
The inner voice is right, but I dismiss the idea as soon as it’s through my head. I can’t imagine Annie as a vampire. A life spent in darkness would destroy her. She’s sunshine and spring flowers, mornings spent reading to children in the library and afternoons in her garden, wearing a big floppy sun hat that does nothing to stop freckles from popping out on her nose.
I adore her freckles.
I adore every perfect inch of pale skin I uncover as I strip her down to nothing but her panties and then drag those down her thighs, as well. I would like to preserve at least some of her modesty, but even her underwear is freezing cold.
Laura staggers back into the room on her hind legs, dumping an armload of wood on the floor beside the fire before gently tossing two logs onto the coals and blowing on them until the wood catches. She turns, as if to groan something my way, but stops when she sees Annie nude in my arms.
Her jaw drops, her paws fly to cover her eyes, and she begins to smack her lips in that loud, urgent way she does when she’s nervous.
“Don’t be ridiculous,” I say as I settle Annie on the couch and cover her with the quilt hung over the back, the one Edmond brought over to “warm up the place” last year even though Laura is the only creature in this home who needs warmth and she’s far too large for such a small quilt.
But Annie fits under it just right.
I draw the soft cotton up to her chin and turn back to Laura, “I’m just getting her out of her wet clothes, trying to keep her warm until Price gets here.” I cross to my desk, scribbling a quick note to Dr. Price, explaining the situation. There are several people in town who can communicate with animals, but I don’t want him to waste a second finding one, not when Annie is still unconscious and so pale that she glows like a star against the dark blue fabric of the couch.
