Page 29 of Cole

“I’m not taking your bed,” he argued. “I’ll sleep on the floor.”

"Technically, neither of us owns this cabin. We're both guests of the university."

"Janice—"

“Cole…”

He realized it was the first time she’d said his name. And he liked the way it sounded more than he should have noted. Scrubbing his hand over his face, he chuckled.

She dumped an armful of blankets and pillows on the floor near the wood stove. "There. I've made your bed. Now I'm going to mine." She crawled under the covers of the double bed in the corner, pulling the quilt up to her chin.

Cole bent and snagged the blankets. He made his makeshift bed on the floor, positioning himself between the door and Janice's bed. Old habits. Always put yourself between the threat and the person you're protecting.

The cabin settled into quiet, just the crackle of the fire and the occasional groan of timber adjusting to the temperature. Cole lay on his back, staring at the ceiling, hyperaware of Janice's presence a few feet away. This was going to be a long night.

"Cole?" Her voice came softly through the darkness.

"Yeah?"

"Thank you. For coming here. For believing me. For helping." A pause. "I was scared. I didn't want to admit it, but I was. And now I'm not. Or at least, not as much."

His chest tightened with an emotion he didn't want to examine too closely. "Get some sleep, Janice. Tomorrow, we're going to gather the evidence you need to determine whether the mining is endangering the wildlife out here. And if so, it’ll go a long way to putting Charles Penson out of business."

"Okay." Another pause. "Good night, Cole."

"Good night."

He listened to her breathing slow and deepen, knowing she'd fallen asleep with the trust of someone who believed he'd keep her safe. The weight of that trust settled over him like a physical thing.

He'd keep her safe. No matter what it took. Because somewhere between breaking into her cabin and watching her stand up to him about going after the water samples, Janice Lynch had become more than just an assignment.

She'd become someone worth protecting. And Cole didn't fail the people he protected.

12

Cole woke in the darkness, the fire in the wood stove reduced to glowing embers. The temperature in the cabin had dropped enough to pull him from sleep, his body automatically registering the change even in rest.

He rose quietly from his makeshift bed on the floor, careful not to wake Janice as he moved to the wood stove. Opening the door, he fed it two fresh logs, watching as the flames caught.

The firelight grew, casting a warm glow across the small cabin, and Cole found his gaze drawn to Janice's sleeping form in the bed across the room.

She lay on her side, one hand tucked under her cheek, blond hair spilling across the pillow in a tangle of waves. The soft glow from the stove sent shadows dancing across her face, highlighting the curve of her cheekbone and the sweep of her lashes against her skin. Her lips were slightly parted, her breathing deep and even.

Beautiful. The word rose unbidden in his mind, and he couldn't push it away.

He'd seen plenty of beautiful women. Dated some of them. But this was different. Janice wasn't trying to be beautiful. She wasn't posed, made up, or performing. She was just... herself. Asleep in a tiny cabin in the Alaskan wilderness, bundled under quilts, completely unguarded.

And he wanted to protect that. Wanted to keep her safe with a fierceness that had nothing to do with professional duty and everything to do with something he didn't want to examine too closely.

Cole thought about his fellow Keepers who were married or engaged. Every single one of them had found their significant other during a mission, in the middle of danger and crisis.

He'd always thought it was sheer chance. Random luck that they'd crossed paths with the right person at the right time. Maybe a dose of forced proximity and adrenaline making emotions run higher than they normally would. But they’d found their person nonetheless.

But watching Janice sleep, remembering the determination in her eyes when she'd insisted on going with him tomorrow, the way she'd trusted him enough to fall asleep with him in her cabin… Cole wondered if it wasn't chance at all.

Maybe it was something else. Something deeper.

He'd always been careful about emotions in crises. He knew that fear and danger could create false intimacy, make people feel connected when they were really just clinging to each other for survival. He never wanted to confuse those heightened feelings for something real.