to consider what he was doing. He scooped her up and moved across the floor. He settled her into his bunk in one efficient motion.
“I’m sorry, honey, but modesty isn’t worth your life.”
The black duster landed on top of the blankets she was under. He glared at her for a long moment before moving his rifle to lean against the nightstand. He watched her face as he began to open his shirt. She should have protested and found some harsh retort to force past her frozen lips, but she became distracted by the hard flesh each turn of a button revealed. She’d seen her father a few times, bare above the waist, but Sloan looked nothing like her daddy. His chest was wide and covered with thick ridges of muscle. Dark hair ran across his chest, covering each flat male nipple. The dark hair continued down over his belly to disappear under his waistband. He turned and sat on the bunk, levering his boots off. A second later he rolled under the covers and reached for her.
Contact with his flesh hurt. He was too hot and she strained away from him. Sloan pressed her right back against his body. She could feel his heart beating against her breasts as he hugged her firmly against his burning heat.
“We have to get your temperature up to normal.”
He smoothed his hands over her back, molding their frames together. His feet and legs joined the embrace, one knee going right between her thighs. She shook violently as his warm skin touched her. Fear surged through her as she recognized just how correct he was. Her swim had placed her far too close to the border of death. The steady throb of his heart against her own suddenly beckoned with the promise of life.
“All right.” Her voice was working again. Brianna sighed as she stopped shivering and her muscles began to relax. Tension flowed out of her as she slumped against the solid body heating her frozen flesh. Sloan’s hands moved constantly, smoothing over her spine and her head and even down to her hips. The crisp hair covering his chest teased her skin as she nuzzled her nose against his neck to thaw it. She was suddenly more comfortable than she could remember being in a very long time. Her lungs filled and her eyes refused to remain open as she pressed closer to the warm male holding her. There was no more reason to struggle.
She couldn’t think and she discovered that she didn’t want to. Not while the scent of Sloan’s skin filled her senses. She’d get back to contemplating her actions later. For the moment she just wanted to indulge her body and be cradled by his strength while she reaped the benefits of not giving up during her fight to live.
Leaning on him appealed to her as her brain slipped into that dark oblivion it had resisted back in the river.
God was getting even with him. Sloan wanted to cuss, but gritted his teeth instead. He stroked the back of Brianna’s head and listened to her breathing even out. Tiny shivers still shook her body as she nuzzled against his neck, and his cock ached.
Yup, the Almighty was calling in a few debts tonight, but it was worth it. Somehow, the privilege of holding her was worth a whole hell of a lot of frustration. Leaning down, he buried his face in her hair and inhaled her sweet scent. It was the purest form of torture, the way her skin smelled. Like roasting meat to a starving man. Time stood still while it worked its way around his head, pushing each and every other thought aside. There was only the craving and the scent that awakened it.
Hell.
He gritted his teeth against the feel of her satin-soft skin. She smelled more feminine than he could recall a female ever doing. Almost like she was clean and pure, better somehow than the last woman who’d shared his bed. Her nipples were twin little points poking into his chest. He had to remind himself that it was an icy river that had raised the tender flesh into peaks. Not her journey into his bed. His cock didn’t much care about the detail. The flesh was hard and
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