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At first he thought it was a moose or a wayward caribou. If Mia knew I had mistaken her
for a moose ... The cabin door opened, letting in the cold air, and Luke breathed in her
scent--no roaming herd animal--but the bright, fresh smell of night and of Mia, shaking
off the chill and putting down her pack.

"Luke?"

He rolled toward her, pulling the down comforter with him, but didn`t answer. He listened
to her shrugging off her coat and unzipping her boots in the dark. The wood stove burned
low, giving off a little light, but not much. He waited until she came to the bed, sitting
on the edge, before he spoke.

"It`s not safe to cross."

He felt more than saw her shrug. "I made it."

"Do you have a death wish?"

Mia stood, pulling off her shirt and dropping it to the floor. "Probably." Her jeans
followed, and she slid under the covers beside him naked. "But it`s colder at night--I
thought the ice would be a little more frozen."

"And no one to save you if you fell through." His hands found her in the dark, touching
someone else`s flesh for the first time in a year. His fingers sank into the softness of
her hip, pulling her belly to belly with him.

The silence stretched long and Luke felt the weight of it before she finally spoke. "You
know as well as I do the current would take me before anyone could reach me."

He pulled her close, wanting to melt the sudden chill. Mia softened against him, letting
him hold her. Her skin was cold and he rubbed her to warm it. "I missed you," he admitted.
It was always this way, every time he touched her. The constant rat wheel in his head
stopped spinning the minute she slid her slender fingers over his chest. "I don`t want
anything to happen to you."

"I`m okay." She touched her forehead to his. Her breath smelled sweet, like carrots.

"No you`re not."

She smiled against his mouth. "I know." Their first kiss in a year--it was like starting
kindling under a log, slow to catch at first, but growing brighter the more they fed it.
Her lips were soft and warm, but trembling, and she stiffened when he slid his thigh
between hers, rolling her on top of him in the darkness. He wanted to keep her--that was
his desperate, secret wish, one that he didn`t want her to know and tried not to convey in
the way he advanced.

Luke had long years of practice in approaching a wounded animal. Mia wasn`t feral, like
most. She was a trapped bird, heart beating fast, wings flittering, hard to keep still
long enough to free her. Something in her was always struggling, and he longed to calm
her. His strokes were long and light, top to bottom, his hands moving down and over her
behind. He sought the hair-tie she used to keep it back, freeing the dark length and
letting it spill over him in a silky cascade. It tickled his nose but he didn`t move as
she softly pressed her mouth to his.

It was just a matter of timing. He let her go and she sat up and straddled him, her
fingers tracing over his collarbone, down his arms, along his sides, pressing his belly
hard as if testing him for solidity, finding his edges and boundaries. The soft clutch of
her thighs against his hips and the radiant heat of her sex shifting against his lower
belly made him long to grab and take her. It`s been too long. Still, he waited, listening
for the change in her breath as she rocked against him, shifting her body lower with every
wave.