There was none of the exhilaration of their ride in the other direction, none of the laughter. Even the blue skies were now gray, spitting cold rain at them as a final insult.
She shivered against him and all he wanted was to get her out of her wet clothes and settled in a warm, dry spot with some food and water. When they came to the first of the wide tree trunks in the middle of the trail, Sam made a spur-of-the-moment decision to try to carry the bike over the barrier.
Dianna’s teeth were chattering as she got off the bike and Sam didn’t have to think twice about hoisting the bike over to the other side of the trail. She’d easily scrambled over the tree trunks on the way to the campground, but now, between her fatigue and her despair, he knew she needed his help.
The fact that she let him assist her without protest worried him more than anything. He’d do anything to see the spark in her eyes return.
After what seemed like an eternity of grinding through mud and bumping painfully over endless rocks on the trail, then getting off and carrying the bike over to the other side, they pulled in through the Farm’s gates. Sam parked the bike next to an ancient tractor.
Dianna’s lips had a faint blue tinge to them, and he was so worried about her that he bent down, lifted her into his arms, and headed for Peter’s house.
“I can walk on my own,” she protested, but her voice sounded weak, wavery, utterly unlike her.
“I know, sweetheart,” he told her. “Let me take care of you.”
Again, it worried him that she didn’t fight him on it. He needed to get her warm and dry as quickly as possible.
At least she noted, “Our tent is in the other direction.”
“You need a hot shower,” he explained, “and I figure Peter may be the only person here who’s got one.”
A short while later, after pretty much running across the meadow with Dianna in his arms, Sam pounded on Peter’s door. The Farm’s owner immediately ushered them inside the blessedly warm space looking concerned when he counted only two of them.
“You didn’t find April.”
“I’ll explain everything soon enough,” Sam said, cutting off any further discussion. “Right now, I need to get Dianna into some warm water.”
Peter nodded. “Follow me.”
Sam was surprised when Peter took them out a back door, down a short gravel walkway, and into a surprisingly nice little guest house, complete with a kitchen, bathroom, and fireplace in the living room.
“I’ll have your bags, clean dry clothes, and food put out for you on the covered deck,” Peter said before closing the door.
Tracking mud across the cement floor, Sam headed for the tiled bathroom. Still cradling her tightly against his chest with one arm, he turned on the shower with the other. Quickly, the water went from cold to hot and he carried her under the spray, both of them fully clothed.
The look on her face when she finally stopped shivering was breathtakingly beautiful. Telling himself that his job was done, he gently put her down on her feet.
“Are you feeling better now?”
A part of him hoped that she’d say no, that she’d beg him to stay.
Instead, she nodded, her big green eyes holding his captive.
“Thank you for everything, Sam.”
Even though every cell in his body screamed at him to kiss her, he knew he couldn’t. She’d been through enough already without having him paw at her while her every defense was down.
He forced himself to step away from the water, away from the way her clothes were plastered to her curves, outlining every delicious inch of her body.
“I’m going to grab our things and lay some dry clothes out for you on the bed.”
God, it was going to kill him to stay out of this shower, especially when he knew she was about to peel off her clothes and let the water run over her bare skin. His c**k pushed at the back of his zipper, desperate to come out and join the party. He made himself turn away before she saw how much he wanted her.
“Take all the time you need to get warm,” he said, pausing at the doorway for one last look. “I don’t want you getting sick.”
Her cheeks were flushed and he told himself it was simply from the rush of going from cold rain to a warm shower, not that she was having similar thoughts of making love to him. Pulling from a nearly empty well of will, he stepped outside the bathroom and pulled the door shut.
Her sister was still missing, for f**k’s sake. Finding April was the only thing he should have been thinking of.
But he couldn’t erase the sensual image of Dianna standing in the shower, of how easy it would have been to strip off her clothes. In lieu of a cold shower, Sam walked out the front door, past the food and their backpacks, which Peter had already put on the deck.
Icy pellets of rain would have to do the trick.
With trembling fingers, Dianna undid the buttons on her shirt and dropped the soaked fabric to the tiled floor. She tried to take her pants off next, but when they got stuck at her shoes, she sat down and undid her laces.
The warm water flowing over her head, her shoulders, down her back, felt incredible. But not nearly as amazing as Sam’s hands on her skin when he’d held her in the shower. The heat in his eyes had warmed her faster than the water and she’d been seconds from pressing herself against him and begging him to help her forget her worries by making love to her.
Pulling her shoes and muddy socks off, she sat on the tiled shower floor in her underwear and rewound to the moment Sam had run into the burning building at the campgrounds. He hadn’t hesitated for a second, hadn’t been the least bit concerned about his own safety. Instead, he’d been intent on making sure that she was all right, that she wasn’t going to do anything stupid and hurt herself.
It was the first time she’d ever witnessed him in action. She’d never seen anything like it, not even in action films with actors playing the part of daredevil firefighters.
Sam had been a superhero come to life, running through flames, leaping onto the roof and smashing it in.
And he’d done it solely in the hope of saving her sister.
Watching him push through the front door of the cabin, her heart had been in her throat. She’d fought the desperate urge to run in after him, to somehow stop him from sacrificing himself for her.
Her heart squeezed as the unassailable truth smashed into her: She’d never stopped loving Sam. Never. And she would love him forever.