Snowbound with the Santas (Forbidden Fantasies)

11. Rayne

11

RAYNE

H iking in the snow is fun in theory.

In reality, it’s terribly difficult.

Archer leads, creating a pace that was easy to keep up with at first, but the longer the hike goes on for, the more difficult it is for me to keep up.

The start was likely fueled by how intimate it felt to have Archer roll that bandage up my leg. His actions and touch were so gentle compared to the gruffness of his voice and the shortness of his words. He seemed to care, for the few minutes he stayed with me.

Out here in the forest, it’s like a switch has been flipped, and he’s back to his grumpy, stoic self.

I begin to wonder if it’s all in my head. Maybe I’m dreaming up these private moments because I’m so far from civilization that my mind doesn’t know how to cope. That fuels me, partly. If nothing else, I need to let Nina know that I’m okay. She will definitely be worrying about me, and I hope she’s causing a stink about it.

But each time I consider the reality of what might be happening down the mountain, I get distracted by this place. The beauty of the forest is breathtaking, and the trees are so tall that it feels like we’re trekking through nature’s city. What fear I had about being here has faded somewhat since these men, even Archer, seemed determined to put me at ease.

I just need to get a smile out of Archer, and maybe then, everything will be perfect.

We walk for what feels like an eternity until Frankie falls back slightly and offers me a bottle of water.

“Thanks,” I gasp, pushing my hair away from my sweaty forehead. “Is it normal to be this hot?”

“Yes.” Frankie chuckles. “It’s important you don’t take anything off, though. The cold here moves so fast that you could be in danger within two minutes.”

“Damn. Feels like I’m in a sauna.”

“Not much of a hiker, then?” Frankie asks as I uncap the bottle and drink deeply.

“No,” I gasp after a good few mouthfuls of water. “Don’t get me wrong, this is fun, but it’s so tiring.”

“How’s your leg?”

I pass the water back. “Sore but not uncomfortable. Sort of feels like a bruise that’s just throbbing, y’know?”

Frankie nods and shoves the water bottle back into his rucksack. Ahead of us, Nick and Archer appear to be deep in discussion.

“If you need a break, just ask,” Frankie says, and his lopsided smile chases away any exhaustion approaching my mind.

“I will do.” I nod. “So, do you all do this a lot? Come up here at Christmas? No family or girlfriends or anything waiting for you back home?”

“Girlfriend?” Frankie scoffs softly. “Not a chance.”

My boots slide in the snow as we hop up onto the next ledge. “Why the scoff? Are you recently single?”

“No, it’s not that.” Frankie holds out this arm for me to grab as we climb up the next steep incline. “I’m not exactly lucky in love because of this.” He points quickly at his face.

“I must be missing something.” I frown deeply. “Do you mean your job?”

“No, my mouth.”

“I’m sorry, I’m still confused.”

“When I was younger, I had a lot of facial paralysis. It was my bullies' favorite thing to terrorize me about. Because of it, my muscles developed differently, and now I have this.”

My heart goes out to him as he speaks, and there’s clear pain lingering in his tone. A lifetime of being bullied about something you can’t control leaves deep scars.

“I’m so sorry,” I say softly. “I can’t even fathom… I think your smile is adorable. I would have thought it would have helped you in the dating world.”

Frankie laughs loudly. “Maybe, but I’m too… I don’t know. Shy, maybe. Hung up on things I can’t control.”

“Ahh, you need to be impulsive,” I tease.

“Maybe. It was easier when my brother was around.”

There’s a moment of silence over the crunch of snow and a mix of panting between us.

“I’m sorry.” I squeeze his arm before releasing. “Were you two close?”

“Very.” Frankie nods vigorously. “He was my older brother. Protected me from bullies. Kicked the ass of anyone who got too close, but then he went to war. He loved being a soldier, don’t get me wrong. But he was my idol and it was tough.”

I glance toward Archer, remembering how it had been mentioned before that Archer was in the army and served with Frankie’s brother.

“And that’s how you met Archer?”

Frankie nods. “Not until the funeral, though. I was twenty-two so… about twelve years ago now. The call came through, and suddenly, I was alone in the world until I got a call from Archer. He wanted me to come and visit him in the hospital.”

It starts to come together in my mind. The scars on Archer’s back and Frankie’s brother dying. They had to be connected.

“He wouldn’t take no for an answer after that.” Frankie’s smile is affectionate. “He could never replace Harry, but he does a damn good job, as stubborn as he is. I lost Harry, but I gained Archer, and I try to care for him the way Harry cared for me, y’know?”

Frankie wipes his brow and shoots me a smile.

“It’s all we can do when they’re stubborn.”

“A trait of being a man.” I snort softly.

“Do you have brothers?” Frankie asks.

“No.” I puff out my cheeks. “Only child.”

“But you know stubborn?”

Rolling my eyes, I nudge into him slightly. “My mother. Most stubborn person I’ve ever met in my life, but then there’s my uncle. He’s… his job comes first, y’know? So that’s his life, and my own father fucked off, so y’know, both stubborn against being a family.”

Except now, Cecil is shoving his tongue down my mother’s throat.

I grimace slightly.

“And yet you all holiday together?”

Frankie’s questions are getting a little too close to home, a little too real, so I shake my head and turn my attention skyward.

“It’s complicated. Y’know, they’re so full of themselves, I doubt they even noticed I’m gone.”

Frankie’s lips part, and I can see the desire to question me deeper in his eyes. So I cut him off before he can.

“How can you track this second storm without the radio?”

Frankie’s mouth closes, and he seems to be debating internally before he replies, “I’m a forest ranger, remember? I’m pretty good at reading the sky. It’s a talent. I took the job to escape people, and instead of learning social skills, I learned to read the sky.”

He laughs loud enough that Nick glances back at us.

“Is that all it takes?”

“Nah, but with Archer’s skills at reading the world around us and the last weather report we received, we have a good enough idea of what’s coming. Call it an educated guess.”

“Isn’t that dangerous?” One thing they’ve told me constantly is how quickly the mountain can change. Hearing that they read the clouds is a little alarming.

“It is.” Frankie nods. “But it’s Christmas. Mother Nature wouldn’t screw us that hard.”

“You sure about that?” I tease. “You already gained me and lost communication. If it weren’t the season of being merry, I’d say we were in a horror movie.”

Franke grins at me, and my heart warms at how adorable his smile is. “You think so?” he says. “Lost in the mountains. Maybe it’s Krampus that will come down the chimney and not Santa.”

“Ooh all those horns and that fur? Maybe we’ll be the last survivors and skin him alive at the end.”

“Dark.” Frankie snorts.

“Think about it. Archer’s the soldier, right, so he would die first. Nick’s the leader , so he will die. That leaves us versus Krampus.”

“You think we’d survive?” Frankie shoots out an arm to catch me as my boots slide on a patch of ice.

“Maybe not.” I grin at him.

The rest of the hike is beautiful. Frankie and I chat a little about his brother, and he admits to avoiding a lot of his grief by trying to help Archer. I understand him completely. I went into teaching to make up for the terrible night I caused, so his reasoning makes sense.

Eventually, Archer calls a halt to the hike when we reach a small cave that’s little more than a wedge cut into the side of the mountain. There’s no wind there, though, and it surprises me how quiet the world is when we’re inside.

Nick gets a fire going, and Frankie sets up the sleeping bags as spaced out as they can be, then ties them off to a few hooks already embedded in the rock face. He tells me they’re to prevent anyone from rolling down the mountain in their sleep.

There are only three sleeping bags, though, and it’s quickly decided that I’ll share one with Frankie.

“His muscles are tiny. There’s room,” Nick remarks, and a playful argument breaks out between him and Frankie while Archer cooks up some of the cold meat and canned soup we brought with us.

It’s the first time I’ve ever eaten out like this, and it’s somewhat disorientating to see the sun set so quickly when it still feels so early. By the time we settle down to eat, the stars are out and a dark blanket of silence has draped across the forest. The moon is so close I swear I can reach out and touch it.

“How’s your leg?” Nick asks between wolfing down mouthfuls of soup.

“Surprisingly okay,” I reply. “It hurts, but the tight bandage is helping. It’s a lot of support, so thank you.” I smile at Archer, but he remains as stone-faced as ever.

I’m even more determined to crack him. Gentleness exists. I saw it when he tended to my leg, and I will pull it out of him.

Peeing in the freezing cold is a new experience, especially when I have to hold Frankie’s hand so I don’t topple down in the snow and get lost. As the others tend to their nightly hygiene, my mind wanders.

Being here, up a mountain under the stars with three gorgeous men on a hike to fix a radio tower, feels like a dream.

Maybe I did die in that crash, and this is like when you try to use a phone in a dream but can’t see your fingers. Maybe the radio tower doesn’t exist and I’m just here, finally at peace and away from my mother. Away from Ashton and the horror of my past.

Then again… would a murderer really be granted peace like this?

Probably not.

I finish brushing my teeth with a swirl of snow, and when I turn back around, all three of them are down to their boxers.

“Oh, my God!” I slap one hand over my eyes as sleeping bags rustle and Nick laughs.

“Sorry, Rayne, I didn’t even think about this. It’s to conserve heat. Clothing steals heat from you, and these sleeping bags are insulated, so all the body heat stays inside with you rather than getting absorbed and lost in your clothes.”

I drop my hand, and all three of them are tucked into their bags, except Frankie, who still holds his open.

“Please hurry,” he gasps. “Before my balls freeze off.”

Archer snorts in amusement, and what nerves I have at stripping in front of all three of them vanish at the first touch of cold against the bare skin on my back. I strip quickly down to my underwear and dive in next to Frankie. He zips us up and winds his thick, warm arms around me.

“Holy shit.” I shiver violently, and he presses against me, sharing his heat.

“Cold, right?” He chuckles, his breath hot against the back of my neck.

“If we freeze to death like this,” I gasp, huddling against him, “I hope we’re found in ten thousand years.”

“Like some kind of frozen history,” comes Nick’s voice from above me.

“Exactly.”

The fire blazes, stocked up enough to last through the night, and gradually, silence falls. Then, soft snorting rises and I can’t tell whether it’s from Nick or Archer.

Sleep doesn’t come for me. My heart pounds wildly being in Frankie’s arms, and now that I’m warm, I’m aware that we’re pressed body to body, skin to skin.

I bite my lip and close my eyes, willing myself to sleep until I feel it.

The rapid-growing rise of something firm and thick against the swell of my ass.

“Fuck,” comes Frankie’s distressed whisper. “I’m so sorry.”

He’s hard .

Is it me? Or the situation?

I decide I don’t care.

Slowly, very slowly, I press my hips back into Frankie and his arms tighten around my waist.