Only 04 - Only Love

cold.
    Yet she was trying to dismount.
    “What the hell do you think you’re doing!” Whip demanded. “I told you to stay put.”
    Shannon tried to speak but her lips were too cold. She pointed with a hand that shook.
    For the first time Whip noticed the ragged back-pack and the haunch of venison that had beenthrown aside in Shannon’s rush to rescue Prettyface.
    Whip was tempted to get up behind Shannon, ride to the cabin, and to hell with the venison. Instead, he stalked over and picked up the backpack. The sheer determination Shannon had shown in hunting the deer moved Whip in ways he couldn’t express; the venison meant survival to her in the most fundamental sense of all. Though it infuriated Whip that Shannon had gone after deer in the first place, he couldn’t deny her the fruits of her hunt.
    “Here,” he said roughly.
    Whip shoved the backpack into Shannon’s lap and swung up behind her.
    As soon as Whip put his arm around Shannon to take the reins, he realized that she was colder than he had thought.
    Dangerously cold.
    Beneath his heavy, loose jacket, Shannon’s whole body was racked by convulsive shivering.
    “Son of a bitch ,” Whip said harshly.
    His other arm came around Shannon and he set his spurs to the big gray. Sugarfoot took off down the slope at a pace just short of reckless. As far as Whip was concerned, it was much too slow, but common sense told him otherwise.
    It was only a few minutes until they reached the cabin, but Shannon’s shivering was worse by then. If it hadn’t been for Whip’s strong arms holding her in the saddle, she wouldn’t have been able to stay on.
    Prettyface was waiting patiently by the cabin door.
    Whip dismounted, lifted Shannon off, and carried her to the cabin. Despite her shivering, she hung on to the venison as though it was life itself.
    “I wish to God you had as much sense as you have sheer grit,” Whip said as he kicked the cabin door open.
    Prettyface shot through the opening. Shannon shivered violently and said nothing.
    It was dead cold inside the cabin. A fire had been laid in the stove, waiting for a match to bring heat and life to the room.
    Prettyface didn’t mind the lack of warmth. He simply went to his corner and stretched out on a ragged saddle blanket with a groan of pleasure.
    Whip put Shannon on her bed, threw the bearskin blanket over her, and went to light the fire in the stove. His hands were so cold that it took several tries before he could hold and strike a match without breaking it. Once touched by the match, flames caught and held very quickly.
    That wasn’t fast enough to suit Whip. He was bigger than Shannon, he hadn’t been in the water as long as she had, and he was damned cold.
    It took Whip five tries to light the lantern. When he turned toward the bed once more, his glance fell on the dry goods cupboard that led to the hot spring.
    Without hesitation Whip went to the bed, scooped up Shannon, grabbed the lantern, and went through the cupboard to the darkness beyond. The warmth of the cave was like a benediction.
    Whip set the lantern on the wooden box that served as a table. Golden light spilled over everything as Whip took off Shannon’s soaked boots, the bearskin blanket, and the jacket he had wrapped her in. Ruthlessly he stripped off her clothes, ripping the old cloth in his haste to get her free of its icy folds.
    Shannon neither spoke nor focused her eyes on Whip while he undressed her. She simply shuddered convulsively, repeatedly.
    “Shannon, can you hear me? Shannon!”
    Slowly her eyes focused.
    Whip let out a breath of relief.
    “You’re going to have a nice, warm bath,” he said. “Then all the shivering will stop and you’ll be fine. Do you understand?”
    Shannon’s head made a motion that could have been a nod. Her teeth chattered audibly until she clenched her jaw.
    “That’s it, honey girl. Keep on fighting the cold. Don’t let it put you under.”
    As Whip spoke, he wrenched off his own soaked boots and clothing. Moments later he carried Shannon into the pool. The broad bench Silent John had chipped and hammered out of stone was too shallow for Whip to get warm water up as high as his breastbone, but it was just right for Shannon.
    When Shannon was on his lap, the water came up to the hollow of her throat. The hot spring swirled gently around Shannon, engulfing her with heat.
    Breath hissed through Whip’s teeth at the touch of the water. Though he knew it wasn’t really hot in