Free Timeless by Brynley Bush

his arms to carry me inside. It’s not until I’m standing in front of the fire that I realize how cold I really am. Marcus pulls off my hat and gloves and starts rubbing my hands briskly with his strong fingers to get my circulation going as I stand there shivering. But the worried look in his eyes is finally gone; I must have finally convinced him I’m not hurt.
    “Go change into dry clothes.”
    The tone of his voice, coupled with the forbidding look on his face, has me scrambling to obey. His concern seems to have morphed into tightly restrained fury.
    In his bedroom, I peel off my wet clothes and dig through one of his dresser drawers until I find a soft, long-sleeved, gray t-shirt with Dunn & Wallace emblazoned across the front and a pair of thick socks that come up to my knees. Damn but I could use some underwear. I feel bare and exposed under his t-shirt, but at least it’s long on me. Where the hell is my thong?
    I take my sweet time changing. I’m not in a hurry to go back out and face Marcus. When I finally emerge from the bedroom, he’s waiting for me, pacing in front of the fire.
    “What the hell were you thinking?” he demands. The man who never gets mad has gone beyond angry. He’s furious.
    “I’m sorry. I saw the ATV out the window and thought I’d use it to get back to Five Pines. I was going to bring it back tomorrow.”
    “I don’t give a fuck about the ATV!” he roars. “And you may not have lived until tomorrow. You could have been killed out there!”
    I snort. “That’s ridiculous. I’m an FBI agent. I can take care of myself.”
    “Really?” He takes a menacing step forward but I hold my ground. “Is that why you ended up almost hitting a tree and winding up buried in four feet of snow? There was so much that could have gone wrong! It’s not uncommon for a storm like this to cause an avalanche. Did you think about that?”
    I shake my head mutely. I hadn’t been thinking about much other than getting the hell out of here.
    “If I hadn’t seen you take off and followed you, who knows how long you would have been lying in the snow. No one else is crazy enough to be out in this shit. And with the inadequate clothing you were wearing, you would have frozen to death sooner rather than later.”
    “But I was fine!” I interrupt. He turns blazing eyes on me and I wisely close my mouth.
    “Thank God you weren’t hurt, but you could have been. Underneath all that snow at the fork in the road is an eighty foot drop off. If you’d been thrown from the ATV two seconds earlier, you’d be at the bottom of a ravine now.”
    I blanch.
    “I’m sorry,” I say quietly. “You’re right. It was irresponsible of me.”
    “Damn straight it was!” he says. “Why didn’t you just wait out the storm like I told you to? What was so important that you had to get back to the resort today?”
    There’s no way in hell I’m going to admit it’s just too damn hard to be around him, wanting him and knowing he doesn’t feel the same. “This was my chance to experiment,” I retort. “Explore my boundaries. I signed up for the retreat so that I could see what D/s and BDSM is really like. I wanted to meet a man who would treat me like a woman, not an FBI agent who’s supposed to be competent and in control all the time. I wanted to give away my power, just for a little while. I wanted to be with someone I could be weak with, because I know he’ll be strong. For once in my life, I didn’t want to have to think or decide anything; I just wanted to feel small and insignificant. And you ruined it!” I punctuate my last sentence with my finger thrust into his rock hard chest. His eyes narrow dangerously and my stomach flutters.
    “You want to know what it’s really like, do you? In a D/s relationship, a sub doesn’t blatantly defy her Dom and put her life at risk, and if she does, she’s punished. If you were mine, that’s exactly what I’d do. In fact, I’m itching to do it