Free Rocky Mountain Wild (Rocky Mountain Bride Series Book 6) by Lee Savino

waiting, she decided to go home. It was too wet to do much of anything else.
    The trail to her meadow was muddy, and Phoebe struggled a little to limp through the puddles. Even her staff got stuck in the sucking mud.
    Approaching her little hut, she felt dismay. Her hearth would be cold and dead, and she was too tired to make a fire. It would be worse as winter came on.
    The rain seemed to pick up, beating down in sheets so she could barely see her own door. Water poured off her roof, and when she opened the door to her home, she realized the leaks had gotten worse. Rain trickled down from multiple crevices, with the worst leak near the hearth, beating off the stone and turning the earthen floor in front of it to mud. Phoebe looked about in dismay. Her bed was now a large puddle. There was no way she could make a fire.
    Shivering, she put her arms around herself and started to crouch, but the damp sent an ache spiraling up her leg. Her eyes smarted with tears as she wondered what to do.
    It could’ve been minutes or it could’ve been hours before she heard a voice bellowing over the rain.
    “Phoebe!”
    Her teeth were chattering too hard to answer him.
    Calum flung the door open hard enough to splash into the small puddle. In the gloom, she could make out his frustrated features.
    Body cramping, she tried to stand. “I waited for you—”
    Her words cut off as he stalked to her. Pulling her to her feet, he dipped and she was over his shoulder. His arm wrapped around her legs to hold her there. Ducking, he grabbed her staff and bag, and headed back out the door.
    “Mr. MacDonnell, what are you doing?” Phoebe kicked her feet a little as her employer stalked through the rain. The way back to the lodge took no time; the Scot’s big strides ate up the wet ground and easily avoided the puddles.
    Once inside the lodge, he swung her down. Phoebe took a second to be grateful for the warmth and light, swaying a little on her feet. She was so cold.
    “Silly, stubborn lass. I would take a tawse to you, if I thought it would teach you.” Calum moved about the room, flinging off his wet jacket, boots and shirt.
    “What did I tell you, Phoebe? You wait for me, every time. I come home and panic because you’re not here, and you could have slipped and fallen in the mud…”
    She couldn’t answer because her teeth had started to chatter again. Grabbing her again, he moved them both to the fire, as close to the hearth as they could go, and started undressing her.
    His bare chest heaved. He looked so handsome with water droplets clinging to his faintly freckled skin, and wet hair hanging around his face.
    “I didn’t want to bother you—” she said as her teeth clattered.
    “So you walked through the rain? You’re soaked, you wee scunner.” His hands made short work of her buttons, and stripped off her wet dress, then burrowed further to find her corset stays. Her chemise and petticoat were next, flying over her head and dropped to land with a splat on the floor. Drops of water flew into the fire, where they sizzled. The rain outside sounded like a living, breathing monster. Phoebe was glad she wasn’t in her little hut.
    “What are you doing?” she asked too late. He already had most of her wet things off. A numbness had taken over her mouth and mind.
    “Getting you warm,” he said, glowering. “And no back talk. I’m done with this, Phoebe.”
    She didn’t say anything as he knelt and peeled off her stockings and boots. He’d left the drawers and under-chemise, leaving her side for a moment, but when he came back with a great big fur blanket, he whipped those off too, and wrapped her naked form in the robe. After hooking his chair closer to the hearth, he picked her up and sat her down in his lap, fur and all. His broad hands started rubbing her body through the rug, chafing her limbs to warm them.
    Phoebe didn’t fight it. She lay her head on his broad, bare chest and let her body absorb his heat. Her skin