Page 37 of Rescued By the Dog Trainer

I glance over her shoulder toward the foot of the bed. Juno lies with her chin on her paws, dark eyes fixed on us with silent Malinois intensity while Barnaby doesn't even bother lifting his head from the hearth pipe.

"Juno's keeping perimeter security." I catch Maren's wrist to bring her knuckles to my lips. "Checking to make sure I wasn't hurting her handler."

"You definitely weren't." Maren's voice drops, a playful glint in her blue eyes as her hand rests flat over my heart. "Though I might be a bit sore after."

"Don't tempt me." A low chuckle leaves my chest as I squeeze her hip. "I've got a whole list of remedies."

"Is that so?" Maren's voice drops into a smoky purr, a playful spark in her eyes as she shifts her weight over my chest. Her fingers trace the line of my jaw down to my collarbone. "I might be very interested in seeing your list."

A groaning laugh breaks from my throat, my hands tightening on her hips as the heat in the room spikes all over again.

"Don't do that to me." I glance toward the window where the morning sun cuts bright across the timber floor, then down at my watch on the bedside table. "It's seven-fifteen. If we stay under these quilts another twenty minutes, the dogs will start howling, and Wyatt and Bella will be over here hammering on the door with questions."

"Let them talk." Maren leans down while her lips brush the corner of my mouth with a slow tease.

"Oh, I intend to show you every item on that list." I pull her in for one long kiss that burns straight to my core before forcing myself to set her back against the pillows with reluctant regret. "Tonight. Consider it a rain check."

"I'm holding you to that." Her smile breaks wide, warm and clear in the dawn light. "I guess we need to feed the dogs before Barnaby files a grievance."

After a few minutes, I swing my legs out of bed to feed the stove. Cold air hits my bare torso as I stand, but the steady warmth in my chest stays strong. I throw two splits of birch onto the embers and pull on my work pants.

Behind me, Maren sits up in bed and draws the wool quilt over her bare shoulders.

I turn back to look at her. Her blue eyes are fixed on me with an intensity that stops me in my tracks. She isn't just looking at me. She's tracking every line of my body—scanning the broad muscle of my shoulders, the limp in my stride, and the five-inch corded scar slanting across my inner thigh.

She looks at me as if checking every line of my face against a ledger only she holds.

"You're running calculations." I step toward the bed, my thumb tracing the line of her jaw.

"Just checking the weather." Maren pulls her hand back and tucks her arm under the quilt. Distance opens between us before she moves an inch off the pillow.

She swallows something down behind her eyes—a wall of silence that locks her tight. I can guess at what she's thinking. The sixty-day clock on her phone and the exit path tucked in her pocket occupy her mind. Her room in town rents by the week, and last night she told me she's not the person who sticks around. If what she keeps swallowing is goodbye, I'm in no hurry to hear it.

"The weather's clear." I lean down to kiss her forehead. "The storm passed."

Maren keeps quiet while her eyes linger on the scar at my thigh before she pulls her gray wool sweater over her head.

I pull on my boots and bring hers to the bed so she can lace them without standing on her bad knee.

We check Danny before anything else.

The clinic smells of coffee and cleaner. Wyatt makes notes on the chart at the exam table while Bella prepares a fresh tray of IV supplies.

The moment Maren and I step through the door, the atmosphere in the room shifts. The unspoken tension that used to simmer between us in the yard has exploded wide open. Wyatt looks up from his clipboard, tracking the way I walk at Maren's shoulder. My hand rests near the small of her back. He offers a quiet nod between us.

Danny's awake. Pale, splinted to the hip, with an IV taped to his arm.

"Boss." His voice is thin. The grin isn't. "Buddy saved my ass. All he had to do was lie on me."

"He'll be insufferable about it." I stop at the foot of the table. "Steak for a month, and he knows it."

"The county called while you slept." Bella brings Danny a fresh cup of water. "They'll have snowcats up by eight-thirty. There's a warm bed waiting at the valley clinic."

"Your wrap did it." Wyatt closes the chart. "Heat on him before the shock got there."

"The valley crew gets the fun part now." Maren checks the IV drip with and the tension in the splint.

Danny settles under her hands. The kid trusts her. Everyone up here trusts her. She acts like it isn't deserved.