One more step, one more, then another and another, she silently encouraged herself and thought she saw the snow clearing up ahead. She took an eager step and suddenly felt herself tumbling to the ground. She hurried to get herself up out of the snow, but plopped down on her bottom when she realized her foot was stuck on something. She stretched her hands expecting to find her foot stuck beneath a tree branch. She was shocked to feel cold flesh and even more shocked when she suddenly was able to see what trapped her. It was an arm and painted on the inner forearm from fold to wrist was a drawing of an arrow.

She started screaming. “Tarass! Tarass! Tarass!”

Thaw flew off the bed and out the door, making a mad dash for Tarass’s bedchamber, barking all the way up the curving staircase.

Tarass was at the door by the time the pup reached it, and Thaw hastily turned and headed back down the stairs, Tarass nearly on top of him.

He rushed to the bed and yanked Snow up in his arms, wrapping her tight against him. “I’ve got you. You’re safe, Snow. You’re safe.”

She flung her arms around his neck and she had no intention of letting go of him. He was alive and there with her and that was what mattered. The thought jolted her. She had been terrified to think Tarass was dead. What did that mean? Did she care for this man?

Impossible.

They did nothing but argue and disagree, and yet when frightened she looked to him for comfort and safety. When in his arms, she felt the safest she had in years. Like now. There was no other place she wanted to be but here warm and snug in his arms, and protected.

“It was a nightmare, nothing more. I’m here and you’re safe,” he assured her again.

His words soothed and his arms comforted, and she snuggled her face in the crook of his neck.

The way she settled herself against him, he knew she didn’t plan on going anywhere and either did he. He would stay with her and comfort her for as long as she needed him to.

He situated them comfortably on the bed and pulled the two soft blankets over them. He would wait until she was in a peaceful slumber before he left her.

He settled himself around her, forgetting one thing… he had run naked from his bedchamber.

Chapter 11

Tarass woke with a start, jolting Snow awake since she was wrapped in his arms. He hadn’t known what startled him until he looked at the bottom of the bed to see Thaw standing there, wagging his tail at Nettle.

Tarass saw the shock in the young woman’s wide eyes and the way her mouth hung open. “You will say nothing about this, Nettle,” he ordered sharply.