Winter in Paradise Read Free Page A

cut a gap in the ice across their path, then snapped off. Kelly blinked at her nav and headed left, first south then west. They hadn’t detected her and Grayson. Their aim couldn’t be that bad. The weapon discharge had to be a stray from the battle above—but deadly nonetheless.
    Grayson yanked her back and she caught sight of the crevice she’d nearly stepped into. She hadn’t spotted the hole, her vision still impaired by the beam’s afterimage. The ice crumbled beneath her feet. She backpedaled against Grayson, who had planted himself with the effort to pull her back. Her feet slipped. She threw herself on the ice, twisted, and grappled for his ankles. He fell backward as the ice below her feet slipped into the fissure. Support vanished. She thudded onto the ledge. Her legs dangled over the edge. Grayson grabbed her hood and pulled her with him as he scrambled back. Her fur coat cinched into her armpits, lifting her arms off the ice.
    Another beam sprang to life behind him.
    “Grayson!” she yelled.
    He twisted to look. The beam cut a line across their escape. It was going to trap them on an island of ice.
    Grayson worked right. The beam staggered left. Her feet gained purchase and she propelled herself ahead on all fours, then three when she grabbed his coat and dragged him alongside. The beam sputtered, stabbed twice more and died. The smell of ozone hung heavy in the air. A measure of exhilaration helped her gain her feet.
    Grayson was up and moving. “They got it,” he yelled.
    He’d read her mind. The beam’s erratic cutoff meant the ship at its source had been disabled…or was it too much to hope the ship had been destroyed? Which ship had fired at them? Was it an escort or the mother ship? Dammit, they were blind without sensors.

Chapter Three
     

    Wind sliced across Kelly’s face where the hood had fallen from her head. She’d lost her goggles during the stray Kirsoval firepower. She stumbled and pulled at Grayson. He slipped from her grasp. She spun, but fingers of steel seized her shoulders, and Grayson yanked her against his chest. Her legs gave way and he crushed her to him while she buried her head in his warmth. His enviro-suit had run out of power and her only gel-pack was nearly depleted. Tears rose, but didn’t fall in the freezing temperature. He swayed. She straightened.
    “We’re not dying out here. You understand me?” Her eyes stung.
    He pulled the hood up over her head. Her heart broke. Her nav no longer functioned. She scanned the sheet of white sky for the hint of sun that would point her south toward base. All she could do was pretend, for his sake.
    She grasped his sleeve and pulled him. “This way.”
    They rounded an ice-boulder that she told herself looked familiar, but—the cave opening yawned before them. Thank the elders! They stumbled across the invisible threshold and inside the cave. Snow flurried around the entrance and melted on contact with the cavern floor.
    Kelly drew back her hood and whipped Grayson around. “We made it.”
    Uncontrollable shivers wracked his body. She cursed. She had to get his body temperature up—fast.
    “Come on.”
    The howl of the wind grew fainter as she dragged him forward. The yellow illumination ahead grew until they turned the bend into the cavern. What had felt cool earlier now felt like sweltering heat compared to the ice cold they’d just battled. Kelly wanted to cry.
    Exhaustion took over. The thick, fur coat felt like it was made of lead. Kelly brought Grayson to a halt. She shook off her mittens and turned off her enviro-suit. It dropped to the floor, leaving her naked under the furs. She yanked loose the bindings on his furs, turned off his enviro-suit, then spread the furs and slipped her hands around his naked waist. She pressed her warmth against him. Despite his icy skin, he felt as he always did: tall, lean…strong. He wrapped her in a bear hug. His muscled arms trembled around her like a tectonic plate about to