31

We drove in a nervous excitement in the car back to our cabin. Instead of going inside, Alaric suggested we sit outside near the fire ring. I nodded in agreement as he collected wood and soon had a roaring, orange fire going.

I sat in one of the chairs near it as I reached my hands out toward the warmth it let off. Without the sun in the sky, the air had turned chilly and I shivered in the cold beneath the star-filled sky.

"Are you cold?" Alaric asked as he walked away from the fire and toward me.

I looked up at his muscular build framed by the orange glow behind him. "A little."

He quickly took his black suit jacket off and took my hand, pulling me gently to my feet. He laid the jacket around my shoulders and I slid my hands through the sleeves.

"Thank you," I said graciously as I wrapped it tightly closed around me.

His eyes wandered over me. "You look damn good in my clothes."

I laughed lightly as he sat down in the chair I had just been sitting in and he pulled me down into