Dare Me Again by Karin Tabke Read Free Book Online Page A

needed more firewood. There had to be more somewhere. She turned, pausing a moment to truly take in the room now that she wasn’t freezing or quite so freaked. It was open, rustic, and very nicely appointed. The eerie shadows of big leather furniture dominated the room, and above the mantel a big bear head snarled at her. Hanging from the wall to the left of the fireplace was an ax, along with a nice looking compound hunting bow and quivers full of arrows slung from a thick wooden wall peg beside them.
    It had been a long time since she’d handled a bow, but she bet if she had to, while she might not be able to hit a bull’s eye at one hundred yards, just like she had in high school, she’d get pretty damn close. Along the side wall was a collection of some of the biggest, baddest knives she had ever seen. As she looked more closely, she saw that they weren’t merely for ornamentation but showed signs of regular use. Same with the bow. Though worn, it was in immaculate shape. Whoever owned the place liked to hunt. Along with the bear head, there was a nine-point buck head, and a nasty looking wild boar head mounted on the opposite wall. She wondered if the heads on the wall were the trophies of an expert bowman? It certainly seemed like a more equitable match. Anyone could aim and shoot a gun and kill something, but it took skill and finesse to hunt down a bear with a bow and hit the mark with an arrow. She wondered how Simon had found this place. It was total testosterone. Perfectly suited for someone like her husband.
    As the fire crackled and popped, Kat looked up the wide stairway to what looked like a loft. Indulging her curiosity, she walked up the steps, stopping at the top. A huge bed took up most of the floor space along with another fireplace, juxtaposed above the one in the great room, tying the chimneys together. She shivered, not from the cold, but in anticipation of wrapping herself around Simon in that big bed with a fire blazing in the hearth.
    But if that was going to happen, she needed firewood! Still using the flashlight, she hurried downstairs and walked toward the back of the great room to the open kitchen. There was a door to the right of the fridge. It led to a covered porch with what looked like a wood pile covered with a tarp.
    Struggling with the snowdrift bound door, she got it open enough so that she could dig through the snow to the mound. Sure enough, it was firewood. She made several trips back to it until she had a sizable pile in the great room. After locking up, she stoked the fire so that it blazed, throwing more logs on it until the flames cast a warm glow over the room. After settling the fire screen in place, she went in search of the bathroom. Finding it off the great room, she didn’t bother nosing around. She wanted to get comfortable. So she did what she had to do, then grabbed her overnight bag and took it upstairs along with her flashlight. It was a toss-up whether she should conserve the firewood she had brought in and just sleep downstairs, but… She shivered. She’d feel safer somehow on higher ground. Not that marauders would be out in this terrible weather. Hell, she doubted any living creature would venture out. The snow was piling up as the wind began to howl.
    Emotion tugged at her bravado. She was afraid of being up here in the Sierras in the middle of a blizzard all by herself. She wanted her husband with her. She wanted his strong arms around her, the feel of his hard warmth pressed to her.
    As she made her way down the stairs, a loud crash from the front of the cabin startled her. She gripped the flashlight like a weapon and moved to the small window along the door and gasped. There on the front porch was a piece of firewood, as if someone had thrown it at the door.
    She turned off the flashlight and backed away as an uneasy dread infiltrated her. Her cellphone chirped that she had a text message.
    Did she have service? She grabbed it out of her purse where she