Her stack of things to take home was growing by the minute. Finally she looked up at him? " Logan?
"Yeah?"
"Would you mind getting me a couple of boxes?" "They're in the room at the very end of the hall, past the Isolation room where the mountain lion is. Do you remember where I mean?"
"Sure."
Logan went down the hall toward the back door. When he passed the Isolation room, the cat lunged at him again. "Bite me!" Logan said quietly, glaring hatred in its' direction. The cat snarled. Logan gave it the finger. Petty he knew, but it made him feel better. He went on to the next room and found two medium-sized boxes that would work then took them back to her.
" Thanks!" Ari started loading the boxes and Logan asked if he could have her keys so he could warm up her Jeep. It was snowing harder, big fluffy flakes were swirling crazily, and both trucks were covered with several inches of it. Logan started hers first, breathing in deeply and noticing how nicely it smelled of her. She had a red bandana hanging from her mirror and some medical books on the seat. It started easily, and Logan got out to start his next. He scraped the snow and ice off of both vehicles and used a snow shovel he found in the entry-way to scrape a path to her Jeep. Then he headed back in to help her carry the boxes.
Ari had just finished loading the boxes and was headed out when she reached the entry-way. She was carrying a heavy box, and opening the inner door had proved to be a challenge. It was dark, and her eyes were adjusting to the lack of light between the two doors. She stopped there and waited, because Logan had just finished shoveling and was walking toward the door. He leaned the shovel up against the building and stamped the snow off of his feet. He couldn't see that she was watching, as the darkness of the entry-way made her impossible to see. The bright white of the snow behind him made his whole form appear black in contrast. His hair was covered with snow, on top, accentuating the fact that it came up to sharp points on the sides. He tilted his head from side to side, cracking his neck. He shook his whole body to get the snow off and she gasped at how he did it.. just like a bear coming out of the water or a dog, after a bath. She had never seen a person do that before. In that moment, the fine line between Logan the man and Logan the animal became even more blurred than usual. - What IS he? - she thought. Chills shivered up and down her spine. She knew she should be afraid, but instead, she found herself even more drawn to him than before. She found herself full of questions, and an eagerness to have every one of them answered. She braced herself he was coming in.
Logan opened the door and, of course, immediately smelled that she was there. He sniffed the air, blinking and adjusting his eyes to the darkness. She was breathing quickly, and he could feel her heart pounding wildly, causing him to frown and ask
"What? Somethin' wrong?"
"No nothing . I'm fine."
He looked at her questioningly, then reached for the box. " You shouldn't be carryin' those. You take care of the pup, I'll get the boxes." He took the heavy box from her with ease, set it on his hip and reached over with his free hand to open the inner door for her.
"Thanks" She gulped, ducking under his arm.
When Logan came back for the other box she had calmed down and was about ready to go. She had unhooked the IV and covered the pup with a blanket, with just his little head sticking out. Logan took the box and led the way out to the Jeep. He put it in the back seat with the other box and turned to face her. The snow was falling fast and furious and he couldn't help but admire how pretty she looked with it all over her hair. "You wanna' put him back in your coat? He's more used to you, and I've got a stick." She said, motioning to her Jeep. One-liners floated through his head again, but he controlled himself. "Sure." He said, smiling. He opened his coat and she quickly took off the blanket and slid the pup in. He was close and when she looked up, he was looking down at her. She tried hard not to stare, noting how sexy he looked with large, fluffy flakes of snow all over his hair and on his eyelashes. She swallowed and licked her lips. "It's not far, only about five minutes, but in this weather Do you have plenty of weight in the back?" She said inclining her head toward his truck.
" Yeah, I'll be fine. I'll follow real close, you drive careful, okay?"
Ari nodded and started to get into her Jeep, so Logan walked over to his truck. As he was opening his door he heard her yell, "Oh, and by the way, NICE TRUCK!!"
He nodded and laughed. He was likin' her more by the minute.
The drive was slow and tedious. The heavy snow on the narrow road was like wading through knee-deep mud. Logan followed her tail-lights fairly closely. He was really worried that Ari would go off the road, but he kept telling himself that she did this all the time. She'd be fine. Nevertheless, he breathed a sigh of relief when they reached their destination. The brightness of the snow revealed a small, rustic two-story cabin. It was very dark, and Logan would have thought it was abandoned had she not pulled up and stopped in front of it. Before he could get out, she was running to his window, motioning to him to roll it down.
" Wait out here for a couple minutes, and then come on in, okay?"
"What? You leave some panties lyin' around or somethin'?" He said, teasing.
" NO!" she said, blushing again. " I'm going to put my dogs out they DEFINITELY won't like YOU! . Or ..maybe I should leave em' in.
" No, that's okayI was just teasin' ya'." He said, laughing.
She had changed out of the long white lab coat, and put on a short bomber jacket, and her tight jeans were looking mighty fine to Logan. He watched her walk up onto the porch, noticing how shapely her butt was, and how it swayed from side to side as she walked. Grrr - She unlocked the door and switched on a light, while at the same time was rambunctiously greeted by two LARGE dogs. She knelt down and gave each of them some attention, then looked his way and pointed to the dogs, smiling. He wasn't sure she could see, but he winked and nodded.
After a few minutes was up, Logan got out and went inside. His first impression of her cabin was that it was comfortable. a place you could call 'Home'. Across the room he noticed the cage that she had mentioned, and as he crossed to it, he could see that she had already turned it on. He knelt down and felt it. It was already starting to warm, so he took the pup out and placed him gently in the cage. He reached up on top and got a blanket and put it over the pup, then went out to get the boxes.
The cabin was pretty cool, so when he was done bringing everything in, he decided to start a fire. She had a large, beautiful old fireplace on one wall of the cabin, the old-fashioned kind that was big enough to cook in. Everything was right there to make a fire, so Logan set right to work building one. He looked up, when he heard her come in, but continued starting the fire.
"Good, Thanks I was going to ask you to make a fire." Ari began taking bottles of IV fluids and medications out of the boxes, and hooking the fluids up to the pup's IV line.
"Did you get the dogs taken care of. They 'gonna be okay outside tonight?"
" Oh, they'll be fine! They're tough. Did you see them? Aren't they beautiful?"
" Yeah, they were big! What breed are they?"
"They're wolf-hybrids. It's a big problem we have around here. People think it's cool to have a dog that's half wolf, so they breed them, but most of the time, as they get older, the owners can't control them any longer. I end up with quite a few of them that way. I find homes for some keep some, as you can see but some are just too aggressive and have to be euthanised. People don't understand that you can't make a pet out of a wild animal. It's very sad. Anyway, I have some outdoor runs and I've got them set up and fed for the night. They'll be fine, they're made for the cold."
Logan nodded and stood up, stretching. The fire was going nicely and the room was already warming up.
"Do you like chili? I made a big pot yesterday."
"Sounds fantastic!" He said, rubbing his stomach.
She started toward the kitchen, but then turned, frowning. "Is venison okay? I used venison I'm sorry if you don't like it. some people don't oh, and no beans Is that okay?"
" Sounds even better." Logan said, smiling. She obviously wasn't used to having people in her "space". She was so self-conscious. Before she had time to go back to the kitchen, he asked, "Do you mind if I take a shower? I have clothes in the truck, and the pup ya' know I'd REALLY like to feel clean!"
She froze. The thought of him naked in her shower.. next to her bedroom.her face turned beet red and she bit her bottom lip and swallowed hard. "That's fine." She said. "I'll show you where it is." She took him upstairs to the loft where the shower was and her bedroom. "There's a bathroom downstairs too, but it doesn't have a shower my bathrooms are very smallSorry, I hope this is okay." She led him into a fairly small, clean bathroom with an inviting shower. "There are towels in here, and shampoo whatever you need I think you can find everything in here except, of course, stuff like shaving cream and, you know, guy stuff. I don't have anything like that."
The tightness of the bathroom was forcing her to stand very close to Logan, and he looked down at her, calm and relaxed, so sure of himself. It was a stark contrast next to the near state of panic she was in. "Ari, this is great! Stop apologizing you have nothing to be sorry for. Everything is fine! I have everything I need."
"Sorry. Oh, I mean, Oh, I hate it when people tell you to stop apologizing.. because then you feel like you need to apologize for apologizing too much." She said, biting her lower lip. " I'm 'gonna go heat up the supper, okay?" She turned and blew the hair away from her eyes. It took all of her concentration not to fall down the stairs, her legs were shaking so badly. Logan looked after her, grinning and shaking his head, then he went out to get his things.
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