CHAPTER TWELVE Dirk

I wasn't exactly sure how I managed to get the unconscious man up more than a hundred steep steps that were covered in inches of snow. I'd found Blake Jensen immobilized in his blue tarp, looking like a bright-blue human popsicle. At first the snow-covered lump resembled a fallen log, but a crumpled-up sleeping bag hanging from a low branch proved he was near. After unrolling him and finding him naked and practically catatonic, I did my best to wrap him in my jacket, lifted him over my shoulder, and began the hike back to the fire tower. I'd rest at the base of the steps before attempting the journey to the top.

His light-brown hair had crystals frozen to clumps of strands, and his lips were damn near as blue as the tarp he'd wisely wrapped around himself. This man was an experienced hiker if he'd known enough to attempt that lifesaving trick. The question though was why would he put himself in such grave danger in the first place? He had to have known about the threat of a spring snowstorm. No qualified outdoors person ever went to these locations without being armed with a weather report and backup provisions. He came with no provisions from what I could see and it was clear that he had no backup plan either.

Once at the top of the tower and inside the warmth of the cabin, I wrapped him in blankets, laying him on the bed. He was too thin. Slender hips and lean legs supported a narrow waist and torso. He still had the definition of a man who'd worked out in the past though. His chest was small but had the slightest of pectoral muscles still visible. An eight pack was unavoidable by this point with him being so skinny. He did have biceps but they were harder to make out considering his nonresponsive state.

There wasn't an electric blanket in the cabin and giving him warm liquids was impossible in his current condition, so I stripped down naked and moved behind him and inside the two blankets, my arms encircling him in a bear hug. I kept moving my legs and arms over his bare skin to invigorate his circulation. "I've got you," I whispered, cradling his head with one hand.

My unconscious guest was small and fit into me perfectly. I liked having him curled up in a fetal position and wrapped in my protection. The urge to be that for him came out of nowhere, and the guilt of feeling my urges and emotions was embarrassing. Pushing the sexual thoughts from my mind was automatic, but still I'd noticed them. How long had it been since I'd felt anything resembling attraction? This was not the time for longing. Had he been conscious, and knowing how he'd been earlier when I met him, he'd be horrified at me being so close.

I gazed at the nonstop snow as it drifted past the many windows in the tower. A reflected glow was bouncing from the ground and back to the clouded sky, returning to the earth and repeating the endless cycle throughout the night. The storm was a quiet beauty that continued to pile feet of snow around us. Blake's breathing had become deeper and slower as his body relaxed the war it had been waging when he warmed. He was motionless and very still, but with my rescue training experience I was convinced I'd found him before frostbite and other symptoms like memory loss and neural damage had set in.

Our embrace felt natural and comforting as our breathing synched. I shouldn't have been joking at a time like that but I preferred Blake Jensen like this. I was close to dozing off when his hand moved to my wrist, encircling it as he pushed backward against my flaccid penis. He moaned and his entire body tremored involuntarily until his movement subsided once again. My once flaccid cock had sprung to life and it was all I could do to force myself to remember he was under my care and not capable of a sexual response. The immediate feeling of disgust for myself caused a quick deflation of the violating organ.

Like him, I fell into slumber, moving further and further down sleep highway.