Brands & Bows

I was so warm! I curled my knees up to my belly and rubbed my cheek against the soft pillow. I heard the whistling of the wind and burrowed down further, thankful to be in my bed and out of the storm that seemed to be brewing.
“Stop wiggling.”
My reverie was broken by a very male voice directly behind me. I wasn’t at home. I wasn’t in my bed and I wasn’t alone. My pillow wasn’t a pillow at all, for when I opened my eyes I looked directly down a man’s forearm, sprinkled with dark hair over the top of sinewy muscles. He was pressed firmly against my back and his other arm was wrapped over my waist and the large hand… the large hand cupped my breast!
“Oh!” I cried and tried to move away, but his hold was too firm. My shifting only pushed my breast into his palm further and I felt my nipples tighten. Something was poking against my bottom.
“I said stop wiggling,” the man repeated.
“But… I… why?”
I couldn’t speak, my words lodged in my throat.
“You fell in the damn river and could’ve died.”
I remembered and that settled me more than the man’s command. The horse had bucked me and I’d fallen in the river. I’d been so cold that I just gave in to it and went to sleep.
I licked my dry lips. “I didn’t die.”
“You might have lived, but at the moment, darlin’, this is pure hell.” The man removed his hand from my breast and let me pull away. I recognized that voice! I jumped from the covers. “Doctor James!”
My feet touched the icy cold ground and I glanced down at myself. I screeched, knowing he could see every bare inch of me. He held back the furs and I jumped back beneath them, although I moved as far away from him as possible while still remaining abed.
“I’m… I’m naked!”