Bitter Heat

by Mia Knight

  “You have to stop,” she whispered.

  He ignored her and pressed in closer. She was losing the fight. In a last-ditch effort to hold on to a shred of her self-respect, she uttered the one thing she knew would get a reaction from him.

  “Jamie, please.”

  He went rigid against her and lifted his mouth from her skin. Uttering his nickname evoked memories she had buried long ago. No one was allowed to call him by his first name, so she gave him a ludicrous nickname and teased him unmercifully about it. That seemed like a lifetime ago.

  “I want to go home,” she whispered, voice thick with tears as her emotions got the better of her. Weeks of stress caught up to her, leaving her depleted and fighting to keep her composure. It was all too much.

  The thigh between her legs retreated so abruptly, she stumbled like a newborn foal. Before she could find her balance, a beefy hand manacled her wrist and began to drag her back the way she’d come.

  “What are you doing?”

  “We have to leave now before we get snowed in.”

  She dragged her boots against the tiles in an effort to slow him down. “I’m not going anywhere with you!”

  “Airport’s closed until tomorrow, there’s nowhere to stay in town, and the snow’s coming down thick and heavy. We’re going to the cabin.”

  “You can go to the cabin. I’m staying here.”

  “They’ll kick you out.”

  “I’ll sleep in the waiting room.”

  “And chance being recognized? A picture like that could end up on tomorrow’s front page. I can see the headline now: Homeless Hennessy Heiress.”

  “I don’t care!” She blamed her pitiful tone on the fact that it had been the day from hell. “Who do you think you are? You can’t—”

  “I can do whatever the fuck I want.”

  “Not with me!”

  “We’ll see about that.”

  She had the crazy urge to leap on his back and pound him on the head. “Why are you here? Kaia said you wouldn’t come.”

  “I wasn’t going to, but I decided to be a good son for once in my life.” He shot her an unreadable glance. “I never thought I’d run into my elusive ex-wife. I guess this trip wasn’t for nothing.”

  “How can you be so cold?” He didn’t even bother to act concerned for Kaia. “Your mother had a heart attack! You haven’t even asked me how she is!”

  “I was informed that she pulled through surgery.”

  “And that’s enough information for you?”

  “Yes.”

  “You should be grateful you have a mother who cares about you.”

  “You think so?”

  “Yes! She’s a sweet woman living up in the mountains all by herself. You never visit her.”

  “For good reason.”

  He turned the corner, shamelessly lugging her behind him. A nurse came out of a room with a chart in hand and stopped dead when she caught sight of them.

  “Married squabble,” Roth said with an ease that shocked her.

  “We’re divorced!” Jasmine retorted and finally picked up her feet because the awful screeching her shoes were making on the tile would wake every patient on the floor.

  “Roth, let me go!”

  “Are you afraid of me?”

  Yes. “No!”

  “Then what do you have to worry about? Tomorrow, we’ll come back to town, and you can leave.”

  One night. A couple of hours… She could do that, right?

  Roth stopped at the ICU counter. The nurse who told her visiting hours were over looked up with a scowl, but her expression altered once she got a good look at him.

  “Can I help you?” she asked.

  “My mom’s Kaia Roth,” he stated.

  The nurse glanced at Jasmine before she said, “She’s resting. You can come back tomorrow. We’ll discuss the care she’s going to need for the next couple of weeks.”

  He nodded and continued down the hallway. She tried to come up with a plan, but her mind was alarmingly blank. He pulled her into the elevator. When the doors closed, she stared at their reflection. He towered over her, richly dressed and intimidating in his fine clothes, while she looked like a grubby teenager.

  “I can’t do this,” she said.

  “You can.”

  “Fine. I don’t want to do this.”

  “Suck it up.”

  The elevator stopped, allowing a doctor to get on. She debated whether she should reach out for help. As if Roth could read her mind, he tightened his hold on her, a clear warning not to test him. She wanted to push, but she was too damn tired.

  The elevator opened on the ground floor. He tugged her out and stopped in front of the double doors that led out to the parking lot.

  “Keys,” he said curtly.

  “What?”

  He slipped his hand beneath her jacket and into her jeans pocket.

  “What the hell?” she screeched and clawed at his wrist.

  He held her irate gaze as he fished. Her nerves were completely shot by the time he retracted his hand and held up the keys to his mother’s truck. He knew exactly what he was doing. Touch was a powerful tool, and he was wielding it unmercifully against her, pushing her to her limit.

  “Fuck you. I’m staying here,” she said and turned away.

  He wrapped an arm around her waist and lifted her off the ground. She howled as he carried her through the double doors into the snow. The frigid temperature took her breath away. Fluffy white flakes fell into her gaping mouth. He trudged through the snow until he found Kaia’s truck, which was quite a feat since it was nearly unrecognizable coated in white. He unlocked the driver’s door and shoved her in. She crawled across the bench seat as he climbed in behind her.

  “I-I’m not going a-anywhere with-with—” she chattered.

  “Shut it,” he said as he turned the key in the ignition and adjusted the seat to fit behind the steering wheel.

  When she reached for the door handle on the passenger side, he grabbed her jacket and jerked her around to face him. Their breaths came out in white clouds and clashed in the air between them.

  “You owe me, Jasmine.”

  Something inside her snapped, and a moment later, he jerked back. Belatedly, she registered that her palm was throbbing and realized what she’d done. His dark skin wouldn’t show her handprint, but the promise of retribution in his eyes confirmed that she had struck him. She didn’t fucking care. After a hellish day of fear and worry, his bullying had pushed her over the edge.

  “I owe you?” She was so furious, she could barely speak. “I-I broke off my engagement for you! I got disowned and didn’t speak to m-my family for years because of you! I gave up everything for you!”

  She wasn’t aware that she grabbed fistfuls of his coat or that she tried to shake him as she unraveled.

  “You married me for my name. You used me.”

  Her voice broke as the past filled her with mortification and pain. A tear spilled down her cheek, but she was too pissed off to care that she was revealing a hole in her shield to a man who preyed on weakness.

  “The only reason you held onto me was to spite my dad. You two were caught up in this battle that had nothing to do with me, so I left. You skyrocketed after the divorce. You’re the mogul you always wanted to be.”

  She looked at her hands bunched in the rich fabric of his overcoat and dropped them.

  “I don’t owe you shit, Roth. You cost me everything.”

  She brushed her sleeve over her cheek and once again, reached for the door handle. A firm tug on her jacket told her he wasn’t giving up.

  “We’ll finish this at the cabin,” he said without inflection.

  “There’s nothing to finish,” she told the frosted window.

  “Your tears say different.”

  “It’s been a long day.”

  “You can rest when we get there.”

  She turned her head and glared at him through her tears. “I don’t want to be around
you.”

  “Tough shit.” He put the truck in gear. “Buckle up.”

  Chapter 2

  The small Colorado town was closed up for the night. The streets were deserted, and there were hazy orange halos around the streetlights as the storm attempted to swallow everything in its path. She adjusted the vents even though the air wouldn’t get warm enough to take away the chill in her bones. Kaia’s old truck might have an engine that was still going strong, but that was all it had in its favor. The vehicle sorely lacked the creature comforts like heat and comfortable seats. She pulled up her hood and angled her body away from Roth as they left behind all signs of civilization and headed out on the open highway.

  She rested her forehead against the chilly window and closed her eyes. Her impulsive trip to Colorado was turning into a disaster. She couldn’t say it was a complete flop since she had saved Kaia’s life, but any hope of gaining a scrap of inner peace about her father’s untimely death had vanished. Roth’s proximity riled her, reminding her how gullible and naïve she’d been.

  Did he bribe you to leave me?

  As his question echoed through her mind, she wondered what game he was playing. He knew exactly what made her leave. That night in London had played over and over in her mind on an endless loop for the past five years. She could quote every word he had uttered that night. It was inked on her soul. That night he didn’t destroy just their marriage, but her as well. She walked away disillusioned, humiliated, and a shell of a human being. She’d spent the years since then meticulously piecing herself back together, fortifying her shields so no man would be able to use her as he had. It took him minutes to wreck years of progress.

  She had always wondered how he would react to seeing her again. Never in a million years had she entertained a scenario where he pinned her against the wall and bit her. She shuddered, and this time, it wasn’t from the cold. He still had the power to turn her body against her. He could make her forget her common sense and morals and make her desire him despite all that had transpired. How was that possible?

  Seven years ago, Roth shook her perfect world to its core when he convinced her to take a gamble on him. When their eyes locked for the first time, something lit up inside her, recognizing him as someone special and once in a lifetime. What a load of bullshit. She’d been so insanely in love with him that she gave up everything—her family, birthright, and fiancé. Roth was a tornado, appearing out of nowhere and dragging her into his world before he disappeared, leaving her scattered in pieces. Their marriage was short-lived and filled with public scandal and emotional trauma. Thanks to the fact that Roth had recently reached the coveted billionaire status, their names linked together in any capacity would make national news. She wanted to avoid media scrutiny at all costs and keep the scandal where it belonged—in the past.

  The truck lurched to the right, jolting her out of her thoughts, and slamming her against the door. She hissed and sat up. At some point, Roth had left the highway and was now navigating the steep mountain road. The headlights reflected off the snow falling steadily around them, limiting their visibility. She had sweated bullets navigating the treacherous road in broad daylight so how he could do so in the dead of night was unfathomable to her. She clutched her seat belt as the sound of snow crunching beneath the tires filled the cab. She leaned forward, desperately trying to see through the swirling white.

  “We should turn around,” she said.

  “We’re fine.”

  “Roth, it’s getting heavier. I can’t even see the guardrail!”

  “I’ve been driving this road all my life. I know every turn.”

  “You haven’t been home in years,” she said through clenched teeth as the truck plowed through the deepening snow.

  “Hush.”

  “Roth—” Her teeth snapped together as the truck rocked violently to the left, nearly strangling her with the seat belt.

  He shifted gears and slowed the truck to a crawl. She could feel him flexing his impenetrable will as they crept up the mountain, determined to reach their destination. In a distant part of her mind, she knew turning back wasn’t an option. She sat very still, leery of distracting him. The narrow, winding road was barely big enough for two cars to pass one another and filled with hairpin turns and stretches where nothing protected them from going over the side. The few guardrails that existed were mangled or missing chunks from cars that careened into them.

  When the truck began to slide, she bit back a scream and held on for dear life. Roth turned into the slide and when the tires found traction, shifted gears again and soldiered on.

  “We’ll be there soon.”

  He sounded unruffled and completely in control, and she hoped he wasn’t faking. She mentally helped him steer as they climbed. Her anxiety rose as the snow got heavier.

  “I’m surprised you’re here alone,” she said, unable to take the silence. She was about to lose her shit.

  “What did you expect?”

  “Personal assistant, bodyguards.”

  “Depends on the nature of my business.”

  “No need to bring them when you’re coming to see your sick mother?”

  “No.”

  She cast him a fuming glare and ground her teeth as he shifted gears again.

  “Do your sisters know you’re here?” When she didn’t answer, he said, “I didn’t think so.”

  She wrapped her arms around herself as a gust of wind battered the truck. Tendrils of frigid air seeped through the windows and caressed her face.

  “It was supposed to be a quick trip. I didn’t anticipate any of this,” she said, voice shaking as the air seeping from the vents became considerably cooler.

  “You shouldn’t have come here alone.”

  “Why?”

  He glanced at her, the lights from the dashboard turning his eyes an eerie green. “Now you have no one to save you.”

  “I’m not afraid of you.”

  His attention went back to the road. “Says the woman who ran through a hospital to avoid me.”

  “You’re the last person I wanted to see.”

  “I realized that when you ran to your father instead of talking to me.”

  She opened her mouth to defend herself.

  “We made it.”

  She could barely make out the cabin through the snow, which was now coming down in heavy sheets.

  “Thank God,” she said.

  “Be careful. The snow’s deep.”

  He wasn’t wrong. When she swung out of the cab, her boots disappeared into the white powder. She braced herself against the icy wind and followed the path Roth made to the porch. She gave her feet a cursory stomp to get off as much snow as possible before she dashed inside. Her hand smacked the light switch. Nothing happened.

  “Power’s out,” he said.

  This was a straight-up nightmare. “W-what are we going to d-d-do?”

  “I’ll turn on the generator.”

  He pulled up the collar of his stylish overcoat, which was definitely not made to brave these brutal elements, and slammed the door on his way out. She pulled her phone out of her pocket and turned on the flashlight. The cabin felt like a freezer. Her thick jacket and thermal underwear were no help against the arctic temperature. Why had she thought coming to the mountains would be a peaceful experience? She staggered to the fireplace, breath materializing in a small cloud as she began to build a fire the way she had observed Kaia doing it. She knocked pinecones into the fireplace and tried to crumple up newspapers, but her stiff hands weren’t working right. She grabbed the lighter and clicked it a few times before the paper took the flame. By the time Roth returned, she was huddled over the fire, shaking hands hovering over the meager flames, so close she was in danger of being singed.

  Roth shook off a considerable amount of snow and flipped on the lights, which made the cabin feel more like a home and less like a drafty cave.

  “She doesn’t have much fuel for the generator,” he said. “We have enough
to run the heat, but not much else. We’ll have to pick up more when we drive into town tomorrow.”

  Instead of warming himself by the fire, he disappeared into his mother’s room, but she was too cold to care what he was doing. When the ice melted on her front, she stood and turned her back to the fire. Kaia’s home was a one-bedroom A frame with a loft. The cabin was old, but Kaia was quite the handywoman and did a good job of keeping it up. A wall of glass let in the maximum amount of light, and it had amazing views of the mountain range, which she had seen on her first day here. There hadn’t been a speck of snow when she arrived two days ago, but how quickly all of that had changed. It felt like the dead of winter instead of October. Snow pelted the glass in angry swirls while the wind howled around the house. She was in a straight-up horror movie. Remote cabin? Check. No electricity? Check. Roads blocked? Check. Scary male with sketchy intentions? Fucking double check. She should have taken her chances at the hospital.

  Roth emerged from his mother’s bedroom with a duffel over one shoulder. He tossed it on the ground before he opened a door under the stairs, revealing a storage closet. He emerged with an armful of supplies, which included a rifle, candles, flashlights, and blankets. He threw everything on the couch before he approached the fireplace. She scooched to the side so she wouldn’t brush shoulders with him and stomped her feet because her legs were numb.

  “You should change,” he said.

  Even though she didn’t want to leave the warmth of the fire, she understood changing out of her damp clothes was imperative. “Any chance of hot water?” she asked and was pleased her teeth were no longer chattering.

  “Yes.”

  She was so relieved, she would have hugged him if he wasn’t such a bastard. She went up to the loft, which had a bed and tiny sitting area, grabbed fresh clothes, and locked herself in the tiny bathroom. She ran the water until it was hot and moaned in relief when she stepped under the sizzling spray. A hot bath after this hectic day was just what she needed, though as soon as she turned off the water and the steam dispersed, the cold began to set in again. Before she finished slathering her arms with lotion, she was already back to shivering. Kaia’s old heating system would take hours to warm the cabin. She whimpered as she dressed in three layers of clothing and left the bathroom.