Stranded and Seduced

by Charlene Sands

  She gathered up her clothes, wound herself up good and tight in the big blanket like a fruity roll up, and made her way to the lobby. Risk, casually wrapped in his blanket, had already set out a sheet for them to sit on between the two settees close to the fire. His clothes were laid out on his half of the hearth. She remembered he was a boxer kind of guy. Images popped into her head of that one night they’d had together. It had been pure magic, but that magic had vanished like a swift bird in flight the very next morning. No matter. She forced her gaze away from his clothes and proceeded to lay out her pants and top on the hearth. It was hard to be discreet with her undies no matter how she tried to conceal them, so she gave up and laid them out at the far end of the hearth. They’d be the first to dry anyway, comprised of far less material than her other clothes.

  She took a seat facing the fire, allowing the warmth to seep into her skin. “Ah, this feels so good.”

  Risk gazed at her soaking up the heat and smiled. “Gotta admit this is a first for me.”

  “I’m afraid to ask.”

  “Being naked, enjoying a fire with a beautiful woman and not—”

  “Don’t say it, Risk.” She shook her head. “Don’t say it.”

  “And not having anything to offer but muffins and protein bars.”

  That was so not what he was going to say, but she smiled anyway. “Right now, a protein bar sounds pretty good.”

  His head snapped up. “Are you hungry?”

  “I could eat.”

  “I’ll get the food.”

  As he rose, the blanket around his shoulders slipped, exposing his granite chest and an incredible amount of sinewy muscles. Firelight glowed over his face and upper body, and she reacted with a sharp breath. It wasn’t fair for a guy to look so darn good.

  Luckily for her, she’d learned a hard lesson with him, so no amount of good looks could take away from what he’d done to her. He hadn’t had the good grace to tell her face-to-face that he wasn’t available in any way, and his abandonment had really hurt.

  When she was six years old, her father had deserted her and her mother. That’s when she’d begun eating heavily. Even though her rational brain knew Risk’s actions were all on him, a part of her had reverted to that plump little girl who’d been abandoned by her father, the chubby girl who’d been invisible to most, as if people looked right past her, not really seeing her for the person she was.

  But today, Risk was on his best behavior and he’d made her feel safe—as safe as a woman could feel, being naked under this blanket, having a meal with an equally naked-under-the-blanket guy, sitting by a luminous fire.

  “Here you go,” he said, bringing the food basket with him. “One protein bar coming up.” He tossed it to her and as her arm came up to catch the bar, her blanket dipped, exposing her shoulders and, maybe, a teeny tiny bit of her cleavage.

  Oh boy.

  Risk’s brows rose. He hadn’t missed a thing.

  A deep sigh escaped his lungs as he fell back against the base of the settee and bit into his protein bar. Still chewing, he glanced into the fire. “Maybe you should tell me all about this fiancé of yours.”

  Three

  April’s mouth gaped open. Risk’s statement rubbed her the wrong way. What about his claims that her engagement ring was like a chastity belt? Was one glimpse at her bare shoulders enough to change his mind? If she wasn’t so floored, her ego might have bumped up. “I have a better idea. Why don’t you tell me all about Shannon Wilkes.”

  Risk stopped chewing and turned to her. “Why?”

  “You seem so intent on my love life, but what about yours?”

  “I don’t usually talk about it.”

  “No kidding.”

  His mouth twisted at her sardonic tone. “My love life was plastered all over the tabloids. Couldn’t pass a newsstand without seeing Shannon’s face on the cover with her new guy.”

  “But that’s not your story.”

  “Nobody wants to hear my story.”

  “I do.”

  He shook his head and stared into the flames again. “Why go there?”

  “To help me understand what happened that night.”

  “Look, I blew it with you and I’m sorry. I was in a bad place.”

  “So you’ve said. What happened between you and Shannon?”

  Risk remained silent. He finished his protein bar, his face turned to the flames rocketing like shooting stars in the massive fireplace. Safe from the storm outside and huddled in warmth, she could think of nothing she wanted to hear more than Risk’s take on his life. At least she’d done one thing: diverted his attention from her made-up fiancé.

  She, too, stared at the mesmerizing flames. It was peaceful and quiet sitting there together absorbing heat and trying to relax.

  “There’s nothing much to tell,” Risk said, his voice low and deep. “She blindsided me, and it wasn’t pretty.”

  Surprised that he’d said anything, April pursed her lips and listened.

  “I met Shannon at a charity banquet to raise funds for children of military families. My brother Lucas was a Marine, and this was something near and dear to him. Shannon used her celebrity to persuade donors to help, and I was very impressed with her. She knew how to dazzle, and apparently, she dazzled me, too. I was all in with her, at the height of my game, winning rodeo after rodeo, and we were like some high-powered couple. Shannon seemed to bask in all that. But for me, I liked the challenge of the rodeo, of mastering something and being the best, but I didn’t need or want all the added attention of dating an actress. We would argue about it. We’d be out somewhere together, and all of sudden there’d be a swarm of reporters snapping pictures, asking nosy questions. And then I’d find out it was all prearranged by Shannon’s publicist.”

  “That wasn’t the life you signed up for, was it?” April asked.

  “I’m a Boone—a town was named for my family—but I never flaunted that or wanted to rub people’s noses in it. And I never made a big deal about it. Believe it or not, I’m a private kind of guy. But we loved each other. We’d been together for two years and I was ready to take the next step.”

  She mouthed marriage.

  “Yeah,” he acknowledged. “But then my career came to a careening halt when I busted up my shoulder. It killed me that I couldn’t do what I loved to do anymore. But what was worse, Shannon pretty much abandoned me. She hardly came to visit me when I was recuperating, and then she broke it off. The next thing I know...she’s with Todd Alden, the NFL quarterback, and their pictures were splashed all over the news.”

  “That’s pretty low,” April said.

  “That’s how I found out Shannon was only using me to make her star rise.”

  “Must have hurt you badly.”

  His pride had him shrugging it off, but pain flashed in his eyes for a moment. “I’m over her now. Shannon wasn’t right for me. Our lives are completely different, and at least we’ve managed to get past it. But I’ll never allow anyone to make a fool out of me. That’s not happening again.

  “Back in Houston, the last thing I wanted to do that day was host the rodeo. But then I recognized you sitting in the stands and you smiled at me, and I felt ten times better. You reminded me of home, and in that moment, that’s exactly what I needed.”

  “If it wasn’t me, it would’ve been some other girl.”

  “Not true,” he said adamantly. “I didn’t expect to share my bed with a woman that night, but you were warm and bubbly and you made me laugh and forget things that were haunting me.”

  “I was a distraction.”

  He sighed and looked away, glancing out the rain-soaked window. “Want to know what I really thought?”

  He paused, and April’s heart began to pound. Was she ready to hear this? “Go on.”

  “I thought you were sweet and giving, a
woman who wasn’t starving herself to get a stick-thin body. I loved your curves and your confidence and your compassion. It was refreshing and...”

  “And what?”

  “Pretty damn hot, April.” He glanced at her engagement ring again. “But in the morning, I had regrets. Not about you, but about me. I wasn’t ready for any kind of involvement. It wasn’t fair to you, I know, but just thinking about getting involved again so soon after I’d been burned wasn’t happening. I should’ve told you that before taking you up to my hotel room. I should’ve been honest about my feelings. I knew you were the kind of woman who deserved that much from me. So I took off, vowing to call you and make amends.”

  “You never did.”

  “No. I should have, but I didn’t. I’m sorry about it.”

  “So am I.” She sighed.

  “Now you know my deal with Shannon Wilkes. Enough said.”

  Well, yes. It explained a lot about his relationship with the movie star, but April still couldn’t give him a pass on ditching her after a pretty incredible night of sex. Yes, he’d apologized already, but April wasn’t ready to let him off the hook. He’d hurt her, and it had taken a long time to recover from that encounter, to get over her feelings of abandonment.

  “You should’ve tried to reach me. To explain. I didn’t leave that hotel room feeling very good about myself. You don’t even want to know what I thought about you.”

  Risk had the good grace to squeeze his eyes shut. “Oh man, April, I deserve that. What can I say?”

  She shrugged. “It’s over and done with.” And at least she’d now let her feelings be known. That was something. He wasn’t going to let a woman make a fool out of him again? Well, she felt the same way: no man was ever going to play her for a fool and hurt her again, either.

  That much she and Risk Boone had in common.

  * * *

  Thirty minutes later, April said, “I’m thirsty.” They’d finished off what was left of the coffee in the thermos after their protein bar lunch. What sounded good to her now was a cold drink of water.

  “The plumbing is working,” Risk said.

  “Amen to that. Our clothes are dry enough. Why don’t we get dressed and go exploring? Might as well check the place out since we’re stuck here. We’ll explore the kitchen first.”

  “Fine by me. The fire’s dying out anyway.”

  “There’s dry wood outside in the woodshed,” she commented. “I’ll take the bedroom again to get dressed.” She scooped up her warmed clothes from the hearth, anxious to get them back on. It was just too weird sitting in front of a fire, alone with Risk, knowing both of them were naked underneath.

  Minutes later in her dry clothes, she went in search of Risk and found him fully dressed, checking out the kitchen facilities. The lodge’s eatery had three sets of wide double doors that brought sunlight in on good days and kept the dining room cheerful.

  “Well, we won’t starve,” Risk said. She liked the way his wet hair had dried, falling into his eyes. He’d shake his head and shift the pesky tendrils off his face. The move wasn’t lost on her and she’d often catch herself staring at him.

  “Uh, what?”

  Risk raided the pantry. “There’s a bag of potato chips and peanut butter in here. And we still have muffins and fruit from the basket.”

  “I guess that’s luck, if we can say anything about this trip is lucky.”

  Risk turned on the faucet and let the water run for a while. “Just getting the cobwebs out of the pipes,” he said. Then he rinsed out his thermos and filled it with water. “Have a drink,” he said to her.

  Accepting the thermos, she took a long, cool drink of water. When down to the bare essentials, there really wasn’t anything better than water to sustain you. She gulped down the rest and handed the thermos back to Risk. He took his turn guzzling water. The thought of them sharing the thermos no longer seemed weird. It was almost as if they were on some sort of survival camping trip.

  With Risk looking on, April took a few minutes to open all the cabinets. A couple of them were about ready to fall off their hinges. She opened drawers and found some off their tracks. All surface stuff. The kitchen was outdated, but the foundation was sturdy.

  “The kitchen has a lot of potential. It’s large and roomy, and that’s a plus when cooking for many guests,” she said, going into full Realtor mode.

  Risk folded his arms across his middle. “But this entire room would have to be gutted. It needs a fresh start, and we’re talking a major overhaul.”

  “But it would be your overhaul. You could do anything you wanted in here. You could go simple or sophisticated.”

  Risk’s eyes narrowed on her. “Do you really like this place, or are you only trying to make a sale?”

  “Both. I do love this lodge. I see the possibilities. And I think it’s a good investment for your family’s business, Risk. I do. So, do you want to see the rest?” She pointed up toward the second story.

  “Sure, it’s not like there’s too much else to do around here.”

  Showing the lodge in the midst of a storm was not the best way to entice a potential client. Risk was losing interest with each passing minute. Upstairs they found the roof leaking in three of the rooms and made quick work of finding bowls and vases to catch the water.

  Twenty minutes later, they climbed down the staircase in the lobby. Low-lying embers did little to warm the room, and they both shivered. “You said there’s a woodshed outside?” Risk asked.

  “Yes,” April said. “It’s around the right side of the house.”

  “All right, fine. I’ll go get us some firewood for tonight.”

  “Right now?”

  “Better now while there’s still some daylight than later tonight.”

  April bit her lip. The storm was fierce. It hadn’t let up. “It’s really coming down out there.”

  “It’ll be fine. I’ll be back in five minutes. While I’m doing that, why don’t you fix us some dinner?”

  She stared at him and shook her head. “Oh sure, when you get back, I’ll have a five-course meal waiting for you.”

  He smiled. “I’d expect no less.”

  * * *

  Risk put on his sheepskin coat and plopped his hat low on his forehead. He gave April a nod and grabbed the doorknob. Her expression seemed bleak; she was worried about him. “Be careful.”

  Her hair had dried into big blond curls that cascaded down her back in a style women paid big money for, but on her the curls were natural. He’d enjoyed watching them fall into place by the fire. Her usually bright blue eyes dimmed as she gave him a little wave.

  “Always,” he said, opening the door. A shot of wind blew into the room, pushing him back. He fought the force and stepped outside, pulling the door shut behind him.

  Rain pummeled the ground as he made a run for the shed, his boots kicking up mud. The entire front yard was flooded, and he splashed his way to the right side of the house. He found the woodshed easily, and just like April had said, there was no lock. Gripping one of the double door handles, he pulled back hard, and the door creaked open. He stepped inside, and now protected somewhat from the storm, he glanced around the roomy shed. Roomy only because there was precious little wood left. Two bundles lay by the back wall, and he figured it was better than nothing. It should be enough to keep them warm for the night in the big drafty lodge.

  He lifted the first bundle of firewood, piling a good amount in his arms. The wind blew the shed door shut, so he planted his boot against the door and kicked it open again. He made his way back to the lodge entrance and dropped the wood right by the front door. Taking a deep breath, he ventured out again to get the last of the firewood. Branches from the mesquite trees nearby all swayed to the right from the terrific gales, and he moved even faster now to get into the shed.

  Once there, he bundled the last p
ile in his arms and made a run for it. He was nearly to the front of the lodge when something loud cracked behind him. He turned just in time to see a thick tree branch break from a mesquite tree and jettison his way. He ducked, but he wasn’t fast enough.

  The branch struck him in the head, and his knees buckled before everything went black.

  * * *

  April slathered peanut butter on the leftover muffins, set out the bag of potato chips and put two plump red apples out for dessert on the kitchen table. “There, how’s that for a feast?” she muttered.

  She felt at odds with the universe not having cell service. No weather reports to look up, no way to communicate with loved ones. Yet she wouldn’t want anyone venturing out in this storm to come save them. She’d never seen it so bad. Shutters rattled, the wind blew unmercifully, the ground flooded.

  She hated to admit defeat, but Risk hadn’t seen much he liked in this old lodge. He was seeing it as a bad investment, while in her mind the place only needed surface repairs and some tender loving care. Which meant enduring the day and night together was all for naught. “Guess I’m not making this sale.”

  She stared out the window for a while, watching the never-ending downpour. Then she rearranged her scant excuse for dinner, trying to make it look like more than it was, before heading off to use the bathroom facilities. By the time she returned to the kitchen, five minutes had long passed. Yet Risk was still out there.

  A moan sounded from the lobby entrance, a low groaning that could be the wind, yet her instincts said differently, and she raced to the front door. Bracing herself, she pulled it open.

  And there stood Risk. Well, he was barely standing, his shoulders hunched, blood trickling from a gash on his head. “Risk! My God, what happened to you?”

  He stared at her, looking totally bewildered, and slumped into her arms. She had just enough strength to catch him. Using her steam and some of his, she walked him inside. He wasn’t talking, and she feared he was in shock. At that moment, she made a quick decision to get him into the master bedroom. He needed care, and that room was easier to heat and had a big comfy bed. “Stay with me, Risk. Hang on.”