by Laurie Paige
He gave her a hand up, then brushed the snow off her ski bib and out of her hair. “What dark thought crossed your fascinating mind just then?” he inquired with mock concern.
She adjusted her sunglasses, pointed her skis down- hill and pushed off. “That I can beat you to the lodge,” she yelled back and bent into the turn, taking a narrow trail through the trees.
He stayed behind her until the last thirty yards, then he passed her easily. He was waiting, skis off, when she cruised to a stop, breathless from the fast run.
“If you want to make some black diamond runs, I’ll wait,” she volunteered.
“Actually, I was thinking of heading in and trying out the hot tub. After those last two falls, you might need some—”
She hit him with a snowball before he could finish the sentence, then picked up her skis and dashed toward the parking lot before he could retaliate. He muttered a few choice words while digging snow out of his jacket collar.
When they were on their way to his house, she ex- plained. “I just couldn’t stand it, you looking so pristine and all. I mean, you didn’t fall once. You deserved a little snow in the face.”
“Yeah, thanks. You’d better watch your back, is all I have to say on the subject.”
She wondered what form his revenge would take and envisioned all sorts of wonderful scenarios. She shiv- ered delicately.
At the house, he directed her to leave her skis, boots and poles in the garage with his. “The hot tub is on the deck outside my bedroom. Come join me when you’re ready.”
She nodded and hurried to her room. She changed to her bathing suit, then hesitated. What if he wasn’t wear- ing one?
Should she?
The question echoed through her head with every beat of her heart. She looked at her one-piece suit in the mirror. It was cut high enough on the legs and low enough at the neckline to be interesting without being outrageous.
She pulled on a thick terry robe she found in the closet. Harrison thought of everything for his guests. That depressed her, somehow. On this note, she went to find him.
Crossing the sky bridge to his bedroom gave her an odd feeling. She clutched the banister like a lifeline as she made the journey that might seal her fate for better or for worse.
His door was open.
She walked in. The first thing she saw was the king- size bed covered in a black, brown and blue Indian- print blanket. Four pillows in matching pillowcases leaned invitingly against the headboard. A book on Scotland was close at hand on the night table by the bed.
The second thing she noticed was his clothing tossed across a chair near the bed. Compared to the men she’d known, Harrison was a very neat person.
“Out here,” he called to her.
The French doors that opened onto the deck framed the same view of mountains and lake that her windows did. He’d left one door ajar for her. She went out and closed it behind her.
The frothing water covered him up to his neck and hid his body from her perusal. She looked away when she saw him noting the direction of her gaze. Laying the robe on a deck chair, she took a tentative step down into the tub. A hand grasped her ankle. She gasped and tried to pull back.
Too late. She fell with a clumsy thrashing of her arms. He caught her against him as he stood. As she grabbed at him wildly, she realized he, too, was wearing a swimsuit.
“Ah, what have we here?” he demanded philosoph- ically. Revenge sparkled in his hazel eyes. “A damsel in distress, I think. Perhaps she’s afraid she’ll be dunked in a boiling cauldron or some such fate.”
“Oh, please, sir, don’t drop me. I’ll do anything if only you won’t drop me,” she pleaded prettily.
“Anything?” His dark eyebrows arched upward.
“Anything.”
He didn’t speak for so long she was forced to look. at him. The playfulness disappeared as his mood shifted in some way she couldn’t read. He held her gaze while his eyes went darker.
“What?” she asked, sounding breathless.
He sank into the steaming, bubbling water until it covered them to their necks. “This,” he said in a husky voice as warm as the water that surrounded them, and kissed her.
She realized all the time they’d spent together that day had been but the preliminary for this moment. They had chased each other down the mountain, had laughed and teased and insulted each other’s form, had eaten the food served in the lodge while a hunger for more exciting fare built in them. Now that desire blazed bright and strong between them, demanding to be unleashed.
In her heart and body, she was ready for this, for him. Only her conscience flayed her with misgivings. She closed her eyes and ignored it.
With his lips moving over hers, even the voice of doom and gloom was soon silenced. With a throaty cry, she wrapped her arms around his shoulders and returned the kiss with all the pent-up longing in her heart.
Passion bubbled around them like the frothy water, adding to the tumult she felt inside. His hands roamed over her, then paused at the straps of her bathing suit. He slipped his fingers under the material and slowly peeled it off her shoulders.
A chant began inside her, urging her to take all the moment offered. She sighed as she lifted one arm and let the strap slide over it, then the other.
He stroked the sensitive skin above her breasts with his fingertips, exerting no pressure but sending showers of sensation over her. Rising, he moved up one step so that the water lapped midway between their waists and shoulders.
“You’re very beautiful,” he told her. His fingers dipped between her breasts, tracing a path along the bone, edging the top of her suit downward. The material hung suspended on the very tips before he slid his hands over her completely.
She drew in a sharp breath as he lifted one breast clear of the bubbles and kissed the mounded curve be- fore moving farther down, opening his hand so he could reach the pebbled nipple with his mouth.
He sucked gently at the tip before stroking it with his tongue. She arched against him, unable to control the hunger his touch set off. He moved his hands to her back and pulled her against him.
“When you move against me…yes, like that,” he whispered when she pressed against him, no longer aware of her movements, but reacting instinctively. “It drives me wild. All I can think of is being in you…moving with you….”
“Yes…yes…”
“Is that what you want?” He kneaded her breasts, then laved them again with his tongue, driving her mad with his circling and stroking and teasing.
“Yes.” She could only sigh the word.
He caressed her for a long time, his kisses slow, al- most languid, as they explored the passion between them.
Isa ignored the warnings that rose and burst in her mind like the bubbles on the frothing water. Tomorrow would be time enough for regrets.
When he took hold of her hips and guided her across his lap until she straddled him, she didn’t protest.
He drew her to him, pressing for greater intimacy. Slowly he shifted her against him, drawing the maxi- mum pleasure from her. She bit lightly, carefully into the flesh of his shoulder, holding on as sensation burst over her.
“I knew it would be this way,” he muttered, kissing her eyebrow, her nose, the side of her mouth.
“How?” she asked, filled with the sweet wonder of it.
“Magic. It’s been there from the first moment. I’ve thought about you here, like this, just the two of us, with the world at our feet….”
Her heart was beating so hard she thought it would explode right out of her. It had to be the same for him. She felt him shudder when she pressed against him, moving lightly, hovering like a hummingbird, then pressing again.
He caught her around the waist and lifted her away. “Let’s get out of here.” He stood, then swung her from the bubbling tub and set her on her feet.
The cold air hardly had time to envelop her before she was engulfed in the thick robe. He urged her into the house. He grabbed a h
uge bath towel from a stack by the door and dried her face and hair, then himself.
They gazed at each other without speaking. He pushed the robe and suit from her. The garments pooled around her feet. They stood without moving.
The moment crystallized around them, one perfect moment in time that she wanted to capture and keep forever.
“I’m afraid to touch you,” he said hoarsely. “You might disappear the way you’ve done each night in my dreams.”
She was afraid, too. Passion was a fool’s game. She had to be clearheaded and ruthless, not weak and gul- lible as women often were about men and love.
He sucked in an audible breath, held it, let it go. It was as if the act freed him to move. He swept her against him. With one hand, he stripped the covers from the bed. Gently, his gaze never wavering from hers, he laid her there.
He smoothed the hair from her forehead. “Let me take care of things first. I won’t want to stop once I join you.”
For a second she didn’t realize what he meant, not until he shucked his suit and reached into the bedside drawer.
“Oh,” she murmured and then felt foolish as he gave her a quick perusal.
His eyes darkened. He stood very still for a thought- ful few seconds. “This is probably a stupid question, but you have done this before, haven’t you? I mean, sometimes you have this way of looking so innocent…”
Embarrassment flooded her. “I was engaged once, during my last year of college.”
His concern gave way to sympathy. “What hap- pened?”
“Well, my father died and I had to take care of my brother. My fianceé decided he didn’t want a ready-made family.”
“You were lucky to be rid of him,” Harrison said in a low, growly voice. “You made it on your own.”
She looked away, reminded of her deception once more.
He swooped down beside her, his long, powerful body stretched out beside hers, one leg covering her as if to keep her from escaping. “Don’t,” he whispered and rained kisses on her face wherever they might fall.
“Don’t what?” she managed to ask before she was completely drawn into the rapture again.
He tilted her chin up so he could study her face. “Don’t be afraid. Sometimes you seem so lost and wor- ried—like now—I want to tuck you in my pocket like a stray kitten and take you home.”
She smiled, but not with gladness. “And so you have. I’m in your home.”
“And my bed,” he added huskily. “I’ve dreamed of this moment for a month. Have you?”
“I’ve thought about us, about a lot of things,” she answered truthfully. “But this wasn’t part of the plan.” She froze, but he didn’t seem to catch the slip.
“Now it’s time to make those dreams a reality.”
He bent to her mouth. She turned her head.
“Isa?”
“I think I’d better go to my room,” she said unstead- ily. This wasn’t supposed to be happening. She had to be in control. She pushed against his chest. “Please, let me go. You don’t know…. I can’t. Not now. Not like this.”
The panic surprised her, coming unbidden and sliding over her like a turbulent fog. Harrison held her without speaking. He seemed to be waiting.
She felt new and tender, like a young plant just sprouted. A transplanted one. Would she thrive here in the high Nevada desert, or would the harsh environment destroy her?
Finally, he nuzzled his face against the side of hers. She held very still, swallowing the tears that insisted on forming.
“What’s wrong?”
“I need to go….”
“Why?”
“It’s too soon,” she finally whispered. “I’m not… this isn’t like me.”
He chuckled and nuzzled her some more. Against her body, she felt the press of desire in him and the ready answer in herself. She shuddered as longing grew in her.
“It’s confusing,” he admitted, “to want someone like this. I’ve never felt this way before.”
“You haven’t?” She flinched at the naive wonder in the question. She couldn’t decide if he was the most accomplished rogue she’d ever met or if he meant what he said.
“No.” He turned and lifted her at the same time, settling her over his long, muscular body.
Almost nose to nose, she gazed into his eyes, won- dering if he could possibly be falling in love with her. She wanted to ask, but didn’t. In the grand scheme of things, it didn’t matter. In fact, it might make everything worse.
Reason returned, and with it, the memory of the care- fully laid plans she’d made. She had to stick to her chosen path.
That was her life—a road laid out before her, filled with promises and schemes she couldn’t forget. Her brother’s future depended on her. She had to do this for him.
“You’re mournful again,” Harrison murmured. He stroked her back, his touch gentle and soothing. “What’s wrong?”
Her heart lurched. Did he suspect…? He surely didn’t, or he wouldn’t be lying beneath her with that lambent gleam in his eyes. She hadn’t given herself away. She was sure of it.
“Nothing.” She bent her head and dropped kisses along his collarbone, then up the cords of his neck. When he would have held her, she slipped away and fled to her room.
Harrison heard a stair creak, then saw a shadow pause outside the kitchen door. His pulse rate doubled as he realized Isa was up. Finally. It was almost ten.
He went to the doorway, a smile he couldn’t suppress on his face. Picture of a dope, he mocked himself. It did no good. The smile wouldn’t go away. He couldn’t even tone it down.
“Hi,” he said.
Isa hovered like a nervous cat in strange territory on the last step. She looked gorgeous in a silky white shirt with full sleeves, worn outside black slacks with a gold belt. Gold hoop earrings swung from her ears.
He went to her, then glanced back over his shoulder to make sure they were out of sight of the kitchen. They were.
“I’ve missed you,” he murmured for her ears alone, then kissed her. He meant to keep it light, but that was impossible.
Her lips trembled under his, then opened to let him inside. She didn’t melt into him as she’d done last night. In fact, she didn’t touch him in any way, other than the mouth-to-mouth contact. He drew back, wondering what had happened to the woman who’d kissed him so ardently, then rushed to her room as if afraid of the passion between them.
“I wish you had stayed the night,” he told her. “My bed felt lonely after having you there.”
She smiled but didn’t look at him. “I thought we’d better get some sleep. You have business to take care of. Do you have a visitor?” Her gaze strayed past him toward the kitchen.
“Yes, Ken Martin, the company controller, is here with the final reports for the contract. I’ll need to go over them.”
A bunch of dry numbers was the last thing he wanted to think about. In fact, after getting a whiff of Isa’s sweet scent, all he wanted to do was head back to bed.
Down, boy, he chided himself. He’d get the business out of the way, then maybe he and Isa would have the rest of the day…and night…for each other.
Odd. He’d never considered letting a woman take precedence over a deal before, but with this one…hell, she was all he thought about.
She stirred restlessly, and he stepped back. She walked into the kitchen, her face an odd mixture of haunting sadness and a carefully controlled smile.
A stage smile.
The thought startled him. It didn’t look false, yet he knew it wasn’t quite real, but something she assumed for social purposes. He didn’t even know how he knew that.
He watched her as he introduced her to the company financial wizard. Her expression didn’t vary. Her smile was warm, her remarks casual but designed to put an- other at ease. He saw Ken, who was usually awkward around women, fall for her charm.
The odd thing was, he couldn’t tell whether she was sincere with Ken or not. She was an enigma, that w
as for sure.
Recalling how her lips had trembled under his a mo- ment ago and how she had responded to him last night, he wondered why she’d insisted she had to return to her room after their impromptu and incomplete lovemaking. He’d wanted to sleep with her.
And that was the oddest thing of all. From not having a woman at his private retreat he’d gone to wanting this one beside him all night. He’d wanted to wake with her.
Whoa, he cautioned himself. Don’t go off the deep end. He wanted to know more about this woman who attracted him as no other ever had.
Her throaty laughter broke into his musings. Ken must have said something funny. The Wiz, as they called him, was looking vastly pleased with himself. Isa laughed as if delighted with the conversation.
Harrison felt a tiny jolt of…of… Nah. He couldn’t be jealous. He’d never been jealous of a woman in his life. He wasn’t going to start now.
Chapter Three
Isa pulled on a jacket and wandered out onto the deck. On the main level, she could walk around three sides of the cabin. Curious, she peered into each room as she ambled by. Kitchen, dining room, living room with fire- place. She’d seen those.
Harrison hadn’t given her the grand tour as he’d promised. He and his expert had been too busy…all day. They hadn’t even stopped for lunch. It was late afternoon, and she was restless.
Seeing books along one wall of a room, she stopped by the door. The temptation was too much. She loved to read, and she couldn’t resist the opportunity to see what his tastes were.
Opening the door, she went inside.
“We’re in a meeting.”
She jumped at the irritated tone and spun around. Harrison and Ken, their expressions preoccupied, looked up from a desk spread with papers and charts. She felt like a mouse that had stumbled into a conven- tion of cats. Her host was the boss of this particular gang and the one who’d snapped at her.
“Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t realize anyone was in here.” She grappled for the doorknob.
