by Karin Tabke
“Not the town per se,” he replied. “The way I hear it, a fat developer has made an offer to the town counsel to buy up a chunk of the property. They want to redevelop the area into another casino resort.”
“Would that be bad?”
“It would for those who love Evergreen the way it is. Bring in the casinos and resorts and we go commercial. We’d have to start locking our doors, Denny, and there’s no fun in that.”
Denny nodded. As Ricco smiled and turned back to look at the road ahead, he was nearly run off the road by a swerving, out-of-control SUV. It slid past him; in his big side mirror he watched it dive-bomb into a snowbank, then farther down the steep embankment that ran along this part of the road.
“Did you see that?” Denny asked, craning around to look behind them.
Ricco nodded his head and started to slow down to maneuver the plow around. “Yeah, some crazy-ass urbanite who can’t read a road sign.”
Four
KIM WAS FEELING PRETTY SMUG. SHE MIGHT NOT HAVE the face of a Victoria’s Secret model, but she had the tits, and then some. Cleavage and her room key had gone a long way toward getting an SUV with chains and directions out of town. She’d been more than lucky to not come across any of the large plows haunting 80—not until she’d blown past the Road Closed sign leading to Evergreen. The plow wasn’t going to chase her, though, and by the time they called CHP she’d be checked into her room at the B&B. She smiled, and when she readjusted her booted foot to the stiff accelerator pedal, it stuck. She punched it to unstick it, but instead she fish-tailed, then overcompensated. She screamed and went rigid, trying desperately to maneuver the steering wheel to right her fishtailing car. Her actions had the opposite effect, however; panic and dread seized her, and instead of pumping the brakes, she mistakenly hit the accelerator, losing complete control of her rental. The last thing she saw was the big steel snowplow barreling straight for her. Her life flashed before her, and her heart twisted as the last person she saw was Gran’s sweet, smiling face. Then. Blackness.
• • •
SHE WAS COLD. HER HEAD HURT AND SHE HEARD A VOICE. A low, smooth voice calling to her to be still, to breathe slow and easy, and not to be afraid. Why was he telling her that? Kim groaned and raised her hand to her head. “No, no, precia, stay still,” the deep voice soothed.
A sudden warmth filled her belly. That voice. She turned her head from where it rested on something hard. The steering wheel? Was she in her car? Her eyelids fluttered open; slowly she focused. Two deep, espresso-brown eyes with a hint of green striations in the irises stared back. The edges crinkled from what she knew must be a smile. Prince Charming had come to rescue her?
“Hello, Cinderella,” he softly said; his warm breath frosted in the air between them. She just wanted to melt into his strong arms and let him carry her away, anywhere but the cold tangled mess that was…Kim squinted, then closed her eyes. Where was she?
“Your car went off the road. You’re lucky we saw you, or you’d be an ice cube before long.”
Slowly she opened her eyes. “Wha—?” She couldn’t speak. Her face suddenly felt stiff and frozen.
“Stay still. You hit your head pretty hard. Your air bag failed to deploy. Let’s make sure everything is still working, starting with your toes. Wiggle them.”
It took her a minute to get her brain to obey the command, but it did. She wiggled her cold toes in her fleece-lined Uggs. “’K, they wiggled,” she said.
He leaned across her. Gently but firmly, he slid his hand up from her ankle to her knee, softly plying and poking her. “Any pain?” he asked, looking directly into her eyes. They were only separated by a few inches. Despite the fact that it was freezing cold and their breaths mingled in a frosty surge and retreat, she felt no pain. Indeed, she felt…tingly.
Kim hurried to assure him that she felt no pain by briskly shaking her head. It felt like a bowling ball was crashing against her temples from the inside, and she gasped.
“Not so fast, take your time, princess.”
He smiled and moved his hand up from her knee to her thigh, once again gently poking and prying. “Hurt?”
Kim swallowed hard. This time, she slowly shook her head. He deftly moved his hand to her left ankle and repeated his motions. No pain…just warm tinglies…
“Can you wiggle your fingers?”
She did.
“Slowly stretch out your right arm. Good, now your left.”
Once her limbs were cleared, he said, “Take a big, deep breath.” She did and smiled. No pain.
He nodded and gently touched her forehead. Kim winced. “Ow.”
“You’ve got a nice egg cooking there. We need to get you out of this car and to a doctor.”
Kim shook her head and winced at the sharp stabs of pain, but she soldiered through it. No way was she getting sidetracked. She’d lost precious time as it was. “No, I’m fine. I need to get to Evergreen.” And what the hell was he doing here? Of all the places on earth to meet him again.
He grinned. If a thousand suns had just risen, she couldn’t have felt more warmed. God, he was good looking. He was one of those very few men—hell, people—who just attracted the opposite sex. Had she been able to bottle his deep, earthy sensuality, she would have been able to retire years ago. Her spine stiffened. It was guys like this that got her into trouble. Guys like this who walked out of her life just as quickly as they walked in. And he was no different. She might have left the bed first, but he’d left the hotel.
He reached across her and unstrapped the seat belt. “This saved your life.”
As he helped her out of the SUV, whose grill was planted in a snowbank, all of the surrounding sounds, scents, and sights suddenly came to light. The deep, throaty sound of a diesel engine, the bright glare of the snow, the warm, spicy smell of the man helping her out of the disabled vehicle. She ignored it and squinted up at a man pacing on the shoulder, while several other men stood staring down at them.
Kim continued to look up the steep embankment and swallowed hard. How the hell was she supposed to climb that?
In answer, a thick yellow rope was tossed down to them. Prince Charming made a quick harness out of it and fit it over his shoulders and around his chest, then turned to her. “I want you to get up on my back, like a papoose, and hold on. Can you do that?”
Her eyes widened and she looked from his broad back, up the embankment, then back to him. His deep, dark, chocolate-colored eyes held calm confidence in them. She nodded. She’d climbed the rock wall at the gym plenty of times. Hell, she could haul him up!
“My bags?”
“Someone will get them. C’mon.”
He knelt down. Kim reached around his neck and hopped onto his back, the way she had seen other little girls on the playground do with their daddies. He hiked her legs around his waist and held on to them with his left hand, while holding the rope with his right. He called up to the gathered throng of men, and before she knew it, her rescuer started to slowly walk up the embankment with a little help from his friends.
By the time Kim got to the top of the embankment she was embarrassed to her core. She felt extremely uncomfortable under the scrutiny of the half dozen men who were staring at her as if she were some kind of freak.
One guy winced, another squinted and looked hard at her forehead, and several others shook their heads, as if she were the biggest idiot ever to drive in the snow. And if she hadn’t had so much pride, she would have to agree. She’d never driven in the snow, and she knew damn well she was lucky to be alive. But they’d never know that. She tried to hop off the broad back she clung to like a baby koala and ended up dangling upside down, her head hitting the back of his knees.
The man standing closest to her rushed to grab her as she fell, just as her savior let go of her. She crashed into the packed snowbank.
“Ow!” she howled. Half a dozen hands reached down to her. Frustrated, cold, and humiliated, Kim swatted them away and scooted back, then stood ve
ry carefully. The trees swayed and so did she, but she managed to keep her balance, with a little help from tall, dark, and handsome.
She yanked her elbow free from his grasp and swiped at the snow sticking to her legs. She wasn’t wearing a jacket—just a heavy sweater, jeans, and boots. It was freezing. Cold, wet snow batted her cheeks. She shivered hard, and her entire body felt like one big piece of pummeled beef.
Like a knight in shining armor, the tall guy took off his jacket and placed it around her shoulders, moving her toward a big black pickup truck with the Town of Evergreen’s seal on the side. Three tall evergreens surrounded by a lake and a Christmas wreath.
It bothered Kim that she felt all gooey around this guy. He flustered her. She was thirty-eight years old, for crying out loud, not some tittering schoolgirl about to be kissed for the first time. She narrowed her eyes and hugged the heavy ski jacket closer around her. “What is your name, anyway?”
As he helped her into the pickup truck, he grinned and said, “Ricco.”
Ricco. She liked the sound of it. She held out her hand and smiled like a goof. “I’m Kimberly Michaels.”
He took his glove off, took her hand into his big warm one, and smiled. “Nice to meet you, Kimberly Michaels.” He dropped her hand and turned away. She watched in the side mirror as he talked to another man, made some motions with his hands, then pointed to his head and the pickup she sat in. He looked back at her and smiled, and she melted some more. She shook her head and faced forward. She needed to get a grip. She was practically engaged! She shook her head, then heard a little voice say, Yeah, like that stopped you last night. Kim sat rigid in the big seat. Sex was like chocolate—something she craved every once in a while, got her fill of, then steamrolled over with other matters.
And the other matter now was getting the dirt on Evergreen and maneuvering a clean, neat buyout. She needed to get into town. Now.
The driver door opened and Ricco hopped in, chafing his arms even though he had on a dark, bulky, cable-knit sweater. His frosty breath swirled around his head. He pulled off his ski beanie and shook his head. Kim fought the urge to drag her fingers through his damp black hair. Instead she focused on the road ahead. The snow-swamped road. A large snowplow pulled ahead. As it roared ahead of them, shoveling tons of snow off the asphalt, Ricco pulled in several long yards behind the truck to ride in the cleared wake.
“What’s your rush to get to Evergreen?” Ricco asked.
Kim’s heart jumped at his question. If she told him the truth, he’d dump her on the side of the road and radio his buddies to keep going. She shrugged and said, “What does anyone do in Evergreen this time of year?”
He nodded and kept his eyes on the truck ahead of them. “You’re one of those evasive types.”
“I’m not evasive.”
“This morning you were.”
Kim went rigid, but her skin flamed, and she knew her throat and chest were splotching at that very moment. “No, I wasn’t,” she croaked.
“Sure you were, sneaking out like that. And now? Answering a question with a question means you have something to hide.”
Kim mustered her ire. It wasn’t easy. The minute he’d mentioned this morning, the entire night had replayed in her mind in slow, sexy Technicolor. She squeezed her eyes shut. When she opened them, she was more focused. She shot him a hard glare. “I have nothing to hide. People go to Evergreen this time of year to vacation. I’m doing the same.”
“At the risk of your life?”
“I lost control, it happens.”
“But 80 is closed and 82 has had only one pass with the plows—hardly ideal driving conditions. Why not wait until the roads were cleared?”
Kim looked hard at him and laid it all out on the table. “Just because we had sex doesn’t give you the right to give me the fifth degree.”
Ricco laughed out loud. “I’d call what we did more than just sex.” He seared her with a stare. Kim’s skin warmed hotter. She couldn’t help it. Dammit.
“Okay, so I had a weak moment. I’d rather not talk about it.”
He chuckled again, his voice warm and smooth, like one-hundred-year-old brandy. “If I remember correctly, you had six weak moments.”
Her cheeks scalded and she turned to look out the window. It took her a moment to trust her voice, and when she spoke, she enunciated each word as she turned to look directly at him. “It. Was. A. Mistake. And if you have a shred of a gentleman in you, you’ll stop reminding me about it.”
He stared hard at her, his eyes dark and intense. He nodded and looked back to the road. “If you can forget, I can forget.”
Kim crossed her arms across her chest and nearly screamed as her hands brushed her hardened nipples. Jesus! Her head snapped back, and she glared at him. “I want my locket back.”
“Your locket?”
“Yes, my locket! The one that was on the chain around my neck that came off while we were…”
He slowly shook his head. “I’m really sorry, but how can I have something that belongs to you when I just now met you?”
Kim sat back in the hard seat and contemplated this man. She was used to dealing with men, and surely she had had her dealings with pretty boys like him. While that had once presented a problem for her, she had grown and matured dramatically since then. Gone was the needy, clingy girl looking for love from the first hotty who acknowledged her. In her place stood a woman who knew her weaknesses and steered diligently clear of them. Ricco was a weakness.
He might be more disarming, and certainly more intriguing, than any man she had run across in a long time, including Nick, but he was like all of them before him—a man. Like her father. The good-looking charmer her mother followed around like a lost puppy, both of them ignoring their only child. She’d heard the fights, her mother’s accusations, then her father’s denials. Mother would threaten to walk out on him, taking him for everything he had. Father would sweep her into his arms and silence her with his smooth words and kisses. Until the next time. Kim laughed, the sound short and bitter. Never once during any of those heated arguments had Diana Marie Michaels threatened to take Ian Wycliff Michaels’s daughter from him. How ironic. And here she was, chasing men just like her father—a man who didn’t want her. And in the end, the ones she was chasing didn’t want her enough to fight for her either.
So she’d finally seen the light. No way was she going down that miserable road again. She was Kimberly Ann Michaels, a woman who could and did indulge on occasion but did so clearly knowing that was all it was—an indulgence. Too much of anything made you fat and lazy.
“I left you a message this morning,” she replied.
“Bad reception up here.”
Kim nodded and decided she would play this guy close to her chest. “Do you live in Evergreen?”
“I did.”
“What were you doing out with the snowplow guys?”
“Plowing the roads.”
“So if you don’t live in Evergreen, why were you on the snowplow?”
“Does everyone have to live where they work?”
“No. I suppose not. So you’re a road maintenance guy?”
“Is there a problem with that?”
“No, no problem at all.”
He grinned. “In your fantasy, what did you think I did?”
Her skin warmed some more and she squirmed in her seat. Ricco laughed. “C’mon, Cinderella, tell me.”
She didn’t have the courage to tell him she’d fantasized that he was the town sheriff come to rescue her from the town robber baron. And that once he’d laid eyes on her, he hadn’t been able to resist her charms and had risked all to take a side trip with her to his room.
“I don’t fantasize.”
“Liar.”
Jesus! Was she a freakin’ open book or what? What the hell happened to her cagey barracuda demeanor?
“So what if I am.”
“What are you afraid of?”
Her head shot back. “What kind o
f question is that?”
“Something scares you. Is it intimacy? A relationship? Love?”
Kim unfolded her arms and turned toward him. “Are you married?”
He snorted. “Hell, no!”
“Have you ever been in love?”
He shrugged. “Maybe.”
“How can you maybe be in love?”
“If I wasn’t willing to forsake all others, I guess I didn’t love her that much.” He turned that sizzling grin on her. “Have you been married?”
She sat back into the seat and looked straight ahead. Tall ponderosa pines and evergreens lined the small highway into Evergreen like silent sentinels. The wind blew them to and fro; their pointed tops nodding toward them as if giving permission for them to pass.
“Twice.”
“Ouch.”
“Yeah, both of them guys just like you.”
“I guess old habits die hard.”
That stung. Kim didn’t bother with a retort. Her head throbbed, and she was suddenly very tired. “Please drop me off at Esmeralda’s B&B at Candy Cane and Evergreen Promenade.”
When his face lit up like a Christmas tree, her antennae shot straight up. “What?”
“Nothing. It’s a nice place. Best in town.”
“Of course it is, that’s why I’m staying there.”
“Yeah, I took you for one of those high-maintenance types. What do you do for a living?”
“None of your business.”
