by Annie O'Neil
Liar.
A quick glance in the mirror revealed that steaming in the bath had brought out a soft curl in the tendrils of hair that had escaped from her hastily clipped coif. That’ll work. A bit of mascara and a squirt of her favorite perfume completed the job.
Rummaging through the bottom of her closet, she found a pair of cowboy boots she’d picked up when she’d first moved to Deer Creek. She ran an appreciative hand over the well-tooled leatherwork. They had cost far more than she’d planned on spending, but surely a new beginning in a mountain resort had been more than enough reason to splash out on a pair of boots that would show her intent to stay?
All too aware Fraser was twiddling his thumbs in the kitchen, Tara relinquished a few more minutes in front of her vanity in favor of ending the awkward encounter. She pulled on her thick leather coat, flicking the woolen collar up around her neck. If Fraser had seen her practically naked ten minutes ago, he was going to see her over-clothed now. Shaking her head as she left her room, she had to laugh. Liesel was a rare breed. There weren’t that many people who could get out of a soothing bubble bath and into a bar full of rowdy ski patrollers in under ten minutes.
“Your carriage awaits, m’lady!”
*
Tara was grateful Fraser seemed just as willing as she was to gloss over the fact he’d just seen a bit more of her than either of them had bargained on. Her already frayed nerves jangled with a combination of fear and anticipation. She was all too aware that the safest way to ride on the back of the snowmobile was behind Fraser with her arms around him. It didn’t help that he was looking particularly gorgeous in the twinkling Christmas lights she’d put up on the stairwell leading to her porch. A thick blue turtleneck the color of his eyes met his well-defined jaw, and snowflakes gathered on his dark woolen hat. Winter wonderland, indeed.
“It’s only a fifteen-minute walk from here,” she stalled, her body betraying her by tingling with desire.
“And on this...” Fraser lowered his rich voice and waggled his eyebrows “...it will only be five.”
Tara raised a wary eyebrow.
“C’mon, darlin’.” He put on a hokey cowboy accent as he registered her obvious hesitation. “Jump aboard my horse and hold on tight.”
Tara’s body was screaming at her to get a move on. The living, breathing image of her fantasy man was standing right in front of her, beckoning her to snuggle up to him on a beautiful wintry evening. Not a good idea if you want to keep things platonic.
Uh-oh. Body is overriding brain again.
Tara slipped a leg over the saddle of the snowmobile, her arms automatically wrapping around Fraser’s waist.
Okay. Good. I can do this. Not a single problem in the world, sitting here with my arms wrapped around Fraser MacKenzie, my good friend and colleague.
Actually...she felt herself wriggle in a little closer. This wasn’t bad. Not bad at all. Normally, she felt quite tall and awkward, but with Fraser’s height and build she caught herself feeling ridiculously feminine as her body molded just a bit more closely against his. Even her fingers felt dainty and ladylike as she slipped her mittened hands a bit further round Fraser’s waist. It was all she could do not to nestle her head into his shoulder, cuddling up to him as though they were a couple who had been together for years. Fraser turned his head to the side, not making eye contact. His husky voice made it clear he was as aware as she was of their physical connection.
“Hang on, love. You’re in for one helluva ride.”
*
Fraser had to will himself to concentrate. Safe delivery of Tara to the Blue Lantern was his first priority. His second was ensuring she didn’t realize just how sexy it felt having her arms wrapped around him, her legs streamlined against his own. Even her breath played on his neck like the silent call of a sensual siren. He’d never seen anyone make an oversized leather jacket and a pair of cowboy boots look so suggestive. Keeping things platonic with this woman was going to be harder than finishing med school had been. Hell, boot camp had been easier than keeping his level of arousal in check.
Fraser would’ve felt perfectly happy forgoing the trip to the bar and instead spending the evening driving up and down the tiny main street all night long. Snowflakes sparkled in the Christmas lights that had been put up over the past couple of weeks. Nothing garish, just string after string of multicolored bulbs hung like garlands between the buildings. A few hundred yards further along, you could just make out the lodge, fairy lights tastefully outlining the gables and windows.
It was little wonder Tara had chosen this place after New York. Whatever had happened between her and her ex was none of his business, but feeling Tara press her body up against his as they rode through the magical winterscape...of all the people who deserved a thank-you card right now it had to be her ex.
Fraser kept the speed of the snowmobile steady, forsaking the usual macho route of the-man-on-fast-motorized-beast. Keeping it steady drew out the journey just a couple of exquisite minutes longer. Once they got to the bar, chances were pretty slim he wouldn’t get to be this close to her, and if a five-minute ride became six or seven, where was the harm?
All too soon, the glow of a neon blue lantern appeared through the mist of snowflakes and cloud settling around the resort.
Wanting to ensure he’d get a bit more time with Tara tonight, Fraser decided to lay his cards on the table. Well, some of his cards. No one got the full deck.
“I hope you’re not going to abandon me to the locals when we get in here.”
Tara chuckled as she pulled herself off of the snowmobile. “I don’t know. They’re a pretty vicious group. You might have to be the one to protect me.”
She didn’t need to ask twice. “You can count on me.” At least for now.
He wondered if she was as aware of his touch as he was of touching her. It felt nice. The whole scenario was good. Familiar. Arriving together. It would’ve been perfectly natural to weave his fingers through hers and enter the bar hand in hand. He toyed with the idea of allowing himself just one night off from their “just friends” pact.
He allowed himself to watch her as she kicked the snow off her boots on the side of the Blue’s porch. Her cheeks were flushed with the cold of the night, face framed in a swirl of soft curls, lips a deeper red than he’d imagined possible.
Nope. Can’t go there.
Entering the bar was the only way to regain control. Fraser skipped up the steps of the bar onto the broad wooden porch. Pulling open the thick wooden door, he ushered Tara in ahead of him, resisting the urge to slip a protective hand on the small of her back. They were hit with a blast of warm air, country music, co-mingled scents of beer, burgers and fries, and most of all laughter.
“What a great place!” Fraser enthused.
“It’s not your typical Scottish pub, is it?” Tara smiled up at him. Going up on tiptoe, she fought against the music to be heard, “What’s your poison?”
You.
“Do you know a good local beer on tap?”
“I like the apricot ale, but a lot of the guys think it’s too girly and prefer Grizzly Stout. Do you like that sort of thing?”
As long as it comes attached to a five-foot-nine-inch doctor who doesn’t have the slightest clue just how beautiful she is.
“I trust your judgment.”
He watched as Tara wove her way through the crowd, oblivious to the appreciative smiles and glances being thrown her way by more than one ski patroller and off-duty hotel staffer. A low whistle of admiration escaped his lips. She just oozed class. Even in a peanut-shell-covered bar with little more than a dartboard and pool table for decoration. Pure class.
*
“And that’s how we roll!”
Tara gave Liesel a high five after the nurse neatly pocketed the eight ball. Eric sent Fraser a “hard luck” look from across the table, clearly aware he was dating Deer Creek’s resident pool shark. Tara wasn’t half-bad either.
“Why didn’t you tell me
you were a grifter?”
Tara pushed out her lower lip and shrugged with an it-was-nothing gesture, all too unaware of the effect it had on him. “I’ve had a bit of time to practice. Peanut Night tends to be the only thing that gets me out on a Sunday night.”
“I’ll have to remember that.” Fraser stuffed his hands in his pockets, hoping to hide the sensations shotputting through him as visions of leaning down and nibbling away at Tara’s lower lip ran through his head.
“What else gets you out and about?”
“Well...” Tara pulled herself up onto a stool, grabbing a peanut and flicking the shell in half with her thumb. “I have to admit I haven’t been to the ER lately—down at Valley Hospital—and I quite enjoy my time there.”
“What about it exactly?” Fraser was intrigued, and not just with watching Tara pop peanuts into her mouth. Every time she took a sip of beer the tip of her tongue would take a little run over her top lip to catch any stray foam. Very distracting. He would have to stop staring at her mouth and focus on their conversation. In truth, the more he knew Tara, the more he wanted to know everything there was to know about her. It was a rare breed of doctor who didn’t get burnt out by long runs in the hospital emergency room. Yet another attribute he could chalk up to her growing list.
“Well, not to sound selective, because helping any patient is worth my while, but the ER is the perfect location to see patients coming in with compound fractures and other bone conditions. As you know, I had been doing a lot of research—”
She suddenly stopped speaking, her eyes clouding with emotion.
“You were doing research...” Fraser repeated, hoping she’d continue.
Tara bit at her lower lip, her eyes committed to inspecting her empty beer glass before she looked up suddenly with a flash of parted lips and white teeth. She had a cheeky smile. It was nice to see.
“You know enough about me and I know next to nothing about you. Let’s talk about all your dark secrets!”
The crack of pain Tara saw flash across Fraser’s eyes was gone in an instant. But she had seen it. She felt a twist of compassion in her stomach as she searched his sapphire eyes for answers. There was so much more to this man than a carefree playboy on a quest to hit all the high peaks of the world. She’d hit more than a nerve. She knew it—and yet it looked as if she would never be able to unlock that part of him that seemed to hurt so much...
“C’mon.” She impulsively took his hand in hers. “Let’s dance!”
Several couples were out on the hardwood floor, swept clear of peanut shells, getting into place for a bit of a slipshod line dancing. The band that’d been playing quiet country songs throughout the evening gave each other some sort of silent signal and before she knew it Tara found herself being swept along to “Honky Tonk Badonkadonk” with the rest of the couples.
Looking across the dance floor, she was impressed to see that Fraser was keeping up with the complicated series of steps far better than she was. She may not be learning his dark secrets, but she was certainly discovering the man could move on a dance floor. Thankfully, it was easy not to feel self-conscious as the ramshackle collection of regulars and out-of-towners were hardly contenders for America’s finest line dancers, but even so she found herself hoping Fraser didn’t notice her two left feet.
The combination of music and a genuinely warm atmosphere soon had Tara dissolving into fits of giggles. She really was a disaster on the dance floor. If this had been New York, she would’ve felt humiliated and, no doubt, would have found herself being chastised by her ex for behaving so freely in public. Here, with Fraser, she felt like anything in the world was possible.
What had started as a quiet—no, lonely—evening at home had turned into a remarkably fun night. Catching Fraser’s eye was easy. His warm gaze hadn’t left her all evening. At least, that was how he made her feel. As she started to sway quietly in time to a slow song the band had just begun to play, Tara felt herself being slammed with a jolt of passion so intense she couldn’t have imagined it possible. Fraser wasn’t even touching her, wasn’t near her, and yet her skin felt as though it were virtually alight with sensation.
As if being magnetically pulled to him, she crossed the dance floor, barely avoiding couples rocking side to side in one another’s arms. She felt his arms slip around her waist and pull her firmly into his hips. Her arms rested briefly on his and she allowed herself one, maybe two heavy-lidded moments to savor the warm scent emanating from his chest. An aching hunger for him turned her knees into putty and wrapping her arms up and around his neck was the only way she could manage to stay upright. Everyone around them seemed to dissolve into a distant blur, as if she were in a film, fading away from the dance floor, aware of the privacy of the moment being shared.
Tara tilted her chin up and felt Fraser’s cheek, rough with stubble, meet her own. A wash of heat cascaded through her. Her body responded primally. Every moment that passed seemed to last in a luxurious rush of sensation. Just the slightest of movements and she would be able to taste his lips again. They’d be delicious and male and so very much what she had been avoiding. Intimacy. Her every thought was a rule-breaker. It wasn’t even her style. Kissing in public, in such a small town. Not that it had stopped her from responding to the kiss Fraser had given her in front of her ex.
Who was she kidding? Small town or big town, her ex was gone and her feelings for Fraser were a totally separate issue. She was drawn to him and yet everything about him screamed, Don’t trust him! Why, oh, why, was she having this very public reaction to dancing in his arms? Her entire body ached with longing.
Please stay. I know it’s crazy, but couldn’t you just stay?
She felt Fraser tip his head towards hers and his lips brushed along her neck, sending a visible shudder down the length of her spine. “We’ve got plenty of time, love. Plenty of time.”
Fraser tightened his grip on her waist, gently releasing one of her clasped hands from his neck and holding it firmly, decisively against his chest. She hoped he couldn’t feel the rapid pounding of her heart as she allowed herself to nestle into him, gently swaying to the music.
Her mind was racing—the antithesis of their slow, rhythmic swaying. What was he saying? Her initial impressions that he was a love-’em-and-leave-’em type hadn’t held up over the past few weeks. He’d been an excellent colleague and a good friend too.
It was time to face reality. Not everyone was like her ex—there to use her until she wasn’t of value any more. Not everyone smelled so incredibly good. Or felt so good. Right here, right now.
Risking a glimpse up at Fraser’s face, she was rewarded with a small kiss on her forehead. The pleasurable thrill that ran through her pulled her thoughts into sharper focus.
Just enjoy the moment. This may not last, but just enjoy the moment.
CHAPTER SEVEN
TARA STAMPED HER FEET and gave her mittened hands a brisk rub. Where was he? She’d been waiting for Fraser for over ten minutes and, with the sun long gone, the temperatures were dropping fast. No matter how much she reasoned with herself that he was just a colleague, every time they organized to meet, her nerves flew into giddy overdrive. She wished she’d not been so silly and worried about a knitted hat messing up her hair. It wasn’t as if she was going on a date with him or anything. Not really. Just a couple of colleagues meeting some other ER doctors for a friendly bowling night down in the Valley.
She watched as another gondola made its steady journey down to the Valley. Cold or not, it was absolutely beautiful up here. The viewing deck offered a one-eighty-degrees display of Christmas lights twinkling away in the distance. If Fraser got his act together and showed up they could be in amongst the festive decorations—and warmth!
“It’s pretty amazing up here, isn’t it?”
Tara whirled around just in time to receive the full effect of another one of those butterfly-inducing smiles. This is not a date. This is not a date!
A week had passed since she a
nd Fraser had spent those few precious minutes with their arms wrapped around each other on the dance floor. Despite her best efforts she still hadn’t managed to shake off her body’s primal reaction to him. Little wonder since he always looked like he could be stepping off the pages of some sports magazine or another.
Even so, sticking to the “just friends” routine had made it easier to see him every day at work. And a little bit harder. It wasn’t as if she wasn’t tempted, but getting to know him had remained as impossible a task as it been from the start. He was great at asking her questions about herself, but always managed to change the topic deftly whenever she tried to swing their conversations round to his past. Still, they had started meeting regularly on the slopes for an early morning run and a chaser of Marian’s blueberry pancakes to go over any business they needed to discuss before opening the clinic. It was a fun routine and she’d miss it when he was gone.
The butterflies whirling around her stomach landed with a thump. She didn’t want to think about that day. Not yet.
“Hope you haven’t been waiting too long.”
“No, not at all. I’ve just been enjoying the lights.” Fibber. Why are you speaking to him like he’s some sort of brand-new acquaintance? C’mon, Tara, you’ve surely passed the awkward chitchat phase?
She looked up at him, enjoying the blanket of twinkling lights spread out before them. Here he was, right next to her—so close and yet she suddenly felt as though she was staring at a stranger. What kept him from sharing his history with her? In their short time together Fraser had shown an unerring ability to draw her own story from her. It made her feel as if the relationship was...not one-sided exactly, but as if she could be doing something more to let Fraser know he’d be just as safe telling her about his past. If one thing was certain, she knew he would never take advantage of her the way her ex had. Fraser had too much character, was laced at the seams with a sense of compassionate duty.
