Snowed In

by Shawn, Melanie

  Need you to put in a call to Senator Rollins regarding the deforestation bill. Vote is on Tuesday.

  Judge Randal wants to see you before you head back to Washington at the end of the week.

  Your mother wants to have a sit down with you to discuss the benefit.

  Mike quickly responded typing:

  Fine.

  Will call my mother and Rollins tomorrow.

  Set up something with Randal as soon as I’m back in California.

  Mike pressed send and scanned his text history. He’d received sixty-two texts since he’d arrived at the hotel three hours earlier. Pulling up his email inbox he saw that he had one hundred and two new emails. He knew that they all needed his attention because his assistant, Jane, was the only person that had this email and she only forwarded the ones that he needed to deal with.

  Both physical and mental exhaustion crashed in on Mike. He felt like he was being pulled under by the big waves he’d surfed at Mavericks. His limbs were heavy. His mind was fried. The drive that he’d had earlier in his career was gone. Vanished. Nowhere to be found.

  Initially, the only reason he’d agreed to run for public office was to help people. To make a difference. To improve the daily lives of his constituency.

  Now, three short years later as he looked back at what he’d accomplished, he felt more than just disappointed, he felt defeated. There was so much politicking in politics. In order to get anything done, you always had to compromise something. Either your beliefs, your word, or your morals.

  Deciding he needed a night off from, well his life, he put his phone on silent. Turning his head he noticed that Nikki was smiling from ear to ear. She’d obviously received a much happier text than he had. Her long slender finger swiped the screen of the device she was holding.

  “Oh. My. Gosh,” Nikki said laughing as she looked down at her screen.

  The sweet sound of her laughter washed over him like an ocean breeze, refreshing and soothing at the same time. Everything about her was taking him by surprise. His reaction to her most of all. He couldn’t stop looking at her as her eyes widened in amusement as she studied the small screen on her phone.

  She looked up at him, most likely sensing his blatant stare. “My sister is dog sitting for me and she sent me a picture of her dog and mine sleeping together.”

  He nodded in understanding although he wasn’t quite sure why that was so funny.

  She tilted her head and raised her eyebrows in challenge. That was the second time she’d given him a challenging expression and he liked it. A lot. Then she decisively turned her phone so that he could view the screen.

  Mike couldn’t believe what he saw. His head fell back as he laughed out loud. The picture on her screen showed a huge Great Dane sound asleep, curled up in the tightest ball his long limbs and large body would allow, with a tiny Chihuahua curled up in an equally tiny ball on the top of the Great Dane’s head. It looked hilarious.

  “Which one is yours?” Mike asked as soon as his laughter subsided.

  “The little one.” She pointed to the tiny brown Chihuahua. “That’s Scrappy laying on my sister’s dog Scooby’s head.”

  “Wow, that’s amazing. I have never seen anything like that.”

  Nikki’s smiled in agreement leaning forward as she scrolled through the pictures. “I never saw them do that before this.”

  As much as Mike’s body was on edge with awareness of Nikki sitting so closely beside him, it was equally at ease and relaxed. In fact, this short interaction was the most comfortable one he’d had in… he couldn’t remember how long. He didn’t want it to end.

  “So, I’m assuming that they’re named after Scooby Doo and Scrappy Doo,” he said after they’d flipped through each picture several times.

  “You assume correctly.” Nikki smiled warmly as she set her phone back down. “My family kind of has a thing for dogs. We had them growing up as kids and now all of my siblings have dogs as adults. They are seriously part of our family.”

  Her eyes filled with love and affection as she spoke about her family. The sight caused Mike to feel warmth spread through his chest.

  “Do you have a lot of brothers and sisters?” he asked with genuine interest. For some reason he wanted to know everything about this girl.

  “Depends on your definition of a lot,” she said with a sparkle in her eye.

  “Well, I’m an only child so anything more than one seems like a lot to me.” He’d always wanted a brother or sister growing up. From what he’d observed siblings shared a short-hand in life. Even if they were polar opposites with nothing in common, they related to each other because of shared experiences. They automatically had a place that they belonged.

  “Then yes. I have two older brothers and one older sister.”

  “Ah, so you are the baby of the family.”

  “Yes I am,” she said proudly.

  “And are your brothers’ dogs named Fred and Shaggy?”

  “No, sadly the theme stopped with us. My brother, Eric, has a golden retriever named Shadow, and Jake has a yellow lab named Lucky,” Nikki brushed her shoulder length hair behind her ear and the movement showcased the sleek slope of her long neck. His heart pounded stronger in his chest.

  “But,” she said holding up her index finger as she made her point, “my parents have two corgis named Laverne and Shirley.”

  “Really?”

  “Yep, I told you my family has a thing about dogs. We love them.” She took in a contented breath. “Do you have any animals?”

  “No. I want one but I travel so much I didn’t think it would be fair.”

  “Yeah, I do too. Luckily, my sister Amy’s house is like Scrappy’s second home. He loves going over there.”

  Nikki went on to tell Mike about Scooby and Scrappy’s many adventures. How they loved to break out together and walk downtown. How they’d somehow managed get the refrigerator door open and eat almost the entire contents, including a large tub of butter.

  Mike was mesmerized as Nikki spoke animatedly about her family, both two and four legged. He could sit here and listen to her all night. It didn’t matter what she was talking about, he just couldn’t wait to hear the next words from her mouth.

  Chapter Two

  “Last call,” the bartender announced loudly.

  Nikki’s head snapped up in shock, it couldn’t already be last call. Looking around she saw that there were still a handful of people in the small hotel bar. She glanced down at her phone. Sure enough, the illuminated screen read one-fifty a.m. They had been sitting and talking about…well, nothing for hours. How had the time flown by that quickly?

  Nikki’s family liked to joke around that she had ADD. She knew that it wasn’t meant to hurt her feelings and she totally understood why they would say it. She was easily distracted, but only when she was bored. If she loved something, or was passionate about it, then she was laser-focused. Unfortunately, they rarely saw that side of Nikki.

  And it didn’t really hold true with men in her life. Even when she was attracted to guys, most couldn’t hold her attention for more than forty-five minutes or so. But this was different, she’d been sitting and talking with Mike for almost four hours now and it felt like fifteen minutes.

  Mike placed his credit card on the bar to pay for their drinks.

  “Thank you,” Nikki smiled as she dipped her head and tucked her hair behind her ear, suddenly overcome with a very uncharacteristic bout of shyness. She also was in a position that felt completely foreign to her. She didn’t want their time together to end but inviting him up to her room seemed forward.

  Never before in her life had she ever had an issue taking the lead in these types of situations. If she wanted something, she went after it. There was no shame in her game. Somehow though, something about this felt different. Special.

  The bartender handed back Mike’s card and, as he was signing his name, Nikki slyly glanced to see what kind of a tip he left. There was just something about guys
that were cheap tippers that didn’t sit well with her. Maybe it was because she was in the service industry or maybe it was just because generosity had always been a trait that Nikki held in high regard, but either way, it rubbed her the wrong way whenever someone— man or woman—didn’t tip well.

  When she saw the amount Mike had left, her eyes widened. Whoa! He’d left a twenty dollar tip on a sixty dollar bill. Okay, so he was definitely not cheap.

  He stood from the stool in one smooth motion and Nikki did the same. Nerves ricocheted throughout her body, from the top of her head to the tips of her toes. They walked out of the bar together in total silence. Mike’s hand rested on Nikki’s lower back, the same way it had when he’d walked up to her earlier in the evening. And it had the same effect on her now as it had then, tingles galore.

  They moved through the empty lobby and down the corridor to the elevator banks. The only sound in the deserted hallway was the howling of the wind storming against the floor to ceiling windows and the low jazz music playing through the speakers.

  The hairs on Nikki’s arms were standing up as goose bumps broke out over her skin in anticipation. For what? She wasn’t sure. But she did know that the electricity between them was so palpable it felt like a living, breathing thing. Nikki had been up for almost twenty-four hours now but she wasn’t even in the ballpark of being tired. Her senses were on high alert.

  It wasn’t just this man’s devastating good looks and easy going charm that had her stomach doing flip-flops, it was also their instant compatibility. Nikki had heard people talk about meeting someone and instantly connecting but that had never happened to her.

  Usually she spent at least a month, sometimes several, sizing people up. Trying to see who they really were not just who they were pretending to be. Get down to their core person. Weeding out all the artificiality people piled on top of who they honestly were.

  Somehow though, in a span of just a few hours, she felt like she knew Mike. Okay, so maybe not what he did for a living, his birthday or even where he was born. But she knew him. She felt an inherent trust in Mike as a person.

  It was odd. It was completely illogical. It made absolutely zero sense. And Nikki loved it.

  They still had not uttered a word to each other as they stepped up to the stainless steel elevator doors. Reaching out, Mike pressed the up button and Nikki once again took note of what large hands he had.

  She felt very Little-Red-Riding-Hood-Esque as she thought Oh my, what big hands you have.

  It wasn’t just his hands that she noticed though. It was also the strong lines in his shirt as it pulled taut against his bicep. The smooth olive toned skin of his neck, peeking up above his shirt collar. The strong line of his jaw. His full lips. His long, thick, dark eye lashes.

  Everything about the man standing beside Nikki called to her on a visceral level.

  The doors opened with a soft swoosh and Mike extended his arm indicating for her to step inside.

  “What floor?” his deep voice rumbled.

  “Fourteen,” Nikki answered as the doors slid shut enclosing them in the small metal box. Butterflies raced around in her stomach.

  She couldn’t decipher if it was because she was in such close, private quarters with a man that was wreaking havoc on her senses. Or if it was because she hated small confined spaces. For as long as she could remember, being trapped in an elevator had topped her list of greatest fears.

  Pushing down the claustrophobia that was rearing its ugly head, Nikki decided to focus on Mike’s sexy musky scent that wafted through the air. She took a deep breath in through the nose, exhaling slowly out through the mouth. Her nerves started to calm and the panic, that she’d felt building momentum in her body, subsided.

  After pressing her floor’s button, Mike’s finger then pushed the button for the twenty-eighth floor.

  The penthouse.

  When the number twenty-eight button lit up, a couple of things occurred to Nikki.

  One: Mike did not just assume that he would be coming to her room. Which as strange as it sounded actually disappointed Nikki a little. Most guys would take for granted that after spending several hours with a single girl at a bar, going up to her room was a given. However, this just confirmed what Nikki had been feeling about Mike since he stepped in and “assisted” her in getting rid of that creep; Mike was not most guys.

  Two: Mike was obviously doing well for himself if he was staying in the penthouse suite. This was not a cheap motel—not that those actually had penthouse suites. Curiosity began to bubble up inside Nikki’s brain. What did he do for a living? Which also begged the question, how in the world did she feel like she knew a man when she couldn’t tell you his last name, his age, or his occupation?

  Well, she only had a few more seconds before they would be at her floor and she might lose the chance to ever find out the answers to the questions swimming around in her head.

  Turning to Mike she began, “I had a nice-”

  At the same time that he said, “It was great-”

  They looked at each other and began laughing. She shook her head slightly, “Go ahead.”

  “Ladies first,” he dipped his head and held out his hand.

  “I was just going to say-” Nikki began again but stopped as the lights in the elevator flickered.

  Nikki leaned her head back to look at the flickering lighting in the panel above her head just as they stopped flickering altogether and went out completely. There was a soft creaking sound and the elevator stopped.

  Suddenly she was feeling very light headed as her pulse raced and fear rushed through her like a massive volcano erupting inside of her. Nikki reached out and placed her hand on the cold steel wall to brace herself. She couldn’t feel her legs. Her lips were going numb.

  “Nikki,” Mike’s voice cut through the cloud of terror that had taken up residency in her brain. “Nikki, are you okay? It’s probably just a power outage from the storm. We’ll be fine. I’m sure the hotel has back-up generators.”

  The authoritative tone in Mike’s voice did more to calm Nikki’s impending nervous breakdown than the actual words he was speaking. There was a strength in his voice that cut through the fear and drove straight into her subconscious.

  Her legs wavered beneath her like Jell-o and even though at this moment she was a complete basket-case, she did have the presence of mind to know that collapsing in a blundering mess was not exactly the image that Nikki wanted to portray to Mike.

  “I just need to sit down,” Nikki managed to get out between short pants of breaths.

  A strong arm wrapped around her waist steadying her as she slowly lowered to a seated position. The second her butt hit the floor she pulled her knees up to her chest and held them tightly in her arms.

  Mike knelt beside her his hand rubbing up and down her back with a soothing touch. Not only was the nurturing movement comforting in and of itself but also the fact that Mike’s large hand, from palm to fingertip, spread across her entire back. The all-encompassing sensation made Nikki feel safe and secure in a way that she had never before felt in her life.

  Which was odd given her current predicament. Being stuck in an elevator, was one of her greatest fears. Trying not to read too much into why she felt safe just in case it made the feeling go away, Nikki decided not to look a gift horse in the mouth and just go with it.

  Mike continued to reassure her. Although the words he was saying were making sense in the moment, she knew for a fact that she would not remember them once this was over. Nikki closed her eyes and rested her forehead on her knees concentrating solely on Mike’s touch, Mike’s voice, and Mike’s solid strength.

  After what felt like an eternity, her breathing slowed and Nikki felt as if she were coming back to her senses. She still felt slightly light-headed but not nearly as panicked as she had initially. Lifting her head and opening her eyes, she saw that the back-up lights had come on and they were no longer surrounded in pitch blackness.

  Mike’s h
andsome features were etched with concern.

  Embarrassment started replacing the anxious terror she had been battling. Nikki was strong. She was capable. She hated to show any weakness. Especially to people that mattered to her. And strange as it may sound in the short time that she’d gotten to know Mike…he definitely mattered.

  “I’m sorry, I just don’t like…I’ve always been scared of…I don’t do well with…” Nikki tried to explain her behavior but her tongue felt swollen and it was difficult to get the words out.

  “Not a fan of small, enclosed spaces,” Mike finished for her with a knowing grin. “I get it. Really. Mine is heights. They’re just not my thing.”

  His small admission made Nikki feel better and less exposed. She smiled and said gratefully, “Thanks.”

  “No problem. Are you feeling better?” he asked.

  “A little.” Nikki did still feel like she might die if she didn’t get out of here right this second but she was aware of her surroundings and able to speak in a semi-coherent fashion, so that was a plus.

  Mike’s intense eyes looked at her with an assessing gaze. After several moments he removed his comforting touch from her back and slid around stopping when he was directly in front of her. He held out his large hands palms up. “Give me your hands,” he gently commanded as he stared directly into her eyes.

  A shiver of awareness ran down Nikki’s spine at his authoritative tone. It was nice to feel something other than fear inside of her body. She stared into his dark eyes as she released her heavy limbs from around her legs and placed her hands in his.

  For a moment, they both looked down gazing at the picture that her delicate hands in his large palms presented. She had no idea what he was thinking but in Nikki’s mind it was quite an erotic sight.

  Then gently, he turned her hands over in his. Slowly, he moved his thumbs over the center of her palm. Rubbing with just enough pressure. Causing a tugging sensation in her core. She watched as his magical fingers moved, massaging her hands thoroughly. Somehow, he managed to simultaneously entice and stimulate her while causing her to feel completely relaxed and tension free.