This tore a laugh from him.
“I came here for adventure, Cam. To risk. To live.”
He stopped laughing. “I know.”
“And I got all that. Especially the adventure—which turned out to be you. You’re my adventure, Cam, all dark and dangerously alluring.”
He slid her another long look, but he still didn’t enlighten her on his thoughts. And he didn’t take her to Wilder Adventures either, but instead pulled into a driveway in front of a house near the end of town.
The two-story Victorian had a sign out front that read: DR. SINCLAIR, URGENT CARE. CLOSED. “You’re sick?” she asked.
“No, Annie asked me to pick up some supplies. She likes to get stuff from old Dr. Sinclair rather than drive into South Shore.”
“I thought she gets her diabetes supplies from the UPS guy.”
“This is for our first-aid kits.” He paused. “Dangerously alluring?”
“It’s all in your eyes. Well, and your butt. You have a great butt. Doc’s closed, Cam.”
“He’s recently had a heart attack and hasn’t yet found someone to take the place over for him.” He turned off the truck and opened the door. “I’ll be right back.” He pointed at her. “Don’t go on any joy rides without me.”
“I’ve never been on a joy ride in my life.”
“Well then, don’t start now.”
When she was alone, she let out a long breath and watched him walk up the path. Both of him. Good God, she really was quite drunk.
Something rang, startling her; then she laughed. It was her cell phone. She patted down her pockets before she realized it was in her purse on the floor. She reached for it and ended up on the floor boards. Odd how being drunk really did affect one’s motor skills….
Cam gave up knocking on Doc’s door and went back to his truck. He opened the door, then paused at the sight of Katie on her knees.
Her hair had slipped out of its restraints. Her eyes were glassy but full of the life that was like a punch to his gut every single time he looked at her. Her cheeks were red, her mouth curved in the smile that never failed to cause a chain reaction on his.
“My purse was ringing,” she explained.
He nodded and resisted the temptation to say, “While you’re down there…”
Because he wasn’t going there.
Not.
Going.
There.
Yeah. And maybe if he kept repeating it to himself, his body would get the message. But God, look at her. Adorably trashed. Sexy as hell.
And utterly and completely unaware of the hold she had on him. Without meaning to, he was finding his heart cracking, tentatively opening in spite of himself, and God knew, hell everyone knew, he wasn’t fond of the sensation.
Oblivious to his inner turmoil, she laughed at herself, then crawled back up into her seat and shoved her hair out of her face to grin at him. “Hey.”
“Hey right back atchya.”
She stared into his eyes. “You’re so pretty, Cam.”
“And you’re hammered. Seriously. Your vision is impaired.”
“Come on. You have a mirror. You know you’re pretty.” She waved a hand, managing to avoid hitting herself in the face this time. “But actually, I meant that you’re pretty on the inside, even if your heart’s been hurt.”
“That was a long time ago.”
“Still matters.”
“Only if you let it.” He went to start the truck, but she put a hand over his. He shook his head even as he turned his hand over, entwining his fingers in hers. “I don’t like to look back.”
“I know that. You don’t look to the future either. You live in the moment to avoid more hurt. I can understand that. I think.” She fisted her hands in his jacket and tugged him close enough to give him a big, smacking kiss on the lips that tasted of vodka and sweet, warm woman. “I’m living in the moment while I’m here in Wishful.” She batted her eyes. “I’m in the moment right now. How about you?”
Oh yeah. Unable to resist, he kissed her, then firmly pulled back.
“I almost did donuts in the lot while you were gone,” she admitted, recovering from the kiss much more quickly than he.
“Donuts?”
“In the snow,” she explained, twirling her finger in a circle in the air to demonstrate. “Fast.”
He had to smile. “What, are we twelve?”
“You say that because you probably did donuts in the snow when you were twelve.”
True. He’d stolen Annie’s car to do it too. She’d nearly killed him, but even that hadn’t taken away the joy of that night, driving a forbidden car, going fast beneath the stars, laughing his ass off…. With a sigh, he put the truck in reverse, took them to the middle of the parking lot, and stomped on the gas while cranking the wheel hard to the left.
Katie screamed and laughed and screamed some more, and when he stopped the truck, she collapsed against the back of the seat and sighed in utter bliss.
For two seconds.
Then she suddenly went ashen, then a spectacular green. She slapped a hand over her mouth and said “uh-oh,” signs he recognized all too well. Leaning in front of her, he shoved open her door just in time for her to lose her lunch, dinner, dessert, and vodka right there in Doc’s parking lot.
He held her from falling out of the truck on her face and scooped back her hair, while silently congratulating himself for being stupid enough to take her for a spin while drunk. “You okay?”
“Kill me,” she murmured, accepting the bottle of water he’d grabbed and handed to her. She rinsed out her mouth and leaned back. “Just kill me and spare me the agony of embarrassment.”
“For throwing up?” He shook his head. “Hell, Katie, I’ve had evenings end far worse than this.”
Eyes still closed, she smiled weakly. “You’re such a nice liar.”
“Seriously.”
“Seriously.” She let out a low, miserable laugh. “I’d be willing to bet that every single time you’ve had a woman in this truck, you’ve gotten your hands on her, and not to hold back her hair while she puked.”
“Actually, believe it or not, I’m out of the habit of seducing cute drunk women.”
She cracked open one eye and laid it on him. “Because of your accident. I can’t believe you stopped having sex.”
“Yeah, well, until you.”
She managed a weak smile. “I’m glad you broke your dry spell with me. I guess I’m irresistible.”
“I guess you are.” He started the truck again and got them on the road. She was surprisingly quiet all the way back to the lodge. Or maybe not so surprisingly, considering when he stopped in front of her cabin, he realized she was out cold, and snoring while she was at it.
He shook his head, turned off the truck, and carried her to the front door, which she’d locked. Without any guilt whatsoever, he frisked her for her keys.
She didn’t so much as budge.
She was still snoring when he set her on her neatly made bed, though she stirred when he tossed a blanket over her.
“Cheese,” she muttered as he pulled off her glasses for her and set them on the nightstand.
“What’s that, Goldilocks?”
“Have to put out cheese for Chuck.”
“You’ll get something other than Chuck if you do that.”
“Please?”
He caved. Of course he caved. One look into those vodka-reddened eyes and he’d do whatever she asked of him. So he got some cheese out of her small refrigerator and placed it on her front step. When he moved back into her bedroom, she was up on her knees, attempting to strip out of her clothes. She got her sweater off but looked stymied by the fact that she was still wearing two more layers. She tried to tug the two under-shirts off as well, which took a while because she got them stuck on her head for one brief second during which her breasts threatened to have a serious wardrobe malfunction and fall out of her bra.
Ah, hell. She looked adorably flushed, and adorably sexy, but he was not going to seduce her when she was drunk, no matter how much he wanted her. “Get in bed.”
Instead, she fell to her back and went to work on the zipper of her pants.
And he began to sweat. “Come on, Katie, just get under the covers.”
Nope, and there went her pants, which promptly got snagged on her boots because she’d failed to remove them first.
“Not again.” She flung herself to the bed, flat on her back in nothing but royal blue bra and panties, with her pants around her ankles, caught on her boots. “Oh boy. I’m dizzy.”
So was he, because she made quite the picture lying there.
Drunk, he reminded himself.
Hands off.
“De cha vu,” she said, and laughed.
Closing his eyes, he inhaled deeply, which didn’t help. He reluctantly moved in to assist, removing first her boots, then her pants.
“I’m really quite drunk,” she informed him in surprise, sliding her fingers into his hair, tugging his face to hers. “Very, very drunk.”
He looked into her eyes, saw the light and joy that she’d represented since he’d first laid eyes on her. “Yes, you are.”
And sweet.
And sexy.
And mind-bogglingly beautiful.
“Cam?”
“Yeah?”
“You’re hot.”
He let out a low laugh and backed up. Way up. “Okay, that’s enough out of you. Go to sleep.”
“’Kay,” she said agreeably. “But you are.” And with that, she resumed her snoring.
An hour later, she dreamed. She was in her car, stuck in traffic on the bridge, frustrated and angry at the damn truck that had trapped her behind it.
And then the shudder.
She’d no idea at the time what it meant, but she knew now and whimpered as the bridge gave way beneath her, as all the cars around her vanished, as she slid off the side, rolling, rolling, slamming to a stop.
Upside down.
Panicked, she tried to see, tried to figure out what had just happened, but then there were flames, and the heat. The horrifying heat, and then the worst part—discovering she was the only one who’d made it. She, who didn’t really have a life, she’d lived while others hadn’t. She could probably run her entire life looking for things to distract her from that and never forget it—
“I’ve got you.”
His voice, low and easy and as soothing as the snow outside, surrounded her. So did his arms, pulling her out of the nightmare and firmly into the present. Without looking back, she crawled into that delicious strength he was offering, burrowing in like she planned to hibernate for the rest of winter, and sank into a deep, dreamless sleep.
Chapter 21
Annie tightened the tie of her jacket around her waist. It was a full-length stadium jacket, made of down, which was helpful since it was just dawn and the temperature hovered right at freeze-her-ass-off cold.
But she was doing this. She’d thought of nothing else all night, which was when it’d come to her.
Katie had been right. She was giving up too fast, without giving Nick a real chance.
Without giving them a real chance.
She thought she had a handle on that now. She’d been too vague. She’d been vague because she’d wanted Nick to figure out what was wrong all on his own, but guys didn’t appear to be equipped for that level of thinking.
Plus, how could she expect him to know what exactly had gone wrong, when she herself didn’t know?
Maybe together they could figure it out.
God, she hoped.
So to that end, she stepped into her boots, and still clutching the jacket to her, left the cabin that once upon a time she’d shared with Nick. She walked along the path to the cabin he used now. Knowing he never locked his front door, she simply let herself in.
There were dishes in the sink and clothes on the floor. Typical. She moved through the living room toward the bedroom, unable to hold back her anticipatory grin, because what the man lacked in house skills, he more than made up for in bedroom skills.
And she was so ready to get back to that portion of the program of their marriage. Needed to get back to that. They’d had some fairly major communication problems of late, but she figured there was no better way to force communication than while getting a little.
With that very goal in mind, she unbelted her coat and let it drop as she stepped into the doorway to his bedroom, naked. “Wake up, big guy.”
The bed was empty.
He was already gone. Dammit! She covered herself back up with the jacket and stomped outside again. The equipment garage’s lights were on. Shivering, she headed over there with rising frustration and purposely, carefully, knocked on the side door.
She was not going to screw this one up, not this time.
Nick didn’t answer, so she pounded on the door, and finally, it opened. The drone of the compressor and generator engines blasted out around Nick. He wore a pair of beloved Levi’s, faded nearly white, with a hole over one knee and the other thigh. He had on a thick, padded plaid shirt over long underwear and a ski cap on his head. He hadn’t shaved yet today, and probably not yesterday either. He looked a little tired and a whole lot disheveled.
And sexy as hell.
“What’s wrong?” he yelled over the machines.
Nothing, except he was still dressed.
“Annie? You okay?”
Yeah, she was getting there. Getting warm, too, despite the frigid temps. Nodding, she pushed her way in, once again un-buttoning her jacket as she kept her eyes on his, turning her back to the room to keep him in her sights. They were going to do this, right here, right now. “Close the door, you’re letting out all the bought air.”
“What are you doing here?” he yelled as he shut the door. “We’re—”
That was all he got out before she let the jacket fall.
His eyes bugged out first. Yelling “What the hell!” he leaped for her, yanking off his plaid overshirt to throw around her. “Jesus, Stone’s here!”
Clutching Nick’s shirt to her body, she whipped around and for the first time surveyed the garage.
Stone indeed stood there by the compressor, mouth agape in shock before he slapped his hands to his face. “My eyes!”
Nick shot him a look of fury, then whirled on Annie. “What the hell was that?”
She grabbed her jacket from the floor before shoving Nick out of her way to get to the door. “That was me trying to seduce you, you ass. And trust me, it was the last time. So I hope you got a good look, because it won’t be happening again!” And with that, she maturely slammed the door behind her.
She managed to wait until she was in her beloved kitchen,