“Oh, please.” Keira sighed, shook her hair back from her face and said, “He’s here as part of that will I told you about. If he stays for the month, if the rest of them each stay for a month, the town is going to get a heck of a lot of money that we really need. And that’s all there is to it. I just said he was attractive, I didn’t say I was going after him.”
“You didn’t say he was attractive!” Kelly’s voice shrieked so high that Keira jerked the phone away from her ear.
“I didn’t?”
“No. K, don’t do this. Don’t let yourself care about this guy. Remember what happened with—”
“Don’t go there, okay?” Keira interrupted her quickly, not willing to take a forced march down memory lane. “And let’s remember here just which one of us is the older sister.”
“I know,” Kelly said, “it’s just that you’re so—”
“So what exactly?”
“I don’t know. Never mind. Just be careful, okay?”
“I’m always careful, Kelly. Trust me. Nothing’s going to happen.” Even if she wanted something to happen, Nathan had already made it perfectly clear that he didn’t, so what could happen?
Keira peeked around the edge of the flower shop wall to stare down the street at Nathan again—big mistake. He was watching for her. Even from a distance, his gaze slammed into hers with a punch that was nearly physical. Keira sucked in a gulp of air and reached out blindly with her right hand to slap it against the wall in an effort to balance herself. It didn’t help much.
A flicker of heat kicked into life in the pit of her stomach and rolled through her like a storm-pitched wave crashing onto shore. She felt her world rock and had to fight to right it again.
“K?” Kelly’s voice was in her ear. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah,” she lied, swallowing hard past the knot of need that was lodged firmly in her throat. She couldn’t look away from Nathan’s eyes. “I’m fine. Don’t worry about anything.”
“But—”
“Look. Send me a postcard from Paris, okay?”
“Sure, but—”
“Bye, honey, be safe.” Keira flipped the phone closed and straightened up just as Nathan headed toward her.
Five
Nathan had had enough.
His ears were ringing and the good manners his grandmother had drummed into him were strained now to the snapping point. He’d excused himself from the two older women who had seemed determined to trap him on Main Street forever, and now he was going to get Keira to take him back to the lodge.
He should have driven himself.
Then he wouldn’t be waiting around for anyone. He wasn’t a man who liked being dependent on someone else for anything. His insides tightened as people milled past him, laughing, talking, dancing. He wasn’t a part of them and never would be. Didn’t want to be. And the more time he spent with all of them, the more clear that feeling became.
He didn’t know why the hell he hadn’t left the mountains already. He didn’t have to honor a promise made in college to a man long-dead. Hell, he could donate the twenty million himself and get out of this mess now.
And with that thought firmly in his mind, his steps quickened toward Keira. Her gaze locked with his and he told himself to pay no attention to the brilliant green of her eyes or the worried twist of her mouth. He refused to notice how the light dazzled the ends of her reddish-blond hair, making it almost glow in a soft halo around her head. And damned if he would remember just how good she felt when her body was pressed against his during their dance.
As he came closer, she shoved her cell phone into the front pocket of her jeans and inhaled deeply enough that her br**sts rose and then fell with the rush of her sigh.
If his body tightened suddenly, desperately, he ignored it.
“Hi,” she said and, somehow, her voice carried over the other sounds on the street. “Enjoying yourself?”
He frowned at her. “Yeah, it’s been great. I’ve eaten, I’ve danced and I’ve listened to enough thank-yous to last me a lifetime, so if you don’t mind, I’d like a ride back to the lodge.”
“Sure.”
“That easy?” He felt one eyebrow quirk. He hadn’t expected her to give in without trying to talk him into staying longer.
“Why not?” she asked and looked away from him, shifting her gaze to sweep across the town square. She sighed again and this time her voice was so soft, he almost missed it. “I just wanted you to see Hunter’s Landing. To meet some of the people, so you’d know who you and your friends are helping.”
“Thank you.” He heard the sarcasm in his own voice but didn’t bother to try to take the sting out of it.
“I can take you by the clinic for a quick look on the way back. Then you can see exactly what we’re planning.”
“Not necessary.”
Nathan blew out a frustrated breath. Everything in him was clamoring to be gone from this place. To pick up the threads of his life and get back to living the way he knew best. He didn’t do well with other people. Didn’t care to. And yet now…
Screw it.
“How about that ride?”
Frowning, she said, “You’re just determined not to enjoy yourself, aren’t you?”
“Was that a requirement?”
She muttered, “Kelly was right. You really are scary, aren’t you?”
“What?”
“Nothing.” Reluctantly, she shrugged and said, “Let’s go.”
He followed her to her truck and when she stumbled over a crack in the road, Nathan lunged forward to grab her before she could fall. Spinning her around, he pulled her in close and she laughed up at him. The woman was so changeable, he could hardly keep up.
“Thanks, didn’t see that.”
“Weren’t looking, you mean.”
Her hands were on his upper arms and even through the thick leather of his coat, he felt the heat in her touch and wanted more. Wanted to feel her hands on his bare skin, run his own hands over every curve of her body. Hear her sigh as he buried himself inside her.
The images in his mind were suddenly so clear, so overpowering, he could hardly draw a breath past the hot fist tightening around his lungs.
He willed himself to speak. “It’s a wonder you’re not covered in bruises the way you stumble around.”
“What makes you think I’m not?” she asked, still smiling.