A constant surprise. Keira Sanders never failed to bewilder him with her reactions to things. He couldn’t depend on what she’d do next, because she never responded to anything the way he expected her to. How was a man supposed to find his emotional footing if a woman kept changing on him?
“I suppose that’s logical.”
“Excellent,” she said. “I’ve got a few ideas on what we could do today.” She hopped off her chair, stumbled over her own foot and slammed into his chest. She grabbed him in self-preservation and spilled his coffee down the front of his robe. Grinning up at him, she said, “Maybe we should do some laundry first.”
Cold fettuccine Alfredo for breakfast, a load of wash done and in the dryer, and the snow was still blowing outside.
Keira wandered through the lodge, peeking into closets and exploring rooms that were still standing empty waiting for the decorator. From every room, the view was outstanding and displayed the growing storm to its advantage.
She chewed at her bottom lip and wondered how the town was doing, then reminded herself that the people of Hunter’s Landing dealt with snowstorms every year. The only difference with this storm was that she wasn’t there. She couldn’t see for herself that everyone was fine, hunkered down to wait out the snow.
She couldn’t even call anyone to check on them. The phone lines were still down. Remembering the look on Nathan’s face when he’d tried the phone again an hour ago made her smile.
Leaving one of the bedrooms, she wandered back into the upper hall, passed the master bedroom and paused for a moment, remembering everything she and Nathan had done together the night before. Her heart filled, her body ached with tired satisfaction and the small smile on her face faded slowly. She knew that today, he was regretting their time together.
He probably wasn’t used to facing his nighttime bed partner the next day. Well, this was pretty new for Keira, too. But at least she was trying to make the best of it. Unlike Nathan, who’d buried himself in busywork on his laptop. The man had avoided talking to her for hours now and the quiet—except for his fingers hitting the keyboard—was starting to really bother her.
The wind howled around the corners of the house, sounding as though it was looking for a way in. Shivering, Keira headed for the stairs. She held onto the banister, and started down, her bare feet making no sound at all on the dark carpet runner that covered the wood planks.
Walking into the great room, she headed for the fire crackling in the hearth, turned her back to it and stared at Nathan, just a few feet away. He hadn’t even looked up when she entered the room.
“Ignoring me doesn’t make me invisible,” she said abruptly.
“Huh? What?” He raised his head, turned to look at her and asked, “What did you say?”
“I said, are you going to be sitting in front of that computer all day?”
“I have work to do.”
“That you can’t send anywhere because the phone lines are down.”
“It’s not e-mail, it’s work,” he said.
“Fine.” She blew out a breath, walked toward him, then squatted beside him until they were eye to eye. “My point is, does everything have to be done today?”
“Keira…”
She hopped up, plopped onto the couch beside him and leaned in, staring at the computer screen. “Okay, okay. So you have to work. Tell me about it. Talk to me.”
He sighed in resignation, and Keira hid a smile. “I’m working up a new schedule for impromptu visits to my hotels.”
She looked at him, stupefied for a second, then burst out laughing.
“What’s so funny?”
She waved one hand, shook her head and fought for breath. Laughter spilled from her throat, bubbled into the room and crashed down around them as she wrapped her arms around his shoulders and gave him a fast hug. “Nathan, you’re really something,” she said when she finally got control of her giggles.
“I’m so happy I can entertain you.”
“Don’t you get it?” she asked, grinning. “You’re making a schedule for impromptu visits. The whole point of impromptu is no schedule.”
Nathan scowled at her, then at the computer screen. He felt like an idiot. But in his own defense, he’d only been making busy work anyway. Anything to keep his mind off the fact that Keira was here and way too accessible.
He had no intention of getting in any deeper with her. And the best way to keep from doing that was to keep his hands to himself. Yet…everytime he heard her breathe, or caught a whiff of her scent, all he wanted to do was carry her back upstairs and bury himself inside her.
He wanted to experience again that incredible warmth that he’d only found with her. But it wouldn’t be right. He wanted to enjoy her, enjoy their time together and still be able to walk away. Because he would be leaving. Nothing would stop him.
She reached out and closed the computer, then clambered onto his lap. Threading her arms around his neck, she looked into his eyes and asked, “What do you do when you’re not working?”
He didn’t have an answer. Strange, but he’d never really thought about it. “I’m always working.”
“Well, let’s see what we can do about that.”
Nine
A n hour later, Nathan rolled out of bed, his body replete, his mind racing. He glanced at Keira languidly stretching on the mattress and had to fight down an urge to lay back down and gather her up close. And because that thought was uppermost in his brain, he took a step or two away from the bed just for good measure.
“Now,” she said, sweeping her hair up to lay across the pillow like a red-gold banner, “wasn’t that more fun than planning schedules?”
He grabbed his robe from the end of the bed, slipped it on, then stood up to look down at her. “If we spend the next few days like this,” he said with a smile he couldn’t quite prevent curving his mouth, “by the time the storm ends, we’ll be dead.”
“I can think of worse ways to go.”
So could he. That was one of his problems. Always before, Nathan’s relationships with women had been uncomplicated and straightforward. Before he took a woman to bed, he made sure she felt as he did about affairs—that they should be undemanding, easily slipped in and out of, with no hard feelings, no promises made, so no promises broken.
Ordinarily, he never would have become involved with a woman like Keira. She had “complications” written all over her. And yet, at this moment, he couldn’t really bring himself to regret what he’d found with her.