“But…”
“No but.”
“I heard an implied but.”
Frowning, Nathan said, “But there’s a woman.”
“Isn’t there always? Who was that last one? Some Hollywood babe who wanted you to produce her next movie?”
He smiled, then frowned again. Maybe he was too used to people using him. “This one’s different.”
“This must be a sign of the Apocalypse,” Luke said. “Nathan Barrister in love?”
“Who the hell said anything about love?” Nathan countered and jumped off the couch like he’d been set on fire.
“Okay then, I stand reassured,” Luke said, then covered the receiver with one hand and muttered something Nathan couldn’t catch. “Nathan,” he said a moment later, “I’ve got to run. I have a meeting with some new Japanese clients and want to get this deal sewn up before I have to take my place in the cottage at the end of the world.”
“Right. Well, hurry the hell up and get me out of this place, all right?”
“Not a chance, pal. You finish out your damn month. I’ve got my own to worry about.”
After he’d hung up, Nathan stood in the middle of the great room and listened to the quiet. He should be glad Keira was giving him some space. It wasn’t like he needed to be around her, for God’s sake. But the quiet nagged at him and, when he finally couldn’t stand it anymore, he went looking for her, sure that he’d find her sitting in a corner somewhere, pissed off and thinking of ways to make him suffer.
But she wasn’t anywhere in the house.
Scowling, he grabbed his jacket from the hook in the mudroom, walked outside into the slap of an icy wind and squinted into the lamp-lit darkness. Even the night seemed deeper here. More black. More allencompassing.
The moon was hidden behind clouds that showed no sign of leaving and snow was still falling, though in lighter flurries than before. He walked across the deck, grabbed the railing and leaned out, scanning the area for her.
“Surely she wouldn’t have gone on one of her walks in the snow,” he muttered. And as he considered that, he imagined her lying on the ground, unconscious from hitting her head when she fell because he hadn’t been there to catch her. She could freeze to death out there and no one would find her until the spring thaw—if spring ever really came to the high Sierras.
Ridiculous. He tried to dismiss the worry. She’d managed to survive without his help for thirty years; he was sure she’d be fine tonight, too. “But she could have told me where she was going,” he said softly.
An explosion of icy wet hit the side of his head and Nathan jerked upright like he’d been shot. Almost before he realized that he’d been hit with a snowball, he heard her laugh and turned toward the sound.
Keira stood beneath the deck, her breath puffing out in white clouds in front of her. Her smile stretched across her face and her laughter rose up in the air like music.
“Got ya!”
“Are you out of your mind?” he shouted to be heard over her wild whoop of renewed amusement.
“What’s the matter, Nathan?” she taunted. “Afraid of a little snow?” Then she bent down, scooped up more of the icy stuff, patted it into a ball and let it go.
This time he saw it coming and ducked. And while he was bent down low, he scooped up some snow of his own, packed a mean snowball and let it fly while she was bent over gathering new ammunition. He hit her on the back of the head and she went down on one knee.
Instantly, he worried that he’d actually hurt her. A second later though, she raised her gaze to his and said, “You realize this means war.”
He’d never get used to her, he thought. While he had been expecting to find her sulking and nursing a temper—as most other women he’d ever known would have been doing—she had been outside waiting for the opportunity to execute a surprise attack.
She wasn’t angry. She was laughing. And the joy in that sound touched something inside Nathan that had been locked away for more years than he could count. He didn’t examine it too closely. Instead, he gave himself up to the moment. He forgot about work. Forgot about keeping a safe distance from a woman who too easily found her way around his defenses. He forgot everything in the moment that was now.
“You’re gonna pay for this,” he shouted.
“Talk is cheap,” she taunted.
Setting one hand on the railing, he vaulted over the edge and landed five feet down in the snow, bending his knees to absorb the jolt.
Her eyes went wide, and stunned surprise kept her frozen just long enough to give Nathan time to form another snowball and let her have it. She shrieked when the snow hit her face and did a funny little dance as some of the cold wet stuff slinked beneath the collar of her jacket.
But she didn’t let it slow her down. In seconds the war was raging and the two of them were running around the snowy yard like a couple of ten-year-olds. Nathan hadn’t had so much fun in years. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d done anything like this and he was loving it. Their shouts echoed off the mountain and snow flew from half-frozen hands like white bullets.
Lamplight gleamed golden and shone in her hair as Nathan circled her, waiting for an opening. When he got it, he charged her, grabbing her around the waist and carrying them both to the snowy cushion atop the cold ground. He hit the ground first, taking the brunt of the fall, keeping her on top of him until he rolled over her, pinning her in place.
“I win,” he said, grinning at her.
“No fair,” she countered. “I didn’t know we were playing tackle snow war.”
“All’s fair,” he said—then caught himself before he could utter the rest of the old cliché.
She smiled up at him and the warmth in her gaze started a fire inside him that burned away every icy edge he had ever carried. He felt…different somehow and, later, when he thought about this moment, he might do some worrying. But right now, all he wanted to think about was her. What she did to him with a smile. How she could constantly surprise him and jolt him out of the ordinary.
And just how much he wanted her.
Bending his head to hers, he kissed her and the cold of her lips met his, eagerly, hungrily. When he finally broke free, he said, “How about we finish this inside?”
Eleven
T wo days later, the lodge phone rang and Keira nearly jumped out of her skin. Nathan grabbed it and, after a second or two, handed it over to her. A brief conversation later, she hung up, looked at Nathan and said, “Phone lines are working again.”