“—and you aren’t wearing your cowboy hat—” She knew she was floundering, but the man had her tied in freakin’ knots!
“—which I couldn’t fit under my parka hood—” His grin widened.
Mary glared at Nick, unable to stop now, “—and you expect me to welcome you with a kiss?” She jerked her bare foot back and kicked him again, hopefully in the same spot as the first time.
He yelped. “Hey, what was that for?”
“For laughing at me when, for all I know, you could be the man my father’s having to hide from.” She flattened both her palms on his chest and pushed. “You could have been feeding me lies all along and be the root of my problems. Give me one good reason why I should trust you.” She pushed him again until his back hit the wall behind him. “Just one good reason.”
His eyes darkened and his hand grasped her flannel-covered shoulders, jerking her forward.
She gasped, drawing in a deep breath to scream, only for the sound to be muffled by the force of his lips crushing hers in a lip-lock that defied breaking. Even if she’d wanted to push away from him, she couldn’t. Her knees buckled and she fell against him, her breasts pressed against the cushiony thickness of his insulated jacket.
At first hard, his mouth softened, his tongue darting out to trace the line of her lips until she opened them on a sigh. He plunged in, past her teeth to her tongue. The gloves he’d had in his hands hit the floor as his fingers rose to thread through her hair, gripping the length. With a gentle tug, he tipped her head backward, exposing the long line of her throat.
Just when she thought she might never breathe again, his lips slid off the end of hers and traced a path along her jaw and downward to the pulse shooting blood up in her ears. Her fingers moved between their bodies, and she slid them inside his jacket, letting his skin warm hers. When his hands rubbed down her sides and slid beneath the hem of her flannel shirt, his warm fingers against her naked skin, Mary’s body flared with red-hot desire and she moaned.
Just as quickly as he’d drawn her to him, he set her away, a smile curling his lips as his hands dropped to his sides.
Mary pressed the back of her fingers to her ravaged lips and stared up at him, too shaken to move away. “That wasn’t a reason,” she said, her voice a husky remnant of her prekissed tone. When she realized how weak she sounded, she forced her shoulders back. “Don’t ever do that again. Just because you’re stronger doesn’t mean you can force unwanted advances on me.”
His gaze shifted from her eyes downward to the flare of her nightshirt where the turgid tips of her nipples pressed against soft flannel. “Unwanted?” Dark eyebrows angled upward.
Mary crossed her arms over her chest, heat rising in her neck to fill her cheeks. Best to defend with a good offense, her daddy always said. “Where were you going anyway?”
“For a walk.” He stepped forward.
Mary stepped back. “At this hour?”
“Yeah.”
“Honey, this ain’t Virginia, or wherever you’re from,” Mary said. “It’s probably minus twenty outside. Are you nuts?”
“I need air.”
She purposely stood in his way. “If you’re going out to snoop around, I’m going with you.”
“I work alone.”
“Not as long as I’m around.” She narrowed her eyes and pointed a finger at his chest. “Stay. I’ll be back in two minutes.” She ducked into her room, slamming the door behind her. She dressed, shoved her hair into a ponytail and covered her body from head to toe in cold-weather gear. All the time she dressed, she prayed Nick hadn’t left the building. With the snow still falling, his tracks would disappear within minutes.
Grabbing her gloves, Mary flung open her door and raced out, running face-first into Nick’s chest. “Oh, well...so you stayed.”
“Not that I follow your orders. I was just curious.”
Mary straightened. “What do you mean, curious?”
“Whether or not any woman alive could get ready in just two minutes.” He turned and walked toward the exit door. “By the way, it was three.”
As she jerked her gloves onto her hands, Mary felt the flash of irritation fade into a chuckle. The man had a sense of humor, warped as it might be.
For the next twenty minutes, they crunched through icy layers of snow along the partially cleared sidewalks lining St. Nicholas Drive, headed northwest past Christmas Towne and the twenty-foot-tall Santa Claus statue. Mary peered into every shadow, wondering where her father was or if there was someone out there watching her and Nick. Surely, even the bad guys didn’t get up and out this early on a frigid morning.
They turned left onto Santa Claus Lane and took another left onto Mission Road, passing Snowman Lane and crossing Highway 2.
Mary hadn’t realized it, but she’d ended up leading him past all the most famous of street names like Blitzen, Donner and Kris Kringle. The cheerful memories of her childhood lightened her footsteps and chased away the demons in the darkness.
They completed the entire walk in silence, much to Mary’s relief. She still didn’t have a response to Nick’s kiss, and the longer she went without one, the happier she was. What could she add without sounding like a prude?
