Chapter1
Adjusting her wipers to a higher speed, Vivyan Souza worried her lower lip as the snow continued to slam into her windshield even though she felt like she made her way down the interstate at a crawl.If she was lucky.
“This is what I get for agreeing to head out to a different town to help them set up that library.”
She checked the rearview and wasn’t exactly surprised to see no lights behind her.Only foolish people were on the road in weather like this.Explains so much as to why I’m here.For three heartbeats, she focused on her expression, noting the exhaustion on her dark face, the circles beneath her rich brown eyes.
“At least I can sleep once I get to the hotel.”When the weather had turned crappy so fast, she’d called the hotel, confirming they would hold her reservation until she got there, being as the weather would delay her.
Rolling her shoulders, she focused back on the road.The sun would be setting in a few short moments, not that the ball in the sky was currently offering a lot of light, given the heaviness of the falling snow.But once it did set, the world would be even darker and far more dangerous to be out on the road.The temperature would drop even faster and the slight thawing of snow from the heat of the vehicles would ice over in mere moments, making it no better than a skating rink.
Ahead, a flicker of reddish orange snuck through the haze of white.
What the hell?More flickers and it hit her what she was seeing.
Flares.An alert.
Vivyan eased off the accelerator on her 2001 Nissan Pathfinder, because she wasn’t entirely sure what she was going to run up upon.This wasn’t the kind of weather that boded well for anyone who slammed on the brakes.The flares flickered and struggled in the accumulating snow for visibility but whomever set them down had done plenty.
Smart of them.
Every instinct she had told her to go ahead and keep moving.It was dangerous to stop for strangers in this day and age.So much crazy and hate out there, seemingly getting worse as the days went by.But, her mother, a loving and caring woman until the day she passed from this world to the next, would have stopped, no matter what.Especially in weather like this.
And so it was her mother’s voice in her mind that had her pulling off the road behind the pickup.A Chevy, newer model, electric blue in hue.
If it were warmer, she would have popped out and offered to take a look.The driver’s door opened and her gut tightened as a large—and she meantlarge—bearded man stepped out.Dark blue jeans, window pane brown flannel with what looked like red in there as well, but she couldn’t tell positively because of the whipping snow.
Her mother’s words were drowned out by her father’s, “Never stop, baby girl, it’s too dangerous and I don’t want to lose you like I did your mother.The world has changed and so many will see nothing beyond the color of your skin and that you’re a woman.”
She understood his fear but dang it, her mother’s words were now, as they’d always been, a strong force within her.Dad had taught her how to fix cars.She had put herself through college by working as a mechanic, it hadn’t been her calling, not like her love of books which had gotten her to pursue getting her masters in library science.But she’d been good at it, very good.
He tugged the brim of his worn baseball cap down, to hide his eyes or protect them from the blowing snow, she wasn’t sure.The man checked both ways before striding toward her.
For the space of a few seconds, she flexed her fingers over the gearshift, her father’s words telling her to shift into gear while her mother’s were reminding her to be a better person.Instead of leaving, she turned the heater up higher, preempting his need for warmth when he got out of the cold and hers after she got back in from stepping out.
The man didn’t get smaller the closer he came, quite the opposite.Shoulders were broader than she had first thought.Shifting her legs closer together as a rush of heat hit her, she whimpered with longing.
What is wrong with me?
This wasn’t her.She didn’t get crazy over a man merely from a look.Instalust was something that happened in books, not her life.She was level headed, understanding that kind of thing didn’t happen to her as a plus-sized woman.Men, if they spoke to her, weren’t interested in her in a sexual manner.It had been years, far more than she wanted to reflect on, since she’d found pleasure other than by her own hand.
Despite the snow that increased in both the size of the flakes and speed at which they fell from the sky, she swore he watched her as he walked up to her vehicle and swerved to the driver’s door.
Making sure her hazards were on, she unlocked the door and began to open it.A large hand on the upper frame stopped her.
Okay.Guess he doesn’t want me out there.
Biting back her instant irritation that for whatever reason warred with her internal squealing—she needed to rein in her inner romance whore—that he was a man who wanted to protect her from the weather.She lowered the window and sucked a sharp breath as the biting wind slammed into her, even with the mere two inches she’d opened it.However, on that coldness, came a scent of pine and musk.One that made her insides flip.
“Are you okay?It’s freezing out here.”
Shut up, he knows it’s cold.He’s the one standing out in the winter weather.
Weather that was getting worse by the second.
He thumbed up the brim of his cap, the chestnut brown hair, darker by the snow that’d dampened it and curled against the nape of his neck, and she was smacked with thick smoky lashes that exposed deep, rich sapphire blue eyes.Another wave of heat rolled over her, despite the window being down.
“You stopped.”
