Page 16 of Cooped Up for Christmas

Before I knew what happened, he’d pulled me into his arms and—froze. Then, he very primly released me and primly kissed my nose. “I should mention, I do find you very attractive.”

I blew out a frosty gust of a breath. “I thought we had this conversation. You know? About working together?”

“We did. But during that conversation, I neglected to mention that I find you extremely attractive too— That was what you said, right? You found me extremely attractive but—”

“I’m pretty sure I didn’t say extremely—”

“But you wanted a raincheck—”

“I never said raincheck!”

“For next week.”

“That is not what I said.”

“Oh, you definitely said next week.”

“I think you said next week.”

His eyes glinted. “What? Have you changed your mind? Ready to give it a go now? Just say the word.” He held out his arms in welcome. The thought of what that welcome could mean made a warm slurry swirl in my gut.

Damn, he was tempting.

“I have to work,” I hissed at him. And then, in a snippy tone, “And you have snow on your head. It looks like dandruff.”

In response, he shook said snow all over me.

Don’t you hate it when you’re annoyed at someone, and then the person you’re annoyed at makes you laugh?

Yeah. Me too.

Chapter Five

Coop and I came into the staff kitchen together, and though this issue really wasn’t resolved between us, we could hardly continue now, because Mungo and Christie were there. And Mason. Heaven forbid I forget to mention him, He Who Has an Unnatural Attraction to my Crotch.

I deftly avoided that cold snout and headed to the stove. While my water for tea was boiling, Coop and his team headed outside to go through their gear for tomorrow. I watched him go with a conflicted heart.

On the one hand, it was great to see him again, play with him again. But on the other hand, he scared me. He’d hurt me before. And now, the way I was feeling? I knew he could do it again, if I let him. I just couldn’t let him.

I’d barely had time to take a sip of my tea when Jed called me on the radio—and, yay! He was using his radio!—to let me know the massage people were here. With a grunt, I whirled back around and headed for the guest house again. This time, I took the path around to the front entrance so I could brief the masseurs on the guests before they went inside. I passed Coop and his team, straightening out the riggings, and nodded to them, but I could see the masseurs unloading their tables and I headed straight over.

Even as I was going through what I wanted to say in my head, I stopped short. So short I almost bit my tongue.

Well, hell.

I should have known Carlo would be one of the masseurs. We’d worked together on a lot of corporate events up here in the Northwest. He was a little oily for my taste, and a bit too handsy, but I’ve heard he gives a great massage. Still, I’d learned to avoid him when possible. He had a tendency to cling. Like a limpet.

When he saw me, his eyes lit up and he jogged over and he pulled me into a hug—ick—and whispered in my ear, “After this. You and me. Alone. Together. Okay?”

Right. As though I didn’t already have enough to do.

I nearly went off on him—you know, in a bad way—but then I caught Cooper’s attention on moi, his dark frown at the sight of me in another man’s arms, and I decided to milk it a little. Just a little. Just for fun I gave Carlo an extra hug.

What could go wrong?

Well, I forgot one thing. I forgot how some men simply cannot receive any encouragement from a woman whatsoever. I’m talking beyond Ice-Princess frigidity, ladies. I totally blew it with that responding hug. I’d—egads—encouraged him. As a result, Carlo skulked around looking for me the rest of the afternoon. It took all my energy to avoid him.

And the next time I saw Coop, he wasn’t frowning. He was snickering.