Kitabı oku: «Rule Breaker», sayfa 2

Two

The last time she checked, Weston Rivera didn’t even like her, April reminded herself as she tucked deeper into her sleeping bag in the roomy, two-person tent he’d put up as fast as a magic trick. So it was foolish of her to think she felt any kind of spark between them.

Especially in the frigid cold, on a windy mountaintop, after he’d risked his own neck to save hers. If anything, he should be irritated with her. Surely she was imagining the hot, simmering sensation as he stripped off his snow-covered outer layer. She watched him by the light of the lantern he’d set on the ground. Even in the harsh, bluish glare, Weston was ruggedly handsome.

His dark blond hair was long, past the collar of the gray flannel shirt under his parka. A light brown scruff of whiskers covered his jaw, calling to her fingertips to test the texture. With powerful shoulders and hazel eyes a woman could lose herself in, Weston possessed far too much masculine appeal.

Maybe she was the one feeling all the heat. She’d probably imagined the answering hunger in his eyes, her emotions on edge after having to be rescued from her own poor decision making tonight. Which reminded her: she owed him an apology.

The words were on the tip of her tongue when his thigh brushed hers as he slid off his work pants with the bright yellow reflective stripes on the legs. He wore pants underneath them, of course, but there was something terribly intimate about him undressing an inch away from her. Even in a two-person tent, the space was narrow—just big enough for their sleeping bags, side by side. The contact made her thigh tingle.

“Won’t you be cold?” she blurted, mostly to distract herself from the response she was having to him. She had kept most of her layers on, while her snow goggles, boots and outer waterproof mittens dried in the vestibule area. She even kept on a soft pair of inner gloves and the knit hat she’d worn under her ski hood.

She’d kept the inner fleece from her parka and the base layer of her ski pants too, since she’d shivered all the way over from the first campsite. She wasn’t sure if it was a true physical chill or just a cold feeling she had in her belly from discovering she’d pitched a tent in an avalanche zone.

“No.” Weston leaned back in the sleeping bag, so that he was almost lying down beside her. But first, he draped his discarded jacket on top of the sleeping bag, and then arranged his pants so they rested above his legs. “I use them like extra blankets. They’re uncomfortable if I keep them on, since I carry a lot of gear in the pockets.”

With the layers configured the way he wanted, he lifted the lantern and held it above her as he propped himself on one elbow. His breath huffed in the light as he spoke again. “Can I shut this down for the night?”

Her throat dried up at the sight of him so close. A rush of gratitude filled her that he’d done so much to help her and keep her safe tonight. But that appreciation was bound up with so many more complicated feelings. Conflict. Attraction. Regret that she’d put him in this position at all.

“Yes,” she rasped on a husky breath. “I’m all set.”

The memory of what he looked like in that moment—big strong arms, powerful chest and tender concern in his eyes—would be burned on the backs of her eyeballs for long after the tent went dark.

Now, her ears became more acutely attuned to the sounds around her as he shifted in his sleeping bag. A knee grazed hers, the warmth of his body inspiring a heat that didn’t have anything to do with actual core temperature. Outside the wind whistled and howled, but the tent fabric seemed impervious, stretched as tight as her nerves as Weston lay in the inky blackness with her.

“Thank you for coming out here tonight.” The words were easier to say in the dark, when she couldn’t gauge his expression or see his body language. She’d been confused by both in the past, unable to really read him. “I’m sorry to have ruined your evening with an unplanned trip up the mountain, but I’m grateful.”

On his side of the tent, he stilled. Maybe he’d just settled into a comfortable position.

“I got into mountain-rescue work to help people in trouble. But ideally, I’d rather prevent an accident before it happens.” When he spoke, his words were so close to her ear, she realized he must be on his side.

Facing her.

She swallowed. Tried to focus on his words and not his nearness as she burrowed deeper into her sleeping bag while attempting not to move too much. She lay on her back, wary of getting any closer to him when she felt vulnerable and, yes, a little scared of what the weather might bring tomorrow. The snowstorm had kicked up into a major event so quickly that it had seriously rattled her confidence on the mountain.

“Yet climbing up here, in the dark, to make sure I got out of there safely? That was above and beyond. I didn’t mean for you to take a risk in these deteriorating weather conditions.”

Guilt bubbled up in her. She should have tracked the weather more carefully, but the storm had arrived much faster than the forecasters had predicted.

The deep timbre of his voice rumbled through her. “It was better for me to make the climb to help you in person. Not knowing you that well, I didn’t want to send you a text that could potentially scare you and have you scrambling around on dangerous terrain.”

He’d said as much before, but it didn’t make her feel any better about him risking his neck for her sake. What if he’d been injured in the attempt to help her? A whirl of what-ifs spun through her brain. She knew how seemingly innocuous events could lead to major consequences. She remembered all too well the chain of events that had brought her mother to her current state.

“I do have GPS equipment. I could have followed directions,” she insisted, not wanting to be the cause of anyone else’s trouble. She preferred to be self-sufficient after the years of relying on her mother for care that she’d been incapable of giving. Looking for strength within was her go-to coping mechanism. Besides, the part that really bugged her was that she’d messaged him tonight to find common ground with him for the sake of her investigation.

She’d been fishing for answers, and he’d been completely selfless. The disparity didn’t sit well with her.

“With the storm coming in, I knew conditions could change from moment to moment, and that really impacts which way out of the ravine is safest. It was easier to check out the snow and the wind for myself than to give you instructions from my living room.” He said it matter-of-factly, like it was an obvious solution.

She bit her tongue for a moment to keep herself from arguing with him since, bottom line, she was grateful. She’d had no idea she’d put herself in such danger tonight.

“Thank you,” she said, her gaze wandering over the shape of his shoulder in the darkness as her eyes adjusted to the lack of light. “I feel even worse about you being here, though, considering the way we last parted. I know I’m not high on your list of favorite people.”

In the quiet moment that followed, she heard nothing but the wind and the soft plunk of fat snowflakes on the tent roof.

“Your job puts us at odds,” he said finally, his words sounding carefully chosen. “And, until tonight, I haven’t gotten the chance to know you outside your investigation.”

She couldn’t help a wry laugh, caused by the guilt and vulnerability of her position. “I don’t think tonight is going to raise your opinion of me now that I’m the hapless ranch guest you had to rescue in a snowstorm.”

“We’re going to be fine, you know,” he reassured her, his tone gentle.

Through her sleeping bag, she felt his hand cover her forearm, giving it a comforting squeeze.

Everything inside her went perfectly still. Unbidden, memories of seeing him in the stables with the horses came back to her. She’d observed him unaware before she cornered him in his office to question him. He’d been a wizard with a skittish gelding, calming the animal’s restless movements with his steady presence until the horse rested its muzzle on his shoulder and let out a soft sigh.

She’d been mesmerized by Weston then. Just like now.

“You’re not worried about how much snow we’re getting?” The climb down could be difficult.

“No. And you shouldn’t be, either.” His hand didn’t move away from her forearm.

She felt her heartbeat there, as if her blood pulsed harder through her veins in the place where he touched her. So weird. So...intriguing.

A wave of warmth stole over her, sweet and pleasurable. Tempting and oh, so dangerous. She couldn’t afford to let herself be charmed by him. Not when she still had a job to do.

“In that case, I’ll try not to think about the storm.” What she needed was a distraction. A way to take her mind off the snow. Off the sexy and disarming man lying beside her in the dark. “We could talk about the job I have to do, instead. As long as we’re both here.”

Still, he didn’t move his hand away. That surprised her a little, since she guessed the topic would insert some much-needed frosty distance between them again.

“We could,” he said easily, as if he’d really thought it over. “But since you’re sharing my roof tonight, and I climbed all this way to save your lovely hide, I think the information is going to cost you.”

“Is that so?” She turned her head toward him to see if she could discern his expression. Read his mood. But his face was still in shadow, even if she could see the outline of his broad shoulders.

“Definitely.” His voice took on a silky note as he skimmed a touch up her arm to her shoulder.

Her heart rate doubled.

“What are you suggesting?” she asked, with a hint more breathlessness than she would have liked.

“I think a kiss per question would be fair,” he told her evenly.

So much for frosty distance. She felt a wave of heat as surely as if someone switched off the snow and turned on a fireplace, and that was the last thing she needed.

“I don’t think anyone has tried coercing me into kissing since junior high,” she told him drily.

He had the good grace to chuckle. “No coercion intended. Are you sure you can say the same for yourself? Because I won’t feel as good about the rescue attempt if you were only hoping to ask me questions about Alonzo Salazar again.”

Guilt pinched at her conscience again.

“Fair enough.” She turned over in her sleeping bag to face him, realizing she needed to be on her toes with this man. “Although I’m not sure it speaks well of your kissing skill that you leverage it to discourage me from talking about my c-case.”

A shiver rolled through her.

“Are you warm enough?” He slid his coat off his bag and laid it over hers. “This will help.”

“Thank you.” She fidgeted more in an effort to get comfortable and warm.

“And I have total faith in my kissing skills, for what it’s worth. But I took a gamble you were one of those women who won’t mix business with pleasure.” The last word sounded oddly erotic in the dark. He paused a moment, and then added, “Would you like some help with your bag?”

Weston had thought maybe acknowledging the attraction between them would reroute that busy mind of hers, since she’d been worrying about the weather and feeling guilty for getting them snowed in together.

So his intentions for the flirtatious direction of their conversation had been mostly good. But he had been unable to distract her, and now she sounded chilled.

“I’m trying to find the drawstring so I c-can pull the fabric around my face,” she admitted, her shivering more obvious now.

Concerned, he reached for his flashlight.

“Let me,” he insisted, clicking the torch on to the lower setting and pointing it away from them so as not to blind her.

He could see she’d wriggled her sleeping pad off to one side. The material was now bunched between them where it wasn’t going to help her stay warm. His coat had fallen off her too, no doubt because she was struggling with the puffy down to find the drawstring.

Cursing himself for getting distracted by his attraction to her, he shifted back to professional mode. Her safety came first.

“I’m going to work fast, okay?” He didn’t want to surprise her by manhandling her, but he also didn’t want to linger outside his own sleeping bag given that the temperature was probably hovering around fifteen degrees.

She nodded uncertainly, her blue eyes locked on him.

Getting to his knees, he leaned over her to retrieve his coat. Then, he wrapped one arm far enough around her to lift her shoulders. With his other hand, he tugged the corner of the sleeping pad back where it belonged, trying not to notice her soft curves pressed against his chest for one delicious moment. Once he had that smoothed out, he felt along the zipper near her shoulder until he found the drawstring and gave it a tug. The puffy down closed in around her face, leaving just her eyes, nose and highly kissable mouth visible.

Finally, just when the chill was starting to really bite through his clothes, he laid his coat over her and retreated to his own sleeping bag. He burrowed down fast, zipping up the fabric all the way.

“You must be freezing.” Her gaze tracked his movements in a way he welcomed.

That flattering caress of her eyes was the only thing keeping the cold at bay now.

“The temperature has definitely dropped a few degrees,” he admitted. “I’m going to wait a minute before I turn off the light.” He wanted his arms to warm up first.

“You should take your coat back.” She lifted her head a bit as she turned to look at him since her peripheral vision was impeded by the bag. It made her look like a mummy.

“I have a better idea.” He didn’t want her to give up the coat. “If we share it, we’ll both be warmer.”

“Okay.” She nodded her assent.

“Just until the chill goes away,” he assured her, already warmer at the thought of holding her against him.

“Of course.” Her breath huffed out in a cloud between them. “I’m not worried about anything...more happening when we’re on the verge of icing over.”

He suddenly didn’t feel one bit icy, but he didn’t plan on sharing that with her. Sliding one arm free of his sleeping bag, he snaked it under his coat and wound it around her midsection. He pulled her to him, so her back was to his chest, her rump tucked into his lap.

She made a soft squeak, but she pressed into him, her body plastering itself to his through the layers of down between them. For a moment, he simply held her there, his nose pressed into the back of her hood, his arm brushing the underside of her breasts. She felt good.

Not just because she was warm. April Stephens was soft and pliable in his arms, fitting just right. He slid his other arm under her head for a pillow, figuring she’d keep him warm enough. The protective urge flared along with a lot of other urges he wasn’t going to think about.

Much.

“Better?” He spoke the words against her neck through the sleeping bag.

He felt a shiver go through her, but he’d be willing to bet this one was the good kind.

“Much.” When she spoke, the vibration of sound hummed along his arm where he held her.

With the snow falling in soft swishes against the canvas tent and a beautiful woman spooned against him, he could almost forget they were still in a potentially dangerous storm. How long had it been since he’d slept with someone in his arms all night? Normally he avoided relationships with those kinds of expectations. He never would have imagined that the financial forensics investigator would be the one who broke his private, unspoken rules about sleepovers. He’d sworn off deeper relationships after he and his brother had fallen for the same woman back in their college days. Brianna had wreaked havoc on him, but she’d done an even worse number on his brother.

“How’s your nose?” he asked after a long moment, knowing frostbite could set in fast. “I think that’s the only place you have to worry about now.”

“Mmm.” She made a sleepy sound and snuggled closer to him, her hips rocking in a devastating swivel.

And damned if his body didn’t answer the call.

Grinding his teeth against those urges, Weston let go of her long enough to flick off the flashlight. Then, he went back to holding her.

Tomorrow, he’d have to deal with the fallout from coming to her rescue tonight. He wouldn’t be able to ignore her anymore after this, wouldn’t be able to threaten to call security if she asked too many questions. For that matter, he’d be dodging her queries about his former mentor the whole way down the mountain while he tried to keep her safe through a potentially dangerous descent.

But since tomorrow would come soon enough, he wasn’t going to borrow trouble now. For a few hours, at least, he planned to enjoy the hot dreams sure to come from having a sexy woman curled in his arms like she was meant to be there.

Three

Sunlight pried at April’s eyes the next morning.

Too early, she thought, for it to be so bright. Her body was exhausted. And hot.

Pulling herself from layers of sleep, she struggled to figure out why she’d be so warm. Her limbs were pinned by a heavy weight on one side. Her nose was buried against...a man?

Memories of the night before returned in a moment as blinding as the sun streaming across one side of her face. The avalanche threat. The trudge through deep snow only to make camp with Weston. Falling asleep in his arms.

Which was a spot she’d clearly enjoyed, based on the way she was wrapped around him now like a second skin. How had her sleeping bag unzipped enough to allow so much proximity? She had one arm threaded under his to splay across his strong back. One thigh tucked between his. Her cheek and nose were pressed tight to his chest, where his heartbeat slugged. The fabric of the thermal shirt he wore hugged every inch of him as tightly as she did.

But the point of all the heat she felt was focused in the cradle of her hips, where the most intriguing part of his anatomy stirred.

Her breath caught in a strangled gasp as she scrambled back.

Weston let go of her immediately, making her realize he’d been awake the whole time. Which only added to her flustered state.

“Good morning.” His voice was rough from sleep, his tone polite and reasonable, though she detected a hint of mild amusement.

“Is it?” she asked, confused to note her covers twisted around one knee while the rest of her remained under the warmth of his heavy coat.

Her gaze went to his body, where she caught a glimpse of his powerful legs and narrow hips before he shifted his own sleeping bag over him like a blanket.

“We’re still here,” he reminded her. “Whole and warm, ready for another day. I’d call that good news after the weather conditions we faced last night.”

Belatedly, she noticed the snowdrift on one side of the tent was almost halfway up the canvas wall. No doubt that had helped insulate them against the cold, along with the natural body heat they’d gained by wrapping themselves around each other.

“I don’t know how my sleeping bag unzipped.” She couldn’t help but raise the issue, since it embarrassed her to think she’d helped herself to Weston’s body during the night.

She liked to think she had a stronger-than-average sense of personal space. Healthy boundaries. And while she’d been fine with pressing together through the fabric of two down barriers when they’d been trying to go to sleep, she felt completely undone at the idea of waking up with her leg between his thighs.

Lifting her gaze to his face, she was stunned all over again to notice how little space still separated them. During the night, at least, it had been dark enough that she couldn’t see his perceptive hazel gaze on her.

“You probably did that in your sleep.” He was a kind man to give her a face-saving excuse for why she was attached to him like a barnacle this morning. “I woke up a couple of hours into the storm and realized I was burning up, so I unzipped my sleeping bag and used it like a blanket.”

“Hmm.” She was all too aware of how hot things had gotten during the coldest night she’d ever spent outdoors.

Talking about it wasn’t going to make her any less flustered.

If anything, her body still tingled with awareness everywhere she’d touched him. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d felt so alive, like every nerve ending had been awakened at the hands of this man. Why did he have to be someone so important to her investigation? For a moment, she wondered what might have happened between them if she didn’t have that professional duty holding her back.

Well, that and the fact that Weston was anxious for her to take her questions and leave Mesa Falls Ranch. She couldn’t do that until she’d tracked down answers, and she’d do well to remember that barrier between them since she’d been so quick to tear down the physical ones. Her subconscious obviously wanted him, even if the rest of her knew that was a very bad idea. She needed this job. The order, the respectability had saved her in so many ways. Without it? Hell, she couldn’t even consider risking her job for anyone.

“How do you feel this morning, April?” he asked, jarring her from her worries. “Are you ready to try the descent now that the snow has stopped?”

Sunlight beckoned.

And so did the chance to resurrect boundaries with the compelling man next to her.

She nodded, already mentally ticking through today’s to-do list to keep herself from thinking about Weston. “I can have my gear packed in five minutes.”

Her five-minute prediction turned out to be optimistic. April hadn’t counted on how much the deep snow would hamper her efforts, or how much her mother’s phone calls would distract her.

She’d ignored the first two times the notifications chimed as she laced up her boots and loaded her backpack. But by the third time the chime sounded as they began the descent, she was too worried not to pick up.

Weston had insisted on walking in front of her to check the soundness of the snow. He’d given himself the much harder job in the process, since his powerful stride cleared a path for her. Even so, the deep, fluffy powder was exhausting to wade through.

“Mom?” she answered once she fished the device from her pocket, knowing she needed to make this brief. For her own safety, she had to focus on what she was doing. “Is anything wrong? I’m on the mountain, so it’s not the best time—”

“I just wanted you to know that I’ve fired the cleaning service.” Breathing heavily, her mother sounded tearful.

Anxiety spiked, but April tried not to let it explode into full-blown panic. The cleaners were expensive because they specialized in helping people like Holly Stephens. April had hired them, not her mom, so she didn’t think they could be fired so easily.

“I’m sorry they’ve upset you.” She dragged in a long breath of the cleansing cold, preparing to smooth things over with the company. “Can I speak to Emily and maybe I can get things sorted out?”

“It’s too late for that!” Her mother’s voice rose an octave. “I tried calling you before it came to that, but you were too busy to help.”

April swallowed convulsively. She loved her mom, but she hated this stress. It was difficult enough when she was in the same town as her mother, but now, many miles from her Denver home, there was nothing she could do to fix things.

“I’m sorry, Mom.” She kept her voice low, hoping Weston couldn’t hear all of this. Even though he wore a fleece headband around his ears today instead of a balaclava, she wasn’t banking on it. “I’m in Montana right now, hiking through snow and hazardous conditions or I would come over—”

“It’s no problem.” Her mother cut her off, a new curtness in her voice. “I just wanted you to know so you didn’t harass me about the cleaning company anymore. Emily wanted me to throw out one of the brand-new bolts of fabric. Have you ever heard of such waste?”

With some murmured words of sympathy, April was able to extricate herself from the call a few moments later, but the worry remained. Keeping her mother safe required more time and money every year, sacrifices April would gladly make if it truly helped. But when her mom resisted more and more frequently, it made her efforts feel futile.

“Everything okay?” Weston called back over his broad shoulder, lifting his goggles to look at her.

For a moment, as she saw the concern in his expression and heard it in his voice, she allowed herself to wonder what it would be like to have someone like that in her life. Someone who cared about her daily trials. Someone to share the burden with.

It was a crazy, foolish thought for someone like Weston to inspire, since he was decidedly off-limits as a key to her investigation. Besides, the life of a wealthy and influential rancher was a world apart from the one she lived.

“Everything’s fine,” she lied, needing to resurrect some mental and emotional boundaries with the man she’d spent a memorable night with.

“Didn’t sound fine.” He slowed his pace so she could catch up with him, his hazel gaze tracking her, sliding right past those boundaries she needed. But perhaps he read her reticence in her eyes, because he changed topics as she neared him. “Are you warm enough? Am I going too fast?”

Grateful for the reprieve from talking about her mom and even more grateful to seize on the topic of climbing, which had always been her favorite escape from her home life, she launched into questions about the terrain. How he read the snow, how he could tell what kind of surface was beneath it, what to look for when gauging avalanche conditions.

All things she was interested in. All much safer topics than her mom. If only she could distract herself from her attraction to him as easily.

It didn’t take an expert in body language to read April’s cues.

Weston had seen the guardedness in her expression after her tense phone call, so he’d given her an out and she’d grabbed it like a lifeline. At first, he’d thought she was just trying to distract him from asking questions, but her curiosity about the Bitterroot Mountains and his rescue work revealed a dedicated climber’s knowledge. He found himself enjoying the long trudge down to his truck, a trip that took far longer than it should have given the depth of the snow. Besides, he knew she’d been exhausted the night before. He didn’t want her to deplete her energy completely.

Plus, he was glad to forge a connection on another level after the awkward way she’d awoken in his arms that morning. He didn’t know who’d made the first move to initiate the contact, but he’d never forget the feel of her soft and warm in his arms. She didn’t know that he’d emerged from sleep before her, or that he’d found his hand tantalizingly affixed to her breast. Thank goodness she didn’t know. Breaking that contact had been what had awoken her. Those sensory memories had tormented him all day long.

Now, as they paused for a water break and a shared protein bar, he found himself wanting to know more about her. About what caused those shadows in her eyes after the call from her mother. He understood something about painful family relationships. And while he wasn’t in the habit of revealing details of his personal life, he couldn’t help but think that a shared experience might help her, if only to remind this strong, capable woman that she wasn’t alone.

After capping the water, they renewed their trek. The path widened and the incline decreased, making the walking easier. She stayed close to him, her cheeks flushed pink from the exercise, but she kept pace without a problem. He’d done this descent hundreds of times himself, so it was simple enough to focus on her. The conditions were solid here even with the foot of fresh powder. A winter wonderland glittered all around them, dazzling white from the intense sun.

“I won’t ask you about your family,” he began, hoping to put her at ease. “But I can tell you that living far from mine has improved my relationship with them.” Which still wasn’t saying much, considering they hardly spoke. But it was better than the hurtful exchanges they’d had all too often when he lived on the family’s ranch.

“You’re fortunate you have that option,” she said tightly, breath huffing in the cold air.

“I realize that. I’m often reminded how lucky I am to have a brother who has never made a misstep in his life at the helm of our family’s ranch.” Weston wasn’t exactly bitter. It was tough to hold a grudge against Miles when he’d never done a damned thing wrong. “But I found it frustrating to continually fall short of my parents’ expectations for me.”

“You’re the black sheep?” She sounded surprised.

“That’s putting it kindly.” On second thought, the tension in his shoulders just thinking about the Rivera family made him realize how much he didn’t care to unearth old pains, even for her benefit. “But it did help to put some physical distance between me and them. Do you have siblings?”

“No. Just me.” She was quiet for so long he nearly replied, but then she continued. “And my mother isn’t someone I can leave alone for long. She has a hoarding disorder, in addition to some other issues that aren’t as obvious or well managed, and I worry about her safety when I’m not with her.”

“That sounds stressful.” He didn’t know what he’d been expecting, but it hadn’t been that. “Is she getting treatment?”

“Not as much as I would like.” April’s boots trudged a soft rhythm beside his, and he took in how she tucked her thumbs under the straps of her backpack as she redistributed the weight on her shoulders. “The condition was only recently reclassified as a distinct mental health issue, and I feel like her current doctor isn’t doing all she can to help with my mother’s specific problems.”