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Sean scrubbed one hand across his face and focused on the conversation with Mike. “Yeah, yeah. She wants to get her crew in here next week and start in on the rehab, and I don’t see a problem with it.” He paused and ran one finger around the collar of his black sweater. “As long as I can oversee it from California.”
“Okay, but since you didn’t take any of the artists with you, what’ll she do about the painting we’ll need done?”
“Come on,” Sean said sharply, “I couldn’t bring an artist out here when everyone’s doing the final run on ‘The Wild Hunt.’”
“True,” Mike agreed. “Everyone here’s working around the clock.”
And Sean should have been. He had to connect with marketing and their clients, check the advertising that was lined up to push the new video game once it was released. Work was piling up for him in California, but he’d had to come out here to get the reno started since he had such a fiery contractor eager for the work to begin. This trip had been bad timing all the way around, really. Every artist at Celtic Knot was focused on the finishing touches of the video game that would be released in the summer, so he hadn’t been able to justify pulling them away from their work yet.
“Anyway,” Sean continued, “how hard is it to leave walls blank? They can paint it white or something and then when we bring the artists in, they’ll have a blank canvas to work on.”
“That’ll work. You still coming home tomorrow?”
“That’s the plan, thank God,” Sean said. “Kate’s outside, bringing her truck around. We’re going to head back to town now. Naturally, it’s still snowing.”
“If it makes you feel any better, it’s seventy-five here today.”
“Great. Thanks. That just caps it.” A door slammed at the front of the hotel. Kate called out something, and Sean looked to one side and shouted, “What?”
In the next second, Kate was standing in the doorway, shaking her head to send a flurry of fresh snowflakes flying to the floor. “A blizzard’s headed in,” she said simply.
He covered the phone with his hand. “You’re kidding.”
“No joke,” she said, shrugging. “The pass is already closed. We’re not going anywhere.”
“For how long?” he demanded.
There was that shrug again. “No way to know.”
“Perfect.”
“What is it?” Mike asked.
“Karma probably,” Sean told him, expressing his disgust. “Kate just heard on the truck radio that the pass down the mountain is closed. I’m snowed in.”
Instead of sympathy, Sean watched as Mike unsuccessfully fought back laughter at the situation.
“Thanks for your concern.”
Mike held up one hand and tried to stop laughing. “Sorry, sorry.”
“How is this funny?” Sean snapped. “I’m trapped in an empty hotel with a crabby contractor and a mountain of snow outside the door.”
“Clearly,” Mike said finally, “it’s only funny from California. But have you got food, heat?”
“We’re covered,” Kate said, her expression telling him exactly what she thought of the description crabby.
“Yeah,” Sean said, then he turned to Kate. “Come here for a minute. Meet my brother.”
She didn’t look happy with the invitation—no surprise there, Sean thought. The woman had a chip on her shoulder the size of a redwood. She walked briskly across the room and stopped beside him to look at the phone screen.
“Hi, I’m Kate and you’re Mike,” she said, words tumbling over each other. She spared a quick glance for Sean. “Nice to meet you, but we don’t have a lot of time to talk. There’s firewood outside, we need to bring it in before the rest of the storm hits. Don’t worry, though. There’s plenty of food since I make sure my crew is fed while they work and we’ve been out here this last week taking measurements and getting ideas about the work.”
“Okay.” Mike threw that word in fast, thinking he probably wouldn’t have another chance to speak. He was right.
“The storm’ll blow through in a day or two and the plows will have the pass cleared out pretty quickly, so you can have your brother back by the end of the week.”
“Okay...”
Sean grabbed the phone and told Kate, “I’ll be right there to help. Yeah. Okay.” When he looked back at Mike, he was shaking his head. “She’s outside bringing in firewood. I’ve gotta go. And I was this close—” he held up two fingers just a breath apart “—from getting outta Dodge. Now I don’t know when I’ll get out. Tell Mom not to worry and don’t bother calling me. I’m going to shut off the cell phone, conserve power.”
“Okay.” In spite of the fact that he’d been amused only a few minutes ago by Sean’s situation, now Mike asked, “You sure you’ll be all right?”
Sean laughed now. “I’m the outdoors guy, remember? There may not be any waves to surf out here, but I’ll be fine. I’ve been camping in worse situations than I’ve got here. At least we have a roof and plenty of beds to choose from. I’ll call when I can. Just keep a cappuccino hot for me.”
“I will. And Sean,” Mike added, “don’t kill the contractor.”
Killing her wasn’t what he had in mind, but he wasn’t going to admit that to his brother. So instead, Sean said, “I make no promises.”
* * *
When he hung up and shut off his phone, Sean walked across the room in the direction Kate had disappeared. Damn woman could have waited a minute, he told himself, shaking his head as irritation spiked. He’d already spent a week with her and was walking the ragged edge of control. Now he was going to be snowed in with her for who knew how long.
“This just keeps getting better,” he muttered.
He walked through a kitchen that was big enough for their needs but would need some serious renovation. His quick glance covered the amenities he’d already noted earlier in the week. A long, butcher-block island in the middle of the huge room. More of the same counters ringing the perimeter, broken only by an eight-burner stove and a refrigerator that was both gigantic and ancient. The walls were white, yellowed with time and smoke, and the floor was a checkerboard linoleum with chipped-out and missing sections.
The windows were great and normally offered a view of the nearby forest. At the moment, the wide expanse of sky was a dull gray and snow was spitting down thickly enough to resemble a sheet of cotton. The back door was open and led into what Kate had earlier called the mudroom—basically a service porch area with several washers and dryers and a place to stow coats and boots.
Beyond was a covered back porch with a wobbly, needed-to-be-replaced wooden railing. Sean shrugged deeper into his jacket as he stepped into the icy bite of the wind. Snow. Nothing but snow. It was coming down thick and fast and for one split second, Sean could admit to himself that it was pretty. Then he remembered that the “pretty” stuff was currently blocking his only way out, and it quickly lost its appeal.
“Kate?”
“Over here,” she shouted.
Zipping his jacket closed, he turned toward her voice and ignored, as well as he could, the cold sharp snap of winter. Snowflakes slapped his face with icy stings and the wind pushed at him as if trying to force him back inside.
He paid no attention to the urge to retreat and instead turned to where Kate was bent over a neatly stacked supply of firewood. She had three split logs in her arms and was reaching for another.
“Let me get it,” Sean said, nudging her out of the way.
She whipped her head up to glare at him. “I can handle it.”
“Yeah,” he said, giving her a nod. He’d seen her stubbornness and her determination to do everything on her own all week. “I know. You’re tough. We’re all impressed. But if we both get the wood, we can get out of this cold that much sooner.”
She looked like she wanted to argue with him, then changed her mind. “Fine. Gather as much as you can, then we’ll come back for more.”
She headed into the hotel without another word, leaving Sean to grab as many logs as possible. When he straightened, he took another quick look around. Pine trees stood as tall and straight as soldiers on parade, in spite of the heavy, snow-laden wind pushing at them. The lake was frozen over and snowdrifts were piling up at the shoreline. He tipped his head back and stared up at the gray sky as thick flurries raced toward him. The air was thick and cold, and realization settled in on Sean. If this kept up, he could be stuck here for weeks.
* * *
Kate laid the stack of wood in a neat pile beside the stone fireplace, then grabbed the mantel and leaned on it. “The blizzard couldn’t have waited to hit until after he was gone?”
Of course not. That would have made her life too easy. Way better to strand her here on the mountain with a man who had shaken her nice, comfortable life right down to the ground.
Slowly straightening, she shook her head, hoping to clear out the ragged, disjointed thoughts somersaulting through it. Didn’t work, but she pushed through, pushed past. Bending, she took a few of the logs she’d carried in and set them in the hearth. Then she laid down kindling from the nearby basket, took a long wooden match, struck it and held the flame to the kindling until it caught. Taking a minute to get the fire started would help her settle—she hoped.
She watched the fire catch, licking at the wood until the hiss and crackle jumped into the otherwise quiet room.
“You can do this,” she muttered under her breath. “He’s just your boss.”
Lies, her mind whispered. All lies. Not even very good ones. The sad truth was, Sean Ryan was so much more than the man she was currently working for. He was the first man in years who’d been able to not just sneak past her well-honed defenses but obliterate them. One smile from him and her knees quivered. One glance from his lake-blue eyes and her long-dormant hormones began a dance of joy. Oh, that was humbling to admit, even to herself.
She really didn’t need this.
Kate had a good life now. She’d built it carefully, brick by brick, and damn if she’d allow attraction to ruin it all.
Of course, standing strong against what Sean Ryan made her feel would have been much easier if he’d just been able to leave tomorrow as scheduled. But with the blizzard, they could be trapped together for days.
And that thought brought her right back to the sinking sensation in the pit of her stomach. Frowning, she reminded herself that she’d already survived something that would have crushed most people. She could live through a few days in close quarters with Sean.
Nodding in agreement with her silent pep talk, she pushed up from the hearth and turned to get more wood. Sean stalked into the room, arms full of more logs than she could have carried in one trip. He didn’t look any happier about their current situation than she did.
Sadly, that didn’t make her feel any better.
“Just stack it there on the hearth,” she said, waving one hand. “I’ll go out for more.”
“Yeah,” he said, dropping the wood with an ear-shattering clatter. “I’ll get the wood. I can carry more than you, so that means fewer trips.”
She wanted to argue, but he was right. Still, it was hard for her to accept help. Kate stood on her own two feet. And for the last couple of years especially, she’d deliberately dismissed anyone who thought she couldn’t handle things herself.
“Fine,” she said. “I’ve got emergency supplies out in my truck. I’ll get them while you bring in more wood. Get a lot of it. It’ll be a long, cold night.”
“Right.” He paused. “What kind of supplies?”
“Blankets, lanterns, coffeemaker—the essentials.”
He gave her a wide smile. “Coffee? Now you’re talking. I’d give a hundred bucks for a cup of coffee right now.”
Why did he have to smile? Why did that smile have to light up his features, sparkle in his eyes and cause her already-unsteady nerves to wobble and tip dangerously? This whole adventure would be so much easier on her if she could just hate him. Damn it.
“A hundred dollars for coffee?” She nodded. “Sold.”
His eyebrows shot up, and that wicked curve of his mouth broadened. “Yeah? Well, I’ll have to owe you since I don’t have that much cash on me.”
Just too much charm, she thought. And he turned it on and off like a faucet. Her breath caught a little. “That’s okay, I’ll send you a bill.”
“No problem.” Amusement drained from his face, but his eyes glittered with promise. “We’ll settle things between us before I head back to California. You can count on it.”
Oh, boy. Kate watched him go, then turned up the collar of her jacket. She headed for the front door, giving herself a silent, stern lecture as she went. She couldn’t believe how that smile of his had affected her. Honestly, he’d been hard enough to resist when he was miserable and complaining about the snow. But a smiling Sean Ryan was even more dangerous.
She stepped outside and welcomed the blast of cold wind and the stinging slap of blowing snow. If anything could put out a fire burning inside, it was a Wyoming winter. But even as she thought it, Kate had to admit that the slow burn of attraction, interest, was still glowing with heat.
She trooped across the wide front porch, down the steps to where she’d left the truck. Snow was already filling up the bed and stacking against the tires. If she left it sitting out here, by the end of the blizzard she and Sean would have to dig out the truck before they could leave. Jumping into the cab, she started it up, then drove around the edge of the old hotel toward the four-car garage standing behind it. She had to jump out of the truck back into the snow to open the door, but once she had her vehicle parked, it was a relief to be out of the wind.
Kate reached over the side of the truck to the metal box in the bed. Unlocking it, she dragged out her stash of emergency supplies. A heavy plastic craft box that she’d commandeered for the purpose, along with a sleeping bag and the two blankets she kept there in case she was ever stranded in the snow.
Heading out of the garage, she closed the door behind her and paused for a moment to look up at the hotel. Sean was no longer on the porch, so he was inside, by the fire. Stranded alone would be a little scary. Stranded with Sean was terrifying.
Oh, not that she was worried about her safety. It was more concern for her sanity that had her biting her bottom lip as disjointed thoughts bounced off the walls of her mind.
He was too gorgeous. Too smooth. Too rich. And not to mention the fact that he was her boss. This one job for Celtic Knot would give her sometimes-floundering construction company a jolt that could keep them going for the next few years.
So it was imperative she keep a grip on the hormones that insisted on stirring whenever Sean was close by. She couldn’t afford to give in to what her body was screaming for. An affair with Sean was just too risky. It had been more than two years since she’d been with a man. In that time, Kate had managed to convince herself that whatever sexual needs or desires she’d had, had died with her husband, Sam.
It was lowering to have to acknowledge, even silently, that her theory had been shot to hell by Sean Ryan’s appearance in her life.
She shifted her gaze to the hotel, where firelight danced and glowed behind the window glass. Only midafternoon and it was already getting dark.
The wall of snow between her and the hotel was thickening, letting Kate know that this was a big storm. She and Sean could be stuck here for days.
How weird was it that she could be both annoyed and excited by the prospect?
Two (#ulink_06612108-0d94-5055-b2fa-6076a8e56a4e)
Inside, the fire was already spreading heat around the wide room. Firelight flickered across Sean’s features as he bent low to gently lay another log across the already burning wood. He turned his head to look at her, and Kate’s breath caught. Fire and light burned in his blue eyes and seemed to settle inside her, where that heat flashed dangerously bright.
A second or two of unspoken tension hummed in the air between them, making each breath she drew a victory of sorts. When she couldn’t take it another moment, Kate shattered the spell of silence by speaking. “If you bring in one more load of wood, that should see us through tomorrow.”
“Right.” He straightened slowly and shoved both hands into the back pockets of his jeans. Nodding at the pile of things at her feet, he said, “You carry a lot of emergency supplies.”
Happy to be on safe territory, she glanced down at the things she’d brought inside. “I’d rather be prepared than freeze to death,” she told him with a shrug. “You never know when your car won’t start or you’ll blow a tire or slide on some ice into a ditch...”
“Or get stranded in a blizzard?”
“Exactly.” She gave the black nylon sleeping bag a nudge with the toe of her boot, edging it closer to the two wool blankets beside it. “Blankets to keep warm and in the box I’ve got a battery-operated lantern, PowerBars, chocolate and coffee...”
“There’s that magic word again,” Sean said with a half grin.
“Finally something we can agree on,” Kate answered, a reluctant smile curving her mouth.
Sean’s grin only widened, and her heart tripped into a gallop. “Yeah, we’ve had an interesting week, haven’t we?”
“That’s one way to put it.” Kate sighed, bent down and opened the box to pull out her ancient coffeepot. Snatching the bag of coffee, too, she stood up again and met his steady gaze. “You’ve argued with every one of my suggestions for this place.”
“My place,” he said simply. “My decisions.”
She’d never had a client fight her on nearly everything before Sean. Normally, Kate didn’t mind trying to incorporate a client’s wants into the required work. But she also knew what was possible and what wasn’t. Sean, though, didn’t consider anything to be impossible.
