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“Uh, no one, darling.” Bob rushed to the door and began pushing Mary Ann back inside. “Just some crazy woman.”
“That’s right, some crazy woman.” Cassie broadened her smile and fluttered her fingers at the other woman. “A crazy woman who’s finally regained her sanity.”
With one last fearful look in her direction, Bob succeeded in forcing Mary Ann back into the room and shut the door firmly behind them. Cassie began to laugh, happiness bubbling up inside her like champagne. God, that felt good! And to think she’d wasted all these years keeping her mouth shut when things didn’t turn out the way she wanted.
She turned and walked down the hall again, intending to head downstairs, but instead found herself drawn to the opposite end of the hall, to the condo where Guy Walters was staying. Guy Walters, her dream man. Here alone for the weekend. And so was she.
She stopped in front of the door to Guy’s suite. Why not go after Guy? After all, hadn’t she said she wasn’t going to hold back anymore? Given the choice between spending the night in a chair in the lobby, and spending the night with the man of her dreams, what woman wouldn’t pick Guy?
Here was an opportunity to turn all her fantasies into reality. If she passed up this chance, she might as well put her hair up in a bun, let the hems down on all her skirts and resign herself to going through the rest of her life in a painfully proper stupor.
Before reason could overwhelm desire, she stepped forward and knocked on Guy’s door. As soon as her knuckles came in contact with the wood, a shiver of panic swept over her. She would have turned and fled, but her feet refused to listen to her brain and move. The door swung open and Guy stared down at her. “Hello?” he said.
She opened her mouth, but no sound came out. Her heart was beating somewhere in the vicinity of her throat, and all she could do was gape.
3
GUY LEANED TOWARD HER, his brow furrowed. “Cassie? Are you all right?”
“Um…I…uh…” Suddenly, she couldn’t think of a single coherent sentence. She stared up at him, into those warm brown eyes. He didn’t look angry or annoyed, just…concerned. As if…as if he might really care what she wanted. “Can I come in?” she blurted.
He opened the door wider. “Yeah. Sure.”
She slipped past him and went to stand in front of the fire that was beginning to blaze in the fireplace.
Guy shut the door and walked over to her. “You look upset. Are you in some kind of trouble?” He glanced over his shoulder. “I thought I heard shouting in the hall just now. Was that you?”
She hugged her arms across her stomach and stared at the floor, fighting sudden tears. “No, I’m not in trouble. At least not yet. And yes, that was me shouting.”
He looked at her warily. “Want to tell me what’s going on?”
She sighed. Maybe it would help to talk about it. That’s all. Just talk. “I was shouting at my boyfriend. Ex-boyfriend. Bob Hamilton. He said he was coming up here this weekend to work, so I thought I’d follow him up here and surprise him.” She frowned. “Instead, I’m the one who was surprised.” She buried her face in her hands. “I can’t believe I was so stupid I didn’t realize he was seeing someone else.”
She peeked through her fingers at him, steeling herself for a look of pity. Instead, he looked sympathetic and…interested? “You never struck me as stupid,” he said.
She lowered her hands. “I didn’t? I mean…I never thought you noticed.”
His smile could have melted icicles. “I noticed.”
The words set her heart to pounding and she had trouble catching her breath. Please don’t anybody pinch me, she thought. Any minute now, she’d wake up and this dream would be over. She slowly slid her hands from her face and risked looking at Guy full-on. He was still smiling at her, a heart-melting look that sent rational thought ducking for cover before a full-fledged assault of giddy fantasy and old-fashioned lust. Oh, God, what had she gotten herself into?
The new Cassie might be ready for this, but the parts of old Cassie that still hung around belonged to a coward. “Uh, I didn’t mean to barge in on you like this. I’ll go now and get out of your way.” She lunged toward the door.
Guy’s hand on her arm stopped her. “You don’t have to go. To tell you the truth, I was feeling kind of lonely before you showed up.”
So she’d been right. He was lonely. But how was that possible? The man had dozens of friends, hundreds even. He could have any woman he wanted. Maybe he was only being nice…. She squared her shoulders and mentally shook herself. What did it matter why he’d invited her to stay? He’d invited her. It’s what she’d wanted all along, wasn’t it?
She forced herself to meet his gaze and faked a confident smile. “I’d love to stay.”
He came closer. She would have moved back, but already the fire was in danger of singeing her legs. He reached for her and for one heart-stopping moment, she thought he might gather her into his arms and kiss her, as he had so many times in her fevered fantasies.
Instead, he took hold of the straps of her backpack. “Why don’t you take this off?”
She let him help her out of the pack while she tried to find her voice. The realization that she was here—alone—with the man of her dreams made it hard to breathe, much less talk. She grabbed hold of the fireplace mantel to steady herself.
“Can I get you something to drink?” he asked.
Drink. Right. Maybe a drink would help. “There’s some champagne in my bag.” No reason to let it go to waste.
She bent and fumbled for the backpack, but he was quicker. Unzipping the bag, he pulled out a pair of white silk panties and the bottle of champagne. “Nice,” he murmured.
Was he talking about the underwear or the wine? She grabbed the panties from him and stuffed them back into the pack. “Sorry.”
He grinned. “I’ll go get some glasses.” As he headed for the kitchen, she could have sworn he was whistling.
GUY SMILED TO HIMSELF as he hunted in the cupboard for glasses. Of all the crazy things to happen. Just when he’d been ready to give up on the weekend, cute little Cassie Carmichael showed up. Except she wasn’t so little anymore, a fact he’d noticed a while back at the coffee shop.
When he’d first walked into Java Jive a few months ago, he hadn’t even connected the curvy clerk behind the counter with his kid sister’s school friend. But as soon as she’d said his name and smiled, he’d remembered. What a difference a few years had made.
More than once since then, he’d thought of asking her out, but he wasn’t sure how his sister would feel about it. Amy and Cassie apparently weren’t friends anymore, so maybe there was bad blood there. Before he could find out, he’d heard Cassie was already involved with someone and he figured he’d missed his chance.
Now fate had literally delivered the lovely Ms. Carmichael to his door. He wasn’t about to blow a second chance to get to know Cassie better. Amy would have to understand.
He shook his head as he rinsed glasses. Funny, he’d thought of Cassie as the quiet, shy type. Obviously, he’d been wrong, judging by the contents of her pack and her plans to surprise her lowlife boyfriend.
By the time he returned with two glasses filled with champagne, she’d settled into a chair by the fire, arms wrapped around her knees. He handed her a glass of champagne and offered a toast. “Cheers.”
“Thanks for being so cool about this,” she said. “I was upset after seeing Bob with that woman and not thinking clearly, and there wasn’t another room available and I didn’t have anywhere to go—”
“It’s okay.” He settled onto the sofa, at the end nearest her. “It’s all right with me if you stay here.” It was more than all right, really. Suddenly his lonely weekend didn’t look so lonely.
She glanced toward the window. Snow was coming down in great drifts. “I guess none of us will be going anywhere for a while.” She sank back into the chair and stared at the bubbles in the champagne. “We’re trapped here.”
“Hey, don’t make it sound so terrible.” He leaned forward, elbows on his knees. “I know I’m not Bob, but I’m not such a bad fellow.” If you asked him, Bob was a first-class creep to skip out on a woman like this one. The thought made his jaw tighten in anger. How often did you come across such sweetness and sensuality wrapped up in one neat little package? “I don’t mind sharing the condo with you until the storm passes.” Which, with any luck, wouldn’t be for a couple of days.
She looked around the room, perhaps taking in how small it was. Intimate. “I feel like I’m intruding. I mean, you obviously came up here to be alone.” She flushed. “Or maybe you’re expecting someone.”
He shook his head. “I’m not expecting anyone.” He shrugged. “It was sort of a last-minute thing. I had some vacation coming and decided to take the weekend off. You know—read, think about things.” Even before he’d gotten the invitation from Dave, he’d been restless. Like something was missing from his life. Or somebody…
She ran her finger around the rim of her glass and looked glum. “I guess I’ve got a few things to think about now, too.”
“You mean Bob.”
She nodded. “I can’t believe I was so blind. So trusting. Good old Cassie.” She gripped the arms of the chair, white-knuckled, jaw clenched. “He must have been laughing behind my back the whole time.”
She glanced at Guy. “Jill calls him ‘Boring Bob’ sometimes. Never one to get excited about anything. Always so predictable. Boy, did we have him wrong.”
“We all make mistakes.” It was one of those platitudes that don’t really mean anything, but it was all he could think of at the moment. He wanted to take away her hurt, to see her smile again. She had such a sweet smile. There was a better coffee shop closer to his office, but Cassie’s smile always drew him back to Java Jive.
“I wanted to surprise him this weekend,” she said, green eyes snapping with rage. “I thought I’d shake him up, put a little life back in our relationship. Hah!”
Guy braced himself. Any minute now, the waterworks would start. He felt in his pocket for a handkerchief, just in case.
Cassie Carmichael didn’t burst into tears. Instead, she shot up out of the chair and began to pace. “When I think of all I did for that man! Oh, he owes me. Big time.”
Guy followed her with his eyes as she stalked back and forth in front of the fireplace. Cheeks flushed, hair tumbling about her shoulders, she was a woman overcome by passion, though not of the romantic kind. You didn’t see that kind of emotion every day. Most people sleepwalked through life, not allowing themselves to feel much of anything, but not Cassie. Here was a woman who wasn’t asleep.
He was getting turned on watching her, had in fact been turned on since the moment she’d showed up at his door. He could still recall the feel of those silky panties between his fingers. The thought unnerved him. She had been his kid sister’s friend. And yet, Cassie was practically a stranger to him. He had no business lusting after her. He shifted in his seat, hoping she wouldn’t notice how aroused he was becoming.
“Listen to me, going on like this.” She stopped in front of him. “Not only do I intrude on your weekend, I start dumping all my personal problems on you.”
“No, that’s all right.” He stood and reached for the champagne bottle. “Let me refill your glass. If you’re hungry, I’ve got some cheese and stuff.”
“Yeah, I guess I am a little hungry at that. There are some strawberries in my pack.”
She started toward the pack, but he intercepted her. “I’ll get them. After all, you’re my guest.”
She smiled, apparently seeing the humor in the remark. It was a strange situation, but now that she was here, he was glad of it. Humming to himself, he retrieved the cheese, summer sausage and crackers from the grocery bags, then went to get the strawberries from her pack.
He didn’t find them right away. First, he took out two scented candles, a bottle of cinnamon-flavored massage oil and the pair of almost-sheer white panties. The silk slid through his fingers, sending his temperature soaring.
He glanced over his shoulder to see if she’d noticed, but she was curled up in the chair again, staring into the fire.
All right, she’d just had her heart broken. It wouldn’t be exactly fair for him to hit on her now, would it? No matter how much he was tempted. Reluctantly, he returned the panties to the pack and dug out the strawberries. Better to keep things pleasant and platonic, get to know each other before they took things any further.
Still, it would take everything he had to keep his hands to himself this weekend. He’d have to find something safe for them to do. Something that would keep his mind off of sex.
CASSIE LOOKED OVER her shoulder to where Guy stood in the condo’s kitchen alcove. He hummed to himself as he sliced cheese, moving with fluid grace. Dressed in faded jeans and a flannel shirt, he could have been a model in a Ralph Lauren ad—tousled hair, broad shoulders, flat stomach and the most perfect male rear end in existence.
She pinched herself. Yep, she was awake, all right, though Guy had starred in more than one erotic dream in the years since she’d first met him.
She turned back toward the fire, hoping he wouldn’t see her infatuation written on her face. It was one thing to fantasize about a man from a distance, quite another to be face-to-face with that man at a small, secluded resort.
Her heart thudded and she had to set aside her empty glass for fear of dropping it from her suddenly shaking hands. It didn’t matter how small this condo was or how alone they were. Men like Guy weren’t interested in quiet women like her. Her fantasies would have to stay fantasies, and that was all there was to it.
“Looks like you need a refill.” He returned with the champagne bottle and a plate of cheese, fruit and crackers. He refilled her glass and she thought he’d sit back down on the sofa. Instead, he settled on the floor at her feet. “Is the fire warm enough for you?” he asked.
She opened her mouth to answer, but no sound emerged. Warm was not the word for what she was feeling. The closer he got, the higher her temperature rose.
Unfortunately, the feeling obviously wasn’t mutual. “It’s still a little chilly in here,” he said. “I’ll put some more wood on the fire.”
He stood and fetched a log from a washtub on the hearth for the fire, then sat back at her feet and offered the plate of food. She bit into a strawberry and sipped more champagne. The bubbly was making her light-headed. Or was that Guy?
She pulled her gaze away from him, toward the table beside her and a picture resting there. Six young men, dressed for the slopes, posed with a variety of snowboards and skis, clowning for the camera. “The Boulder Bandidos,” Guy said, looking over her shoulder. “Up to their usual mischief.”
“I recognize you.” She put her finger on a thinner, gawkier version of the man beside her. Even then, he’d been handsome, though still more boy than man. “And the others look familiar from school, but I’m not sure I remember all their names.”
“That’s Steve.” He pointed to the tallest of the group. “He’s married now, with two kids. He works for one of the big eight accounting firms. That’s Jake next to him. His wife is expecting their first baby any day now. The dude making the peace sign is Victor. He has his own business, doing something with the Internet. He and his wife, Daria, live in Denver with their little girl. The short, stocky guy is Paul. He married a girl named Sheila who already had two kids and they run a restaurant in Colorado Springs. And that’s Dave.” He pointed to a blonde standing next to him. “He’s getting married in a couple of months to a woman from Boulder.”
“Was that the invitation you were looking at the other morning?”
He nodded. “That’s the one.”
“You didn’t seem too happy about it.”
“It showed that much, huh?”
She smiled into her champagne glass, but didn’t answer. Most people wouldn’t have seen it, but she’d noticed everything about Guy for years.
“The invitation caught me off guard. I’d figured Dave was a confirmed bachelor.”
“Like you?” She held her breath, waiting for his answer.
He shook his head. “I’m not a confirmed anything. I just haven’t found the right woman.” He turned away, to stir up the fire.
The words sent a quiver through her stomach. Guy had been her fantasy man all these years, her unobtainable ideal. Did he have a fantasy woman in his mind? And was she even a little bit like her? “Are you looking?”
She wanted to take the words back as soon as she spoke. But she wanted to know the answer more.
He didn’t say anything right away, and when she mustered up the courage to look at him, she was startled to find him watching her. His gaze caught and held her, going past the surface to see deeper. Her face heated and she fought the urge to look away. What was Guy looking for in her? Did she dare hope he would find it?
“Let’s say I’m open to possibilities.” He drained his glass and set it aside. “When I find the right woman, I’d like to settle down, have a family. What about you? What do you want to do with your life?”
Ugh. The million-dollar question and she didn’t even have a ten-dollar answer. She forced a laugh, as if this was all such a fun game, instead of a depressing dilemma. “I haven’t decided yet. There are so many possibilities.”
“I think Amy mentioned you quit school.”
She ran her fingers up and down the stem of her champagne glass. Quit was such as ugly word. “When I changed my major I needed a bunch of new courses for a degree. It would have meant an extra year of college. I was running out of money, so I left and enrolled in secretarial school instead.”
His puzzled frown told her he was trying to make the connection between secretarial school and Java Jive, so she rushed forward with the rest of her explanation. He might as well know the worst. “I quit that, too. Then I tried a few other things. The job at the coffee shop isn’t great, I know, but it pays the bills while I’m in massage therapy school.”
“Now that’s interesting work.”
She leaned toward him, studying his face for any hint of condescension. Either Guy was a great actor, or he really was interested. “Uh, yeah. I think it’s interesting,” she said. At least she’d stuck with it longer than anything to date. “I was thinking of going into sports medicine. I’d like to do something to help people.”
He smiled, his eyes still fixed on her. Why was he staring at her? She ran her tongue over her teeth, checking for strawberry seeds, and fought the urge to comb her fingers through her hair. Enough about her. She wanted to know about him. “So…I hear your store is a real success.”
He nodded. “Yeah. I can’t believe how fast it’s taken off. I think I really found a niche and filled it.”
She glanced at the photo of the Boulder Bandidos again. “It probably helped that you’re such an outdoorsman yourself. You know the kinds of equipment hikers and climbers and fishermen want.”
“Don’t forget skiing.” He leaned toward her again, close enough she could make out the shadow of his beard beneath the skin along his jaw. “I remember you were pretty hot stuff on skis when you and Amy were on the racing team at CU.”
His praise, not to mention his choice of words, sent a rush of warmth through her. Guy Walters thought she was hot stuff.
“Do you still race?”
The question banished the warm fuzzy feeling like a bucket of cold water on a campfire. “No.” She picked at a thread on her sweater. “I gave it up a couple of years ago.”
