Snowbound Hearts (2 page)

The simple act of standing without wavering suddenly required enormous effort. When she turned to face him, the loud drumming of blood pulsing in his ears was all he could hear. He drew a ragged breath and released it slowly, willing his heart to stop pounding so hard. If he had put in a custom order for his perfect woman, Audrey would be her. He couldn’t believe that such a fantastic little hottie had just appeared on his doorstep. It was too good to be true, and he realized that he must be dreaming, because there was no other explanation for her. Regardless, he began devising a plan to get her clothes off, because he really wanted to see her naked before he woke up.

“Are you going to hang up my coat?” Audrey pointed to the rack.

“
Um—
coat, yeah
.
” He wandered slowly to the rack and hung her coat, taking a moment to gather his thoughts.

Audrey cleared her throat. “Do you have anything warm to drink? I’m chilled all the way through.”

Stephen turned back toward her, amazed to find her still standing there and still looking as beautiful. Dreams rarely remain consistent for any length of time. She should have already morphed into an evil troll or disappeared altogether. “I don’t know where my manners are. I wasn’t expecting a”—he couldn’t say red-haired goddess who had been sculpted from a solid block of sexy and thoroughly doused with irresistibility—”a guest. My head is spinning. How about coffee? It’s instant, but it’ll warm you up.”

“Yeah, that’d be great.” She bit her bottom lip, hesitating for a moment. “Something
else
to warm me up.”

“I—I didn’t quite get that last part,” Stephen stammered.

Audrey gave him a sultry smile. “The fire in the stove, silly. What did you think I meant?”

“
Um
”—he tilted his head toward the stove, mesmerized by her sensuous expression—”yeah, the fire, of course that’s what you meant.”

Her smile slowly faded as she stared deep into his eyes. “Maybe that’s all I meant.” She shrugged and averted her gaze. “I feel a little loopy after putting my car in the ditch.”

“Come have a seat by the stove.” Stephen held a chair for her, then poured hot water into a mug and mixed her coffee. She grasped the cup with both hands, raised the rim to her pouty red lips, and took a little sip of the steaming liquid. A diamond solitaire on her left hand glinted in the light as she lowered her coffee to the table. Stephen’s stomach twisted into a knot. Apparently, her suggestive comments had been completely innocent. His fantasy of being snowed in with his dream girl died before it could fully form. The universe had played a cruel joke on him, and he had fallen for it. Everything around him faded into darkness until only the glimmering stone remained. Obviously, she noticed his stare.

She thumbed the ring, rocking it side to side, reflecting the light with each movement. “It’s an engagement ring, in case you were wondering.”

Stephen slowly nodded and exhaled loudly. The brightening room swam before his eyes as a sinking sensation threatened to drag him to the floor. He grasped the chair opposite her to steady himself and pulled it out from under the table. “Of course it is. A woman typically doesn’t wear a rock like that on her left hand otherwise.”

She narrowed her eyes and frowned. “Why do you sound so disappointed?”

Stephen glanced across the room, looking for any distraction. He needed to steel his emotions before he made a complete fool of himself in front of this total stranger, if it wasn’t already too late. Snow whipping violently outside the window was the first thing to catch his eye. Neither of them would be going anywhere anytime soon, and if he made her uncomfortable by acting like a jerk, the time they had to spend together would be miserable for both of them. There was only one thing for him to do: play dumb.

“Do I? I hadn’t noticed.” Audrey rolled her eyes, apparently irritated with his answer. He shrugged and hung his head. The feeble sound of his pathetic lie along with the look on her face left him cringing inside. Any hope of salvaging the situation would require honesty. “Okay, you made a little comment when I mentioned playing cards, and I thought...”

She sighed heavily. “I was making a joke, you know, playing with yourself. It was funny, wasn’t it?”

The knot in his stomach grew tighter with each passing second. He flopped into the seat and propped his chin on his fist. “Yeah, hilarious.”

“My God, Stephen, I’ve only known you five minutes. Do you always get your heart broken this easily?”

Her words taken alone would have implied annoyance, but coupled with the tone of her voice, they conveyed compassion. The expression on her face had changed. She no longer looked irritated with him; in fact, somewhere deep in her eyes, a flicker of desire shone for just an instant. Stephen normally took a woman’s words at face value, but somehow her meaning came through more clearly than what she said, as if the question she had phrased was irrelevant. She didn’t want to know how easily he got his heart broken, she wanted to know if he had fallen for her in the few moments they had known each other. Regardless of what he
thought
she wanted, he couldn’t pursue her. She was engaged to marry another man.

“No, no. I have a lot on my mind at the moment.” Being evasive wasn’t his strong suit, but he couldn’t admit to her that she had seen right through him, not so soon anyway. It was difficult enough to admit to himself that he had fallen in love the moment he saw her and gotten his heart broken when he spotted her ring. He was being as ridiculous as an adolescent schoolboy who gets a crush on every pretty girl he sees. Worse than that, he was letting his imagination trick him into believing she felt the same way. “I came here to hang out with my friends and clear my head. Obviously they’re not coming, so...”

“So, what? Your friends are not coming, and you’re stuck with me. We can have a good time if you’ll just think of me as one of the guys.”

He raised his gaze to meet her indescribably sensuous brown eyes. The knot in his stomach moved into his chest and wrapped itself around his heart in a death grip. “You’re way too beautiful to be one of the guys.”

Audrey gasped ever so slightly. Had he not been paying such close attention he would have missed it. Something he said had apparently touched a sensitive spot. She quickly lowered her head and began twisting the ring around her finger. “What are we going to do for fun until this snow melts?”

Stephen suddenly didn’t feel quite so immature. Her reaction, however tiny, was an indication that he could be right about her feelings. The tightness in his chest eased off, letting the blood flow once again. He smiled and winked at her, deciding to play it by ear and stop overanalyzing the situation. “I had all sorts of fun ideas, but they flew out the window when I noticed that ring.”

Audrey grabbed the deck of cards from the table. “How about a game of Go Fish?”

Stephen groaned. “Seriously?”

She nodded, grinning at him.

“Hey, I suppose it’s better than doing nothing. If I had beer and a big stogie, playing a kids’ game might not be so painful.”

She glanced toward the kitchen. “You don’t have a fridge full of beer?”

“I brought the food. The other guys were bringing the fun stuff.”

“Oh.” Audrey scowled for a moment, and then her face lit up. “Oh!” She reached into her purse, pulled out two fat Swisher Sweets, and held one out to him.

He took it from her hand and ran it under his nose, inhaling the sweet fragrance of tobacco. “You smoke cigars?”

“No, someone left them in the cabin. I don’t even know why I put them in my purse. I guess I just like the way they smell.”

“They’re probably old and dried out.” Stephen peeled off the wrapper. The cigar was as moist and fresh as new. “Well, this is a pleasant surprise. So, Audrey, do you play poker?”

Audrey pursed her lips and gazed thoughtfully at him. “That’s a card game, right? You have to bet, don’t you? I don’t have any cash.”

Stephen flipped his hand at her as if batting away her notion. “Oh, playing for money is no fun. I have a much better idea, if you’re game, that is. Now, do you mind if I fire up this thing?”

“I don’t mind. I’ll have the other one.” She pulled off the wrapper and poked the cigar into the corner of her mouth.

There was something wickedly sexy about the contradictions in the sight of an utterly feminine beauty with a fat stogie stuck between her lips. Stephen had the sudden urge to pluck it out and kiss her until they both passed out from lack of oxygen. Fortunately, he had just enough self-control left not to do it.

“Okay, a word of advice. Don’t inhale. In fact, don’t even puff it after you get it going. Just hold it in your mouth and let it burn. Otherwise, you’ll be in the bathroom, barfing your guts out before long.”

“I’ll trust your advice. My dad would kick my butt if he saw me with a cigar in my mouth. I know exactly what he would say.” Audrey lowered her voice, narrowed her gaze, and furrowed her brow, imitating her father. “Smoking just makes you smell like a barroom toilet.”

Stephen chuckled. “He’s right. I only smoke cigars when I’m drinking beer and playing poker with my buddies. We get together one weekend a month for a game, that’s all.” He hurried into the kitchen, came back with an ashtray, and placed it on the table. Stephen lit his cigar, then used it to light Audrey’s. “The day is looking up already. Now the question is, how adventurous can you get with that ring on your finger?”

Audrey blinked twice and raised an eyebrow. “You want to play me for my ring?” She took the cigar from between her lips and set it in the ashtray.

He slowly shook his head. “No, I don’t want your ring.”

Audrey leaned toward him, gazing into his eyes, and lowered her voice to just above a whisper. “Well, Stephen, what
do
you want?” She held her left hand up, prominently displaying the diamond.

Stephen sighed heavily and ran his fingers through his thick, dark hair. What he wanted was her, but in order to have her he’d have to coerce Audrey into violating her commitment. The air in the room suddenly couldn’t sustain him. Sparkles floated in his vision as a jumble of thoughts rushed through his mind. If he could have crawled out of his skin and run away, he would have. He wasn’t a thief or a swindler, but that was the path he was headed down. The aching desire he felt for Audrey was no justification for ignoring his morals, but the will of a man’s heart is a formidable force to contend with. He squirmed in his seat and plunked his cigar into the ashtray opposite Audrey’s. “On second thought, let’s play Go Fish.”

Audrey sat back in her chair and folded her hands into her lap. “Relax, Stephen, no one is going to burst through the door and shoot you for playing poker with me.”

He gazed down at the cards as he shuffled, intentionally avoiding eye contact with her. “I haven’t told you the game, yet. It could be cause for a jealous man to fire a few rounds.” When he looked up he raised both eyebrows twice, hoping she’d catch his meaning.

She gave him a long, expressionless stare as if contemplating his, obviously, less than wholesome suggestion. “Still”—she paused for a moment, biting her bottom lip—”you’re relatively safe.”

“Only because no one can get here through the snow.” He set the deck onto the table and tapped the top.

“I suppose that’s true.” Audrey giggled and cut the cards. “Deal, before I change my mind.”

Chapter Two

Audrey showed her hand. Full house. Stephen slapped his cards down hard, took off his boxer briefs, and tossed them into her pile on top of the rest of his clothes. Audrey was still wearing everything she had started with. He plopped back into his chair and pointed at her. “You, lady, are a card shark. How did you manage to win every hand?”

Audrey couldn’t help but laugh. He looked so adorable sitting there, naked, wearing a bewildered grimace. “You’re just not a very good poker player.”

Stephen gathered the cards into a stack, gave them a quick shuffle, and plopped them onto the table. “I’ve never lost this badly to anyone.”

She shrugged and cocked her head to one side. “Maybe I cheated. Maybe I make my living traveling to casinos and beating the house. Maybe there’s a mirror behind you and I could see all your cards.”

“What?” Stephen glanced over his shoulder, but there was no mirror. “Were you cheating or not?”

She giggled because she had actually gotten him to look for a mirror. “No, I wasn’t cheating. It was a little bit of skill, but mostly luck, that’s all.”

Stephen shook his head and slapped his palm on the tabletop. “Nobody’s that lucky.”

Audrey averted her gaze, feeling a little guilty for tricking him, and decided it was time to come clean. “I kind of, accidentally, forgot to mention that my father was in the Navy. That’s where he learned to play poker. We’ve been having a family poker night every Saturday as long as I can remember. I started playing when I was six or seven.”

Stephen huffed and shot her an irritated scowl. “Accidentally forgot, my butt.”

Despite the tone of Stephen’s voice and his deep frown, she didn’t believe he was really upset, probably just a little embarrassed. Somehow everything he said was funny, and she couldn’t keep from laughing. He was exactly the way she had imagined him so long ago, but this guy wasn’t
her
Stephen, he was just
a
Stephen, who happened to be in the right place at the moment she needed him most. Her Stephen wasn’t real in a physical sense, although he had been a constant companion throughout her late childhood and early teens. He was only a fantasy that she had turned to when no one else understood what she was going through.

She had never noticed that she was different until she started school and the remarks began. Some were innocent, informing her that she needed to wash the spots off her face. Some were cruel, like the one boys would recite under their breath whenever she passed by: “I’d rather be dead than red on the head.” Her parents dismissed the harassment as childish teasing and said she should ignore it, without understanding that she’d never be allowed to ignore it.