Snowbound Seduction (7 page)

Chapter Eight

Elaine’s foot connected with a hard object. There was something heavy draped over her, and she couldn’t seem to make it move. She frowned and opened her eyes and found herself staring at a very sexy male.

Trev.

Memories of the night before came flashing back to her as she tried to blink away the image. The kiss…making love in her bed then in his. God, she had never had a night like the one he had given her.

Sex had always been something she could do without. Men rarely thought of her as hot and sexy, and so when she did end up in bed with them, it never really worked out. She’d been bored. With Trev it had been so much different. He was the type of man she would never have thought she’d be able to have. Lord knew he wasn’t the kind of guy who would stick around, but what man was? In her experience, the only man who had stuck it out with her was Mick.

She would have to be the one to say no more, because she would be mortified if he thought she wanted more than this. She would never be able to deal with it. Staring up at the ceiling, she tried her best to come up with some way to say it was over, that this was all it could be.

Elaine needed some time, some space, so she slipped out of bed as quietly as she could, and headed to the bathroom. She grabbed one of his shirts along the way, pulling it over her head before she turned on the lights.

For long minutes she stood staring at herself. She was wearing a man’s T-shirt, her hair was a mess, and she had whisker burn on her jaw. This wasn’t her. Carrying on with men like this, sleeping with them—that was something she tried not to do. Staying over added intimacy she never felt ready for. Last night, though, she had, and worse, it had felt right. She wasn’t a woman who loved easily.

Loved
.

Dammit, she’d fallen in love with the idiot. Every little fight had been foreplay, and now she had to live with the consequences. Being the one who fell in love would not do. She had to get out of there.

Her worry was quickly growing into panic. It clawed at her throat and she had to swallow several times to keep from losing it.

She quietly slipped out of the bathroom, then out of the bedroom and down the hall. It was the coward’s way. Later she could do it. She could control her feelings if she had some space and time before she had to see him again. If she had to encounter him now, she might just beg, and that she couldn’t deal with. So, doing something she would have chastised anyone else for, she hurriedly packed her things and called for a car to take her to the airport.

And maybe someday she would stop hating that she didn’t have the nerve to face him.

…

Trevor woke the next morning, his body ready to take on the day. He hadn’t been this relaxed in months, and he knew the reason for it. He reached for Lainey, but found his bed cold. He sat up frowning. He listened, thinking she might be in the shower.

No sounds. With quick movements, he pulled on a pair of jeans but didn’t bother buttoning them.

“Elaine?” he called out. Nothing. He heard dripping, but it must be the melting snow outside. Now he really was worried. He rushed out of the room yelling her name. His first thought was that something had happened to her. He ran down to her room and found it empty. The bed was made. Of course it was. Elaine Masterson didn’t leave her room in a mess, he thought with a sneer. He looked in her bathroom and found her toiletries missing, as was her suitcase.

Bloody hell.
She’d left him.

The phone rang and he ran over to pick it up.

“Hey, Trevor. I’ve been trying to get ahold of Elaine but I can’t,” Mick said.

“That’s because, my dear man, your Elaine ran away.”

There was a beat of silence. “What are you talking about?”

“You know what I’m talking about. She’s taken off.”

Another pause. “And you’re pissed off about this because…?”

“Because?” He screamed into the phone. “Because I had the best night of my life with the woman. I was ready to offer her everything, but when I woke up she was gone.”

Mick sighed. “That doesn’t sound good. She never does things like that unless she feels threatened.”

Irritation caused him to speak more sharply with his friend than he normally would have. “Yes, well you know her better than I do.”

“I would smack you for that comment, but since I know you are jealous of me, I will let it go. Well, that and the fact that you’re in another country. What you don’t understand is that for you this is a good sign.”

“Well,” Trevor said, sarcasm filling his tone, “why don’t you explain it to me, Uncle Mick?”

“You think you know her, but you don’t. Do you know how she grew up?”

“Foster homes.”

“That’s something at least,” Mick said. “She rarely tells anyone that. Can you imagine what it’s like to move from house to house? She never had anyone she could count on.”

It was Trevor’s turn to sigh. “That doesn’t explain her actions now.”

“Tell me what happened?”

He hesitated then poured out the important details. He kept some of it to himself because it didn’t feel right sharing it with Mick, not when he was still too raw, and even if he was furious with Lainey, it would feel like he was betraying her.

“Well, you’re gonna have to go fetch her.”

“What do you mean?”

“Listen, the woman has never had a lasting relationship, ever. I’ve known her for over three years and men just don’t last with her.”

“Except for you.”

Mick snorted. “Yeah, and she sees me as a brother. It’s the only reason she keeps me around.”

He’d like to believe it, but there was a tiny part of Trevor that worried about that.

“You’re still not convinced.” The resignation in his friend’s voice had Trevor reevaluating the situation.

“What aren’t you telling me?” he asked. The moment he did, he regretted it. Did he really want to know if there was something going on? Did he want to know if Mick was in love with her?

“We kissed once.”

“What?” Trevor yelled into the phone.

“Ow, dammit, I’m going to be deaf now.”

“Sorry, but I don’t think you can lay something like that on me and not expect that reaction.”

“Well, you don’t have to worry. The kiss—if you can call it that—was not arousing at all.”

He blinked. “You mean you kissed Lainey, and it didn’t turn you on at all?”

“Kind of hard to do, chap, when we both ended up laughing. It grossed us both out. Her words not mine. It was like kissing a sibling.”

Trevor sighed. “Good.”

“Why is that good?”

“Now I don’t have to kill you.”

Mick laughed. “I knew you wanted her. Lord, I never knew you would fall for her.”

“Lock, stock, and barrel.”

“As I said, you need to go claim her.”

“I did that last night…more than once.”

Mick tsked. “Not sex. You have to go get her and convince her you want her forever. If you let her get on that plane, you’ll lose her, mate.”

“You think she went to the airport?”

“Of course she did. You scared the hell out of her.”

“I didn’t do anything.”

“You bedded her, and she cared for you. I’ve never seen her react to a man like she does to you. You need to make sure you get to her before she heads back to Atlanta. If she does, it is going to take you much longer to get her back.”

Knowing Mick was right, Trevor stood and strode down the hall. “I’m still at a loss why she ran like that.”

“She loves you. She’s never had anyone love her back except maybe me. This is just easier for her to deal with it this way.”

“It’s not like her, though.” And that had him worried. What if Mick was wrong? He could lay his heart out for her and she could stomp on it.

“There is a good chance if she said she loved you, and you said thanks but no thanks, she would shatter. She’s afraid of love.”

Trevor pulled the phone away and looked at it before bringing it back to his ear. “What the bloody hell are you talking about? Lord, you sound like my sister now.”

“I know you. I know Elaine. I set this weekend up so you could either work it out of your system or propose. You both owe me.”

“Great, you went from talking about feelings to being a pimp.”

“Don’t push it. I could keep calling her and tell her you don’t want anything to do with her.”

“Bugger off.”

His friend had the nerve to laugh. “Okay, go get her. She has never taken that chance on someone. She might have been scared to even tell you how she felt, but, buddy, she has the feelings. So you have two choices. You either go get her or you go back to the way you were. If that’s what you want.”

Go back to that? No way. He couldn’t imagine seeing her every day and not being able to touch her. If he was insane before now, he would be demented knowing just how she tasted, and how her voice sounded when she moaned his name.

“Not possible.”

“Well, your only other option is to marry her.”

“Marry her?”

The words bounced around in his brain for a few seconds. As soon as he said the words, Trev felt the rightness of it. Marriage. Of course. He didn’t want another woman, ever. He wanted Lainey.

“She’s going to need a big gesture, and that’s about as big as you can get there, mate.”

“Right. Yes. Okay. Bye.”

Mick was still talking when he clicked the phone off. He needed to get to the airport and stop her from leaving. If she wanted a big gesture she was bloody well going to get it. Macmillan style.

He started dialing Harold’s number with a renewed sense of hope. The woman wouldn’t know what hit her.

Chapter Nine

The airport was a mess when Elaine arrived. With all the flights having been canceled the day before, the terminal was filled with angry, tired people trying to get home. Now, thirty minutes later, she was still waiting in line. Anxiety had her stomach churning. She had just stepped up to the airline’s ticket counter when she heard Trevor’s voice.

“Elaine Masterson, where do you think you’re going?”

She closed her eyes, then drummed up all the courage she had and turned to face him.

God, he was furious. His hair was a mess, he was unshaven, and his eyes were filled with anger. He was dressed, but that probably had to do with the weather. From the looks of him, Elaine wondered what he would be wearing if they had been stuck in Hawaii. And worse, even in that state, he looked ten times better than she did. Men sucked.

“Well, don’t you have anything to say?” Anger dripped from every syllable.

“I—I’m going back to Atlanta, Trevor.”

She started to hear the whispers from the other travelers, and tried her best to ignore them. No one might know her, but people knew Trevor. Cell phones were raised, and she knew these pictures were going to end up on some kind of gossip show.
Dammit.

He stopped within inches of her. “You called me Trev last night.”

Swallowing, it took her a moment to find her voice again. “I—”

“Sorry, I was wrong. You
moaned
Trev last night.”

Oh, lord, he had to bring that up? There were a few snickers in the crowd, and her embarrassment turned to anger. She settled her hands on her hips and ignored the few pictures that were being taken.

“What do you think you’re doing to me? Trying to embarrass me because I didn’t pledge my undying love to you?”

He didn’t say anything at first. Then he shook his head as he seemed to relax. “No. I want you to act like an adult and discuss what happened last night.”

That would be hell for her, and she didn’t want to deal with it. Not today, not ever. “I don’t think there needs to be a discussion about that.”

Real anger moved over his expression, but there was a hint of vulnerability to it. “I do, mainly because I’m not letting the woman I’ve been in love with for months disappear on me.”

Elaine sighed knowing this was going to play out in public. “I’m hardly going to disappear on you. We own a…”

She let her voice trail off when she realized what he had said. She shook her head trying to figure out what he meant. “What?”

“Imagine me realizing I had found the one woman for me. That all those months she was irritating me, I was falling in love with her. Then I wake up and she’s gone.” He glanced at Harold who had just joined him. “Left me in bed all by myself to run away.”

Harold gave her a look of disappointment and shook his head. “Not very nice of you, miss.”

She looked at their driver as tears burned the back of her eyes. “I—I didn’t know.” Looking back at Trev, she blinked and felt a tear escape. “You can’t love me.”

He crossed his arms over his chest. “Well, I do love you, and whether you like it or not, you’re mine.”

The vehemence in his voice stopped her tears. “Excuse me?”

“Oh, get mad, but deal with it. I did. And it might be caveman of me to put it that way, but I don’t know how else to get the idea across to you. I want you always, not just at work. I figured out last night you were the one for me. I want you beside me when I fall asleep at night, and I want your scent on my sheets in the morning.”

She wasn’t sure of it, but it sounded like every woman in the terminal sighed.

“That’s not fair,” she said, and was embarrassed when it came out on a sob. She closed her eyes and covered her face. She couldn’t deal with it, or the hope she was having. He was saying all the right things, but part of her knew it couldn’t be real. Men didn’t say things like that to her, especially men like Trevor Macmillan.

He stepped forward, brushed her hands away, and cupped her face in his palms. “I don’t want to play fair, not when the one woman I know I want in my life forever is trying to run away from me. I need you, Lainey. Don’t leave me.”

Her heart melted. Never had a person said those words to her, said the kinds of things he did. And she wanted it, wanted it all. But…

“Don’t think, Lainey,” he said as he bent his head. His voice was barely a whisper. “Just go with it.”

Trevor pressed his mouth against hers. He pulled back, their lips still close. “Marry me, love. I don’t think I could live without you.”

The tears she had fought off now streamed down her face. Trevor brushed them away with his thumbs. The sweetness of the gesture was her undoing.

“Love?” he asked. For the first time he sounded unsure of himself. She realized now he was laying his heart on the line and was just as vulnerable as she was.

“Yes. Yes, I’ll marry you, Trev.”

He released a breath and then kissed her. This one was hot, hard and so, so wet. When they pulled back from each other she realized the entire crowd was applauding. Her face went hot again.

Trev laughed as he looked around. “You might get embarrassed, love, but you better get accustomed to it, being married to me.”

Instead of buying a ticket, though, he picked up her bag. He turned her toward Harold.

“We have to head back to Atlanta, Trev.”

“No, we don’t. Mick can deal without us for a few more days, and it serves him right.”

“Are you complaining that he stuck us up here together?” she asked with a smile.

Trev shook his head. “No, but the bugger needs to learn to live with the results. Harold, my good man, we need a ride to the cabin.”

“Trev…”

“Lainey…come on. You know you want to be bad.”

She looked at the man who had driven her insane over the last few months. That little grin that curled the corners of his mouth had her heart tripping over itself.

“Yes, but—”

“No, buts. Well, maybe one or two of a different variety.”

He was really too much. A bubble of laughter welled up, and she shook her head. “You really are a bad man.”

“But you like it.” He wiggled his eyebrows. “Come, love, let Mick deal with what he caused himself. I’ve a few more dishes I want to tempt you with.”

She laughed, her heart filled with joy, and walked out of the airport, arm and arm with Trev.

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