Spring River Valley: The Winter Collection (Boxed Set) (19 page)

Then, in the middle of her trying to make a hasty retreat, he’d popped up in front of her and kissed her nearly senseless.

She had to be nearly senseless to begin with to have gone to his apartment in the first place. What was she thinking? She wasn’t into Max. He made her insane, in fact.

And that kiss had made her lose her mind. She thought of scooping up a handful of snow and dropping it down the front of her shirt to cool herself off. She was way too young to be having hot flashes, but this had to be what one felt like. Thank God Chad had showed up, or who knew what would have happened?

Not true. She knew exactly what would have happened, and the thought of it left her quaking in her boots. She would have led Max Shannon to his bedroom and shown him exactly what physically demanding activity she had in mind.

And now she couldn’t get it out of her mind.

“I need help. Serious help.” She climbed into her car and slammed the door, shaking loose an avalanche of snow from the windows. While the heater blasted warm air and the windows defrosted, she dialed Cassandra’s number. The girl owed her one, and she planned to collect.

“I think you’re out of your mind.” Harper plunked a tuna sandwich and a can of iced tea down on her kitchen table in front of Audrey, then stood, hands on hips, glaring at her. “You’re being utterly unreasonable.”

Audrey eyed the sandwich. “You forgot the pickle.”

“Oh, my god. Are you even listening to me?” Harper rummaged in her fridge and returned a second later with a jar of dill spears. She threw herself into the chair across from Audrey and picked up half of her own sandwich. “Don’t try that wide-eyed innocent look with me.”

“What?” Audrey said after a bite. “The guy just isn’t right for me. When we’re together, it’s like a roller coaster. One minute he’s sweet and charming and I’m contemplating tearing his clothes off; the next minute he says something that makes me want to kick him in the…shins.”

“Ever heard the word ‘passion,’ my dear? Look it up. Obviously the two of you are pushing each other’s buttons. You bring out the worst in each other because you can’t get over yourselves and just be honest.”

“No. That’s not it.” Audrey attacked her pickle. “We’re…like oil and water. Yes, he’s hot. My god, is he hot. His abs…you could bounce a Buick off them. And apparently he did that. He threw himself in front of Chad Marchand and saved the guy’s life.”

“I know. Chad must have told his father because Mr. Marchand told me to call him and offer him free tax service as a thank you.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

“Chad said he was the black sheep of the family.”

“He is, but only because he refuses to work at the firm. Mr. Marchand adores him. If anything had happened to him…I don’t know. Max’s name is like gold around my office.”

“Hmm. Well, regardless. Maybe he can date Chad, but Max and me—not going to ever work out. When I left his place, I thought my head was going to explode.”

“You’d just kissed him. That’s sort of normal.”

“I’ve kissed guys before. I never felt like that afterwards.”

Harper just looked at her, silent, a knowing smile on her face.

“No. Don’t even,” Audrey said, waving away the implication.

“Just listen to yourself. He makes you crazy; you can’t stop talking about him. You said when you saw his chart at the hospital, you panicked because you were afraid he might have been badly hurt. You ran to his place to bring him soup, he kissed you into a momentary coma, and your answer to all that is to ask his cousin to fix you up with Appendix Guy? What’s wrong with that picture?”

“She told me John was perfect for me. How will I know for sure if I never go out with him?”

“He’s obviously not perfect for you because Max is.”

“Max is far, far from perfect.”

“Let’s talk about his abs again, shall we?”

“Okay, he’s ripped, but so what?”

“And he melted your brain with that kiss, am I right?”

Audrey crossed her arms and sat back. “You’re missing the point.”

“I’m so not.”

“I don’t want a guy who leaves me unbalanced all the time. That’s not what I’m looking for.”

Harper sipped her tea. “Too bad. Looks like that’s what you found. Look, there’s a lot to be said for being swept off your feet.”

“Talk to me about you and Grant. Do you argue constantly? Does every other thing out of his mouth make you want to scream?”

Harper’s knowing grin widened. “We’re sleeping together. That cuts the tension pretty well.”

“So if I jump into bed with Max, he won’t be so irritating?”

“Now she gets it.”

“I’m sorry. I don’t buy that. You and Grant don’t fight because you’re in love and he’s a nice guy, and he probably cares about what you think and doesn’t deliberately say things to make you angry.”

“Max obviously wants to get a rise out of you, and if he can’t do it in the bedroom, he’ll try some other way.”

“That’s so childish.”

“He’s a guy.”

“I’m sorry, it’s just not going to work. You know me. I’m high-strung. I admit that. I need a down-to-earth guy who can keep me calm, not one who makes the top of my head pop off on a regular basis.”

Harper took the last bite of her sandwich. “I think you’ve seen exactly what you want, and it scares the hell out of you. Don’t go out with John. It’ll ruin everything with Max, and you’ll regret it.”

“There’s nothing ‘with’ Max to ruin.”

Harper shrugged. “Maybe you’re right, but I hope it doesn’t turn out to be one of those things you only realize after it’s too late to fix it.”

* * * *

Harper’s words echoed in Audrey’s brain throughout her shift at the hospital, but she refused to indulge in what-ifs. She didn’t want to spend her life as a quivering mess, aching for the touch of a guy who, in the space of a single sentence, could ruin her mood for an entire day. That wasn’t love. Love? It wasn’t even like. It might be infatuation, which was exactly what she didn’t want.

Exhausted, she dragged herself up the stairs to her apartment, ignoring the twinge in her ankle. The cold weather wasn’t helping the sprain heal, so she was looking forward to a long soak in a hot tub. “I thought I brought this in,” she muttered, bending to scoop up the snow-covered plastic bag containing the newspaper.

She tucked the paper under her arm and jiggled her key into the lock. Once inside, she turned to toss the paper onto the couch for reading later after she took her bath, but the headline, visible through the clear plastic, caught her attention immediately.

Local Hero Begs Gorgeous Nurse for Second Chance.

Audrey squinted and looked around. Had she read that right?

She grabbed the bag and slid the paper out of it. The front page contained the outrageous headline, plus a huge photo of Max holding a bouquet of flowers. The article under the picture was by Chad Marchand, and it read: “Photographer Max Shannon met a girl two weeks ago who shook the very foundation of his world. Unfortunately she won’t go out with him again because she thinks he’s a smart-ass and an axe murderer. So he asked his new friend,
Herald
reporter Chad Marchand to make a mock-up front page for him in which he declares his devotion and determination to put a smile on the face of the incomparably lovely Audrey Desmond.”

The next line read: “Call me.”

The rest of the article was gibberish, at least Audrey thought it was, but she couldn’t be sure. With her heart racing and her eyes a bit cloudy from welling tears, she couldn’t read a thing. She dumped her purse on the couch and fished her cell phone out of the flotsam. “Oh, come on…” Her fingers shook as she scrolled through her call list to find his number since she’d deliberately not put it into her contact list. “Come on…there!” She hit dial and waited. And waited. Damn him, was he playing hard to get now?

“Hello?” The sound of his voice sent a wave of something through her. She had to sit down.

“Finally! I thought you’d never answer.”

“Sorry. I’m in my car.”

“Oh. Call me back if you’re driving.”

“Okay.” He hung up, and Audrey just stared at the phone. “What the hell? What am I doing?” A second later her phone rang. “Hello?”

“I parked. What’s up?”

“What’s up? I got your…note.”

“What note?”

“The newspaper! It’s…ah…pretty damn amazing.”

“Oh…well. Chad said he owed me a favor. He’s pretty good with words, don’t you think?”

“Yes…I do.”

“Well. I gotta go. I’m meeting someone. I’ll call you later.”

“What…oh…uh…”

“Bye.” He hung up again. Audrey let out a very long, slow breath. The slow simmer had begun. This was all a joke to him, wasn’t it? He was putting her on once again. Just as she wound up to throw her phone across the room, her doorbell rang. She flung the door open, and there stood Max with the same bouquet of flowers he was holding in the picture on the paper.

“Sorry, I’m late,” he said. “I was on the phone.”

She gaped at him. He was insane. Completely out of his mind. “Get in here.” She grabbed the front of his coat and yanked him over the threshold into her arms, crushing the flowers in between them as she kissed him.

“Hey, easy there…some of these roses have thorns.” He broke the kiss for a second and eased the now crushed flowers out from between them, then he tossed them on the couch. “That’s better—”

Audrey kissed him again, her pulse pounding and her heart doing somersaults. Why was it every time she laid eyes on this man she couldn’t think straight? “This was the most romantic thing anyone’s ever done for me,” she said, working at the zipper of his coat. She had him out of it in a second and slid her fingers under the hem of his shirt.

He moaned and kissed her lips, her nose, her jaw while he muttered, “Chad’s a pretty romantic guy.”

Audrey pulled back. “Should I be kissing him then?”

“Never.” He lowered his hands to her backside and squeezed.

Audrey’s knees almost buckled. If she didn’t have him soon, she’d go insane. “You’re pretty lucky this worked. I might have thought it was creepy. Were you waiting outside for me to get home?”

“I called the hospital earlier and asked when your shift ended…ah…oh…do that again.” She’d tucked her fingers into his waistband and tugged on the edge of his briefs. He wrapped his arms around her and guided her toward the couch, which was full of the contents of her purse and broken flowers.

“Bedroom. This way. I hope you’re up for some very physically demanding activity.”

“I am up. I am definitely up.”

“Wait a minute, the hospital told you what time my shift ended?”

“No.”

“But you just said…”

“They told me they didn’t give out that information, so I called Taverna Fiora and talked to Grant who gave me Harper’s number, and I called her and
she
told me when your shift ended.”

“Wow.” Audrey’s swirling thoughts suspended for a second as she pulled Max over the threshold of her bedroom. She paused to pull the top of her scrubs over her head
. Oh, God, I’m wearing scrubs! I haven’t showered in sixteen hours!
“I smell like a hospital,” she whispered while she helped him open his belt.

“You smell like crushed roses.”

He pulled his own shirt off, and she nearly swooned. The perfect abs led up to perfect pecs and those edible biceps of his. She brushed her fingers over his nipples and watched them harden.

“You’re perfect,” she said.

He planted at kiss at the juncture of her neck and her shoulder and caught her when her knees gave way. “Save the critique for after. I can top perfect, trust me.”

“In the nightstand…condoms…”
she whispered as she pulled him toward the bed and fell onto it, him atop her. He scooted her body closer to the pillows and settled over her.

“Good to know, but there’s no rush. I plan to take all night.”

Oh, God
. Her whole body tingled.
All night.
The adrenaline pumping through her right now would definitely keep her awake until something else was pumping through her. She pulled his face down to hers and kissed him with everything she had. “Take me all night.”

“Oh, sweet Jesus, if you keep talking like that, I won’t last all night.”

She wrapped her legs around his hips and arched her back. He sighed, a gruff, feral sound, and started to explore beneath the edges of her bra.

“I’m…I just want you to know…”

“What?” He kissed her neck, her throat, covered one breast with his hand, and thumbed her nipple until she whimpered.

“I’ve been on duty for twelve hours. I’m…a little…oh…oh…Max!” He’d slipped his hand into her pants and found the edge of her panties. When his fingers dipped below that line, she lost her train of thought.

“You’re a little what?” He met her gaze, and he was the serious, concerned Max whose voice, whose hands, whose whole body turned her insides to liquid.