Holiday Romance Collection - 6 Books Bundle (Erotic Romance - Holiday Romance) (14 page)

"I will be over after my morning coffee, see you then?"

"See you then."

He walked her to the door and leaned against the frame, as she walked toward the tree line that would lead to the trail to take her to her temporary home. She felt eyes on her backside and looked over her shoulder, he was openly watching her walk away.
 
She waved and put a little extra sway in her step as she disappeared into the forest.
 

Who knew the site manager would be such a fox
? He was certainly yummy. Thick where he should be, slim where he should be, and seemed confident, cocky, but still charming. Sweet, making her eat when she was clearly hungry but trying to be polite. A good cook too, if that chili was any indication. Maybe they could compare recipes
. Or body parts
, she thought wickedly. His warm, milk chocolate eyes seemed to invite her to dive in. His dimples made her want to document all his ticklish spots just to make him smile and see those dimples again. Ok maybe not just to see him smile. Here she was in a beautiful forest in the mountains and all she could see was her handsome new neighbor.
 

Rose was a little surprised at her reaction to this man she had just met. She was no nun, she had met quite a few men, dated a few, even thought herself in love, for awhile, with Richard. She had never had quite the reaction to anyone she just had to Triston. She picked up the pace a bit as the sun began to get very low. She just hit the tree line that opened to the clearing to her cabin when it began to snow. Rose squealed as she lifted her face to the big, fat flakes drifting softly around her. She opened her mouth and stuck out her tongue to catch flakes on it.
 

She stayed that way for a while; catching snowflakes on her tongue until her toes were numb and she couldn't feel her face before going inside and opening the blinds.
 
Standing quietly to watch the snow falling softly in the darkening evening. A fire was easier to get started than she thought, and did much to warm the lingering chill in the room. Unpacking was short work and she even went so far as to move some of the furniture around to better suit her needs for the next two months or so.
 
She parked herself in the oversized leather chair by the writing table and bay window looking out on the snowy landscape. She settled in with a mug of hot chocolate. She had a couple fresh ideas bouncing around her head and sat down to start typing. She looked up hours later to a few finished chapters, an empty mug, a stiff back, and a respectably thick white blanket covering the ground, with no sign of stopping, and decided it was bedtime.
 

Rose woke the next morning to a cold room. The heat was working, it was just
cold
. She reluctantly crawled out of bed to hit the bathroom and start coffee. Luckily she slept in fuzzy purple socks so her feet were protected from the cold hardwood floors of the bedroom, and downright frigid tiles of the bathroom floors. She padded to the kitchen, started a pot of coffee, and rummaged around her bag. The doughnuts were a purchase at the gas station along the way and boy was she happy she thought to grab them. Her tummy growled, Rose liked to eat a good breakfast pretty shortly after she woke. She was a hungry girl first thing in the morning. She would have groceries today thanks to the oh-so-sexy site manager, Triston. Rose began nibbling on a doughnut chewing thoughtfully.
 

She would be seeing him shortly. That thought sent a spiral of butterflies through her belly and down lower. She pondered what would develop over the next couple months. There was no desire to replace her ex, but she was single, and she was here for a couple months to finish her book. She was attracted to him but she didn't need distractions and if that man was anything it was distracting.
 
Hell, she couldn't even concentrate on her coffee for thinking about him.
Maybe she could just have him a couple times to get him out of her system
. Something tells me he isn't that easy to get out of your system
. No kidding. She just met him and she couldn't keep her mind from wandering back to him and his smile, those eyes that butt.
 

Rose decided to take advantage of waking in such an apparently romantic mood and sat to type out a few more pages before heading out Triston's cabin. She didn't want to show up at the crack of dawn and seem too eager or pushy. She sat and let the story flow out of her for the next hour and a half or so, before she decided to bundle up and get her groceries. Properly layered in gear and pulling a wagon to bring home all her groceries, she set out toward Triston's cabin.
 

The walk was brisk but short, and it was a good thing too because the snow was a little more difficult to manage than she anticipated. Rose saw a deer again and thought it might be the same one but wasn't sure.
How do you really tell deer apart
?

She came upon the clearing to his house but something felt off. It was quiet, too quiet, no smoke rose from the chimney and there were no signs of life. His truck was parked next to the house but no sign of Triston. She poked around a bit, not trying to be too intrusive. She thought she saw something out back near the woodpile so she made her way that way. She saw something large and brown partially covered in snow. As she got closer she saw some fur but it was too large to be a dog. She crept carefully nearer and realized it was both man and dog. Triston was lying in the snow and had been in it for long enough to be partially covered. A large scruffy brown dog lay next to, and partially on top of him, keeping him warm.
 

Oh Damn.
Rose rushed over to Triston's prone form. He was breathing, so he was alive, but there was a small wound on his head. She felt his head and he felt feverish despite being unconscious in the snow for god knows how long. She tried to wake him up but no luck, she frantically ran inside the house to call for help. She reached the office number and they told her they would send a doctor up there as it soon as they could. It would be too dangerous for them to move him down the mountain on all the icy roads. She hefted him, with much straining and grunting, mostly into the wagon she brought.
Now what
? She looked around and heaved him towards his house.
 

Rose sweated, heaved, and grunted her way to the back of his house using the wagon to dump him on the porch, link her fingers under his armpits and drag him into the living room. She rolled and shoved him onto his couch and began stripping off his snow soaked clothes. She had somewhat hoped to be removing his clothes for the first time to be a much more erotic, much less panic inducing act. She finally got him down to his mostly dry boxers, unwilling to strip him all the way down while he was unconscious, and then started a fire.
 

The doctor arrived, everything you would expect from a country doctor that makes house calls. He was short, his white hair was mostly absent from the top of his head, and he had thick glasses and a warm smile. The reigning train of thought was that he had the fever before and not as a result of the head wound. Speculation was that the fever caused him to be woozy enough to fall and hit his head. The doctor gave him an injection and Rose was instructed to watch him closely, keep fever reducer in him, and report if he wakes or worsens. She had never really played nurse before but was willing to give it a shot. Not exactly sure how she got roped in to caring for a stranger, she agreed to help. The doctor watched over Triston while Rose got some clothes and items from her cabin, showered, and put everything in her wagon, making sure to include her laptop for working while he recuperated.
 

When she returned, the doctor excused himself to see to other patients and left with a few further instructions. Once things settled down and the house was quiet again she realized the dog was still there, curled in front of the fire, getting warmed up. She examined the dog; it looked like a chocolate lab mixed mutt, no collar, no tags, likely a stray but without that mutt Triston would likely have suffered hypothermia. She didn't know if it was his dog but she didn't see it there yesterday and hadn’t found any evidence of a dog, dog food, bed, leash, or anything like that. She approached the dog slowly, listening to his tail thump in anticipation, she stroked it's back and it rolled over, exposing it's belly.
Yup, definitely a boy dog
.
 

"What should I call you? " Rose said to the big brown mutt, "How about we call you Bernie? You're kind of like those St. Bernard’s that rescue lost skiers"
 

The dog lifted its head and thumped its tail a few times.
 

"I will take that as a yes"

Bernie watched her expectantly; she stared back blankly, thinking. All of the sudden it dawned on her, she slapped her forehead and walked into the kitchen. She opened drawers till she found two bowls, filled one with water, rooted in the fridge and found some turkey for the second bowl. She wished she had asked the doctor to bring dog food back but it never crossed her mind. Setting a bowl of water and a bowl of food down, Bernie came trotting up, just nosing the water but eating hungrily. Now she had time to actually think about what was happening. She had effectively invited herself in to be his nurse for the next two to three days or so.
How do I keeping getting myself in situations like this
?
 

She looked at him, lying motionless in the bed the doctor helped her get him in to. He looked so boyishly handsome she couldn't resist running the backs of her fingers across the stubble on his cheek. His skin felt so warm, she turned her hand to palm his cheek. His cheeks were flushed with a feverish color and he felt hot and dry. Rose tucked an extra blanket in, got a cool cloth from his bathroom, and pressed it to his head. He shifted, groaned, and tossed on the bed, he calmed when she stroked his cheek. She spoke to him in a low, calm voice telling him how he needed to lay still to get better, and whatever else she could think of to soothe him. He finally calmed and she waited till the injections the doctor gave him to kick in. A few minutes later he finally rested in a much less troubled sleep.
 

She smoothed his hair away from his forehead and smiled as he heaved a heavy sigh and turned toward her hand. He did appear to be comforted by her touch.
Great, while the man is unconscious and delirious, he likes you. Fantastic.
At least he seemed to like her on some level. As ridiculous as it was it did make her feel better, and a little intrigued at the same time. She liked him, she just met him and through freak chances ended up volunteering to stay and care for him. She could have said no, but getting closer with this man did seem appealing.
 

While in the living room she made sure to stoke the fire, refilled the dog bowl already, and grabbed her laptop. It was early afternoon by now and she was hungry. Luckily she had both the groceries she ordered there, as well as any he had for himself. She rummaged around and found enough to make a sandwich, have some chips, and pour a glass of milk.
Simple
. She set the stuff down on the table next to her laptop. She double-checked his door, only a few feet away, to make sure it was open so she could hear if he got restless. She took a bit of sandwich, chewed a bit, drank some milk and honed in on the keyboard.
 

Three hours later, her meal long since consumed, she stopped writing to look around. She checked on Triston, let the dog out, and padded into the kitchen. One pot of coffee, coming up. It was odd to feel so instantly comfortable in someone else's house. I guess it shouldn't surprise her, just one more odd thing to add to the growing pile of oddness that was her life right now. She rooted around the fridge and freezer till she found chicken and began to thaw some. Bernie scratched at the door and Rose let him in, he ambled past her and found his spot by the fireplace again. She smiled at him and scratched him on his belly, his back leg twitched when she hit a certain spot.
 

"Get your tickle spot, did I?"

Rose changed into sweats and got the fire going again. She wrapped in a blanket on the couch, put in a movie she had never seen, and alternated between looking at the window at the snow, that began to fall harder and harder, and the movie before she gave in to her drowsiness and fell asleep in a mass of blankets on the couch.
 

While her eyes fought to open her mind rebelled and pouted for more sleep. She remembered when her mother would wake her early.
Later, she said, always later
.
 

"Not later, now! Why are you in my house?"

Her eyes flew open and she sat up quickly, forgetting she was on a couch and not on a bed. She was unable to correct her momentum midflight resulting in a tumble, ass over teakettle, right off the couch.
 
She squealed in surprise as she fell. It took a moment to untangle herself from the mass of blankets, legs, and arms. She peeked up at him while trying to right her hair and sputtered, her fuzzy purple socks poking out of the tangle of blankets.