Mistletoe Match-Up (Romancing Wisconsin #3) (10 page)

Derek snagged his jacket but didn’t waste time putting it on for fear Lisa would beat him out of the lot. The truck’s engine turned over as he leapt from the porch. Three strides later, he yanked open the driver’s side door. Lisa jerked back against the seat.

“Geez! You scared the heck out of me.” Her left hand quickly rose to swipe across her cheek.

Shit
. She’d been crying. “Move over.”

“No.”

“Lisa, I’m driving, end of discussion.”

She grabbed her jacket and purse and scooted across to the other side. Derek climbed in, and she opened the passenger door.

“Whoa—where’re you going?”

“Nowhere with you.”

Derek leaned back against the seat in defeat. It wasn’t like he could make her stay and listen to his apology. Unless… “That works for me. I get my truck back, and your brother gets a chance to have all his questions answered.”

She paused, half out the door. Purely on reflex, Derek switched on the wipers to clear the new inch of fallen snow off his windshield. He caught a flicker of movement in the living room window at the same time a spray of snow from the wipers showered Lisa.

Her gasp made him cringe. “Sorry.”

She shook her hair back, brushed off, and pulled herself back inside the truck before slamming the door. Staring straight ahead, hugging her jacket to her stomach, she said, “Drive. And I don’t want to hear one gol-damn word from you.”

Derek put the truck in gear and laid his hand along the back of the seat, twisting to watch that he didn’t hit anything as he turned around. His fingers itched to touch her hair, to feel its soft silkiness. Facing forward again, he resolutely gripped the steering wheel with both hands. At the end of the long driveway, he braked. “Seatbelt.”

Lisa yanked the belt across her front and clicked the lock home. Derek eased onto the unplowed road before reaching to turn on the radio. Anything to fill the silence.

Questions raced through his mind while he navigated the slippery roads with Phil Vassar singing in the background. Would she give him a chance to talk before she went inside her parent’s house, or would she make him wait until she cooled off? And how long would that take? Tomorrow? The next day? A week?

Cold dread filled him at the thought that he may have ruined everything.

About a block before the bakery, a Jingle Bells ringtone sounded from Lisa’s purse. She reached to turn down the radio and answered the phone. “Dad—what’s up?” Her pause ended with a frustrated growl. “I can’t believe he called you already…no…no…Dad, tell Mom I’m fine—nothing happened!”

Though his attention was focused on the slick road again, Derek still felt her glare.

“I didn’t tell anyone because I handled it, and I wanted to avoid this exact conversation…no—there’s nothing to discuss… listen, Dad, I gotta go. The roads are bad here in town and they’ll be even worse out by the house, so I’m going stay at Derek’s tonight…”

Derek’s brows rose.
Hmm
. He listened to her navigate a new set of objections before snapping her phone shut. Nearing his street, he slowed the truck and flicked on the right turn signal.

“I didn’t lie, so don’t you dare say one word,” she warned.

“I wouldn’t dream of it.”

“All of this is your fault anyway.”

“I know, and I’m sorry,” he said with complete sincerity.

“If you’d have kept your big mouth shut—”

“You wouldn’t be forced to spend the night with me to avoid talking to your family.”

“Oh, shut up,” she huffed. “You don’t know everything.”

He did know she was running again. But somehow he’d managed to become the lesser of two evils. No way in hell he’d jeopardize a golden opportunity. He pulled into his driveway and pressed the garage door remote on his visor to park inside, right next to her vehicle.

“Are you done with my car yet?” Annoyance still coated her words.

“I have to put the muffler on yet.”

“But it starts?”

“Yes.” He got out of the truck and opened the house for her. Instead of following her into the kitchen, he closed the door, pulled on his jacket and a pair of gloves, and grabbed a shovel off the rack by the door. Lisa Riley in his house presented a whole slew of temptations he was better off avoiding for a little while. Her enticing perfume in the truck cab had been hard enough to ignore, even with the help of her anger.

The first scrape of aluminum against concrete abraded his eardrums, but the swing of his arms soothed his tense body. Physical activity always helped clear his head. Well, almost always. Their basketball game had really thrown him off.

A dozen or so shovelfuls later, he heard the door open and close behind him. Tension recoiled in his muscles. A quick glance sideways confirmed Lisa had come back outside. She took his second shovel off the garage wall. He stopped and rested a forearm over his hand on the shovel grip while she began clearing the opposite side of his driveway.

She’d traded her fashionable leather boots for an old pair of his snow boots, one of his scarves warmed her neck, and his black knit hat blended with her dark curls. His gaze dropped to the snug fit of her jeans when she bent over for another scoop of snow.

“I can go back inside if you’re going to just stand and watch,” she said without turning around.

Derek began to shovel again. “I really am sorry about earlier.”

“Forget it. It’s not that big a deal.”

“Apparently, it is.”

“I don’t want to talk about it, okay?”

Growing suspicion led him to her side. “You know, Lisa, something just isn’t right here. If nothing happened, why are you so hell bent on keeping the incident a secret?”

The possibility that the man had succeeded in forcing himself on her made Derek want to explode. He dropped his shovel and grasped both her arms, gentle but firm. Her shovel also clattered to the cement as he forced her to meet his gaze through the falling snow.

“Did he hurt you?”

Surprise lit her eyes, then her lashes lowered, and she stared at his chest. “Not like you think—I swear to God. Yeah, he tried, and it was degrading and humiliating, but not so bad after I decked him.” She sighed. “No, the real problem is, he reminded me of myself.”

Derek pulled back in disbelief at her ashamed statement. “What?”

“We’d talked one time, on the bus between campaign stops. I was flattered he’d taken an interest in my career choices…in me. We had a lot in common—successful through high school and college, he worked his way up the political ladder the same way I was. But then, after what happened, I saw my entire life in a whole new light and I didn’t like it, or myself.”

She took a deep breath but still wouldn’t look him in the eye. “I hated the fact that I always had to best everyone at everything. I told you it was my word against his, but the real truth is I never fought for another campaign job because I didn’t want to be anything like him. I wanted out.”

“And that’s why you haven’t stayed with a job since then, isn’t it?”

She shrugged. “It isn’t in me to do a bad job…and inevitably, I’d get promoted. I realize now, fear kept me from going down that road again, so I’d quit and start over somewhere else. Or get myself fired.”

Derek wanted to laugh at the absurdity of her self-destructive actions. Instead, he drew her into his arms and held her against his chest. “Damn, Lisa, that’s really screwed up, you know that?”

His coat only partially muffled her choked laugh. “I do now.”

When she turned her head and rested her cheek on his shoulder, a fierce surge of protectiveness tightened his hold. “Listen, you asked if I believed in karma—and, yeah, I think people get what’s coming to them. I believe what goes around comes around, and that jackass will get his eventually, but you’ve got to know you’re nothing like him.”

“How do you know, you’ve never even met him.”

He held her at arm’s length. “I’ve seen him on TV. Never liked him, and now I know why.”

She smiled briefly. That was something. Their gazes locked. The overwhelming desire to kiss her prompted him to step back and pick up the shovels once more. Earlier in the evening he would’ve had no problem continuing the game she’d started at the gym, but after the last half hour, he didn’t want to push her. Any offensive move in the physical direction tonight rested in her court.
 

She accepted a shovel, and he moved back to his side of the driveway. “Lisa, I don’t ever remember you hurting anyone to get what you wanted. You simply did it better. You earned everything you got.”

This time she watched him work. “What about you?” she asked. “Didn’t I hurt you by not letting you win?”

“I didn’t want you to
let
me win. That would’ve pissed me off.”

“And it didn’t piss you off that you never won?”

“Oh, hell, yeah.” He let loose a chuckle. “In fact, as long as we’re being truthful here, I resented you for years—especially when you came back and it seemed like nothing had changed. But I’ve since come to realize I needed you back then.”

He paused after that admission, but the rhythmic back and forth swing of the shovel made it easier to continue, so he resumed shoveling and talking. “Our rivalry was the main thing that held me together when I first came here my freshman year. It gave me something to focus on and helped me through the worst time of my life. You led me down a path that saved me and my grandparents a heck of a lot of trouble.”

“So what—without me you would’ve become a delinquent?” she teased.

“No joke, I was on my way.”

Her head tilted to the side with a hint of a smile. “Ironically, we’re the best thing that ever happened to each other. Without you, I doubt I’d ever have become valedictorian. You were so angry and defensive the first time we met.”

“You felt sorry for me.” Old-time frustration put extra force behind Derek’s next shovel full of snow.

“You’d just lost both your parents, of course I felt sorry for you—until you shoved that first challenge in my face.”

“I was so sick of seeing pity on everyone’s face. When the prettiest girl in class gave me the same look, I felt like a total loser.”

Lisa made a humming noise of compassion. He swung another scoop into the yard. “Don’t go feeling sorry for me now. Believe me, I got past it.”

“Which one? Me being the prettiest girl or you feeling like a loser?”

A seductive note in her question over-rode his earlier restraint. He turned to find her only inches away. His pulse picked up speed when she stuck her shovel in a snow bank and then took his to do the same.

The yard light from above the garage reflected in her gray eyes, revealed rosy cheeks, and illuminated the most kissable pair of lips he’d ever desired. Shiny ebony curls framed her natural beauty under his knit cap. Looking at her took his breath away.

“You’re still the prettiest girl around.”

Those lips curved into a dazzling smile. “In that case…it’s high time you won one.” Her hands slid up his chest and around his neck, closing the distance between them. She held his gaze, her lips a breath away from his. “Don’t you think?”

Some stupid, crazy part of him questioned her headlong advance, but the memory of her persuasive curves argued with the little voice deep in the recesses of his mind. Derek forced his hands to remain on her hips in a last-ditch effort to keep his rising anticipation in check. “You’re not still mad at me?”

She pressed closer. “I got past it.”

He surrendered the internal battle he had no interest in winning. “Good. Because, yes, I think I’m more than due a few victories.”

His arms tightened, and he slanted his mouth over hers. Three days since their last kiss, yet it seemed a lifetime ago that he’d tasted anything so sweet; her unique flavor he’d been craving since the night in the gym.

One hand rose to tangle in her hair, holding her head to allow his tongue deeper exploration. The moist warmth of her mouth made him shudder with the thought of burying himself in her heat. A groan escaped his mouth when her hips snugged against his. It’d be a miracle if she didn’t burn him alive.

He began to sweat despite the winter chill, and backed her toward the house. “What do you say we take this inside?”

“What about the driveway?” she asked between kisses.

“You started this—now you want to finish the driveway?”

“Not really, I was just being polite.”

“How about you help me in the morning when it’s done snowing?”

“It’s never done snowing around here.”

“Then you’ll have to stay until winter’s over.” Out of nowhere, nervousness drove in for a lay-up as he waited for her response.

 
She laughed and twisted out of his arms toward the house. “Nice try. Warm me up now and we’ll talk about slave labor later.”

He pushed aside an unexpected weight of disappointment and caught her at the door. “You’ll be warm in no time. Promise.”

He kicked the door shut once they were inside. She removed her hat at the same time he pulled her hair and scarf aside to bare her neck. His light, playful bite made her shiver. An answering wave of desire swept through him. Tasting and teasing with each loop of the scarf, he unwound the material and tossed it on the counter.