The Billionaire's Courageous Lover (Bold, Alaskan Men Book 3) (4 page)

“We were talking about when you were going to head back out of town, Andie.  You’re too…” his eyes moved down her figure again, “soft.”

Oh no!  Not back to that subject!  She’d just started liking him again! 

She looked up into those amazing green eyes and stopped herself from contradicting him.  She wouldn’t let him goad her on that subject.  Not this time. 

She smiled and moved a bit closer.  She wanted to run her hands over his chest, to feel his strong muscles underneath her fingertips.  But she wasn’t that brave.  Not yet, anyway. 

“I’m not leaving.  But I thank you very much for your assistance tonight.”  She looked down at his hands.  “Bean bag gun.  I’ll get one tomorrow.”

He sighed and stepped away from her, clenching his hands into fists so that he wouldn’t reach out and touch her.  “No.  You’ll pack up all of your…” he stopped and looked around.  “Where is your furniture?  Don’t you have a bed?”

She laughed softly.  “Everyone keeps asking me that.  I drove here ahead of my furniture.  It should be arriving in the next few days.”

He shook his head.  “You don’t have a bed.”

“I have a sleeping bag,” she told him and gestured to the floor where she’d been sleeping.  “It keeps me warm enough.  The rest will be here as soon as the stores ship it to me.”

He paused, not really understanding.  “What does that mean?” he demanded, as if her statement should make perfect sense. 

She shrugged.  “Well, I had to buy furniture.  I had it shipped to this address.  It takes a bit longer for the stores to ship up here than it does in the lower states.”

He ran a hand over his jaw, and thought about how he would need to shave before kissing her with all of that soft, tender skin.  “You have no idea,” he muttered.  “Honey, you might be without a bed for a while.  Why don’t you at least go over to the hotel in Appleton?”

She crossed her arms over her chest and shook her head.  “Because this is my home now.  I’m staying.”

He looked down at her and it took every ounce of his self-control not to pull her into his arms and explore all of her lush curves for himself.  And those points that were making his mouth water.  And the soft skin of her neck. 

“I have to go,” he told her, ignoring her offer of cookies. 

“Thank you,” she said again, laying a hand on his arm.  He felt good, she thought.  Better than good. 

He stopped and looked at her, astonished by how much he liked her touch.  “Don’t go outside until morning,” he told her gruffly.  He was about to pull the door open when he stopped and turned around.  “What the hell did you mean about the bear eating your eye lashes?” he asked, still stumped on that one. 

She laughed.  “Sorry.  I was in a panic and wasn’t forming full sentences very well.”  She pointed to her car, to the one headlight that still had a full row of eye lashes.  “The bear ate the other set.  It’s a VW Bug, so I got those fake eyelashes to make it look more like a bug.”  She looked at her car and smiled.  “I thought about getting some black magnetic dots, but I just haven’t gotten around to that yet.”

He grunted as he finally understood.  Her car would look like a giant lady bug.  Cute, he thought, but the car was totally impractical for Alaskan winters. 

Eyelashes?  He chuckled as he shook his head, thinking about the bear trying to…dispose…of the ingested, plastic eyelashes.  “Well, that’s one way to discourage him from coming back.”  He shifted and pulled the door open.  “I wouldn’t want to be that bear when the eye lashes come out the other end.” 

He slammed her door closed on her laughter, and moved swiftly to his truck.  It was the middle of the night and he hated to think of the neighbors who might be up, watching him leave her house.  He tossed the rifle onto the passenger seat and pressed the button on his SUV to start it up.  A moment later, he was driving back up his mountain, but he was fairly certain that he wasn’t going to get any more sleep tonight.  Not with the image of Andie in that satin gown going through his mind. 

Andie stood outside the doors to The Rotten Apple, pacing back and forth.  “Okay, what would your mother tell you to do?” she asked herself.  “No asking a man out under any circumstances!  A lady would convey her wishes indirectly,” Andie quoted, almost mimicking her mother’s voice. 

Back and forth, Andie walked in front of the doors to the bar.  It was Friday afternoon, and she’d had a wonderful first week of work.  No bears had disturbed her sleep, she still didn’t have a bed, but her kitchen table had been delivered yesterday afternoon.  It was all put together and ready to be used. 

She had absolutely no excuse except fear. 

“You can do this!”

“Andie?” a stern, loud, and deep voice asked. 

Andie spun around, her eyes moving higher as she took at Knox standing in the doorway to the bar.  “Oh!  Hello!” she smiled. Or at least, she hoped she was smiling.  By the look on his devastatingly handsome features, her expression might be a bit…off. 

“What are you doing out here?”

She looked up and realized that it was about to rain.  Again.  She was really struggling to get used to this rain, but she’d figure it out.  She already had a better raincoat, and her zebra striped rain boots looked pretty snazzy. 

“Um…I came to talk to you.”

“Out here in the rain?”

She looked up again and blinked as a big drop of rain fell on her forehead.  “Well, no.  I wasn’t planning on having a conversation here in the rain.  Although, I suppose I should expect rain.  It rains a lot here but…” she sighed, realizing that she was rambling.  She was nervous and she tended to ramble when she was nervous.  And now she was rambling in her mind.  Nervous. 

Forcing her mind to stop and focus, she looked up at him and tried to smile again.  “No.  I wasn’t going to talk to you in the rain.  That wasn’t my plan.”

Knox crossed his arms over his chest, unaware of how the movement highlighted the bulging muscles of his biceps and shoulders.  Or how it made her mouth go dry. 

“Yes, well, maybe this is better,” she said, rubbing her hands together.  “Less embarrassing perhaps.”

“What’s embarrassing, honey?” he asked gently, seeing that she was pretty wound up about something.  “Have you seen any other bears?”

She glanced up at his extraordinary, green eyes, then pulled her gaze away from all of those muscles.  “Bears?  Oh, no!  No bears!  Not lately though.  Thanks to you and that gun of yours.”  She smiled brightly.  “Thank you very much and I sincerely apologize for the bear.  He picked a very bad hour of the night to go exploring.”

He laughed, trying to ease her nervousness, but she was adorable.  She’d just apologized for the bear.  “Apology accepted.  But if the bear ever comes back, he’s going to have to say the words himself.”

She laughed a bit, but her nervousness came back full force when she realized that she was just procrastinating.  “Bears aside, I was wondering if…”

She paused and he took the opportunity to interrupt.  “Would you like to come inside?  It’s dryer.  And warmer.”

She peered around his huge shoulders to the warm interior but there were others inside.  “No.  I don’t think I want witnesses.”

His dark eyebrows went up with those words.  “Witnesses?  Are you going to shoot me?”

She blinked up at him, her silver eyes wide with horror.  “Excuse me?” Was he teasing her?  The mischief in his eyes told her that yes, he was very definitely teasing her.  “Oh.  Joke.  Right.”  She laughed, but the sounds was pretty weak. 

Knox took pity on her and wanted to help her spit out the words.  “Andie, whatever it is you want to tell me, just spit it out and we can move on.  I know what you’re going to say anyway.”  Knox was surprised by how disappointed he was.  He’d been waiting all week for her to call him up and tell him she was getting out of dodge, but his phone had been silent. 

A part of him had been hoping that she might really make it.  That she could handle the rain and the cold nights even though it kept getting colder.  He’d secretly been hoping she was as strong as she’d said she was.

Not to mention, all of the locals were coming into The Rotten Apple, talking about how pretty the new English teacher was, how she was really getting the kids excited about reading for once.  She was like a breath of fresh air in the school.

But he had known that this would happen.  She’d gotten sick of the worry, the rain and the cold.  Some people loved it, thrived on it.  Others struggled with the diminishing daylight and the almost constant rain that would very soon turn to snow as the temperature dropped. 

He told himself that this was for the best.  Better for her to leave now.  Already, he was driving by her house, making sure things were secure, talking to the school principal to make sure she was fitting in well enough and trying to anticipate problems so that she wouldn’t get hurt in any way. 

Andie sighed and clasped her hands in front of her nervously.  “You’re right,” she told him and started pacing again.  “I should just spit it out.  I should just say it and if you say no, well, then, I’ll just…maybe get rid of the tennis balls and venture into the basement myself to get the process over with quickly.”

Knox thought she looked absolutely adorable, in a sexy bunny sort of way.  She was sweet, smart, and sexy…a dangerous combination.  Thankfully, if she were to head out of town this weekend, he wouldn’t be tempted to knock on her door any longer.  He could get back to focusing on work and let his days fall back to their usual routine. 

Although, he had no idea what tennis balls and basements had to do with anything. 

“Honey…”

She lifted her hand to stop whatever he was about to say.  “Okay, here it is.  You’re gorgeous,” she started off, then rubbed her hand over her forehead.  “No, that’s not the best way to start this off.”  Andie took another breath and turned sideways so that she wasn’t looking at him.  “I think you’re a very handsome man and I’m very attracted to you.  I was wondering if you might want to have dinner with me tomorrow night.  At my place.”  She blinked, then looked up at him.  “Well, at your place.  I mean, at your place that I’m renting from you.  Where I’m living.”  She closed her eyes and pressed her lips together.  “I will cook dinner for you if you would like to have dinner with me.  Tomorrow night.”

Knox stared at her, trying to sift through all the things she was saying.  “You’re asking me out?” he finally realized.  The relief that surged through him with that realization was strong and swift.  She wasn’t leaving?  She was still going to try and live here? 

Good for her! 

Wait!  No!  Not good!  She had to go!  She had to leave, to go back to where she belonged.  Her words were wrong.  She’d said the wrong thing!  “Honey, you’re asking me to dinner at your place and you’re going to cook?”

Andie continued to press her lips together, not wanting to say anything else that might come out sounding stupid.  But the look in his eyes when she stared up at him made her stomach feel almost nauseous.  “You don’t have to!” she told him quickly.  “Which was why I wanted to ask you this out here.  That way, if you don’t want to have dinner with me, then no one in town will know anything about this silly conversation and everyone will just think I’m talking to you about the house that I’m renting from you, and maybe there are problems with something.  But they won’t know that I stupidly asked you out to dinner.” She took a deep breath.  “So if you would please just tell me no, then I can leave and go do that tennis ball thing.”

Knox stared at her, hard, still confused and trying to catch up with all of her words.  “Tennis ball thing?”

Andie shook her hands in the air as if they were explaining something, but then she shook her head and let her hands drop back to her sides with a huge expulsion of air through those pretty, red lips of hers.  “Don’t ask.  Just a protection thing that’s…well, not really protection but so far, it has worked and so I’m sticking with it.”

He had no idea what she was talking about.  “A tennis ball thing?   You’re sticking with the tennis ball thing?”  How could tennis balls protect her? 

She almost stomped her foot with frustration.  “Look, forget the tennis balls okay?  Just answer the question!  Do you want to have dinner with me tomorrow night or not?”

He almost laughed at her spirited interruption.  He should tell her no.  He should just walk away from her because…well, because she was so adorable and sexy and his mind couldn’t get the image of her standing in front of him in those amazing silk negligées that she probably wore every night. 

But those silver eyes staring up at him made the lust almost impossible to ignore.  Which was another reason why he should tell her no.  He couldn’t get involved with Andie Kingsley.  She was everything sweet and cute, and too damn sexy for his peace of mind.  And she was going to leave as soon as things got tough around here.  He didn’t want to get involved with a woman like Andie only to have her head out of town when she couldn’t handle life here in Alaska.

But then again, if he had dinner with her, he would have more time to talk to her, to explain all the hardships that she would be facing over the winter.  He could explain why it would be better for her to head back home where she would be more comfortable. 

“What time?” he asked and almost laughed at her surprised expression.  “You thought I would turn you down?  After such a…verbose offer?”

Andie’s eyes widened in shock.  He agreed?  He was coming for dinner? 

Oh no!  “Yes!  You were supposed to turn me down!” she sighed with terror running through her. 

“I was?” he laughed, and was amazed when his body tightened even more at her anger.  She was feisty!  He’d never realized how much he liked feisty!  “Well, I’ll be there.  Six o’clock?”

“Six o’clock,” she replied, her voice sounding breathy and anxious.  Possibly because she WAS breathy and anxious.  She turned away but then faced him again.  “Are you sure?  You don’t want to just…say no and then pretend like this never happened?”

He shook his head, thinking he wanted to pull her into his arms and kiss her. 

But he wasn’t going to do that.  He was going to go to her house tomorrow night and talk to her, explain the hardships.  He would be doing her a favor. 

“And you’ll explain the whole tennis ball thing to me?”

She shivered, thinking about this enormous man being in her house.  “Right.  Yes.  Anything,” she told him, and turned around, almost running to her VW Bug. 

Knox watched her drive away, thinking that the first thing she was going to have to learn is that her car might be cute, but it would be hell getting around snowy streets.  She’d end up in a ditch or, worse, in the channel, drifting away because she slid down an icy embankment that she didn’t even know was there because it was covered with snow.  Cute cars didn’t have traction.  Cars with eyelashes…or one eyelash…didn’t have traction. 

Nope.  She had to go back home.  She had to be safe.  No matter how soft and sexy she might be, Knox had to get her to agree to go home.

Walking back into the bar, he had to also chuckle at her thinking that she’d kept anyone from knowing that she’d just asked him over for dinner.  She obviously didn’t understand small town living if she thought that anyone who might be sitting inside the bar hadn’t witnessed their conversation. 

“Did you say yes?” Creek asked, pouring another beer for Gus, one of the regulars as he tossed a towel over his shoulder. 

“Course I did,” he replied. 

Gus and Tommy chuckled.  “Who would say no to that pretty little thing?” Gus asked, and downed half his beer in one swallow.