Winter Interlude (28 page)

Kate
finally answered incorrectly, giving him a turn for a change
.

“If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were hustling me
.” Grinning, he reached for the die.

“You
were the one who wanted to play,” she said.
Her easy laughter touch
ed
his heart and caused his breath to catch in his throat
.
“My skill comes from playing all those games on car rides answering all kinds of questions
.
And I love
Jeopardy
.”

“Figures.
”
He
counted out the spaces
.
“Besides never traveling by car, I’m not
a
big
Jeopardy
fan
.”

The game had gone on for almost an hour when
Paul stretched his legs toward the fire
.
He leaned on his elbow, not caring
a
bit
that she only needed an orange wedge to win after landing on
that color
.
He was having too much fun
.

She’d been a cheerleader and homecoming queen in high school
.
Considering her bubbly personality, he could see her as both. Still, they had a lot in common.
She
grew up in
a suburb of a big city and was
the
product of traditional upbringing
.
Her mom was a schoolteacher and her dad a businessman
.
R
ather than having an older brother like him, she had a
younger
sister
.

He took a card, read it
,
and then grinned
.
The game wasn’t over yet.
There was n
o way she’d answer this one correctly
.
Not in a million years
.

“Where is Gasoline Alley
?”

She didn’t even have to think about it and said in a rush, “The Indianapolis Motor Speedway
.”
She reached for the last wedge and stuck it into her pie
.
“I won.”

“Now I know I’ve been hustled,” he said, laughing at her all
-
too
-
smug expression
.
He’d finally come to the conclusion that his brother was a fool
.
She’d captivated him all evening
.
How had he been so wrong about her
?
Kate
was nothing like the scheming, manipulating woman he’d pegged her to be
. His skewed thinking made
him feel shallow and cruel
.
Admiration for her swelled because she’d never backed down over the years
,
even when he’d really twisted the knife with his words
.

“Ha!” she said
.
“You just don’t like it that I won
.
Can I help it if my dad was a car nut who loved the Indy 500
?”
Her eyebrows rose in question
.
“You want to play another?”

“And have my ego smashed again
?
No thanks.”
Even now, he didn’t want to accept the attraction between them. But the pull was too strong. The thought of kissing those soft lips, smiling at him now, overwhelmed him.

“Then, what should we do now?”

“We can
keep
talk
ing
.”
Maybe talking would get his mind off kissing her
.
“Your dad sounds like a great guy,” he said nonchalantly, putting the game board and pieces away.

Her smile turned wistful
.
“He is
.
I miss him
.”
She looked into the fake flames and sighed
.
“But I don’t miss the Chicago winters
.”

“And that’s why you ski so much
?”
He nodded knowingly
.
“Makes perfect sense.”

“Tahoe winters are nothing like
m
idwestern
winters
.
The wind
chill can
be
brutal
;
it isn’t
for the weak
.
I’ve seen blizzards caused by the lake effect that make this storm seem puny in comparison
.”
She shrugged and kept her attention on the fire
.
“Still, I’m
m
id
western
through and through
.”
She broke off
.
It was several seconds before she spoke again and this time her voice sounded sad
.
“I feel as if I’m letting my family down somehow.”

“What do you mean
?
How?”

“I’m the oldest
.
My parents can’t understand why I’m not married yet
.
Now that
Chrissie
is getting married this summer, I’m starting to wonder the same thing.”

“
James’ll
come around
.”
He’d be a flipping idiot not to,
Paul
thought, seeing the same sadness he heard now creep into her expression.

“Yeah, maybe
.”
She offered a wan smile
.

He cleared his throat, not liking the
squeezing sensation in his chest
as more anguish seeped into her eyes
.
“You want to talk about it
?
Sometimes talking helps
.”
No one, not even James would be stupid enough to let her get away
.
Once he realized what he had, that is
.

One thing
he knew for certain
.
If
Kate
were his, he’d never cause her such
sorrow
.
Images
of laying her down in front of the fire and kissing away her pain flitted through his mind
.

“If I’m going to talk about James, I need more wine
.”
She stood.

Before he could stop himself and question the sanity of his
actions
, he reached out and grabbed her arm when she moved past him
.
Caught off guard, she toppled on top of him
.

“What’re you doing
?”
Laughter was present in her question, as he removed the empty glass from her hand and set it on the table
.

“This,” he whispered
.
He quickly captured her mouth without giving her a chance to withdraw
.
Having her right where he’d wanted her all evening, he wasn’t about to lose his advantage
.
Her moan
floated
up
and
ignited his passion
.
He softened his lips and when her tongue darted tentatively inside his mouth, blood rushed past his ears, a freight train of desire hurling inside his brain
.

At the same time
,
her scent rose up to fill his nostrils
.
More sensation raced to his core
.
Need and want slammed into him from all sides, swamping him in
a
sea of emotion
.
His hands, aching to reach underneath her sweater, found the sides of her breasts and stroked
.
All day he’d imagined what it would be like to taste her
.
Now that it was reality, he couldn’t stop
.

He immediately rolled over, pulling her underneath him in an effort to bring her closer
.
She couldn’t miss the extent of his need as his erection settled into that perfect spot
.
He spent long minutes doing nothing but letting his mouth slowly savor hers
,
wanting to enflame her senses because his had already spread out of control.

Through his sensual haze, he registered her pushing on his chest
.
Reality hit him like a bucket of ice water to the head and he
froze
.
Shit
!
He broke the kiss, released her
,
and rolled over on his back, even as untamed desire hummed throughout his entire system
.

How in the hell had this happened
?
He brought his hands up to his face, rubbing it with his eyes closed in an effort to clear his mind and gain control
.
He opened
them
seconds later only to see her kneeling in front of him with a dismayed look on her face.

What have I done
?

He never should have kissed her, but contrition wouldn’t come
.
Not for something that felt so right
.

Paul
surged to his
feet and shoved a shaky
hand
through
his hair
.
“I wish I could apologize for my actions, but it wouldn’t be heartfelt,” he said
.
“So, I think it’s time I said goodnight
.”
He then pivoted and forced his unwilling feet to carry him to his room
.