“Sure can. Have you already put out the list for the sunset sleigh ride?”
The man opened a binder and flipped through until he got to a list marked Christmas Eve sleigh ride. “Just did, sir. How many will be in your party?”
“Two.”
“Names?” He jotted them down on the list that was already midway filled. “Will you all be joining in for the tree lighting and caroling at the end of the ride?”
“Absolutely. Wouldn’t miss it,” Carson declared.
“Carson!”
He turned hearing his name and praying it wasn’t Lanie attempting to get with him again. He hoped the woman had gotten the message he wasn’t interested. However, when he turned he froze at seeing the five-foot-six redhead moving across the lobby, dressed in pink boots, a miniskirt, tights, and a low-cut V-neck sweater revealed between the flaps of her black short fur coat. All male eyes trained on her.
“What are you doing here?” he demanded in a low, angry tone when she stopped in front of him.
“I’ve tried to reach you. I had nowhere else to turn. I need you.” She placed her hands on his chest and batted her long, black false lashes at him.
He noticed that the redhead before him was not only drawing attention from the males, but most people in the lobby were drawn in by her exuberance.
He grabbed her arm and then pulled her along beside him until he reached an empty office around the corner from the front lobby, past the bank of elevators.
“This better be damn important,” he warned her.
* * *
Ryanne walked around her room singing Christmas songs after she climbed out of the shower. Carson had left over an hour ago to shower in his own room, telling her that if he got in to shower with her, they’d ended up having sex and would never make it to the sleigh ride down to the village for the Christmas tree lighting and caroling. She laughed to herself as she rubbed lotion over her body, knowing he was right. Even now, her skin felt both tender and alive from all of his attention throughout the day.
They had spent the day locked away in her suite, eating, making love, and playing board games that they’d had sent up. They both knew that she was flying out in the morning to see her family and wanted to make the most of their last day together. Following her wishes, they hadn’t discussed how their relationship would continue once they were both back in North Carolina, but she had no doubt that Carson would want it to continue.
Over the last few days, in his eyes she could see an emotion hovering there. Words unspoken. She recognized those silent emotions because she was feeling them as well.
Staring in the bathroom mirror, she could see the passion marks on the various areas of her body—her breasts, belly, and the insides of her thighs. If she turned around, she was sure she’d have a few on her ass as well. Carson got off on tasting her anywhere, everywhere, and she got off on each little mark he’d left “claiming her”. Even though they were the only two people who would see the marks, it was their naughty little secret and she loved it.
She loved him. It wasn’t much of a stretch for her heart to open wide to him; he’d always been there. Over the last few days, she realized why she’d never connected with any of her past boyfriends. Why her commitments were so far apart from each other and she never cried or was hurt when they ended. No one had measured up to even the friendship she had with Carson and they definitely never sparked such desire in her. She was high on Carson. She didn’t even want to picture him out of her life again.
She finished dressing, thankful that the day would come soon for her to dress in something else for him besides jeans and a sweater or a bulky ski suit. She wanted to put on sexy dresses and heels. Even though some of the women at the resort had on those types of outfits the one night she’d gone down to the mixer, she only had pants suits or slacks and tops in her suitcase from the canceled conference.
Tonight she would bring up the subject of home. It was time they put their feelings out there and set up some plans. In the morning she was flying out early to go to her parents’ house for the holiday with her family. Her mother had been upset when she’d postponed her arrival until Christmas morning, but Ryanne didn’t allow her mother to sway her.
She had considered inviting Carson. Her parents knew Carson and liked him. Besides, Carson had mentioned always wanting to be a part of her family during the holidays; it would be perfect. However, she pushed that thought aside, not wanting to rush things between them. She would fly back to Charlotte the day after Christmas and hopefully she and Carson would soon be having their first real date.
Ten minutes later, Ryanne pushed through the door out of the stairwell, opting to take the steps instead of waiting by the crowded elevator on her floor. Seeing that there were just as many people by the elevators on the first floor, she was happy she’d taken that route. She didn’t want to keep Carson waiting and miss their ride. Her mother had called right before she’d left the room, wanting to make sure she was still coming in tomorrow. She reassured her, hearing the noise of her siblings and their families in the background, then rushed off the phone.
Moving around a group and covering the distance in steady strides toward the lobby, Ryanne passed a few offices, ignoring them. However, when she heard Carson’s name, she stopped, turned, and backtracked, happy she didn’t have to prowl around the lobby looking for him.
When she located the room she stopped. The door was open, the wide window in it allowing her to see inside. Carson was in the room, his back to her, but there was a woman with him, and it wasn’t a hotel employee. Ryanne didn’t recognize the woman as anyone she may have run into while at the resort this week. The short woman, very pretty with Macintosh-apple-red hair, was dressed from head to toe in pink designer chic apparel. Ryanne doubted if one thing the woman wore cost less than six hundred dollars, from her knee-high full suede high-heeled boots to the pink Prada purse that hung off her shoulder. Just looking at the woman made Ryanne feel like she was dressed in a bargain basement special, and unattractive to boot.
“I miss you.” The woman had her hand on Carson’s chest.
“You still haven’t told me why you’ve been trying to track me down, Ashley.”
Ryanne was about to announce her presence when the woman’s name rang a bell and caused her to pause. Ashley was the name of Carson’s ex-girlfriend. Had she been at the resort the whole time?
Carson pulled the woman’s hand away. Ashley pushed her red-painted lips out in a pout. “I didn’t want to interrupt your trip, but I’m pregnant, Carson. I have nowhere else to turn. I think we should get married.”
The world shifted beneath Ryanne’s feet. If a baseball bat wielded by Jackie Robinson had hit her in the stomach just then, she would not have felt more unbalanced. Carson’s ex was pregnant with his baby and wanted them to marry. Carson would finally have the family he’d always wanted, with a woman who’d left him but now had returned for the father of her child.
Ryanne had begun to foolishly hope, over the last few days, that those dreams of his would be fulfilled with her. She needed to get away. She couldn’t continue to watch her dreams dashed before her eyes. They had only agreed on a few days of fun, friendship, and sex, and now it was over. She turned away.
“What?” Carson’s voice erupted behind her, but Ryanne didn’t stop. She flew down the hall, bumping blindly into people, and back up the stairs to her room.
* * *
Thirty minutes later, Carson was back in the lobby with only a few minutes to spare as they loaded up the last sleigh. After hearing Ashley blubbering for way too long about her situation, he took her to the front desk to try and get her a room for the night, but discovered they were fully booked until after New Year’s. Now, Ashley was in his room, resting in his bed. He knew he wouldn’t need it for the night because he’d stay with Ryanne until she had to leave out for her early flight to Florida, where she’d spend Christmas with her loving family. They’d put off talking about their future for too lon
g. Tonight they’d discuss it. Just as he’d told Phillip, he wanted Ryanne in his life permanently.
Frowning, he looked around, not seeing Ryanne among the guests in line. He did see Phillip and his merry bunch, though.
He went to his friend and placed a hand on his shoulder, stopping him from getting into the sleigh. “Hey, Phil, you see Ryanne out here?”
“No, I haven’t, but two other sleighs just pulled off, she may have been on one of them and will just meet you in the village.”
That didn’t make sense to Carson. He thought Ryanne would be in it for the romance of the ride, the two of them side by side as the snow fell around them. Perhaps she’d come down while he’d been back upstairs and left with one of the other groups, knowing they’d end up together by the tree for the lighting festivities.
“Sir, you boarding?” an older gentleman in the front seat holding the reins asked Carson.
“Hm, yeah. I’m in.” He climbed up and squeezed into the last vacant spot as they pulled off.
An hour later, the old man parked the sleigh next to the two empty ones in the village. Carson rushed out. The hour-long ride seem to take forever as he paid little attention to the surrounding view, counting the minutes until he could see Ryanne and hold her in his arms again.
Phillip and the other partiers headed toward the shops, while Carson followed another group in the opposite direction to the large fir tree. Once there, he weaved through the large crowd, looking for Ryanne’s blue-striped cap.
After fifteen minutes of examining every female out there, he realized Ryanne wasn’t among the people oohing and ahhing as the tree now shined brightly. Deciding to go back to the resort and try to find her, he headed up the path. Out of the days he and Ryanne had been together, he wished he had asked for her cell phone number, but it hadn’t seemed important when she had been by his side the whole time.
She wasn’t in the lobby when he got back, so he took the elevator up to her room. Knocking on her door, he became frantic, wondering if something had happened to her. Did she become ill with some type of mountain fever? Had she slipped in the shower and hit her head and was even now lying on the floor in need of help?
Back downstairs, he rushed to the desk clerk, not caring how frazzled or out of sorts he looked. “I need you to call Ryanne McCall’s room. If she doesn’t answer, I need someone to use a master key to let me in so I can check on her.”
“Calm down, sir. I can call another guest’s room, but unless I know it is an emergency we can’t enter it.” The desk clerk, an Asian woman, patted her palms in the air as if to make him feel at ease.
It didn’t. He took a deep breath. “I understand your protocol, but she’s not answering her door.”
“Maybe she’s sleeping, or at one of the activities.”
“She was signed up to go on the sleigh ride.”
“Then she might be in the village. That ride ended there, for the tree—”
“I was on the ride and in the village and she’s not there.”
Another clerk at the other end, who had been the one to inform Ashley there were no rooms, moved toward them. He wore a tag pinned to his red uniform coat with supervisor stitched into it. “Did you check the lounge? There are a lot of guests in there mingling.”
“It’s doubtful she’s there. Please, just call the damn room.”
The two clerks must have picked up on the low warning tone of his voice.
The woman glanced at the guy; he nodded, giving his permission to her, and she began typing. “One second, sir.”
He waited while she went into the guest log, Carson assumed.
She looked up at him and asked, “What is her name and room number?”
“Ryanne McCall, room 623,” Carson supplied.
Before the woman could enter the data, the male clerk said, “Ms. McCall checked out an hour ago.”
Carson’s head turned with a snap in the direction of the supervisor. “What do you mean she checked out? That’s ridiculous! She wasn’t leaving until tomorrow.”
“I’m sorry, sir.” The young man did appear apologetic.
Carson didn’t care.
“Did she say why she was leaving? Did something happen with her family?” He slid down the counter in front of the man, no longer needing the female clerk’s assistance. He wondered if Ryanne had gotten a call from her family; maybe something had happened to one of them. But why she wouldn’t wait to talk to him he didn’t know.
“What’s your name?”
Raising a single brow, Carson stared at him. “Carson Rodman. What does that have to do with anything?”
The supervisor opened a drawer below his desk and pulled out a small cream envelope with the hotel’s logo on it. “She left this for you.”
Taking the letter from the man, he sighed, grateful that Ryanne hadn’t rushed away without thinking about contacting him. He thanked the man and stepped away from the desk as he opened the note.
Carson,
These few days have been amazing. I wish they didn’t have to end so soon. However, reality had to set in eventually and we both knew it. No promises, right? I wish you all the best. I know you’ll be a great father. I’ll never forget you.
Yours,
Ryanne
Carson stared at the words on the paper, reading them the first time in confusion as he comprehended that somehow Ryanne must have learned that Ashley was pregnant. The second reading was with annoyance, because Ryanne didn’t come to him and allow him to explain. Finally, he read it again with determination and a budding plan.
Damn right you’re mine. If Ryanne McCall thought that she would get away from him again after she’d been brought back into his life, she’d better think again.
Chapter Ten
“Hello, sweetheart.”
Ryanne smiled at her father’s voice on Sunday night. She’d just walked into the house after going in to her office for most of the day trying to catch up on work. She’d already had a stack of things to do before she was selected for the conference, and being away had caused more things to fill her inbox. Ryanne pushed aside the two weeks in between; it was something she only allowed herself to think about while she lay in bed praying that sleep would come.
“Hi, Dad. Sorry I didn’t call you and Mom this morning after church as usual. I went in to work.” Kicking off her shoes, she sat on the couch.
“No worries. I knew you’d call us in a couple of days to wish us Happy New Year.”
She was concerned now. It was out of the ordinary for her dad to call her. Usually her mom called and when she was done chatting away about her grandkids, she’d give her father the phone. “Is everything okay with you and Mom?”
“We’re doing very well. Nothing has changed since you saw us a few days ago.”
Now she was confused. “Then you’re just calling to say hi?”
“No, sweetheart. I’m calling because I had a visitor come by and see me today.”
She curled her legs beneath her hip. “Really? Who?”
She still wasn’t sure why her father was calling. It was strange, because unlike her mother, who went around and around a topic, her father was usually more direct.
“Carson Rodman. Haven’t seen that young man since he was around nineteen and in college. Seems to be doing well for himself.”
As her father rattled on about Carson’s traits, Ryanne was trying to breathe. Inhaling deeply, she allowed her mind to replay the image of the man that stole her heart in Starview, Colorado. Christmas had rekindled so many feelings between them—then in a moment it had all been taken away again.
“Ryanne, sweetie, you there?” Now her father sounded concerned.
“Yeah, Dad, I’m still here. Why did he come see you? Did he just happen to be in town for work or something?” Her parents were close to Daytona, where some of the NASCAR races took place, but she couldn’t see Carson searching them out if he were handling some programming issues at the Florida Speedway. Especially with him becom
ing a father soon. Would he invite her parents to his wedding? God, no.
“No. He came to speak to me.”
“Why?” Her throat was tight; she felt as if her heart was lodged there.
“Well, baby girl, I’ll let him explain that to you whenever he’s ready. Just promise me you’ll hear the man out.”
Hear Carson out? If he called her, she wasn’t even sure if she’d be able to answer the phone without letting her broken heart come through in her voice. Caring for him when she was younger and thinking she would never see him again had hurt. However, having him physically, loving him, and not being able to be with him was devastating. Squeezing her fist tight, she refused to allow herself to travel down that dark emotional road. Knowing that if she went there she’d break down.
“Sweetheart?”
“I promise, Dad.”
“Okay. I love you very much, and I’m proud of you.”
Those words brought tears to her eyes. She knew her parents loved her, but so often her mother’s focus was directed at altars and cribs. Ryanne rarely believed she pleased them with her professional accomplishments. “Thanks, Dad.”
After she ended the call with her father, she put on sweatpants and a T-shirt and grabbed the latest book she had been reading and stretched out on her couch. She needed an escape, to put the memories of Carson out of her mind; it was too risky to her emotional state not to. Or worse, sitting around waiting to see if and when he was going to call.
* * *
New Year’s Eve
“Ryanne, how’s the Douglas account coming?” Todd entered her office and stood on the other side of her desk.
She tried to keep her attention on the monitor to avoid giving the senior manager any encouragement to linger. “Fine. I just have a few more numbers to enter and in the next few minutes I should have them to Mr. Jacobs.”
“Great, he wants to head out in the next ten minutes.”
There was no need for Todd to tell her that her boss was trying to get out the door. The entire office staff was trying to get out. They only had to work a half day for the holiday and people had big plans for the night.
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