Cold Heat (Seasons of the Heart #1)

by LeeAnne White

  He had a sitting area with two leather chairs and an extra-long sofa, all the color of dark chocolate. The centerpiece though was a beautiful large stone fireplace, with an entertainment-center built around it. His small kitchen, divided from the den by a small kitchen island, was just off to the side. It kept the rustic feel of the rest of the house with its light colored wood cabinets, dark granite countertops, but modern appliances. A small table and four chairs were placed between the windows and the kitchen. As her eyes continued to roam, she noticed three doorways leading off a short hallway, probably the bedrooms, she thought.

  She turned her attention back to Drake as he finished carrying in the bags of groceries and supplies. He finally paused just outside the doorway, stomping the snow off on his boots and shouldering the door closed behind him. Taking off his coat he helped Kaylie with hers.

  “So, Kaylie Blake, why don’t we get you settled while I put this stuff away, then I’ll take that look at your injuries?” He guided her into the kitchen to a seat at his table before putting away the groceries.

  After he had everything put away, he turned his attention back to Kaylie, taking the seat next to her so he could check her head wound. Kaylie hissed out a breath and flinched when he grazed it with his fingers. He noticed that she kept glancing around, as if waiting for something, or someone, to do something, a sensation he was all too familiar with himself. “I’m not going to do anything to hurt you, I’ve told you, you’re safe here. It’s okay to relax.” Walking to the freezer, he pulled out a bag of frozen peas. “Here, put this on that lump.”

  “I-I know you have questions, and I’ll answer them, but please, not right now, if you don’t mind. My head still hurts and I would really like a chance to freshen up and rest for a bit, if I may?”

  “I need to know if there are any other injuries that need to be treated, Kaylie…” he cut off as she laughed in a self-mocking tone.

  “You can trust me when I say that I have had worse. Other than just sore, and I bet pretty bruised under my shirts, I can assure you I’m okay.”

  Drake studied her face for a moment, noticing that what little color that she had held in her face was beginning to leech away again, and her eyes looked tired and weary. Walking over to a cabinet, he pulled out a glass and filled it. “I’m sorry I can’t give you anything for the pain yet. I need to keep an eye on you, make sure your head, and what I’m betting is a mild concussion, doesn’t worsen. The bathroom is the first door to your right, and the bedroom is right across the hall from it. I’ll be in to check on you periodically, given that knot on your head. My room is the one next to yours. If you wake and need anything, I’ll hear you. Do you want to try and eat something before laying down?”

  “No. Thank you, and thank you for stopping and helping me.” She got up carefully, still cradling her left arm; she was turning for one of her cases when Drake reached around her startling a panicked cry from her lips.

  “Hey, it’s just me. I’ll get these to your room for you, you don’t need to try and lift them just yet.” Taking the cases and making sure he walked in front of her so she would be able to see him at all times, Drake placed the cases on the floor, quickly stepping back out, keeping his hands visible to her. His gut clenched as he began to speculate about the reason she left today, and alone, and why she was so skittish. “I’ll just be out here for now, if you need anything.” He walked back into the main room into the kitchen and left her to settle.

  Not knowing what to do with herself, Kaylie paced around the room, looked at her bags and tried to figure out what she was going to do now. She didn’t know this man, Drake, but he had stopped and rescued her when he didn’t have to. Most people, given the weather circumstances, would have had tunnel vision and moved on ahead without stopping. That had to speak for something, right? And look where trust has landed you, she thought bitterly to herself. Divorced, alone, and now stranded with a stranger, who-knows-where? Why was it, that last thought didn’t bother her perhaps as much as it should?

  She gingerly began to take off several of the layers of clothing she had on, stifling her groans when she moved her arm a certain way. She knew from past experience that it was not seriously hurt; just achy from the jarring it took during the crash. She wanted to know how bad her face was, but decided to put that revelation off until after she had rested. Finally lying down, she closed her eyes.

  Her mind wandered back to Drake in the other room, the man who stopped to help her when she needed it most. He was a striking man with his rugged good looks and raspy baritone voice that she imagined would send shivers through the right woman. Definitely not a pretty boy, he was well over six feet with broad shoulders and strong arms. His face was shadowed by a day’s growth, which drew the eye to a mouth that had lips that looked both firm and soft at the same time. His brown eyes didn’t miss much, it seemed. She wondered how old he was, remembering the slight crinkling at the corner of those eyes, and his short hair was a beautiful dark brown or black that was starting to show signs of gray through it, which only made him look sexily distinguished. It was his face she was thinking of as sleep finally claimed her.

  Drake could hear her moving around in her room, and he couldn’t blame her for the nerves she had to be experiencing. She had to know, however, that she would be safe with him, as long as he could keep a tight lid on his own memories. As he settled into the couch in front of the fire with his beer, he realized her room had fallen silent. He couldn’t help but think about her, she was pretty, but not in the conventional way. She was tall, a bonus in his mind, and he was a man who would rather have a woman he could see almost eye to eye with, in the very literal sense. She had to be close to six feet tall he mulled to himself, long legs and not too thin, but with great curves in the right places. Her hair was such a deep, rich brown, and it was cut into a short style that seemed to accentuate her eyes to perfection. She had looked at him with eyes that seemed like they could not decide whether they wanted to be blue, green, or some mixture of the two. Her full eyebrows and long lashes were the perfect framework for her eyes, and her lips? God, they were so full and soft looking, the type of lips that could bring a man to his knees.

  “Christ, Givens, get a grip,” he muttered to himself when he felt his cock stir. He needed to call in about her car, letting other officers know that she was with him; he needed to get Jenny back to his house before the conditions made it impossible to travel, and he needed a distraction from his thoughts. Lots of birds, he thought while pulling his cell from his back pocket, one call. He got up and went back to the small kitchen to figure out what they could have for dinner, and punching in the familiar number, Drake waited for his former teammate and fellow officer, Rafe Piñon, to answer on the other end.

  “Hey, Capt’n, took you long enough to call, your girl here has been missing you,” Rafe said when he answered the phone.

  Drake cringed inwardly, partly because he was no longer the team Captain, and partly because he knew Jenny would be ready to get home. “Yeah, I know, I ran into a little complication in the storm on the roads, but I’m back now,” he said, before telling Rafe about the car he found on the road in the storm, and his new house guest. ”You don’t mind bringing Jenny back do you?”

  “Nah, it’s only a snow storm, I’ve seen worse. Just give me time to get ready and load your girl up. We’ll be there soon,” Rafe said before hanging up.

  Knowing he still had some time to kill before they got to the house, he pushed open Kaylie’s door to check on her. Thinking she appeared peaceful enough, he headed back to the kitchen. Needing to break the silence of the cabin, he turned the radio on to a classic rock station and kept the volume low while gathering what he needed for a pot of chili. Pausing for a moment, not sure that she would want to eat chili, but after he looked back outside at the continuing snowfall, he decided that they would definitely need something warm for the night. Once he had the chili simmering, he went back and took another look in on his guest. He figured he wo
uld wake her after he brought in some more wood for the next few days. The radio said up to three feet of snow was possible. He sure as hell didn’t want to be out digging for wood in the middle of the night.

  Drake was carrying in his second load of wood when he heard the sound of an engine coming up his drive, putting his senses on alert and causing him to tense up; sudden memories of roadside bombs causing his hands to fist at his sides. He braced himself before remembering it was okay. He was okay, and at home in the mountains, and it would just be Rafe with Jenny.

  Walking back out of the house as Rafe’s truck was pulling up in front of the cabin, he walked to the passenger door to open it for Jenny. She let out an excited bark when she saw him, her body quivering with joy, before bounding out the truck as soon as he opened the door for her. “Hey, girl!” he said, as he bent to scrub her sides with affection. Looking up into the truck he said, “Thanks for keeping my girl while I was in town. They were right about this storm; it’s going to be a bitch. Are you good at your place or do you need to bunk here for a few days?”

  Rafe just looked at him before flipping him the bird. “Man, you know I have everything I need to get through a month of this shit. If you need anything, just call and I’ll head over on the snowmobile. If that’s all, I’m going to head back before that ice gets worse. You need to head back in before you let all of the heat out of your house.”

  After saying thanks to Rafe and waving him off, Drake was headed back in with another armload of firewood when he heard Kaylie screaming.

  Chapter 3

  Drake dropped everything in a loud crash, scattering firewood, splinters and shards of wood all over the floor as he sprinted to Kaylie’s door. Wishing he had grabbed his weapon before rushing in, his muscles were tighten anticipation of whatever t could have frightened her.

  She woke in a strange and dark room with someone, or something, staring at her. Kaylie’s throat tightened, her breath stalling before screaming for help, screaming again as Drake came rushing in slapping on the light.

  Drake could see the terror in her wide eyes and the erratic pulse beating in the hollow of her throat; her body curled in a ball against the headboard.

  “Hey, hey, it’s okay. You’re safe, remember? What happened?” Drake knew she was spooked and he was trying to soothe her while scanning the room for anything that could be a threat. When his eyes landed on Jenny, he knew what it must have been the dog that startled her into her panic. He walked over to the edge of the bed and cautiously sat down, keeping his hands in sight and making no real sudden or threatening movements. “It’s okay, I think you just met Jenny.” At her name, Jenny sat up and put her head on his lap. Drake started stroking Jenny’s soft head and ears when she rested her chin on his knee. “She bolted in the house while I was out talking to a friend. I never once thought about her coming in here and scaring you.”

  Kaylie started to calm when she saw the smiling grin of a black lab looking between her and Drake with adoring brown eyes. Hearing the happy swish-swish of her tail across the floor as Drake pet her. Reaching her hand out for Jenny to sniff, Kaylie looked over at Drake sheepishly. “I’m sorry I screamed. You know how sometimes you feel like you're being watched? I woke knowing I was, but I couldn't tell who or what the threat was. Add in new surroundings and the dark room…” Shaking her head, “I panicked.”

  “No harm, no foul. You may have shaved a few years off my life with that scream, but we’re good now. The snow is coming down heavier, and they've predicted three feet possible with this storm. It’s looking like we will be here together for a few days at least. Your car is pretty much stuck where we left it for the time being. Once the roads get cleared some, we’ll get it moved. Is there anyone you need to call? Someone who’ll be worried that you're not going to be meeting them in time?”

  “No. There’s no one expecting me anywhere.” Kaylie was saved from explaining further by the sound of her stomach growling. Embarrassed, she looked down and gave an embarrassed grin, “I think I’m hungry and something smells pretty good.”

  Reaching his hand out to help her up and steady her, “I hope you like chili? I wanted something easy to cook and hot; when you look outside you’ll see why.”

  She looked at his hand for a second before tentatively reaching out her own and taking it. Such a simple gesture, really, but for her it was one that could go two different ways. Looking back up at Drake, she saw what she thought was calm patience and understanding in his eyes. Trusting her instincts she placed her palm in his. His palm was not smooth like Brian’s had been, a texture that she had begun to fear and had lost trust in. No. Drakes hand was rougher, but not unpleasantly so. A working mans hand, she thought as he helped her up and off the bed before she let go of his hand.

  “So, tell me something about yourself, Kaylie.” he started as they made their way into the kitchen. “I know you don’t know me from Adam, but here we are, together for the time being.”

  “Um, okay…” she hesitated, not sure what to say. “Well, hell, this is more difficult than I thought it would be,” she paused for a few moments. “Nope, I can't do it. Ask me questions and I’ll try to answer them.”

  Knowing she would edit her answers if the questions got to be too personal or too close to what she was leaving behind, he still decided it’d be best to dive right in, ripping the band-aid off, so to speak, with the big one, “Fine. Let’s start with where you were headed when you hit the tree?”

  She knew the question was bound to come up again, and as much as she wished it hadn’t, she steeled herself to answer him. “California. I don’t know where in California, but it has to be away from Las Vegas. Away from where I was.”

  Drake let her statement hang there for a moment. “Kaylie, I need to know why you're running. My gut tells me that you haven’t done anything wrong, or illegal, and my gut is very rarely off base, but I am asking you if you’re in trouble. Why are you running away, or more importantly, who are you running away from?”

  She took a deep breath, “No. I haven’t done anything wrong, other than marry a liar. My ex-husband is in jail now, about to get out. I just can’t explain this correctly. You said you trust your gut? I’ve learned to trust mine as well, and mine was telling me that I needed to pack up and get out as quickly as I could, while I could. I ignored my gut instincts for too long. Now I know I should have been listening to that intuition.”

  “Brian, my ex, started off as a nice, perfect gentleman.” Her hands were fidgeting nervously and her breathing was starting to quicken as she started talking. “He came into my life two years out of high school and swept me off my feet, saying all the right things, romancing me. We dated for a year while I was in college and everything was perfect in my eyes. When he proposed? I was so dazzled by the man, of course I said yes. I quit college during my second year. Gave up my dream about being a teacher. We eloped; no muss, and no fuss. We were young and it was exciting.” Stopping abruptly and was looking around in a panic. “I need to do something, anything, while I talk. Please?”

  Drake was watching Kaylie He’d learned long ago to read people, and he saw the truth in her eyes. Seeing she needed a few minutes to collect herself before continuing he said, “Sure. How about we serve up some of the chili and eat?” Walking over to the cabinets, he pulled out two heavy cobalt blue stoneware bowls, then turned and grabbed a couple of spoons from the drawer. “There are some toppings and drinks in the fridge, if you don’t mind grabbing some cheese and sour cream and a beer for me? Help yourself to whatever you want in there.” He stirred the chili before scooping it out and setting the filled bowls on the table with the spoons then turning for some crackers.

  Reaching for the toppings, Kaylie hissed when she felt the burning pain shoot through her arm and up to her shoulder. Gritting her teeth and trying not to moan, she finished getting the items before turning back to the table and taking a seat. She sat for a moment before taking a spoon full of chili and, after blowing on it, tasted it.
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br />   Drake couldn’t help but watch as she scooped up a spoonful, pursed her lips, and blew on the chili to cool it off. He was grateful when she closed her eyes so he could shift his stiffening dick in his pants. That relief was short lived, however when she let out a quiet groan of pleasure.

  “Mmmm. Oh, God, this is so good!” Opening her eyes and smiled at him, but froze when she realized he was staring at her. “What? Do I have chili dripping down my chin?” She picked up a napkin and wiped off her mouth and chin.

  “No, nothing like that. Sorry, I was distracted by something.” Like how many ways I can get you to moan in pleasure like that again, he thought. Damn it, he was a 43 year old man, not some horny teen staring at his first set of tits. Trying to get control of himself, he set to work on his own dinner.

  They ate in a comfortable silence and when they were both finished, Drake started to gather the dishes to wash when Kaylie stopped him. “Please let me clean this up? You’ve already done so much for me today.”

  Drake had heard her quiet hiss when she was getting the stuff from the fridge and didn’t want her to hurt herself further. “Tell you what, why don't I clean tonight while you rest.” He caught the look of rebellion in her eyes. “You can’t sit there and honestly tell me you're not hurting after that collision today. I can see you cradling your arm and I heard you hiss earlier. How bad is the arm?”

  “Like I told you before, it’s just sore from the impact. I’m sure it’ll loosen up in a couple of days.”

  “Nonetheless, I’ll clean up tonight and give you full honors tomorrow, okay? If you want, why don't you go take a shower? See if the heat and the water don’t help that muscle relax? There are clean towels under the sink. Just be careful with that head wound, and don’t have the water too hot. I’ll be out here when you’re done.”