“Because we’re snowed in. I doubt that you’d even be able to get out of your cabin. We’re in the middle of a blizzard.”
“A blizzard?”
Anna and Taariq turned toward the window. He raced over, pulled back the curtains and opened the blinds. What they saw made their mouths drop open. A wall of snow was piled to the middle of the window.
“Oh. My. God.” She was trapped…alone…with Taariq.
Chapter 19
An hour later, Anna had finished putting on two layers of clothes and went to stand in front of the window. In her hand, she sipped from a piping hot cup of cocoa and marveled at the sight in front of her. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen so much snow.”
“That makes two of us,” Taariq said, exiting the bathroom, fully dressed in jeans and a black turtleneck. “A couple more inches and I think the entire cabin will be completely buried.”
“Buried alive. That’s a humbling thought.” She shook her head. “I saw online that this place gets about five hundred inches a year—who knew that it was all at one time?”
Taariq laughed. “Any more hot cocoa?”
“Yeah.” She turned and nodded toward the lone coffeemaker. “There’s plenty over there, plus there’s a ton of canned food and battery-operated appliances in the little kitchenette. This resort is prepared for this type of thing apparently.”
Taariq nodded. “Good to know. I can put off panicking for a little while.”
Anna smiled and resumed sipping her hot cocoa. Now that they’d exhausted their conversation about the weather, what was left for them to talk about? Oh, hey. Did you know that my sister and brother-in-law tricked us into sharing a cabin? That was not a conversation that she wanted to have. She returned her attention to the snow-covered window.
She didn’t hear Taariq coming up behind her, but she recognized his scent as he drew near. Trying to appear casual, she took a giant step to the side.
“I’m not going to bite you, you know.”
“Hmm?” Anna turned, hoping against hope that she pulled off an innocent look. She didn’t.
Taariq chuckled at her lame attempt and shook his head. “I said I’m not going to bite you.”
Next, she tried to smile but that didn’t work out so well either.
To prove his point, Taariq held up his hands and took an equally giant step back. “I’m not the bogeyman, Anna. Try to relax.” He walked over to the coffeemaker and proceeded to make his own hot cocoa. “I’m at a loss as to how last night happened, as well. Though I do have a theory.”
Anna lifted her brows. “You do?”
Taariq nodded. “Would you like to hear it?”
Shifting her weight to one side, she cocked her head. “I’m dying to hear it.”
“I thought you might.” He stirred the powdered cocoa. “Last night…I had a rather interesting…dream.”
“A dream,” she repeated, feeling her neck grow hot when flashes of her own erotic dream played inside her head.
“Yeah. It began innocently enough.”
“What was it about?” she asked, her voice raspy.
The corners of Taariq’s lips inched upward. “It was actually about…you.”
She swallowed. “Me?”
He nodded, his eyes now holding hers prisoner. “If I remember correctly, we were dancing.”
“Dancing?” Anna laughed.
“What? You don’t dance anymore? I seem to recall you having some pretty hot moves.”
Now it felt as if a frog was trying to clog her windpipe. “No. It’s…just been a long time since I’ve gone dancing.”
“Aww. Now that’s a shame. Everyone should be able to cut loose every once in a while.”
Anna reached up and rubbed her neck as if that would hold her frog back a little longer.
“Anyway,” Taariq continued. “We were dancing the salsa.”
“The salsa?” She threw her head back. “Now I know that you were dreaming.”
Taariq started toward her. “The salsa is a very passionate and…a very erotic dance. It’s something that I think that you would take to rather easily. If you want…I can even teach you some time.”
The frog was back and this time he brought a few friends. Anna coughed and rubbed her neck so hard that Taariq’s brows dipped in concern when he stopped in front of her.
“No. I don’t think I’ll need lessons.” She sidestepped around him and damn near ran to the sofa. Surely that would give her enough room to breathe.
Taariq watched her escape with an ever-widening smile. “You were very good…in my dreams.”
Anna continued rubbing her neck.
“So good that things got a little heated.”
Her gaze leapt over to meet his. “Heated?”
“That’s code for X-rated.” He sat down on the opposite end of the sofa.
Anna refused to look over at him. Instead, she focused her attention on the small fire she’d started in the fireplace earlier. “You…dreamed about me?”
“Yes.”
She waited for him to expand on that but he didn’t. Finally her curiosity got the best of her and she turned and looked at him.
“Does that surprise you?” he asked.
“I…” She turned away. “I don’t know.”
“It shouldn’t. And I don’t mind admitting that it wasn’t my first time.”
Her head whipped back around. “It wasn’t?”
“No.”
Once again, she waited for him to expand on his answers, but it was clear that he wasn’t going to fill in the blanks. How long has he been dreaming about me and what does it mean? Wait. Wasn’t she guilty of the same thing?
“And what about you?”
Despite him asking the question gently, Anna felt like a huge interrogation light just clicked on over her head. She even started squirming in her seat. “What about me?”
Taariq shrugged. “I just confessed to what may have happened on my part, an erotic dream ran wild…but that wouldn’t explain your participation.”
“Who said that I was a willing participant?” she snapped.
He arched one brow. “You weren’t forced,” he said flatly but firmly.
“I’m not saying that, either.”
“Then what are you saying?”
“I’m saying that…that I…”
Taariq cocked his head. “Why can’t you admit it?”
“Admit what?” she challenged.
“Who were you dreaming about?”
“No one!”
“Liar.”
Anna opened her mouth to respond, but nothing came out and it was her lack of response that was all the answer Taariq needed.
“I’m flattered.”
“I wasn’t dreaming about you. I don’t remember my dreams,” she snapped. “Now I don’t want to talk about it anymore.” She jumped up from the sofa but there was nowhere to go. She was stuck in that cabin for God knows how long with this arrogant ass.
“All right. All right.” Taariq sat his cup down on the coffee table. “I didn’t mean to upset you.”
“You’re damn right I’m upset. What you’re suggesting is ludicrous. You’re the last man I’d fantasize about.”
He laughed. “Am I that repugnant to you?”
“To me, yes! In case you haven’t been paying attention, I can’t stand you!”
Instead of getting angry, Taariq grew more and more amused. “Thanks for clearing that up and, yes, I have been paying attention. I just can’t figure out why. Surely you can’t be upset about what happened way back—”
Anna stopped pacing and speared him with a contemptuous look. “Can’t figure it out?”
He blinked, he couldn’t believe how heated she was.
“C’mon.” She rolled her eyes back so far that she could practically see behind her. “You can’t be that clueless to not know that a woman would be a little pissed off that you’d sleep with her and just take off. No note. No phone call.” She ticked items off on h
er hand.
“What?”
He thundered so loud that Anna took a step backward. Out of all his possible reactions, she hadn’t expected the complete utter shock that blanketed his face.
Taariq grabbed and shook his head. “What are you talking about? I didn’t sleep with you that night!”
Anna’s mouth dropped. “How. Could. You. Say. That?”
“Rather easily, thank you very much.”
“You don’t remember,” she said dumbfounded.
“I remember that night rather well. It’s you who doesn’t remember…which I shouldn’t be too shocked by given how much alcohol you had that night.”
She closed her mouth…but then tried to open it again, but she still couldn’t get her brain to toss out a few words.
Taariq folded his arms. “Let me tell you what I remember about that night…”
“Anna?” Another kiss was pressed to her head before there was a gentle shake to arouse her. “Are you awake, baby?”
“Hmm?”
“We’re here,” Taariq murmured softly and then waited for her response. When he didn’t get one, he shook her again. “Baby?”
Anna moaned and then stretched. When her thick fan of lashes opened, she drank in his handsome features. “Hey,” she moaned as if waking up to him was completely normal.
Taariq chuckled softly as he shook his head. “Hey, yourself. So you think that you can walk up to your dorm room or should I carry you?”
She snuggled closer. “Like if we were on our honeymoon?”
“Uh…oookay,” Taariq hedged. “Exactly how much did you drink tonight?”
Anna rolled her eyes while her smile slid wider. “Oh, I don’t know. A couple?”
His laughter deepened. “Just a couple?”
“Something like that.” She twirled a finger in her hair as she finally pulled herself out from under his arm. “Should we go up?”
Taariq’s brows arched upward. “Do you think that you can make it?”
She frowned at the silly question. “What do you mean? I’m fine.”
He gave her a dubious look but then pulled the keys out of the ignition and climbed out of the car. Since she was practically in his seat, he offered a hand to help her out from his side, as well.
“Whoo,” Anna said, almost tumbling.
Taariq kept an arm wrapped around her waist. “Are you sure that you’re okay?”
Anna righted herself by clinging to him. “Yeah. Never better.” She giggled for a moment and then became fixated on his mouth again. She lifted her finger and then lazily brushed it across the bottom. “I want to kiss you again,” she whispered.
Still highly amused, Taariq laughed while he maneuvered to shut his SUV’s door behind her.
“Mmm-hmm.” She bobbed her head like a little girl.
“You’re adorable, do you know that?”
Her smile melted as she dropped her gaze. “Adorable…but not beautiful.”
Taariq took hold of her chin and lifted it until their eyes met. “You’re both. Beautiful and adorable.” He kissed the tip of her nose. “I’m sure you already knew that.”
Anna shook her head.
There was a shuffle of feet somewhere before someone shouted, “Y’all get a room somewhere. Damn!”
Taariq smiled against her lips before pulling back. “Let’s get you to your room.”
“That sounds like a plan,” she said.
He just smiled as he walked and supported her with his arm still wrapped around her waist. She did pretty well if you ignored her inability to walk in a straight line, and she seemed to catch a serious case of the giggles halfway up to her dorm room. When she got her door open, Taariq took his cue to pull away. “Maybe I can call and check on you tomorrow?”
Anna’s face twisted in disappointment. “You’re leaving?”
“Yeah.” He reached up and brushed a lock of hair away from her face. “I think you need to get a good night’s sleep.”
“Nooo.” She tugged him into the small room by his shirt. “I want you to stay,” she purred.
“Trust me. I’d love to stay. But I don’t think that’s really a good idea.”
“Oh, really?” She kicked the door shut and started pulling up his shirt. “I thought that you wanted to see some of my other moves. Anna started swaying her hips. Once she got started, that shining glint returned to his dark gaze.
She kicked off one pump—maybe a little too hard because it flew high up in the air and smacked Taariq against his temple. “Ow!”
“Oh.” She slapped her hands across her mouth. “I’m so sorry.”
Taariq rolled his eyes toward to the door like he was reconsidering his exit.
Anna lowered her hands and redoubled her awkward seduction show. However, this time she just leaned over to remove her other shoe. Problem with that was she was still a little off-balance, so when she leaned…she kept falling in that direction.
“Whoa! Watch it!” Taariq lunged forward, but unfortunately when she made a desperate grab for him, she just succeeded in pulling him down with her. She hit the floor. “Anna? Are you all right?”
“Hmm?”
He laughed. “You’re wasted. C’mon. Let me help you get into bed.”
It was a struggle to get her back onto her feet, but somehow he managed. She dropped her head on his shoulder and started mumbling something about not wanting to be a good girl. He just nodded and unzipped and peeled her out of her dress. Next, he pulled back the covers and then eased her down onto the pillow.
She was still mumbling something when he pulled the sheet and blanket on top of her. She really was adorable and beautiful. It was just too bad that she was also drunk. Taariq shook his head, but couldn’t resist pressing one last kiss to her cheek. “You’ll thank me for this in the morning,” he said. With that, he stood up and left the dorm with Anna moaning and tossing in her sleep.
“And that’s was the last time we talked until your sister’s wedding.”
Anna stared at him in shock. “That’s not…I…think that I need to sit down.” She walked back over to the sofa and then folded over with her face inside her hands. “But…I remember…I could have sworn…” She looked up at him. “It all seemed so real.”
Taariq shook his head. “It didn’t happen. You must have dreamt it.”
“A dream,” she echoed.
“Just like last night seemed real.”
“Last night was real,” Anna reminded him.
“But we didn’t think so at the time.”
She fell silent as she continued to rub her head. “I’m confused. All this time…”
Taariq joined her on the sofa. “I’ve done some questionable things in my time. But I would’ve never forgiven myself if I’d tried to sleep with you that night. You were pretty out of it. I thought that I’d see you around again, but you and Charlie stopped hanging out and then Roxanne told us that you’d moved out of her dorm. I think I saw you one other time, but you were acting strange so I thought that you were just embarrassed about that night.”
“I’m embarrassed now.”
“Don’t be.”
“Oh. And I threw that drink your face.” She slapped a hand over her mouth. “I’m so sorry.”
“Well…that was interesting…and oddly refreshing.”
Anna laughed, but still felt an incredible amount of guilt. She’d believed a lie for years.
“So does this mean that we can be friends now?” Taariq asked.
Anna smiled shyly. “I think that I’d like that.”
Chapter 20
For three blistering days Anna and Taariq remained snowed-in in their small cabin on Powder Mountain. They had long ago stopped looking outside the window because there was nothing but a wall of snow. Two days earlier the phone lines went down and the temperature in the cabin was steadily falling, despite the constant fire they had going in the fireplace. To ward off cabin fever, they stayed huddled close to the stone hearth, munching on Spam and cracke
rs and drinking gallons of hot cocoa.
They shared stories and talked about everything—except for what happened that first night he’d arrived.
“Your father took you to a prostitute?” Anna laughed, shaking her head.
Taariq shrugged but his cheeks darkened with a blush of embarrassment. “What can I say? I was a late bloomer and my father thought I needed a little help getting comfortable around the ladies.”
“Oh, my God.” Anna dropped her face into the palms of her hands. “I thought that sort of thing only happens in teenage-angst movies.”
He shook his head. “I don’t know what to tell you. My father was a different kind of cat—the proverbial rolling stone.”
“Wherever he laid his hat was his home?”
“Exactly.” Taariq’s gaze turned reflective. “I idolized him growing up. No matter where we moved to, he was always the coolest brother on the block. Not to mention the women loved him. At one point I thought I had enough aunties to make the Guinness Book of World Records.”
“Aunties?”
He laughed. “That’s how my father would always introduce his newest girlfriend. ‘T, my man. Come and meet your Auntie Pam—or Auntie Theresa’,” he mimicked his father. “I have to admit, they all treated me like a king—primarily because they thought it would get them brownie points with my old man.”
“So you were raised with a lot of different women spoiling you?”
“Now I wouldn’t say spoiling,” he hedged.
“No? What would you call it?”
Taariq’s mouth flapped, while his shoulders jumped around. “I’d say that I brought out their natural maternal instincts. I needed it since my mother wasn’t around.”
“Why not?”
“Because she didn’t have any maternal instincts. I suspect that she left me with Dad before he could do the same to her.” He shrugged his shoulders. “She left when I was three and I never saw her again.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. It was a long time ago.” A brief silence hung between them. “So where were we?”
“Your father took you to a prostitute.”
“Oh, yeah. Pops thought that if I had sex at least once that it would get the ball rolling.”
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