What had he said? I can sleep anywhere.
She didn’t know how much longer she curled on the couch, trying to keep still, rearranging the covers, pulling her sweater tighter around her. Nothing helped. She just wanted the night to be over. To keep her mind off Brad, she thought about the huge elk they’d seen that afternoon. She heard other noises and didn’t know what they were. Was that a coyote howling? Did they have coyotes in Montana?
Finally she gave up. Anything would be better than her mind racing and her body shivering. “Brad?” she asked softly.
“Still can’t sleep?”
“No. If I could only stop shivering. Is…is your offer still open?” She felt silly and embarrassed.
It seemed like aeons until he answered, “Sure. Come on down. I’d lay on the sofa with you, but I don’t think either of us would have room to breathe.”
He was so tall and broad shouldered and muscular. They’d never fit on the sofa.
Switching on the flashlight again so she could see where she was going, she saw him turn onto his side and prop himself on one elbow. “Take off that extra blouse and sweater.”
Her gaze met his and her thoughts must have showed.
“I’m not suggesting you undress. Just get rid of those layers. I think you’ll be more comfortable. You might want to ditch the sneakers, too.”
She didn’t know if she was being the biggest fool on the planet as she removed the sweater and blouse and kicked off her sneakers. Then came the real challenge.
Awkwardly she dropped to the bedroll beside him. He’d quadrupled the huge bed quilt underneath him and had doubled the wool blanket on top.
“Do we need my covers from the sofa?”
“Let’s try it like this.”
Switching off the flashlight, she wasn’t sure exactly what position to take.
“Face the sofa,” he suggested.
She did that and hovered on the edge of the quilt, as cold as she’d been before.
But then Brad’s arms were around her, his chest and stomach were against her back and her backside was curved into his thighs. Seconds later she felt his arousal.
When she would have moved away, he said, “I don’t seem to have any control over that, but I’m not going to do anything you don’t want me to do.”
That was the problem. With his arms around her, with his body pressed close to hers, she wanted to do more than sleep. But making love with Brad Vaughn again would eventually devastate her heart…because she thought of it as making love. He thought of it as having sex. That was a very big difference.
The floor was hard, but for some reason, with Brad’s arms around her, she didn’t mind it.
His warm breath wisped across her ear as he suggested, “Relax, Emily. Go to sleep. Hopefully the sun will come out and everything will be better in the morning.”
Would everything be better in the morning? She couldn’t undo what she’d done. She couldn’t forget about Suzette Brouchard. She couldn’t deny she was falling in love with Brad, and it was more than a crush. As their bodies generated the heat he’d predicted, she felt her thought processes slowing and comfort surround her. She felt warm in spite of the cold. Before she drifted off, however, one question plagued her. What if she was pregnant with Brad’s child?
When Brad suggested Emily sleep with him, he’d known he was asking for trouble. If not trouble, a night of discomfort. There was no way he was touching her again, not sexually anyway. What they did had blown his mind. That hour-and-a-half trek must have frozen his brain as well as his good sense. His hike had reminded him there should be more to his life than work…work he didn’t have a passion for. It had reminded him how his life felt empty sometimes.
So when he’d returned and Emily had flown into his arms, a fire had kick-started. She’d been sweet and soft and honest and utterly guileless, so unlike the women he usually dated. The truth was, he hadn’t been thinking at all when they’d started kissing, when they’d started undressing, when they’d come together in a cataclysmic explosion he’d never experienced before.
Afterward, however, conscious thought had hit him like the proverbial ton of bricks. He had never ever slept with a woman unprotected before Emily. What was it about her that had made him forget about protection now?
During the early hours of the morning, Emily changed positions. Instead of facing away from him, she turned toward him—unconsciously, he supposed. Now she nestled on his shoulder, throwing one of her legs over his.
He held her loosely in his arms. Loosely, because his self-control was getting hard-pressed. Loosely, because he knew he couldn’t be intimate with her a second time. They were wrong for each other, as he’d learned with Robin. If two people didn’t grow up with the same backgrounds, there’d be a fatal crash along the road—either a clash of goals or desires or needs.
The problem was, the women he dated did have the same backgrounds as he did. Yet he hadn’t connected to any of them the way he’d connected to Emily. What did that say about him? What did he have to change?
Although Emily didn’t like being stuck here, he did. It was a retreat, a soul easer, and maybe he just needed to take more vacations to remote places.
Emily’s hand moved across his chest, and he could feel the path through his sweatshirt as if it were a scalding trail of hot water. When she rubbed her cheek against his shoulder, he almost groaned. Shifting a little, he hoped she’d soon awaken.
After she rubbed her cheek against his shirt a second time, her eyes fluttered open. Their faces were very close together. If he just tilted his head…
He slammed the door shut on that thought.
Self-consciousness dawned in her eyes, and when she realized how she was curled up with him, she scooted away a few inches. “Sorry. I guess I must have rolled over during the night.”
Now fully awake, she sat up. Immediately she felt the chill and rubbed her arms.
“Now you can put on that blouse and sweater again.” He tried to keep his tone easy. He tried to forget that all he’d wanted to do all night was combine their body heat in a more intimate way.
Scrambling to her feet, she said with determination, “After I brush my teeth, we can get breakfast started. Maybe that will warm us up.”
She was babbling fast, and he knew she was embarrassed about cuddling up to him.
“Take your time,” he called to her retreating back. “It’s not as if we have appointments lined up this morning.”
Five minutes later, he used another Sterno burner to warm water for instant coffee and cocoa. Emily wasn’t a coffee drinker, but he was. Just one more difference.
When Emily entered the kitchen, there was still a heap of awkwardness between them. She was silent as they poured cereal. She was silent as she sliced a banana. She was silent as they sipped their beverages in Caleb Douglas’s mugs.
Brad wasn’t going to let her withdraw from him like this. If she was pregnant, they were going to have to keep communication open.
She was sitting at the kitchen table in a stream of sunlight that shone through the window. She’d tied her hair back in a short ponytail, and the style emphasized the perfect oval of her face.
“You said you have two sisters and a brother. What do they do?” he asked, choosing a safe topic.
“Eric is a history teacher.”
“How much older is he than you are?”
“Two years. He got married right out of college and he and Sheila had kids right away.”
“They still live in Chicago?”
“In Lyle.” There was a fondness in her voice as she talked about her siblings. “Elaine’s a paralegal. She’s twenty-three, and Lizbeth will finish college this spring.”
“Why didn’t you start college after high school?”
Sadness passed over Emily’s face. “I had other things to consider first.” There was pride in her words as she explained, “Eric put himself through school and he’ll be paying off loans for a long time. I knew if I went to col
lege, I wouldn’t be able to help Lizbeth and Elaine. So I went to a trade school for professional skills for a year and then entered the workforce. After Lizbeth finishes this spring, I’ll be able to take the courses I told you about. It might take me a while, but I’ll get my degree eventually.”
Considering what she’d said, he realized she’d sacrificed her own education for that of her sisters’ and sacrificed her own goals for her siblings’. He didn’t know if he’d ever met anyone who had done that. His respect and admiration for Emily went up a few notches.
When she became silent again, he asked, “Are you worried about being pregnant?”
She didn’t answer him but rose from her chair and took her mug to the counter. Then she poured more hot water into it and finally looked over at him.
“What’s going through you mind, Emily? Tell me.”
For a second she still hesitated, then finally answered. “I was in a serious relationship before I came to work at Vaughn Associates.”
“How serious?” Brad asked, picturing her with another man and not liking the picture.
“Serious enough for me to be on birth control. I wasn’t careless about it, but I got pregnant.”
That news hit him like a bucket of melted snow. “Do you have a child no one knows about?”
“No. When Warner found out I was pregnant, he wanted nothing to do with me or the baby. He was one of the partners in the law firm, and I was simply a secretary. I didn’t realize until then he had been using me. I was just an afternoon treat, not a main dish…if you know what I mean.”
Sometimes Emily’s honesty made him uncomfortable. “And the child?”
“A few weeks after he broke it off and I quit my job, I had a miscarriage.”
“Emily, I’m sorry!”
When he saw quick tears come to her eyes at his words, he went to her.
“It was a long time ago,” she murmured. Her back was straight and she took an herbal tea bag from the box, opening it slowly.
“But apparently it’s not forgotten.”
Letting the tea bag dangle in the mug, she turned toward him. “I’ll never forget. When I found out I was pregnant, it was a blow and it was going to complicate my life terribly, but I wanted that baby.”
They’d had sex yesterday, and he’d held her in his arms last night. Nothing on earth could have kept him from hugging her now.
It pleased him when she laid her head on his shoulder as if it was a relief to lean on him. He had the feeling she didn’t lean on many people—that she was the one who got leaned on.
Wanting to keep the situation between them honest, he growled, “I never should have put you in this position again.”
“I was there yesterday, too,” she said softly.
A low hum sounded through the cabin’s walls and windows, becoming louder with each second.
Emily leaned away from him. “What’s that?”
“It sounds like a helicopter. Maybe Caleb has sent the Marines.”
When they grabbed coats and ran outside, they saw a helicopter had arrived. After it landed in the large clearing beside the cabin, they ran to it and met the pilot. He had indeed been sent by Caleb.
“We just have to put everything into our suitcases, then we’ll be ready,” Emily told him, her mood buoyant.
And that’s about all it took.
She and Brad hurriedly folded the covers that they’d used and put them away, cleaned up the kitchen leaving supplies they’d bought and zipped up their suitcases. Minutes later they were in the rear of the helicopter and the pilot was lifting off.
Emily had been overjoyed when the helicopter had finally landed, but now, sitting beside Brad, staring out the window and leaving the cabin behind, she didn’t feel quite so happy. Her days with Brad there had been…special. This morning when she’d told him about the miscarriage, he’d been so incredibly kind.
Now, could they go back to being boss-secretary?
When she turned her head, she could sense Brad was studying her. If only she could crawl inside his head and learn what he was thinking. On the other hand, maybe she didn’t want to know.
If she’d been entertainment, if coupling had just been his way of passing the time, her heart was going to get broken.
The pilot had told them he was taking them to Caleb’s ranch, the Lazy D, and as they flew to Thunder Canyon, Emily concentrated on her bird’s-eye view of it so she didn’t think about Brad and what had happened at the cabin.
Brad leaned close to her, and in a voice she could barely hear above the whirring of the propeller, he pointed below. “That’s all Douglas land. There’s the mine entrance.”
She could see there were three access roads leading to one particular spot.
After the helicopter covered more distance, Brad motioned toward the mine entrance. “The erosion hole the boy fell into, where the rescue workers found the gold, was over one of the tunnels much closer to town.”
The helicopter buzzed over Thunder Canyon Road, and she saw the Douglas ranch. There was a fantastically large two-story house, barns, fences and cattle grazing everywhere. Apparently Thunder Canyon had received a minimal amount of snow compared to the area where the cabin was located in the mountains. With the sun shining, all that was left of the snow here were sporadic patches.
After the pilot landed to the rear of the huge house, Brad took both suitcases, not hearing of Emily carrying hers. The look he gave her was dark and intense and she wondered again what was going to happen next. What did she want to happen next?
Caleb Douglas met them outside one of the back doors and waved them inside. But Emily was concerned with making muddy footprints on expensive-looking rugs, which she decided had to be Oriental. Inside they stood in a large room with a fireplace, pool table and an assortment of sofas and love seats. That one room was bigger than any apartment she’d ever lived in.
She slipped her shoes off and Caleb looked at her questioningly.
“I don’t want to mess up your carpet or floor.”
“The housekeeper will take care of that.” He studied them both. “You don’t look any worse for wear. I’m sorry you two got stranded up there for so long. I figured the power would go out with the snow and the wind. I want to get a generator up there but just haven’t done it. I’ve been busy with the ski project. Anyway, I drove up there yesterday but couldn’t get across the creek in my SUV. The helicopter wasn’t available until today.”
After a quick look at Emily, Brad answered, “We’re fine.”
Caleb went on. “The bad news is, no rooms have opened up at the motel or the inn. The good news is, my wife’s family left yesterday so you’re welcome to stay here.”
“We don’t want to be in your way….” Brad began.
“This house is big enough. You won’t be in my way. I also wanted to tell you I rented an SUV for you. Brought it in from Bozeman. You won’t have any trouble getting around, no matter where you want to go, unless you want to cross the creek,” he added with a wink.
A woman had slipped quietly into the room while they’d been talking, and now Caleb motioned her forward. “This is Tess Littlehawk, my housekeeper. She’ll show you upstairs to your rooms.”
Tess Littlehawk was a striking woman who looked to be in her forties. She had jet-black hair parted down the middle and bound in a thick braid. Her eyes were the darkest brown, almost black, and her broad face had lines around her eyes and around her mouth. She was wearing navy blue slacks and a matching tailored top with short sleeves that Emily guessed was a uniform of sorts.
“It’s good to meet you, Tess,” Emily said immediately.
“You too, miss,” Tess responded.
“Take them up to their rooms now, Tess,” Caleb ordered. “I’m sure they’re going to want to get unpacked and enjoy some creature comforts after the past few days.” He checked his watch. “After lunch, we’ll meet in my den. I know you need an update on what’s been happening here.” Motioning toward the double doors tha
t led out of the family room, he urged, “Go on now. If you need anything, just let Tess know.”
When Brad reached for the suitcases, Caleb shook his head. “I’ll have someone get those.”
Brad picked them up anyway. “I’ll take them up.”
“Suit yourself.” He saw Emily was carrying her laptop computer and a camera bag. “You might want to bring your computer along for our meeting—then you can type notes as we go. I’ll expect weekly reports,” he told Brad.
“That’s what I intended,” Brad assured him.
Minutes later they emerged from the family room onto more polished hardwood floors. Tess led them down a corridor, then into an immense foyer with a two-story-high ceiling. The sweeping staircase was also polished wood.
As she and Brad followed Tess upstairs, Emily saw mostly closed doors.
“This is the east wing,” Tess told them. “Mr. and Mrs. Douglas are situated in the west wing. I haven’t gotten all the rooms up here cleaned and swept yet, but these two are yours.” She motioned to two open doors on the same side of the hall. “These rooms are connected by a bathroom. If that’s not to your satisfaction, I’ll have another cleaned in about an hour.”
“It’s up to you,” Brad said, gazing down at Emily.
They’d just shared two days in a cabin with a single bathroom. “This is great,” she murmured.
“Let me show you the setup.” Tess led them inside.
The first bedroom was huge, with a king-size lodgepole headboard and a burgundy-and-hunter-green quilt on the bed. Vertical wooden blinds were open at the windows.
Tess kept going and opened a door that led into an opulent bathroom. There were two vanities, two sinks, a huge shower and a Roman tub.
Quickly Tess went to the second door on the other side of the bathroom and opened that. When Emily saw a lilac-and-yellow room, she knew no place would be more pleasant to sleep. It was absolutely beautiful, with its white spread with lilacs scattered all over it, Priscilla curtains and maple dresser, nightstand and headboard.
“This is wonderful,” she told the housekeeper.
“Would you like me to unpack your suitcases for you?” Tess asked.
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