Buch lesen: «This Winter Night»

Chapter 1

Colton Riley knew a fool when he saw one. At that moment, he happened to be looking at the fool in his rearview mirror. What had he been thinking? He had driven to the Great Smoky Mountains in the midst of winter without first checking a weather report.

It was snowing so aggressively visibility was practically nonexistent. If not for GPS, he would have gotten lost, even though he’d traveled this route many times before.

He put the SUV in Park as he pulled in front of the cabin with its headlights trained on the porch. He hadn’t been there in a long time but he knew there was a spare set of keys somewhere in the car. After a quick search he found them in the glove compartment, zipped his jacket all the way up to his chin and got out of the vehicle.

The fierce north wind whipped snow in his face. The temperature, which had dipped drastically since he’d left Raleigh, North Carolina, for Bryson City, a little town near the Tennessee border, chilled him to the bone. His father’s recent death had been such a shock to the system he wasn’t his normal rational self. Otherwise, he would have worn a heavier coat— perhaps rethought this entire trip completely.

He unlocked the cabin’s front door and took a couple steps inside where he automatically reached for the light switch. He pressed the flat panel but was rewarded with no illumination whatsoever. Then he remembered the alarm and rushed over to the unit but found even the green ready light was out. Power failure. He then made his way to the kitchen where he found a flashlight in the drawer next to the stove. Switching it on, he headed to check the breaker box in the laundry room at the back of the cabin. It was as he suspected—there was no electricity in the cabin. Probably downed power lines due to the blizzard, he thought grimly. He now regretted not having backup generators put in the cabin according to his parents’ objections. They liked the austerity of the place. Said they came to the mountains to get away from the modern world as much as possible. Besides, they frequented the cabin more often in warmer months than in the dead of winter, so they figured they didn’t need a generator.

Next he checked the cubbyhole in the mudroom where his parents kept logs for the fireplace. Empty. That did it. He would not survive the night in a cabin without electricity in the middle of a snowstorm, not when there wasn’t the remotest prospect of a roaring fire.

He made his way back through the cabin and out the front door. He suddenly remembered glancing at the fuel gauge in the SUV before he had gotten out earlier and again realized that the tank was nearly empty. He laughed roughly. His dad would have probably gotten a good laugh out of this experience for years. Be prepared for anything, he’d always said. Well, Dad, Colton thought, I wasn’t prepared for you dying. That kind of threw me for a loop.

He climbed back in the SUV. Luckily, he hadn’t been in the cabin long enough for the snow to freeze on the windshield. The wipers cleared away the accumulation, and he spied the cabin across the pond. Lights shone in its windows. The property belonged to Adam Eckhart. His parents had been reluctant to tell him of the purchase three years ago when his biggest business rival had “coincidentally” moved next door to the Riley family cabin. Colton had simply laughed at the time because he rarely went to the mountains. His parents had frequented the cabin more than anyone else in their family.

It made him wonder, though, just what kind of psychological games Adam was playing with him. The man clearly had no sense of business fairness. At least twice Eckhart had used underhanded methods to push Colton’s construction company out of the bidding for lucrative contracts.

One of the city officials whose palms Eckhart had greased had even come to Colton and boldly said things might go his way if his gift were larger than Eckhart’s had been. But the Riley family didn’t conduct business in that manner. So Eckhart had gotten the contract.

Looking at the Eckhart cabin now, Colton was resigned to the fact that beggars couldn’t be choosers. He would have to go knocking on his enemy’s door tonight, or freeze.

* * *

Lauren Gaines-Eckhart luxuriated in the warm, soapy water of the sunken tub. She had pinned up her long, wavy raven’s-wing-colored hair to keep it dry, and put a Ben Harper CD in the sound system in an attempt to banish all thoughts of Adam Eckhart. She peered up at the clock on the wall. They had now been divorced exactly three days, seven hours and thirty-six minutes. She grimaced. Sometimes she was too anal for her own good.

“Ben, Ben,” she moaned. “Take me away!” But the sound of Ben Harper’s beautiful voice wasn’t working tonight. Like bile, hatred for her ex-husband coursed through her taut body. The more she tried to relax, the more images of doing violence to Adam flashed through her mind.

She smiled at the thought and sank deeper in the tub as she laid her head on the pillow. Finally she relaxed. As Ben Harper’s sweet tenor soared she closed her eyes. Tomorrow she would think about making her way back to Raleigh for work, family and responsibility, but for tonight, Christmas Eve, she was fine with being cut off from everyone and everything in her life. She’d been in the mountains for two days and had stayed in spite of severe weather warnings that mentioned the likelihood of a blizzard. She felt safe here. As an architect, she’d designed the cabin with backup generators that would provide power for several days, insulated windows and a reinforced roof built to withstand the weight of heavy snowfall. This cabin was safer than some military installations. The daughter of a retired U.S. Army general, she knew a little about the military.

As an added bonus, her nosy sisters wouldn’t be able to travel up there to commiserate with her about her divorce. She adored all four of them and knew they meant well but they wouldn’t let her wallow and she wanted to wallow, at least for a few days. Then, like everyone expected of her, she would pull herself together and get on with her life.

She felt her muscles loosen and sighed contentedly. A delicious feeling of peace suffused her body. Then, just as quickly, her muscles tightened once again. Was that the doorbell? She glanced at the clock—9:25 p.m.? Who in their right mind would be out and about during a snowstorm?

She sat up in the tub and listened. There it was again, this time followed by someone pounding like crazy on her front door.

Curious, and a little ticked off by the intrusion, she rose. Tall and curvy, her brown body glistened with water droplets. Carefully, she stepped onto the plush bath rug and grabbed a towel to quickly dry off.

Pulling on her robe and slippers, she hurried into the adjacent bedroom and went straight to the closet. Pushing aside some clothes she revealed a wall safe. She quickly put in the combination, opened it and removed the semiautomatic she kept for self-defense.

Her father had made sure that all his daughters knew how to safely use a handgun. She loaded it and made sure the safety was engaged. She didn’t want to accidentally shoot anyone. She would fire the weapon only if it became necessary to defend herself—a woman couldn’t be too careful here in the isolated mountains. The nearest police station was miles away. And no one was going to come to her rescue in a blizzard.

* * *

Colton pressed his ear to the door as he strained to hear any forthcoming footsteps from within. Could Eckhart have programmed the lights to come on at regular intervals to deter thieves? If so, the cabin could be unoccupied. He tossed that theory aside. The power was out. If the power were out in his family’s cabin, the power would be out in Eckhart’s, as well. Even with backup generators, someone would have to manually start them up, right? At least he hoped so.

He was about to start pounding on the door again when a feminine voice yelled, “Identify yourself, and quickly!”

“My name is Colton Riley. My family owns the cabin across the pond...”

“I know Frank and Veronica Riley,” said the voice impatiently. “Stand back so I can see your face.”

Colton took a step backward. He was trembling with cold, his arms wrapped around his jacket in an attempt to hold in what little body heat he had left.

Inside, Lauren squinted as she perused his face. Yes, although they’d never formally met, she recognized Colton Riley’s clean-shaven chiseled features from various charitable events they’d both attended, and from family photographs his mother, Veronica, had shown her over the years. She was clearly proud of her son and had talked about him a lot. Also, it was hard not to recognize the man her ex-husband detested. He’d bought this cabin just to irk Colton Riley. Lauren had wondered about her husband’s sanity then—to buy a cabin just to rub somebody else’s nose in it. The fact that he was so rich that he could move right next door to a sworn enemy and they had no control over it whatsoever. On the other hand, gaining ownership of the cabin in the divorce was a breeze because Adam hadn’t gotten the rise out of Colton Riley he’d expected when he’d bought the property. He’d been summarily ignored. So when Lauren had said she wanted the cabin he hadn’t put up a fight.

Now his business rival was standing on her doorstep wanting to come inside out of the cold.

“Okay, you’re Colton Riley. What do you want?” she yelled.

Sure she recognized him, but who knew, he might moonlight as a serial killer on weekends.

Exasperated and freezing, Colton got riled. “Look, my dad died earlier today and, not thinking clearly, I got in my car and just started driving, going nowhere in particular. Then I looked up and realized I was headed here. So...”

Lauren had the door open and was yanking him inside before he could finish his sentence. Colton was so grateful to feel the rush of warm air on his skin he collapsed onto the floor in a snow-covered heap. Lauren shut the door but not before the blustery conditions blew snow onto the polished wood floor. She gazed down at her uninvited guest. “Frank passed away?”

Colton’s eyes met hers. In hers he saw shock and sympathy.

He stood up. He was at least six inches taller than she was and she wasn’t a small-statured woman—five-eight, maybe five-nine. “Yeah, of pancreatic cancer. Kept it quiet for years. He didn’t want anyone feeling sorry for him.”

There were tears in her eyes. She stood there with a towel wrapped around her hair and dressed in a bathrobe with pink bunny slippers on her feet. She should have looked comical, even ridiculous, but instead she looked beautiful to him. Not just beautiful—angelic.

It could have something to do with the fact that she’d just saved his life by letting him in, he thought skeptically. “Please, don’t cry,” he said softly as he rubbed his arms to speed up his body’s recovery from the cold.

Lauren wiped the tears away with her free hand and seeing he was severely underdressed for the weather outside and must be freezing, she sprang into action.

“Come with me,” she told him, and began walking toward the back of the cabin.

“Is that a gun?” he asked cautiously after catching sight of the weapon she held at her side.

“A girl has to stay safe,” she said offhandedly.

“So, it’s true what they say about you Gaines girls,” Colton said as he followed her.

Lauren smiled over her shoulder at him. She had been under the impression he knew nothing of her background. But apparently her reputation, or to be more accurate, her father’s reputation, had preceded her.

“What do they say about us Gaines girls?”

“That you don’t mess with the general’s daughters.”

She laughed shortly. “Damned straight, you don’t.”

She led him to the guest room and switched on the light. She gestured to the closet. “I’m sure some of the clothes in there should fit you. There are towels and toiletries in the bathroom. By the time you’re finished taking a hot shower I’ll have something warm for you to eat and drink.”

Although grateful, Colton hesitated to accept her generous offer. He stood peering down into her upturned face, an expression of surprise on his own. “Are you sure this is okay with your husband?”

He wanted to avoid being caught naked in the shower by an irascible husband who’d stalked in from somewhere else in the house.

“Ex-husband,” Lauren informed him tightly.

He looked confused. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”

“Nondisclosure clause in the prenuptial,” Lauren said briskly. “I can’t speak to the media about our divorce or about anything that happened in our marriage. He thinks it might reflect negatively on him, from a business standpoint. Now, I’ll leave you alone.”

She left before he could say anything else, closing the door firmly behind her.

Colton looked around the spacious room with its pine floor, vaulted ceiling with exposed beams, and a natural stone fireplace. He’d heard she was an architect. As a builder he could see the thought and skill that had gone into its design.

Right now, though, a nice warm shower was what he needed. He wasted no more time peeling off his clothes and stepping into a steamy bath.

* * *

Having taken the time to put on jeans and a long-sleeved cotton shirt, Lauren stood in the kitchen, heating up some of her hearty beef vegetable soup she’d made earlier that day. As she stirred it with a wooden spoon, she wondered how Veronica was doing. Veronica and Frank had to have been married nearly forty years. What did you do when you lost someone you’d been with for that long? Someone you adored? Frank had a reputation for being a hardnosed businessman but with Veronica he’d been nothing but loving. The time Lauren had spent with them up in the mountains, sharing meals and playing chess with Frank who once told her that she and Veronica were the only women who’d ever bested him at the game, would now be dearly cherished memories.

Their son, though, was a mystery. She knew only what others had told her about him. He’d taken over the company when his father had retired. The Rileys had been in the construction business for more than half a century in the Raleigh area. They were known for being trustworthy and for producing quality private homes and commercial buildings. On the other side, Lauren had spent the entire length of her marriage listening to Adam complain about “those damned Rileys” who “have had a monopoly in this city for too long.” Adam was the upstart, and in order for the newcomer to triumph over the standard-bearer, deals were made that might be conceived as manipulative, perhaps even downright illegal. In return, Lauren had started to dislike her ex-husband long before she discovered he was having an affair.

Back in the guest room, Colton had showered and brushed his teeth, and then found a pair of jeans that would fit him and a soft denim shirt in the closet. No underwear, which was fine with him. Unless he found a pair of briefs fresh out of the package, he wouldn’t be wearing anything that had once been that close to Adam Eckhart’s body.

He did find a package of thick, white athletic socks, which he opened, selected a pair and pulled onto his feet. Appropriately dressed now, he went in search of his hostess. He let his nose lead him to the kitchen. Whatever she was cooking smelled wonderful. He hadn’t realized how hungry he was. He’d left Raleigh hours ago, his trip a meandering blackout until he recognized some familiar landmarks and realized he was headed to the family cabin, a place where he’d spent many an idyllic summer fishing, swimming, hiking and kayaking and generally making his older sister, Jade’s, life miserable. She’d been such a neat freak that he’d gotten a kick out of throwing her in the pond, or putting frogs, snakes and insects in her bed. He’d been a total jerk to her back then. It was a wonder they had such a close, loving relationship today. He’d left Jade in Raleigh with their mother. Which reminded him, by now they must be worried sick about him. He needed to call and tell them that he was fine. He felt bad for making them worry on top of the grief they were feeling due to his father’s recent death.

Where was his cell phone? He found his jacket by the front door where Lauren had hung it on the coat tree to allow it to dry. He rummaged through the damp pockets until he found it. No lit-up display indicated it was in need of a recharge.

A few seconds later, he was walking through the kitchen doorway. Spotting Lauren ladling soup into a bowl, he said, “Thanks. I think my body temp’s back to normal again.”

She looked up and smiled, “Good. You’re not a vegetarian, are you? I’ve got some beef vegetable soup. Would you like coffee? Or maybe hot chocolate?”

Colton sat down at the place setting she’d provided for him at the high-counter kitchen island. “No, I’m definitely not a vegetarian. That soup sounds good. And a hot chocolate, please,” he said. “Thank you...”

“Call me Lauren.”

She smiled again, and his heart skipped a beat. He hoped he wasn’t becoming infatuated with Adam Eckhart’s ex. It didn’t help that the woman was kind and generous to a fault. She was also drop-dead gorgeous with her fresh face, skin so clear and golden-brown with a hint of red as if she was blushing underneath. She’d taken the towel off her head and her blue-black hair fell in waves about her heart-shaped face. She was adorable without makeup. He’d seen her all dressed up at the Black and White Ball last year. She’d been on Eckhart’s arm with him beaming like an idiot, and no wonder—she’d been the belle of the ball. She’d been breathtaking then but not as appealing as she looked now, so vulnerable, as if her emotions were barely being contained. He supposed she was hurting from the divorce. Could that be why she was up here alone—contemplating her lost marriage? He would not broach the subject. Even if he’d known her for more than an hour, which he hadn’t, he would never bring it up.

“This looks good,” he said just before sampling the soup. It was savory with a tomato base, tender chunks of beef, and just the right amount of red pepper for spice. He looked up at her with appreciation. “You made this?”

“Homemade,” she confirmed with a smile.

“Delicious,” he said.

“I’m glad you like it,” Lauren said softly as she busied herself making hot chocolate.

Momentarily, Colton put down his spoon and regarded her. “I’m sorry for intruding on your downtime. But when I got to the cabin I found out there was no electricity, and no wood for a fire, so I had no other choice but to come knocking on your door.”

She was smiling as she poured hot milk into two mugs. “You don’t have to explain. I know Veronica and Frank never had backup generators put in. I tried to convince them to but they insisted their place was more rustic and somehow more romantic without the generators.”

She stirred cocoa, sugar and a touch of vanilla into each mug. “They were the perfect couple.”

Colton cleared his throat when he felt a lump forming in it, and tears at the backs of his eyes. He couldn’t start bawling in front of a stranger, even if she was a sympathetic stranger.

He took a deep breath. “Yeah, they were pretty devoted to each other.”

Lauren placed a mug of hot chocolate in front of him and sat down across from him at the kitchen’s island. “You don’t have to talk if you don’t want to. I understand. I got out of Raleigh shortly after I got word my divorce was final. I wanted time to myself before my family began to smother me, wanting to know if I was all right.”

He noticed she spoke with a smile that didn’t reach her eyes, which by contrast were sad. Because he didn’t like her ex-husband he couldn’t imagine a woman not being overcome with joy after being declared free and clear of the buffoon.

He ate his soup in silence as she sipped her hot chocolate.

Although neither of them actually looked at the other, there were a lot of quick secret glances. Lauren had noticed his short, naturally dark brown hair was still damp from the shower and he had strong hands. He ate slowly, savoring each bite, which made her wonder if he did other things in that manner, as well. No rush, just lingering and appreciating, enjoying the moment. His skin was the color of cinnamon, and his eyes were dark gray, like his father’s. His photographs didn’t do him much justice, and the few times she’d seen him at public functions she had not given him much thought because after all she had been a married woman.

Colton could not help inhaling the clean feminine scent of her. Fresh out of a bath, he figured since she had opened the door in her bathrobe. Even half-frozen, he hadn’t missed that. Her silhouette was classically beautiful, the slender neck, that square chin with the dimple in its center, angling up to a full mouth with lips that looked soft and inviting. Damned if a near-death experience didn’t make you more observant, and appreciative, of things you might never have noticed before. When she breathed in and out, he imagined her full breasts heaving with desire, for him.

Once or twice while he was finishing his meal they smiled at one another, but uttered not a word. When he was done with the soup, he looked up at her. “That was wonderful. You saved me.”

Lauren laughed nervously as her eyes met his. “What was I supposed to do, let you freeze to death?”

His gaze went to her mouth. Her tongue flicked out and moistened her lower lip. She rose and reached for his bowl. “Can I get you some more?”

Suddenly, his heart was thudding in his chest, and his manhood, already going commando in his borrowed jeans, began to stir. He knew he had to get out of her presence before he said or did something that would embarrass them both.

“Um, no, thank you. I think I’ll just go to bed. I’m more tired than I thought.”

If he wasn’t mistaken, she looked relieved at his announcement. Was she feeling the same attraction he was feeling?

“Of course,” she said, hurriedly crossing the room to put the bowl in the sink. “You know the way. If you need an extra blanket, they’re on the top shelf in the closet.”

“Good night, then, and thank you,” Colton said hoarsely.

“Good night,” she said softly, chancing a shy glance in his direction. “Hopefully, we’ll have better weather tomorrow.”