Merry and Bright(34)

“Your radiator kicked on. It’s hot in here.”

Yes. Yes, it was, and when his gaze dipped from her face to take in her pj’s, the worn camisole and cotton pants that somehow she’d actually thought were a good idea, it got even hotter.

His gaze snagged on her breasts. The soft, silky material had been washed a thousand times. The pale blue was most likely a tad bit see-through. With an inward wince, she looked down at herself.

Not sheer, but thin enough to clearly see the outline of her nipples, which for some annoying reason were hard. Bad nipples.

“Maybe if we pound on the door and call for help . . . ?” he murmured, his voice husky and low.

She crossed her arms over her chest and shook her head. “There’s no one else here.”

“Lori?”

“Doesn’t come on until eight.”

His jaw dropped. “You’re by yourself running the entire inn from evening until morning?”

She heard the disbelief, which put her back up. “It’s not a big deal.” She frowned. “Normally.”

“It could be dangerous, Hope. You should have someone here with you at all times.”

“The only danger to me is you.”

“Me?” He looked horrified at the thought. “You’re not afraid of me.”

She didn’t want to go there. “Look, my point is that I’m selective about my guests, and besides, it’s not like this is the big city. Muggings are nonexistent.”

“Still,” he said, looking worried.

For her, she realized, and stared at him in surprise. He was worried about her.

How long had it been since someone had worried about her?

“And that plumbing should be wrapped in insulation,” he pointed out. “If it was, the pipes wouldn’t freeze.”

“I agree. I have some renovations ahead of me.”

“Do they include fixing the drain in the upstairs bathroom—which by the way, doesn’t have a blow-dryer. It doesn’t even have towels.”

“They’re in the laundry.” She was well aware of the failings of this place. Ben had offered to fix the problems, but she refused to let him work ahead of what she could pay him. Things were getting done as she could afford them.

“Look,” he said softly. “This place is great. It’s got history and character and charm, but it needs work. You need to get better control of—”

“Control?” she choked out. “I realize I need some things done, and I’m getting to them, but don’t you dare stand there and talk to me about control when you don’t even have any over your life. You’re nothing more than a lackey for a man who likes to torture the less fortunate, and—”

“Hope.” He shook his head and dissolved her temper when he stepped close again. “We both know why I’m here, and that’s because you’re in financial trouble.”

“So I’ve had a bad year—” She broke off when he lifted a hand to touch the bump on her forehead, which didn’t hurt nearly as much as the taste of her possible failure.

His touch was so gentle that she felt thrown, as she did by his nearness. “I really thought I’d have the money back from Joey by now,” she whispered.

“Have you looked into alternative financing?”

Yes. And as she was mortgaged to the teeth, she’d been laughed out of three banking institutions to date. She was working on a fourth. “Look, all I did was e-mail Edward and ask for an extension. No big deal. Instead of bothering to answer, he sent you.”

“Because he doesn’t give extensions,” he said softly, his finger still on her.

She slapped it away. “Fine. So now I know. So just go ahead and get out of here and I’ll figure something else out.”

“Door’s locked,” he pointed out calmly. “But after we get out, I’ll—”

“Damn-A-straight you’ll go.”

“—help you, however you need,” he said with infuriating patience.

“I already told you, I don’t need your help.”

“Maybe I could—”

“I said no.”

He merely looked at her in that quiet and steady way he had, except . . .

Except not. They were toe to toe, standing just a little too close, and suddenly she realized she was breathing just a little too hard. But so was he.

Why did he have to be so . . . sexy? Because that really wasn’t a fair distribution of the goods. And what the hell was he thinking about when he looked at her like that, with his eyes so heated behind those glasses? She didn’t know, but he leaned in a little, and she did the same, letting out a soft, anticipatory breath as—

At the top of the stairs, the door opened. Lori stuck her head in and peered down at them. “Hey, did you guys know you were locked in?”





4


Danny climbed the stairs back to his room, not thinking about his job or what he was here for or the snow, but how Hope had looked in her pj’s, all hot and sweaty and so sexy he’d nearly swallowed his own tongue.

They’d bickered.

Gotten hot.

Bickered some more.

And gotten hotter. Not cold, which would have been the logical response to being locked in a cellar in the freezing alien turf he’d landed in.