The Billionaire's Christmas Baby(29)

He let the rope guide them back to the house and prayed that she didn’t have frostbite. He gently put her down on the porch, his arms grasping hers, making sure she was steady. “Come on,” he said, opening the door and taking her hand to get into the house. He had experience with frostbite and cold weather exposure, but this was different, this was Hannah. Courageous, beautiful, smart Hannah. Standing a few inches from her in the darkened kitchen, she raised her green eyes to his and he was torn between wanting to kiss her and yell at her for taking such a crazy chance outside. But the look in her eyes took his breath away. He knew it wasn’t just him that felt this crazy connection. He knew it in the softness, the complete candor in her eyes. She wasn’t hiding from him anymore.

…

“What were you thinking?”

In spite of the pain she felt as the warm air pierced her cold body and the shaking consumed her, she heard the tenderness. She saw the worry in his handsome features, noticed the faint tremble in his strong, capable hands, and it warmed her in a way that nothing ever had. When she heard him calling her name through the blizzard she knew that everything was going to be okay. He’d called her sweetheart. No one had ever called her anything so wonderful. She trusted Jackson, and she had never trusted anyone before. But God, it had felt good to lean on someone, to trust someone with her life. Nuzzled in the reassuring strength of his body, she realized that he had put her ahead of his own safety. Jackson was the only person who had ever put her first.

“Emily?”

He nodded. “She’s fine. Sleeping.”

Hannah smiled shakily at Charlie, who sat and watched her. If there was ever a worried companion, it was him.

“You could have died if I hadn’t found you.”

Hannah’s eyes filled with tears, her throat burning. She tried to move, but everything hurt. “I can’t move my fingers yet,” she said, holding her hands out in front of her. He gently reached out and enveloped her fingers in his hands. His touch reached that part of her that she had always wondered about, the part that had been shut off so many years before, the place the therapist told her would be there when the right person came along, if she let it happen. She stared at his fingers intertwined with hers, feeling the heat and the strength that radiated from his hands. Of all the people in the world, how could it be him? The one man she was ready to let in?

She didn’t want to think about why he was wrong for her, because as much as she wanted to deny it, her feelings, her attraction, didn’t care about why he was wrong. There had never been anyone so right. In twenty-eight years, she had never felt truly safe. Until tonight, when he found her in a blizzard and carried her so protectively—like she mattered, like she was important.

Jackson pressed her fingers against his face. She closed her eyes and shuddered, partly due to the pain, and partly because of the pleasure of feeling that strong jaw, the tickle of his stubble. She lifted her eyes to his, transfixed by the warmth, the fire in them. When he took her hands and kissed each palm, holding it to his lips, she felt her knees slowly start to give. She wanted to lean in to him, to give in to the overwhelming desire to be held and touched by him.

“Do you know how fast people can get lost out there?” he murmured against her hands, his breath hot and oh so delicious against her cold skin. She had a hard time concentrating, her mind distracted by the sight and feel of his lips.

“Obviously. And I knew what I was doing,” she said, the chattering of her teeth abating. She tried to focus on the conversation and not on the sensation that his lips were causing. “I’ve seen the Little House on the Prairie episode where they get snowed in and they tie a rope from the house to the barn.” The look he gave her almost made her laugh out loud. Almost.

“Hannah, do not tell me you are getting your advice on how to brave a blizzard from a stupid TV show.”

She frowned at him, feigning insult. “It’s not a stupid show. It happens to be my all time-favorite show.”

“You could have died. Charlie is a dog.” It sounded as though the words were ripped from his heart. Hannah felt every bone in her body melt and every speck of laughter that had teased her seconds ago was gone.

She shook her head. “I know what he is. I know what he means.” Her voice sounded odd to her ears. Maybe it was the cold or maybe it was the emotion in her throat as she spoke. She didn’t want him to feel alone anymore, didn’t want him to think that no one else could understand. She knew why he was afraid of adopting his niece now. She had been wrong. He wasn’t selfish, he was afraid. Jackson was a man that gave the people he loved everything. He gave them himself and the betrayal of disappointment, of abandonment was more painful than he could bear.

His eyes turned a deeper shade of brown, his voice a gruff whisper. “What do you mean?”

She swallowed hard. She couldn’t back down, she couldn’t be a wimp her whole life. She wanted to jump into the safety of his arms and stay there, start there. Become the woman she always dreamed of being but never wanted to. Until now. She looked into his eyes, embracing the warmth she saw staring back at her. “I know, Jackson, I know what it’s like to feel that no one loves you, that you’re not worth fighting for.” Those last words were torn from some place deep inside her. And for all the therapy she’d ever had, nothing had ever healed like this. Hannah placed her hand on his jaw and a sensuous heat warmed her body. She didn’t look away as the shock registered in his eyes. He covered her hand with his, staring at her.