Holiday Bound - Page 9
“No, you got that right. Sort of understated it, actually.” The slight twitch to his hard mouth made her forget her anger.
“I was wrong about us becoming friends, then?”
“No. About me not knowing you.”
Her brow crinkled in puzzlement.
“I first saw you four years ago. You’re a hard woman to forget. I suspect my father knew that before he asked you up here, though.”
Her mouth fell open. “I…I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Don’t you mean you don’t want to know?”
She stood abruptly, avoiding his stare. His softly uttered question caused a sensation like a constricting band around her chest. Her vision was filled with the memory of his eyes glinting in the firelight…with the sudden, sure knowledge of what she’d seen there.
Alex Carradine wanted her.
A lot, apparently.
She set her coffee cup down on the mantel and ordered her rebellious, pounding heart to calm.
“Maybe you’re right,” she said breathlessly, determined to ignore what she’d just witnessed in Alex’s eyes. “Your father and I have only been seeing each other for a short time. I don’t think it’s my place to interfere in private family matters.”
“Have you slept with him yet?”
She spun around, her discomfort forgotten. “You go too far, Alex. That’s none of your damn business.”
He shrugged negligently, completely untouched by her anger. He stood and came toward her. She forced herself to hold her ground as she stood in his looming shadow.
“Maybe I just want to know how much of a family matter you actually are.”
The sound of his deep, gruff voice made the back of her neck tingle. He set his coffee cup next to hers on the mantel.
“I’ll go see what there is to eat,” he said gruffly. Angeline bit her lower lip and stared determinedly at the floor while he walked away.
Wasn’t this situation uncomfortable and complicated enough without factoring in that hot look in Alex’s eyes?
He watched as she ate the last bite of her turkey and Swiss cheese sandwich. She was trying to ignore their previous conversation—act like it’d never occurred. The more she did it, the more irritated and surly he became.
She set down the now-empty bowl of soup on the tray he’d placed on the coffee table.
“That tasted fantastic. I didn’t realize I was so hungry.”
He didn’t say anything, just continued to eat his soup without pause. She got up abruptly from the couch, her arms hugging her torso as she walked away from the heat of the fire. The wind caused a high-pitched howl as it raced across the windowpane.
“It’s coming down like crazy out there,” she murmured as she stared out into the black, snowy night. She spun around after a long stretch of silence and hurried back to the small circle of heat created by the fire and the kerosene heater. Alex watched her out of the corner of his eye, his gaze lingering on her breasts. She’d unintentionally plumped them above her hugging arms. She shivered as she sat down on the couch. “The temperature has dropped as well.”
“It’s supposed to get down to ten degrees or so by midnight, with blizzard-force winds. Wind-chill will be twenty below zero.”
“Not a great time to be without heat,” she said. He knew she offered that bright smile in thanks for his feeble contribution to the conversation. It made him feel like crap—that trembling smile. Why was he being so hard on her? She wasn’t any different than most females. It was hard to say what women fell for more regularly—a man with looks, a man with power, or a man with money. His father possessed all three.
Angeline Kastakis was only human.
“What is it like…being the owner of a ski resort?”
“It’s great.”
She leaned forward, her elbows on her jean-covered knees. “I love to ski. I grew up on a farm in the Upper Peninsula. Lots of skiing up there. I try to go out west to ski at least once a year, but work has been so busy, I haven’t had a chance in years. I was looking forward to testing out your slopes.”
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