Baby It's Cold Outside (9 page)

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Authors: Addison Fox

BOOK: Baby It's Cold Outside
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The reaction of shock, adrenaline and pure, unadulterated feminine pleasure rocketed through her system as the firm press of his lips quickly gave way to the heated assault of his tongue.
The cold that had seeped into her bones from the moment she’d fled outside was rapidly replaced with a liquid heat that spread through her like a wild blaze and she knew—with absolute certainty—how the denizens of Alaska stayed warm.
As his mouth played over hers, she dimly registered the fact that her hands were hanging by her sides, so she lifted them to settle at his waist. His hips were solid, thick with muscle as her fingertips sought purchase under the fabric of his coat.
Glorious need filled her. It beat within her and matched the want she felt emanating from the solid planes of his body. Although some dim recess of her brain warned her this likely wasn’t the brightest idea she’d had in a long time, she couldn’t quite muster up the will to push him away. In fact . . .
Sloan’s grip tightened on his waist, pulling him closer as she tilted her head to allow him greater access to her mouth. He explored her with his tongue, their mingled breaths and sighs warming up the frigid night air.
A loud burst of laughter broke the sensual haze and Sloan pulled her head away as reality interrupted their stolen moment.
“Um. Yeah. Okay.”
Damn it, was she so desperate that a few good kisses could scramble her brain?
As her gaze returned to his lips, seductive in the light of the parking lot, Sloan couldn’t miss the satisfied smile that spread across his face. His dark eyes promised it wouldn’t be the last moment—stolen or otherwise—they’d share.
“Think about it, Sloan.”
Oh, she’d think about it, all right.
“I mean it. Think about the competition.”
“Of course.” Of course he meant the competition. “I’ll definitely give it some thought.”
“Come on. I’ll walk you back inside.”
Sloan glanced down and realized she was wearing someone’s coat. And from the increasingly loud sounds coming from the direction of the parking lot, the townsfolk had clearly had enough of her hospitality.
“Walker! Washa ya doin’ over there?” a man she’d only heard called Bear hollered from across the parking lot.
Okay, Sloan amended her first notion. Avery likely shut down the bar, hence the departing guests.
“I’m just seeing Ms. Sloan back inside, Bear.”
“Youz sure thaz all?” As several people near Bear let out a loud burst of laughter, Sloan realized these last few moments with Walker likely weren’t nearly as private as she’d thought.
Walker’s hand settled low on her back, the insistent pressure her cue to walk toward the side door she’d escaped out of only minutes before. “I was just giving Ms. Sloan a tour of our evening sky. Alaska’s too pretty not to share it with the tourists.”
“Thaz for sure.” Bear nodded good-naturedly.
“You be careful getting home. All of you,” Walker hollered from behind her as he pushed her through the door.
Suddenly nervous, Sloan wasn’t sure how to handle the attack of nerves that began dive-bombing her stomach. “No one misses much up here, I guess.”
“I think it has less to do with up here and more to do with the fact that Indigo is a small town.”
Sloan thought of her own relatively small town and the individuals who fought for dominance there. “Too true. There are no secrets in small towns.”
Dark eyes narrowing, Walker’s voice was a husky mix of desire and—annoyance? “Are you interested in keeping this a secret, Sloan?”
“It was just a kiss.” Was it? Even as the casual response left her mouth, she was regretting the words.
“Of course. Here you are. And there’s Skate Mac-Intyre.” Walker pointed in the direction of a big guy looking determinedly through the now dwindling pile of coats in the corner of the lobby. “He probably wants his coat back.”
Did no one in this town have a real name?
Before she could ask or say anything else, Walker had moved away to help his grandmother with her coat.
Shrugging quickly out of the oversized wool, she offered a small smile to the man standing there with an expectant smile. “Skate?” At his nod, she continued. “Sorry about that. I ran outside for something and realized I should probably layer. I just grabbed the nearest one I could find.”
“No problem, ma’am.” Skate nodded his head, a dark red flush creeping up his neck even as he smiled broadly. “You warmed it up for me.”
She glanced down at the coat in her hands, thrusting it at him as if it had suddenly turned into a snake. “Oh. Sorry.”
His large bear-sized hand closed over the collar of the coat, his fingers just brushing hers. “I’m not.”
“I hope you enjoyed this evening.”
Before he could say anything, she excused herself and crossed the room toward where Grier stood at the bar with Avery.
“Someone’s quickly making an impression.” Avery smiled as she handed a bill across the bar.
“What?” Sloan clamped down on the impulse to screech when she saw the total on the bill.
“The town’s bachelors certainly seem taken with you. Skate’s notoriously shy, but there he was, talking you up.” As if reading her mind, Avery added, “And while the Indigo Blue appreciates your patronage, I figured you’d like me to call it quits after the bill hit a grand. Otherwise a few more might have gotten up the courage this evening.”
“The bill’s for almost fifteen hundred.”
Avery smiled broadly. “I said I
figured
you’d like me to quit after a grand. Then I called last call and everyone got busy. I did throw in a few freebies, I’ll have you know. Susan won’t mind a few free bottles of wine in exchange for a bar tab like this one. Oh, and gratuity’s included.”
“How thoughtful,” Sloan said drily as she reached for the pen Avery had laid beside the bill. On a small mumble, she added, “Besides, I only had his coat.”
“What’d you have of Walker Montgomery’s?” Grier added in a slightly tipsy voice.
“G!” Sloan whirled on her friend, midsignature on the bill.
“It’s a fair question.” Avery made a good show of collecting glasses off the bar, but Sloan didn’t miss the broad smile that lit up her face.
“More than fair.” Grier waved a hand as she reached for a bottle of water. “I saw your face when you walked back in that door over there. Fess up. The man charmed your panties off, didn’t he?”
“Grier!”
Avery held up a hand and Grier smacked it with the age-old high-five motion. “Told you.”
“Do not tell me you two were betting on this.”
“’Course not,” Avery added. “I don’t take bets I’m sure to lose and that absolutely would be one. But I can tell you that man is fuckalicious and he’s got his eye on you.”
“What have the two of you been up to in here?” Sloan wanted to be angry, but she couldn’t seem to conjure the proper emotion as she took in the matched looks of merriment on both women’s faces.
It was funny, she mused, how easy it was to laugh with both of them. “And tell me how I can possibly go from having you stare daggers through me mere hours ago to telling you deep, dark secrets?”
Avery shrugged. “I’m irresistible.”
Sloan laughed and took a seat. Before she could say anything, Grier interrupted around another swig of water. “Seriously, though, Avery. I feel like I’ve known you forever. It’s nice.”
“It is,” Avery agreed. “Speaking of nice—I want details.”
Avery’s dark gaze caught the overhead lights of the bar, reminding Sloan they were still sitting in a recently full room. With a quick glance around—and to ensure they had privacy—she leaned forward. “He kissed me. Well, after he challenged me. Then he kissed me.”
“Whoa, whoa.” Grier waved a hand, her water bottle now empty. “I think this calls for more wine. I finished my water like a good girl and this is too juicy for another bottle of H-two-O.”
“My thoughts exactly.”
Avery was already reaching under the bar for a bottle when the label caught Sloan’s attention. “You’ve got Mouton-Rothschild?”
“Holy shit!” Grier leaned forward. “I’ve never had that before.”
“Me either,” Sloan admitted, even as she watched Avery expertly uncork the bottle.
“Then you’re in for a treat.” Avery’s smile broadened as she poured small amounts into two glasses, offering them forward to Grier and Sloan for a taste.
Sloan swirled her wine, the ritual of tasting a pleasant diversion from the grilling on her kiss with Walker she knew was still to come. As the first drop hit her tongue, she closed her eyes at the sheer magnificence of the wine. “It’s gorgeous.”
“Every single time.” Avery leaned forward and poured a full glass for each of them, raising her own glass in their direction. “To a good story and one I hope is rather juicy.”
On a soft clink, Sloan touched the rim of her glass to theirs, then took another sip, releasing a small sigh as she set her glass back on the counter. “Truly amazing.”
“That it is.” Avery swirled her glass, holding it up to the light.
As she took another delicate sip, Sloan’s thoughts tripped over everything that had happened since her arrival. “Avery. Wait a minute. This stuff is like liquid gold. And that’s Chihuly glass in the lobby. What’s going on around here?”
Avery took a sip of her own wine, but Sloan saw a slight wariness that tightened the corners of her new friend’s mouth. “So we have some nice things. We may be a bit out of the way, but we’re not complete hicks.”
“I wasn’t suggesting you were. But this is extreme. Come on. This is a thousand-dollar bottle of wine. Most people don’t have this lying around, and if they do, they sure as hell don’t just open it up over a chat. What gives?”
“What gives is that this is all”—Avery waved a hand to gesture to the room at large—“how Susan’s son assuages his guilt. Expensive gifts that arrive with an alarming degree of regularity.”
Sloan’s heart turned over as she heard the note of unbearable sadness that tinged Avery’s words. “Roman?”
“Yes.”
“And yet you stay here? Near it all?”
“I do.”
“But he broke your heart?” Sloan phrased it as a question, but even as the words left her lips she knew it was more of a statement.
“That he did. But, despite that small fact, I can’t leave.”
“Sure you can,” Grier urged. “You don’t have to stay here.”
Avery’s eyes were bright as she stopped staring at the wine in her glass for a few seconds to look up. “Actually, I can’t leave. Maybe someday, but not today. So in the meantime, I’m going to enjoy my Rothschild and my view of the Chihuly glass and my new friends—especially my friend who has a kissing story she’s putting off telling.”
Sloan knew a closed subject when she heard one and Grier did as well. So they both lifted their glasses toward Avery and smiled.
“So are you going to keep us in suspense, especially seeing as how I bribed you with this amazing stash?” Avery stared over the rim of her wineglass, whatever sadness that had lingered firmly extinguished in the light of a good gossip session.
“You can’t possibly want to know the details.”
“Oh, yes we do.”
On a long-suffering sigh, Sloan leaned in to tell her story. “It was probably the most amazing kiss I’ve ever had.”
“Hot?” Grier probed.
“Sexy?” Avery added.
“Passionate? Oh, and masterful?”
“Masterful?” Sloan couldn’t help but giggle at Grier’s adjective. “What have you been reading lately?”
“You probably don’t want to know. So let’s just say I’ve been in the middle of Alaska for the last month, freezing my ass off during the long winter nights. What do you think I’m reading?”
Sloan waved a hand. “Say no more.”
“And I say ‘masterful’ is the right word since you walked in here with a dazed expression on your face and a light blush that can be put there only by someone as supremely masterful as Walker Montgomery.”
“Actually, I think you had it right before. What was the word? Fuckalicious?” Sloan asked.
Avery lifted her glass and Grier quickly followed. “Sometimes it’s the only word that fits.” Avery shrugged.
It was Grier, though, who added the toast. “Amen to that.”
 
For about the nine millionth time since her freshman year of high school, Jessica McFarland wondered why she hung around with Trina Detweiler.
“Buying off the town. As if.” Trina led their merry little parade down Main Street, with her faithful cohort, Sherry, close on her heels. Kate hung back slightly. Even if there wasn’t a physical distance between them, it was clear Kate was a million miles away.
“I don’t feel bought off,” Jess said reflectively as she brought up the rear. “I just feel buzzed.” She watched as various townsfolk walked down the streets. Avery had kept a close eye on the ones she knew had to drive and cut them off early or enforced designated driver rules. For those who lived within walking distance, the taps had flowed freely.

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