Body Heat (Vintage Category Romance) (8 page)

He stiffened
and then cast his steel gray eyes upon her. “I don’t ever want to talk about it,” he grumbled and then removed his elbow from her grasp.

Blaire dropped her hand and watched as he turned his back.
“Okay,” she said. “I don’t have to be told twice.”

****

Several hours later, Blaire sat cross-legged in the middle of the bed, staring at the four walls of the cabin while MacGlenary sat at the table, pencil in hand, hunched over a spiral notebook, writing. She tried earlier to take a nap, but because she’d slept so much the past two days, it only took up about twenty minutes of the day. Then as she turned over flat on her back and stared straight ahead. She found out there were twenty-two rafters angling down each side of the open roof, eight perpendicular boards between each set of rafters for a total of 176 boards across the ceiling. Four large beams. Four stark walls. Four windows in the entire cabin. Twelve panes in each window for a total of forty-eight panes. She knew all this because she counted them. Each and every one of them. It was when she started on the logs going up each wall that she sat up and stared at him.

“
I’m going to go stark-raving mad in here.” She rose and found her duffel bag. “I’m leaving.”

Darian slowly lifted his head, the motion of the pencil stopp
ing. “You say something?”

Blaire glanced over her shoulder.
“No. Go back to whatever you were doing.”

She walked closer to the fireplace.
The clothes she’d worn here were still thrown over a couple of chairs. They were stiff as boards, so Blaire rolled them over her arm and stepped back across the cabin to the bed. After pulling out a heavy sweater and donning it, she stuffed the dirty clothing into the bag and turned to MacGlenary.

“
I’m leaving now.”

MacGlenary
’s concentration was unbroken, his head bent to his task, so Blaire simply turned and walked to the door.

****

Darian lifted his eyes off his writing and stared at Blaire Crystal Kincaid’s back as she sashayed her little pixie butt across his floor. Leaving? Yeah. Tell me another one.

The cold blast of air burst through the door
the second Blaire opened it, hitting Darian square in the face and ruffling the pages of his notebook. He still stared at her back, frozen like a statue, silhouetted against the blanket of white in front of her. About a bucket of snow whipped in the door around her feet. Still, she didn’t move. Darian chuckled to himself.

Then she slammed the door shut and turned in anger.

Her eyes narrowed. Her breathing deepened. She stared at him with a vengeance and then pointed behind her. “There’s a blizzard out there!”

Stone-faced
and silent, Darian simply nodded his agreement.

Blaire hurriedly stepped closer to him.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“
Didn’t know.”

“
Yes, you did. You were out earlier. I could have gotten out of here then. Now it’s going to be—”

“
Days.”

“
And I need to get—”

“
Out of here? Now? I don’t think so.”

Blaire
’s eyes widened. “Stop finishing my sentences!”

“
Didn’t know I was.”

“
Well you do it all the time and it’s annoying.” Hastily, she turned away and made an attempt at throwing her duffel bag and brief case at the bed. She missed and both landed with a thud on the floor.

Darian
’s gaze followed the flung objects. “Nice shot.”

“
I’m not aiming for accuracy.”

“
That’s obvious.”

“
I’m—” Blaire stared at him.
What did he mean by that crack?

“
Mad as hell, I see.”

“
Would you please stop?”

Darian stared at her.
“I’ll stop when you stop acting like a raving lunatic. It’s just a snow storm. It will pass in a few days.” He dropped his head back to his work.

“
A few days?
A few days?
I’m ready to leave now.”

“
No you’re not.” He still faced his work.

“
Don’t tell me what I am, and am not, ready to do.”

Slowly, Darian raised his head, his gaze settling on her face several feet in front of him.
“All right. Go then.”

Blaire nervously twitched toward the door
and then back to face him. She stood for several long seconds, her chest heaving, a frown on her face, staring back at Darian. She almost turned once more back to the door but then stopped before she made a fool of herself.

“
Forget it. This is ridiculous.” She stomped off to the bed and sat on the edge and faced Darian who promptly returned his gaze to his work. She crossed her arms and legs, harrumphed loudly, and shook her foot rapidly back and forth.

They sat in silence for several minutes, Blaire
’s anger growing fiercer by the minute. Finally, she exploded. “What did you mean by that crack earlier?”

Darian
’s pencil slowed, he closed the spiral notebook with a sigh and then gave her his full attention. “What are you talking about?”

“
That crack about me aiming for accuracy.”

“
I didn’t say that, you did.”

“
Well, I know that, what you said afterward certainly sounded like you were taking potshots at me.”

Darian shrugged.
“What did I say?”

Rolling her eyes, Blaire stood
and took three steps toward him. “I said… You said… Oh, forget it! It’s not worth getting into an argument.” Blaire threw her hands up, walked to the window, turned her back to him, and stared out at the fairyland. If she weren’t so mad—if she weren’t cooped up in this tiny cabin with
him
, it might be kind of beautiful. But not now. It was only keeping her prisoner. With
him.
Funny. The cold always kept her prisoner.

“
You’ve not been totally honest with me, Pixie.”

Blaire listened.
His voice was low and husky, almost seductive. She shivered. She hoped not noticeably. So that’s what he meant. Honesty?

“
And you have?”

“
Yes. You haven’t asked me anything that I haven’t answered,” Darian quickly returned.

“
Same here.”

“
So we’ve both been avoiding the issues of importance?” Darian rose.

“
Perhaps.”

“
So, where do we go from here?” He stepped forward. Blaire felt the static of the warm, dry air in the cabin sizzle between them. “The truth?”

Are we talking about the same thing?

Blaire swallowed a lump forming in her throat. She wasn’t sure she was ready to tell Darian exactly why she was here. She wasn’t sure she was ready to tell him the truth. And what truth was he after anyway? The truth about his grandfather’s estate? Or the truth about how he made her feel?

“
The truth?”

Darian stood directly in front of her.
“I’m game. How about you.”

Backing up a half step, Blaire
felt the icy coolness coming off the cold panes of the window. She lifted her chin. “I don’t have anything to tell you, Darian MacGlenary. I don’t understand what you’re talking about. I’ve been totally truthful with you.”

He inched closer, his face soft and cuddly-looking, a half-smile breaking his lips.
Um…his lips
. Blaire broke her gaze away from them.

“
Uh-uh. I don’t think so.”

Anger
began a slow trek across her body, alongside a tingling of warmth traveling from her belly to her cheeks. He was close. Too close. “So what do you think I haven’t been honest about? Why I came here?”

Darian
’s lips drew into a puzzled frown. “No, actually that was the furthest thing from my mind.” His hand cupped her elbow. “I want you to tell me why you kissed me this morning.”

The statement came out of nowhere and Blaire
was not prepared to respond. She started to her left but was immediately caught by both elbows in Darian’s strong hands. She looked down at the length of fingers and muscled hands as they held her there. Wisps of dark hair curled out around the rolled back cuffs of his flannel shirt halfway up his arm.
Damn! The shirt again.
Then she made her fatal mistake. She looked up into his eyes.

Warm pools of molten lead beckoned.
These were not the beast’s eyes, she told herself, these were the eyes of the man. The inner soul. Wanting honesty…and a whole lot more. More than she could offer, no doubt, no matter how she felt at the moment.

“
Tell me, Pixie,” he whispered. “Tell me why you kissed me.”

Blaire felt lost.
Time suspended; the beating of her heart stopped. “I don’t know why I did it,” she whispered back. “I just did.”

“
Without thinking?”

Blaire nodded.

Darian’s hands released the grasp on her elbows and she felt them circle her back pulling her closer. “Do you do that often?”

Blaire inhaled deeply
and then let it out slowly. Cautiously shaking her head from side to side, she returned, “Never.”

“
Me neither…usually.”

Within the expanse of a split second, Darian had tightened the embrace, and pulled Blaire even closer into his warm,
flannel-covered chest. He leaned in, at first brushing over her lips as if testing the waters; then the pressure increased, and Blaire felt herself wanting to open herself to him and let him in. In more ways than one.

The cold at her back was gone, replaced by
warmth radiating from her lips to her fluttering heart, to her jittering abdomen—and lower. Burning. His tongue lightly raked across her lips, he nibbled with fire, and then he began to withdraw.

Panic thrust through her.
Not here. Not this man. No.

Blaire pushed the palms of her hands up between them and pushed
at this chest. Darian stepped back.

“
This time it was you, not me,” Blaire huffed out, trying to catch her breath.

Darian stood before her, his hands at his sides, looking at the floor between them.
When his gaze rose up to meet hers, Blaire was nearly knocked back on her heels, for Darian MacGlenary possessed the most sexy, come-hither smile Blaire believed she’d ever seen. Then he spoke in the huskiest voice she thought she’d ever heard. “Yes. This time it was me.”

Then he turned and walked away.

Blaire stepped forward. “But you said this morning—”

Stopping
mid-stride, Darian turned back. “What I said this morning doesn’t apply anymore.”

“
Why?”

“
Because now it’s different.” He turned and walked back to the table and sat down, reopening his spiral notebook.

“
What? Why?” Blaire traced his steps and stood next to the table. “Why is it different?”

Darian
caught her gaze. “It just is. And if you were honest with yourself, you’d agree.”

Blaire felt like she was caught in a puzzle she didn
’t know how to get out of.

Chap
ter Five

“
If you have some extra blankets or a sleeping bag or something, I’ll just make a little spot for myself on the floor. I’ll be just fine.”

Darian glared at her.
“No need for that. We’re adults. We can share the same bed. We’ve done it the last two nights anyway.”

Blaire shook her head.
“No, over there by the fireplace will be fine. You take the bed. You’ve probably not had a good night’s sleep in two nights. You deserve the bed. Really, I want to sleep here on the floor.” Blaire stepped in front of the fireplace and surveyed the area. “Just point me to the blankets.”

Darian lifted the lid on a
primitive trunk at the bed’s footboard and pulled out several old blankets and quilts. “I’ll take the floor, you take the bed.”

Blaire
took the blankets out of his hand. “No. I want to.”

“
You’ll take the bed.”

“
I’ll take the floor.”

“
The bed,” he repeated.

“
The floor,” she responded again.

“
Bed.”

“
Floor.”

“
Bed.”

“
Floor.”