Boom (7 page)

A dull, hurtful wrenching in her stomach had Mia swallowing hard. Damn, when the woman was right, she was right. “Then for my own peace of mind, I need to know I’ve done all I can to salvage our relationship. And if it’s unsalvageable, I need to close that chapter in my life
completely
, so that I can move without thinking
what if
.”

“Honey,” her aunt sighed. “That’s something you can do right now, just by deciding it in your own mind. Let Jackson go by not giving him another thought. He doesn’t deserve your devotion.”

“
I
deserve answers, Deb, one way or another. I’m making this journey for me, not him.”

“What you deserve is to have a gorgeous knight in shining armor come along, see what a treasure you are, and take you away to his beautiful castle.”

Mia frowned. “Did knights have castles? I thought they just defended them.”

“You know what I mean. All that sappy medieval romantic shit—you deserve it.”

“Apparently Fate disagrees with you, since I’ve been given a hellacious polar vortex instead of a beautiful castle.”

“A Presidential Chalet isn’t anything to sneeze at, sweets. What does this Kingfisher dude look like anyway?”

A gorgeous knight
sprang to Mia’s mind, and she had to bite her lip to keep from blurting it out loud. “I think you’d approve.” A sudden beep sounded in her ear, prompting her to glance at her phone. “Crap, I’m down to ten percent on my battery, Deb. Do me a favor and call Daria to let her know what’s happening, okay? I’ll call you guys later to let you know when I’m continuing on to Seattle.”

“Feel free to enjoy the mountain resort life,” came the quick response. “No need to hurry off to Seattle the moment the weather cle—”

Her aunt’s voice cut off, and another glance at her phone showed Mia nothing but a blank black screen.

Crap.

With a sigh, she crawled off the bed to rummage around in her purse for her power cord.

Then she rummaged around in her carry-on.

Then she dumped her entire purse out on the bed to paw through the contents.

Where the hell was the damn power cord?

The memory of inviting other passengers to use the cord came back with crystal clarity.

But not the memory of packing it back up.

Arrrgh.

She stared at her dead phone, then at the iPad in its leather case, now also without a cord, and mulled the problem over. Her cord might be miles away, but that didn’t mean the situation was hopeless. This was a resort, after all. True, it was still a couple weeks away from its grand opening, but there could still conceivably be some sort of gift shop stocked with basic items that travelers commonly forgot to pack. Or, at the very least, Quinn might have a power cord that she could borrow.

To find out, she’d have to talk to him.

A groan escaped her, and she collapsed onto the edge of the bed. She didn’t want to talk to Quinn. She didn’t want to even acknowledge his existence after that kiss. Life in the chalet was going to be insanely awkward now, filled with a never-ending parade of uncomfortable moments as the memory of that kiss sat between them like an elephant in the room.

What the hell had he been thinking, kissing a total stranger like that? A stranger who wasn’t available, no less. She’d been upfront about Jackson, so Quinn was way out of line for kissing her when another man had put a ring on her finger.

Except that Jackson had never put a ring on her finger, technically speaking. That was something he’d promised to do just as soon as he could afford it. But he had proposed, and she had said yes, so a damn metaphorical ring was there. Quinn shouldn’t have kissed her.

And she shouldn’t have enjoyed it.

She had, though.

She groaned again and pressed her fingers to her mouth. She’d thoroughly enjoyed Quinn’s kiss, and all the words preceding it, because those words had hit close to a tender place in her soul she hadn’t even known was there. When he’d said he appreciated her sacrifices, it was as though every cell in her body bloomed. She’d never known a handful of words could make her feel so…
good
.

Mia sighed, and the sound of it held all the warring emotions inside of her. She had to be honest. Even if Quinn hadn’t kissed her, she still would have felt conflicted. From the moment he’d lowered his hood, everything that was girlie in her went on a fluttering, squealing rampage. Men like Quinn Kingfisher had a knack for making a woman’s panties heat up. He was something else again, with his thick, silky hair flowing over brawny shoulders, midnight blue eyes and a lean, long-limbed body. He made her feel petite even when she was in heels, a feat Jackson had never accomplished since he was shorter than her when she wore even the smallest heel. That was why Jackson had forbidden her to wear anything other than flats whenever they went out together in public.

Nothing
was wrong with Quinn Kingfisher. His looks, his undeniable charisma, his height, even his determination to look after her and the other stranded passengers when he’d had no reason to get out of his warm bed—
all
of it hit her internal happy buttons in the worst damn way.

But it wasn’t right. She couldn’t be attracted to a man who wasn’t her fiancée. Not only did that make her just this side of slutty, it also made her disloyal.

Being slutty was one thing. Being disloyal was unforgivable.

And there it was, the reason she didn’t want to talk to Quinn. If she talked to him, she’d have to be in the same room with him. If she was in the same room with him, it was entirely possible her clothes would spontaneously fly off while she full-on body-tackled him.

So, no. She didn’t want to talk to him.

But damn it, she needed a freaking power cord.

She could do this, Mia thought, pumping herself up as she forced herself toward the door. Just a quick request, preferably while standing in a doorway with a whole room separating them, and that would be that. Simple.

Yanking the door open, she motored through and crashed headlong into Quinn, his hand raised to knock on her door.

“Whoa.” Quickly he caught her by the shoulders, and the warmth of his hands seeped into her skin. “Talk about timing.”

“No kidding.” Bad timing, to be specific. But that seemed to be her lot in life since she’d started this journey. “Sorry. You okay?”

“I think I’ll live.” His eyes were trained on her in that unblinking way that made her want to smooth her hair and moisten her lips. Then his hands slid from her shoulders to her elbows, and the need became overwhelming. “This shirt you’re wearing…it’s great how it matches your eyes, but it’s way too thin for this climate. You need thicker clothes if you want to stay warm around here.”

Since it was profoundly inappropriate to mention she was plenty warm as long as he was touching her, she searched her brain for something safe to say. “If I get too cold, I’ll just wrap myself up in the coat you’re letting me borrow.”

“We can do better than that.” He got out his phone and tapped the screen. “What are your sizes, top and bottom? Oh, and shoe size. You can’t go anywhere in those boots. Don’t get me wrong, the heels make your ass and legs look like the eighth wonder of the world, but they’re not practical when it comes to slogging through ice and snow.”

“You can’t say things like that,” she managed faintly, even as she fought the absurd desire to run her hands down the ass he’d just admired. “I’m an engaged woman.”

“If you were a woman who was engaged to a man who was serious about it, he’d do what I would do and tag you as unavailable. He didn’t, so you are.”

It took her a moment to catch up to his meaning. “I’m
not
available.”

“Then maybe you should tell your hands that, since they’re holding onto me. Not that I’m complaining,” he added when she gasped and jerked her hands away from his hips, where they’d been resting since she’d crashed into him. “I like how easily we fit together, Red. I think maybe you like it too, but right now you’re not sure where you are or what’s going on, so your caution’s understandable. When you feel more secure and figure out what you want, I’ll be here.”

“What I want is a power cord for my damn phone because I was an idiot and left mine behind at the school,” she said, sounding so prim and snappish, she managed to piss herself off. With a long sigh she took half a step back physically from him and one huge step back mentally. Being a bitch wasn’t going to help matters any, but it would make them worse, and she was so done with her situation getting
worse
. “I’m just so mad at myself. I have an amazing memory, but I forgot something as basic as a power cord, can you believe it? Talk about stupid.”

“Nah, not stupid. Exhausted and barely functioning, but not stupid.” Clearly taking her half-step back as an invitation, Quinn strolled into her room, only to stop dead and stare at the bed. “You made your bed?”

“What? Oh. Yeah.” Distractedly she began scooping items back into her purse where they belonged then dropped her now-dead phone onto the bed in its place. “I thought this was your house, so I wanted to leave what I’d assumed was your guest room in the same shape in which I’d found it. I’ll still do that, of course,” she hastened to assure him while he just stared at her, not sure what his problem was. “I don’t expect anyone to come along and wait on me just because this is a resort and not a private home. I’m sure you don’t have a full staff yet, and I’m more than capable of pulling off a mean hospital corner.”

He continued to stare at her. “Wow.”

“Wow, what?”

He shook his head. “Let’s review. You’re not sloppy, your ass looks great in heels, you try to help people like that poor little pregnant girl and that tired elderly lady, you lost a cord while offering it up for others to use, you can legal-ninja anyone who pisses you off, you’re a dangerous kind of good, and you’ve got hair that makes me want to play with it for hours on end. Damn.” Without warning, he reached out and poked a finger into her cheek.

She snapped her head back. “
Hey
—”

“Yep, you’re real. I didn’t think you were, but you’re definitely here, standing right the hell in front of me. It’s hard to believe you exist.”

She blinked, her indignation melting under a wave of bewilderment. “What are you talking about?”

“You’re like the perfect woman. Were you able to make your calls?” As he spoke, he reached over to pluck her phone off the bed to examine it.

“Uh, I just wanted to make one call, and yes, I managed to squeak it in.” Perfect woman? Was he joking? Obviously he had to be, since they were strangers and she was far from perfect. But as she studied his expression, she had the weirdest feeling he was serious. “My aunt would have been expecting me to walk in bright and early Tuesday morning, and since it’s looking like I won’t be able to do that, she needed to know what was going on.”

His gaze came up to nail her to the spot. “You mean you didn’t call your boyfriend or your parents?”

“Fiancée, not boyfriend. And my father moved to Florida with his wife and stepchildren years ago. It’s just me and my aunt in Chicago.”

He nodded absently. “Won’t your man be worried about you when he doesn’t hear from you?”

Discomfort began to do a slow burn beneath her skin. “I was going to surprise Jackson. He doesn’t know I was en route to him, so he won’t be worried about me.”

“He’ll still want to know where you are and how you’re doing, though.”

Because that was how Quinn would be with his woman, she realized as the burn began to hurt all the way to the bone. No way was he going to understand that Jackson hadn’t thought to get in touch with her, not even via text, in months.

And damn it all, she didn’t understand it either.

She cleared her throat and nodded at the phone in his hand. “So, um, do you happen to have a power cord I could borrow?”

He flipped her phone around in one large mitt and caught it without looking at it. “You didn’t even think about calling him, did you? It didn’t even cross your mind. Which means that
he
didn’t cross your mind.”

“There was no need to call him.” And there was certainly no need to admit he was right.

“When you’re separated from your man, you don’t
need
a reason to call him, Mia. You do it because you want to. But you didn’t, and you don’t seem to expect him to call you, considering how calm you are about having a dead phone.”

“What do you expect me to do, throw a fit? I told you, I’m not a crier.”

“You’re also not missing your man.”

“What I’m missing is a way to juice up my phone,” she said loudly, and this time she did sound desperate. Not to get her phone recharged. She was just this side of frantic to bring this stupid conversation to a close. “Would you mind if I borrowed your power cord?”

“You can borrow it, but it won’t do you any good. I’m latest generation Android, you’re iPhone, and my cord won’t work on yours. So,” he went on while she groaned, “might as well sit back and enjoy your surroundings without all those pesky distractions of the outside world. Who knows? You might even wind up loving it here.”