Winter's Heat (12 page)

Early the next morning Eric stood fresh from his shower looking down at Winter’s sleep tangled curls spread across his pillow as he ran through the last few hours in his mind.

They’d gotten their happy ending after all last night. The combination of making love to her again and hearing her sweet lips utter words of love had him almost giving into the caveman-like urge to beat his chest in happiness.

Continuing to gaze at her sleep softened features, he couldn’t wait to tell her again how much he loved her when she woke up. But first he would use this time to take care of some things.

After Winter’s attack yesterday he didn’t want to take any chances with her safety. Last night when he’d searched all over the property and had found no signs of any intruder, he had felt a measure of relief, but it was a different story this morning. That storm had been a sign and he made his living upon never ignoring his intuition.

Leaving Winter to her much needed rest, he got dressed in his customary Saturday morning gear of a t-shirt and shorts. Instead of doing his usual workout routine he made his way downstairs to the quiet of his home office to make some calls.

The first call was to his personal assistant to clear his schedule until further notice. He needed to spend the day with Winter getting items she needed to be comfortable since she’d left her apartment with nothing. If he could help it, she’d never go back to that place ever again.

His next call was to Det. Jefferies to see it they had more information since last night. He would not allow Randy to cast a dark shadow over their happiness. When he thought of what could have happen to her, his blood ran cold.

Once his business was concluded, he went into the kitchen to make some breakfast for his sleeping beauty upstairs. Winter was always taking care of him, now it was his turn to take care of her by showing her that he was not a complete stranger to the art of cooking. With any luck, all those recipe books she kept in stock would rub off on him.

****

Winter woke alone and overwhelmed with happiness as she stretched her well rested body on the cool satin sheets of the bed. She couldn’t help but be made aware of all the places that were sighing in remembered pleasure from last night’s sensual session she’d shared with Eric. Even now the phantom sensation of his body sliding deeply within her own caused a moan of sensual need to escape her kiss swollen lips.

She turned over and grabbed the pillow he’d laid his head upon and wrapped her arms around it. The spicy scent that was uniquely his met her nose and reminded her of the brush of his sinful lips against her breasts and between her thighs as he boldly teased her to her first peak of the night. She’d never dreamed in a million years that she would do those things, but she had no regrets because she trusted him with both her heart as well as her body. And no matter how much pleasure he’d brought her last night nothing compared to her hearing him say that he loved her.

Smiling now, she wrapped the sheet around her and got out of bed to make her way to the bathroom. Turning on the shower, she wondered where Eric was. Suddenly her smile turned into a full grin when she remembered his usual morning workout in the downstairs gym. Shaking her head, she had to admit that his workouts did his body good and thinking about how his sculpted muscles had felt under her hands made her mouth water just thinking about it.

Lost in her thoughts she dropped the sheet and she stepped under the hot water. Closing her eyes as the heat soothed sore areas, she gave herself up to the feeling of bliss to be had under the pelting hot spray.

A little bit later, she slipped the robe from last night back on and went to search for Eric. As she made her way downstairs she started to get a strong suspicion of where he was as she followed the string of curses to be heard above random banging.

She was just starting to wonder what in the world was going on, when the smell of smoke and the piercing sound of the smoke alarm cut through house.

What in the world—

Moving quickly into the wide open space of the kitchen, she stopped dead in her tracks at the picture in front of her.

Eric was standing with his back to her with his complete attention taken up by whatever he was in the process of doing. From where she was standing it looked like it was putting out a fire. Shaking her head in disbelief, Winter stood there for a moment watching the subtle play of sunlight and smoke from burnt food shroud his tall well-built frame. She’d never seen Eric cook before and now she knew why: the man was a menace in the kitchen.

Still, she liked this new domesticated side to him.

Effort had to count for something, right
? She thought smiling to herself.

Unable to stay away a moment longer, she came all the way into the kitchen and slipped her arms around his waist. Standing on her tippy toes, she pressed the full length of her body to his as she placed a lingering kiss at the nape of his neck.

“
Good morning baby.”

“
Good morning, sweetheart.” The low timbre of his voice vibrated through her core deliciously picking up where last night left off.

Taking her arm, Eric pulled Winter around into his arms and leaned down to taste her lips in a kiss that had her moaning for more in two seconds flat. Burnt food, smoke and the shrill of the smoke alarm were forgotten as they both let the kiss take them over.

By the time they came up for air, the kitchen was now quiet and the charred smell had dissipated somewhat. They broke apart slowly to look around at the path of destruction Eric’s culinary skills had wrought. Winter was the first to respond.

“
Baby, I’m gonna have to spank your behind for ruining my perfectly clean kitchen.” She said struggling to not laugh at his offended expression.

“
Oh, you got jokes I see. And here I was trying to make a good impression on you. I hope you know it wasn’t me.” The look of innocence on his handsome didn’t have her fooled for one moment.

“
Oh? And who’s was it?” She asked giggling while she played along.

“
The kitchen. It doesn’t like me very much.” He said with a face that would’ve made a poker player proud.

“
It serves you right. Mr. Show-off.” She stuck out her tongue at him and danced out of his reach when he went to playfully spank her on the butt.

Knowing payback was a-coming her way, Winter moved to the protection of the table and sat down to cover the target he sought. She continued to watch him as he moved to the fridge and started placing items on the table.

“
There.” He said as he sat next to her gesturing pitifully to the yogurt and fresh fruit now on the table in front of them.

“
I wanted to serve you breakfast in bed, but this is as good as it’s gonna get, sweetheart.” He ruefully admitted.

Winter took one look at the offering in front of her and the chaos of the stove and felt her heart melting.

Didn’t the man know how much she loved him?

“
Baby, what am I going to do with you?” Shaking her head, she playfully asked as she reached for one of his hands to hold in her own.

Feeling his hand briefly tighten around hers, she noticed a subtle shift in him. Her heart tripled its beat as she took in the suddenly serious blue eyes he turned on her.

“
You could marry me…” The seconds ticked by before his words even registered with her. At first she thought she was hearing things, but as the words echoed around in her head, her eyes widened in disbelief.

No, he just didn’t say that, did he?
She silently questioned.

“
Eric, stop playing…” When she half heartedly responded, he stopped her to repeat it again.

“
Marry me Winter…” The strength of his voice as he said the words again left no room for misunderstanding that time around. He was serious.

“
Eric…” His name slipped faintly from her lips as his words truly sunk in.

She watched in total shock as he took her left hand in his and pulled a beautiful sparkling diamond ring from his pants pocket and slipped it onto her finger for a perfect fit.

“
I meant it last night sweetheart. I love you so much and I want you to be my wife. Make me a very happy man by saying you’ll marry me.” He continued to hold her hand in his awaiting her answer.

“
Oh my God Eric—yes!“ She felt her throat clog with emotion as she said the words that had seemed a part of her as long as she’d known him. With a cry, she leaped up and threw herself in his strong arms.

Eric felt relief pour through him as he held her soft body close to his. He hadn’t planned it this way, but the moment had just seemed too right to pass up. Now he was glad that he’d taken the chance.

“Oh my God, I have to call my aunt and my sister Charlene…” Winter was bursting to tell them the news.

But right after she said the words, some of her excitement dimmed as she realized because she’d lost her phone she had yet to let them know she’d gotten back safely.

“Eric, they must be losing their minds by now since I haven’t called to let them know I got back safely.” She sat back in his arms with a frown now marring her features with worry.

“We can call them now, sweetheart.” Pulling his phone out of his pocket, he handed it to her.

Holding the phone in her hand now, she started to dial the familiar number then abruptly stopped as she was swamped with a cluster of indecision. A lot had happened since she’d gotten back and she didn’t know where to begin or if she should tell her family about last night’s attack as well. They would only end up worrying themselves over something that couldn’t be changed.

Her Aunt Sophie especially.

“
What should I say? There’s so much that’s happened…” She didn’t even want to bring up talk of her attack between them but it was the elephant in the room and even with all the good things going on right now, she couldn’t pretend forever that bad didn’t exist along with the good.

Placing his hands of either side of her face, he kissed her and looked deeply into her worried eyes. “I’ll stand behind whatever you decide to do sweetheart, but just remember that you did nothing wrong and you have nothing to be ashamed of.” He assured her.

Taking strength from his words, Winter held the phone tightly in her hand and dialed the number quickly before she lost her nerve.

****

Several months later….

Eric stood at the window of his new downtown Phoenix office looking down at the constant ebb and flow of the late afternoon traffic. He was completely lost in thought thinking about the path his life was currently on.

A lot had happen in the last few months. He and Quinn had officially opened up another branch of operations for their company in Arizona so he was able to kiss jetlag goodbye and come home every day instead of only on the weekends.

Which made his wife very happy.

Just the thought of Winter made his heart beat faster in anticipation making him aware that the only reason he’d come in to the office today was to meet with a new client. Otherwise he would be home right now with her.

Running his finger over the shiny wedding band on his left hand, he knew one thing for certain: he had to be the luckiest man alive. It amazed him that he had stayed away from her as long as he did. Because now she was his whole world and he made sure he told her every chance he got.

He would never forget how beautiful she looked standing in front of him on their wedding day. He still felt a little guilty about the small justice of the peace wedding they’d ended up having. But waiting to plan a big wedding hadn’t been an option because he’d been so eager to make her his in every way. But he’d found a way to make up for it in the end.

Much to her surprise, he’d flown in some of her family the day before their wedding. He was still patting himself on the back for that one. Charlene had informed him that it had earned him the current title of favorite brother-in-law.

He grinned every time he thought of how slick Charlene thought she was giving him that particular title. He had no competition since he was her only brother-in-law. Still, he appreciated the way her family had welcomed him and had been kind enough to drop everything to be there at such short notice. Their wedding wouldn’t have been the same without them.

He felt his heart expand with love as he thought of what she had told him this morning after they’d made love. Something he’d already suspected because he knew her body like the back of his hand. In six months time they would be welcoming their baby into the world.

Even the fact that they hadn’t found Randy yet couldn’t dim the happiness they’d found. He had every confidence in detective Jefferies and his own team he’d put on the case until Randy was caught. He hadn’t told Winter because he wanted to keep the shadow of her attack as far away from her as he possibly could. With any luck the man would be caught and brought to justice so they could put the whole thing finally behind them.

Going back to his desk, he tried focusing on the paperwork waiting for his attention. If he was going to make it in time for dinner, he’d better head out in the next hour while traffic was somewhat tame.