Baby It's Cold Outside (20 page)

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Authors: Addison Fox

BOOK: Baby It's Cold Outside
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A part of something far bigger.
A light prickling sensation ran down her spine and Sloan shifted in her seat, turning away from the window. Walker’s heavy-lidded gaze bored into hers and she saw the unmistakable stamp of desire in their dark depths. A sharp spike of feminine intuition speared through her as she allowed her gaze to linger on his. To drink him in.
To revel in the moment.
And again, she had the sense she’d become a part of something far bigger than herself.
Chapter Twelve
 
J
ack took the plane down smoothly, the wheels touching down with a light grace that belied the awkward start of the trip. He still felt bad about Sloan’s reaction to the flight, but knew it wasn’t to be helped.
He and Mick regularly dealt with the rebellious stomachs of very unhappy—and very airsick—passengers. People accustomed to flying on 747s had no idea the experience didn’t necessarily translate to the small planes they used to get around up here.
But he had to hand it to her—Sloan had held it together. The one he really wondered about was Walker. He hadn’t missed the care and troubled concern he’d shown for her on the flight.
Jack shot his old friend a sideways glance as Walker helped Sloan from the plane cabin to descend down the short flight of portable stairs. If he wasn’t mistaken, the stubborn son of a bitch had it bad.
“I’ll see you both back here at six.”
Walker shot him a thumbs-up of agreement and a wave from outside the plane. Jack had picked up his logbook to record a few details when his gaze caught on the pair. Curious, he watched the two of them walk across the tarmac toward the airport.
Although Walker didn’t touch her, he hovered close and Jack saw him clench his fists a few times as the urge to settle a hand at her lower back clearly overcame him.
Yep, Walker Montgomery had it real bad.
Served him right.
Jack had ferried him down here more times than he could count. And while he liked and admired his friend, he’d always thought the man lived a very empty sort of half life.
Carefree, but an empty one all the same.
And who the hell are you to talk, Rafferty?
An image of Jess filled his mind’s eye, kicking him with a swift hook to the chest that would have made David Beckham proud.
That was one fucking situation that wasn’t carefree. It might have started that way, but Jack knew trouble when he saw it.
And guilt.
Oh yes, did he know guilt.
And he had a big old heaping pile of it keeping him up at night. Guilt for betraying Molly not even three months after she’d passed. And another matched serving for ignoring Jess and treating her like none of it had ever happened.
But it
had
happened. For one amazing weekend a whole lot of something had happened.
His memories traveled back over that weekend. The unexpected way things had just sort of clicked. A casual, Friday-night dinner at the diner where they’d happened to run into each other. And the ensuing forty-eight hours where they hadn’t been able to keep their hands off each other.
He’d felt that weekend. For the first time since Molly’s diagnosis two years before, he’d felt something other than numb.
He’d
felt
.
And damn it, now that he’d let the genie out of the bottle, he couldn’t seem to find the numb again.
 
Walker glanced over at Sloan as they moved through the airport. “Are you sure you don’t need something to settle your stomach?”
“I just ate a huge breakfast. That’s probably why my stomach got so upset.”
“If you’re sure?”
“I’m fine. Really. The Coke helped a lot.” A small, rueful smile tilted her lips. “But there’s clearly a reason there’s no mention of the possible side effects in the pamphlets. From the wad of airsick bags I saw in the back of the seat in front of me, I take it that’s a pretty regular occurrence.”
“Yeah. It’s a little-known trade secret.”
“Tricky.”
“Necessary,” he added with a nod. “Would you have gone up willingly if you’d known?”
“Touché. So, Mr. Tour Guide, where are you taking me?”
“I thought we’d start with a visit to the mayor’s office.”
“The mayor?” He saw the quick flash of panic cross her face as she looked down at her outfit. “I’m not dressed to see the mayor of Anchorage.”
“On the contrary. You look great. And he’s an old friend of the family.”
“Oh God. That means he knows your grandmother, and I’m dressed in jeans and a sweater.”
“Like I said. Great.” He laid a hand at the base of her back and pushed her in the direction of the parking lot.
Sloan was quiet as she walked next to him and it gave him a chance to study her from the corner of his eye. She really was a beautiful woman. Long, coltish legs kept an even stride with him as they moved toward the long-term parking lot.
It wasn’t her beauty, though, that had managed to grab his attention. She had something—a certain something special—that he was having a hard time ignoring.
Sloan was obviously a bright, intelligent woman. And she was sexy as hell. But above all, he found her
interesting
.
She intrigued him. Like a puzzle he was trying to solve or a mystery he wanted to figure out, beating the author to the last page. He’d been captivated from the start, and now he couldn’t get her off his mind.
Why was she single, for instance? Certainly a woman as smart and accomplished as Sloan would have her pick of men. The men in Manhattan couldn’t be blind to what a catch she was. Hell, he’d bet any man with a pulse would be smitten after two minutes with her.
So what was it? Was she single by choice?
Walker hazarded another glance in her direction and was slammed with the same sense he’d had on the flight. And the first night over at the Indigo Blue. There was something there. Something underneath that beautiful face and body that she kept hidden from the world.
A sadness, perhaps?
No, he amended. It wasn’t sadness. It was a loneliness he couldn’t quite get a handle on, but it was there all the same.
Like in the way she’d stared out the window at Denali.
Most people were awed by the sight, but he’d sensed something more in her. Her entire expression had changed as her gaze drank in that mountain. Like she was
longing
for something, if he had to hazard a guess.
“The parking lot?” Her voice pulled him from his thoughts.
“What? Oh. I keep a car here.”
“Really?”
He caught the speculative look, but she didn’t say anything else as they moved through the parking lot toward his SUV. He flicked the remote alarm and the taillights flickered a few spots ahead. “This is us.”
“How convenient.”
If there was any hidden meaning in her words, Walker couldn’t find it, but he was smart enough to assume there was one. The clench in his gut was very rarely wrong when it came to reading female innuendo and her “really” had hidden meaning written all over it. “I was spending so much time on renting cars it ended up being easier to keep one here.”
“Do you try a lot of cases down here?”
“Quite a few.”
Their drive into downtown was quick—the time of year coupled with the fact it was late morning ensured they had an easy drive to the mayor’s office.
Walker was still puzzling through all of it as he and Sloan walked down the long corridor to the inner sanctum of local government twenty minutes later. He also didn’t miss the speculative gaze she shot him. “What?”
“I don’t know. You. This.” She waved a hand. “I’m just surprised by your concern for my work.”
“You don’t want access to some contacts for your article?”
“Sure. But you could have handed me a piece of paper with a name and a phone number.”
“This is more personal.”
“Yes. Exactly.” Sloan came to a halt a few doors short of the mayor’s office. “What I’m trying to figure out is why.”
“You said you wanted to come here. Jack was making a run. I spend a lot of time here. It’s easy enough for me to show you around.”
She cocked her head and Walker didn’t miss the way the long blond tail of her ponytail flicked against her shoulders. “Is it?”
What was she getting at? He’d made the offer to be nice. To give her a chance to get her article done.
To get her out of town for the day and away from the fawning attention of the rest of the men in town
.
Where the fuck had that come from?
“It isn’t a big deal. So come on. I’ll make some introductions.”
On a soft sigh, she followed him the last few feet down the hall to the mayor’s office. As the receptionist behind the counter looked up at him, recognition sparked behind her eyes.
“Walker Montgomery, in the flesh. After that last poker debacle, I figured you’d be scarce around here.”
Walker put on his broadest smile. “And why am I not surprised my raging defeat has made it onto your radar?”
“I miss nothing. You know that.”
He leaned down and bussed Sandra’s cheek. “That I do.”
“So the craziness is about to descend on town. Is that why you’re hiding up here?”
“No hiding. I just brought in a friend for the day. Is he in?”
They both got a broad smile and a “Go on back.”
And if the eager perusal Sandra gave Sloan as they passed suggested she bought the term “friend” about as much as she bought his prowess in poker, well then, that was her mistake.
 
Sloan’s head spun as they walked back to Walker’s car. “I can’t believe all there is to do up here. It’s like a paradise for those who love the outdoors. And all the cultural events. It’s incredible.”
“Alaska’s a lot more than people think it is.”
She couldn’t resist a small jab, but she made sure to deliver it with her broadest smile. “Not, however, in early December.”
“A lot of stuff closes down during winter.”
“You could have told me and saved us the trip.”
“I enjoy coming down here and getting out of town for a while.”
“It seems like a lot of effort.”
“Have you met my family?”
She couldn’t stop the giggle as she imagined his grandmother. “Sophie must be in full-on general mode by now.”
“You have no idea.”
The alarm clicked, but before she could move around to her door, Walker beat her to it, holding the door open and reaching for her hand to help her onto the high running board.
As his hand gripped hers, she couldn’t quite ignore the feel of his fingers—or the memories that assailed her of what those broad, strong fingers had done to her the previous evening.
Damn it.
She’d gone nearly two hours without reliving those moments. Why the hell did she have to screw up a nice afternoon and go reliving them now?
She dropped his hand and reached for her seat belt. “You hungry?”
Sloan turned to answer and her breath caught, trapped in the dead center of her chest. Walker stood next to her, but the height of the SUV put her gaze flush with his. “Is that a good idea?”
“Why wouldn’t it be?”
“You did witness my performance on the ride up here, did you not?”
He grinned broadly. “I promise, we’ll make sure you get some good protein in you and Jack’s got his stash of sodas. Come on, it won’t feel any better on an empty stomach.”
He made a damn convincing argument. “Will we still make our flight?”
“We’ve got three hours. I think we’ll make it.”
“That sounds good, then.” Was that breathless voice hers? How did he manage to confuse her so badly?
She did not want this man.
Okay, she
did
want him, but she didn’t want someone who had made his preferences so clear the night before.
“You all buckled in?”
She watched as he extended one long finger and reached out to stroke the top of her seat belt. He didn’t even touch her—his hand stayed firmly on the part of the belt that was between her body and where it hooked to the seat—but a wave of heat stole over her that had nothing to do with the heavily padded coat she wore.
“I’m in.”
“Good.”
And then before she could analyze their interaction any further, he moved back and closed the door.
Sloan sighed softly as she acknowledged the sad truth. Last night, as she’d lain in bed tossing and turning, trying to fall asleep, she’d resolved to shove all her growing feelings for Walker in a nice, tightly sealed box.

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