Love Storm (2 page)

Pushing the key into the lock she quickly opened the door and
stepped into the cabin’s wide foyer, shutting and locking the door behind
her.
 
Thankfully she did know the
security code, and quickly moved to
turn off the elaborate alarm system at the small keypad mounted on the
wall.
 
Once that was done, she took a quick
look around, noticing as she did that the house felt warm, almost too
warm.
 
Hmm, she supposed the heat had
most-likely been turned up to keep the pipes from freezing.
 

Moving further into the spacious interior she stopped and
listened for a moment, but mercifully all was quiet.
 
“Thank you, thank you, thank you,” she
breathed, aloud this time, as she began walking toward the kitchen.
 
Glancing about, she noted that everything
seemed in order as she made her way through the kitchen and then into the large
mudroom set just off the garage.
 
However, when she reached the door leading to the garage and pulled it
open she stopped dead in her tracks at the sight of the large, black Cadillac
Escalade sitting in one of the four bays.
 
After a long, agonizing moment, and once her heart had resettled itself
within her chest; she allowed the door to swing softly shut and then quickly
turned back toward the kitchen, retracing her steps.
 
Of course it was his, it had to be.
 
Kate and Wade never left a vehicle at the
cabin.

When she reached the archway that led to the family room she
once again scanned her surroundings, but nothing seemed to be disturbed or out
of place.
 
Passing through the large open
room, she moved toward the master bedroom located at the rear of the house,
listening for any sound of movement, but still she heard nothing.
 
It wasn’t until she’d taken a few steps into
the bedroom that she was absolutely certain she wasn’t alone in the house.
 
Sitting on the foot of the bed were two large
black duffle bags, with a small pile of clothes sitting right next to
them.
 
Oh crap!

Glancing up, her eyes moved to the low dresser that sat
against the far wall and to the four-foot-wide mirror that hung on the wall
above it.
 
The sight reflected in the
mirrored-glass literally caused her mouth to drop open, and for one endless
moment her gaze was completely riveted on the naked man standing at the
bathroom sink, a silver-handled razor held in his right hand, sweeping
purposefully along his jawline.
 
Seemingly of their own accord, her eyes moved slowly from the top of his
damp, sandy-blonde hair, to the profile of his devastatingly handsome face,
downward along the side of his muscled torso, and then to the enticing curve of
his naked buttocks.
 

Ryan wasn’t exactly sure what had drawn his attention, but
glancing to his right he was stunned to see the reflection of a woman in the
mirror across the room.
 
She stood
perfectly still, her mouth hanging open, her gaze locked on his bare ass.
 
His hand froze in mid-air, the razor still
held in his grasp a half an inch from his jaw.
 
Startled by her unexpected appearance he was rendered momentarily
speechless and could only watch in astonished silence as her eyes suddenly shot
back up to his face.
 
For an instant
their gazes locked and held, and then he found his voice.
 
“Who the heck are you?” he demanded.
 
Christ,
had some crazy football groupie followed
him to the cabin?
he wondered silently.
 
Unfortunately it wouldn’t be the first time a strange woman had
mysteriously popped up when and where he’d least expected it.

“What?
 
Oh, I…”
 
Brooklyn quickly spun around so that her back
was to the mirror as she stammered out a response.
 
“I’m so sorry.
 
I didn’t realize…that is, I didn’t mean
to…”
 
Oh
crap!
 
“Um, I’m Brooklyn Foster, uh,
Katelyn’s sister,” she finally managed, feeling like an idiot as she felt her
cheeks grow flushed and hot.
 

“Kate’s sister?”
 
Uh oh.
 
The sudden recollection of their last encounter hit him like a punch to
the gut.

“Yeah, um Wade’s my brother-in-law,” she clarified
unnecessarily.

“Yeah right.”
 
Kate’s sister
.
 
How could he
ever
forget her?
 
The night
of Wade’s birthday party was permanently imprinted into his memory.
 
But he’d only gotten a brief look at her
reflection in the mirror and he hadn’t recognized her right away.
 
Grabbing a thick white towel from the towel
rack he quickly wrapped it around his waist, swiped a matching hand towel
across his face to remove the remaining traces of shaving cream, and then
stepped from the steamy bathroom and out into the large bedroom.
 

She could hear him moving around behind her and squeezed her
eyes shut tight, wishing the floor would suddenly open up and swallow her.
 
“I guess there was a bit of a mix up,” she
began.
 
“Apparently when I told Kate that
I wanted to spend the week at the cabin she didn’t realize that Wade had
already offered to let you stay here, and unfortunately I didn’t get the
message until just a few minutes ago.”
  
She was talking too fast, but she couldn’t seem to help it.
 
“I am really sorry, I didn’t mean to…uh…walk
in on you like that, I swear.”

“Don’t worry about it,” he said, reaching for the clean
clothes lying next to his bag.
 
He’d gone
for a jog shortly after he’d arrived at the cabin and his sweaty workout
clothes were still lying on the bathroom floor.
  
“I don’t usually shower in the middle of the
day, but I went for a run before the snow really started coming down, and I was
just getting cleaned up.”

“Oh…well um…I’ll just let you have your privacy then,” she
stammered, already moving toward the door.
 
Crap, crap, crap.
 
Grabbing the handle she pulled the bedroom
door shut firmly behind her as she rushed from the room.

Alone in the bedroom, Ryan quickly donned his clothes, a
dark-blue Nike t-shirt and a faded pair of denim jeans, as he thought back to
the first time he’d met Brooklyn Foster.
 
Her father had been transferred out of state by the company he worked
for, which was why Kate and Wade had agreed to let her temporarily move in with
them, so that she could finish her senior year of high school in Denver.
 
Kate’s younger sister had been a sweet girl,
friendly and outgoing, and had often accompanied Kate to the team’s games,
practices, and family-friendly events.
 
She had also been incredibly attractive, which was why Wade had
immediately instructed him and the rest of their teammates in no uncertain
terms to keep their hands off his then eighteen-year-old sister-in-law.

Unfortunately, it had soon become apparent to Wade, and
pretty much everyone else on the team, that Brooklyn had developed a serious
crush on
him
, which in turn, had
earned him a lot of good-natured ribbing from the other guys.
 
That was, all except for one.
 
Wade Calloway, his good-friend and teammate,
hadn’t been amused in the slightest and had kept a watchful eye on the
situation whenever he and Brooklyn were in the same place.
 
Despite their close friendship, when it came
to Brooklyn, Wade had been wary of Ryan’s oft-times youthful love ‘
em
and leave ‘
em
reputation with
the ladies, and he hadn’t wanted her getting hurt.

Over the course of the next several months he had done his
best not to encourage Brooklyn’s infatuation, more out of respect for Wade than
a lack of interest on his part, for truth be told, he’d been attracted to her
as well.
 
Hell, who could have blamed him?
 
At eighteen, Brooklyn Foster had already been a knockout, but the age
difference, not to mention Wade’s friendship had both been insurmountable
deterrents to any kind of relationship between them.
 
Even so, and most likely due to the large
amount of alcohol he’d consumed during Wade’s birthday party, the reason he’d
ended up crashing in one of the guest rooms that night, he’d been sorely
tempted to take her up on her offer when she’d slipped into his dark room.
 
Fortunately however, though it had taken
every ounce of willpower he’d possessed to hurry her out of his room, rather
than welcoming her into his bed with open arms, he’d done it.
 

Up until a few minutes ago, that had been the last time he’d
seen her, for shortly thereafter, Brooklyn had gone off to college and Wade,
who had regrettably been traded to the Vipers, had moved halfway across the
country with his wife Kate.
 

Despite them now being on rival teams, Wade remained one of
his closest friends, and it was the reason he’d offered Ryan the use of the
cabin while he recovered from his concussion.
 
Although, if Wade had had even the slightest inkling that Brooklyn would
be making use of the cabin as well, he seriously doubted that the offer would
have been extended, despite the passing of time.
 
Wade was just that type of a guy, extremely
protective of those he cared about.
 
He
always had been and always would be.
 
Oh
well, he thought, with that storm raging outside there wasn’t much any of them
could do about it now.
 
Forgoing shoes
and socks, he shook his head slowly from side to side as he padded barefoot to
the closed door, and then went in search of his temporary roommate.
 

Having pulled her white Chevy Tahoe into the garage, parking
it alongside Ryan’s Escalade, Brooklyn remained within the vehicle long after
she’d shut off the ignition.
 
Leaning
forward, her eyes closed and her forehead resting against the hard, leather
steering wheel, she fought the urge to burst into tears.
 
Not only was she trapped in a horribly
uncomfortable situation for what was likely to be at least the next several
days, but now, with her stupid blunder, she had undoubtedly made the situation
infinitely worse than it already was.

She couldn’t even imagine what Ryan must think of her.
 
The last time she’d seen him she’d tried to
seduce him, and now she’d just walked in on him naked.
 
He probably thought she was some kind of
stalker or something, that she had purposefully come to the cabin knowing that
he would be here.
 
She briefly wondered
if carbon monoxide poisoning was a relatively painless way to die, but only for
a moment, she wasn’t the suicidal type.
 
No, like it or not, she was just going to have to tough it out.
 
Eventually, after heaving one last long
drawn-out sigh, she raised her head from the steering wheel, moved her hand to
the door handle and got out.

Grabbing her large duffle bag bearing the University of
Colorado logo from the backseat, she slung the wide nylon strap over her
shoulder and then reached for the three fully-laden plastic grocery bags that
were resting on the floorboard.
 
After
pushing the door shut with the toe of her boot, she turned and headed back into
the house, knowing full-well that she couldn’t put off the inevitable any
longer, as much as she wanted to.

Once inside, she dropped the duffle bag onto the floor of
the mudroom and then carried the groceries into the kitchen, setting the bags
down on the countertop next to the refrigerator.
 
Unfortunately, Ryan was standing just a few
feet away, his hip resting casually against the massive island that took up a
large portion of the room, looking far too good in a simple t-shirt and jeans
to be believed.
 
Damn
, he was still as mouth-wateringly gorgeous as ever.
 
Sometimes life just wasn’t fair.

“Need any help?” he offered, eyeing the grocery bags.

“No thanks, I’ve got it,” she murmured, and then immediately
busied herself with taking the items from the bags and putting them away.
 
Opening the refrigerator, she saw that it was
fully stocked.
 
Clearly he’d come
prepared.
 
Well, they certainly weren’t
going to starve, she thought, as she added her items to the contents of the
huge commercial-sized, stainless-steel appliance.

As Ryan watched her move about the kitchen, he couldn’t help
but notice that Brooklyn was even more attractive than he remembered.
 
With her long blonde hair pulled up into a
casual ponytail, he had an unobstructed view of her face, and what a face it
was.
 
Wow, he’d forgotten just how pretty
she was.
 
With those wide blue eyes, long
dark lashes and full pouty lips, the term
knockout
was definitely fitting.
 
Then again, and
oddly enough, so was the term girl-next-door, for she had a kind of natural,
unaffected look about her as well.
 
Unable to help himself, he allowed his eyes to move downward, his gaze
lingering for a moment on the outline of her full breasts, then dropping to her
slender waist and finally to the gently rounded curve of her derriere.
 
How old was she now he wondered, twenty-one,
twenty-two?
 
Old enough,
he realized.
 
Unfortunately, the fact that she was still Kate’s little sister made it
irrelevant, and he quickly forced his gaze back upward.
 
Hell, he needed a distraction.
 
“You hungry?” he asked, as Brooklyn put the
last of her groceries into the cupboard and then turned toward him.