Winter Interlude (29 page)

He didn’t regret kissing her
.
But guilt weighed a ton more than remorse.

K
ate
huddled under a thick blanket,
shivering,
having spent a miserable night on the lumpy sofa
.
No matter what she did, she couldn’t seem to get warm
or comfortable
.

Worse, thoughts of Paul and that kiss, one that would give anyone insomnia, wouldn’t budge
.
She pulled her blanket higher and turned
.
Her eyes felt gritty
.
Persistent jackhammers attacked her skull from the inside out. Any minute, they’d break through the surface and her head would explode.

H
ours
spent obsessing
in the dark had only increased her agitation
.
If only she’d recognized the truth about James earlier, she wouldn’t be in this mess, freezing her tush off and pining over
Paul
.
She’d cursed everyone
by
this point
—
James for his lack of consideration
,
herself for letting him get away for it for so long
, and
Paul for being so attractive
.
She even
blamed
Judith for not caring about such a great guy
,
and for not making a better effort to please him
.
If Judith hadn’t had to work, then last night wouldn’t have happened
.

Upon r
ealizing how irrational it was to place any blame on her best friend, she swore and hit the pillow
.
Morrisons
!
The fault rests on both their shoulders
.

As a sliver of light peeked through the window, she cursed the two brothers all over again
—
especially Paul for kissing her in the first place.

Damn
!
Why had he done it
?
From her vantage point, he and Judith were James and her
.
Only in reverse, with one exception
.
Time didn’t mean as much to their situation as it did to
Kate
’s
.
A few years younger than her, Judith still had to get her company off the ground
.
But a year from now when work took a backseat, her biological clock would hit the witching hour, and Judith would be ready for what Paul wanted
.
Then, they’d live happily
ever
after and
Kate
would dance at their wedding
—
knowing that he’d kissed her
.
And worse
.
Knowing she’d enjoyed it more than anything she’d ever experienced and hadn’t wanted him to stop
.

Groaning at the memory, she closed her eyes and covered them with her arm
.
She had no excuse other than how wonderful it felt to see warmth in the same gaze where
she used to see only ridicule
.
Plus, he had seemed so into her last night
.
She couldn’t remember a time when James showed the same type of interest
.
T
he idea that it was the setting and not Paul at all added guilt on top of guilt
.
He was just being himself and
,
in all truthfulness, she was angrier at herself for falling under his spell, which brought her
jumbled
thoughts full circle
.

She stretched out and stared at the ceiling as more light filtered into the room
.
Sleep would be all but impossible now
.
All she wanted was a hot shower followed by a steaming cup of coffee, preferably strong.

Yeah
!
Fat chance of either happening today.

She g
lanc
ed
over at the wall of windows
and
saw a deep white wall
had built sometime in the night
.
At least it had stopped snowing
.

Kate
closed
her eyes
and
brought her knees to her chest in another attempt to warm up, wondering how she’d face the man this
morning,
much less spend any amount of time with him
.
She doubted they’d be able to drive to Squaw Valley
.
The roads had to be impassible
.
Even if they made it, she wasn’t sure the resort had power
.

No, more likely she’d be passing the day in this prison, housebound with Paul,
faced
with the imminent possibility of making a bigger fool of
herself
in the process
.

How had an innocent weekend of skiing turned into a nightmare?

The only thing that could make the nightmare worse walked out of his room at that moment
.
Her temper flared when she saw him looking too damned attractive, despite bedhead and a morning beard
.
“What do you want?” she asked in a voice colder than ice, hoping to prod him into reverting to the jerk she could handle
.

~

T
he accusatory tone drew Paul’s attention
.
He halted and glance
d
at the sofa
.

“What do you mean, what do I want?” he
snapped back
, catching
Kate
’s annoyed frown and stiff posture as she sat up in a huff and crossed her arms
.
Even her hair looked stiff, adding to her unapproachable expression, which was okay by him
.
Being jovial this morning required too much effort.

“It was a simple question
.”
Her chin angled higher
.
“What part don’t you understand?”

Her snippy words only provoked him further so he tuned her out and continued walking toward the kitchen
.
He had no desire for
a
confrontation
.
Not when his head ached
—
more from lack of sleep than overindulging in wine
.
He’d
lai
n
awake most of the night wishing he hadn’t kissed her because
erasing
the taste of her from his mind had been next to impossible
.
And it was all her fault
.
If she hadn’t attracted him or acted so damned interested in him, it never would
ha
ve happened
.

“What
?
Ignoring me now?”

“This isn’t a good time,
Kate
.
I didn’t sleep well
.”
W
hen he had slept, he’d dreamed
.
Torment
ed
dreams that had seemed so real
.
Dreams of
Kate
in which she beckoned him with her body, mocked him with her smile
,
and laughed at him when he tried to possess her and failed. They were so erotic and
disturbing
,
he woke up several times in a cold sweat, rock hard
,
and burning with need
.
In fact, he was still aroused, and in this foul mood, he was
itching
for a fight.
Not being
a total fool
,
he realized t
his seemed a good time as any to follow his mother’s advice about
saying nothing
at all if he couldn’t say something nice.

“So that precludes you from common courtesy
?”
Judging by her stance
,
she wasn’t about to back down, a suspicion confirmed when her scowl deepened and her tone became more combative. “You can’t even answer a simple question?”

“To be honest, I don’t even remember the question.”

“Of course you don’t, because you were ignoring me.”

Was she serious
?
“I wasn’t ignoring you
.”
The vice on his head tightened
.
Closing his eyes, he stopped
.
“Just let me wake up and I’ll answer any question you have,” he said, when he could finally speak without blinding pain
.
“So, back off
.
At least until I’ve had coffee
.”
He continued toward the kitchen, saying over his shoulder, “I can’t deal with any shit right now, especially yours.”

“How dare you
!”
She was off the sofa and after him in a flash
.
Coming up behind him and poking him in the back
.
“Don’t you dare try and blame this on me
.
For your information
,
b
ucko, you started it.”

“I’m warning you,
Kate
.”
He spun around and grabbed her hand
.
“
B
ack off.”