“Give it a minute.”
She settled into him, her hands burrowing up his shirt and toward his chest.
“Your skin’s on fire.” For whatever scientific reason, this was working. “I think we should use my blazer as a blanket and put our legs together.”
She didn’t respond, so he took her silence as a yes.
He leaned up and shouldered off his blazer. The cool leather against his cotton-clad back made him hiss, but his body was warming from the places it touched Erin’s.
She shifted, sending a confusing message to his dick. It didn’t help that Erin’s pert little ass was angled inches from his palms and her thighs gripped his hips. He tossed the blazer over his legs.
“Now, stretch out over me.”
Her body scooted lower and she used his coat and jacket to form a blanket over their legs. It was an improvement, but now his arms were freezing.
“Wait, try this.” He reached up and unzipped her parka.
“What are you doing?”
“Believe me, this is purely for the sake of science.”
Her hands braced at his side and he spread the coat over them as much as it would cover. It wasn’t a large garment, but it was better than nothing.
Erin lowered to his chest and he lifted his T-shirt. “Pull down your dress.”
“What? No!”
“Come on, Erin. This sucks.”
She grumbled but did as he said. “Don’t look.”
“Believe me, I won’t.”
She lowered her stomach to his torso, slipping down the dress at the last second so they were chest to chest. He caught a flash of luscious curves encased in black lace and wondered if her nipples would be peach or tan. Then he remembered it was Erin and mentally gagged.
But her breasts were soft and warm against his chest and her thighs gripped him in a way that made it difficult not to harden. This was bullshit. He should not be responding in such a way to a woman he hated.
Was it some sort of rule that beautiful women had to be mean? That had to be why he never noticed she was hot.
Their body warmth spread, creating pockets of heat that chased away the cold. His numb nose ran like a faucet and every few seconds either he or Erin sniffled. But, for the most part, they were silent and warm.
The pain of frozen fingers and toes eased to a dull numb that eventually faded, and his eyes grew heavy. Erin covered him like a blanket, her heart beating steadily against his as he held her in his arms against his chest.
So far, this trip home was proving more of a nightmare than he’d expected. He couldn’t wait for the roads to clear so he could go back to New York.
CHAPTER 5
A thunderous rattle woke Erin with a start and she winced. What the…?
Sharp pain knifed through her head and she clutched her skull, frowning, as her stiff limbs protested. Blue-gray hues pushed through a crack of glass that snow hadn’t covered. Right. She was in Giovanni Mosconi’s car.
Peeling her body off of her snoring companion, she winced. The skin of her stomach was glued to his chest with chilled sweat. She shivered and hiked her dress up, covering her boobs.
“Freezing,” Giovanni mumbled, pulling her jacket back over his bare arms and trying to roll his body into a more comfortable position. He didn’t get far.
Erin nudged his shoulder. “Wake up. I need my coat. I think I heard a plow go by.”
He grumbled and she yanked her parka out of his grip, the lingering warmth from his body fading quickly.
“Here.” She tossed him his blazer and coat. “Put these on. We have to start walking.”
“What? Walk where?”
“Anywhere.” She climbed into the front seat and stuffed her frozen toes into her stiff, ruined pumps. “I need to get to a phone or someplace on this godforsaken mountain with cell reception so I can call and have my car towed out of that ditch.” Her car was literally the only home she had at the moment.
He sat up and frowned. “What time is it?”
“I don’t know.” The car was dark, completely covered by snow, but sunlight slipped through the cracks where the wind left the covering thin.
She dug through her purse for her phone and shivered. No missed calls. “Just after seven. Maybe we can flag down a plow driver and they can give us a lift back to town.”
“I’m staying at the Motor Inn up the road.”
She frowned at him. “Why? I mean, how come you’re not staying with your family?”
He shrugged and didn’t answer as he climbed back into the driver seat, but she sensed there was a reason he chose not to stay at his parents’. They were all crazy in that family anyway.
“Shit. My shoes are still soaked. They’re ruined.” He wrung out his socks and cold dribbles fell into the cupholder on the consol.