‘She’s not at death’s door, you could have arrived normally.’
‘What’s normal?’ Everett shrugged. ‘Anyway, Drake and I have some work to do here, there’s some locations I want to take a look at.’
‘Hey, I recognise you. It’s Kitty, isn’t it? The girl who’s named after a cat.’ Drake’s valley-boy accent cut through the lodge. He smiled, revealing an expensive set of white, perfectly even teeth. She opened her mouth to tell him that it was thanks to him she was here, and his passing her details on to Mia. She wasn’t sure whether to be annoyed or grateful to him.
Maybe she was both.
Drake walked over to her, shaking her hand as if the last time she saw him he hadn’t been stalking out in the middle of her interview. He was staring at her cheeks – was her face as flushed as it felt? Her lips were stinging, the memory of Adam’s kisses making her whole body tingle. Drake leaned closer to her, until his face was only inches from hers. ‘What kind of hellhole is this, anyway? Tell me there’s at least a Starbucks nearby.’
Kitty smirked, remembering how similar her own thoughts were when she arrived in Cutler’s Gap. Funny how quickly she was able to change her mind. She was about to dash Drake’s hopes when she looked up at Adam, who was staring angrily at them. Immediately she stepped back from Drake as a fresh flow of blood rushed to her cheeks.
‘Are you staying here long?’ she asked, as much to hide her embarrassment as anything else.
Drake gestured at the bags he’d placed on the scratched wooden floor. ‘Everett had me bring the mobile office so we could be here for a while. I’ve packed enough to see me through to the 27th.’
Though she knew that Everett would be itching to get back to LA after Christmas, the 27th seemed so close. Too close. For some reason, knowing that the cosy little movie show of last night wouldn’t be repeated made Kitty feel sad.
And yet in a strange way it was a relief to see Everett’s assistant. Like her, he was an outsider to this family, and he clearly saw her as an ally right now. If her sisters were here, they’d tell her to work on him, see if he could help her find an internship, but right then her mind was too muddled to even think straight about that. Plus, when he wasn’t dodging screaming phone calls from Mia, he actually seemed like he might be a nice guy.
‘This isn’t where we sleep, is it?’ There was horror in Drake’s voice. ‘This place looks like something out of a Davy Crockett episode. It’s a tourist attraction, right?’
She felt her hackles rise. Drake might not have meant to criticise Adam’s self-made home, but she still felt herself get defensive, wanting to protect the man who was standing only a few strides away. OK, maybe Drake wasn’t that nice.
If she protested too much, would Everett notice? There was no way she wanted her boss to find out about her feelings for his brother. Not to mention the fact she’d just experienced the hottest, most sensual kiss of her life. So she laughed lightly. ‘Don’t be silly, there are no tourists here. Just us and a puppy.’
She was more than aware of Adam’s disapproving gaze burning into her skin. Every cell inside her screamed, wanting her to turn and look at him, to shoot him a reassuring smile that would tell him she was only pretending. That she wasn’t anywhere near as vapid as she was pretending to be. But she also felt Everett and Drake’s eyes on her, and knew that any hint of a relationship between her and Adam would only complicate this situation even further. She was a child tiptoeing through cornflakes, trying not to make a noise.
‘Well, it might just work…’ Drake’s murmur trailed off as he stared around the room. ‘This could be the hideout we’re looking for, Everett. Just the sort of place a man would escape to.’ He looked eager to please his boss.
Everett cleared his throat. ‘Let’s not talk business now. We should make our way up to the big house and get settled in.’ He glanced at his brother before gesturing at Drake to gather their things. ‘You and Kitty can take the luggage up, I’ll join you in a few minutes.’
There was no reason she should feel embarrassment about being ordered around by Everett. He was her boss and paid her salary, after all. Yet Kitty’s face reddened further, knowing that her status as a paid servant had just been confirmed in front of Adam. She had no option other than to follow Everett’s command.
‘Come on, I’ll show you the way through the woods,’ she told Drake. ‘Though you may want to put on something warmer, it’s quite a trek.’
‘I haven’t got anything warmer.’ Drake’s face fell as he glanced at the pile of luggage in the corner. ‘I had no idea it was going to be so cold. Maybe I could borrow your scarf or something?’
Adam’s loud sigh was impossible to ignore. ‘A scarf isn’t going to do anything to fend off hypothermia, you can borrow some clothes from me. And if you can wait for five minutes I’ll get the snowmobile out. It will be faster than walking through the trail.’
‘I’d really appreciate that.’ He looked around him, eyes wide as he took in the landscape. ‘I’ve never been anywhere with non-fake snow before.’
She would have found Drake’s reaction funnier if she hadn’t had a similar one herself when she’d first arrived in the mountains. Her clothes had been as inappropriate as Drake’s and her response had been equally infuriating to Adam. But now she felt at home here, used to the cold weather and the warm clothes. She was even getting used to the family, learning their ways, becoming accustomed to them.
Had she become used to Adam, too? No, that wasn’t ri
ght, it would be almost impossible to get used to him. But she was drawn to him, wanting to know him, to feel him, to taste him.
The only problem was, since Everett and Drake walked through the door, he hadn’t once met her eyes.
15
I, that did never weep, now melt with woe, that
winter should cut off our spring-time so
– Henry VI, Part 3
If she wasn’t feeling so confused, the ride back to the mansion would have been exhilarating. Adam handled the shiny blue snowmobile with calm assurance, breaking through the banks of snow with ease. He’d hooked up a trailer for the luggage, with the four of them perched on the seats behind him, a blanket around their legs to try and keep out the cold. It was almost like being in a boat, the smooth gliding sensation very similar to her friend’s motorboat in Venice Beach. Yet the cold wind whipping around their faces left them in no doubt they were in the middle of a mountain winter, snow ploughing in front of them as if it were a wave parting in front of a boat.