When the
first flakes of snow hit the windshield, Sibyl cursed. She left the heat of
central California for a vacation, not a summer snowstorm. Outside the window,
the towering pine trees loomed over his little car and she frowned at the
sensible sundress she wore. She didn’t even have a coat.
Gabe said
his family’s bed and breakfast was the perfect place for a summer get away. Why
did she listen to him again? Sure, Gabe was her boss – and gorgeous
– with rusty hair and sharp green eyes, but that didn’t mean much.
He’d never
go for an overweight sales analyst like her. She was only an asset to the company.
But his eyes glittered when he told her about the place right on the beach of
Lake Tahoe. Plus, he gave her two weeks off and a fifty percent discount on a
room. He probably gave the same deal to all the people in the office –
Sibyl was the only one without a family to vacation with.
She squinted
at the directions he’d scribbled for her and slowed her car. The lake, which
was as blue as the evening sky, lapped against the shore roughly. It stretched
as far as she could see. Being out in the middle of that huge blue mass might
be as frightening as being at sea.
No thank
you! All she wanted to do during her vacation was stroll along the beach, in a
tasteful one-piece and sarong, and catch up on her reading list.
Suddenly
something dark swished through the trees. Sibyl caught a glimpse of it turned
to look. Was that a bear? A wolf? It’s shining yellow eyes met hers, and the
creature disappeared into the woods.
Her heart
pounded against her chest as she turned onto the little dirt road, now dotted
with snow, that led to the bed and breakfast. It wound down through the trees
and along the shore until she pulled up the grand house. Probably Victorian.
They had places like that back in Sacramento, but Sibyl had never been inside
one before.
Only two
other cars sat in front of it – a truck and a BMW SUV that belonged to
Gabe. Great! Her boss was here. Some vacation this would turn out to be!
Sibyl
shivered as she climbed out and grabbed her suitcase from the trunk. Then a
hand wrapped around hers from behind – a large man’s hand that scorched
her skin to the bone.
“Hey!” she
cried and spun around.
“Just
helping with your bag, Sibyl,” the man said in a low timbre. He stood at least
a head taller than her, which wasn’t uncommon. She was short and plump
– the worst combination.
His pale
blond hair was dotted with snow and his eyes shone with little pinpricks of
blue flame. Probably just a reflection, she thought. He looked like he was
carved from a statue – everything about his face was perfect from his
straight nose to his seductive lips.
Damn. Why
did she keep meeting handsome men who wouldn’t want a thing to do with her?
“How did you
know my name?” she mumbled and let her fingers slip off the handle.
The man
smiled and turned inside. “Come in, before you catch a cold.”
“Hey! You
didn’t even tell me your name,” she called and trotted after him. Every inch of
her skin was covered with goosebumps and she brushed the snow from her honey
blonde hair. It was her best feature, by far. Her mother reminded Sibyl of it
constantly.
“I’m
Jonathan. Gabe told me you’d be coming,” he said and held open the door.
The warmth
of the room flooded her skin, and she rubbed her arms. The interior was
decorated like she assumed it would be. Floral wall paper. Fancy uncomfortably
looking furniture. Nothing like the ugly modern motels she usually stayed at on
business trips.
“Your room
isn’t ready,” Jonathan said and leaned against the check-in desk. “But you can
relax in the sauna while you wait.”
Heat flooded
Sibyl’s cheeks. “The sauna?”
“It’ll help
you warm up,” he said and his seductive lips slipped into a smile. Those bright
blue eyes trailed over her body, like he saw through the floral sundress to her
rolls and dimples underneath.
She
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