Page 25

Chapter Twelve

H e wanted.

It had been a very long time since he’d wanted like this.

Every time she looked at him with those big brown eyes, he had to fight the urge to pull her into his arms. He wanted to hold her very close, very gently, and rock her and warm her, and whisper soft words into her ears.

He wanted to kiss her. At the oddest moments, for no apparent reason, he kept wanting to cover her moist, warm lips with his.

He was craving her taste. He’d never experienced feelings this intense.

Not ever. And he didn’t want to experience them now.

Dammit, I’m not ready!

Hell, there was no use dwelling on this now, anyway.

There was one thing in his future, and only one thing.

The capture and execution of White. Romano had nothing to lose.

That was his biggest advantage. He wouldn’t be able to pull this thing off if that was no longer the case.

Nothing to lose meant nothing he wouldn’t do.

Nothing he wouldn’t give up. Nothing he wouldn’t risk to get the bastard.

It was his mission in life, his one chance to make up for letting his family down.

He might end up in prison because of it.

He might end up dead because of it. But that was a price he was willing to pay.

Already his determination was compromised. He was not willing to risk Lexi’s life to get to White. Which was why he had to get that formula and get her the hell out of here before White showed up.

By late afternoon the house was warm and the water was running again.

From the looks of the robin’s-egg sky and blinding end-of-day sunlight slanting low, he figured the main roads would soon be cleared, if they weren’t already.

No plows had passed Lexi’s cabin, though.

Not all day. Still, the main roads would be fine by now.

If the lawyer was coming home today, he’d be able to get through.

And if he wasn’t, Romano could make his way back to the man’s basement office.

He sat on a cream-colored settee with scrolled hardwood arms and legs, near the window, drinking coffee.

Lexi came in and sat beside him, and he almost slipped his arm around her shoulders, like it was natural.

Like they were a couple. His body seemed to function on autopilot when she got near him.

It had all these impulses that just came without consulting his brain for permission.

“I don’t think I thanked you for coming after me last night,” she said. “I can’t imagine how you managed to carry me all the way back here. Your shoulder hasn’t even healed from that gunshot wound.”

His shoulder. Funny, how he hadn’t given it a second thought last night. It ached now, and common sense said it must have been hurting then. But he’d been too focused on Lexi to notice.

“Thank you, Connor. You saved my life.”

He liked it better when she called him by his last name. It was less personal. “You can thank me by promising not to leave me like that again.” He blinked twice. The words hadn’t come out the way he’d intended. “I mean?—”

“I promise.”

Intense, those eyes. And she was reading more into this whole thing than there was.

“It’s about time I head out,” he managed to say, thinking it a good idea to change the subject. “Maybe McManus is home by now. I’ll take you to the camper, get you settled in there before I go on into town.”

“You’re going alone?”

He nodded. “After last night— after you almost froze to death in the woods last night, I mean—I don’t think hiking down this mountain is exactly what you ought to be doing.”

“Jim won’t give you my father’s things if I’m not there.” She sipped her coffee and a tendril of steam rose in front of her face. “Besides, we don’t have to walk.”

“I know you have a car in the garage,” he told her. “I saw it out there the first night. But even if White’s thugs didn’t do something to disable it before they broke in that first time, we couldn’t drive through all this snow.”

She smiled mysteriously. “We don’t have to walk.”

“What are we gonna do, Lexi? I still haven’t sprouted wings, and I don’t see any sled dogs nearby.”

“Sled. No dogs.” She laughed and Romano went silent, just listening.

He loved to hear her laugh. Her voice was like smoke when she spoke, but it became a drugging smoke when she laughed.

Entrancing. Mesmerizing. The fragrant smoke of enchanted incense.

Her eyes added to the magic by lighting when she smiled.

He liked that. And he liked the way the dimple in her left cheek seemed to wink at him, and …

I’m not ready for this.

Right.

She lowered her head, and a dark wavy lock fell across her cheek. He tucked it behind her ear. The feat was accomplished before he remembered to tell himself not to do that. She looked up again, still smiling.

“There’s a snowmobile in the shed. And we have gasoline stored out there, too. We won’t need to walk into town.”

“Oh.” It was all he could think of to say.

“So can I go with you?”

He was nodding before he could stop himself. And the next thing he knew, Lexi was in the hall closet, pulling out heavy coats and boots and mittens and a couple of plaid woolen scarfs. “Helmets are in the shed, with the machine,” she told him.

Romano nodded. He had a small bag of his own packed and waiting near the door.

Things he’d need if it turned out the lawyer hadn’t returned yet.

Some of it from the duffel, other stuff scavenged from around the house.

He ought to be thinking about how he would handle that eventuality, because there was no question Lexi would argue.

She’d changed. Right before his eyes, in just a couple of days, she’d changed. There was something … that core of strength he’d sensed in her from the start, maybe. It wasn’t so deeply buried anymore. She didn’t have to fight so hard to find it now.

Apparently brushes with death agreed with the lady.

He realized he was standing still, staring at her, with what had to be a silly smile on his face.

It was no wonder she’d stayed up here, Lexi thought, as she watched the last traces of the red-orange sun blazing from the horizon under a cloudless, multihued sky.

It would be dark soon. The snowmobile sped over the snow, zipping easily under pines with limbs drooping from the weight of the snow.

It was beautiful here. Before, she’d seen it as a refuge.

A place where she could hide from life and its frequent disappointments.

Tonight, she was beginning to see the truly breathtaking beauty around her.

Maybe because of the company.

She tightened her arms around Connor’s waist, figuring she might as well take advantage of the current excuse to hold him.

He was tense and tightly strung. More now than he had been before they’d made love.

She hoped that was because he couldn’t deal with his feelings, and not because he didn’t have any.

She had no idea how to act toward him now.

He seemed to want to pretend last night had never happened.

She couldn’t forget it even if she tried.

She was in love with Connor Romano. And she was afraid of that.

Because it would be just like her to love another man who couldn’t love in return.

First her father. Now Connor. What was the matter with her?

He maneuvered the snowmobile through the forest, and then over the fire trail, then veered off it before they got anywhere near the camper, and cut through the forest down to the road that led into Pine Lake.

As he drove, fine white powder rose in an arch behind them, and ice-cold air chilled her right through the heavy gear she wore.

At least her face was protected behind the helmet’s visor.

In the distance, a huge white circle stood out amid the snowy trees. The lake for which the town was named, almost completely frozen. Then the tiny village loomed into view ahead. When they came to Jim McManus’s house, there still wasn’t a sign of anyone there.

Lexi’s heart fell when Connor pulled in anyway, driving the snowmobile around to the back before killing the engine. He tugged off his helmet. Lexi dismounted the machine and removed her own.

“I don’t think they’re back yet.”

“I think you’re right,” he said. He swung a leg over the machine and got off, then lifted the seat and pulled a little canvas bag from underneath. “As usual.”

He started for the house and Lexi hurried to keep up. “What are you going to do?”

“Something you’re not gonna like.” He stopped at the back entrance, opened the storm door and tried the next one. “Locked.” Opening the bag he’d brought along, he pulled two pointy things out and inserted them into the keyhole.

“Connor!” Her whisper was loud and insistent. “You can’t just break in.”

He glanced over his shoulder at her, eyebrows dancing up and down. “I just did.” He opened the door and stepped inside without a sign of remorse. His form was swallowed by the darkness. There was a soft click, and then the glow of his flashlight. “Come on, Lexi. We don’t have all night.”

She hesitated in the doorway, gnawing her lower lip.

A “snap” broke the silence of the night like a gunshot, and she spun around.

Squinting, she scanned the back yard from one side to the other.

The rising moon’s light made everything clear, right up to the tree line.

She couldn’t see a thing beyond those first few trees.

Standing motionless, she listened, waited.

Goose bumps rose on her flesh when she saw something move.

Her breath whooshed out of her when she realized it was a pine bough swaying in the wind. But what was that noise?

“Probably just an animal. A deer or something,” she assured herself, remembering the deer she and Connor had seen before. And their snowball fight. And she felt warm and safe again.