Page 5 of Snow Bound (Odyssey #1)

A nna was up before six and didn’t even try to go back to sleep.

It was frankly a miracle she’d been able to sleep at all, but the adrenaline crash had caught up with her, and she’d dropped off like a stone for a few hours.

They hadn’t been particularly restful hours, as her subconscious had taken the opportunity to bombard her brain with vivid sexual images involving Grant and half a dozen orgasms.

Apparently the one she’d had last night hadn’t taken the edge off.

Since she was awake, she tossed back the covers and headed for the bathroom.

She made quick use of the facilities, shivering in the cool morning air, then went back into the bedroom to retrieve her cell phone from the bedside table.

It was nearly six, an hour earlier in Chicago , and Lola was likely already up preparing for her day.

Anna took a deep breath and made the call.

“Are you lonely already?” Lola demanded when she picked up. Her voice was breathless, thumping music in the background, and Anna realized she’d caught her friend in her small home gym—i.e., the breakfast nook with an elliptical and free weights where a dining table and chairs were supposed to be.

“Not exactly,” Anna told her. “ Something happened.”

“What?”

“I fucked the Disappearing Dom .”

For a moment, the only sound on the other end of the phone was the music. Then Lola said, “ I’m sorry, you did what?”

“I fucked the Disappearing Dom ,” Anna repeated, and filled her in.

“What the hell?” Lola said when she’d finished.

“I know.” Anna flopped back on the bed. “ How do I get myself into these situations?”

“A question for the ages,” Lola allowed, “but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. How the hell is he there?”

“I’m not sure, but I believe him that it’s his mom’s house.”

“Based on what?”

“The picture of him on the wall, hugging the woman who rented it to me.”

“Okay, so it’s his mom’s house,” Lola conceded. “ But what’s he doing there?”

“We didn’t get that far. I was too mad when I realized who he was.”

“And once he explained that he didn’t ghost you, you decided the best course of action was to fuck him?”

“I’m not really sure how that happened,” Anna admitted.

“Yes, you do. Was it at least good?”

“It was…okay.”

Lola’s snicker came clearly over the phone. “ Liar .”

“Okay, it was amazing. Stupendous . The best sex of my life,” Anna admitted. “ That doesn’t mean it was a good idea.”

“One thing at a time. Is he still there?”

“I think so. I heard him come upstairs last night. But he could’ve skipped out early.”

“Look out the window, genius, and see if his car is gone.”

Annoyed that she hadn’t thought of that herself, Anna carried the phone over to the big bay window. “ There’s a truck outside that wasn’t there before. It’s probably his.”

“All right. What’s his name?”

Anna frowned. “ Grant . I told you this.”

The music cut off. “ His last name,” Lola clarified.

“Snow,” Anna supplied, then paused. “ Why do you need his last name?”

“Because I’m running a background check.”

Anna’s mouth dropped open. “ You are not.”

“I absolutely am.”

There was a squeak, then the rapid click of fingers on a keyboard, and Anna knew Lola had moved into the spare room that served as her office. “ Lola , this isn’t necessary.”

“Disagree. What’s his mother’s name?”

“I’m not telling you that.”

“Fine, I can work without it.” More clacking. “ He lives in Chicago , right?”

“I don’t know. Is this legal.”

“I’m not hacking the NSA ,” Lola drawled. “ It’s just a routine search of publicly available databases. I do this kind of thing all the time.”

“No wonder people don’t trust lawyers,” Anna muttered. “ What’s the point of this?”

“Think of it as due diligence,” Lola suggested. “ Since you’re snow bound in a remote cabin with this guy, and will no doubt be fucking him again?—”

“It’s a house, not a ‘remote cabin’,” Anna interrupted. “ And the roads are perfectly drivable.”

“Semantics.”

“And I’m not going to fuck him again.”

A disbelieving snort was Lola’s answer to that.

Anna rolled her eyes, then rolled off the bed. “ Do I have to stay on the line while you play Nancy Drew , or can I go take a bath?”

“I’ll call you back when I have something.”

“Fine, weirdo.”

“Love you, too.” Lola clicked off, and Anna went to fill the enormous jetted tub.

She’d settled into the fragrant water and was trying to figure her odds of drowning if she went back to sleep in there when her phone rang. She reached over the side of the tub to pluck it off the floor and answered on speaker. “ Hey , Nancy .”

“Grant Snow works for Hastings Security , Incorporated .”

Anna set the phone on the wide ledge of the tub. “ He told me he worked for a security company.”

“And last summer, he spent three weeks in Istanbul providing personal security to some rich asshole who was trying to buy a hotel.”

Anna dragged her fingers through the water. “ You got that from a publicly available database?”

“No, I got it from his boss.”

Anna blinked. “ You talked to his boss?”

“Yeah.”

“Lola, it’s—” She sat up to check the clock on her phone and do the time zone math. “ Five -thirty in the morning”

“He was up. Or pretended he was.”

“You called him at home? ”

“On his cell. Nobody’s in the office at five-thirty in the morning, Anna . Not even on a Monday .”

Anna sank back into the water with a groan. “ You’re out of control.”

“Relax, it’s fine. After the initial shock that I was able to get his personal cell phone number,” Lola said, her voice going smug, “ I think Simon ‘ Big Dick ’ Hastings was entertained by the whole thing.”

“Big Dick ?” Anna parroted.

“He has a reputation for swinging his dick around. Metaphorically speaking, of course.”

“I’m dreaming,” Anna decided. “ I never woke up, and this is all just a really weird dream I’m having because I drank champagne with cheesy scrambled eggs. Any second now I’m going to wake up, still in bed, because none of this ever happened.”

“According to Big Dick , Grant just got back from a job in Hong Kong and is off work for two weeks, which he planned to spend at his mother’s house. According to property records, that’s your rental. So , he checks out.”

“There. Are you happy now?”

“No, but I’m reasonably satisfied he’s not there to murder you.”

“Paranoid,” Anna accused.

“Vigilant,” Lola corrected. “ So when you fuck him again?—”

Anna picked up a washcloth. “ I told you, I’m not doing that.”

“—you have my approval.”

Anna squirted some body wash on the cloth and squeezed to suds it up. “ Did I ask?”

“No, but as your best friend, I offer it anyway.”

Anna propped her foot on the side of the tub and began to soap her leg. “ You don’t think it would be a bad idea?”

Lola snorted. “ I think you checked the Bad Idea box when you anger-banged him on the kitchen counter.”

“Ha, ha.”

“And since the horse is already out of the barn, I think you should get more orgasms. Besides , you like him, right?”

“Liked,” Anna corrected. “ Past tense. And that was before he ghosted me.”

“He did not ghost you,” Lola reminded her. “ He was out of the country for work.”

“Yeah, well, I’m still mad about it.”

“So anger-bang him again. At least this way you get something out of it.”

“A healthy and slutty outlook.”

“Healthy and slutty is my vibe. Look , I have to go. I have a seven o’clock Zoom deposition and I want to finish my workout.”

“Fine. Go forth, and be healthy and slutty.”

“You first,” Lola said and hung up.

Anna just shook her head and washed her other leg. “ I’m not going to fuck him again,” she told the soap bubbles on her knee. “ And that’s final.”

* * *

Grant was cold, uncomfortable, and he’d slept like shit.

The cold was due to the fact that his mother kept the vents in the attic bedroom closed to save on the heating bill, and he’d forgotten to open them up before crawling into bed.

But the thick quilt was enough to offset the chill, so he might have been moderately comfortable if Henry hadn’t insisted on sleeping with him.

On the one hand, that big, furry body pumped out a lot of heat. But the full sized bed was barely big enough for Grant , and adding the dog meant he’d spent most of the night clinging to the edge of the mattress, trying not to fall off. And he’d still hit the floor twice.

So when the phone rang, jerking him out of the soundest sleep he’d enjoyed all night, he was in no mood to be polite. “ What the fuck do you want?”

“Good morning, sleeping beauty,” Simon replied, and Grant groaned and yanked the covers up over his head.

“I’m not coming back. You told me I could have two weeks, and I’m taking two weeks. Whatever it is, the answer is no.”

“Relax,” Simon said. “ I don’t need you back at work.”

“Then why are you calling me at—” Grant uncovered his face to squint at the display on his phone, “— Christ , seven-thirty in the fucking morning on my first day off in six months?”

“Who’s Anna Goodwin ?” Simon countered.

Grant rolled to his back, resigned to being awake.

He’d worked for Simon for nearly five years, so the fact that he knew about Anna —including her last name, something he didn’t even know—shouldn’t have surprised him.

“ Jesus , Simon . I know you take intel more seriously than your dick, but did you plant a bug on me or something?”

“First,” Simon said in a dry tone that had a grin tugging at Grant’s lips, “ I do not take anything more seriously than my dick. Second , you’re lucky I didn’t call you an hour ago.”

Grant shifted, trying to ease the pressure on his bladder, which was also awake. “ Why am I lucky you didn’t call me an hour ago?”

“Because that’s what time my phone rang, with some woman I’ve never heard of on the other end, running a background check on one Grant Alexander Snow .”

Grant’s eyebrows shot up. “ Anna ran me?”

“Not her,” Simon corrected. “ A lawyer named Lola Wright who claims to be Ms . Goodwin’s best friend.”