Page 16 of Winter’s Heart (Three of Hearts #1)

NIKKI GAZED AHEAD through the windshield, not really registering the dark, treacherous road unfolding in front of them as they hurtled toward Lule? in Petar’s Volvo.

The car was old, and battered; a few of the door panels showed signs of rust, but at least the heating worked, and Petar had assured them it was reliable.

Jacob drove, his capable hands guiding the car skillfully across the snowy highway.

She trusted he knew what he was doing, and so, sitting beside him in the passenger seat with not a lot else to do but stare out the window, she had time to think.

And her thoughts were locked in a loop, going over and over all that’d occurred today.

So much had happened, her mind was struggling to keep up.

She could barely believe Jacob had entered her life less than twelve hours ago and turned everything upside down in an instant.

Twelve hours since he’d burst into her sauna and found her naked.

Oh, gosh, she’d forgotten all about that in the ensuing period of madness.

But now, a delayed sense of embarrassment washed through her.

She remembered standing in front of him, desperately trying to cover herself.

But then as the memory became clearer, she also noted that he’d stared at her blankly, as if he was gazing at a statue made of stone, not a living, breathing woman formed from flesh and blood.

Most men would’ve leered at her, or at the very least let their gaze wander the length of her body.

Was he superhuman? Was she no longer attractive to the opposite sex?

Or, was it he hadn’t found her attractive?

She knew she’d allowed herself to get on the skinny side, but she’d put on a few pounds in the last two weeks, which rounded out her curves a little more.

A shred of doubt wormed its way into her mind; he hadn’t liked what he’d seen.

It was pathetic, but the idea stung more than she’d like to admit.

Until she remembered how he’d looked at her mouth back at Petar’s house, as if he’d wanted to ravage her, as if he’d wanted to draw her to him and kiss her until neither of them could breathe.

She hadn’t been imagining that, because she’d felt the heat of his gaze and her body had reacted to the desire so clearly burning in his hazel eyes, sending an answering spike of heat through her core.

It was more than a little confusing.

Was there something between them, or was she just fantasizing?

She felt a certain pull when he was around, a deep uncharted need forming low down in her belly whenever he looked at her.

Some might call it chemistry. Craving, even.

But that was ridiculous; she barely knew the man.

And she definitely didn’t believe in love at first sight.

She was a scientist who believed in facts and figures, not absurd romantic notions.

“What’s going on in that head of yours?” Jacob asked, startling her when his voice broke into her musings. For a stupid second she wondered if he could read minds.

“Oh, ah…nothing important,” she replied. But her tone wasn’t as breezy and uncaring as she’d hoped.

“You’ve been staring out that window for the past half an hour without saying a word,” he chided.

“There’s not nothing going on in there, I can hear the cogs whirring from here.

” He turned his head to give her a quick smile, that unexpected dimple appearing before he returned his focus back to the road.

“I was just sorting through everything that’s happened today,” she admitted after a moment’s pause.

Maybe it’d be better to talk things over, get them out in the open.

Especially if she could sort out how he felt about her and get rid of this buzzing uncertainty from her head, then she could conceivably move on to the more important stuff, like how they were going to survive the next few hours and days.

“Starting back at Andreas’ hut, when you…

” She stopped, not sure how to phrase her thoughts out loud.

“I just wanted to say thank you for not…” She coughed and started again, hoping he didn’t notice the flush climbing her cheeks.

“For being a gentleman about catching me naked in the sauna. The whole thing was traumatic enough without you…you know, ogling me. I’ve never done anything like that before, and… ”

She trailed off as he let out a bark of laughter, surprising her so much that she turned to gape at his profile, lit by the ghostly glow of the dashboard lights.

Why did he think seeing her in the nude was funny?

Oh gosh, she suddenly wished those words back into her mouth.

Now he thought she was being precious about the whole thing.

“I’m Swedish, you know,” he said, as if that told her everything she needed to know.

Did he mean he was Swedish and so was used to seeing other women naked in the sauna?

Or was he implying that Swedish men were renowned for suppressing their emotions, their faces impassive, and not ogling women’s bodies?

“Okay,” she replied, keeping her gaze fixed on the windscreen. He hadn’t given her an answer to her unasked question, but she wasn’t about to pry any deeper because this was becoming more humiliating by the moment.

Jacob flashed her a quick, unreadable glance. “But don’t for a second think that you weren’t worth looking at. I was doing my job, that’s all. You are a beautiful woman, Nikita.”

“Oh.” His soft words sent a flood of warmth through her veins.

She liked the sound of her full name on his lips.

Like a caress. No one but her mother called her Nikita.

But out of his mouth, it made her feel special, as if he took her seriously.

“Thank you,” she added belatedly, not sure how to respond to such a compliment.

At least now she knew she wasn’t just imagining this thing between them.

But to her annoyance, the knowledge did nothing to relieve her preoccupation.

In fact, it made it worse. Because now she wanted to know more, wanted to find out what it was really like to kiss him.

To see if the chemistry burned as brightly as she suspected it did.

No, she needed to refocus, get her head back on straight and stop mooning after a man she barely knew.

Nikki forced her brain to think about their predicament instead.

Her thoughts returned to Petar’s house, where she’d linked into his Wi-Fi and, after a few moments of agitated waiting for the website to load, had thrust her fist triumphantly into the air.

Both Tammy and Antoine had uploaded their data to the Dropbox.

The feeling of relief had been so intense, she’d jumped up and hugged Jacob, forgetting all about her sore feet.

It seemed like such a win after everything that’d gone wrong today.

Like a tiny stroke of redemption for her friends.

She’d downloaded the info onto her computer and then sent a quick email to Russell Morgan with it all attached, telling him to back it up and guard it with his life. At least now, even if those two brilliant scientists were no longer here, someone else could carry on the undertaking they’d started.

She would do it. She would take that data and turn it into a weapon. Aim it straight at that dirty corporation and its henchmen and bring them down.

She just needed to stay alive long enough to do it.

* * *

Nikki’s head snapped up, and her eyes flew open. “What… Where…?”

“It’s okay. You fell asleep.” Jacob leaned in the door of the car, saying, “I stopped for gas and snacks; figured you were asleep and I didn’t want to wake you. We’ve still got over an hour to go before we hit Lule?, and I’m starving.”

“Oh.” She scrubbed a hand across her brow, trying to work some sense into her comatose brain. Harsh spotlights beat down through the windshield, and she blinked in the brightness, focusing on the gas pumps beside the car and the small, brightly lit shop to the right.

“You’re cute when you sleep, you know,” he said, folding his long legs into the vehicle as he pulled the door shut behind him.

“I beg your pardon?” What did he mean by that?

“It’s okay, you weren’t snoring or anything,” he said with a mischievous grin.

“Just cute.” Was Jacob flirting with her?

If he was… Her mind was too muzzy to process that properly.

Perhaps he was picking up on their earlier conversation, where he’d admitted that he thought she was beautiful?

And now he was adding cute to the mix. She should tell him she considered him pretty damn hot too, but she wasn’t sure where all these intriguing thoughts were leading.

They’d been thrown together by a whirlwind of circumstance, and they might be torn apart just as fast. Once he delivered her to his superiors in Lule?, she might never see him again.

The idea pained her more than she liked to admit.

So perhaps flirting should just be left off the table.

If they couldn’t act on any of their feelings, what was the point?

Gosh darn it, this was all too much to work out at one a.m. in the morning.

Before she could form any sort of reasonable reply, however, he handed over a paper bag, then started the car, easing it onto the highway, and they picked up speed.

“There’s water and candy bars in there,” he prompted when she continued to stare at him without looking into the bag now sitting in her lap.

“While Petar’s hot chocolate was reinvigorating, well…

” He gave a shrug as if to say it wasn’t enough.

She understood that they’d already imposed on Petar’s hospitality sufficiently that night, as well as taking away his only means of transport, and the last thing Jacob was going to ask for was provisions to stock the car.

She was hungry too, but when she opened the bag and looked inside, she gave a groan of censure. Inside lay the bane of her life.