Читать книгу Modern Romance December 2019 Books 5-8 - Jane Porter - Страница 17

STACEY ONLY REALISED what she’d taken on as the packed gondola transporting skiers to their chalets on the higher levels left its berth on the lower station. It was one thing agreeing to what had seemed a perfectly reasonable request by the Da Silva team, to hold a party in the main village before transporting guests up the mountain for the grand finale of fireworks and a torchlit descent. There was no doubt that the infrastructure was here to support that. But when the weather closed in as it had done today, she could only be grateful that she’d taken the precaution of having everything delivered in good time for the party. She doubted anything else would get through.

Luc had intimated through the head of his team that he had a novel idea for ferrying guests up the mountain for the champagne reception. Stacey had yet to learn what that was, and had put in an urgent request for more information so she could plan for whatever needed to be done.

Firming her jaw, she stared out of the window. There were always challenges, but this took things to the wire. As the ground dropped away the wind picked up and whistled around the swaying car. None of her companions seemed concerned, so she made herself relax and wait until that blissful moment when she was back on solid ground.

Snow was falling steadily when she joined the crowds streaming out of the station. She had a map but it wasn’t much use now the street had disappeared beneath a thick white carpet. Seeing a ticket booth, she stopped to ask directions and was told that she couldn’t miss the Da Silva chalet as it was the largest private structure in town. ‘Will the gondola continue to run?’ she asked, staring up at the leaden sky.

‘Of course,’ she was told. ‘Only a white-out or heavy winds could stop the service, and this weather system is supposed to move on.’ A glance at the sky seemed to confirm this. A big patch of blue had broken through the cloud. Thanking the clerk, she took the precaution of donning a pair of high-performance ski goggles to prevent snow-blindness and set off, but she had barely made it out of the station before a strong wind kicked up. The patch of blue she’d been so relieved to see soon disappeared behind a fresh bank of cloud and these clouds were thicker and darker than before.

Weather in the mountains was known to be unpredictable. Could anyone accurately predict the capricious path of Mother Nature? Somehow, she doubted it.

A heavy silence gathered around her as she trudged along. Everyone else seemed to have retreated into their houses or hotels, and even those buildings had turned ghostly in the half-light. Her heart was racing. The snow was falling so heavily now, it was like a thick white curtain in front of her face. Her heart was racing. She’d heard enough horror stories to know she should be concerned. She couldn’t even be sure if she was walking in a straight line or going around in circles. Luc’s chalet was supposed to be close to the station, and, though it might be the largest private home in the area, if she couldn’t see the other buildings, what hope did she have of finding it?

Adjusting her neck warmer so it covered her mouth and nose, she bent her head into the wind and slogged on. Going back wasn’t an option. When she stopped and turned to try and get her bearings, the gondola station had disappeared. Tugging off a thick ski glove with her teeth, she located her phone and tried to call her colleagues in the village. No signal. There was only one option left, and that was to keep on walking in the hope that something would come into view, though that didn’t seem likely in this all-encompassing sea of white.

‘Hello! Hello!’ she called out, panic-stricken. ‘Can anyone hear me?’

Silence answered her call.

‘Hello! Hello!’ she repeated at the top of her lungs. ‘Is anyone out here?’

She stood motionless in the snow with her arms crossed over her chest as she tried to slap some life into her frozen limbs. There was not a sound to be heard other than the wailing of the wind and the deceptively silky whisper of deadly snowflakes.

And then…

Was she dreaming?

‘Hello!’ she cried out wildly, feeling certain she’d heard a faint sound in the distance. ‘Hello?’ she called again.

She tried to locate the source of the sound, but it seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere at once. ‘I’m over here!’ she bellowed tensely.

‘Stay where you are! Don’t move. I’m coming to get you.’

‘Luc?’ Relief engulfed her.

‘I said, stay where you are.’

His voice was harsh, imperative, quashing her relief, and turning it to exasperation that of course it had to be Luc who found her.

‘Stacey? You have to keep shouting so I can find you.’

The wind tossed his voice around so it was impossible to tell which direction he was calling from. ‘Hello! Hello!’ she called out in desperation. ‘I’m over here.’

‘Don’t move. I can hear you. Keep shouting…’

But his voice sounded fainter as he was walking away from her. ‘I’m over here,’ she yelled, frantic with fear that he might walk straight past her. ‘Please…’ Her voice broke with sheer terror that, having been found, she might be abandoned again. And then, quite suddenly, they were standing face to face. Regardless of anything that had gone before, she catapulted herself into his arms. ‘Thank God you found me!’

‘Dios! Thank God I did. What on earth are you doing up here?’

‘Researching.’

‘Couldn’t that have waited until tomorrow?’

‘I like to be prepared.’

‘But you’ve only just arrived,’ Luc pointed out. ‘My people gave me your schedule,’ he explained.

‘The team is resting,’ she confirmed, ‘but I want to be informed, ready to brief them in the morning.’

Luc frowned down at her. ‘There’s dedication to duty, and then there’s obsession,’ he observed. ‘Didn’t it occur to you that you should be resting too?’

‘Pot, kettle, black?’ she suggested. ‘Do you hang around when an important deal is on the table? No. I didn’t think so. And I wouldn’t be here at all if I hadn’t checked first that the gondolas would be running in spite of the weather.’

‘In fairness, no one could have predicted this,’ Luc agreed, driving forward. ‘The gondola station has only just closed.’

‘Closed?’ Stacey exclaimed. ‘How do I get down the mountain?’

‘You won’t—not tonight, at least.’

‘A hotel, then,’ she said hopefully, looking about.

‘All the hotels are full of people who are stranded,’ Luc explained.

‘So where are you taking me?’

‘Does it matter?’ Grabbing hold of her arm, he urged her along. ‘Come on, we’ll freeze if we stay here.’

Against her better judgement where Luc was concerned, she felt safe for the first time since coming up the mountain. And optimistic for some reason. She felt way too much of everything, Stacey concluded as she admitted, ‘This is not how I expected us to meet.’

‘I’m sure not,’ Luc agreed, forced to shout as he drove them both on against the battering snow. ‘You’re lucky I was checking the progress of evacuating skiers, and making sure the slopes were clear, or we wouldn’t be here.’

‘Where exactly are we?’ she asked. ‘How do you even know where we’re going?’ Having stared about, she couldn’t be sure of anything but an unrelieved vista of white.

‘I just know where I am,’ Luc said with confidence. ‘In-built GPS, I guess.’

She wouldn’t put anything past him. ‘I’m sorry to have caused you so much trouble.’

‘Not your fault,’ he said brusquely. ‘It’s been called the freak storm of the century. No one saw this coming.’

Reassured that he didn’t think her completely reckless in venturing up the mountain, she asked another question. ‘Do you have a phone signal at your chalet? I need to reassure the team I’m okay.’

‘I have a landline,’ Luc confirmed, ‘though mobile lines are dead. You can ring the hotel and leave a message.’

‘Sure?’

‘Of course.’

‘That’s very kind of you.’

This was too polite, she mused as Luc steered her away to the left; a bit like the calm before the storm.

‘My chalet’s over here.’

‘So close,’ she exclaimed with surprise.

‘As close as the black ski run where I found you.’ Luc’s voice held irony and humour in matching amounts. ‘You might have had a shock if you’d gone that way.’

‘Terrifying,’ she agreed. ‘Particularly as I can’t ski.’

‘Nor can I without skis,’ Luc pointed out dryly.

In all probability, Luc had saved her life. ‘I can never thank you enough for finding me.’

‘We’ll find a way.’

Her heart almost leapt out of her chest. Her brain said it was a throwaway remark, but it was still Luc speaking. She hoped he’d say more. He didn’t. Locking an arm around her waist, he steered her until finally he half carried her up a slope that had probably been steps to his chalet before the snows came.

‘Thank you,’ she said as he steadied her on the ground as the impressive entrance door swung open.

‘You’ll have plenty of chances to thank me,’ he observed with some irony. ‘You won’t be going anywhere tonight. Neither of us will. You’ll have to stay in the chalet with me.’

Left with that alarming thought, she smiled as obliging staff gathered on the doorstep to greet them. Without exception, they were relieved to see Lucas return safely. He introduced Stacey to his housekeeper, a rosy-cheeked older woman called Maria, who wanted nothing more than to take Stacey under her wing, but they all paused in the same instant as a thin wail cut through their greeting.

‘Did you hear that?’ Stacey asked.

‘Go inside while I take a look around,’ Luc instructed.

‘No way. I’m coming with you. It isn’t safe to be out on your own tonight.’

‘Says you?’ he countered with a devastating smile. ‘Do you think two of us will be safer?’

‘Two will stand more chance of finding someone stranded.’

‘No.’ He shook his head. ‘You’re freezing. Go inside.’

‘I can last a little longer, and if there is someone out there, we have to find them.’

‘You have to call your team,’ he reminded her.

‘And I will, just as soon as I get back.’

Luc frowned. ‘That sounds like an animal in distress…’

‘Let’s go,’ Stacey insisted, tugging on his arm.

An hour later, she and Maria were tending a cat after a most astonishing encounter in Luc’s boot room. Two calls later, and Stacey had informed her team that she was safe and they should stay where they were. ‘I’ll give you an update tomorrow,’ she promised.

‘Bath. Now,’ Luc instructed from the doorway. ‘I won’t be answerable for your well-being if you don’t take my advice.’

‘I didn’t ask you to be answerable.’ She couldn’t bring herself to add, I’m fine. I can look after myself, as the blizzard had clearly proved her wrong about that.

‘Lucky for you, I’m still going to care about your welfare,’ Luc said in a tone that made her think he was speaking as her brother’s friend, rather than as her lover. ‘Just remember—you’re in my house and I’m in charge. No arguments,’ he added in a mock-stern tone. ‘And when you take a shower be sure to run it cold, or you’ll burn yourself. Even on the coldest setting the water’s going to feel warm to you. It’s only safe to increase the temperature when the water starts to feel chilly to you. When you’re confident everything’s back to normal you can take a bath. Don’t rush. I’ll be doing the same thing.’

He was almost out of the door when he thought better of it and turned around. ‘You did well tonight. That could have been a person, and a cat is no less deserving of our care. Mountain rescue will be on the case by now. They’re a lot better equipped than I am for this sort of thing, so you can relax. I’ll call them to let them know the area we covered, and then we can safely leave them to it. I’ll join in later if they need me.’

‘Then so will I,’ Stacey insisted.

‘No, you won’t. You can’t ski, and you don’t know the mountains. You’ll only get in the way. Stay here. You were brave tonight. Don’t be foolish now.’

‘I wasn’t brave, I was scared to death,’ she admitted. ‘That’s why I had to go out again, in case there were others trapped like me.’

‘You’re very honest,’ he observed.

She shrugged. ‘I try to be.’

Stacey, Stacey, Stacey! What was she doing to him? Lucas reflected as he paced the great room, attempting not to think of her naked beneath the shower. He’d passed the time while she’d been warming up, making calls to reunite the cat with its owner, and to alert the mountain rescue team to their actions. The search chief had praised Stacey for her bravery. Any visitor who, having found safety, set out again in such terrible conditions to help others was worthy of a commendation, he’d said. ‘I’ll pass that on to her,’ Luc had promised.

No one got through to him like Stacey, who had made a mockery of his intentions to save her from him. Saving her for him made more sense right now—especially when, in a moment of complete madness, he had felt moved to enclose her face in his hands in the boot room to give her a brief, reassuring kiss—on the cheek, but still… What the hell had he been thinking? It was bad enough they were here, trapped together in his chalet overnight, without him making things worse. So much for good intentions! She’d ridden roughshod over his control.

What alternative did he have? With many of his guests having arrived early to make the most of their trip, he could use all the people he could get, both up here and down at the hotel. Stacey’s team was in place in the village while she was here, ready to act on any changes to her plans for the party brought on by the weather.

At least she appeared to be following orders for once. For now. Maria had reported back that warm clothes had been delivered to Stacey’s suite of rooms, and she was enjoying a bath. She could stay one night, but no longer. His libido couldn’t take it. He had nothing to offer Stacey that she’d be interested in. Money, jewels, fashion meant nothing to her. Her practical nature was fulfilled by her rigorous working regime, but when it came to the personal side of things, she was a dreamer, a romantic, who, now they’d had sex, would expect more than he could give.

A beautiful woman had sought refuge under his roof, but all he could think about was keeping his thoughts and feelings locked up tight.

That wasn’t strictly true, was it? However many times he told himself that this was Stacey, the imp who used to plague him at her father’s farm, his straining groin begged to differ. Rearranging his over-packed jeans, he grimaced. He couldn’t even trust himself to guide Stacey to her bedroom, and had left that task to Maria. Having known her intimately, he wanted her again, and that want was like a fury drilling away inside him to the point where he found it impossible to concentrate on anything else.

He had to have her. It was as simple as that.

Would it be so simple for Stacey?

A humourless laugh escaped him at the thought that she was quite capable of turning him down. Stacey wasn’t like anyone else he’d ever known. She lived life by her own rules, and his gut instinct warned him that obeying him would figure nowhere in her plans, a thought that only sharpened his appetite.

He glanced at the thick fur rug in front of the hearth, longing to hear her moan beneath him as her eyes and mouth begged him to take her again. To feel her hips straining to meet his; to have her until she couldn’t stand; to bring her more pleasure than she’d ever known—

Stop! Get over this obsession with Stacey and accept that she’s here to work!

How was he supposed to forget the telling signs of arousal in her darkening eyes when she looked at him? Or his desire to kiss every inch of her body? The disappointment on her face when he’d passed her over to Maria had told him everything: Stacey wanted him as much as he wanted her.

Get over it. Forget it.

Pouring a stiff drink, he gulped it down. Discarding the glass, he gave a roar of frustration as he planted his fist into the wall.