Snow Bound (3 page)

With a quiet chuckle
he continued to the chest of drawers and pulled open the top one, intent on finding something, anything
,
he could cover Tori up with. The less skin, the better. Holding the
flashlight
up with now gloveless fingers,
Damon
shone the bright light over the darkened interior of the drawer, only to choke on his own to
ngue. Spread out before him was
an array of, well, flimsy
panties
. Not folded neatly in little piles, as he’d have expected from the woman who never had a hair out of place, but jumbled together in a
smorgasbord
of colors, mostly pastels. That part, at least, he’d gue
ssed right. With a stiff finger
he dug in and lifted, revealing a handful of tho
ng panties
.
Apparently
Miss Priss
preferred
butt floss. My God, is that what she was wearing now? His cock throbbed as he contemplated the options.

He flicked the flashlight beam
to the p
rincess dress, then back to the naughty bits in his hand, then back again,
his gaze catalog
ing the differences. Dear Lord in heaven, if he had only known she was wearing
these
under
that
, he’d have been sporting a very inappropriate crotch display in front o
f a bunch of six and seven-year-
o
ld girls
.

Dropping the panties like the
y were
booby trap
ped
, he slammed the drawer shut and moved quickly through the rest until he found a stack of cotton sleep shirts… right next to a teddy that had him biting back a roar of approval. How the hell was he going to face Tori again, keep his gaze trained on her face, and get her changed from that sil
ky robe into something decent—
without going to his knees and begging to see more?

* * *

Tori waited on the couch, tracking her visitor’s movement through the creaking of the oak floors upstairs. Those boards had been the bane of her existence as a teenager, bro
adcasting every move when she hadn’t wanted her parents to
know she was
sneaking down the stairs
. Leaning on
the arm of the couch, she panted through the pain th
robbing outward from her thigh.

Adrenaline from hearing the noise outside and bursting through the door to find her outrageously gorgeous neighbor fighting a tall figure in the dark, then shooting over their heads to scare the other guy off must have masked
the burning ache from her fall
. She hadn’t really noticed the pain until she’d shifted aro
und, trying to cover herself
as best she could. Then her thigh had pounded like she’d been punched on the bruised flesh once more.

She wanted to twist around to check out the source, but the thought of having Damon walk in
while
her backside
was
exposed incited a flush of heat that wasn’t entirely embarrassment.
Not good. Really not good.
With that characteristic Texas charm,
Damon had made it clear on the few times she’d met h
im that he wasn’t interested in her. So
she’d hidden behind
a measure of her own
s
outhern
graces
, treating him just as she wou
ld any gentleman who would enter her business establishment
instead of like a cowboy she wanted to hold down an
d ride
. He’d probably run for the hills if he knew the thoughts that raced through her head with just one glimpse of his wide, smoo
thly muscled shoulders
and dark blond
military cut
.

Or maybe not. Enough cars parked
overnight
outside his house that he would definitely
recognize the lust—
and probably pity her for it. Though she thought she’d
seen
a moment of interest when his eyes traced the dripping mess that was now her robe, but she must have been mistaken.
A few polite conversations and he’d kept
his distance since moving here.

Too bad, because that was a
yummy
hunk of man, and this town was severely deficient.

As the footfalls
overhead
crossed out of her bedroom, Tori used her arms to lift herself from the couch and rearranged her robe around her, making sure it wasn’t tucked under her bottom. She clutched the front closed in
a
tight fist. Maybe
this way
she could transfer to a sleep shirt with as little flesh flashing as p
ossible. The thought of him
seeing her bare ski
n had her squirming
, but she forced
herself
to
still
before she got another bolt of pain from her thigh
.
Crying in front of him would be almos
t as humiliating as exposing unwanted
butt cheeks
.

When he reentered the room, her favorite gray Alabama football night shirt lay over his forearm. He switched off his flashlight before setting it on the table. “Okay,” he said, gather
ing the shirt
into his hands. “Let’s get you out of that wet robe.”

Her gaze
, which had been tracing the lines of his body in the tight jea
ns and sweatshirt he wore, jerk
ed up to his face. “What?” she asked, her throat tightening enough to make it difficult to
force
the word out. She was surprised
that he wanted to help
, though she probably shouldn’t have been. One thing the past half hour had taught her about her neighbor was that he knew how to take charge, which was more than she’d learned about him in the year he’d been living next door.

He motioned toward her, displaying the shirt’s neck hole, which he held open as if she were two and in need of dressing assistance. “Slip off your robe so we can get this on you.”

No matter how many times she’d fantasized
about
undressing in front of him, now that the moment was here,
there was no way she could change clothes with him watching her. While she had a fairly healthy self-esteem at
twenty-eight
, the thought of seeing his disappointment over her unimpressive figure in those
beaut
iful brown eyes
had her chickening out. She shook her he
ad and adopted her appropriate
“
I’m in charge
”
expression
,
honed over years of runn
ing her own business.

“I don’t think so, Mister. Just hand over the goods and turn your back.”

The laugh lines fanning out from his
mouth
became more pronounced as he
star
ed, but she
sensed he was not
amused. “How about if I promise not to look?” he asked.

Her head shook out a negative before he’d even finished speaking. “Stop messing around, playboy, and hand me the shirt.”

He did as sh
e demanded
, though his lips twiste
d
. Turning away, he paced to the fireplace and opened the grate, reaching for a couple of logs from the large stack nearby. She’d made sure to fill up inside and add to the pile on the back porch when they’d first predicted bad weather a few days ago.

She shivered as the
damp material
slid down her spine. Her head was through the neck opening before
the robe
reached the couch. With efficient motions she had her arms in the right spots and
pulled
the gown down
over
her hips. Gathering her courage, she tightened her muscles and lifted
up
from the couch, whippi
ng the gown
down under her legs. The warmth of the thicker material engulfed her,
chasing away the cold
. But thoughts of why she’d been dressed
in lingerie
did
not aid her composure with Damon just a few feet away.

Needing to distract herself, she asked, “What was going on out there, anyway? Who was that?”

“Don’t know, Sweet Cheeks,” he said, that rolling Texas drawl sliding over her like honey. “I was hoping yo
u could tell me. I saw a
light
scanning the hill
from my house and thought you were outside, so I came over to help.” He dusted his hands on his jeans as he turned back to face
her
. “Got a helluva surprise out there.”

Her throat tightened, her heart speeding up as she took in the implications. “Someone was roaming around the backyard?”

“Looked like it from my upstairs
window,” he said with a nod. “The light
was up near the tree line, so I thought it was you trying to get wood onto the back porch. I figured you hadn’t stocked up so I headed over—
“

She pushed
away
from the couch before he even finished speaking, clamping her teeth down against a moan of pain.

“Whoa, where are you heading?” he asked, crossing the room with quick strides.

But she was beyond answering. “The phone, I have to get to a phone,” she muttered as she hobbled toward the table near the front door.

“Honey, the phones ar
e probably out. Like the power, remember?
”

Still
she fumbled through her purse for her cell, pushing a button for the display screen.
No Service
. “Damn, the tower must be down.”

His presence loomed over her shoulder, sparking distracting urges to both hunch forward for protection and lean back into his strength. She’d recognized at their fir
st meeting that he was her type:
strong, take
-charge, and sensual
. She just hadn’t realized how potent the charge would be with prolonged exposure. That hot flame
of attraction burn
ing
through
her chilly limbs
felt like a runaway train
, which was the last thing Tori was prepared for. She’d been in cont
rol her entire adult life,
learning her lesson well at eighteen. Now, no one got the
chance to run her life, dictate
her actions, or force her into anything she didn’t want. But she had a feeling Damon just might be able to, no
t by bending her to his will
but by seducing her into surrender.

Hell, this situation was getting more complicated by the minute, and she had a feeling the trouble had only just begun.

“You wa
nt to tell me what’s going on, s
weetheart?”

Heated breath grazed her cheek as Damon spoke, sending a shiver down her spine. His tone was deceptively calm, with a hint of undeniable steel at the center. As much as she didn’t want to ge
t into it, she had
to explain. With the sheriff’s dep
artment unreachable, he was
her only source of protection.

“Didn’t I hear someone say you’d been in the military?” she asked.

She sensed his n
od. “Why?
”

A little step forward allowed her to turn around without having to slide against his hard body. She needed every ounce of strength and wit about her. Focus would be the last thing she was capable of if he got too close.

“Because…
I think I’m in danger.”

A thick
brow lifted, though she couldn’t tell if he was asking a question… or questioning her sanity. Hopefully the former, since he’d seen the evidence for himself of just how dangerous this guy could be. “The man, outside, I think h
e might be someone who is…
after me.”

This time those brows pulled together as he frowne
d, and his arms crossed his oh-so-
impres
sive chest. With a sudden start
he turned and began to pace the polished wooden floors. Across to the fireplace, then angling to the right until he came up against the wall, then back again. He spoke as he paced, “Al
l
right, Princess, give it to me straight
.”

She could lay it all out there, though he was probably the type of man to want all the facts up front. But some things were simply too personal to reveal to a casual acqua
intance, even one who
set the blood in your veins on f
ire. The facts were pretty well-
known by the locals, so she’d stick to that.