Snowbound Baby (Silhouette Romance) (8 page)

The very fact that he couldn’t stop thinking about this should have scared him silly but he capped the hypothesis by realizing that by respecting Zoe, he was actually giving her the wrong idea. When he thought that he knew he’d finally gotten to the bottom line. Unless he wanted her hearts-and-flowers notions to take root, he had to stop being nice to her.

The easy way for him to get her to dislike and mistrust him the way she had originally would be to make a pass at her. Not implement some sweet seduction, but make a cool, calculated suggestion, as he had when he’d been willing to trade his story for sex. If he came on to her as his true I-only-want-sex self, their relationship would probably go back to normal. No thoughts of kisses or “having feelings.”

Yeah, he was going back to behaving like his obnoxious self. No more of this letting her think he was Mr. Nice Guy.

He wasn’t.

For Zoe, the rest of the
morning and afternoon passed almost like a typical day at home. She made a fresh batch of formula, earning a groan from Cooper, who had apparently endured Daphne’s temper the night before because he hadn’t had anything but water to put in her bottle.

Then she found a washing machine in the basement, and though she had to hang her and Daphne’s clothes on a line she strung in the great room, by the end of the afternoon they had something clean to wear.

Cooper watched replays of classic games on a sports channel and only grunted when she tried to make conversation. At first she thought he might be angry that he had been forced to care for Daphne the day before, but then she remembered the real reason he’d left her alone that morning. His thank-you kiss had turned into something he hadn’t intended it to be. And his response wasn’t the only unexpected reaction. She could all too easily recall the softness of his lips, the way he nibbled and nipped and finally given himself over to the incredible kiss. And when he’d fallen over the edge, she had, too. How could she help it? The man dripped sex appeal. He was gorgeous, street-smart, worldly. If she hadn’t known that before he kissed her, she certainly knew it now.

Peeling potatoes to put around the roast she had baking, Zoe suppressed a shiver. No first kiss had ever stolen her breath the way his had. No kiss had ever reached into her soul with emotion the way his had. But Cooper Bryant was nothing like the man she envisioned herself with in her second time around romantically. She didn’t want somebody so practiced in the ways of the world. She wanted an average guy. She didn’t want someone brimming with sex appeal. She wanted a guy who wanted a family.

And Cooper had abandoned
his family.

She stopped her thoughts and took another breath. He’d said his brothers had kicked him out of their lives, but it was fairly clear from the things he said and how he behaved that he kept himself out. He absolutely, positively, definitely was the wrong, wrong, wrong guy for her.

However…

She had asked for a sign that he might want an invitation to Christmas dinner and if that kiss wasn’t a sign, she didn’t know what was.

More than that, though, she didn’t know everything about him. Heck, she hardly knew
anything
about him. There could be extenuating circumstances in his family situation. He might secretly long for everything she wanted and simply be unable to admit it because he was still hurting from his brothers’ rejection….

Boy, was she ever reaching! Particularly since his behavior after the kiss had negated any sort of message she’d thought was in that kiss. He’d grabbed the first excuse to leave the house, and when he’d returned he hadn’t spoken one word beyond his groanings about Daphne’s formula. Not even to tell her about the road conditions. She’d assumed he hadn’t heard anything good since he’d brought his duffel bag, showered and changed into clean clothes before settling on the sofa. So she hadn’t asked and he hadn’t volunteered.

He was clearly sorry he’d kissed
her. But that was fine since he wasn’t right for her. He was too old, too complicated. The last thing either one of them needed was to get involved with the other.

The best thing to do would be forget that kiss happened. And she would. Because that was the right thing to do. For both of them.

With the potatoes in the oven, she strolled into the great room again. Casually. Confidently. The same way she had Saturday morning before either one of them had even considered kissing. Positive this behavior would take them back to how they’d felt about each other before that kiss.

“You never told me if you raised anyone on your radio.”

“I did.”

She smiled. And he was right back to being as rude as he had been on Saturday morning. Thank God. “And what did this person say?”

“About what?”

“About the road conditions. Did you get any information?”

“Parts of the valley actually got thirty-six inches of snow.”

She gasped.

“My thought exactly.” He nestled into the sofa, as if to get back to his classic game. “So even the main arteries aren’t open. My guess is we have another two days before anyone remembers there’s a road on this mountain.”

“Oh my God!”

“I couldn’t have said
it better myself.”

He shifted his gaze to the television and Zoe knew the conversation was over. Fine. She’d endured a weekend of him already. She could do another two days.

She checked on Daphne, who continued to sleep soundly in the drawer on the floor of the bedroom, but when she walked into the hall again she realized she had absolutely nothing to do. Except straighten the kitchen. Though they continually tidied up their messes, it wouldn’t hurt her to do a little extra cleaning. Maybe dust out a cupboard. Wipe down the refrigerator.

Because the owner of the house was a basically neat person—or family—arranging the cupboards and wiping out the refrigerator took only an hour. When Zoe was done, she paced behind the sofa so Cooper couldn’t see her, but she was beginning to get annoyed with the way he hogged the television. She understood that he was angry with himself for kissing her, probably angry with himself for being nice to her, and even angry with himself for insisting she come along with him Friday afternoon to find shelter, but that didn’t give him the right to make her miserable.

Luckily before she could say anything to him Daphne woke. Without taking her from the bedroom, Zoe changed her and played with her. When the timer on the stove rang, she came out, turned off the oven, fed Daphne some baby food, then served dinner for herself and Cooper. But rather than eat at the table, he fixed himself a plate and took it into the great room where he continued to watch TV. With Daphne in her travel seat, Zoe cleaned the kitchen. When that was done, she bathed the baby, put her in fresh pajamas, fed her a bottle and put her to sleep.

She almost lay down on her
bed too, but she wasn’t tired. And, damn it, she was bored and that stupid Cooper had hogged the one and only form of entertainment long enough.

She stormed into the great room. “Give me the remote!”

Drowsy, Cooper raised his gaze to meet Zoe’s. He knew she was bored. He’d deliberately squandered the television. He’d not spoken. He’d eaten alone. All so she would realize he was an inconsiderate, selfish guy who wasn’t going to change.

If he kissed her now, she’d probably slap his face.

He sat up on the sofa. “Sorry,” he said a tad arrogantly, as if he were clueless to the fact that he’d been rude. He tossed the remote at her, then patted the sofa cushion beside him.

Looking as if she hadn’t expected his easy acquiescence, Zoe cautiously caught the remote and even more cautiously sat. She hit a few buttons, bypassing the nightly news, two sitcoms and a movie in favor of an hour-long drama that she probably suspected they both would enjoy.

Even when she was mad at him she couldn’t help being nice.

She was such a babe in the woods that Cooper almost felt guilty for what he was about to do, but not quite. He wanted to kill her infatuation. He didn’t want her thinking he was something he wasn’t. He didn’t want her sympathy. He didn’t want her affection. If she could make love without any of those, then he was her guy. If not, he wanted that out in the open, too, so she didn’t accidentally tiptoe back to her crazy ideas about him.

As she became engrossed in the
television show, he slowly raised his arm along the back of the sofa, resting it behind her. She appeared not to notice.

He inched closer. This time she shifted uneasily and glanced at him in her peripheral vision. Jerking his eyes in the direction of the television, he pretended not to see her looking at him. When she returned her attention to the show, he lifted his hand from the sofa back and gently dropped it on her shoulder.

For that she turned and stared at him. He frowned as if someone in the television show had done something confusing. When she glanced away, it was all he could do to hold back a smile. He’d never known that slowly making a pass at someone could be so amusing.

A commercial came on and neither one of them moved. He feigned being hypnotized by the screen. Zoe seemed as if she wasn’t even breathing. When the show finally returned, and she relaxed enough to pay attention to the TV again, Cooper began playing with her hair.

Wow. Soft. And wonderfully springy. He glided his fingers through a curl and when he let it go, it rolled back. That made him smile. In fact, it completely stole his focus. This time when he slid his fingers through a thick lock, he watched them ripple through the strands, then watched her hair spring back into place.

“Your hair is amazing.”

Cautious, she peeked at him. “It’s naturally curly.”

“Mine’s straight,” he said, then unwound a long lock to see it bounce back.

“Good for you.”

He heard the slight quiver in her voice and realized that while he had become analytical, she was falling victim to the movement of his hand through her hair. The knowledge that she was responding sent a shiver of arousal through him and reminded him to get back to his mission. This seduction wasn’t supposed to be successful. He was supposed to disgust her. He shifted another few inches closer, let his hand drift from her hair to her shoulder and down her arm.

“What are
you doing?”

He should have known that a talker like her wouldn’t just get angry and tell him to stop. Nope. She wanted a syllabus.

“I’m seducing you. Should I give you the steps or is the broad definition enough?”

She stared at him. “Are you—”

Nuts?
he suspected she was about to ask, so he kissed her before she could say anything else.

Her lips were as soft as he remembered, her mouth as yielding. Once again, Cooper felt himself tumble to the edge of reason, but this time he didn’t let himself plummet over the precipice. He could enjoy a kiss, be drawn into a kiss, nibble and suckle and twine his tongue with her in a kiss, but he absolutely refused to lose control.

That was his last coherent thought before reason totally deserted him. Overwhelmed by her softness and the sheer pleasure of kissing her, he couldn’t think of anything else, until suddenly, she jerked away from him and jumped off the sofa.

“You’re
not
seducing me!”

“Why? Because I ignored you this afternoon? Honey, what’s going on between you and me has nothing to do with getting along, or making a commitment or even exchanging phone numbers. And right now your body’s telling me you feel the same things I do. Do you want to do this or not?”

“You are so
crude!”

“I’m certainly not hearts and flowers.” There. It was out. The thing he’d wanted to deny all day. The thing he wanted her to understand. The thing he needed for both of them to get beyond, so they could make these next two days at least passable.

“Well, I’m a hearts and flowers kind of girl.”

“Hey, I didn’t say I wouldn’t be romantic.”

“I don’t want romance. I want love.”

With that, she turned and left the room. Cooper heard her door slam and he reached for the remote, satisfied that any romantic notions she’d entertained had been killed.

But halfway to changing the channel, he realized he felt like scum. He tamped down the guilt by reminding himself that the air had needed clearing between them. But then he heard an odd sound. A click.

He rose from the sofa to see if he could determine the sound’s origin and realized it had come from Zoe’s bedroom. Specifically her bedroom door. He heard the click again. It was a key. Because the house was old, the bedrooms needed keys to lock them. Cooper hadn’t thought to look for his, but apparently Zoe had found hers.

And she’d locked her door.

A foreign sensation gripped him. He felt creepy. She’d just told him she didn’t trust him.

And she shouldn’t. Her not trusting him shouldn’t bother him. He’d set out to make sure she knew what kind of man he was and clearly she now understood.

So why the hell did he
care? And why the hell wouldn’t this feeling of being a slime go away?

Z
oe stiffened when Cooper
walked into the kitchen the following morning. Still fuming over his attempted seduction, she had spent the past hour tiptoeing around him while he had done exactly as he’d pleased, as if he didn’t have a worry in the world.

She frowned. Damn it, he’d done that on purpose! He hadn’t wanted to sleep with her the night before. He’d made the blatant pass at her to make a hundred percent sure she mistrusted him, as she had in the beginning, before his caring for Daphne had proved he wasn’t such a bad guy. And before he’d kissed her in a way that made her toes curl.

He wanted her to remember he wasn’t the kind of guy she could put any kind of faith in, so he’d simply reverted to the plan he’d been using all along to get her to keep her distance. After he’d behaved like an inconsiderate lout all day, he’d reminded her that the only thing he really wanted from her was a little physical fun.

And just as
he’d expected, she’d run.

It made her so mad she longed to pop him. But she wouldn’t. She was a nice girl.

And he counted on that, too.

He walked to the cabinet beside the sink, and Zoe fought the urge to inhale the fresh scent of his aftershave, then cursed herself for being attracted to such a hardheaded, argumentative pain in the butt. She couldn’t understand why her hormones weren’t getting the message that she shouldn’t be interested in him, but they weren’t. Anytime he got close to her, as he was now, a yearning billowed through her. Still, he was so gosh darn good looking, any woman would be attracted to him. Plus, he was experienced, funny and sexy. Physically perfect.

Listing his good qualities actually brought Zoe back to planet Earth and she shifted away from him. Dressed as she was, she felt like a dirt ball. Though she’d washed her clothes the day before, yesterday afternoon Daphne had spit baby food all over her. She was rumpled and grimy. He was clean, organized, in control. Even if she decided to break her rule not to get involved with another overly good-looking man, this particular hottie was way out of her league.

Of course, they weren’t really on a level playing field. She had exactly two outfits she was rotating. As a trucker, he was accustomed to living out of a duffel bag. She wasn’t even sure he had a house. On the other hand, she had a house, but it was partially empty because of her parents’ scavenging when they’d moved. Worse, her house was on the verge of being taken away. Her parents hadn’t paid the taxes for years, and neither had thought to tell her that a few years ago when the amount was small enough she might have managed to squeeze it out of her own budget. But several years worth was too much for her to pay. This time next year
she
could be living out of a duffel bag.

Maybe she and Cooper
weren’t so different after all?

Without a word, Cooper grabbed a mug and poured himself a cup of coffee. Surreptitiously, Zoe watched him spoon in nondairy creamer. He wouldn’t say good morning. He probably didn’t feel he had to. He had made his wishes clear the night before. They were two ships passing in the night. If he wanted anything from her it was sex. If she wanted anything from him the price was sex. His life boiled down to basic needs, as if he intended to walk through without making a footprint. The way he lived allowed him to be in control and relatively content. And she couldn’t help wondering if his philosophy wasn’t right. After all, wanting more than just the basics only seemed to leave her wanting.

He made a sandwich with bread she’d taken from the freezer—the second loaf they were using—and bacon she had fried. The cost of this little retreat was mounting and that was beginning to trouble Zoe, too. At first, the money she’d intended to leave for the supplies they used was cash she had earmarked for that weekend anyway. A few dollars for gas. A few dollars for food. But now she was forced to dip into the money she was saving for Christmas gifts for Daphne.

And, damn it, that caused a lump to form in her throat. She barely had twenty bucks to spend on her baby. The gifts she could afford would have been nothing but tokens and trinkets. But at least Daphne would have presents under the tree. Now that she and Cooper were eating more bacon than she would use in a year, more coffee than she would drink in a month, and more bread than she’d eat in two weeks, she wouldn’t even be able to buy those little things.

Angry, hurt, tired of life
tossing her to the ground and stomping on her, Zoe felt her chest tighten, but she swallowed hard and forced air into her lungs. She wasn’t a person who fell victim to self-pity. She also wasn’t a quitter….

Still, she knew she couldn’t possibly be on the right track with her life, or everything wouldn’t be going miserably wrong. Her parents had left. Her marriage had failed. She was losing her house. Maybe it was time to realize the common denominator in all these problems was
her.

She turned away from the kitchen sink and glanced at Cooper, who sat on the sofa in front of the TV, eating his bacon sandwich, mindlessly staring at the morning news. He’d had every bit as many problems as she had. His parents had died young. His brothers had kicked him out of their lives. Yet he hadn’t merely survived, he was happy.

Why? Because he’d built a life that couldn’t hurt him. True, it was somewhat empty of people, but he was fine. She kept trying to build a life that was full of people, and she consistently got hurt.

She dried her hands on a dishtowel, then leaned against the counter. Facing the prospect of a Christmas without gifts, without cards, without calls from family, Zoe considered that it was time to face reality. Maybe that was why she had been stranded in the woods with Cooper Bryant. Maybe fate wanted her to see that some people were destined to be alone, and he had entered her life to show her how she should be living, and the kinds of decisions she should be making so she would stop getting hurt.

Still braced against the
counter, she crossed her arms on her chest. It seemed logical. God knew Cooper was certainly keeping the upper hand with her. She was the one walking on eggshells, while he controlled the TV and basically did what he wanted. Did she need any more proof that his way of doing things was better?

No. She didn’t. But before she would give up her long-held dream of having a family, belonging somewhere, being important to someone, she wanted to know if he really was happy. If his life truly worked for him or if he was just a good actor. And the only way to know if he was genuinely happy was to hear his entire story.

And the only way to hear his story was…Well, she knew his price.

So, before she made any deals with him, she wanted to get some idea whether her theory was correct. And she had a good test for that, too. She marched into the great room before she lost her courage and stopped in front of the sofa, where he sat, legs extended.

She kicked his feet. “Don’t you ever think of things like maybe I don’t have the cash to pay for everything we’re using?”

He didn’t even glance up from the television. “I wasn’t going to let you pay for everything. I can see that Daphne has her own food and you and I aren’t exactly eating an equal amount.” He picked up the remote and switched channels. “My thirty bucks would have been right beside your twenty on the table with the note.”

“This is going to be
more than fifty bucks altogether.”

“How much do you think, then?”

“Eighty.”

“Plus whatever else we use until the snowplow goes through.”

She relaxed somewhat. “Yeah.”

“Okay, then. You pay $30 and I’ll pay $50.”

Well, that was it. Test one. She’d confronted him and he’d hardly reacted, just spit logic back at her. He really was calm. He really didn’t stress. He clearly didn’t obsess. In lots of ways he made her feel just shy of insane. And that was another thing she was tired of. Always feeling she was nuts, crazy, bonkers because she was reaching for something she would never quite catch.

She drew a breath and blew it out slowly. “Okay, you know what? Things have sort of happened in my head over the past day and I’ve decided I want to know your family story.”

Slowly, as if he couldn’t believe what he had just heard, he lifted his gaze until he caught hers. His green eyes glittered. “You know my price.”

“Yeah, but, you know, I’ve never been one to pay full price for anything.”

He tilted his head in question. “I’m not sure what you intend to negotiate.”

“Well, you put your story out as if it’s a big deal. And I’ve discovered I have a few reasons for wanting to know it. Those reasons have nothing to do with you. I’m doing this because I think I could learn some things from you. But the problem is you could be exaggerating.”

He laughed. “Not hardly. My
story is good.”

“Or,” she said, talking over him as if he weren’t speaking, “your story could be worthless to me.”

His eyes narrowed as he studied her. “What do you think you’re going to learn? I’m not Gandhi.”

“No, but you are calm. You take life as it comes. The only time I’ve seen you yell was when you had to convince me to find shelter with you. That means you have a sense of decency and responsibility. But the other things that have happened, well, you seemed to take them in stride. Even caring for Daphne.”

He shrugged. “Living life any other way than mine makes it too hard.”

“My point exactly. So I want to know how you got where you are to see if it makes sense for me to do the same things.”

“And once I tell you my story, we go to bed?”

She took a step back. “Well, that takes us to negotiating again. Like I said, your story may not contain the elements I need to help me.”

He shook his head. “Sex is a winner-take-all proposition, Zoe. I tell you the story. We make love. Or we make love and I tell you the story. I don’t see any other way to do it.”

“Strip poker.”

As if he couldn’t contain it, a laugh burst from Cooper. “Are you kidding me?”

“Nope.” She turned her back on him and walked to the poker table. Suddenly, after six years without support or comfort from her parents and an entire year of missing a husband who really hadn’t been worth the time or the effort, she felt very, very calm. “Here’s the deal. If I win the hand, you tell me a piece of your story. If you win the hand, I take off a piece of clothing. If I’m naked before your whole story is out, we make love and you finish your story.”

But when she pivoted to grab
the cards from the credenza and found he was right behind her, her calmness vanished. She always reacted when he was near, but having him so close after propositioning him brought home the reality of what she was suggesting and her breath hitched. He was tall, strong and clearly experienced. She’d been attracted to him from the beginning and if her luck didn’t hold there was a good possibility she’d be following through on that attraction. Her nerve endings jumped in anticipation.

“And if my story is finished before you’re naked?”

“Then you lose,” she said, sliding away from him, forcing herself to be confident again. Exceptional card skills gave her the advantage. If his story was an ego-driven piece of drivel that didn’t help her to understand life, she wouldn’t hesitate to tell him that. But she didn’t think it would be. He had a past every bit as demoralizing as hers and she had a feeling his story would illustrate how he’d risen above it. And she needed to hear that.

“That’s why you’re so confident. You’re sure you’re going to win.”

She grinned, took a seat across the table from where he stood and began to shuffle the cards. “The same cousins who taught me to shoot a gun taught me to play poker.”

“And where are these
guys? Should I be worried that you’ll call them tomorrow morning and they’ll ride up on snowmobiles and beat the living tar out of me?”

She laughed. “No. In case you haven’t noticed, there’s no cell phone service here. So I can’t call anybody. Besides, one cousin moved to Washington, D.C.”

“Lobbying against gun control, no doubt,” Cooper said as he pulled out a chair and sat.

“The other got married. He’s busy with his family.”

Cooper tilted his head as if something struck him as odd, so Zoe wasn’t surprised when he said, “You told me your parents left you. But what about your aunts and uncles?”

“What about them?”

“Didn’t they kind of take over for your parents?”

“No.”

“No?”

She sighed. “Look, I’m not a talker when I play cards. So if you think you’re going to distract me with chitchat, forget it.”

“But you expect me to talk.”

“After
you lose a hand and before we start the next hand.”

“You’re a prickly little thing about poker.” He paused, then glanced up at her. “Unless
you
have something to hide.”

She sighed again, disgusted that he wouldn’t take her at face value. “My aunts and uncles are busy with their own families. After my parents left I tried to integrate, but there wasn’t a whole heck of a lot of room. There are four kids in the one family, six in the other. So I remained an outsider. But that wasn’t such a bad thing. Seeing their family interactions, the closeness, gave me the example of what an ideal family is supposed to be.” She took a breath. And maybe that was another problem. Maybe she’d modeled her hopes after families that were the exception to the rule, not the rule.

“But I’ve been
miserable trying to make that system work for me. If I hadn’t had that dream of creating the picture-perfect family, if I had stayed single, gone to school, or maybe looked for the
right
guy instead of settling for someone who dazzled me, my life would be different now.”

“But you wouldn’t have Daphne.”

She conceded that with a slight smile. “Yeah. You’re right. She’s the one good thing that came out of that marriage. But otherwise, the marriage was a huge mistake. My whole life since my parents left has been a series of wrong choices. You, on the other hand, might not be Chuckles the Clown, but you’re content. Sometimes that’s all we can hope for. That’s why I want to hear your story.”

With that, she began dealing. “Five-card stud. Nothing wild. Since there are only two of us, let’s make it a three-card draw.”