ALISON COLE PEERED OUT the rain-streaked window of her Subaru station wagon at the fork in the road. A quick glance at her GPS was no help at all. She’d been off the government maps for the past fifteen minutes.
She grabbed her cell phone from the seat beside her, determined to call Stephen, the graduate assistant who’d given her directions. But the moment she turned it on, she realized there wouldn’t be service this far into the mountains. She punched in his number and waited, hoping that she was wrong. But when the call didn’t go through, Alison tossed the phone back onto the seat.
The way she looked at it, she had two choices—well, actually three, if she counted turning around and going back down the road to civilization. “Right or left,” she murmured. She had a fifty-fifty chance of finding Ettie Lee Harper’s cabin. The same odds had her getting stuck on a muddy road with no way of calling for help.
Alison had spent the past four months tracking down the elusive Ettie Lee and she was running out of time. Her search had begun the moment she uncovered an old reel-to-reel recording in the archives at the university last summer. A yellowed label gave the date as 1939, but a sound technician friend said that the tape was probably a recording of an old phonograph record. It featured a young Ettie Lee Harper, her voice clear as a church bell on a cold winter night, singing Appalachian Christmas songs along with a dulcimer.
For a musicologist, it had been like discovering a treasure chest filled with precious jewels. Only Alison’s jewels were songs—traditional songs that had been passed down for generations in mountain families and over time were transformed into entirely new versions. She recognized many of the original songs but there were three on the tape that were completely unfamiliar to her—three lost treasures that she was determined to uncover.
Alison had made Christmas carols the subject of her doctoral thesis at East Tennessee State, tracing the roots of Appalachian songs back to their origins with the Scots and Irish settlers who carved out a life in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Discovering a trio of new songs would open all sorts of doors. She could put together an album featuring the new songs or publish them in a folio. And she’d sing them at her Christmas-themed recital in two weeks.
The discovery alone was enough to assure her of her dream job, the chance to start a whole new department at the University of North Texas, one of the nation’s top music colleges. The selection committee was coming to hear her Christmas faculty recital and she’d already been scheduled for a series of interviews in Denton.
With this new music, they’d have to see how important her work would be to their university. At the least, she’d finally get an offer of a tenure position at East Tennessee. She’d be Professor Alison Cole, Ph.D., making her music teacher parents proud.
“That’s it,” she muttered. “I’m calling the governor. This is ridiculous. I’m still in Tennessee. We have road signs in Tennessee.”
Over the past year, Alison had ventured into the mountains a number of times in search of singers and songs. And she’d learned one important thing—mountain folk were suspicious of outsiders. Maybe suspicious enough to pull down road signs? She leaned over the steering wheel and squinted into the gray light of the afternoon.
There it was. Not a regular Tennessee Department of Transportation sign, but a crude wooden marker nailed to a post. Alison jumped out of the car and ran toward it, trying to read the letters carved into the weathered plank. “Harper,” she said with a smile. The left end of the sign had been fashioned into a point and she stared down the muddy road. Though the narrow cut through the forest looked nearly impassable, at least she knew there would be help at the other end if she got stuck.
Alison ran back to the car and got behind the wheel, then sharply turned the Subaru to the left. There were signs in the mud that another vehicle had passed that way recently, giving her a boost of confidence. After two minutes on the steep, winding drive, the thick forest opened into a small clearing. A pickup truck was parked off to the side of the driveway and she pulled in behind it.
A wide porch spanned the front facade of the rough-hewn log cabin and smoke curled out of a stone chimney. A small oil lamp flickered in the window between panels of a lace curtain. There were no wires or poles running along the driveway. Though indoor plumbing wasn’t a must in many of the mountain cabins she’d visited, nearly everyone had electricity and phone service these days.
She honked her horn to announce her presence and waited for the obligatory dogs to appear to chase her off. When they didn’t, Alison stepped out of the car and started toward the front steps. But halfway up the muddy path, the front door swung open. Two dogs came tearing out and Alison glanced over her shoulder, wondering if she could get back to the safety of the Subaru in time. Her split second of hesitation was too long and the hounds raced around her, barking and sniffing at her feet.
If that wasn’t enough to frighten her, an elderly woman appeared on the porch, a shotgun in her hands. She raised it, pointing it directly at Alison. “You better watch yourself,” she shouted, holding the gun steady. “This is private property and you’re officially trespassing.”
“There wasn’t a sign,” Alison called, protecting her eyes from the rain, which was slowly increasing to a downpour. “I’m sorry. I—I’m looking for Ettie Lee Harper. Does she live here?”
“There’s nothing here for you. I don’t have any antiques to sell, I’m not lookin’ to buy life insurance and I don’t wanna leave my savings to whatever charity you come callin’ for.”
A younger man appeared at the door and gently took the gun from the old woman’s hands. They whispered something to each other and the woman nodded and went back inside.
“Just hop on back into your car and get on out of here before Ettie Lee has to shoot you,” he said.
“So that was Ettie Lee.” Alison took a step forward, then realized the man still had the gun in his hands. “I’m here about her music. My name is Alison Cole. From East Tennessee State. I heard her sing on an old recording and I wanted to talk to her about her songs.”
Alison wiped the rain out of her eyes and pasted a friendly smile on her face as the man turned aside to discuss the matter with Ettie Lee. Though she’d met resistance before when speaking to mountain folk, Alison had never been on the business end of a shotgun.
A moment later, the elderly woman reappeared at the door and motioned to her. “Come on in, then,” she called in a wavering voice. “I wouldn’t wish this weather on my dogs.” She cocked her head toward the man holding the gun. “Is she coming?”
“Yes, I believe she is, Miss Ettie.”
“Is she pretty?” Ettie Lee shouted.
“Hard to tell, Miss Ettie. Right now, she looks like a drowned rat.”
Alison stepped up on the porch and pushed the damp strands of her bangs aside, then sent the man with the gun a cool look. But the moment their eyes met, she realized that she hadn’t seen much beyond the muzzle of the gun pointed at her. She swallowed hard as her gaze took in the details of his features.
He was beyond handsome, his eyes a piercing blue and his lips chiseled perfection. A day’s growth of beard shadowed the planes and angles of his jaw and cheeks. Thick dark hair brushed the collar of his chambray shirt. When he smiled at her, she felt a shiver skitter through her body.
It had been so long since she’d had this kind of reaction to a man. Just last week, she’d been complaining about the lack of interesting men in her life over lunch with her best friend, Tess Robertson. Tess had warned her that the right man might come along at the most unexpected time.
She’d even presented Alison with a beautifully wrapped Christmas present—a box of condoms, insisting that they both needed to make a New Year’s resolution to be a little more naughty and a little less nice.
Well, this man was certainly a surprise, as was the tiny thrill that raced through her when she met his gaze. All kinds of wicked thoughts rushed into her head. Maybe Tess had been right. At the most unexpected time and in the most unexpected place.
She tipped her chin up and gave him a coy smile. “You know what they say about men with big guns,” she muttered.
“Come on inside,” he said, arching an eyebrow as she passed. “We’ve got a fire going. You can dry yourself off and get warm.”
DREW PHILLIPS CLOSED the cabin door behind the stranger and watched as she dripped water on Ettie’s floor. Though he’d said she looked like a drowned rodent, his claim was far from the truth. Even soaking wet, Alison Cole was just about the most beautiful woman he’d seen in…in longer than he could remember.
He’d been trying to avoid looking at her since she’d arrived. There was something about her that he found so alluring, something that had caused his blood to warm and his pulse to quicken the instant their eyes met. She wasn’t drop-dead, Hollywood gorgeous, the kind of beauty you found on the pages of magazines. Instead, she had a simple, natural beauty that even stringy wet hair and a lack of makeup couldn’t diminish.
Drew groaned inwardly. Since he’d opened his practice a year ago, his sex life had been practically nonexistent. Making the decision to leave an urban hospital and move back to the mountain had been easy, but he’d never considered what the lack of available women would do to his libido. He’d just assumed that there would be opportunities, and if there weren’t, he’d spend the weekend in town.
But there were always emergencies, people to look after, home visits to make, and the weekends slipped by without any break from his duties. All work and no play had made Drew a very horny boy. And now, with a beautiful woman standing nearby, his thoughts would naturally turn to sex.
“Why don’t you get yourself out of that wet jacket,” he said, placing his hands on her shoulders. He slowly pulled the garment off, the scent of her teasing his nose.
She shivered. “I—I’m a little cold.”
Drew grabbed an afghan from the back of the sofa and wrapped it around her shoulders, rubbing her arms to warm her. His palms slipped to her back and he continued to massage her. “Better?”
She looked up and their eyes met. For a long moment, they stared at each other. He was so used to looking after his patients’ well-being that it was only natural to try to make her more comfortable. But when he realized they were nearly embracing, he quickly stepped back. “Hypothermia can set in very quickly,” he murmured.
It was obvious she’d been a bit shaken by the physical contact. When she spoke, her voice trembled. “Miss Harper, my name is Alison Cole. I’ve been searching for you for a long time.” She held out her hand, a puzzled look coming over her face when Ettie didn’t move.
Drew walked over to Ettie’s side and took her by the elbow to lead her forward. “She wants to shake your hand, Ettie.” He smiled at Alison. “Miss Ettie is blind.”
“Don’t say it that way,” Ettie scolded in a deep drawl. “Tell her I just don’t see things the way regular folk do.” The old woman held out her hand and Alison took it in hers. “So you heard my recording? There was a man came by here last summer asking about those songs. Wanted to put them on a new record.”
“Someone else knows about them?” Alison asked. Her expression fell and Drew wondered why the songs were so important to her.
“But I ran him off,” Ettie continued. “Didn’t like the sound of his voice. He came back twice, tryin’ to get me to sign some papers, but you can never trust a man with papers.”
“When did you record the songs?” Alison asked.
Ettie smiled. “My Lord, I remember that day like it was yesterday. It was 1939. My fourteenth birthday. And my daddy borrowed his friend’s truck and drove Mama and me into Knoxville. It was the first time I’d been away from home and I thought I’d faint from all the excitement.”
“You had a beautiful voice,” Alison said.
“She still does,” Drew commented.
Alison glanced over at him and his breath caught. Had he been staring at her this whole time? She was even more beautiful than he’d originally thought. He found himself undressing her in his head, discovering the body beneath the damp clothes.
He held out his own hand, challenging her to take it, to touch him. It was clear she was attracted to him. He could read the signs. “I’m Drew Phillips. I’m the doctor around these parts. I was just paying a house call to Miss Ettie when you came along.”
The moment she slipped her fingers into his, Drew felt a current of anticipation race through him. It had been so long since he’d thought about a woman in a purely sexual way. Though he was considered quite a catch among his patients and their single female relations, Drew made it a point not to mix his professional life with his personal life. But this woman seemed as if she’d been dropped on this mountaintop for a reason—and maybe it wasn’t just to talk to Ettie about her music.
“I like the sound of you,” Miss Ettie said. “Why don’t you two sit down near the fire and I’ll get us all some tea? We’ll have a nice chat.” Ettie moved to the stove. “It’s chamomile. I pick it myself.”
“I’ll do that,” Drew offered, stepping to her side.
“No, no,” Ettie whispered. “You throw a few more logs onto the fire and have a nice chat. She sounds like a very pretty girl. You could use a pretty girl in your life,” she added, patting Drew on the arm.
Drew turned to face Alison, certain she’d heard everything Ettie had said. “Sit,” he said, pointing to a chair near the hearth. “And don’t mind her. She likes to play matchmaker whenever she can.”
“Yeah, I can tell you probably have all kinds of problems finding women to date,” Alison teased.
Drew chuckled. “I spend most of my free time with an eighty-five-year-old woman,” he said. “That should tell you all you need to know.”
“I wasn’t asking,” Alison said, tipping her chin up. “I’m not interested in you. Only Ettie.”
“We’re a package deal. I watch over her. If you take advantage of her, you’ll have to answer to me.”
Their gazes met again and Drew fought the impulse to lean forward and kiss her. He might have given in and done it if he could guess her response. But she watched him with a wary expression and he decided to wait.
“I—I need to get my recorder from my car. I don’t want to miss anything she says.”
“I can run out and get it,” he offered. Maybe it would be best to leave her alone. After all, she’d come here to see Ettie, not to be the subject of his own personal sexual fantasies.
“Just bring the messenger bag from the front seat,” Alison instructed. “That has all my things inside.”
He grabbed his jacket from the chair near the door and glanced back at her, only to find her staring at his butt. She blinked in surprise and then blushed. Her pink cheeks said it all. She was having a few little fantasies of her own.
When he returned with her things, Alison rose from her spot near the fire and crossed the room. Their hands brushed as she took the bag from him. “Thank you,” she said.
“No problem.”
They stood so close their bodies were nearly touching. He could feel the warmth radiating from her and he found himself drawn to it, tempted to pull her into his embrace and enjoy the feel of her.
Alison wandered back to the fire and sat down, then began to rummage through her bag. “Have you ever heard Miss Ettie’s recording? I have it on my iPod.” She reached inside for the MP3 player and scrolled through the songs until she found what she was looking for, then handed it to him.
Drew held up the earbud and listened, adjusting the volume until he could hear clearly. He grinned as the older woman walked over to them. “Miss Ettie, you sound like an angel. So young.”
“I was young,” she said as she crossed to the fireplace, a tray in her arms. “And everyone wanted to hear me sing.”
Alison stood and gently took the tea tray from her hands. “May I pour?” she asked.
Ettie sat down in her rocker across from them both and nodded. “Please do.”
“Here, Miss Ettie,” Drew said, handing her the iPod and earphones. “Put this next to your ear and you can hear yourself.”
ALISON WATCHED AS DREW knelt beside Ettie’s chair and held the earphones for her. He was so sweet and gentle with her, yet somewhere beneath that calm facade was a man who probably knew exactly how to please a woman in the bedroom. Alison saw it in the way he moved, in the way he looked at her.
She rubbed her arms, her thoughts going back to the wild sensations that had rushed through her when he’d touched her. She was glad for the digital recorder taping Ettie’s words, because her own mind kept wandering back to Drew. He was, by all accounts, one of the most handsome men she’d ever set eyes on. And that she’d found him here, in the backwoods of Tennessee, was quite a surprise.
She hadn’t really thought much about men lately. Her last boyfriend had walked away six months ago, a victim of her work schedule and an uninspiring sex life, and she hadn’t been anxious to replace him. He’d been needy and bossy and intent on turning her into someone she wasn’t—a woman happy to take care of him while he focused on his academic work.
But that didn’t mean she’d put aside her desires. Right now, all that seemed to be running through her head were naughty images of Drew in various states of undress. With his shirt, without his shirt. She’d even found herself contemplating his choice of underwear—boxers or briefs?
As they sipped their tea, Miss Ettie commented on the songs she was hearing. At times, her eyes misted over with tears, or laughter bubbled from inside of her. Alison held out the recorder, capturing everything and asking questions along the way.
Every word Ettie spoke was a treasure, a new insight into the music that Alison had loved all her life. But as the afternoon wore on, she could see that Ettie was growing tired. Though she didn’t want to call an end to their time together, Alison didn’t want to overstay her welcome.
“I think maybe I have enough for today,” she said when Ettie offered to brew a third pot of tea.
“No, don’t be silly,” Ettie said.
“She’s right,” Drew agreed. “You should get some rest. You still haven’t regained your strength after being ill last month.”
“Oh, I’m so sorry,” Alison said. “I didn’t realize you weren’t up to this.”
“I’m fine.” Ettie waved her hand. “And there’s so much more to talk about. You’ll come back tomorrow.”
Drew looked over at Alison and she nodded enthusiastically. “Yes, I think that would be best.” She knelt down beside Ettie’s chair and took her hand. “I’ll come back. And I’ll bring my dulcimer. Maybe we can sing together?”
Ettie smiled and nodded. “I’d like that, dear. Tomorrow. And you come back, too, Drew. I like having you both here.”
“Tomorrow,” Alison said.
She stood and picked up her things, stuffing them back into the messenger bag. Drew grabbed her jacket and held it out as she slipped her arms into it. He smoothed his hands over her shoulders, letting his touch linger for a long moment. Alison closed her eyes and leaned back into him. Then, catching herself, she slowly turned and looked up at him with a hesitant smile. “Thank you,” she murmured.
“No problem.” He called a goodbye to Ettie, then opened the door, stepping out onto the porch after Alison.
Outside, the rain was coming down in sheets. Though it was nearly Christmas, there hadn’t been much snow. They stood next to each other on the porch, looking out at the weather. “Where are you driving to?” he asked.
“Johnson City,” she said.
“This rain is bad. The road back to town might be washed out. Why don’t I drive ahead of you until you reach the main road? Just to make sure you get out safely.”
“All right,” she said. In truth, she would have preferred that he just invite her back inside to wait until the weather improved. “But what if the road is washed out?”
“Then you won’t be going back to town,” he said with a shrug. He grabbed her elbow and pulled her along. “Let’s go before it gets any worse.”
Alison drew a deep breath and started toward her car at a brisk jog. But she hadn’t got more than twenty yards from Ettie’s cabin when she slipped on a muddy patch and felt her feet go out from under her. Before she could regain her balance, she landed on her backside.
Muddy water seeped into the seat of her jeans as she sat there, pain shooting from her ankle to her knee. “Ow,” she cried, straightening the leg that had twisted beneath her. “Ow, ow.” The strap from her messenger bag twisted around her neck and she pulled it off and clutched it to her chest.
In a heartbeat, he was beside her. “Are you all right?”
“I—I think I twisted my ankle,” she said. She reached out to grab his arm, but her hands were covered with cold mud. “Help me up. I think I can walk.”
“No.” He scooped her into his arms, mud and all. “We’ll go back inside.”
“No!” Alison cried. “I’m fine, really. Just put me down. I’m not going to impose on Ettie, especially not covered in mud.” He continued to hold her in his arms, his mouth just inches from hers, clouds of vapor from their breath mingling in the damp air. “I—I can walk,” she assured him.
“I’m a doctor,” he murmured, his attention focused on her face. “I’ll know if you’re lying.”
“I think I can make it to my car,” she said, waving him off. Wincing, she put weight on her ankle, then gritted her teeth and pushed through the pain. He held on to her arm as they walked to the Subaru. Her ankle throbbed as if it were about to explode and she felt her cheeks warm with humiliation.
But then, Drew gently grabbed her arms and drew her toward him. A moment later, his lips came down on hers, warm and searching for a response. At first, Alison was too surprised to move. But the next instant, she surrendered to the kiss, throwing her arms around his neck and pressing her body against his.
When it was finally over, he stared down at her with a surprised smile. “Follow me,” he said, pulling the car door open for her.
Alison crawled inside and closed the door, then pushed her hair out of her eyes with her muddy hand. Her heart slammed in her chest and she found herself gasping for breath. Had that really happened? Had he just kissed her for no reason at all?
A few moments ago, she’d been ready to walk away from him, but now, she was prepared to stand in the pouring rain for just one more chance to kiss him. The heat from his lips was still fading as Drew’s truck pulled up beside her. He honked the horn and drove ahead, waiting for her to turn around.
“Stop it,” she muttered to herself. So he’d kissed her. It wasn’t as if it had come completely out of the blue. They’d been lusting after each other all afternoon. It was only natural that he’d act on those feelings. And that she’d respond.
But this kiss wasn’t just an ordinary kiss, Alison mused. The moment his lips touched hers, she felt something powerful rush through her body. Need. An aching need that couldn’t be satisfied with only one kiss.
The car skidded and she was yanked out of her thoughts. It was raining so hard that she could barely see the taillights in front of her. She leaned forward and rubbed the fog off the windshield with her sleeve, leaving a streak of mud behind. Cursing softly, she tried to slip out of her jacket, but as she twisted in her seat, she saw the taillights flash in front of her. She slammed on her brakes, and the car skidded to a stop right behind Drew’s truck.
A moment later, she saw him running toward her car. He jumped in the passenger side as she quickly threw her belongings in the backseat. Pushing back the hood on his jacket, he turned to her, little droplets of water clinging to his dark lashes.
“The road is washed out ahead. There’s a big gully cut right across it. You won’t be able to get through with your car.”
“It’s four-wheel drive,” Alison said.
“Doesn’t make a difference. You’ll tear out the undercarriage and probably get so stuck it’ll take a tow to get you free. We can try to go through with my truck, but I’m not sure even I can make it.”
“What other choice do we have?”
“We can go back to my place and wait for the rain to stop,” he said. “And then I can call someone in town to come out and fill in the road.”
“Your place? You live up here?”
He nodded. “We just passed the turn about a hundred yards back.”
Alison considered her options. Try to make her way down the mountain and spend the next couple hours, cold and covered with mud, driving through a rainstorm to get home. Or spend the evening with an incredibly sexy doctor, alone, in his mountain cabin. Should she waste energy thinking about it? Or simply admit that his offer was just about the most intriguing prospect she could imagine?
“If you think it best, then I guess we could wait out the storm at your place.”
“Grab your stuff. We’ll leave your car here and take mine.”
“But what if someone hits it in the dark.”
“Ettie and I have the only two cabins on this road,” he said. “And she doesn’t own a car. So I think you’re safe.”
Somehow, the word “safe” didn’t seem to apply to being close to Drew. When she was near him, she felt that she couldn’t think straight. And the kiss they’d shared. Maybe it would happen again, Alison thought to herself. Oh, who was she kidding? It would most certainly happen again. And after a few more kisses, they’d progress to other more interesting activities.
She swallowed hard and began to gather her things from the backseat. “All right. I think that would be best.”