3
A lone in the cellar, Hope felt the vibration of Danny’s footsteps going up the two flights of stairs. Since she was sweating, she pulled off her jacket and sweatpants and went back to blow-drying the frozen pipes. When she heard Danny coming back down, she yelled, “Don’t let the cellar door shut!” just as he did exactly that.
Shit! She sat straight up and bashed her head on the now semi-frozen pipe. Stars exploded behind her eyeballs. Damn, shit, fuck. Rolling to her hands and knees, she crawled out from beneath the pipe, but before she could get to her feet, Danny was there on his knees, pulling her up against him.
“Are you okay?” he demanded.
“No, I’m not. You locked us in here, Genius Boy.” She sucked in a breath and pressed her hands to her forehead. “And you nearly killed me.”
“Didn’t have to.” He pulled her hands down and put his face within an inch of hers as he studied her forehead. “You almost did it on your own.” He probed the spot, making her hiss in a breath. “Miraculously, you’re going to live. You know your name? Mine? Where you are?”
“Hope O’Brien, Idiot, in my damn cellar.”
His lips twitched. “I thought I was Genius Boy. You didn’t break the skin, but you have a good-size lump. You need ice.”
“Ouch,” she breathed when he kept touching it.
“Aw.” Lips still slightly curved, he leaned down and pressed them to her forehead.
She jerked back in shock. “What are you doing?”
“Kissing it all better.” His eyes were hot silk and sweetness, one hell of an intoxicating combination, quite lethal to her resistance effort. “Did it work?”
Well, her forehead was tingling now instead of aching. And in fact, her entire body was tingling. Good Lord.
“Did it, Hope?”
Yes. “No!”
His slight smile told her he read the lie quite easily.
“We’re locked in,” she said through gritted teeth. “Let’s worry about that.”
“Are you sure?” He craned his neck to look up at the door. “Maybe—”
“Locked. In.”
“Okay. So we have lots of time for you to tell me why you sent me on a wild goose chase.”
She didn’t respond. Couldn’t. Because he had taken her face in his hands and was staring into her eyes. “Stop that.” She tried to pull back. “I’m fine. So don’t even think about kissing me again.” Because she was thinking about it enough for the two of them.
“Damn, you foiled my evil plan.” But for all his joking, there was concern in his eyes and his voice, and there was something in her that reacted to that, something she didn’t trust. She didn’t need worry or concern, she took care of herself. Always had. “You should know, I’m only attracted to the bad boys. You don’t come even close.”
“I knew I should have worn my leather pants.”
She heard the laugh huff out of her and shook her head at herself. Not going to be charmed by him . . . Still way too hot, she yanked off her sweatshirt and tossed it aside. She got to her feet and stalked the length of the cellar. When she whirled back, she stumbled to a halt.
Genius Boy had pulled off his sweater as well, unbuttoned a few buttons on his shirt, and shoved up his sleeves to his elbows, revealing forearms that weren’t scrawny but looked surprisingly strong. “What are you doing now?”
“Your radiator kicked on. It’s hot in here.”
Yes. Yes, it was, and when his gaze dipped from her face to take in her pj’s, the worn camisole and cotton pants that somehow she’d actually thought were a good idea, it got even hotter.
His gaze snagged on her breasts. The soft, silky material had been washed a thousand times. The pale blue was most likely a tad bit see-through. With an inward wince, she looked down at herself.
Not sheer, but thin enough to clearly see the outline of her nipples, which for some annoying reason were hard. Bad nipples.
“Maybe if we pound on the door and call for help . . . ?” he murmured, his voice husky and low.
She crossed her arms over her chest and shook her head. “There’s no one else here.”
“Lori?”
“Doesn’t come on until eight.”
His jaw dropped. “You’re by yourself running the entire inn from evening until morning?”
She heard the disbelief, which put her back up. “It’s not a big deal.” She frowned. “Normally.”
“It could be dangerous, Hope. You should have someone here with you at all times.”
“The only danger to me is you.”
“Me?” He looked horrified at the thought. “You’re not afraid of me.”
She didn’t want to go there. “Look, my point is that I’m selective about my guests, and besides, it’s not like this is the big city. Muggings are nonexistent.”
“Still,” he said, looking worried.
For her, she realized, and stared at him in surprise. He was worried about her.
How long had it been since someone had worried about her?
“And that plumbing should be wrapped in insulation,” he pointed out. “If it was, the pipes wouldn’t freeze.”
“I agree. I have some renovations ahead of me.”
“Do they include fixing the drain in the upstairs bathroom—which by the way, doesn’t have a blow-dryer. It doesn’t even have towels.”
“They’re in the laundry.” She was well aware of the failings of this place. Ben had offered to fix the problems, but she refused to let him work ahead of what she could pay him. Things were getting done as she could afford them.
“Look,” he said softly. “This place is great. It’s got history and character and charm, but it needs work. You need to get better control of—”
“Control?” she choked out. “I realize I need some things done, and I’m getting to them, but don’t you dare stand there and talk to me about control when you don’t even have any over your life. You’re nothing more than a lackey for a man who likes to torture the less fortunate, and—”
“Hope.” He shook his head and dissolved her temper when he stepped close again. “We both know why I’m here, and that’s because you’re in financial trouble.”
“So I’ve had a bad year—” She broke off when he lifted a hand to touch the bump on her forehead, which didn’t hurt nearly as much as the taste of her possible failure.
His touch was so gentle that she felt thrown, as she did by his nearness. “I really thought I’d have the money back from Joey by now,” she whispered.
“Have you looked into alternative financing?”
Yes. And as she was mortgaged to the teeth, she’d been laughed out of three banking institutions to date. She was working on a fourth. “Look, all I did was e-mail Edward and ask for an extension. No big deal. Instead of bothering to answer, he sent you.”
“Because he doesn’t give extensions,” he said softly, his finger still on her.
She slapped it away. “Fine. So now I know. So just go ahead and get out of here and I’ll figure something else out.”
“Door’s locked,” he pointed out calmly. “But after we get out, I’ll—”
“Damn-A-straight you’ll go.”
“—help you, however you need,” he said with infuriating patience.
“I already told you, I don’t need your help.”
“Maybe I could—”
“I said no.”
He merely looked at her in that quiet and steady way he had, except . . .
Except not. They were toe to toe, standing just a little too close, and suddenly she realized she was breathing just a little too hard. But so was he.
Why did he have to be so . . . sexy? Because that really wasn’t a fair distribution of the goods. And what the hell was he thinking about when he looked at her like that, with his eyes so heated behind those glasses? She didn’t know, but he leaned in a little, and she did the same, letting out a soft, anticipatory breath as—
At the top of the stairs, the door opened. Lori stuck her head in and peered down at them. “Hey, did you guys know you were locked in?”