Her small hand smacked at his chest.
“Oh, that was just cruel,” she pouted. “Good comeback, but cruel.”
“Score one for Ian?” He lifted a brow teasingly as she stared up at him.
“Score one for Ian.” Her soft giggle touched his heart.
Yes, he had to be dreaming, because only in a dream could the past evaporate as it had now.
“Come on, minx.” He opened the doors into the bar, glancing around the dimly lit area and seeing it empty before leading her to the French doors on the other side of the room. “I can’t believe I’m going out in the cold to get wet and then try to get back to our room. We’ll be ice cubes before we make it. They’ll find us tomorrow, frozen…” He faked a shudder as he led her quickly out the door onto the heated deck.
She laughed. The intimate sound of it, soft, as delicate as the mist surrounding the hot tub, had him smiling and he wasn’t even certain why.
“Come on, grouch.” She shed the robe with no sign of discomfort as she stood beneath the heavy snowfall, her face raised to allow the soft fluff to caress her face. “Feel it, Ian, it’s like a fantasy.” She turned back to him, her hair shielding her upper body, framing the delicate features of her face.
He could feel his chest expanding, feel the wonder of her burning within it. She amazed him, drove him crazy, made him so f**king hot he thought at times he would melt from the conflagration.
How could he possibly get cold? Siberia would be a rainforest with her in it.
“Aren’t you coming?” Her voice was still whisper-soft, encouraging him in the madness she created.
He found himself untying the belt of the robe and quickly removing it, allowing it to drop in unconcern on the damp heated cement beneath their feet as he moved to the steamy water.
He stepped in, feeling the rush of the water caress his lower legs as he held his hand to her. A vivid smile crossed her face, and in the soft light of the full moon above he saw the flash of eternal dreams in her eyes.
“You’re beautiful, Courtney,” he whispered as she stepped into the water with him, the snowflakes drifting down to melt on her flushed cheeks, her soft lips.
Pleasure flashed in her eyes as she stared up at him, looking for all the world like one of the fairies in the prints his mother loved before her death.
His own precious fairy.
He touched her cheek, lowered his lips to hers and whispered suggestively, “Now tell me about that wax job?”
Courtney stepped into the front doors of Ian’s mansion just before the sun was setting over the mountains surrounding it the next evening. She was reflective as she closed the door behind her, brooding over the fact that it seemed Melissa Gaines, and something that had happened almost fifteen years before, still had the power to hold Ian’s heart so deeply.
She had thought she was making inroads the night before as they laughed and made love in the hot tub long into the midnight hours. But this morning he had been his usual brooding self, if a little grumpier than usual.
Had he truly loved the woman? Surely not. If he had, then he couldn’t be so certain that love didn’t exist, could he?
Truth was the man was going to make her completely insane. She shared his bed, spent hours upon hours each night in the throes of the most exciting pleasure she could have imagined, but it wasn’t enough. Not for Ian, and not for her either.
She could feel the restlessness building in him, and it only caused hers to intensify.
“Your coat, Miss Mattlaw…”
She jerked in surprise as Jason materialized by her side.
“Stop sneaking up on me.” She lightened the startled snap with a laugh. “That’s creepy.”
“You were obviously very deep in thought, ma’am.”
The robot.
She allowed him to help her with removing the black jacket she had worn with her jeans that afternoon as she stared about the foyer.
“Is Ian in this evening?”
“Mr. Sinclair is away presently,” he informed her. “He asked me to let you know that he would return later this evening.”