Snowed In For Christmas: A Fun Feel-Good Holiday Romance Novel - Kimberly Krey Page 0,10

neck. Satisfied that he’d heated it up enough for her, he closed the gap between them with slow and cautious steps. He was basically a stranger to her, after all.

Her tiny shoes, a flimsy excuse for boots, disappeared beneath the bench as he neared.

He grinned. “Here,” he mumbled, “this should be nice and warm for you.” He quickly moved it from his back and onto hers, encouraging her to lift her hair off the back of her neck to get the full warmth against her skin. Instinctively, he rubbed his hands down the outside of it, over her shoulders and down her arms.

Hints of something warm and sweet, like vanilla, hit his senses. She smelled good. The realization was enough to make him step away from her.

“Wow, you really are hotter than me.” She glanced up, pulling at either side of the sheepskin. “Thank you,” she added, her gaze set on the small boots as they reappeared from beneath the bench.

“Sure,” he said. “I’m going to get a fire started. But first, I need you to promise not to…make a run for it.”

The woman looked up in surprise. “Where would I go?”

Easton shrugged. “I have no idea. You seemed pretty desperate to get back down the canyon, is all I mean.”

“I am,” she assured.

“Yeah well, just tell me you’re going to stay put so I can go collect some wood. If you take off, I’ll have to go on another rescue mission and I’d rather not do that.”

The wind must have changed angles, because suddenly a loud whoosh and whistle echoed within the structure.

“Where do you have to go to get firewood?” she asked, her voice louder to carry over the noise.

“To a nearby storage shed,” he said, making his way to the door.

“How nearby? It’s not going to take very long is it?”

Oh, she was scared, he realized. Easton shook his head. “No.”

She nodded. “It’s just…you pointed out those animal tracks…”

Yes, he had done that with the moose tracks he spotted while they hurried from the Jeep to the yurt; perhaps that had been a bad idea. It was, to him, habit, since he was usually in training mode while on the campgrounds.

“You’ll be safe in here,” he assured her. “I’ll be right back.” He was halfway to the door when she spoke up again.

“Easton?”

He froze in place. “Yes?”

“Are you absolutely one hundred percent sure that there’s no possible way I’ll make my flight?”

Easton sucked in a breath and let it out before responding. He pictured the spoiled woman making his life utterly miserable in the hours ahead. Rounds of vicious blame, irritation, and sheer anger over missing her flight.

“Ivy,” he said, keeping his back to her. “As much as I wish it wasn’t true, the truth is that your flight, along with every other flight in the days ahead, has already been canceled.” He hurried to the door, pulled it open, and uttered two final words before heading out into the cold. “I’m sorry.”

Chapter 4

Ivy couldn’t tear her gaze off the door of the yurt as she held tightly to the thick wrap Easton had warmed her with. Her mind was whirling with all that had taken place in the last few hours. Surely the magnitude of those moments would start to sink in. Like the long minutes that ticked by as she gripped onto the SUV’s steering wheel, following a road that got lost in whirls of white. It had been much too dangerous to carry on, but she’d been too stubborn to turn back.

And it definitely was stubbornness that prevented her from turning around at that point. She’d even cursed the rock she’d run into, cursed it for stopping her in her tracks, until she realized that those tracks were no longer on the actual road. A road that soon would become narrow enough to throw her off the edge with one wrong move.

What Easton had said was true.

A sick, hollow sounding thud pulsed in her ears, throbbing against her temples as the magnitude started to sink in. Had Easton not come looking for her…she shuddered against the thought.

The tank could have easily run empty before the storm died. There’d been no data or WiFi service to speak of. Even as he escorted her from the rental to his Jeep, Ivy had left the suitcase behind, still foolishly thinking she’d come right back to her rental once the interview was done. Her clothes, makeup, laptop and chargers, all of it sat in the abandoned SUV, where