Snowed In For Christmas: A Fun Feel-Good Holiday Romance Novel - Kimberly Krey Page 0,16

nights enough times he could’ve done it in his sleep. There were times, he mused, he practically had. A shudder rocked through him at the memory.

But this…helping secure the waist around Ivy’s slender figure, it had him thinking thoughts he had no right to think about a woman he didn’t even know. Sure, he’d remained the perfect gentleman on the outside, keeping his hands and eyes from wandering further than necessary. But that mind of his sometimes went rogue.

“So,” Ivy said, squinting at her phone for a blink. “I’m pressing record, then I’ll start asking the questions.”

He gave her another glance over, half expecting her to be holding a cue card. “You’ve got the questions memorized?”

She nodded. “There are only five.”

Relief flooded over him. “Five? Sheesh, why didn’t you say so?”

A cute little giggle sounded as she shook her head. There were a lot of things he was starting to like about her. The way she’d encouraged him to speak up about the interview. The way she’d accepted the fact that they were, in fact, stuck. And even the way she sank into his arms after getting smacked by the door, he mused, still shocked it had actually knocked her out. She didn’t seem overly concerned about her hair when it was snow-drenched, or the gash in her head that could potentially leave a scar.

She was easy going, he guessed, compared to what he’d expected anyway. It seemed the two of them had a certain compatibility. Chemistry, even. It would make botching the interview hard, but hopefully not impossible.

“Hey, Ivy?”

She hovered her thumb over the screen. “Yeah?”

“Don’t expect this to be…anything special, okay?”

Her face scrunched up in reprove. “Tsk, whatever. You ready?”

No. He nodded anyway.

“Okay, here we go.” She straightened back up then, her shoulders tall, her posture poised, as if she’d transformed into some professional reporter in a blink.

His face warmed as he stared into her blue eyes. She was pretty, there’d been no doubt about that from the first moment they’d met. But as he sat across from her now, as she stepped into her element, he saw her in a new light. A confident, self-assured light. It was…attractive, he decided. And intimidating.

“So, Easton,” she started, “in a competition where twenty-five guys will compete for the attention of just five girls, what do you think will set you apart from the rest?”

Ugh. These were going to be harder than he thought. The last thing he wanted to do was sell himself. He tipped his chin down and gave her a pleading look, willing her to remember how very much he did not want to do this.

Ivy gave him a knowing grin, then nodded encouragingly.

“What makes me different from other guys, huh?” He shrugged, dropped his elbows to his knees, and let out a sigh.

“Oh,” she blurted, “I think if you lean down that far you’ll get cut off.” She tilted sideways to check the screen. “Actually, no. It’s…perfect.” Her cheeks flushed pink.

“I guess what sets me apart is the fact that I don’t need a bunch of modern day luxuries to be satisfied. Give me a place to lay my head, a fire to roast my latest kill, and I’m a happy man.”

“Your latest kill?” she echoed.

He grinned, hoping the phrase might strike a few nerves with producers.

“You probably already know that our five bachelorettes have already been chosen,” she said. “One of those ladies is vegan and a strong animals rights advocate. Would you be willing to change your meat-eating ways if the two of you were to fall in love?”

A hint of amusement struck him as he considered what she asked. “A vegan, eh? I think it’s safer to say that your scenario is not realistic. It would never happen. She and I wouldn’t be compatible, which is fine by me. I’m not one to force my opinions, and I’m not about to change my ways.”

He was tempted to leave it there, but the topic was a hot one for him. “I hunt for food, not sport, and I train others to do the same.”

“Which leads us to our next question,” Ivy said. “Tell us what you do for a living.”

This question wouldn’t help or hinder him, Easton supposed. He may as well just answer honestly and spread the word about the program. “I’m a co-founder, co-operator of a survival based rehab center for teens and young adults. We provide a nature based experience, no matter the season, where participants can get treatment for a number