“I shouldn’t have said that about buying you.” Cole glanced at her. It was always so easy with women. He looked at them, they fell into his arms. They had sex, they went home, and he didn’t think about them again. That was how it was supposed to work, but Maia seemed to blow his carefully constructed barricades all to hell.
For a moment he thought she wouldn’t respond. She didn’t turn her head to look at him, but stared out the window at the flurry of snowflakes. “Why did you?”
“You get under my skin, and I don’t like it,” he answered truthfully. “I’ve never met a woman like you.”
“You’ve met a million women like me. It’s just that none of them ever stood up to you before.” Her voice was low and half-muffled by his thick jacket, but it found its way into his body, past his skin and muscle to his very bones.
She turned back toward him, and his breath left his lungs in a rush. He wasn’t used to anyone having that kind of effect on him, and it shook his usual calm. He kept his expression carefully blank, his warning system shrieking at him that he was in trouble. “You’re an interesting woman. Anyone else would have jumped on the fact that I admitted you get to me, but not you. You have to be different.”
“It wouldn’t serve any purpose to discuss it. I’m not going to sleep with you. I don’t do one-night stands. I’m not at all into casual sex.” She managed a small smile. “But I’ll admit you’re a terrible temptation.”
He glanced at her, felt the wheels slide in a particularly heavy drift of snow, catch, and propel them forward. She flung out her hand to grab the dashboard, but she didn’t tell him to slow down.
“I always get what I want, Maia.” He said it with complete confidence. He didn’t know if it was her cool refusal, the warmth in her small smile, or the stark intensity of his desire for her, but he was determined she wouldn’t elude him. Even when he knew he was risking more than he should.
“Well, want something else. I don’t have a lot of energy to put into fighting with you. You’re the kind of man who normally sets my teeth on edge.”
“And that would be why?”
“You’re arrogant, bossy, too rich for your own good. Sexy as hell, but you know it, so you don’t even bother to be polite. There are a lot of willing women out there, Steele, go after one of them. I told you, straight up, I’m not a one-night-stand kind of woman. That should be enough for you.”
“It should be, shouldn’t it?” His gaze slid sideways toward her for a brief moment. Her hands were twisted together to keep them from trembling. The vehicle slid several times, but he kept it on the road. “I’m a good driver, Maia,” he reiterated. “Relax. I won’t let anything happen to you.”
She tensed again, pushing back into the seat and bracing one hand on the dashboard. He tapped the brakes, slowing the Land Cruiser just as several deer leapt in front of them. The snow nearly coated them, giving them a ghostly appearance, eyes shining, tails flicking in alarm. Cole swerved again, barely missing the high embankment. The deer were gone as silently as they appeared. Maia’s breath was audible in the close confines of the car.
“I don’t know what the hell is going on tonight. Usually the deer are bedded down and under cover during a storm.”
Maia huddled inside the jacket. The images were more vivid this time, but still jumbled. Fists pounding into flesh. Blood on the grass. On the rocks. Her mouth was too dry to speak. She could feel a bead of sweat trickling down the valley between her breasts, but she shivered with cold . . . with fear.
Cole slowed the Land Cruiser, anxiety creeping into him. “Maia, are you all right?” He couldn’t really take his eyes from the road, just small glances at her, but she was definitely frightened. “I know it looks bad out here, but I know the road. This is a good rig. The drifts are so high on the embankments, we can’t possibly get lost, even with the road covered. You must be used to animals rushing out in front of the truck with all the driving you do.” What he wanted to do was stop the truck and pull her into his arms.
Maia felt suffocated by the snowy white world enclosing - them. “Maybe we should turn around.” The panic in her voice made her wince.
“We’re closer to the ranch than to town. I can’t leave Jase out there alone, not with a wounded horse. I hope he listened to me and got Al to help him. By now, the ranch hands will have gone home to avoid getting caught in this blizzard.” He reached out to comfort her, but she shrank away from him, and he gripped the steering wheel, angry at himself for the gesture. “Is that what you really want? To turn around?”
Maia made an effort to pull herself together. What could she say in her defense? That animals were warning her away from the ranch? He’d have her thrown in a padded cell. “No, of course not. I take it that this horse is very special to Jase.”