Heaven Beside You (16 page)

“Why?” Jason stood up. Her tension was contagious and he couldn’t think straight. He wanted her now. Whoever was outside could go hang. But he didn’t want her to be mad at him either, and this kinda felt like mad. “Couldn’t we just pretend not to be home?”

“He knows I’m home. All he has to do is look at the tracks in the snow. He can’t find out you’re here. Christ, if he looks around the other side of the house, he’s going to see our footprints.”

“Why?”

“Because I can’t let Finn know what’s been going on. Please, Jason, this is a small town and I have to live in it.” She pulled her sweatshirt on inside out. “If he finds you here, he’s going to put two and two together. It’s going to make a lot of trouble for me. Just hide in the bedroom and I’ll get rid of him.” She picked up his guitar and pushed it into his hands.

“Cass, you’re an adult,” he protested as she shoved him toward the bedroom.

“I know, but I’m an adult living in a small town full of people with nothing better to do than snoop in each other’s private lives. Please, Jason,” she pleaded, pushing him ahead of her.

“All right.” He stopped in the bedroom doorway. “But you have to promise to pick up where we left off.”

A car crunched through the snow in front of the house.

Some of her anxiety must have disappeared, because her eyes sparkled and she smiled. “Do you really need a promise on that?”

“I guess not.” He kissed her. She was leaning into his arms, drawn into his embrace when the knock came at the door.

Blushing, she leaped back. “Just a minute,” she called, then said to him, “Stay in here and be quiet. And stay away from the fireplace, he can see right through.”

Jason stood in the corner of the bedroom, listening to her walk to the door. They hadn’t bothered to make the bed this morning. The blankets were still thrown around invitingly. Remembering waking up with her in his arms, he smiled. Hopefully tomorrow morning would be like that, too.

“Finn, what are you doing here?” Cass said at the front door.

“I wanted to warn you that storm I told you about is on its way. Sounds like a really bad one.” The needy whine in Finn’s voice made him sound like a desperate mosquito.

“You could have called.” A nervous laugh came from her.

Jason looked around. Cass hadn’t closed her top dresser drawer all the way this morning. Something scarlet peeked out.

“I didn’t like to think about you up here alone with him if you got snowed in,” Finn said.

“I’m perfectly safe with Jason. Callisto,” she stammered.

Jason reached into the drawer. Silk. Scarlet silk? In her underwear drawer? This could be fun.

“I brought an overnight bag with me.”

“Why?”

“So I can stay here with you and ride out the storm.” Finn’s mosquito whine had become louder.

“And where did you plan to do that?” Cass snapped.

“Why are there two glasses of brandy out?”

A tug, and a scarlet silk nightgown drifted into his hands. He held it up to the light. Floor length, and designed to show off every luscious curve. What would he have to do to convince her to wear it for him?

“Oh, is that where that is?” Cass again. “I knew I poured myself a glass and couldn’t find it.”

“On the coffee table?”

“I was working by the window. Thanks for the warning about the storm. I’ll let Jason know.”

But if she had been single so long, why did she have a silk nightgown? Who was it for?

“I’ll stay up here and sleep on your couch.”

“Finn, you are not spending the night. What would people say?”

“Then I’ll stay in one of the cabins.”

“None of them are warmed up.”

Frowning, Jason dug further into the drawer and discovered another negligee. A white velvet teddy. And beneath it, a royal purple silk short nightgown trimmed with white feathers. Also very new. Three negligees. Why did Cass have sexy underwear when she claimed she’d been solo for five years?

“So we’ll warm one up.”

“And we can all be trapped inside our cabins alone when we get four feet of snow.”

“I just don’t like the idea of you alone with him.”

“I’m fine alone with him.”

Jason folded the negligees back in her drawer the way he found them. Stella used to tempt him with this stuff whenever she thought he was losing interest. Would Cass try that trick on him, too? Drape herself around him, whispering sweet lies he would believe because he wanted to?

“Cassie, this isn’t right. You shouldn’t be alone with him. What if he tries something?”

Cass laughed sharply. “Like I have a hope in hell of that.”

She made a very convincing liar. She’d suggested they move in together and made him feel so at home. Maybe it all been part of the plan, and his instinct this was a trap had been right. Had she reserved the silky stuff for a last resort?

“Well, why don’t you come down the holler then? There’s got to be someplace we can put him up. He can stay at my place.”

“No. He’s come here for a rest, not to bunk at your house. We’re both perfectly safe.”

“There’s a tree blocking your truck in.”

“Oh, that. I cut it down yesterday and it got dark before I was done. I just forgot to get to it this morning. Look, I’m busy. Next time you come up, you should call first.”

A very convincing liar. Jason closed his eyes. He’d fallen right back in again. Straight from one woman who’d used him for his fame to another one who wanted to use him for some other undiscovered purpose. She probably missed New York and planned to use him to lever herself out of her small town. Or she was tired of scraping by with her little campground and had an eye on his money.

“I’ll help you clear it.”

“Finn, I don’t need help.”

“Are you sure?”

It didn’t matter. He didn’t have to fall for it this time. They had two weeks. For two weeks they could have a good time and then he could go home a happier man. Then he would know what to look for next time.

“I’m sure, Finn. Thanks for coming up to warn me. But I’ll be fine.”

“Do you have all the supplies you need? What about him?”

“We’ll both be fine.”

“There’s no smoke coming from his chimney.”

“His fire must have gone out again,” Cass said. “I’ll go check on him before I finish that tree.”

“I’m worried about you up here alone, Cassie.”

“You’ve never been worried about me before.”

“I was, I just never thought I had to come up here to protect you. You seem to be getting sloppy. You left that tree blocking the road and you’re wearing your sweatshirt inside out.”

“I don’t need protecting, but since you’re here, can you drop these reservations at the post office? That would be great.”

Heart pounding hard, Jason closed the drawer. How much of the comfort here had been a set up? Had he been chasing her or had she been luring him? If he searched through her bookshelf would he find a copy of
The Rules
with dog-eared pages? And a copy of Machiavelli’s
The Prince
right beside it?

The front door clicked shut. Outside, a car started up and crunched across the frigid snow. The car’s engine faded down the road, and Cass pushed open the bedroom door. “Okay, it’s safe.” She brushed her hand through her hair. “Thanks. I can’t let this get around, or you might find yourself the guest of honor at a shotgun wedding. What’s wrong?”

Jason realized he’d been staring at her. He couldn’t mesh the conniver he’d just discovered with the woman he’d been enjoying for the past four days. “Did he say there was a storm coming?”

“Yeah. Sounds like a bad one. Why?”

To cover his turmoil, he smiled. That she might be playing him made his gut sicken. He wanted this all to be real. For her to want to stay with him. “We have to make sure we have enough supplies.”

“We’ve got lots of food and fuel. I stock up for these things.” Her brows were knitted, making her cute nose wrinkle.

“But we’re about to run out of condoms.”

“Oh, well then, we must make a run to the other side of the mountain.” Her eyes lit up. “That’s an essential. If you help me clear this tree, we can get going. We’ll run up the interstate, where they won’t know either of us.”

“Let’s go, then.” She looked so open and honest. Maybe he was wrong. God, how he wanted to be. Wanting to be wrong had gotten him in trouble last time, though.

Clearing the tree didn’t take long. Cass cut while Jason hauled. Then they had a quick peanut butter sandwich, and she drove them down the other side of the mountain, dropped him at the drugstore, went on to the grocery store. Since Finn’s arrival, he’d seemed distant and odd. Being shoved into the bedroom like a teenager who had to hide from Mom and Dad could do that to a man, but on the way down the mountain, she’d started to wonder if it was something else. He was too quiet and seemed to be watching her.

She tried not to even let her questions formulate. With feet of snow and blistering cold winds imminent, she didn’t have time to wonder what was going through his mind. Supplies and firewood were top priority.

She had supplies. Before coming up after Christmas, she’d stocked up, and between the wood she had and the cord she’d had delivered for Jason, there should be enough fuel for weeks.

Snowed in with Jason for weeks? That she could handle. She might even come out of it better than she went in. He made her feel beautiful. Desirable. She’d never felt so sexy, and this glow wasn’t just because he was famous, her all-time fantasy.

She parked at the Gaitherberg grocery store and headed inside. A little treat was in order if she wanted to keep his attention and she knew just the thing.

The way he looked at her, as if he was simultaneously undressing her and putting her up on a pedestal. Like he wanted to worship her and every word she spoke was a gift.

Maybe she’d damaged that. When she’d heard Finn’s car on the road, she’d been too panicked to think straight. Jason said he understood, but how could he? He hadn’t grown up in Potterville, endured their pitying looks after Michael walked out. If they found out about Jason, she’d have to live through that again. She couldn’t do it. Or survive Jason walking out on her before her two weeks was up.

And she couldn’t decide which would be worse.

She pulled up to the curb outside the drugstore where she’d left Jason a few minutes earlier. He waited, blowing into his hands to warm them. People in heavy coats with hats pulled down over their ears hurried past him, unaware that the man in the black coat was famous. They might not have cared, had they known. In the cold, with a storm bearing down, they didn’t have time to gawp at famous people who were underdressed for the weather. “All ready?”

“I got the big box.”

She smiled, and checked traffic then pulled out. “So we’re planning on going through the gross size package, are we?”

“I’m going to try. What did you have to get?”

“A surprise.” She’d tucked the bag behind her seat where he wouldn’t see it.

“Am I going to like this surprise?”

“I hope so.”

“When am I going to get this surprise?”

“When you least expect it and need it most.”

“Sounds intriguing.” He leaned back in his seat. “Is that why you took the guitar out of my hands?”

“What?” A glance showed he stared straight ahead, but one quick look wasn’t enough to read his expression.

“Before Finn showed up. You took my guitar out of my hands and climbed in my lap. Was it because I needed it most?”

Her throat tightened. He’d drifted away from her, then. She recalled sitting on the edge of the couch, listening to him leave. Not physically, but emotionally he was out of the room. Out of the state. Wherever he’d gone, it didn’t look like a good place. Between the panic that he was unhappy and the jealousy of him distancing himself from her, she’d jumped at the first notion. Maybe that’s what had happened to cool him toward her. What if Finn hadn’t been the reason at all, but that she’d taken his guitar away? “You had started to play
“
I’m Looking Through You.
”
”

After a moment, he said, “I guess I was.” He reached across the bench seat and put his hand on her leg. “I’m pretty hard to derail once I get on a track like that.”

A sigh of relief shivered through her. She’d been struck with an urgent need to make him feel better, and the only thing she’d been able to think of was sex. She’d rather not be a Band-Aid, but if that’s what he needed, she would do it. Even if she felt a little dirty about it.

A lot dirty.

Going all the way to Gaitherberg for condoms so it wouldn’t get around town? Shoving him into the bedroom so Finn wouldn’t catch them? Was it unwillingness to be pitied or huge, blinking neon signs of shame? Turning up the road to the mountain, she realized she’d even gone out of the way so she wouldn’t pass any of her neighbors.

“It’s starting to snow,” she said turning onto the drive to her house. Big, fat flakes floated down, doing their best to look harmless, but she could see the heavy gray clouds coming over the mountains, bringing all their kin to camp on her doorstep.

“Pretty,” Jason commented.

He still had his hand on her leg. Regardless of how guilty she felt about carrying on this affair, she wanted him. His hands all over her followed by his mouth. Or vice versa. Emphasis on vice. “Wait until it’s all on the ground so deep, we can’t open the doors.”

“Will it get that deep?”

“I was snowed in for a month up here the first winter. If that happens now, you’ll miss the Grammys.”

“And we’d run out of condoms. I think that’s a bigger tragedy.” He slid his hand up her thigh to where it met her hip.

Her stomach coiled at the touch. A flush of heat swelled between her legs. She hit the garage door opener. “Should I be insulted, or pleased that you’d rather be with me than at the Grammys?”

“Definitely pleased.” His hand slipped between her thighs, to the center of her heat. “The Grammys are a blast. You get all dressed up and you see your girl looking pretty, and if you’re lucky you get to go up on stage and take home a shiny trophy.”

“It does sound like fun.” She felt breathless and light headed. He must know the way she throbbed for him, with his hand pressed right in the center of her. She managed to park the truck before she drove through the back of the garage.