The womans expression still twinkled with mischief. The man still had eyes only for her. That love, and the sense of family unity that practically jumped out of the photos, put an uncomfortable kink in Sophies wind-pipe, right in the region of her heart.
Here. Griffin appeared in the doorway behind her and tossed an armload of terrycloth towels on the bed, having apparently raided the bathroom. He moved past her and rooted through the dresser and closet, coming up with jeans, a shirt and thick sweater, along with two pairs of wool socks and a worn mens belt. Then he headed back out, saying over his shoulder, You take this room, Ill change in the office. Then he paused in the doorway. Whats wrong?
Nothing. She made herself move away from the bedside photo and start picking through the dresser. Im guessing were out of luck in the shower department?
Sorry. The pump is battery-powered, so weve got running water, but its going to be cold. Ill have to get the generator going for hot water. First, though, I want to get us dry and see about starting a fire.
Sophie nodded. Of course. As he left the room, she pawed through the dresser, telling herself not to waste time feeling squeamish about going through a strangers things. The worst of the bone-numbing cold had eased now that they were out of the storm, but getting dry and warm was still a major priority.
Ill reimburse them for the clothes, Griffin said unexpectedly from the other room. So stop stalling. If I dont hear you getting naked in the count of ten, Im coming in and doing it for you.
From another man the words mightve been a tease, or a threat. Coming from laconic Griffin Vaughn, who didnt seem to suffer from the same zing of chemistry Sophie felt every time she was within five feet of him, they were simply a fact. As far as she could tell, he hadnt even noticed she was femaletheirs was purely a business relationship. Or rather, the possibility of one, if she worked very hard and managed not to dump any more coffee on him.
Unfortunately, she got clumsy when she was nervous, and something about the way he looked in the throes of negotiationall stern-faced and dark-eyed, with a flash of excitement when he moved in for the coup de grâcewell, that made her all too aware that he was male. Which made her nervous, and therefore clumsy.
Sophie? Griffin called, and his low-voiced inquiry buzzed along her nerve endings like liquid fire, the heat brought by the thought of him undressing her, and focusing all that dark-eyed intensity on her.
But the threat got her moving, and she started stripping out of her wet, clinging clothes. You dont have to come in, she called after a moment. Im naked. She blushed at the echo of her own words, bringing stinging warmth to her cheeks. Never mind. Forget I said that, okay?
She grabbed the towels hed left for her and scrubbed them over her skin, warming some life back into her chilled flesh, which seemed strange and disconnected, as though it didnt belong to her anymore. Soon, though, life began to returnpins and needles at first, then stinging pain. Skin that had been fish-belly-white moments earlier flared to angry red, and she hissed with the return of feeling as she drew on a pair of borrowed jeans and a turtleneck, socks and thick sweater.
She soon realized that she and Gemma were built very differently: the other woman was taller and significantly narrower in the hips and bust. Doing the best with what she had, Sophie rolled up the cuffs to deal with the too-long jeans, and hoped the sweater was loose enough to disguise how tightly the clothes fit across her chest and rear. Like Griffin, she skipped borrowing underwear, instead going commando beneath her clothing.
Logic said that shouldnt have felt daring under the circumstances, but she was acutely aware of the chafe of material against her unprotected skin as she left the bedroom. Not that he would notice, because he was all about business. Which was a relief, despite the fact that shed developed a mild crush on him. Indeed, she only allowed herself the crush because he wasnt interested. After what had happened at her last job, where shed been romanced and played by a jerk of the first degree, and said jerk had set out to destroy her career options, the last thing Sophie was looking to do was get romantically involved with her boss. No thanks, not going there again.
Heading out of the bedroom into the main sitting area, Sophie found Griffin crouched by the fireplace. Kindling and mid-sized logs were neatly organized in a burnished copper tub to one side of the hearth, and a small drift of ashes and charred wood inside the fireplace suggested it was fully functional, which was very good news indeed.
Griffin had used some of the kindling to build a neat teepee, with crumpled paper in the center, and a trio of larger logs crossed in a tripod arching over the kindling. The setup, like the hip-check hed used to open the door, looked practiced and professional, which didnt fit with the image of the polished businessman shed spent the past month assisting.
The Griffin Vaughn she worked for wore custom suits and monogrammed shirts, yet cared little for fashion. His entire focus was centered on VaughnTec. He was seeking to grow the company by shrinking their products even further while increasing the functionality of each unit. VaughnTec, which was part R & D, part mass market, combined cameras, computers, phones, music, video games and a host of other functionalities into small handheld units so simple that even the technologically challenged could figure them out within a few minutes. It was Griffin whod moved the company in that direction when hed taken it over from his uncle, Griffin whod made it into the powerhouse it was today. He was ruthless without being cruel, cold without being unfriendly. But even when he was being his most cordial, shed noticed, he maintained a thick barrier between him and the world, a reserve that shed only seen soften when he was talking to his young son, Luke, on the phone.
Despite the pressures of Sophies job situationi.e. that losing it was a real threat yet absolutely not an optionshe had grown, if not comfortable with Griffins business persona, at least confident that she knew where she stood with him. He was polite but not terribly friendly, and had made it obvious that he considered her too young and green for the position. But at the same time, hed been clear about his needs and wishes, and had given her ample room to perform the tasks Kathleen had laid out for her, which had mostly consisted of scheduling his travel and juggling calls, retrieving information and hunting up the occasional meal. All of those things were well within the skills shed learned in the courses shed taken for certification, and if shed fumbled a few times when nerves had overcome training, hed seemed to let those instances go. All in all, shed found him a tough but fair employer. Yes, he was far too attractive for her peace of mind, but she thought she understood the Griffin Vaughn shed been working for.
However, she didnt know the Griffin Vaughn who was crouched down in front of the fireplace wearing a fishermans sweater and faded jeans, blowing a small ember into a flame, then feeding it strips of kindling until the fire flared up and lit the teepee hed built so carefully. Logic and what she knew about her boss suggested that he shouldve looked like a man completely out of his natural element. Instead, he wore the borrowed clothes like they were old familiar friends, and he moved with neat economy as he built the fire up, coaxing it to accept the first of the logs. His towel-dried hair was engagingly rumpled, making him seem younger, though his face still gave away little of the man within.
Illumination from the flames danced across his forbidding features. The warm light was a welcome contrast to the dimness outside, where the world had gone to grayish-white and the day was fading hours earlier than it should have.
The fire drew Sophie forward, even as nerves warned her not to get too close to this new version of Griffin Vaughn. She stood beside him and stretched her hands out toward the fire, but felt little relief from the cold.
Itll need to warm the brickwork before much heat starts bouncing out into the room, Griffin said.
Were you an Eagle Scout or something? she asked, unable to help herself, because too many things werent quite lining up between this Griffin and the one she thought she knew.
Or something. He rose, dusting the ash from his hands, and wound up standing very near her. Too near.
She could see the hints of hazel in his green eyes, saw them darken when tension snapped into the air between them. She was suddenly very aware of his height and strength, and the way the smell of wood smoke fit with the sight of him in jeans and a sweaterraw, masculine and elemental. And in that instant, she realized shed been wrong about at least one thing: Griffin most definitely knew she was a woman. The knowledge was in his eyes, which were more alive than shed ever seen them.
Heat flared suddenly, not from the fireplace, but within her. The warmth spread from her core to her extremities, which still tingled with the aftereffects of the freezing conditions, and the danger theyd survived together.
Maybe it was that danger that had her leaning into him, maybe it was the attraction shed told herself to ignore all these weeks. Either way, she was suddenly very close to him, and he to her, their lips a breath apart.
A log shifted in the fireplace, sending sparks. The noise startled her, breaking through the sensual fog and slapping her with a shout from her subconscious. Danger!
Grabbing hold of herself, she took a big step back, away from the fireplace. Away from the man. As she did so, she was aware that he did the exact same thing, levering himself away. In that moment, she saw the shields drop back down over his expression, distancing him more surely than the floor space now separating them. Suddenly, he was no longer a regular guy starting a fire in the fireplace; he was a millionaire businessman who ate small companies for breakfast, and just happened to be wearing a sweater and jeans.
More important, he was her boss.
Heat rushed to Sophies cheeks and she berated herself for being stupid, for getting too close to the line with the man who had far too much control over her future, more than he even realized. Im sorry, she whispered. I shouldnt have
Im going out, he interrupted, heading for the door, where he grabbed a pair of tired-looking boots and a heavy, bright-red waterproof parka, borrowing more of Eriks clothing. I want to look around a little and get the generators going. There are a bunch of outbuildingsbarns, a guesthouse, that sort of thing. I want to make sure theyre as secure as theyre going to get before the main force of the storm hits. Id appreciate it if youd check the kitchen and see about some food. Do you still have your PDA in your coat?
A unit of his own design, the PDAs combined a phone, computer and GPS functionalities into a single small unit.
Sophie nodded. Yes, I do. But wont it have shorted out? They were seriously useful little machines, but still, they were machines.
Sometimes the little buggers come back to life after theyve gotten wet. Say, for instance, after a toddler tries to flush one of them. His expression softened a hair at the tangential mention of his son, but his eyes stayed cool on hers, as though he was waiting to see what she would do next, how she would handle herself in the aftermath of the sensually charged moment theyd just shared.
She was going to ignore it, that was what she was going to do, Sophie decided on the spot. Just as hed done.
Plastering a neutral expression on her face, she tried to drop herself back into the executive assistants role, even though it didnt seem to fit quite right under the circumstances. She nodded. Food and PDA. Got it. If I get the phone up and running, do you want me to call Sheriff Martinez and let him know what happened?
Griffin glanced through a window, at the whiteout conditions outside. Definitely. See if he can get someone out here to pick us up. He lifted a shoulder. Its a long shot, but you never know. Maybe this is just a squall before the blizzard.
A howl of wind hit the side of the mansion and rattled the windows in their frames, seeming to mock the idea. Somewhere else in the house there was a crashing noise, suggesting that Perry and his work crew hadnt secured the construction zone sufficiently against the force of the incoming blizzard.
Griffin winced, but didnt say anything, just jerked on the borrowed boots, shrugged into the coat and headed for the door.
He paused at the threshold and looked back at her. I want you to lock the deadbolt after me, and keep it locked.
He was gone before she could ask why that would be necessary, given that they were alone in the mansion. She flipped the bolt as ordered, but couldnt help wondering who he was trying to guard her from. Himself? That didnt make any sense.
She heard his footsteps recede, heard a distant door slam. Moments later, she caught a flash of his red parka as he headed, not around the generator shed, but rather straight across the parking circle and down the driveway.
He was going to look at the crash site, she realized, and the realization brought a shiver of fear as she clicked onto the one question she hadnt yet asked herself about the situationnot how they were going to manage to wait out the storm, or what would happen if she and Griffin ended up face-to-face again and they werent smart enough to step away, but rather the all-important question they hadnt had the time to ask before. Why had the bridge given out beneath them? Was it just bad luck?
Or had it been something more sinister?