Cold Pursuit - Carla Neggers [43]
He returned the cash box to the back room and walked out from behind the counter. “I have a fair amount of experience with people who don’t want to talk.” He got very close to her. “What are you hiding from me, Jo?”
She had to tell him about his father’s trip to Washington. What he’d said among the cherry blossoms about his fears for the second-born son, about his regrets. But not now. Not while Elijah was staring into her eyes. She could feel his tension and her own as she noticed a small scar on his jaw. It hadn’t been there when he was nineteen. What did she know about Elijah Cameron anymore? What had made her think she knew anything?
“Jo.” He tucked a finger under her chin, nothing about him less intense. “Hell.”
She could have done something to break the tension between them. Smiled, laughed, kicked him, started talking about hypothermia. Anything. But she didn’t, and when his mouth dipped to hers, her lips were already parted. This time it wasn’t a light kiss. It was fierce, hungry, his arms going around her as he drew her hard against him. Even through his jacket she could feel his muscles, the ruggedness of him as they gave, took, fired each other with their kiss.
He caught her around the hips and lifted her, pressed her against him, and she could have stripped off every stitch on her—on him—right then and there.
But he’d had that effect on her forever, and even as she moaned with wanting him, she knew it would be madness to give in to it.
“Elijah,” she said.
“I know.”
He set her down, kissed her on the lips and walked out of the shop without so much as a glance back at her.
Jo ended up helping herself to a pair of wool socks after all—she’d pay for them later—and tucked them into her jacket pocket as she left the shop, locking the door on her way out.
The sky had darkened, just a hint of orange now on the western horizon. The air was still, very cold.
She didn’t see her hawk.
Elijah stood on the walk with his hands shoved into the pockets of his canvas jacket. “You’re a complication, Jo.” There was no desire or humor in his expression now, but no bitterness or anger, either. “You always have been.”
“Does that mean you’d have kicked in Devin’s door if I hadn’t been standing there?”
His gaze fell on her and the corners of his mouth twitched. “I was more tempted with you there.”
He didn’t have to explain further. Devin’s room, Jo thought, had a bed. Not so cold now, she changed the subject. “It looks as if Devin’s spending the night on the mountain.”
“If he is, he’ll need gear. He didn’t have a pack on him.”
“Maybe he has one in his truck. Where is it?”
“Not here—neither is Nora’s car. I’ll check up the road and see if they parked at any of the trailheads.” He looked out across the road toward Cameron Mountain. “Camping in these conditions is a serious business. Devin’s done it before. Nora hasn’t.”
“They could both show up back here in time for dinner—”
“A.J. will let me know if they do.”
Jo gave an exaggerated shiver. “I’d be on my way by now. Just the thought of a bowl of hot beef stew in front of the fire would get me back down here. It’s freezing.”
With his thumb and forefinger, Elijah took hold of the zipper tab to her fleece and zipped it all the way up to her chin. “It’s easier to stay warm than to warm back up.” His fingers lingered along the line of her jaw. “Go find yourself that stew and fire, Jo. Whatever’s going on with Devin isn’t your fight.”
“Stay out of your way, you mean?”
He stepped back from her and started across the frozen grass to the parking lot. “Be careful driving in the dark,” he said. “There’s not much ambient light up here at night. You’re used to the city.”
He continued on to his truck, and Jo didn’t try to stop him or come up with a retort. She walked up to the lodge, and A.J., who must have been watching for her, joined her on the terrace. He had on a jacket this time, but his big shoulders were hunched against the cold—or more likely, with