Snow Blind - Lori G. Armstrong [39]
Why was he fussing over me? From guilt because we’d had a fight the last time we’d been together?
No. He’s doing it because he cares about you.
“Do it quickly, because I’m cold.”
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Martinez stood. “Hang tight.” He disappeared for a minute and returned with a bottle of peppermint schnapps. “This’ll warm you up.”
I swallowed two mouthfuls. The minty sweetness heated me from the inside out. Three more big gulps and I was completely relaxed, my limbs pliant, my head pleasantly muzzy.
His initial examination was very clinical. Testing my ribs for fractures, making sure the scratches weren’t infected, checking bruises for abnormal swelling. His second inspection was personal. Intensely personal. Every bruise, every cut, even the smallest mark received a tender caress and the healing touch of his warm mouth, until no part of my body had been left untended.
Those soft kisses and gentle strokes drugged me more thoroughly than the schnapps, soothing me with the lover’s care and concern that no other man in my life ever bothered with. Tony’s attention was so much sweeter because it was so unexpected.
I made a sleepy protest when he tucked me between my flannel sheets. Alone.
“That’s it?”
“For now.”
“You’ll stay?”
“Yeah. I’ll stay.”
“All night?”
“If that’s what you want, blondie.”
“That’s what I always want. Thank you for . . .”
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Everything seemed too broad, too telling, and I was too wiped out to come up with something raunchy that’d make him crawl in bed with me and forego all thoughts of sleep. “Thank you for being nice.”
“You’re welcome.”
The next morning I woke to the tempting smells of bacon and eggs and coffee. Martinez had prepared a feast and he watched me to make sure I ate every bite. Finally, he said, “I called Wells yesterday afternoon to let him know where you’d been.”
“Why?”
“He knew I’d been trying to track you down.”
I reheated my coffee and his. “Wow. You must’ve been desperate to contact him.”
“Smart-ass.”
“Bet he didn’t even know I was MIA, did he?”
“No. That first night of the blizzard some chick answered the phone. Thought I’d dialed the wrong number. So I called again. Evidently she’d gotten snowed in with him.” He dumped five sugar cubes in his mug. “Is she the new client?”
“I imagine. What’d Kev say when you talked to him yesterday?”
“Not much. He was on his way back from the airport. 133
Said to tell you not to come in today if you don’t feel up to it.”
I smiled at Martinez over the rim of my cup. “I feel up to a lot of things this morning.”
His I’d-like-to-have-you-for-breakfast bad-boy grin made my skin sizzle. “Oh, yeah? You admitting you missed me?”
“Mmm hmm. You wanna feel me up?”
“Like you wouldn’t believe.”
His cell phone rang. It never occurred to him not to answer it. He said about two words and then, “On my way.” After draining his coffee, he stood to rinse his cup. He kissed the top of my head. “Hold that thought, blondie.”
I didn’t feel that great—then again, I lived on cigarettes, tequila, and coffee and was used to feeling lousy every damn day. Better to go to work than sit at home. On the drive into Rapid City I was stunned by the variances in the amount of snowfall. In some spots the fields were barely covered. The frigid temperatures lingered, the only snowmelt was courtesy of salt on the roads, and it hadn’t done much good. Piles of plowed snow lined the interstate, but it was nothing like the drifts at the ranch. Bear Butte County had been hit the worst, which wasn’t unusual.
Kevin’s Jeep was in the leased parking lot. I climbed the stairs. The aroma of freshly brewed coffee teased my senses when I opened the office door. Before I could boldly announce myself in case Kevin 134
and Amery were polishing the conference table again, Kevin appeared holding an HS Precision mug.
“Hey, Jules. How you feeling?”
“Like I’ve been a kicking post for a herd of cattle, thanks for asking.”
“Martinez didn’t go into much detail the last time he called.”
“The last time? How many times did he call you?”
“The first night?