Thirty-three years, and the magic still managed to catch her by surprise. Grace parted her lips to her superman, which instantly caused flashes of brilliant, sizzling white light to charge the air around them. Just that quickly, and just that intensely, she was caught in passion’s spell as Grey lifted her off her toes and deepened the kiss.
“Take me to bed,” she whispered into his mouth. “Make love to me, husband.”
She didn’t have to ask twice. Grey bent to capture her knees and swept her up in his arms. “I know what ye’re doing, woman,” he growled as he carried her up the stairs, his fiercely intense eyes locked on hers. He suddenly smiled, rather ferally. “Remind me to give ye hell in the morning.”
Grace rested her head on his shoulder so he wouldn’t see her own smug smile. With any luck, they’d both be too tired in the morning to do anything more than sleep in.
Chapter Thirteen
W inter finished brushing Snowballand started saddling him up as she thought about how she had known Matt Gregor for over two weeks now, and how the entire time she’d been in a state of giddy happiness. She had spent the last two weeks exploring Bear Mountain with Matt by day and going out to dinner with him almost every evening. Sometimes Megan would join them on their daytime rides, and sometimes they rode to Tom’s cabin and he hiked the mountain with them.
And although they had found several suitable building sites, Matt always seemed to come back to the high meadow as his first choice. But after two weeks and four sketch pads full of ideas, Winter suspected Matt’s unwillingness to simply declare the meadow his favorite site had more to do with wanting to spend time with her than an inability to make a decision.
Five days ago Matt had bought camping equipment from Dolan’s Outfitter Store, and even though he had kept his hotel suite, he was now living on Bear Mountain and only coming back to the resort to shower before picking her up for dinner each evening.
Matt had set his campsite at the top of the high meadow in a cave hallowed into an outcropping of rock that overlooked both the meadow and Pine Lake. He’d made a cozy little camp that was still within earshot of Bear Brook and seemed surprisingly comfortable roughing it despite October’s increasingly cold weather. The second night sleeping out, Matt had awakened to a two-inch blanket of snow, though it had completely melted by noon. But instead of scaring him off, the snow only seemed to further endear Matt to his mountain.
When Matt had first mentioned his plan to camp in the cave so he could get a better feel for the mountain, Winter had become alarmed. She’d talked to Tom about the two swordsmen he’d seen in the meadow, worried that Matt might run into them.
Tom had reminded her Matt had a pistol and that a bullet beat a sword any day of the week.
Her boyfriend appeared more than capable of looking out for himself, Tom had assured Winter. And telling Matt there had been two men dressed in kilts, fighting with swords in his meadow in the light of a full moon, would only make him think his artist in residence might be crazy.
So Winter had taken her petition to Gesader, explaining her worry and asking her pet to please keep an eye on Matt for her. She wasn’t sure if the panther had understood her request, much less cared what happened to Matt, but Gesader hadn’t been home for the last five nights. Winter could only hope it was because he was lurking around Bear Mountain, watching for Tom’s elusive swordsmen.
Matt had flown back to New York City several times in the last two weeks, and each time before he left he would stop at Winter’s gallery and ask her to go with him. Each time she would tell him no, and each time Matt took her refusal with the graciousness of a gentleman.
Not that he kissed like a gentleman. Nay, Matt’s kisses had grown increasingly more…well, more heated as Winter had grown more comfortable with him—which is exactly why she refused to go to New York City. The night on the mountain when they’d taken Daar home, when she’d all but thrown herself at Matt, had made Winter realize how close she’d come to nearly blowing it.
She liked Matt. He was everything she could want in a man: intelligent, successful, attentive, charming, utterly gorgeous, and sexy as all get out. The only flaw that she could find was that he was toohonorable.
Winter could no longer deny that she wanted Matt Gregor so badly her heart actually ached.
That first night they’d kissed had definitely been too soon for anything more, but dang it, how much longer was he going to drive her crazy with only kisses? The chemistry was right—she knewit was right.
And she knew Matt also felt what she felt. So what in curses was he waiting for? For her to finally go to New York with him? Was he seeing her refusal as a sign she wasn’t ready to take the next step?
Surely he realized she needed that monumental step to be right here in Pine Creek where she felt safe, didn’t he?
Winter led Snowball out of the barn as she thought about the predicament she was in. How was she supposed to let Matt know she wanted him, but that their first time had to be on herturf? And then how was she going to explain being twenty-four years old and still a virgin without looking like a silly child?
She wasn’t a prude; she was just fussy, was all. She simply had never met a man who made her insides hum with desire—not until Matheson Gregor had walked into her gallery. So how could she take the next step without coming across as a sex-starved hussy, and without having to go to New York City?
She couldn’t ask her mama, Winter decided with a frown as she stepped onto the mounting block and swung into the saddle. She couldn’t quite see herself explaining how badly she wanted to make love to Matt, much less asking Grace to please give her some pointers on how to go about it. Aye, she thought with a snort, that would be quite a conversation between mother and daughter.
Her mama seemed to have bigger worries right now, other than her daughter’s sex life. Winter’s last two weeks of happiness were marred only by the fact that she still couldn’t discover what was bugging her parents. Their moods seemed to be getting worse as time passed, not better. Her papa rode daily with Robbie up TarStone Mountain to Father Daar’s, and Winter knew the three men were still trying to find out what had happened to the pine tree.
And her mama was up there with them today, which was why Winter was heading up TarStone herself. Matt had flown to his factory in Utah last night after dinner, and had said he probably wouldn’t be back for a couple of days, which left Winter plenty of time to spy on her parents. One way or another, once and for all, she was going to find out what the big secret was.
Instead of taking the tote road, Winter urged Snowball into a canter straight up the ski slope.
She would go almost to the summit and approach Daar’s cabin from an unlikely direction. She’d leave Snowball a good distance away, sneak up on the cabin, and listen to what was going on inside.
She had Megan’s wholehearted approval, both girls deciding they were being caring daughters, not spies. Winter preferred to think she was helping Megan, since constant fretting on top of a broken heart was slowly turning Megan into a basket case. That was why Winter had talked her sister into watching the gallery this morning while she followed their parents.
Winter pulled up the collar on her jacket to ward off the chill October breeze as she eyed the bank of clouds moving in from the southeast. A storm was moving up the New England coast, and it was predicted to dump Atlantic moisture ahead of it across the entire state of Maine. For the coast that meant rain; for the mountains, six-to-ten inches of wet snow. It was still early yet for accumulating snow, despite the unusually cold and stormy fall, but even if a foot of snow fell, it wouldn’t likely stick around more than a week.