nature.
“It’s just snow,” Nate said.
“My first snow,” she exclaimed.
“Really? So, you never drove up to Oregon or anywhere to experience snow skiing or snowmobiling?”
“Never took the time. It’s a long drive to the mountains.”
She picked up a handful of the white snow and packed it into a ball, then eyed Nate with a wicked gleam.
“Don’t even think about it,” he warned.
She didn’t. She threw it and it splatted into the center of his chest. He stared down at his coat, then back at her in disbelief. Slowly he released his hold on her suitcase, leaned down and grabbed a handful of snow.
“Nate, no.” A giggle escaped her. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hit you!” As she saw the intent in his eyes, she turned and ran and was hit square in the back with his snowball.
They made their way toward the Brisbain Hotel one snowball at a time and, more than once, she heard Nate’s deep laughter ring out.
She was pleased to know he still had the capacity to laugh. While they had been in his office she’d begun to think he was anatomically incapable of laughter.
She felt warmer than she had since the moment she’d stepped off the plane, despite the frigid temperatures and falling snow.
They stopped in front of the hotel and he reached out to brush the snow off her hair and face. He’d touched her only a moment when all laughter faded from his eyes and he stepped back from her, tension once again radiating from every pore of his body.
“Here you are, safe and sound.” He held out her suitcase and she took it from him.
“Thank you for walking me here,” she said. “It was quite chivalrous of you.”
“Lloyd and Emily Winters would never forgive me if anything happened to you before the hacker is caught.”
Kat suddenly felt the chill of the air not only around her, but blowing through her as well. For just a moment, as Nate’s laughter had filled the air, she’d almost forgotten he was the man who had broken her heart.
She’d almost forgotten he was the man without a heart, the man for whom life held no meaning outside of his work.
“Thanks, anyway,” she replied. “I’ll see you in the morning.”
With a curt nod, he turned on his heels and left, a gray-clad solitary figure against the pristine snow.
She watched until he disappeared from her sight, then she turned and went into the hotel lobby. Wintersoft, Inc. had spared no expense on her room.
The first thing she did when she entered the luxury suite was order in room service. Only when a decent meal was in the works did she unpack her suitcase and change into an oversize T-shirt that served as her sleeping attire.
She hadn’t really considered that working with Nate would be so difficult. She hadn’t believed that just by looking at him she’d remember the fact that he had been a breathtaking, passionate lover.
But she couldn’t forget that those four months she’d spent with him, months of laughing and loving, of craziness and embracing life had been nothing more than a temporary illusion.
It had been four months that Nate had been able to pretend to be human. He’d managed to make her believe he understood people, that he understood her. Her time with him had culminated in the discovery that he was nothing like the kind of man she’d thought him to be.
“Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me,” she said aloud as she stretched out on the sofa with her room service table in front of her.
She’d been fooled by Nate Leeman once in her life. She’d thought that if you cut him, he’d bleed blood like normal people, but she had learned that if you cut him, he bled gigabytes and stuffy Bostonian ideals of home, hearth and wife. She hadn’t fit then, and likely never would.
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