you say so. How about we sit here?” He tugged her down to a thickly pillowed settee, and he could feel the warmth of the fire reaching out to him. Much like Gabriella’s warmth did, touching him in ways he couldn’t remember being touched before. “I’m glad you liked it.”
“I loved it. It was the most special thing I’ve ever done. Thank you.”
“The most special thing I’ve done too. So thank you.” And the reason it had been so special was because he’d done it with her. How he felt about her was something he couldn’t quite figure out, but he suspected that feeling might not happen again for a long time. Or maybe ever.
“I know that can’t be true, but it’s sweet of you to say so.” She laughed softly. “You’ve been all over the world, but I haven’t left L.A. in two years.”
“You haven’t?” He couldn’t wrap his brain around not getting out of town even once in all that time. “That’s got to be a record. I haven’t stayed in one place more than two months since I graduated from medical school.”
“Yours is more likely to be a record than mine.”
He saw her shiver a little in the crisp mountain air, despite the orange flames licking upward, ending in gray smoke that disappeared into the starlit sky. He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and tugged her close to his side, and the way she snuggled against him felt damn good. “Cold?”
“A little. My Washington State blood, used to damp, chilly weather, must have thinned after living in California.”
“I’ve been wanting to ask you something.” If she was feeling even a little of the closeness, the intimacy he was feeling right now, sitting next to her in this beautiful place, maybe now was the right time to learn what secrets she might be keeping to herself. Secrets she might need to unload.
“What?”
“I’ve noticed that sometimes when you look at newborns, or after you’ve helped bring a baby into the world, that there’s a sadness in your eyes. Why?”
“Sadness?” She made a sound that was probably supposed to be a laugh but didn’t get there. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. There’s nothing more joyful than a successful delivery and healthy baby, and you know it.”
“But sometimes a pregnancy doesn’t end successfully. Or with a healthy baby,” he said quietly, his gut telling him there was some kind of history for her that was tied to that reality.
“True.”
She stared fixedly at the fire, her relaxed expression more tense now. He hesitated, wondering if asking her more questions would ruin her evening. And his too. But he’d wanted to provide an ear in case she wanted to unload on him, so he’d try just once more. “Why did you leave Seattle to come to L.A.?”
More staring into the fire, and just when he was regretting ruining the intimate comfort they’d been feeling by digging into her life, instead of keeping it light and superficial like he usually did, she sighed and started to talk.
“I was engaged to be married. Thought I had it all—a job I adored, a family who supported me, a man who loved me. But it turned out he didn’t love me, at least not enough. Something...bad happened, and he left me. I decided to start fresh in L.A., and that’s it in a nutshell.”
He wanted to say that any man who had her in his life, planning on forever, then left was a fool and an idiot. But he knew that was just the way relationships turned out most of the time. Unfortunate for people who believed in that kind of love, but it was reality. Either someone left, or a couple stuck together long past the time they should have gone their separate ways.
Her boyfriend’s abandonment, causing her pain, was just more proof that relationships weren’t meant to last for the long haul, and that planning to get married was just a road leading to unhappiness.
“I’m sorry. That must have been hard for you.”
“It was. But I’m over it now.”
Somehow he didn’t believe that. But he knew her well enough to know she was done talking about it, even though he was sure it couldn’t be the whole story. He slipped his fingers beneath her chin, tipping her face up to his, and all he could think of to do for her was kiss away the sadness on her face, replacing it with the desire he’d seen there on and off all day. Desire that he’d battled with a whole lot of effort, because he didn’t want to hurt her. A battle he had to win now that he knew her ex had already caused her pain. But just as he was about to draw back and start some unimportant chitchat, she wrapped her cold hand around his nape, brought his face close, and pressed her mouth to his.
He could see her eyes closing just before his own did, and the way she sighed and sank into him knocked every good intention out of his head and had him gathering her close. He cupped her soft cheek in his hand, angling her mouth to his, and when she sighed again it felt like a siren song, driving him a little crazy. He couldn’t help but deepen the kiss. The wet slide of her warm tongue against his felt as erotic as full sex with any other woman, and it was only through some miracle that he managed to remember that, deserted or not, they were in a public place and pulling off her clothes right then and there wasn’t an option.
Or a good idea. He absolutely was not going to be the next man to hurt her.
“Gabriella.” He sucked in some much-needed air. “It’s too cold out here to be comfortable. Let’s go inside and talk in the lounge.”
“I’m very comfortable.”
Well, damn. What was he supposed to say to that? She pressed her chest to his, and while he couldn’t really feel her breasts against him, knowing what softness lay under all the layers of clothes they wore nearly made him moan. Her cold hands cupped his cheeks and she brought his face to hers again for another mind-blowing kiss that had him thinking about risking arrest and getting naked with her right there after all. Thank God the murmur of other voices on the patio cut through his fog and helped him get his libido at least marginally in check.
Which then helped him remember the paparazzi and how he needed to keep Gabriella safe from the media. While he hoped they hadn’t gotten wind of them coming to Vail, he’d learned not to count on that.
He dragged his lips from hers and sucked in a deep breath of chilly mountain air that barely cooled the heat pouring through his veins. “Bad idea to do this out here. Cameras, you know?”
The brown eyes that met his looked a little dazed, but she nodded. “Cameras. I remember. How about we go to the room?”
Knowing she wanted that, too, made what he had to say nearly impossible. But he forced himself. “Gabriella, it’s better if—”
“Stop.” She pressed her fingertips to his lips. “You asked me things. There are things I want to ask you too.”
He braced himself, not being in the mood for true confessions. Mostly because he hated to see her shock and disappointment and disapproval. But she probably had a right to know.
“Ask away.”
“Why are you hiding out in L.A.?”
“What makes you think I’m hiding? I’m visiting.”
“I don’t live under
