no,” she assured him, shaking her head at the sheer folly of the man. “That's never gonna happen. So it'll be quicker and easier on both of us if you'll just spit it out.”
“It's nothing.”
“Then say it,” she insisted.
One hand on the doorknob, he stared at her for a long moment, as if trying to decide whether to speak or not. At last, though, he nodded and said, “Fine. I was thinking about the sex. And I wondered just how far you were willing to go to get me to stay here for the whole month.”
Keira felt the slap of his words like a physical blow. Stung, humiliated and furious, she glared at him with enough heat that, if there were any justice at all, he would have been a pillar of fire. “Are you serious?”
“You asked what I was going to say,” he said and watched her through narrowed eyes.
“I didn't know you were going to say that!”
“Don't sound so offended.” Nathan looked at her for a long minute. “It's not like I'm surprised.”
“Is that right?”
“For God's sake, Keira, you think this is the first time a woman's used her body to get me to do something for her? We're both adults. You wanted something from me and you used sex to get it.”
Fury whipped through Keira. “You … you …”
He shrugged and headed for the back door. “It was good for both of us. We each got what we wanted. No point now in trying to make it something it wasn't.”
He opened the back door to a gust of icy wind and said, “Look, let's just forget it, all right?”
“Sure,” she whispered as she watched him hurry barefoot across the icy deck toward the neatly stacked pile of firewood. As he gathered up a few logs and some kindling, the wind whipping the edges of his robe around his calves, Keira jumped off her stool, crossed the floor and quietly closed and locked the back door.
Instantly he straightened up, whirled around and shocked, stared at her through the glass. He crossed to the door and gave the knob a turn and a shake. “Keira, open the damn door.”
“I don't think so,” she said, folding her arms over her chest and tapping one bare foot against the cold wood floor.
She'd never been so mad in her whole life. Or so humiliated. For God's sake, she'd let him do things to her no one had ever done before, only because she'd felt a connection to him somehow. Some minuscule, apparently clearly one-sided, feeling. How could he ever think that she would have slept with him just to make him stay?
Did she really give off such a slutty vibe?
And what the hell kind of people was he so used to dealing with that would make him assume she was so coldblooded?
He shivered, clutched the firewood tighter to his chest and gave her a glare she was sure sent his employees scuttling for cover.
Keira, however, remained unmoved.
“Damn it, Keira, it's snowing out here!”
“You're under the porch roof.”
“It's freezing.”
“Start a fire.”
“On the deck?”
“Frankly, I don't care if you freeze solid to the spot. I'll put up a small but tasteful plaque, something like Here Stands An American Moron.”
“This is not funny!” he shouted, and hunched deeper into his way-too-thin-for-snow robe.
“No kidding!” Keira walked closer to the glass so she could burn her stare into his eyes. “I cannot believe you. You actually think I'd prostitute myself to get you to stay here?”
“I didn't say that,” he reasoned.
“Oh, yes you did, you pompous, self important, miserable son of a bitch.”
“Look, I was wrong, okay?”
“You're just saying that so I'll open the door,” she snapped.
“Damn straight.”
“Well, forget it! You deserve to freeze, but you probably won't. You're so damn cold already, I don't see how you could possibly get any colder!”
“Can you let me the hell in the house and then yell at me?”
“Why should I let you in?” she demanded, so furious she was seeing red at the edges of her vision. Amazing. You really did see red if you were angry enough.
“Because … because …”
“See? Even you can't think of a reason!” Keira shouted.
“Hah!” Nathan raised one hand in the air, dropped some kindling on his foot and hopped in place. “Because if I die out here, I won't be able to stay the damn month and your town won't get the money you want so badly.”
“Funny,” she said, thoughtfully tapping one finger against her chin, “but I don't remember it saying anywhere in the will that you had to be alive and here for a month. It'd probably be okay if we just prop you up out there on the deck.”
“You are the most infuriating woman I have ever met.”
“You've got a heck of a lot of nerve, Nathan Barrister. You call me a ho, and I'm the one who's infuriating?”
He flicked a glance behind him when the wind shifted and a flurry of snow rushed at him from the lake. Turning his gaze back to hers, he said tightly, “Keira, open this damn door and let me inside.”
“And if I don't?”
“Then I'll break the glass with one of these logs and we'll both be freezing our asses off.”
Hmm. Good point. Well, she hadn't really planned on letting him become an ice sculpture on the deck. Though the idea was all too tempting at the moment.
“Fine.” She reached out, unlocked the door and then stomped across the room so she was as far from Nathan as she could get and still be able to give him dirty looks.
He rushed into the room, dropped the firewood into the hearth, then pounded his bare feet against the floor and slapped his hands at his arms, trying to get his blood moving.
“Cold?” she asked sweetly.
“Funny,” he snapped, snarling at her.
“As cold as that tiny little marble in your chest? You know, the one you call your heart?”
Still shivering, he turned his back on her, started a fire in the hearth and huddled next to the flames as they sputtered, caught and licked at the dry wood. Finally, he turned a look on her. “My heart's got nothing to do with any
