She smiled at the idea of navigating by the star, which seemed the right thing to do at Christmastime. The quiet trek through the forest provided welcome time for reflection, something her holidays had lacked the past few years.
After having spent such a wonderful day with Jared, Heather knew her love ’em and leave ’em strategy seemed horribly immature, a petty revenge to take on someone whose company awakened a new joy in the season for her after years of succumbing to the massive holiday party and demands of family and business. Holding hands with a compelling man—an Army helicopter pilot turned rescue worker—seemed like a much nicer way to spend Christmas.
But she’d been the one to make herself vulnerable last time and look how that worked out. She refused to be the one who lost her heart only to end up cold and alone on Sunday. Again.
Relationships aren’t about keeping score. Was she doing it again? Making tally marks next to their names to decide whose turn it was to give in?
“Too bad we don’t have camels,” she said, the quiet of the night made all the deeper by the two feet of icy insulation on the ground.
She didn’t want to think about the fact that her holiday trip would end tomorrow morning and she’d have to figure out how she would handle leaving Jared. Her heart ached at the thought.
“We’re almost there,” Jared assured her, holding back a slender tree limb for her to pass under. “I actually took us a little bit out of the way to show you something first. I hope you don’t mind.”
“My seductive techniques must be sorely lacking if you can put off our return to the cabin to play tour guide.” She’d enjoyed their time today, but she had tossed out a few comments to make sure he knew she was his for the taking anytime he wanted to head back to the bedroom. He’d resisted, insisting on showing her all that Lake Placid had to offer.
He halted his progress and pivoted on his heel to block her path. She fell into him at close range, her body thumping into his so they were chest to chest, his gaze glittering above her.
“Don’t tempt me to show you how much it’s costing me to wait.” His hands gripped her by the elbows, steadying her. “And if I’m only going to have a weekend with you, I need to make sure I cram in a lot. That means I can’t necessarily put what I want ahead of everything else.”
Words escaped her for a long moment, the heat between them assuring her he wanted her. A thrill shot through her, sparkling over her insides like the moon on the snow. Sweet heaven, but this man did incredible things to her.
“Right.” She couldn’t match Jared in eloquence when he decided to speak his mind, although she still couldn’t imagine what he wanted to show her in the middle of nowhere. “Then I guess we’d better get going.”
They stood unmoving in a silent showdown for a moment, although what exactly they were battling for, Heather couldn’t say.
“It’s just up here,” he said finally, calling over his shoulder. “You can almost see it.”
Squinting into the distance, she could see the outline of some low buildings ahead, although there were no lights in the windows, making their features difficult to distinguish. But even with a bright moon and the last remains of twilight to illuminate the night, the surrounding shelter of pine trees didn’t allow her to see anything special.
“Is this where you live?” She remembered he mentioned living close to the lodge and she wondered if he wanted to take her to his place tonight. Curiosity bubbled as she wondered what kind of home he would keep.
Everything about Jared seemed dark and mysterious since her knowledge of his intimate preferences was wide but her understanding of what made him tick was minuscule.
“No.” He crushed any hope she had of dragging him into a nearby bed and having her way with him. “This is my building project.”
“I thought you flew a Medivac helicopter.” She remembered he also said something about local rescue work on the mountains on his days off. “Just how many jobs do you have, Army-man?”
Stepping out of the trees into a large clearing she could see six log cabins of varying sizes and shapes with multi-gabled roofs and small porches. They looked like new construction although there was a definite old-fashioned appeal to the cottages. Space had been cleared that could fit at least six more of the buildings.
“This is more a hobby than anything, right now. My grandfather was a carpenter and he taught me how to build. In fact, I restored a few of the cabins at the Timberline Lodge when I first moved back here. Yours included.” He led her toward the closest cabin, the moonlight picking out a few more details on the structure now that they’d stepped out of the trees.