"Fine," she assured him. "You're being very sweet. To me, and to Bubbles. Thank you for that."
He shrugged and said, "Just doin'my job, Tess. Here . . ." He pulled his scarf from around his neck and handed it to her. "Put that over your nose and mouth when we go inside. Still smoky as hell; you don't want to breathe that in."
She nodded, thanked him again, and turned away to go into the house. As he followed her, he noticed for the first time that though she was still wrapped up in his blanket, she was in her pj's. She wore fleece pajama bottoms, red with black dots on them. It was only as he reached her side in the living room that he realized the dots were little penguins. He couldn't help but grin. That was cute. He hadn't pegged her to own, much less wear, anything that hinted of cute. She was so aristocratic, he'd figured she probably wore expensive satin pajamas to bed.
"I'll just go upstairs and grab what I need," she said. "Could you do me a huge favor?"
"Of course," he said.
"If you could just grab"-she pointed to the corner, toward Bubbles's layout-"a few of those toys next to her bed, toss them on top, and bring the bed to your truck, that would be really great. I have a feeling a hotel might be more open to my having a dog in tow if they see she's got her own bed."
He did as she asked, and she went up the spiral wooden staircase to her room. In five minutes, he had the dog's stuff together and she was back with a small suitcase.
"That was quick," he said.
"I'm efficient, and I don't want to keep breathing in this smoke," she replied.
"I don't blame you. C'mon."
When they got outside, he locked the door behind her. "Don't worry about someone breaking in because all the windows are open. After I take you to a hotel, I'll come back here. Gonna camp out in the truck for a while, then I'll go inside to check. You know, close all the windows, take care of everything. By the time I bring you back here tomorrow morning, it'll all be just a memory, a fun story to tell your brothers."
She stammered, then shook her head. "What? No. You can't stay here in your truck all night, that's not-"
"That's me doing my job," he said firmly.
"No, it's beyond the parameters of what you should have to do. It's too cold out. Can't you stay inside?"
"It'll be just as cold in there with all the windows open," he pointed out.
She grimaced and grumbled, "Of course it would. Duh." She threw up her hands in surrender. "You're not going to budge on this?"
"No, ma'am."
"Okay, then. If you insist."
"I do." He grinned and walked to the truck. "Get in," he told her over his shoulder. "Door's unlocked." Bubbles barked like crazy while he put the doggie bed in the back, then Tess's suitcase. By the time he slid into the driver's seat, the warmth hit him like a wall. He glanced over at his beautiful passenger, who was buckling her seat belt with one arm while trying to hold her dog with the other.
"Um . . ." Logan said. "Which hotel am I taking you to? Any idea?"
"I called the Barrington Hotel while I was up in my room. They accept pets. So they're expecting me."
He blinked. "You were up there for maybe four minutes. You packed and did that at the same time?"
A spark entered her eyes as her sharp grin bloomed. "I know how to multitask."
"Well, color me impressed, then."
Her gaze narrowed as she assessed him. "Logan . . . I may have done an unbelievably stupid thing tonight, but I'm not a stupid woman. I run a company, you know. I'm usually pretty on top of my game."
Nodding, he shifted the gears and pulled out of the driveway, ignoring the barking dog and the faint burn of being put in his place. She never did miss an opportunity to condescend to him, did she. "I wasn't insulting you, Tess. I was just surprised that you did so much in under five minutes, that's all. It's respect, not pandering." He bit the inside of his cheek to keep from saying more . . . something he might regret.
"Oh." She stroked her dog's fur with her now gloved fingers. "Look, I might be a little oversensitive right now. I'm tired, cold, and most of all, I'm really mad at myself for doing something so dumb. I could've burned the damn house down."
"Well, you didn't. No harm done, learned a lesson, all's well in the end." He kept his eyes on the road. The turns as they headed down Red Mountain were sharp and unlit; he maneuvered carefully in the dark. "I'll have you at your hotel in no time."
They drove in silence for the rest of the trip. When he pulled up in front of the grand luxury hotel, she gripped his forearm.
"You've been amazing tonight, Logan," she said earnestly. "Thank you so much, for everything. Really."
He nodded. "You're welcome. Just glad you're okay." He got out of the truck and reached into the backseat for her suitcase, then grasped the doggie bed. "I'll help you inside with this," he said as he met her outside the truck, "then I'll come back for you in the morning. Text me when you're ready to leave, and I'll be here to take you home."
"Sounds good," she said. "But can I ask you something?"
"Sure."
She hesitated, her pretty mouth twisting as she shifted the dog in her arms, then asked, "I hate that I had to call you late at night about all this. I know I'm supposed to, you told me that. I don't think I've been a pest aside from this incident. But . . . sometimes you snap at me. Like before. I feel like you don't like me very much. I was wondering if you could tell me why."
His eyes flew wide and he huffed out a shocked breath. Well, that was direct. "I don't dislike you, Tess."
"Really?" Her gaze narrowed on him, her bright blue eyes as intense as lasers. He bet that look cut lesser people to shreds. "I'm pretty good at reading people. Your whole demeanor when you're around me . . . you're curt with me sometimes. Like you're tolerating me. You didn't used to be that way when we first met. I've noticed it."
He scowled. Shit, she was right. But still. "Seriously?"
"Yes." She stared at him evenly as her long hair danced around her shoulders, the spiral curls carried by a gust of icy wind. "You just think I'm some entitled, spoiled rich bitch, don't you? Like most of the affluent people you work with here. Right?"
He shook his head no, but her words that had cut him last year echoed in his head. She was wrong that he didn't like her, but she wasn't wrong about his assessment of her after that chat, that things had shifted for him. It didn't help that, on top of his conflicting opinions of her, he was crazy attracted to her. His thoughts about her, his . . . feelings . . . were tangled. He didn't even totally understand them. So he was short with her sometimes. And her nailing that now made him feel like an ass.
He only said, "No." But it had no conviction, and he knew it. He just couldn't lie.
She nodded very slowly, gaze unwavering, her lips flattening into a hard line before she said, "Yeah, you do. You think I'm . . . well. Forget it. You don't know me after all. That's a shame." She cradled her dog and started to walk away from him, toward the main entrance of the hotel. Without a look back, her head held high.
In a flash, he realized he had to clear the air once and for all. She'd opened the door, he had to man up and walk through. "Tess, wait." His long legs had him at her side in just a few strides. He stepped in front of her, making her stop. "I didn't think that, what you just said. Not at first. But you . . ." He huffed out a breath, forming a quick white cloud in the frigid air. She looked prim and proper and totally pissed off. "You said something last year that insulted me, and yeah, I didn't shake it off. It . . . changed how I saw you. Even though you apologized. So I guess that's on me, not you."
Her eyes, so blue, held his gaze as she clearly tried to recall what she might have said. Then they flew wide open and she almost sputtered. "I'm here defending myself because you think I'm some spoiled, hapless woman, and why you're really pissed is because I said I didn't know you had a master's? Which, by the way, made me cringe for hours afterwards because it was one of the dumber things I've said in the last few years. I regretted it deeply." Her chin lifted in defiant irritation, making her look every inch like his mental nickname for her, a princess. "Yes? Is that what we're talking about?"