Micah took her offered hand and held on to it a little longer than he should have, his eyes trained on her delicate features and beautiful, curly hair. God, she was gorgeous, now that he could see her clearly. “Micah Sinclair. Jared’s cousin.”
For some reason, now that he could see her face, she looked familiar, yet he knew they’d never met. He wouldn’t have forgotten her if they’d met before.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t know you had made it in before the storm. I usually clean the bathrooms first, or I probably would have seen your belongings. Are you the daredevil or the famous movie actor?” She pulled her hand away and smiled at him, a genuine grin that didn’t have a trace of deception or pretense. “I haven’t seen the movie that made one of Hope’s cousins a star yet.”
For once in his life, Micah found himself dumbfounded. Her unguarded smile made his cock spring to attention, and he had a sudden urge to take off her clothes and bend her over the bathroom vanity to relieve the throbbing his dick was experiencing at the moment. He wanted to absorb all of the warmth he could sense in her smile.
He felt like a complete jerk for having yelled at her. Of course, she hadn’t heard him—or his irritation at her presence. “Extreme sports,” Micah corrected, getting more turned on as she stared innocently at his mouth.
Of course she’s looking at my lips. It’s her only way of understanding me.
Micah didn’t consider himself a daredevil anymore at all. In truth, he never had. He still took some risks, but his main focus now was on business. Extreme sports were lucrative, and his business provided the best equipment for people in their fields. He took pride in the fact that he made some dangerous sports safer.
She nodded to acknowledge his correction. “You’re the thrill seeker. I’ve heard a lot about you and your brothers from Mara.”
“It’s a profession that’s made me very rich,” Micah answered brusquely, annoyed that he was actually defending his business.
Why do I care?
He didn’t. Not really. He’d been called worse for some of the things he’d done in the past, and her expression wasn’t making a mockery of his company. Still, having her dismiss what he did was pissing him off. He wasn’t sure why . . . but it did.
“Is there a Sinclair who isn’t rich?” she asked, a twinkle in her eyes.
“There’s probably plenty of them, but none with our DNA,” Micah admitted, still staring at her like a horny teenager.
She snorted, a sound that was probably actually a laugh. Micah smiled because, coming from her, the noise was enchanting.
“How did you get here?” The weather was horrible, and he didn’t like the idea of her on the road when it was so brutal outside.
“I drove. I’m deaf, not stupid or incapable of performing simple tasks.” Propping her hands on her hips, she stared at him stubbornly.
“That’s not what I meant. In case you haven’t noticed, there’s a blizzard outside,” Micah informed her sarcastically, only realizing after he made the statement that she wouldn’t hear the censure in his voice.
She shrugged. “I’ve lived here all my life, and I have an apartment near the Peninsula. I knew the roads would be okay here since the Sinclairs have their own plow service.”
“And you call me the daredevil,” he grumbled, not quite understanding how she could see to drive on the roads right now. She was right. The road was constantly being cleared, but the visibility was almost zero.
“I know the roads here like the back of my hand. I could probably drive them blind.”
She was already driving them deaf, and he shuddered at the prospect of her being on the roads at all right now.
“It’s not safe to be outside right now,” he told her irritably.
“I’m not outside right now,” she returned reasonably.
“I’ll go get dressed, and then I’ll drive you home. The house is fine. You don’t have to clean right now.” Having her around would distract the hell out of him.
“It’s fine. I’ll go.” Tessa hurriedly gathered her cleaning products and shot out the door.
Micah sprinted to his bedroom and pulled on a clean pair of jeans and an old sweatshirt. He was taming his hair with his fingers as he walked back out to the living room.
Everything was quiet; the only sound he heard was the whistling of the wind.
“Tessa,” he bellowed angrily before realizing that she wouldn’t hear him. “Fuck!”