* * *
The next morning, Savanna stretched with a languorous moan. She’d just had the most wonderful dream.
Korbin’s big, strong body on top of hers...a big, hard erection igniting her flesh...
Her eyes popped open. Springing to sitting position, she cursed and wiped the hair off her flushed face. She was ready for him and he wasn’t even in here! Would she fall so easily for yet another man, only to lose him later?
Appalled, Savanna flung the covers off her, took a long shower and stayed in her room for a little longer. All the while, his kiss kept taunting her. So did the way he looked at her after the action thriller they’d watched. They’d walked upstairs and at his bedroom door, temptation to stay in her bed had begun to burn in his eyes.
She could have stripped naked for him right then. Hell, she could have stripped naked and pushed him into his room. Instead, she’d forced her feet to back up until she was able to turn and go to her room, where she’d looked at him as she closed the door.
Sleep had come much later. Now it was coming to 10:00 a.m.
Dressed in jeans and a gray wool sweater, she finally went downstairs.
Korbin was in the kitchen with a cup of coffee, reading one of her books. The television was on in the living room, tuned in to a weather channel that was talking about the blizzard on the way for tonight.
He looked up when he heard her. His eyes flared with heat before he stopped the reaction. Shutters came down and emotion vanished. He was guarded, cold. Stopping his attraction. Where had that come from? Did he regret kissing her last night?
That part of his past he couldn’t talk about must be why. Instead of thinking twice about entertaining any romantic possibilities with him, she should take his lead and put a stop to this right now. Going into another high-risk relationship wasn’t on her adventure radar. High-risk because there was too much uncertainty. The next man she got involved with, she’d get to know very well first. As in, it would be months before she slept with him, not weeks as she’d done before.
The sound of a passing snowmobile had both of them looking outside. The sky was overcast, but it had stopped snowing.
Hurley rented snowmobiles, but his property was far enough away that no one ever rode this close. The trails were several miles away.
Savanna went to the back patio door. She saw nothing, and the sound faded.
“I hope they aren’t lost,” she said.
When Korbin didn’t respond, she looked at him. He stared at the window, brow low and creased. It bothered him that a snowmobile had driven so close to her house.
“What’s the matter?” Once again she felt a strange sense of foreboding come over her. Something about him caused it. Why?
“Nothing.” He stood up and went to the front door, opening it and searching outside. Then he closed and locked the door and went to the garage. When he made sure that was locked tight, he returned to the living room.
He was acting weird.
A sound from the sunroom stiffened Savanna. She remembered that she’d left the door unlocked in there. Looking at Korbin, she saw he’d realized that along with her.
An instant later, a man wearing a black ski mask and winter outerwear appeared with a pistol. The shock of the sight rendered Savanna frozen. He fired the pistol at the same time Korbin pushed her into the kitchen, putting her behind him just as the man rushed in after them.