Page 9 of Frosty Mountain Man

She walked out before I could answer, cold air cutting through for the second it took her to shut the door behind her.

I let her go.

I told myself I was relieved about it, the way I’d told myself several other things this morning that weren’t holding up under any real scrutiny.

I listened for an engine. Wheels finding purchase in the snow as she drove away.

Nothing.

I was reaching for my coat before I could tell myself it wasn’t my problem.

By the time I got outside, she’d popped the hood and was standing over the engine, hands on her hips like she could shame it into starting through sheer force of will.

“Get back inside,” I said.

“I can handle a dead battery.”

“Not out here, you can’t.” I didn’t wait for the argument, just took her by the elbow and steered her toward the porch. “I’ll pull the truck around, see if I can jump it.”

“I don’t need—”

“Inside.” My tone was flat enough, dark enough, that she actually stopped talking.

She went, glaring at me the whole way, muttering something I chose not to hear because I already knew it would make me smile. And horny. Hell, just being the same room made me horny.

I worked for twenty minutes trying to jump start her car. The battery was too old for this type of cold and no amount of coaxing was going to bring it back to life. I shut the hood and drove the truck back into the garage, sitting for a moment. I cursed myself for allowing her to start down the mountain.

But I knew what I’d been thinking. I’d wanted her gone. I didn’t want her around a moment longer than necessary because she was already in my head.

And I wanted her in my bed.

She was watching from the window when I came back in, already reading the verdict on my face. “Battery’s dead. Won’t hold a charge.”

“So we jump it again in an hour.”

“Won’t matter. Even if it turns over, I’m not letting you drive down that road today.”

“That’s not your call.”

“My mountain,” I said. “My call.”

“You could take me down in the truck.”

“Could. Doesn’t fix the part where you’d have no car once down the mountain.”

“I could call an Uber.”

“That’s a three-hour Uber, Elle. I don’t think granddad would approve of that expense.” I hung up my coat, intending to walk away.

She didn’t like that. She stepped right into my path, tossing her head and making her ponytail bounce. I wanted to grab it and bring her face to mine. Damn, she had no idea what she was doing to me.

“He would for me.”

“Are you always this stubborn?”

“Yes,” she answered without hesitation. “Stubborn gets you places.”

“Well, with me, stubbornness just for the sake of being stubborn could get that ass of yours spanked.”