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“Better pack up,” he replied. “We certainly don’t need everyone bedding down in here.”
Dwight agreed. “Where’s Cassie?” he asked. “She’s supposed to have all the room reservations handled.”
“She’ll be down momentarily,” Reggie said. “If she has any courage at all.”
Dwight ignored the inference. “You leaving too?” he asked.
“I’d planned to stay a few days, call it that vacation you wanted me to take.”
“Cassie staying too?” Dwight asked.
“No,” Reggie snapped abruptly. The only emotion he’d show was the trace of anger remaining in his voice.
The retreat dismissed minutes later and everyone scrambled to lea
ve, either for lodging in town or to get out of the mountains altogether. It might be a long drive out. After showering his employees with a few well timed remarks to cap the retreat’s business aims, he socialized for a few minutes, and then retreated upstairs to wait for the quiet he was accustomed to at the lodge to descend around him.
Chapter Two
An hour later, Reggie thought the last of his employees was gone when he heard Dwight shout a goodbye from below, and the huge front door clicked. Dwight’s rented Cherokee roared outside, and then slipped quietly into the snowy beyond.
Reggie took a deep breath.
The peace was freedom to him.
The quiet regenerated his spirit, though it allowed the annoying moments with Cassie to return, along with a twinge of regret. Regret, not that he had ended their two year game of dominance/submission; but that it had to end. He didn’t want to count the times that he faced such dead ends with women.
Thinking the silence would go on all night, he was startled to hear the sound of paper crackling, as if someone was fast thumbing through a magazine. Jumping from his chair, he walked toward the balcony, and looked down to see an auburn-haired woman sitting on a couch below, making her way through the pages of some journal.
Taking the stairs quickly, Reggie was at the landing when he finally spoke.
“Who are you?” he blared without an ounce of friendliness in his voice.
The woman looked up at him, her face a rosy pink, and with eyes so green he could even tell the color from the distance between them.
“Jocelyn Killian,” she answered plainly, with a delicate smile breaking out across her lustrous face.
She was chewing gum and Reggie hated that.
“And what the hell are you doing here?” he asked, as he continued down the stairs to the main floor.
“My car’s not starting,” the woman answered. “I called the garage down the road. They should be here soon.” She glanced at her watch.
“When did you call?” he asked.
“Forty five minutes ago, maybe,” she replied, not at all ruffled that she’d seen nothing of a tow trunk, and the snow was getting heavier each minute that went by.
“Where were you an hour ago when everyone was leaving?” he asked.
“Building a snowman outside,” she said. She offered up a glorious smile that lit her face so Reggie couldn’t help but be pleased by the fresh, natural beauty of her infectious style.
Still, he hated the way her lips smacked as she chewed her wad of gum.
“You were building a snowman?”
“Oh! It’s been years since I’ve done anything so frivolous, I couldn’t help myself. And if you don’t mind my saying so, things were getting rather boring in here.”
“Who are you?” Reggie asked again, realizing that he’d never laid eyes on the woman.
