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She laughed. “Yeah, a lot of help you are.”
He chuckled and avoided looking at her, because if he looked—that shirt was sure as fuck coming off and he would—he caught himself again.
“Okay, so move out of my way,” she ordered.
He raised a brow at her. “When did you become this rude, sassy thing?”
She huffed still bent on being angry. “It’s better than cute!”
He couldn’t help it, he laughed.
“Okay that did it, Mister!” She took an egg and smashed it onto his bare chest.
Noah easily saw it coming, could have moved, could have possibly broken her arm to stop her. He did none of that. He had egged her on hadn’t he? He wanted to laugh at the apt pun. Still, he had to admire her. Small thing that she was, bold and temperamental.
Stepping back, she then seemed to think better of her actions as her expression looked dismayed. “Dammit!” She grabbed another paper towel and stepped up to wipe his chest.
He now caught the scent of her. And no, it wasn’t of eggs. It was of her. He’d caught it last night when he’d woken up to see her blue gaze above him on the couch. Now she was touching him. One hand on his chest the other wiping off the egg. He looked around at the counters. He wanted to set her up on one of them strip that shirt off her body and do all the things he was tempted to do.
“This tattoo,” she whispered. “I know this tat. The symbol…it is so familiar.”
Noah grabbed her hand and tugged her closer. “What?”
She nodded. “I’ve seen it somewhere before…”
So here it was. The reason he couldn’t act on his lust. Her memories and this particular one meant danger to him. There had only ever been three other people who wore this tatt. “From where? Who had it?”
Her face contorted in pain. “H-Harris. Y-your hurting me.”
He gazed down to see he had her wrist in a tight hold. He let go instantly. He could see his fingerprints there in a blazing red color. “Fuck!” He instantly regretted hurting her. He carefully looked at the marks. They would bruise he felt sure.
“I don’t know at all where I’ve seen it,” she whispered and shook her hand as if it were numb or something.
“Do you know what it means?” he asked distractedly as he went to get an icepack for her wrist.
“To the victor…”
He whirled around. “…Goes the spoils!”
Nodding her head, she looked upset. “H-how do I know that? When I don’t even…” Her voice trailed away.
He grabbed the ice pack from the freezer and stepped over to gently take her arm as he applied the pack to her wrist. “Only four people that I know of have this tat, Ridge,” he spoke softly. “We made it up, designed it. There’s no way you could have seen it. Then to know what it stands for?”
Biting her lip, she looked nervous.
He tried to speak softly to her, “This means that…you were after me. Or coming to me.”
Her gaze rose from his hands on her wrist to his face. “What?”
He let out a sigh. Tell her now. Not all of it but the part about her. “We never had sex, Ridge. You were climbing up my mountain.”
Her eyes widened as she gasped. “What? I d-don’t understand.”
He let go of her wrist. “Two men were right behind you with guns.”
“WHAT?” she shouted as all the color drained from her face.
He nodded. “Then an avalanche fell on you.”
She was breathing rapidly and looking like she would pass out again.
He grabbed her up. “Easy now. Easy.”
“Why? Why was I there?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. I really don’t.”
“B-but why did you…”
He gazed at her lips wanting to kiss away her distress. Wanting take it all away. “I didn’t know who you were. Why you were here in the first place.”
“So you lied?” she asked in a small voice.
“I had to. You don’t understand what is going on here.”
She pushed at his chest. “I sure as hell don’t!”
He kept her up against him with very little effort.
“So why don’t you tell me why? What is the reason you would hide all this from me? Letting me think we’d had sex…” She gasped, as it seemed to hit her all over again. “So, my name isn’t Ridge?”
He shrugged. “No. Most likely not.”
“Let me go.” Her voice was low and fierce.
“No. I think not. You are too upset right now.”
“So, what? You’re gonna keep me hostage?”
He laughed, though there wasn’t any amusement in it this time. “Where would you go? Down the mountain in eight feet of snow?”
She was breathing heavily. “Maybe…”
He shook his head. “You need to stay right here until you remember. I cannot allow you to go even if there wasn’t snow and blizzards. You came here to find me.”
