Chapter 2
2
brOCK
H ow long did it take a hot blonde to make coffee?
That was the big question as I stood at the front desk waiting for Porsha to return. I needed caffeine. I’d gotten a good half dozen or so vehicles back on the road in this mess and finally, the calls had slowed a little, giving me some time to get a little caffeine in my system. Sure, I could go get it from the restaurant, but I wanted an excuse to spend more time around her.
“How much?”
A male voice pulled me out of my thoughts. I turned to see a gray-haired man in a ski suit standing behind me.
I was horrible at judging the cost of things, but this guy just reeked of money, from his perfectly cut hair to the tortoiseshell glasses to the tailored fit of his black ski suit. We saw a lot of this type this time of year in Seduction Summit. They either came from neighboring cities for the day or stayed overnight in one of the half-dozen or so luxury suites in this lodge. Just one night in one of those suites cost more than I’d make risking my neck helping people tonight.
“Sorry?” I asked, trying my best to sound polite but probably failing miserably. My rough tone tended to rub guys like this one the wrong way.
“How much to drive us to one of the hotels downtown?” the guy asked. “I already called, and they have rooms available. We just need to get there. I’m told the road is closed.”
I frowned at him. They’d closed the road? That was news to me. But I’d spent the better part of the last hour unsticking a stuck SUV a few miles up the road.
That explained it, though. Now I got why so many people were milling around the lobby. And why my phone had stopped ringing and pinging an hour or so ago. Nobody was going anywhere if the only road through town was closed.
The man reached behind him and pulled his wallet from his back pocket, opening it. He retrieved a stack of bills before returning the wallet, then he counted them out.
“Four hundred dollars,” he said, holding it out to me. “Just get us past the barricade and drop us off in the parking lot. We’ll get a ride share to bring us back to our vehicle once the road’s open again.”
I opened my mouth to say there were no ride shares in Seduction Summit, but I had a feeling this guy would make it happen. He’d probably pay someone at the hotel a hundred bucks or so to drive him up here.
After staring at the money a long moment, I shook my head. “If the road’s closed, I’m not going anywhere either.”
The man tilted his head and smirked at me. “Come on. You’re a local, right?”
I nodded and opened my mouth to explain. He cut in before I could say a word.
“You just talk to the local police officers and tell them you need through. Tell them somebody’s stuck in a ditch farther down the mountain.”
There were no ditches farther down the mountain. Not ones anyone could get stuck in, anyway. The guardrails stopped that. But that was neither here nor there.
“We don’t have local police here in Seduction Summit,” I said. “Not even a sheriff. Everything comes from Adairsville. But if the roads are closed, I’m guessing that’s something the state would have done.
“Well, then we have a problem.” The man pulled his wallet out and shoved his money inside. “Because this young lady says there are no rooms, and my wife and I need somewhere to stay tonight.”
He nodded at something behind me, letting me know that the woman from the front desk was back there. That meant my coffee was behind me. If I couldn’t have a shot of whiskey to get through this conversation, caffeine was the next best thing.
But when I turned, it wasn’t the prospect of coffee that had my mouth watering and my heart racing. It was Porsha. The desk had hidden her lower half from my view earlier, but the whole picture had me blown away. I had to force my eyes to stay on her face as I noted the generous curve of her hips that was only beaten by the size of her chest.
This woman was hot as hell. Had she been in this town all along and I’d missed seeing her? I definitely needed to get out of my garage more often.
“Thanks,” I said, taking the disposable cup she was holding out to me. She’d forgotten the lid—or maybe she didn’t realize it needed one.
“I couldn’t find the creamer,” she said. “But I can go back and get some if you need it.”
I shook my head. “Black’s fine.”
I lifted the coffee to my mouth and took a slow sip. I almost spit it back out. It was so bad, I couldn’t even pinpoint what had gone wrong. It was clear she’d tried, so I didn’t want to make her feel bad.
After forcing down the rancid liquid, I stepped aside to welcome her into the conversation. “This man says you have nowhere for him to stay tonight.”
Porsha nodded. “We’ve been booked for more than a year. No one’s leaving, obviously, so there won’t be any rooms opening up until this is over.”
I frowned. “So what’s the plan? To have everyone sleep out here in the lobby?”
“My boss is on his way,” she said. “He’ll take care of everything.”
“Well, it’s going to have to be something besides sleeping in the lobby,” the man said. “That’s not a solution at all.”
“Let me make some phone calls and I’ll get back to you,” I told the man.
I had no idea how I’d become the problem solver here. I was far from a police officer, but keeping the peace was important, especially in a situation like this.
The bottom line was I wanted to help this beautiful woman standing next to me, even if she didn’t know how to make coffee. Sure, she was the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen, but it wasn’t just that. Something was drawing me to her, and I couldn’t walk away without trying to pinpoint what it was.
But there was another factor at play too. My home was on the other side of this supposed barricade. If the road was blocked, I was trapped here like everyone else.
That didn’t bother me nearly as much as it normally would have.