Anita Bunkley - Suite Embrace

Skylar could feel herself being lifted and carried by strong arms, her head pressed against a muscular chest. Then everything went black again. However, within a few seconds, she recovered and opened her eyes.

Inside the cabin, the cold, crisp air had been replaced with a blanket of warmth that enveloped Skylar and calmed her down. A woodsy scent, like fresh cut pine mixed with earthy soil, filled her head and roused her from her near-faint, awakening her to the realization that Mark Jorgen’s right hand was cupping her buttocks much too tightly and she was not resisting. She thought about protesting this stranger’s brazen hold on her, but instead of mouthing off, decided to hold her tongue for now, thinking she was far too weak to put up much of a fight, anyway, and not all that eager to be released.

“There you go,” Mark said as he gently placed Skylar on a distressed leather sofa facing a hearty fire. He covered her with a plaid wool blanket and then sat down beside her, his hard thigh pressed into the side of her leg. “Are you okay?” he asked, leaning over her, his face very close to hers.

Skylar held her breath and held his eyes with hers, savoring the sudden rush of heat that shot through her chest and settled between her legs. This guy was too fine to be real! And his eyes were dark green, nearly black, and not hazel as she had predicted!

For a moment, she simply stared at him, as if she were still suffering from a dizzy spell when in fact her mind was as clear as the spring water that pooled at the base of the mountains. She recognized the same trace of a foreign accent that she had heard earlier, and her immediate impression was that he resembled an exotically wild and powerful mountain lion. His hair, tawny brown and streaked with gold, was thick and shiny, nearly falling to his shoulders. Of medium height, he had a strong, stocky build, and his skin-tight ski apparel accented the impressive muscles that swept across his chest, down his arms, over his thighs. His skin was tawny golden brown like his hair, and just looking at him caused a tremor of excitement, mixed with a ripple of fear, to shoot through her body and banish her mountain sickness.

“Are you okay?” he asked again.

Finally, Skylar breathed her reply, “I think so,” and then struggled to sit up. “Sorry about the bottle of schnapps, Mr. Jorgen.”

He smiled and gently eased her back. “Don’t worry about that, and don’t try to sit up just yet.” He re-tucked the blanket around her shoulders. “I spoke to you in Gorsuch earlier today, didn’t I?”

“Oh, yes…” She grimaced. “You were trying on sunglasses with your girlfriend…the blonde.”

“Goldie? She isn’t my girlfriend. She’s one of my students,” Mark promptly corrected.

She sure looked like she wanted to be a lot more than your student, Skylar wanted to say, but didn’t. “I’m Skylar Webster,” she went on. “The new concierge here at Scenic Ridge.”

“Yes, I heard you’d arrived today. Funny meeting you in town like that. But Aspen is a very small place.”

“So, I’m beginning to see.”

“So, Miss Webster, altitude sickness got to you, huh?”

“Looks that way,” Skylar agreed. “Mr. Jorgen, I apologize for…”

“Please call me, Mark.”

“Okay, Mark. I’m terribly sorry I broke that bottle of liquor. I’ll pay for it. Just let me know how much it cost.”

Mark shrugged off her offer with a lift of his broad shoulders. “Hey. Don’t worry about that. What’s important is that you’re not hurt. Or are you?” Keeping one eye on Skylar, Mark slowly pulled back the blanket and began to sweep both of his firm hands the length of Skylar’s wet jeans, squeezing her thighs and legs at intervals. When finished with his examination, he rested his hands against her ankles. “I don’t feel any pieces of glass. Any cuts, or pain?”

“No,” Skylar whispered hoarsely, her legs burning at each point where he had touched her. “But I know I must smell like I bathed in schnapps.”

“You do, and it’s driving me crazy,” he laughingly teased, in a put-on kind of voice that was low, deep and full of humor.

They both broke into laughter, amused by their unexpected encounter.

However, I wouldn’t mind if you licked every drop of it off my body, she mused, unable to stop her mind from drifting ahead of the moment. With a jerk, she shook off that image and sat up. “Thanks for your help, but I’m feeling a lot better,” Skylar went on. “I gotta get back to…” She paused and broke eye-contact with him, suddenly flustered. He was much too attractive, in a dangerous way, and his piercing gaze was very unnerving. She gave herself over to imagining what it would be like to kiss those smooth, full lips of his, to touch that hair…

No, no. I’ve got to get a hold of myself and focus on my job. Skylar bit down on her bottom lip, in an attempt to crush the anxiety building inside her. “I need a shower, a good night’s sleep…I…have to go,” she told him, quickly swinging her feet to the floor. Before standing, she cautiously looked over at Mark, unable to say another word.

“Yeah. You’d better go and get out of those wet clothes,” he commented, sounding a bit distracted. “After a good night’s sleep you’ll feel better. So, did you bring the full case of schnapps with you or just the one bottle?”

“Oh! The case. Yes. From Lainpour.”

“Good. Please thank Kathy for going to get it this afternoon, and thank you for bringing it over.”

Skylar stiffened. His offhand comment hit her like an icicle stabbed into her heart. Thank Kathy? I don’t think so! she thought, recalling her frightening trip back from Crested Village. “For your information, Kathy didn’t pick it up,” she started. “She was too busy and couldn’t get away, so you can thank me. In spite of a bad case of altitude sickness, I got out of bed and drove all the way over to Crested Village, then to Lainpour’s warehouse in some backwoods part of the town. On the way back, I got caught in a blinding snowstorm, but I gladly put myself through all of that in order to deliver your precious liquor…which remains in the back of my Jeep,” Skylar finished in a huff, not feeling particularly charitable.

“That took some doing,” Mark commented, a slight smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth.

“Damn straight it did! But I managed just fine.”

“Good for you. So, why all the fuss? After all, you are the concierge,” he stated, his too-smug smile growing wider. “Aren’t you just doing your job?”

Skylar’s jaw dropped. What a jerk, she thought, realizing she had pegged him right the first time. He was a know-it-all snob, just as she’d thought he was when they met in Gorsuch earlier. Before she could form an appropriate comeback, Mark reached over and opened a carved wooden box that was sitting on the coffee table and pulled out a twenty dollar bill.

“Here. For all your trouble,” he said, extending a fold of cash.

A tip? He’s actually offering me a tip! Her temper flared to the point of screaming. Feeling totally offended, she was tempted to decline the money. However, a good concierge deserved generous tips, and refusing to take his cash might seem out of character.

I want this self-centered jackass to believe, as the staff does, that I am simply the underemployed sister of the owner, who desperately needs this job. “Thank you very much,” she told him, palming the bills with a flick of her wrist before stuffing them into the pocket of her wet jeans. Rising, she went outside and opened the hatch of her car.

Mark came up behind her and reached into the back of her vehicle to remove the heavy box of bottles.

Glad to be finished with this crazy assignment, Skylar walked to the driver’s side of the Jeep and was about to step in when Mark leaned around the side of the car and said, “You call this a blinding snowstorm?” Chuckling, he shook his head. “This isn’t even a flurry, Miss Webster. You’ve got a lot to learn about life in the mountains.”