Suddenly the heels she was wearing didn’t make firm contact with the slick path, and she felt herself slipping slightly.

“Wait!” Hawk’s low voice called.

Too late. Her heel caught in a gap between the front porch boards. Her hands flew up, imitating a windmill, and she felt herself falling backward.

Closing her eyes, she prepared for a nasty fall into that wretched snow, but instead she landed in solid arms and against an even more solid chest. Afraid to open her eyes, she peeked up from under her thick lashes.

She should have kept her eyes closed, because the smoldering fire burning in Hawk’s eyes was enough to make her feel faint. He didn’t move, just looked at her as if she were the main course for dinner. Yeah, she’d have to avoid this man at all cost! Because she found herself wanting desperately to close the minuscule gap between them, and that just wasn’t in her plans.

She just had to think of her list. Her life was mapped out—school, check; career, check; ten years of hard work, not checked. Nowhere on that map was the gorgeous man now holding her in his arms.

“Well, Natalie, I always do enjoy it when a beautiful woman falls right into my arms,” he said, his eyes bright, his lips set in a smoldering, confident grin.

Womanizer! That’s what this man was. He figured he was cute enough that he could say a few words and she’d simply invite him in. Natalie hadn’t fallen under a man’s spell before, and she certainly wasn’t going to do it while she was frozen, grumpy, and more than irritated to be caught in such a vulnerable position.

“I’m grateful you didn’t let me hit the ground, but you can wipe that look off your face and let me go.” Her voice stern, her eyes anything but receptive, she was satisfied when his expression changed to one of confusion.

But he quickly regained his composure. “Hmm, not the usual reaction I get when I have a beautiful woman in my arms.”

“I’m not a usual woman.”

Just as quickly as he’d caught her, he let her go, nearly making Natalie tumble backward again. Barely catching herself, she grabbed the ice-covered rail and climbed the couple of steps just as the cabdriver set her bags by the front door.

Thanking the man, she paid him, then turned back to Hawk, who for some reason was holding her house key in his hand.

“As I said, Hawk Winchester,” he said smoothly. “Local fire chief, and . . . your landlord.”

Crap.

Putting away her anxiety, she held out her hand, hoping like hell he would just drop the key into it without any further physical contact. Of course, that wasn’t going to happen. He gripped her fingers and wrapped them around the key, his eyes once again smoldering as he captured her gaze. “I’ll be seeing you again real soon,” he said, and then turned away, leaving her shivering by the front door.

She watched him leave, his stride smooth, his movements confident. Before he reached the sidewalk, she shook her head and turned back to her door, her fingers shaking so hard it took a few tries before she was able to unlock it. Natalie had a feeling her time in Montana wasn’t going to be quite as easy-peasy as she’d thought it would be.

chapter

2

Something was wrong. As she started to come out of a deep slumber, Natalie realized her nose was frozen. After pulling the covers over her head with one hand, she let the other hand crawl up her body until it reached her face. Dammit. Her nose felt like a Popsicle. What was the matter with this place?

No way could she crawl from this stupid bed. Even beneath five blankets, she was fighting not to shiver. What was wrong? The old furnace had been working when she went to sleep.

And how long had she slept, anyway? Groping the nightstand for her watch, she was shocked to discover it was already nearly eleven o’clock. She’d been exhausted, true, but she had too much to do to lie here any longer.

Deciding to test the temperature again, she slid the blankets down. Sheesh. Frigid air assailed her body and made every hair stand on end atop giant goose bumps. Yanking the covers back into place, she curled into a ball and fought tears.

Unfortunately, her bladder was screaming at her.

It took her another five minutes, but she finally talked herself into making a run for the bathroom. Throwing off the covers, she leapt from the bed and sprinted through the small house to its lone bathroom. She cranked up the shower to the hottest setting to try to build up steam, and dashed through her morning routine despite the shivers wracking her body. When the water in the shower finally reached a reasonable temperature, she jumped beneath the spray.

It took a full two minutes before she felt heat return to her beleaguered limbs. And when she stepped out of the shower, she gloried in the steam that filled the small bathroom. Mostly dry, she gazed at the door leading to the rest of the house.

“It’s like I know there are a thousand snakes on the other side of it, yet I have no choice but to go out there,” she muttered before laughing at herself. “This is ridiculous!”

Wrapped in a towel, Natalie took a deep breath for courage and opened the door. Yep. It was as bad as she’d expected. She darted back to the bedroom and made a beeline for the dresser. After yanking her undergarments on, which wasn’t easy—she was shaking more violently than a single leaf in an autumn breeze—she found her warmest pair of wool pants.

Next, she piled on four shirts, a sweater, and a coat that didn’t want to fit over the bulk of her cleverly “layered” clothes. The only shoes she’d brought were not going to cut it, and she was kicking herself for that now. Her toes were going to turn black and fall off with frostbite before this Montana adventure was over.

Once she’d clothed herself as best as she could, she moved over to the blasted furnace, which was really just a glorified space heater. Not knowing what else to do, she slammed it hard with palm of her hand and stood there shaking as she waited for a miracle.

Nothing happened.

“All right. Time to go shopping.”

She’d never thought she’d be the type of woman to wear hopelessly unattractive long underwear, but if she was going to survive a Montana winter, she’d dang well better get used to the things. She didn’t even care what color they were, just as long as they kept her warm.

Rushing outside, she gazed at her “new” car, a small blue Toyota probably from the Pleistocene era. It had most certainly seen better days, but it was hers and the heater worked, and nothing at the moment was more beautiful than the thought of a burst of warm air blasting from the vents. It took the old metal heap about five minutes before the heat actually began flowing, but once the warmth hit her, she smiled in delight.

“Not so bad,” she muttered. It occurred to her that maybe she was talking to herself just a little too much. “Oh well.”

Driving into the almost comically small town, Natalie was surprised by the lack of traffic. No one seemed to be around. What was going on? These people had to be used to driving in the snow. But all she’d seen on the roads were big plows clearing the streets.

She reached a stop sign and tapped on her brakes, and in the blink of an eye everything began to go wrong. Though her taps were growing urgent—hell, they were stomps now—the car wasn’t responding, and in front of her was a gigantic black truck.

“No. No. No!”

Nope. That didn’t work. Her car kept on going, and she crashed into the back of the behemoth. And even though she was going less than fifteen miles per hour, her tiny Toyota had no chance of surviving.

Her car went beneath the truck’s bumper. Her hood crinkled, and steam flew up into the air as her radiator was impaled. The impact jolted her head forward, but the small car’s air bags didn’t deploy for some reason and she felt the sting of her forehead connecting with the steering wheel.