Page 12 of The Holiday Heartbreaker

What a weird thought.

“The water just isn’t warming up,” she said. “Which I sent in the text. So you know that.”

“Yeah,” he said. “Care to show me the offending tub?”

And walk him through her bedroom. To her bathroom.

Lord.

“Back that way,” she said, gesturing.

He stepped inside, and again, she was struck by the way he filled up the space. “The bedroom... Bathroom. That one.”

She was so flustered words were deserting her.

He lifted a brow. “Back there?” And by the way his lips curved, she could tell that he was teasing her.

“Yes,” she said.

“Okay.”

He walked past her and went through the bedroom, and she stood at the end of the hall, peering after him. She did her best not to look at the way his jeans showcased his muscular thighs, and an equally muscled rear. But the fact that she had noted all of that was muscular meant she had looked. What was the matter with her?

She could hear the water running.

She paced back and forth at the end of the hall for a few minutes until he came out to her. “I have a theory,” he said. “Come on.”

He moved past her, jerking his head. And then he opened the front door.

“Outside?”

“There’s a pump house out here that goes to a couple of different cabins. I suspect your issue is out there.”

“Hang on,” she said, looking at her suitcases and things, which were sort of haphazardly just there by the door. “I need a coat.”

“Yeah.”

And he watched her. She felt exposed by that. By that green-and-gold gaze and the way that he seemed to track her every movement. It made her feel clumsy, and like every single thing she did was amplified. From her breath to the movements of her fingers.

She grabbed her coat and slipped it on. And for some reason, the silken liner of the navy blue jacket felt sensual as it slid over her long-sleeved shirt, which was a lot thinner than she had been conscious of until that moment.

It was him watching her.

“Let’s go,” she said, sliding her hands beneath her hair at the nape of her neck and flicking them, getting her hair out from underneath the collar of the coat.

“All right,” he said.

He reached into his pocket and took out a keychain, which had a small flashlight on it. He clicked the button. “This way.”

She followed him, her hands in her pockets, yet again making a valiant effort not to look him over. But at least the dim lighting made it harder to see him. Their feet crunched over the pine-needle-covered ground. Every so often, there was a pinecone or an acorn that made a big round lump beneath her tennis shoes. They went around to the side of the cabin, and she could see another cabin just a few feet away.

“What does the bathtub window face?”

She hadn’t meant to say that out loud, but she had.

He stopped. “I... I would assume it faces the mountain. Off to the side of it. No one can see up this way.”

“Okay,” she said.

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