Snowbound - Harlequin.com

JANICE KAY JOHNSON 141
She managed another smile. “I’m fine. But, you know,
I think I’ll take my book—” not the one about Iraq, she’d
find something else “—and go take a nice, hot bath.”
“You deserve it.” Tabitha looked at her skeptically,
which meant her smile hadn’t been entirely convincing,
but she didn’t ask any more questions. “We can fold the
laundry. Right, Kelli?”
Less enthusiastic, the other girl shrugged. “Yeah, sure.”
Fiona ended up skipping the book. Picking one out
would have involved going downstairs, which might
have meant encountering John or more unwanted curiosity
from her students. She doubted she’d have been
able to pay attention to a plot anyway.
Instead she brooded as she soaked, reliving the kiss
over and over. Now she knew what had been missing
from every other kiss she’d experienced. She knew why
she was rarely interested in a second date, why her few
longer-running relationships had, in the end, not endured.
But why, oh why, did she have to be so attracted to
a man who, she was beginning to be afraid, was more
damaged by the war than he was willing to admit?
Of course, distance was a problem, too, but she couldn’t
imagine him staying at Thunder Mountain forever. He
didn’t love the business of innkeeping, he wanted the
solitude. And presumably once he “decompressed”, he’d
sell the lodge and move back to civilization. Perhaps even
to Portland, where Robotronics was located.
Not that he’d actually said a word to suggest he was
interested in anything beyond a few kisses—okay,
beyond sex—with her.