Snowbound - Harlequin.com

226 SNOWBOUND
His heart was as frozen as the ground outside. The
only heat John felt was his anger. “And who is that?”
“I don’t know.” She slipped from bed and went to her
suitcase. “I can’t even guess, because I don’t know you
well enough.”
He watched as she pulled on a T-shirt and her pajama
bottoms, then came back to bed.
“I’m going to sleep,” she said with dignity, climbed in
with her back to him and pulled the covers up around her.
What could he do but the same? He turned out the
light and lay on his back, his body rigid as anguish and
fury washed through him in turn, the one rolling in and
then fading back out as the other crested.
She didn’t love him. She didn’t know him. No, worse
than that—she saw him as a coward, despised him.
A man who’d known pain, he didn’t think he had
ever hurt as much as he did now. God. She despised
him. If she knew…
He seemed to hear her whisper. How can I?
If he told her, then she would know. That he had
acted, however good his intentions, so recklessly, so
foolishly, that he had all but killed those boys with his
own hands. Then how would she feel about him?
He hadn’t thought he could sleep, but he did eventually,
only to awaken shouting. Shouting the warning
that would forever come too late.
“John!” Hair tumbling around her shoulders, Fiona
sat up beside him. She laid a hand on his forearm. “Are
you all right?”
“Yes.” He got out of bed, went into the bathroom and
shut the door. And he stayed, until she had either fallen