“What’s the matter?”
“I need to go, I’ll call you when I’m checked in.”
I clenched the steering wheel and took a deep breath, raising my head to look at the woman who was now on the hood of my car. The very angry woman. Our eyes met through the windshield and for a moment I lost my breath. She was beautiful.
Mentally shaking myself, I turned off the car and got out. My heart was racing. I couldn’t believe I’d almost hit someone. I hadn’t even seen her.
“I am so sorry. Are you okay? Do you need medical attention?”
The woman made to roll off the hood of the car and I rushed over to help her. I took her hand and everything inside me stilled.Mine. The word reverberated through my skull as what felt like an electrical current traveled between our palms.
“Careful,” I said softly, my voice rough.
The woman stood up, brushing off her clothing. She was about my age, late forties or early fifties, with a trim, athletic figure. Faded jeans lovingly hugged her slim legs and narrow waist, and her tank top showed toned arms and generous breasts that I was itching to get my hands on. She had thick brown hair that fell past her shoulders in a cascade. Her eyes were chestnut brown, huge in her pale white face, and she had the cutest little button nose. And then there was her mouth...pouty thick lips, slick with some kind of gloss, and pressed together in a frown that told me she wasn’t happy.
Oh yeah, probably because I’d hit her with my car.
“Are you okay?” I asked again. “I’m not sure what happened.”
Her eyes narrowed in a glare.
“You were driving too fast and too busy talking on your phone to notice I was crossing through this parking space,” she told me. “I jumped up on the hood to avoid being crushed.”
She pointed at the car in the spot in front of me. There was maybe six inches between the bumper of that car and mine. Jesus. If she hadn’t jumped up I might have crushed her. Whoever this woman was, she had good reflexes. I felt sick to my stomach at the idea that I could have seriously hurt her by not paying attention.
“Are you injured?” I asked.
She looked thoughtful and I had the sense she was doing a scan of her body for injuries.
“Probably bruised but nothing’s broken, thank God.”
“Let me make this right,” I said, giving her a smile that had melted a lot of panties in my forty-nine years on this Earth. “Can I buy you dinner later? Or maybe a drink after you check in?”
Her spine snapped straighter, and she gave me a glare that could melt steel.
“Are you seriously hitting on me after you damn near ran me over?”
“Oh. Ah. No,” I lied. “I just...what can I do to make it up to you?”
“Watch where you’re going next time,” she growled. “The next person you try to run over might not be as lucky.”
She bent over to pick up the suitcase that she must’ve dropped when she was evading my car, and I absolutely did not check out her heart-shaped ass. Without another word, she started to walk away at a fast clip.
“At least let me give you my phone number,” I said, jogging to catch up with her. “You can call me if you need anything.”
She picked up her pace. “Leave me alone, asshole!”
Raising the middle finger of one hand over her shoulder to let me know what she thought of me, she stormed off towards the Main Lodge.
I sat back down in my car, feeling shaken. I couldn’t decide if it was because of the near-miss of hitting the woman, or if it was my response to the woman herself. Even angry and flipping me off, there was something about her that called to me. I’d never felt this way about anyone before.
And you let her get away, dumbass,I told myself.
I gathered up my suitcase and headed into the lodge to check in, my pulse still racing. The woman was clearly staying here, so I’d just have to keep a look out for her. If we were meant to be – and I had no doubt that we were – fate would bring her to me again sooner or later.