Snow Angel (26 page)

What would it have been like to feel his lips on hers?
Damn
Dane for interrupting them and keeping her from finding out.

“Jerk,” she muttered.

Though the flagstones had been cleared before the party, new-fallen drifts had covered them again, and they glowed in the lights from the windows at her back.

The stones were icy underneath the fresh layer of white. Melinda slid a little in her heels as she walked toward the far end of the patio, hoping the white stuff wouldn’t destroy the pretty rhinestone-studded red leather.

Rubbing her bare arms, she scanned the sky overhead, looking for the northern lights and trying to remember everything she’d ever heard about them. She was next to positive they weren’t visible this far south.

Why would Dane lie about such a thing?

Even if they could be seen in southern Utah, the sky was a solid blanket of white. No colors broke through the thick snow.

“Looking for the lights?” a deep voice said behind her, and Melinda whirled to see Dane leaning against the side of the lodge, staring at her from beneath lowered brows.

Heart caught in her throat, Melinda stared back, wondering how long he’d been behind her. He must have followed right after her, but she’d been caught up in her own thoughts. She hadn’t heard him.

Berating herself for giving him an opportunity to find her alone, she began to edge around him toward the doors at his back.

Dane stepped into her path.

“Sorry,” he said, though he didn’t look it. “I didn’t mean to startle you.”

“Move,” she said, injecting some force into the word and drawing herself up to her full height, staring him down. She wasn’t going to mess around with being polite. Not now.

He grinned.

“Make me,” he said, and stepped forward.

She stepped back.

“Stop it, Dane,” Melinda said, as he continued to stalk her.

“Come on, Melinda,” he said cajolingly, “don’t be like that. I came out to keep you company. Keep you warm.”

“I’m warm enough.”

“You’re shivering. Come here.”

Dane held out a hand, which she pointedly ignored. He was too close. She moved backward again and bumped hard against the deck railing.

Damn it!

The only opening was to her left, around the side of the building.

She took it, edging away from him and hoping for a door to escape through or a window to bang on, all the while trying not to let him see he was making her nervous.

He matched her step for step.

Once around the corner, the south side of the lodge sheltered them somewhat from the driving snow, but it was not well lit.

One glance was enough to realize her mistake.

There were no windows along its length on the ground level at all, and only one huge gray roll-up door she’d never be able to lift herself, if it was even unlocked. The long, solid wall made up the back of the lodge’s storage rooms.

Perfect.

Just perfect.

The only way out was down an equally long, railed walkway and all the way around the building, or through Dane, who continued to maneuver her farther and farther down the side of the lodge, one step at a time.

Firming her chin, she planted her feet in the slippery snow and glared into his smiling face. “I said stop.”

“Stop what?” Dane said, obviously taunting her now, an edge in his voice. “I came out to show you the lights.”

“I don’t want to see them anymore,” she said. “I’m going back in. Move aside.”

“Oh, you don’t mean that,” he said, smiling wider.

He took another step.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

“Man, what is wrong with you tonight?” Rick asked, jerking Jacob’s attention to him and away from his fourth scan of the dance floor.

Where the hell was Melinda? He’d lost sight of her after delivering Neta Smalls back to her husband at the end of their second dance.

“What d’you mean?” he asked, confused.

Rick pointed at his legs, and Jacob realized he’d been bouncing them in agitation, his hands slapping his knees.

Making a deliberate effort to calm himself, he shook his head and said, “Nothing. It’s New Year’s, I’m just keyed up.”

“Right.” Rick rolled his eyes. “It has nothing to do with my cousin or the fact that you haven’t been able to keep your eyes off her all week.”

Jacob gave a quick scan around the table to make sure no one had heard Rick’s words, then frowned at his friend. “Keep it down, will you?”

“So you don’t deny it? I thought Christian was off his meds when he said you were gaga for her. Is it true?”

Huffing out a breath, Jacob stared hard at Rick, his mind a whirl.

No time like the present.

“It’s true,” he bit out, and endured Rick’s howl of laughter.

“Oh, man,” Rick said, still chuckling. “Wait ‘til everyone hears. You and Mel—”

“Shut up and tell me if you see her.”

Rick wiped his streaming eyes and scanned the room, craning his neck around the dancers and wait staff circulating to refill drinks.

“Nope, sorry,” he said, taking a swig of his beer. “Why? Lose her already?”

“She was with that ski instructor she met the other day. I don’t like the guy’s looks.”

“Of course you don’t,” Rick scoffed.

“No, I mean it. Something’s off about him.”

“Off about who?” Eddie asked, taking the empty seat next to Rick.

Ignoring his question, Jacob asked his own instead. “Have you seen Mel?”

“Sure,” Eddie said, tilting his beer bottle to his mouth.

“Recently?” Jacob gritted between clenched teeth, gripping his knees tightly to keep from lashing out in frustration.

“Yeah,” Eddie answered with a who-cares shrug, frowning at Jacob. “She went outside with that dude she was dancing with.”

“Damn it!” Jacob shot to his feet, nearly upending his own drink in the process. “When?”

“I don’t know,” Eddie said, surprised, his eyes darting between Jacob and a now-scowling Rick. “Ten, fifteen minutes ago?”

Rick said, “Want us to come?” But he was speaking to Jacob’s back, as Jacob had already pushed away from the table.

“I got it,” Jacob answered over his shoulder, knowing his voice had descended to a dangerous growl and not caring when several people shifted warily out of his way.

Something wasn’t right about that Danish guy, and the hell if he was going to let him be alone with Melinda.

With that decision propelling him across the floor, Jacob hit the lobby, then the front doors, and shoved through them, his gaze sweeping the empty patio and beyond for Melinda’s red dress.

CHAPTER TWENTY

Dane stood only a foot away now, his breath puffing white and warm over her, his body blocking her from getting by him on the narrow walkway. She couldn’t vault the railing in her snug party dress. Even if she did, if she tore the seams and went for it, she’d wind up stuck in a huge mound of snow.

She dared not turn her back on him, and there was no way she could outrun him in her heels.

Panic licked the edges of her thoughts.

Mind spinning, Melinda gauged him, weighing her options.

Would he really attack her if she tried to slip past him? She could hardly believe he might, but he seemed so… intense.

She gathered herself to risk it, but without warning, he lunged forward, pushing her back until her body pressed flat against the wall, caging her between his muscular arms.

“Hey!” she squeaked.

“I thought you were different,” he said, rage seeming to spring from nowhere as he growled the words in her face. “Ha. You’re just like all the other bimbos in every resort on earth. Bitch.”

“What do you—”

He leaned his body heavily against hers, trapping her in place. Her ribs creaked painfully beneath the pressure. She couldn’t take a deep breath.

“Hey,” she said again, squirming against him, disgust replacing fear. She stopped moving abruptly when she recognized the bulge grinding against her pelvis. Anger simmered. This was so not happening. “Knock it off.”

“You think you’re so beautiful,” he said nastily in his accented English, his voice as hard as the rest of his body, ramming himself against her again. “Too good for me, right? I’ll show you.”

“Dane,” she said, her voice sharp, fear rising up again and twisting with the anger, breathless from lack of air. “You’re hurting—stop it,” she gasped as he pressed even harder against her, cutting her off.

He looked at her for one long moment while she glared back at him and struggled to breathe, to draw enough air to shout at him and make him back off, but he swooped his mouth down, claiming her lips in a bruising kiss, cutting off her words. He thrust his tongue roughly between her teeth and halfway down her throat, making her gag. His hands crushed her arms.

“Dane! Stop it!” she said again, or tried to. The words stayed locked inside, blocked by his battering mouth.

Instinctively, she tried to bite down hard on his tongue. She only caught the tip. He howled in her ear, but he didn’t let go. Fury contorted his face, and he slapped her hard, knocking her into the unyielding wall at her back.

Lights exploded behind her eyes.

Stunned shock and lack of oxygen held her immobile for two heartbeats too long before she began to struggle in earnest, but the delay gave him the upper hand.

He was so
strong!

She couldn’t budge him, couldn’t breathe against the pain and his renewed invasion of her mouth. Panic beat powerful wings inside her ribcage, and her stomach lurched.

Anger gave way to primitive terror.

Shoving at him with all her might did less than nothing. He even let go of her arms, as though her strength was no concern to him, though she struck him with her fists as hard as she could.

He wrapped one hand around her throat, his thumb pressing hard beneath her jaw.

Melinda scrabbled her fingers over his face, going for his eyes, but he increased the pressure, squeezing her neck until everything started to go black.

Tears fell and froze on her cheeks.

When she sucked in another shallow breath to scream, he hauled back and slapped her across the face again, so hard her opposite cheek whipped into the wall at her back, scraping against the wood.

He pulled at her skirt, exposing more of her bare legs, but it was snug on her body and only rose so far as she fought him.

Melinda bucked and twisted, evading him as best she could, and she screamed again, screamed and screamed.

The sound went nowhere, devoured by his mouth.

Her vision wanted to go dark. How long could she hold him off?

No-no-no-nononononooooo!

The sound of her screams echoed in her head, but only sobbed through her lips.

She tried to bite him again, but the force of his teeth and tongue, his grinding mouth, kept her jaw open wide to his invasion.

The violation nauseated her. The disgust of his groping hands made her head spin.

Melinda wrenched and squirmed and hammered her fists against his head. It was as though he didn’t even feel her blows.

Black dots and flashing lights swam before her eyes. She fought against the pull to slide under that darkness, away from the pain.

If she succumbed, he’d win, and she refused to go down easy.

Her mind screamed,
Jacob!
but she was alone. Even if he came looking for her, it would be too late. Dane could rape her right here, standing in the driving snow, pinned against the outside of the building where her friends and family danced.

No.

No. I will not be a victim.

With that thought crystal clear in her mind, a strange calm descended out of the fear.

She wasn’t helpless. At least not yet.

He had the advantage, true, but for now, she was still standing, she could still fight. Dane had caught her by surprise. She needed to
think
.

By God, she would save herself, and this scum would never touch her again.

Blocking out the cruelty of his hands on her body, Melinda forced her right leg to the side, out from under him. Drawing it up as high as she could manage in her snug party dress, she stomped down hard with her spiked heel directly on top of his foot.

Dane cried out and jerked against her as her shoe’s heel snapped off from the force of her strike.

Instead of releasing her, he grabbed her shoulders and slammed her back into the wall, striking her head against the wood a third time.

Red stars flared behind her lids, and the pain rolled nausea through her belly. She cried out, but when he pulled back to smash her against the wall again, he gave her the split-second opening she needed.

As though she’d practiced the move a thousand times before, Melinda gathered every bit of strength she owned and rammed her knee directly into the bastard’s crotch, a warrior’s roar punching the wind.

Without a sound, Dane dropped at her feet like a stone.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Adrenaline hit when Jacob finally noted the heel prints in the snow leading away from the lodge’s entrance. They could only be Melinda’s, and were followed closely by male dress-shoe tracks heading around the far side of the building.

She and Dane were nowhere to be seen.

What the hell did they go that way for? There was nothing over there.

Jacob had been irritated before, feeling possessive, and yeah, a little worried. Now instinct, a primal foreboding, stabbed into his stomach like an icy dagger.

Melinda was in danger. He knew it.

Charging across the patio, Jacob skidded around the icy corner at full speed.

His eyes landed immediately on the struggling couple outlined against the building in the dim lamplight and thick, swirling snow.

At that exact moment, Melinda screamed, a sound he would never forget, full of pain and fear and rage.

It echoed out into the night. It shattered him, stole his breath, stopped his heart.

Mindless with dread, Jacob sprinted down the nightmare walkway, never seeming to reach any closer, ready to kill the bloody bastard.

Three steps from Melinda’s side, she gave an all-mighty shriek, drove her knee into the man’s balls, and took him down like a pro.

Pride swelled Jacob’s chest for half-a-second—
thatta girl!
—before he focused on her face.

The same fierce pride, coupled with determination and a healthy dose of triumph, had already winked out of her blazing blue eyes, reaction setting in as she stared blankly back at Jacob, then at the writhing, retching man at her feet.

Melinda’s face, chalk white but for the blood-red handprints on both cheeks, gleamed whiter than the swirling snow, her skin drawn tight across her cheekbones. Her swollen mouth pulled into a grimace. Breaths shallow and panting, her chest jerked with each respiration as she gulped for air. Her whole body trembled. A high keening sound whistled through her lips.

He took in the rest in one swift glance—the hiked skirt, the tear in the right shoulder seam of her pretty dress, the snapped heel on her shoe. Her New Year’s tiara sparkled wetly at her feet where it had fallen off her head, and her hair whirled loose and tangled around her body.

Even in the low lighting, the scarlet marks on her face and bare arms showed clearly, bruises already blooming where the son of a bitch had put his hands on her.

Had hurt her.

A killing rage exploded inside Jacob’s head, turning everything to red mist in front of his eyes. He battled it back with every ounce of strength he possessed.

His priority—Melinda, always—needed him to stay in control.

For now.

Cautious, Jacob stepped nearer to her slowly, his hands up at his sides where she could see them, wanting her to know she was safe, that no one would grab her or hurt her, not ever again, but she wasn’t looking at him. She didn’t seem to know he was even there.

“Mel,” Jacob said softly.

She didn’t respond.

He’d never seen her so strong—strong enough to take down a beast who outweighed her by at least sixty pounds of pure, hard muscle—and yet so delicate. So fragile. Like spun sugar, she seemed ready to dissolve into the storm with the slightest breath.

Reaching toward her carefully—
friend, calm, safe—
elevating his voice gently over the groans of the man on the ground, he said again, “Melinda.”

This time, her eyes jerked to his, and they were wet, drenched with silent tears. The dilation of her pupils made them look enormous in her small, pale face, shock turning the lovely blue almost black.

“JJ?” she whimpered, the childhood nickname barely audible, and it was that small thing, the use of a name she hadn’t called him by in more than a decade, that destroyed him.

All restraint fled.

Scooping her into his arms, he lifted her up, relieved beyond all measure when she didn’t stiffen against him but instead fused her body to his. Jacob held her as tightly as he dared.

Her arms clamped forcefully around his neck, and she burrowed into him as though trying to climb inside his skin, to merge them into one being. Hard, wracking sobs shook her from head to foot.

Jacob buried his face in her hair, his own emotions swarming through him in a storm he couldn’t fight.

He rocked her, soothing them both with the whisper of her name, over and over, a chant and a prayer, gratitude for her safety winging out into the universe on those three quiet syllables.

Long minutes later, Melinda gave a final shudder and loosened her hold, sliding down his body to stand on her own two feet once more.

Jacob struggled against his own needs and let her go reluctantly. She rested her flooded cheek against his chest.

Tremors still rocked her slender body, but her breathing had returned almost to normal, and she swiped the last of her tears away with the back of her hand.

“I’m okay,” she said, her voice almost believable.

“Thank God.”

On the ground beside them, her attacker started to move again, low moans still issuing from his mouth. Slithering away.

How appropriate.

Jacob straightened, his every motion slow and controlled to avoid startling Melinda. Handling her as carefully as he would the finest china teacup in his mother’s prized collection, he placed his hands lightly on top of her shoulders, away from the bruises on her arms, and leaned her gently against the wall for support. With one finger, he lifted her chin, raising her eyes to meet his own.

“Steady?” he asked. When she nodded jerkily, he brushed her forehead with a barely-there kiss. “Okay. Give me one minute.”

Eyes plumbing hers, he waited until the spark of fighting spirit rekindled in the deep, dark blue. Nodding in satisfaction, he gave her shoulders a gentle squeeze.

“Good,” he said. “Wait right here for me. I just have to—”

Breaking off, Jacob stood away, one hand still on her shoulder until he was certain she’d hold.

Then, in one swift motion, he stepped over, kicked the crawling, sneaking, scum-sucking-pervert bastard onto his back and hauled him up by his shirtfront, leaning down until they were nose to nose.

At his back, Melinda said not a word.

In a low voice vibrating with deadly intent, Jacob spoke directly into the older man’s pain-whitened face.

“If you ever touch her again, if you come within five-hundred miles of her, I will kill you.” He shook him once, the way a dog might shake a dead snake. “Understood?”