Free Snowbound Seduction by Melissa Schroeder Page B

her.”
    “I did that last night…more than once.”
    Mick tsked. “Not sex. You have to go get her and convince her you want her forever. If you let her get on that plane, you’ll lose her, mate.”
    “You think she went to the airport?”
    “Of course she did. You scared the hell out of her.”
    “I didn’t do anything.”
    “You bedded her, and she cared for you. I’ve never seen her react to a man like she does to you. You need to make sure you get to her before she heads back to Atlanta. If she does, it is going to take you much longer to get her back.”
    Knowing Mick was right, Trevor stood and strode down the hall. “I’m still at a loss why she ran like that.”
    “She loves you. She’s never had anyone love her back except maybe me. This is just easier for her to deal with it this way.”
    “It’s not like her, though.” And that had him worried. What if Mick was wrong? He could lay his heart out for her and she could stomp on it.
    “There is a good chance if she said she loved you, and you said thanks but no thanks, she would shatter. She’s afraid of love.”
    Trevor pulled the phone away and looked at it before bringing it back to his ear. “What the bloody hell are you talking about? Lord, you sound like my sister now.”
    “I know you. I know Elaine. I set this weekend up so you could either work it out of your system or propose. You both owe me.”
    “Great, you went from talking about feelings to being a pimp.”
    “Don’t push it. I could keep calling her and tell her you don’t want anything to do with her.”
    “Bugger off.”
    His friend had the nerve to laugh. “Okay, go get her. She has never taken that chance on someone. She might have been scared to even tell you how she felt, but, buddy, she has the feelings. So you have two choices. You either go get her or you go back to the way you were. If that’s what you want.”
    Go back to that? No way. He couldn’t imagine seeing her every day and not being able to touch her. If he was insane before now, he would be demented knowing just how she tasted, and how her voice sounded when she moaned his name.
    “Not possible.”
    “Well, your only other option is to marry her.”
    “Marry her?”
    The words bounced around in his brain for a few seconds. As soon as he said the words, Trev felt the rightness of it. Marriage. Of course. He didn’t want another woman, ever. He wanted Lainey.
    “She’s going to need a big gesture, and that’s about as big as you can get there, mate.”
    “Right. Yes. Okay. Bye.”
    Mick was still talking when he clicked the phone off. He needed to get to the airport and stop her from leaving. If she wanted a big gesture she was bloody well going to get it. Macmillan style.
    He started dialing Harold’s number with a renewed sense of hope. The woman wouldn’t know what hit her.

Chapter Nine
    The airport was a mess when Elaine arrived. With all the flights having been canceled the day before, the terminal was filled with angry, tired people trying to get home. Now, thirty minutes later, she was still waiting in line. Anxiety had her stomach churning. She had just stepped up to the airline’s ticket counter when she heard Trevor’s voice.
    “Elaine Masterson, where do you think you’re going?”
    She closed her eyes, then drummed up all the courage she had and turned to face him.
    God, he was furious. His hair was a mess, he was unshaven, and his eyes were filled with anger. He was dressed, but that probably had to do with the weather. From the looks of him, Elaine wondered what he would be wearing if they had been stuck in Hawaii. And worse, even in that state, he looked ten times better than she did. Men sucked.
    “Well, don’t you have anything to say?” Anger dripped from every syllable.
    “I—I’m going back to Atlanta, Trevor.”
    She started to hear the whispers from the other travelers, and tried her best to ignore them. No one might know her, but people knew Trevor. Cell phones