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wouldn't be able to control his reaction no matter how cold
the temperature in the room.
    Another sigh reached him. Apparently
oblivious to the effect she had on him, she confessed. "Okay, so it
wasn't actually the main road you wanted, but it wasn't the wrong
road either. It goes the right direction and meets up with the
other, um, main highway and the Interstate eventually."
    "Why did you do it? Do you hate me so much
you want to ruin my life?" He hated the almost pleading tone in his
voice, but had to seek the answer.
    She lay very still. Even knowing of her
careless actions, he loved having his arms around her, her warm
body curled against his.
    Her voice hinted at apology. "I...I didn't
mean to ruin your life. I just meant to make us a little later
getting to Dallas this evening, to worry you a little. I didn't
know we would get snowbound and stranded in the middle of nowhere."
She paused before asking, "How did you know I sent us on a
different road?"
    He noted she very carefully avoided using the
word "wrong" again. "When we first got here and called the sheriff,
I realized you knew exactly where we were and that it was miles
from where we were supposed to be. I admit I wanted to choke you on
the spot."
    She touched the hand that lay at her waist.
"And now, do you still want to choke me?"
    "Maybe. Well, at least for a while I did.
This meeting is too important to miss. Then, the sheriff said I40
is closed from Tucumcari, New Mexico across north Texas and over
the Oklahoma line. Highway 287 is closed north from Quanah. I
realized we probably wouldn't have fared any better on the main
highway."
    In fact, they might have been even worse off
on the other road if they hadn’t found shelter. At least they had
this house. Her little trick may even have saved their lives.
Didn’t change her intent, though.
    He exhaled. "Get some sleep. With the snow
turned into an ice storm, we'll have a busy day here on The
Ponderosa tomorrow."
    Sleep evaded Trend, but Holly snuggled her
head into the pillow at his shoulder. Soon he heard her breathing
relax into slumber. A lifetime of work hinged on the meeting he
would miss tomorrow. He prayed the bad weather extended to the
Dallas-Fort Worth Airport and prevented the Amberfield Industries
group from arriving on time.
    In his mind he replayed the strategies he and
Joe Bob worked out. His first call on arriving at this small ranch
house on Sunday was to his assistant in Dallas with instructions to
postpone the Monday morning meeting. He couldn’t make contact again
to see if his orders had been carried out.
    Even cell phone relay towers were no match
for the battering winds of this demobilizing blizzard—especially in
this area where there were a lot of service dead zones. There was
no one left to call anyway. Either the meeting had been postponed
or it had not, and he resigned himself to the fact that he had lost
control over his fate. He suspected electrical lines would be down
before morning with the weight of ice.
    Instead of being marooned on a desert isle,
he might as well be trapped on an iceberg. The beautiful woman
stranded with him hated his guts, and he was less than crazy about
her in spite of her beauty, brains and the reaction she incited
from his hormones. His all-consuming lust whenever he thought of or
saw her made this situation even less tenable.
    Holly had surprised him, though. He’d
expected whining and a tantrum, at least, and fear. So far, she’d
pitched in to help without complaint. Well, until she realized the
sleeping arrangements.
    He smiled as he recalled her shocked
expression when he mentioned shared body heat. At least he got a
little of his own back then. She turned toward him in her sleep,
snuggling up to him with her palms against his chest, one leg
thrown over his.
    He fought the instinct to pull her even
closer and make passionate love to her. They fit so well together.
He wondered how she would be as a lover, then mentally kicked
himself for that