Snowed In

One Night Stand: Book 3

Author(s): Veronica Tower

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Lisa has a problem. She's dating a fabulous guy who will do just about anything she asks, but she can't quite convince herself this means he's really in love with her. She's had guys say all the right things before and then let her down the moment she opens up and trusts them. In her heart of hearts, she's afraid John is just like the others.

John has a problem. He's dating a woman he's crazy about but she won't commit to a monogamous relationship and he can't figure out why. The swinging she insists upon to keep them from getting too close is leaching all the joy out of his heart and his hope that one day they will marry.

It's a relationship forged in heaven and going straight to hell, but when a chance snowstorm traps them at Lisa's house, John sees his chance to convince his lover that don't need anyone but each other to make them happy.

Excerpt

The cab driver pulled up outside of Lisa’s home and John paid him, adding a thirty percent tip because of the nasty weather. Then he grabbed his briefcase and hurried through the snowstorm toward Lisa’s front door.

There were five or six inches of accumulation on the ground and John’s shiny black wingtips slipped and slid beneath him as he walked. Fortunately, he had left other shoes and clothes here over the past few months—something that Lisa had complained about at the time but finally accepted because it was so obviously practical. She still resisted any additional sign that they were settling in together. What was worse she continued to insist on all of these crazy sex games with other partners, and then got jealous when he participated with her.

He shook his head wondering what to do about all of this. He’d long ago admitted to himself that Lisa really was crazy in regard to relationships. So why was he still so infatuated with her? Why did the thought of her not being by his side twist his guts up inside? They had to figure out something better soon. What they were doing wasn’t working for him. And he didn’t really believe that it was working for Lisa either.

He stuck his key in the door—getting that key from Lisa had been a triumph on his part—and entered the house. “Lisa, honey, I’m…here.” He’d almost slipped and said home but that was certain to trigger a major bout of Lisa’s relationship claustrophobia.

He listened for a moment, but when she didn’t answer he finished closing and locking the door and stepped deeper inside the house. “Lisa?”

He set his briefcase down and shrugged out of his coat, brushing it off and folding it over his arm. “Honey?”

John stepped into the living room and found Lisa sleeping uncomfortably on the couch. The lower half of her body was nestled under a blanket. Her lap top computer had fallen to the side on the cushions on top of a pile of wadded up tissues.

She didn’t look good. There were dark bags under her eyes and her normal light brown skin tone looked off—almost gray for lack of a better word. And a trace of mucus leaking from her nose confirmed that she was getting sick as well. He’d warned her she’d been pushing herself too hard. How little sleep had she been getting with these seven day work weeks and twelve-hour-plus work days?

John draped his coat over a chair and quietly stepped closer to her. She was thinner also then she’d been when they started dating. Strange that he hadn’t noticed earlier. He was used to seeing her naked, after all, but it was obvious now in the touch of gauntness in her cheeks and the thinness of her bare arms. He had thought that she’d simply been losing her muscle tone from skipping too many nights at the gym, but seeing her here like this exhausted at the end of her long day, John could see the truth. Lisa wasn’t taking care of herself. She was pushing herself past the edge of endurance in her efforts to win her bonuses and it was costing her.

It was obvious looking at her that she couldn’t keep this pace up. At least, she couldn’t do it alone.

John took off his suit jacket, removed his tie and unbuttoned the collar of his shirt. Then he slipped off his wingtips to minimize any noise he might make and went off to get the comforter from Lisa’s bed. The house was quiet, empty, but it didn’t feel peaceful to him. Something was very wrong here. He obviously wasn’t the perfect patient boyfriend he liked to imagine himself to be. Lisa actually needed him and he hadn’t even noticed.

He returned with the comforter and carefully tucked it over and around the woman he loved.

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ISBN (Print):
ISBN (Electronic): 978-1-4543-0255-1
Genre: Fiction
Date Published: 01/10/2013
Publisher: Red Rose Publishing

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