They might fall in love—if they don’t kill each other first.
Charlie Hayes is desperate when she goes to win over a new client before her long-time rival can swoop in, and even more so after a snowstorm runs her car off the road and strands her in a small motel. When she’s forced to share the last available room with a sexy stranger, she thinks things might just be looking up. Too bad he isn’t exactly a stranger.
Ryder Carson can’t believe that the lawyer he’s been competing with for years is actually the same beautiful woman he’s sharing a room with, and what better way to pass the time than enjoying her warm and willing body? However, as he spends more time with her, he realizes she could be more than just a rival.
When the snow melts and real life—and their jobs—get in the way, they’ll have to choose between what they always thought they wanted…and the future they truly desire.
General Release Date: 29th December 2020
Charlie squinted through the falling snow visible in the glow of the headlights of her car, but she could see next to nothing.
“This was a waste of time,” she told Darren on the phone.
“You always say that.”
She should have never agreed to this damn meeting in the middle of nowhere. Of course the secretive author would live out past any sense of civilization. He’d refused to come into their office, one located in the main city a few hours away.
No, he was far too busy and eccentric for that. Instead, Charlie had taken a short flight then rented a car to drive up into the mountains in the dead of winter, all because the great Skylar Tafferton needed a new firm to represent him.
She’d done the work, gotten together every resource and contact she had to prove to him she was the best choice. Her firm might not have been the largest courting him, but she was the right lawyer. Even still, the way he’d looked at her said he hadn’t agreed.
How often had that happened in her life? People saw her—her youthful face, her sweet demeanor—and they thought she wasn’t capable.
“I became a lawyer so I didn’t have to do this anymore, so I could prove myself.” She tightened her fingers on the steering wheel. “But no one gives me a chance.”
“You have proven yourself. Just because one client doesn’t get you isn’t reason for you to doubt your entire life path. Come on, Charlie, you’re being ridiculous.”
She thought back to the years she’d struggled as a waitress, as a bartender, as whatever second or third job she had to work just to get herself through school and into the job she’d always dreamed of. She’d done it to be respected, and what had happened?
She was still the same girl trying to prove to people she was worth a damn. Her bosses, her clients, everyone.
Her car slid, the tires losing traction for a moment. “Fuck, fuck, fuck,” she muttered as she took her foot off the gas. Thankfully, the tires caught again. “This snow is horrible.”
“Pull over. You sure as hell won’t get the client if you end up dead in some ditch.”
“I don’t have time to wait on the storm and hope everything works out. I need to get home and try to move on to the next potential client on my list before you-know-who gets there first.”
She refused to even say the name of the asshole who had managed to steal nearly every good client from her over the last year. Maybe if she didn’t say it, he wouldn’t be real. He worked for a larger firm than hers, and he’d leveraged that position well.
They hadn’t come face-to-face because she rarely did trail work. Mostly she handled client relations, both obtaining them and keeping them happy. Her rival did the same, only he seemed to do it better.
No rest for the wicked.
The car shuddered, then slid again. This time, however, her excellent driving didn’t do anything. The car careened to the side, over the slick ice-covered road, and struck a berm of snow that the plow how driven off the road earlier.
Charlie’s seatbelt kept her in place and the airbag didn’t deploy, but when she pressed on the gas, the tire spun.
“Great,” she said, letting her head hit the backrest of the seat.
“Are you okay?” Darren’s voice came out frantic.
She’d forgotten he was even there. “Yeah. Looks like you were right, though. I don’t think I’m going to be making that flight.”
“Do you need to call someone? Where are you?”
Charlie peered through the darkness and white to spot a neon sign in the distance. A motel?
It wasn’t that far, only a couple blocks at most. Even though she wasn’t dressed for hiking in the snow, she could make it that far.
“No, I’m fine. There’s a motel up the street.”
“Right, because a creepy motel in the middle of nowhere during a snowstorm isn’t the start of every horror movie out there?”
Charlie rolled her eyes and gathered her things from the backseat. She needed her files, her phone, her laptop and her chargers. “Well, at this point I’m either in the horror movie where the motel gets me or the one where the snow beast who lives in the woods gets me. I’d prefer a nice warm bed if something is going to kill me.”
Darren laughed softly. “Fine. Text me when you’re settled in, so I don’t worry.”
She agreed before ending the call and sliding the phone into her briefcase.
Walking in heels through the snow in below-freezing weather wasn’t how tonight was supposed to go, but at least there would be a bed at the end of it.
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