Chapter 21

Mary chuckled softly. "In your dream, Mr. Johnson, why don't you just watch the road and stop that nonsense? I am not going to buy it."

Tyler smirked. "My sex appeal isn't for sale, Miss Borthman. For your information."

He really loves teasing her. Mary's cheeks turned scarlet, and her cute little brow creased when she was uncomfortable. Both know how much he loves dirty talking. Did she even remember their out-of-this-world, mind-shattering sex two years ago? Though he was not shy about what he wanted and liked, she has gotten pretty good at voicing her annoyance. That’s why their boring boss-secretary relationship was so phenomenal. What made him hold onto their marriage anyway? Surely, their divorce settlement won't cost him that much. She even told him that she wanted nothing from him—not even a single dime. Maybe that's why he doesn't have the heart to stay away from her. She was one in a million. She doesn't even care about his money; she works hard to earn it.

"Please keep your eyes on the road, Mr. Johnson." Her face was growing serious. "Let’s focus; stop staring at me like I'm kind of a ninja. Look!” She pointed out. "It looks like this area is expecting more than a foot of snow tonight."

He argued, "they always say that, and it’s never that much."

"Oh, really?" Surprised, she peered out the dark window. "I don’t know...Tyler. It’s really heaping out there. See it for yourself."

Tyler rolled his eyes. "So what do you want to do?” he scoffed. “You want to turn around? Because I think we can beat the snow and get there before the worst hits us. But we couldn't get there on time, just as you know."

She nibbled on her lower lip. It was a risk, but... Nevermind, she thought to herself; she was not a cat with nine lives, so... no. She pouted.

Why was she doing that so often? Tyler thought it was so fucking cute and adorable. He was so tempted to lean over and kiss the hell out of her.

"Fine, let’s do it," she agreed. "Just don’t speed, okay? Drive slowly; I want to get there alive and in one piece, and the snow is so scary, I hate it."

"Deal. I’ll spare our lives."

She snickered.

Tyler steered back onto the road, and despite its stupidly costly winter tyres, the SUV actually skidded. Mary yelped. "Jesus! Careful! Tyler!"

There again, his name! Why does he love it coming from her? Surely she didn't mean to scream it like her life depended on it, but he still smirked. "Hey, relax, I'm an expert. I’m not speeding, I swear. It’s just slippery here. Bloody hell!" He eased up on the gas, proceeding to drive with more shock than panic. "Well, it's too slippery."

For the next ten minutes, they didn't talk. They were too focused on the road and the aggravating weather. Both held their breath. A wall of white sleet appeared in front of their car. All the snow" growing on the ground and on the hood of the SUV told Tyler a foot of it wasn’t a farfetched measure. To make matters worse, this area was so secluded that he doubted any snow ploughs or salt trucks would pay it many visits. Finally, the road became impossible, and it wasn’t long before he was driving at a crawl.

"Tyler,"

"I know, dear," he said grimly as he concentrated. “But it was too late to turn back now. The interstate was too far behind us.” They won’t reach it for many hours. "Shit," he swore. "Okay. Keep an eye out, Mary. Maybe we’ll see somewhere we can stop."

"Where? There is nothing here." Mary's pounding heart nearly shattered out of her chest as the car fishtailed out of control. When it finally came to a stop, her hands were trembling, and Tyler breathed with relief.

"Jesus!" He plastered his face against the window. All he saw was absolute darkness, broken only by the narrow columns of the headlights. They were pointing at a stretch of white. Nothing but snow fills his line of sight. "Bloody hell." They were at the bottom of a small ramp, but it might as well have been a mountain. When he peered up to where he thought the road was, it felt impossibly far.

Mary was breathing hard beside him. "Where are we? Are you okay?"

“I’m fine. How about you?" Tyler asked if they hadn’t hit anything. They were both in one piece, and so was their vehicle.

"Mr. Johnson, we have four-wheel drive, right? Can we make it back up to the road?"

"No, not in this sleet. We should walk a little and look for a house or anything that could give us warmth. I do not guarantee that the car's heater was enough for us in the long night."

"Agree."

Wearing another extra jacket and smitten, the two began their journey.

Mary hiked bitterly up the snowy mountainside. After twisting her ankle a few paces back, she was in a terrible mood. She flipped back her long blond hair and gritted her teeth. "You, OK?" Tyler asked.

"Yes, I'm okay, not too bad," she replied as they continued up the unfamiliar snow-covered terrain, hoping to see the lodge from Tyler's mobile phone before the signal went dead.

It said it was just a few miles away in the mountain foothills. However, surveying her surroundings, she saw the mountain up ahead; it was living up to its name, with periodic showers of snowballs raining down upon her. They were a little wet from the constant snow, and Tyler held her hand as they walked. She didn't complain. They were both hungry and exhausted.

With all the reasonable paths coated with thick snow, she wasn't sure if she was on the correct trail or not. She had a sneaking suspicion in the back of her mind that somewhere along the line, they had turned off the correct path. The thought bothered them sickeningly in their heads. They trudged on, shielding their eyes from the snow, looking for the devious cottage, roughly a mile from the base of the mountain. They halted and looked for a place to sit and get their bearings. They found a long, dead stump and cleared over five inches of snow.

She consulted her watch and confirmed, with a tiny sigh of irritation, that it had frosted over. She rubbed her finger over it and knew that they didn't have much time to reach the lodge on time before another snowstorm came in.

Almost an hour later, they were ready to collapse. The storm had picked up, and it was almost blinding them. They fluttered into the frontier and saw something that was huge and dark within the trees. "Look, Tyler, the cottage..." With restored hope, they started limping up the mountainside. As they approached, she thought that it must be a house, although to her, it looked more like a shack. They tried to scramble the last few yards and went to the door of the log structure.

"Hello?" Mary shivered from the chill.

"Anybody home?"

Still no reply. "Maybe it's empty?" Tyler grumbled under his breath.

"We will see. Let me take care of the door."

She turned the doorknob and, although it was unlocked, felt it stick. She put in the last of her strength while Tyler surveyed the backyard. She pushed the door open and shoved her shoulder into it. The door burst open, and she tumbled into the room. She called for Tyler, stood up, and shut the door behind them. "OK, it looks like the owner is not here."

"Yes, is it weird? We are trespassing," Mary mumbled as she looked for a light switch. "Thank God, it has emergency lights."

"At the very least, the owner will not object. I'll leave enough cash to compensate for our stay. Anyway, shall I put the fireplace in?" he asked.

"That's a good idea. It will keep us warm."

Then he went over and put some logs into the fireplace and lit them with a long match he found in a holder.

"I'll get us something warm to drink. Maybe the owner has a tea stash somewhere in the kitchen." Mary thought this was a nice house, simple with only one bedroom but warm and cosy. It looked so much like someone's personal cottage. The fact that there were no personal effects lying around encouraged her as she rampaged through the kitchen. The structure had an ample room that appeared to serve as its kitchen, bedroom, and living room.

There was a mattress built into the wall on the right-hand side of the room, with the kitchen area and table on the left. The bed had a partition built onto the head and foot of the bed, giving the sleeper the feel of a room. The living area was arranged around a fireplace with a couch, an armchair, and a side table. There were four windows, two on the right wall and two on the left, overlooking the massive snow-covered trees. A few fuzzy blankets were folded on the couch and on the bed, ready for use. A tiny door led into a woodsy bathroom with a sink, shower, and toilet. She tested the water. It ran freely and became hot. "Good, thank God." She smiled to herself. She went into the hall and piled her belongings on the kitchen table, then stripped off her wet outer coats and stood in her dry sweater and boots.

After several minutes of looking for the electric kettle, she found it and later made tea for them as she went to the living room.

Now the room was a little warm, and next to the fireplace was an ample supply of firewood as Tyler removed his own wet jacket.

"I'll have a warm bath. I can't risk getting sick."

"Want some company?" Tyler winked.

"Unbelievable!" She grumbled and rolled her eyes. Then she went to the bathroom and got herself shampoo from the small container, took the unused soap, and went into the bathroom. She pulled off her remaining clothes and stepped into the shower. She took a long, hot bath and emerged feeling refreshed. She wrapped her slim body in a towel and went back to get her sweats.

She towelled her hair and hung the towels to dry. She grabbed some of the blankets from the couch and went to the couch beside Tyler to sip her tea. "I like this blanket," she mumbled while Tyler kindled the fireplace with more logs. "Hmp, I never thought you liked yellow. It suits you well."

Wow! For two years, almost all of her things had a yellow hue—her bag, even her tumblr, the colour of her phone, and even the cushion of her chair in the office—and yet Tyler never noticed it, not until now.

Weird.

Looking at the blanket, Mary noticed that there was a yellow-green flannel sheet on the bed, and she was so exhausted that she didn't care if it was clean. "I'm going to bed. I'm so tired." She spread the sheets on the mattress and pleated them in the corners. "You sleep on the couch."

"No!"

"Yes, Mr. Johnson, you are sleeping there." She eyed the couch and yawned.

Mary slid into bed and yanked the blankets up to her chin, turned on her side, facing the wall, and fell into a deep sleep almost instantly, leaving Tyler staring at her back.

"Wow, she must be very tired."