Designing Berlin by Shara Azod Page A

way she could think of getting out was to physically push the vehicle, and the odds of her pushing the heavy SUV out of a ditch covered in snow was slim to none. Well, none, considering she wasn’t about to wallow through the growing drift mounds and try to push this heavy-ass car.
    “Damn it all to hell!” Berlin muttered, banging her hand against the steering wheel.
    She would have to get out and try to make her way by foot, but whether she should try to make her way to the unknown Ms. Hartsfield’s home or back to the town she’d passed ten minutes ago was the ultimate question. The boots Berlin wore were definitely not snow boots, and she had no idea what the terrain up ahead was like, so she opted to go back towards the town. Making matters worse, her cell phone didn’t have a signal, which meant she really didn’t have a choice but to try and find help. She regretted not springing the extra hundred dollars for the rental with OnStar. If Berlin were lucky, there would be a car or truck headed in the same direction. Not very likely, but it could happen.
    About three minutes into her trek, she realized this was a huge mistake. She should have stayed in the car and set off the alarm rather than try to trudge her way to town. Her boots, while fashionable, were not made to walk in the wet snow. Ice water seeped into the cracks and crevices, leaving her feet burning from cold. Her stylish pea coat matched her outfit to perfection, but it was nowhere near as warm and weather-ready as it should be. As the snow fell heavy on the faux-wool fabric, it melted and seeped into her very bones. After no longer than ten minutes, Berlin’s teeth were chattering and she could barely lift one foot in front of the other. It was by sheer force of will she managed to continue. There was no way in hell she was going to die here by the side of the road, lost in West Virginia. She would never live that one down.
    “Of course you wouldn’t, idiot,” she chided herself. “You’d be dead.”
    The indignity of it all. To claw her way to the top of her profession only to be foiled by weather. That was not how she planned to go out. No way, no how. There was too much she wanted to do with her life. Berlin wanted to get married…maybe. She definitely wanted to have at least one child. And just once, she wanted to know what it was like to fall in love. Not the fly-by-night casual relationships she’d had up to this point. She wanted the kind of love she’d only read about in her electronic library. They were her own guilty little secret, the erotic e-books she bought by the dozens, but there was something about the characters in them that called to her. She wanted an all-encompassing love, a raging passion that couldn’t be denied. Therefore, she couldn’t possibly die now, not without ever really feeling more than a passing fondness for someone.
    She was so engrossed in her mental pep talk, she didn’t hear anyone drive up behind her. In fact, she didn’t notice she was no longer alone until she was literally swept off her feet into very large, very capable arms. She would have fought off the bear that handled her, but she couldn’t move, far too numb with cold. She couldn’t see much of her abductor; the man (it had to be a man to be that big) was swathed in clothing. The only thing she could see was eyes, piercing, glittering deep-blue eyes.
    Out of the frying pan and into the fire, Berlin thought to herself as her scream froze in her throat. Damn it, it hurt to even think about talking, much less screaming.
    Then she promptly passed out.
     
    Matthew Hartsfield, Matty to the few friends he had left, looked down at the woman he held. Absolutely stunning. His breath hitched at the sight of her. And they said angels didn’t fly this low to earth and in this weather. They were wrong. In his arms, he clutched a fallen one tight to his chest.
    Judging by the useless coat and the boots designed for looks rather than practicality, he