Stranger in my Arms by Rochelle Alers Page A

relax and feel comfortable with Merrick he changed the rules. He’d invited her to join him in the Keys and she’d refused, saying perhaps the next time. This invitation had become the next time.
    â€œI told you before that I’d never put you in a compromising position,” he continued in the soft drawling voice that never failed to send a shiver throughout her body.
    â€œAnd I told you that I always keep my promises,” she countered. “What time are we leaving?”
    Merrick exhaled as a tender smile softened the lean contours of his face. He didn’t know why, but he felt as if he’d been holding his breath since he first spied Alexandra Cole.
    He stood up and extended his hand. He wasn’t disappointed when Alex placed her hand trustingly in his as he eased her to her feet. “I’ll drop you home to pack before I go back to the hotel to check out. We’re also going to have to stop along the way to buy groceries.”
    â€œWe can clean out my refrigerator, because I plan to disconnect it before I leave.”
    Merrick didn’t want to think of not seeing Alex for four months. He liked her effervescent, teasing personality and her natural beauty that prompted men to turn around and stare at her. Whether dressed casually in a pair of jeans and a pullover sweater or a dress that flattered her sexy petite body, she was perfect. It was the first time he’d found everything he could possibly want in one woman: intelligence, beauty and sensuality.
    Reaching for her navy blue wool swing coat, he held it as she slipped into it. A minute later she repeated the gesture when he shrugged into his jacket. Hand in hand they walked out of the museum, unaware that the next four days would change them—forever.

Chapter 7
    S now flurries intensified until a steady snowfall forced Merrick to slow down to less than forty miles an hour. He’d hoped to reach Bolivar before nightfall, but the weather had conspired against him. He’d dropped Alex off at her condo, returned to the hotel, packed and checked out of the Hyatt, then stopped at a supermarket to pick up dairy items before driving back to get her. Alex was ready when he arrived, and ninety minutes after they’d agreed to spend the next four days in Bolivar they were on their way to the picturesque hamlet nestled in a valley less than three miles from the Allegheny Mountains.
    Alex glanced out the side window, watching the topography change the farther they ventured into West Virginia. Her ears popped with the higher elevation. There was enough light left to marvel at the natural splendor of the unspoiled, rugged wilderness that hadn’t changed in more than a century.
    â€œIt looks so peaceful here,” she said reverently.
    Smiling, Merrick took a quick glance at his passenger before he returned his gaze to the winding road. “It is.” It was quiet, remote, and if he didn’t turn on a radio or the television he tended to lose track of the days of the week.
    â€œWhat made you decide to move to West Virginia?”
    Merrick knew he had to open up to Alex and reveal a little of his past or she would never trust him. And he wanted her to trust him because his feelings were changing, intensifying. He’d told her all he wanted was for them to be friends. She’d become his friend and unknowingly more. It was one thing to mouth the word and another to experience emotions that would shock her.
    He wasn’t certain when his feelings toward her had changed. One morning he woke from a disturbing dream that left him reeling from the sexual images and his own driving need to make love to Alexandra Cole. The harder he tried to ignore the truth, the more it nagged at him. His initial admission that he wasn’t interested in her romantically, his vow not to become involved, was shattered completely when he’d asked her to come home with him.
    â€œI suppose you could say I was running