Frosted

By Wendy Sparrow

After falling through the ice one cold day, Kate is saved by a mysterious man named Jack and ends up marrying him. Come to find out she's committed herself to the king of winter himself. Now Kate has cold feet about their life together...and cold everything else.

She doesn't think Jack will miss her if she packs up and runs away to Colorado. After all, she's been in living in sunny Florida for seven years, and he hasn't managed to come see her. But Jack has one last chance of convincing his runaway bride to come back to him, and he won't give up until he breaks through the ice that's frosted her heart.

Previously released on Entangled's Ever After imprint - January 2013

• Language: English
• Publisher: Macmillan Publishers
• Release date: Jan 14, 2013
• ISBN: 9781622668601

Book preview

Jack Frost will melt her heart this winter.

After falling through the ice one cold day, Kate is saved by a mysterious man named Jack and ends up marrying him. Come to find out she’s committed herself to the king of winter himself. Now Kate has cold feet about their life together…and cold everything else.

She doesn’t think Jack will miss her if she packs up and runs away to Colorado. After all, she’s been in living in sunny Florida for seven years, and he hasn’t managed to come see her. But Jack has one last chance of convincing his runaway bride to come back to him, and he won’t give up until he breaks through the ice that’s frosted her heart.

Previously released on Entangled’s Ever After imprint – January 2013

Table of Contents

Dedication

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Acknowledgments

About the Author

Also by Wendy Sparrow...

On His List

Cursed by Cupid

Taming the Pack series

Past My Defenses

This Weakness For You

Discover more paranormal romance from Select Otherworld...

The Queen’s Wings

Wings of Redemption

Devil May Care

The Cat’s Meow

Night Thief

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

Copyright © 2013 by Wendy Sparrow. All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce, distribute, or transmit in any form or by any means. For information regarding subsidiary rights, please contact the Publisher.

Entangled Publishing, LLC

2614 South Timberline Road

Suite 109

Fort Collins, CO 80525

Visit our website at www.entangledpublishing.com.

Select is an imprint of Entangled Publishing, LLC.

Edited by Lewis Pollak

Cover design by Kerri-Leigh Grady

ISBN 978-1-62266-860-1

Manufactured in the United States of America

First Edition January 2013

To the three Js for keeping me off the ledge.

Chapter One

Kate skirted the snow as if it were boiling, bubbling lava. Denver was covered with the stuff. It was piled thick on the sides of the road where the plows had shoved it. Kids were throwing it at each other. Cars were slip-sliding around on it. The only safe haven was the sidewalk they were walking down, and she kept skidding on the salt they’d used to get rid of the ice.

It was everywhere.

Not that she’d expected any different, coming here in winter. This was just a light dusting according to the locals. Everywhere she went people were complaining it wasn’t enough. She had to get out of here before it got worse. And it would get worse.

It could get so much worse.

Kate jumped over a patch of snow clinging to a crack in the sidewalk. It was like the world was icy at its core, and the snow was leaking through the cracks.

Some people actually like it, said the man walking beside her. They come here for that foul, nasty, white stuff. She could hear the smile in his voice, but she’d warned him she didn’t like the snow before he’d dragged her up here. It was a little hard to say no to Rick Hutton, partly because he was her boss, but a little because he was so charming. The client just wants you here for a few days and then it’s back to beach weather in time for Christmas. He made eye contact. I swear I’ll get you back by Christmas. I’m sure you have family…

Kate blinked back a sudden stinging in her eyes. It was the season. She only got emotional about her family, or lack of a family really, around Christmas. No. Not family I’m close to or visit. I’m just anxious to be out of the cold.

Rick smiled and gestured to a nearby restaurant. I can help with that at least temporarily, he said, holding the door open for her. The last seven years she’d practically been in cold storage when it came to men. The warmth from his hand on her back as they navigated through the waiting area didn’t feel…unwelcome.

It was easier to avoid attachments when no one was interested. Rick had been visiting their division of the company more than warranted, and especially more than anyone expected the CEO to visit. There’d been talk around her office, but she’d dismissed it, explaining he was just a nice guy.

Maybe she shouldn’t have disregarded it, because the looks he’d been giving her were heated—defrosting.

The restaurant had high ceilings and exposed wooden beams. It was meant to look like the inside of a ski lodge—and she certainly approved of the wave of heat that had welcomed her when they’d walked in.

Rick’s gaze never left her while they waited to be seated. A rush of awareness heated her cheeks and made her look away. It had been a long time since she’d gotten that look, and he was her boss. Her boss.

Rick’s shirt was probably a week’s salary for her, but he casually yanked off his tie and stuffed it in his pocket, unbuttoning the top button. Everything about him always radiated polish. Then he’d smile, and every woman in the company from the receptionist to upper management wanted to be the one taking that tie off. That smile that made every woman breathe a little faster was thrown about indiscriminately, but he always looked like he was wearing it just for you. The only one who seemed immune was Kate—maybe that was the draw for him.

Okay, she was mostly immune. It wasn’t just his smile, though that would have been enough—he was tall with dark brown hair that looked tousled, the art of a very expensive cut, and he had these brown eyes that reminded her of hot chocolate. Hot, hot, hot chocolate. She needed some of that—right away. The chocolate, not Rick. She couldn’t feel her toes in her wool-lined boots.

I can seat you next to the window, the hostess said.

Near the fireplace. My friend is from Florida and doesn’t like the cold, Rick said. Please. Rick’s smile really did it.

Well, okay. She gestured for them to follow her. My name is Cami, by the way, she tossed over her shoulder—for Rick.

Kate felt a little awkward and gangly in her layers of clothing—especially while following the young hostess in her painted-on dress, but she’d never stop shivering without all the layers.

The roaring fire they headed towards nearly brought her to her knees. The heat actually permeated clear to her skin. She could kiss Rick for that. She wouldn’t, but it’d been a long time since a guy had made her hot—even if only literally.

After seating them, the hostess lingered, unnecessarily, ridiculously. Rick gifted her with one last smile, and she asked him to come see her if he needed anything.

I vote we have a very long lunch, Kate said, watching the fire in the gigantic stone fireplace beside her. It took up nearly the entire wall of the restaurant, and they were at the closest table. The flames licked upwards, tasting the air, and for a moment she could believe she was warm inside. Heaven. This was heaven. We should order appetizers and something slow-roasted. I’ll even order dessert for no reason other than being able to sit here. She pulled off her gloves—something she hadn’t believed she’d be doing the entire time she was in Denver.

See, I can keep you warm even in Denver, but it took DeWinters’ insistence on speaking with you in person to get you up here. He smiled at her, and dimples appeared in both his cheeks. She fought a reaction to that smile, willed her heart to keep beating at normal speed.

She shrugged, nicely casual. She could resist the lure of Rick. I like Florida.

Yes, but I’ve offered you a great opportunity in upper management—you’ll get out of that dark, dusty office of yours. I swear it looks better suited to a troll. I should have it remodeled over the holidays, but I’m hoping the thought of going back there makes you consider my offer.

On their last phone call, just before she’d come up here, he’d offered her a position she wasn’t entirely qualified for, but would be a brilliant career move.

She’d just have to move. Physically. Here.

A shiver vibrated down her spine at the thought of staying here. She couldn’t. She wouldn’t. She’d stayed out of his grasp for these seven years, but she could feel him in the bite in the air, hear a distant whisper on the frigid wind. He would come for her.

You might become acclimated. Rick sounded skeptical even as he said it. You can’t avoid the cold forever.

I can damn well try. Besides, you have more qualified people up here. Kate tucked her gloves away and glanced up at him in time to see the twitch of his lips in a smothered smile.

Maybe.

Okay, she’d have to be blind to miss his interest. She had her own reasons for not acting on it, but even as it was flattering, it was confusing. Sure, she’d lost all that college weight while managing to keep her curves, and she’d had a lot of guys tell her that her waist-length black hair and deep green eyes drove them crazy. None of that added up to the kind of ex-model trophy wife she’d assumed Rick would end up with. She was just Kate Finley, the girl who couldn’t wait to get back home to Sarasota, Florida, land of retirees, where nothing ever happened—where there was no snow.

Wars had been won by the cold. You could defend against a lot of things, but the driving chill got inside your veins and never left you, freezing you from within until you just gave