In retrospect, spending Valentine's Day alone in a cabin in the middle of the woods was not the best decision Sophie Perkins had ever made. When Anjalee, her best friend from high school, had offered up her husband's cabin as a writing getaway to finish her book, she'd described the house as rustic.

"It'll be perfect," Anjalee insisted when she handed over the keys and directions to the cabin. "There won't be any distractions."

During the two-hour long drive, Sophie had pictured herself curling up in front of a fire with a glass of wine and her notebook. Visions of the perfect writing retreat vanished when she'd arrived at the cabin to discover it had no internet and the heat wasn't working. She'd tried calling Anjalee for help fixing the heat, but the cabin was located too deep in the woods for her phone to get a signal.

"This is how horror movies always start," Sophie muttered to herself as she pulled on her winter coat and shoved her feet into her boots before stepping out into the cold night to collect wood from the wood pile behind the cabin.

Staggering a bit with the weight of the logs loaded into her arms, she trudged back through the ankle deep snow. Large fluffy flakes continued to fall from the sky. She paused a moment to admire the snow which covered the tree branches like icing. Despite being a pain to drive through, Sophie adored the way snow transformed the world into a magical wonderland. The cold began to seep into her fingers a minute later. Shivering, she hurried to the back entrance of the cabin and shouldered open the door.

Sophie heard a man's voice yelp in surprise right before the two of them collided into each other. She landed hard on her back, the pieces of wood flying from her arms. Wincing, she pulled herself to her feet. She snatched up a log and held it like a baseball bat as she approached the man who lay face down on the kitchen floor.

"I don't know who you are or what you're doing here, but I'm warning you that I'm armed," Sophie said, her voice shaking. She cleared her throat, striving to sound confident. "You have until the count of three to leave before I call the police."

She instantly regretted the threat when she remembered that her phone didn't have a signal. He doesn't know that though, she reminded herself. Stay calm, be firm, and don't panic.

"One."

The man stayed on the floor.

"Two."

He hadn't moved since he'd fallen. Oh no, had she killed him? Hesitantly, she knelt beside him to check to see if he was breathing.

"What happened to three?" the man asked with a groan as he rolled over onto his back.

Sophie gasped. "Max Gerhardt?"

"Sophie Perkins." A grin spread over his face.

"What are you doing here?"

Max pushed himself to his feet. Sophie noted with a frown that he towered over her. They'd been the same height in high school, but he'd grown a good six inches since she'd last seen him at their graduation ten years ago. "Could you please put down the log? I'm finding it hard to concentrate with the threat of you knocking me unconscious looming."

Not even realizing she still held it until he mentioned it, Sophie blushed in embarrassment and set the piece of wood she'd been brandishing on the countertop. "You didn't answer my question about what you're doing here. How did you get in? I know I locked the door."

He reached inside his jet black pea coat and withdrew a key which he held up for her to see. "I have permission from the owner to be here. What about you?"

"That can't be right," Sophie said, shaking her head as she retrieved the key Anjalee had given her from her purse on the table. "This is Anjalee's husband's cabin, and she told me I'd be the only one staying here all weekend."

"Her husband Mark told me the exact same thing. Obviously, there was a breakdown in communication. I guess we'll have to share the cabin."

"Share?" Sophie squeaked. "No, absolutely not. You can't stay here. I got here first, so that means you have to leave."

"That argument only works in high school. I almost went in the ditch twice on the drive up here. It's too dangerous for either one of us to leave, at least not until morning. Depending on how long it takes the plows to get out to the country roads, we might be snowed in here all weekend."

Sophie opened her mouth to protest, but words failed her. Being trapped in a cabin with her arch nemesis from high school for one night, let alone an entire weekend, was the definition of her worst nightmare. This was supposed to be the weekend she finished writing her book. There weren't supposed to be any distractions. Max Gerhardt was most definitely a distraction. How was she supposed to concentrate with him in the cabin? He took up far too much space than he should with his wide chest and shoulders. The kitchen already seemed smaller now that he was in it, or maybe it was simply because he was standing so close to her. Since when had scrawny Max Gerhardt turned into a mountain man? Then again, it wasn't as if she could throw him out into the cold. Well, she could, but she'd feel guilty all night long.

"Okay, you can stay on two conditions."

"Oh boy, here we go with the rules. You haven't loosened up at all since high school, have you?"

Sophie decided to be gracious and ignore that comment. "I have an important deadline I need to meet, so you have to keep it down."

"Drat, there goes my plan for the all night rager I was planning on throwing," Max drawled.

"My second condition," Sophie pressed, determined to say it before she chickened out, "is you are sleeping on the couch. I have no interest in becoming one of your one night stands."

Max threw back his head and laughed. "What about a two-night stand?" he teased, winking suggestively.

Sophie's cheeks flushed a bright pink, her insides squirming at the way his eyes raked over her body from head to toe. "Do you agree to abide by my conditions?"

"Yes, I agree. I won't make a sound, and I'll keep my hands to myself unless you change your mind."

"Trust me, I won't." She busied herself with collecting the wooden logs she'd carried in from outside. "If you'll excuse me, I'm going to go build a fire. The heat isn't working."

She exited the kitchen quickly, hoping he wouldn't follow her. From the moment she'd seen Max's smug face, her stomach had decided to do its best rendition of the Macarena. She thought she'd grown into a more confident woman since high school, but apparently all it took was Max winking at her to turn her back into a scared, prudish teenager. As she knelt to build the fire in the fireplace, she tried and failed to think about anything else except for the fact that she'd be sharing a tiny cabin with Max Gerhardt.

In high school, she and Max had been pitted against each other in almost all of their classes, each trying to outdo the other. They'd even competed for the same scholarships their senior year. Sophie didn't enjoy losing, and neither did Max. Plenty of sparks flew between them. Anjalee liked to tease Sophie that it wouldn't be hard for the two of them to cross the line from hate to love, but Sophie dismissed the idea. Max was far too casual in his dating habits. Each girl only lasted about a month before he was on to the next. She doubted he'd changed since high school.

"Damien leaned forward and kissed Trinity. Heat blossomed throughout her body as his left hand cupped the back of her head while his right hand­—"

Sophie shrieked as she spun around to find Max reading out loud from her notebook. The notebook was full of the first draft of her novel. No one, not even her critique partners, had read it. She never let anyone see her writing until at least the second draft because the first draft was always complete crap.

"Don't read that!" She dove to rip it out of his hands, but he held it high out of her reach.

"I had you pegged as a goody two shoes in high school," Max said with a chuckle. "Who knew you liked to write steamy romances?" He continued to read aloud from the notebook, repeating, "while his right hand curled around her hip. Trinity moaned, sliding her arms around his neck to encourage him to deepen the kiss."

"Give me my notebook. I'm serious." Sophie refused to jump and try to grab the notebook from him, but she could feel her cheeks heating up with each word he read. Having your work read aloud by someone else was never a fun experience, but when it was your rival from high school it was absolutely mortifying.

She stepped closer to him, their bodies only inches apart. "Please, Max."

He considered for a moment, his intense green eyes meeting her gaze. Her breath hitched, waiting. He glanced down at her mouth. Was he going to kiss her? No, that would be stupid. He told her he wouldn't touch her unless she asked him. So why was her heart pounding in her ears? Why was she leaning closer to him?

"Well, since you said please." He closed the notebook and handed it to her.

"Thank you." She clutched it to her chest protectively.

"If you change your mind about the whole no touching condition, I'll be in the kitchen," he said with a smirk.

Sophie froze, watching him saunter out of the room. She debated for a full minute before she stalked into the kitchen. There was no way she was letting him have the last word.