by Joanne Rock
He wandered closer to the desk, one hand shoved in his pocket. “Far more likely she’ll be there to see Astrid’s new baby, but make of it what you will.” He skimmed a palm along the glass-topped desk before lifting his gaze to hers. “You told me you’re following the Alonzo Salazar story for the paycheck, so I thought maybe the chance to speak with Chiara in that kind of setting would be enticing.”
Chiara Campagna was social media gold right now. If Elena could capitalize on that, she would still have a piece that tabloids would vie for, and the payout would probably be even higher than the story she’d wanted about Alonzo.
“What’s the catch?” she pressed, certain this opportunity hadn’t landed in her lap by coincidence.
A scowl furrowed his brow. “I guess the catch is that you’d have to report on someone who is in the public eye by choice, unlike Alonzo, who never pursued fame and avoided it by writing a work of fiction under an assumed name.” He gestured toward her closed laptop on the desk. “But if you’d rather keep searching for dirt about my former mentor, be my guest.”
He shifted on his feet as if he was going to leave.
“Wait.” Her hand darted out to rest on his forearm before she’d had a chance to think about the wisdom of touching him.
He stilled under her touch, and her heartbeat quickened at his sudden nearness.
For one breathless moment, their eyes met, and there was a world of possibility between them. She resisted an insane urge to stroke her fingers along his skin, forcing herself to let go.
“It’s an offer I can’t refuse,” she admitted, needing this chance he’d given her not only to pay her rent, but to end the hardscrabble months she’d struggled through ever since her divorce. “If you’re willing to take me to Tahoe with you, I’d be grateful for the introduction to Chiara.”
She hadn’t realized until that moment how tense he’d been, but now she could see the lines of his shoulders relax as he nodded.
“Good.” He checked his watch, his forearm flexing under the charcoal-colored leather strap. “You’ll have time to pack in the morning. I hope to leave by noon tomorrow.”
“I’ll be ready,” she assured him, relaxing a fraction now that they were in agreement about something. “How long will we be in Tahoe?”
“Three days should be sufficient for me.” He was close now, near enough for her to catch the scent of his aftershave. “Will that give you enough time?”
She breathed deeply, letting the hint of cedarwood tantalize her senses. She wanted to tell herself that she felt drawn to him only because they’d shared a sensual connection and a romantic history, but she knew there was more at work between them than that. It didn’t help that she’d been feeling vulnerable tonight, and Gage had appeared at her door with a chance for her to reclaim some financial independence.
The gift may have been dropped into her lap in an effort to distract her from pursuing the mystery of Alonzo Salazar, but it was still a gift. And she was grateful.
“Three days is fine,” she answered, suspecting the hardest part about the trip would be avoiding the draw of the man beside her.
“Excellent.” He gave a clipped nod. “I’ll let the pilot know there will be two of us for the flight. We’ll head over to the airstrip at noon.”
“Thank you.” She hugged her arms around herself, mostly to ensure she didn’t do something unwise like reach out and touch him again. The memory of his skin under her fingertips burned in her brain. “I appreciate the invitation, Gage.”
His name sounded intimate on her lips. Maybe because it was late, and they were alone. Maybe because a bed waited in the next room.
His attention dipped to her lips for an instant and her mouth went dry. It seemed like forever since they’d kissed, and yet she remembered with perfect clarity how he’d savored her lips with infinite tenderness. Devoured her with all the hunger and urgency of taut, fiery need.
But before the moment could spin out of control, he took a step back.
“It’s no problem.” He shoved his hands in his pants pockets. “I’d better let you get some sleep.”
“Good night.” She pushed the words past her chalk-dry throat, her body mourning the loss of his nearness even as her brain applauded the boundaries.
He was already stalking toward the door, his footsteps sure and quick. Running from the same seductive thoughts plaguing her? She couldn’t be sure, but she knew that three days in Tahoe together were certain to push the issue.
But perhaps between his business, her interview with Chiara and visiting his friends with a new baby, they would be too busy to indulge in the desire that smoldered between them. She’d just have to make sure they were alone together as little as possible. Because she already knew that underneath all that red-hot attraction, there wasn’t enough trust to hold them together.
* * *
Gage had done his level best to distract himself with business obligations during the two-hour flight to Tahoe. After how close he’d come to kissing Elena the night before—an impulse he felt every time he was around her—he’d been determined to lose himself in work for the course of the trip.
Things had started off well enough, with each of them taking seats on opposite sides of the aircraft. Wearing a tailored jacket and matching skirt in deep emerald, with her mass of dark hair piled on her head, she looked every inch the businesswoman he remembered. He’d assumed she’d been working for the past hour.
But something in her tone distracted him as she spoke to a friend on a video call. She sounded upset.
Glancing up from his tablet, he saw her seated at the built-in workstation in the front of the plane, her laptop open while she engaged in an animated dialogue with a woman he didn’t recognize. Up until now, Elena had kept her head down and her eyes on her work, seemingly as committed to ignoring the sparks jumping between them as he was.
Yet how could he pretend not to hear her when her stream of agitated whispers indicated she was obviously distressed?
She peered back over her shoulder, catching him staring. Any guilt he might have experienced at not giving her more privacy was immediately negated by the sight of her red-rimmed eyes.
He unfastened his seat belt but by the time he made it to her, she was already stabbing the button to disconnect the call, her screen going black.
“Is everything all right?” He wanted to touch her, to offer what comfort he could, but he also didn’t want to overstep those prickly defenses of hers. “Can I get you anything?”
“No. Thank you.” She blinked fast, tugging tissues from a slim, sapphire-colored bag. “I’m fine.”
“Elena.” He lowered himself to kneel in front of her, needing to see her face. “You’re obviously not fine. What’s wrong?”
She squeezed the bridge of her nose for a moment, then patted her eyes with the tissue, seeming to pull her emotions back under control. “That was a friend of mine from LA.” She stuffed the tissue back in her bag. “She’d offered to help me retrieve a few things from the home I once shared with Tomas, but apparently his new fiancée refused to allow her inside to collect them.” Elena looked like she’d been about to say more on the subject, but stopped herself. “It’s nothing that plenty of other people haven’t been through when they split up. I don’t know why I let it get to me.”
“These items are legally yours?” he asked, recalling she’d been separated for a year. At her nod, he asked, “Wasn’t that all spelled out in the paperwork?”
Sighing, she seemed to surrender to the topic she clearly hadn’t wished to discuss.
“Yes, but I kept waiting for a good time to return to the house, trying to avoid his fiancée.”
“I remember hearing he proposed to his assistant on his cooking show,” Gage said drily, hating the guy on Elena’s behalf. “Sounded like a ratings ploy to me. But you have a legal right to your possessions, Elena. There’s no need to
be diplomatic with people who are denying your rights.”
The aircraft hit a pocket of turbulence, forcing Gage to grip the arms of her chair to steady himself.
“I realize that. I just really didn’t want to play out that whole drama of confronting the woman who wormed her way into my life, pretending to be my friend right up until the weekend she slept with my husband.” She gasped as they bounced through another air pocket, her fingers covering his briefly where they rested on the arms of her chair. Her gaze flicked to his before she took hold of her seat cushion instead. “It’s so trite. So not what I imagined for myself. And I kept thinking Tomas would man up and send me my things, but now I think he’s just dragging his feet in the hope I’ll forget about it. His new fiancée is spiteful and—sadly—my size.”
She shook her head, obviously frustrated, a dark curl sliding loose from her topknot. The strand caught her eyelashes, and Gage couldn’t suppress the urge to peel it gently away from her eyes. Her glossy hair gleamed under the soft cabin lights, the strands smooth against his finger as he let them coil back into place alongside her ear.
“So your friend was denied entrance to your former marital home to retrieve your possessions?” He wanted to be sure he had his facts straight, already seeing a way to be of assistance.
Because it bugged the hell out of him to think Elena had been going without personal effects for months in an effort to be reasonable. He’d understood her financial position had taken a hit in the split from her ex, but given her drive and resourcefulness, he’d assumed she would bounce back. It hadn’t made sense to him that she’d arrived in Montana with little luggage and few clothes when she had once been a successful lifestyle blogger. When they’d been together, her closets were full; she’d never lacked for fashion samples from all the big designers.
Now? She hadn’t even brought boots to the mountains for the weekend. Whether she admitted it or not, Gage suspected she was struggling.
“Yes.” Elena confirmed his understanding of what had happened, sounding more resolved and less upset now that she’d had a few minutes to settle down. “Which only confirms for me that it’s long past time to go over to the house and deal with the situation personally. No more deceiving myself things will work out for the best.”
Gage studied her, curious about this side of Elena that he hadn’t seen when they’d been dating. She’d always been so sure of herself. So fiercely committed to whatever path she chose.
He realized he’d probably been watching her for too long, his body too close to hers. His hands were still braced on the armrests of her seat. The scent of the perfume she favored—something tinged with lavender—teased his nose. And damn, but this was not the time to touch her.
“Do you need anything in the meantime?” he asked, wanting to help ease the burden of her months of frustration. To say nothing of the heartache that must have come before it. “Is there anything I can do to make things easier for you until you return to Los Angeles?”
“No. Thank you.” She made a point of peering out the window off to one side, as if she wasn’t ready to accept any favors from him. “I really appreciate you bringing me with you today. That’s plenty.”
She might not be looking at him, but he could sense her awareness of him in the way she gripped the seat cushion more tightly.
He would let it go for now.
Easing away from her, he took the seat closest to Elena as the pilot descended toward the northwestern edge of Lake Tahoe. Gage would contact a friend in security to ensure Elena’s things were retrieved at a time when her ex-husband was present. For that matter, Gage had seen the name of the friend who’d attempted to help her today on Elena’s tablet before she ended the call. He could solicit input from her to be certain they collected what belonged to Elena—quickly, legally and without having Elena inconvenienced another minute.
He liked the idea of doing this small thing for her, even if he hadn’t forgiven the way she’d allowed his father to buy her off. There was blame to go around for their unhappy split, and Gage had never felt right about bringing Elena to New Zealand in the first place when he’d known the way his father liked meddling in his life. How might things have been different between Elena and Gage if she’d come around to telling him about her past on her own, instead of having the details thrust into the spotlight by his father?
There was no way to know, of course. Elena had to live with the consequences of her actions in their breakup. But with this one simple act, helping Elena out, Gage could rest easier knowing he’d tried to atone for his role in the split.
Too bad it wouldn’t come close to fulfilling his need to kiss her. Touch her. Make her forget that bastard of an ex-husband of hers had ever existed.
Seven
Three hours later, Elena sat ensconced in comfort inside Jonah and Astrid Norlander’s mountainside mansion overlooking Lake Tahoe, the hospitality of her hosts almost making her forget what a frustrating day it had been up until then.
“Would you like to sit outside while we wait for Chiara?” Astrid asked her, pointing through the wall of windows toward the huge deck with deep couches built around a fireplace table that was already lit. A long, lithe Finnish beauty, the former supermodel had ethereal blue eyes and platinum shoulder-length hair. She wore not one smidge of makeup that Elena could see, and she was still so striking that it was difficult not to stare. “There are patio heaters and blankets, but with the sun on us, I think we’ll be warm enough without them.”
Even the woman’s accent was gorgeous. She went to the kitchen and added a couple of orange slices to her seltzer water, then padded to the back door and slid into a pair of fur-lined clogs.
“Sure, I’d love to join you outside.” Elena rose and picked up her white wine spritzer from the table. It was a light drink, the type she didn’t mind sipping to be social. “The guys look fairly absorbed in their game.”
Jonah and Gage sat at the bar between the kitchen and great room, their eyes on a flat-screen above the fireplace, where coverage of college basketball was in full swing.
“They both went to UCLA as undergrads,” Astrid reminded her, pushing the sliding glass door open. “I think Gage timed his flight to make sure he was here for the game.”
Elena smiled, recalling sitting courtside a few times with Gage while they’d dated. Back then, when he was working almost all the time, she had enjoyed seeing him relax for a couple of hours. “That wouldn’t surprise me in the least,” she said, stepping through the oversize glass door before Astrid slid it back into place.
“Your suit is gorgeous, by the way,” Astrid observed, stroking her fingers over the fabric of the sleeve in a friendly way. “Is the designer anyone I know?”
“It’s one I made, actually.” Flattered, Elena took a moment to enjoy the compliment, glancing down at the angled cuffs and buttons she’d found in salvage shops three years ago.
“Wow.” Astrid’s gaze zeroed in on the boning around the corset-style waist. “There are so many unique details. You’re incredibly talented.”
Elena searched the woman’s face, wondering at first if she was just making polite conversation, but seeing genuine interest in her eyes, she explained, “When I blogged more regularly, I made some pieces that I wanted to wear and couldn’t find. I did a few social media stories about the process of picking fabrics and finding a tailor for sewing samples.”
The reminder of the hard work she’d done to build her blog and connect with followers made her regret slowing down when she’d married. Why had she turned her full attention to supporting Tomas in his work instead of being loyal to the people who had been loyal to her? Why hadn’t she found a healthy balance between Tomas’s career and her own?
“You are very talented,” Astrid repeated, underscoring the words by pointing with her index finger. “Wait.” She froze, turning her head toward the house. “Did you hear the baby cry?”
Astrid pulled her phone from her pocket and checked the nursery monitor feed that she’d already viewed a handful of times since Elena and Gage arrived. Katja had been sleeping the entire time.
“Is she okay?” Elena asked as she moved to the sleek steel-and-wood railing surrounding the deck. The springtime air was cool, and there was still snow on the mountaintops, but the sun felt warm on her face and the breeze was scented with green and growing things.
“She’s fine.” Astrid laid the phone on the marble tabletop surrounding the row of flames that shot up in the center. “But I just buzzed Chiara in at the front gate. Do you mind if I go greet her and then I’ll come right back? I can’t wait to introduce the two of you.”
“Of course.” Elena walked the dark wood planks of the raised deck as Astrid disappeared inside the house.
Elena’s gaze lingered on the wall of windows, and she caught sight of Gage for a moment. He met her gaze, and perhaps because he noticed she was alone, he stepped outside a second later. He’d worn a black suit over a gray-and-white-striped T-shirt for their visit. The cotton shirt stretched smoothly across his chest in a way that called to her fingers to touch. Beyond the obvious attraction, there was also a new level of appreciation for how he’d treated her today. She’d felt so defeated when she struck out with her latest attempt to retrieve her possessions from her former home. Her friend Zoe had been upset by the hostility she’d experienced from the moment Tomas’s new fiancée opened the front door. And worst of all, Elena had been so frustrated herself that she’d nearly broken down in tears in front of Gage.
Thankfully, he’d been extremely kind about it, listening to her concerns, not judging, and allowing her to move past the anger to focus on their trip.
“How are you doing?” he asked, concern in his dark eyes as he closed the distance between them. “Can I get you something else to drink besides the wine?”
She appreciated his thoughtfulness since he knew she imbibed very little—the bourbon that first night at his house being a notable exception. But there had been extenuating circumstances.
