“Zoey and Scarlett’s mother. Scarlett and Kimberly just got back from Jacksonville after selling their old home.”
Liam went silent for a moment as he leaned against her desk. “Why keep it a secret?” he asked.
Elle turned back toward him with a gasp. “I’m not. It’s just none of your business,” she deflected. “Why are you and your brothers sneaking around anyway?”
“We don’t sneak.” Liam straightened up. Even though he was only a few inches taller than Elle, he seemed to tower over her.
“Still, either you keep getting lost, or . . .” she started.
“I enjoy evening walks in the great outdoors,” he finished for her. “The three of us enjoy nature. It’s one of the reasons we got jobs here.”
“Either way”—she moved toward the office door—“I’d appreciate it if you didn’t go sneaking around the River Cabin. We’ve allowed Kimberly to rent it from us as a private home. She’s a very reclusive person and doesn’t wish to be harassed,” she added, even knowing it wasn’t the truth. Kimberly was very outgoing. Sure, she’d been through a lot in life, but Zoey and Scar had gotten most of their spunk from their mother.
“I have never harassed anyone,” Liam said after he’d moved toward the door. A slight smile flickered on his lips, and Elle seriously doubted that he’d leave any woman feeling less than . . . shaken by that body of his.
Elle’s eyes narrowed as she thought about what else he could do with that body.
She shut the office door behind her, locked it, and turned back to him.
“Feel free to walk the trails; just steer clear of River Cabin,” she said before turning away from him.
“Will do,” he added, falling into step with her again as she walked away. “What were you doing out there?”
“Helping.” She started up the stairs.
“If you had asked, we could have lent a hand,” he suggested.
“Next time I’ll take that into consideration.”
“After all, isn’t that why you hired us?” He smiled when she tilted her head in question. “Muscle?” He raised his arm and flexed his biceps, and she about melted at the bulk of his muscles.
Without saying anything, she pivoted and rushed up the steps to her apartment. She could have sworn she heard him chuckling behind her.
The following day Elle stood back and watched the iron gates swing open at the end of the long dirt drive and felt as if the weight that had been on her chest since her grandfather had died was suddenly lifted.
For the next hour, cars, taxis, and even several airport vans surged through the gates. Elle watched her employees rush around and unload the cars, then load the golf carts and shuttle guests off to their individual cabins. She felt completely helpless, since it had been decided that the best place for her would be to take up a position at the main building in case she was needed.
She had a few small things to do, but for the most part, she stood around and watched other people work. Of course, she had run into the Rhodes brothers rushing around the grounds several times.
She’d tailed Liam the first week after they had moved onto campus, although she had tried to avoid actually speaking to him. Zoey and Hannah had filled her in on what they had learned from the other brothers. But, so far, she hadn’t discovered anything about Liam by just watching him, other than he liked to take walks in the evenings, and he was good at building things.
Dylan, the middle brother, was a skilled zip line guide, which had filled a key role at the camp. Owen, the oldest one, was occupying several roles, including working as events camp counselor and helping Aiden out with some of the basic maintenance issues.
Liam was the youngest of the brothers, at twenty-two. He’d been put in charge of the woodshop and would be working behind the bar at the pool house with Britt, the bartender, when needed.
Every time his gaze traced her, her body did things without her approval, like her knees turning weak. She’d already fallen on her butt once because of him; she didn’t want to embarrass herself further in front of him.
Of course, each time she’d bumped into him, she’d tried to hold herself together while speaking to him. But after . . .
She felt like a schoolgirl with a major crush, and it was beginning to become annoying.
She tried to fake a professional attitude, but since her favorite actor was Jason Momoa, and Liam was a dead ringer, she had a hard time not falling all over herself around him.
She’d never really had problems being around men before, nor anyone else, for that matter. After that first year of living with her grandfather, she’d adopted a persona of strength around others. There was just something about Liam that stripped that facade away. And it scared her.
That first day they had arrived on campus for work, she’d stood next to him while Zoey and Aubrey showed the brothers the ropes. She noticed his eyes were different from his brothers’.
The three of them were all tall, with curly dark hair and flawless olive skin, but where Owen and Dylan had darker brown eyes, Liam’s light-hazel eyes almost glowed in the sunlight.
She had sucked in her breath, which sent those sexy eyes her way. But then she’d stopped breathing entirely as he evaluated her, the left side of his lip curving up. He could surely guess what he’d done to her pulse rate. But she had looked away quickly to stop herself from falling on her face at his feet. A few minutes later she invented an excuse to leave them.
The fact that the man didn’t say a lot made her wonder about him even more. Did he feel the same way about her, or was he just shy?
She’d spoken to Dylan and Owen a few times now, running into them on the pathways or in the dining hall, but on the occasions she’d trailed Liam after their first meeting, he’d always been as terse as she was—only saying a handful of words. Which had her thinking about building up enough courage to try and get something out of him about the brothers’ nightly activities.
Zoey hadn’t stopped voicing her concerns about the brothers—something wasn’t adding up with them. More than anyone, she was determined to get to the bottom of why the brothers were there.
Yet though Elle had listened to her friends’ concerns, half the employees who worked for them could have easily gone elsewhere and made more than her camp could pay them. She was desperate to keep the people they had. Even if the men were out almost every night, she couldn’t afford to let them go now.
Normally, her days were packed, and they would be again after day one. But for the opening day, she had been talked into sticking close to the main building. Which she was regretting.
Like a glorified flight attendant, she greeted the guests, directed them to check-in, and connected them with someone who would cart them to their cabins.
Not her grandfather’s original proposal.
She itched to move around, to be useful. And as the day progressed, her frustration grew. By lunchtime, she was determined to step away and help in other ways. While wolfing down a sandwich with her friends, she asked them if they needed help.
“Come on, someone find something to get me out of babysitting the front desk.” She almost groaned it.
“Elle, you run this place.” Hannah laughed. “Do whatever you want. Go tell Julie you’re going to take the next guest to their cabins. Remember, you’re the boss now.” She picked up her tray with a wink and then walked away.
Hannah was right. Elle was the boss. If she didn’t want to stand around the lobby all day, she didn’t have to.
After dumping her own food tray in the bin, she walked to the front desk to ask Julie, their full-time front desk manager, if she could help out. Instead, she found Liam standing there, flirting with Julie.
She took a moment to scan him when that gaze wasn’t on her, and she appreciated the view.
His khaki shorts and camp shirt looked better on him than on anyone else. They made him appear more mountain man than anything.
Feeling the heat of frustration surface as she overheard the
ir conversation, she cleared her throat and leaned on the counter.
“I’m sure there is something more important you could be doing than wasting Julie’s time,” she said.
She thought she’d been prepared, but when those hazel eyes turned toward her, her heart rate galloped.
“Just dropping off a sandwich.” He nodded to the plate that sat in front of Julie. “Brent asked me to help out since he couldn’t get away.”
“Oh.” She felt herself sag slightly. Now she felt bad and felt her face heat. Deciding to ignore him, she turned to Julie. “I think I’ll take a few guests out to their cabins.” She reached for a clipboard, unsure if she was even needed to help with the guests.
“Actually, Liam was just requesting that someone help him out at the pool bar. He and Britt are swamped.” Julie shrugged. “If you have some time, everyone else is busy right now, boss.”
Her eyes flicked back to Liam, and she held in a groan. “What’s going on over there?”
“The first thing on everyone’s minds once they check in is to hit the pool and drink,” Liam said. “They’ve all shown up at once. We’re in the weeds.”
“It beats trotting back and forth with guests for the next few hours,” Julie said, her eyes pleading with Elle.
It was true: playing waitress for the next few hours would beat standing around feeling useless. But working with Liam was something she hadn’t prepared for yet.
She tried to think of any excuse to get out of it, but when his hazel eyes turned on her with a small challenge, she jerked up her chin.
“Guess I’ll be at the pool bar. If anything else goes wrong . . .”
“I’ll use this.” Julie held up the walkie-talkie.
“Thank you.” Elle turned on her heels and marched out of the main hallway.
“In a hurry?” Liam said, catching up with her just outside the main building.
She cocked an eyebrow at him and nodded. “You did say it was busy.” She walked to the pathway that would lead them to the main pool house and patio area.
She had just stepped into the shade of the tall pine trees when he pulled her to a stop.
“No need to run. Britt can hold the fort until we get there.” His smile had her knees going weak. At that moment, she realized she would have given him anything. Anything—and that thought scared her.
She’d been willing to give Jeff the same at one point in her life, and knowing how that ended straightened her back. Renewed anger filled her at the thought of falling into another trap like her past relationship.
“You’re up to no good.” She didn’t know what had caused her to blurt it out, but she wanted to knock the sexy look off his face. Instead, her words seemed to set a glow into his eyes.
“We’ve always been up to no good.” His joke bounced off her, but the crooked smile didn’t. “It’s one of our favorite pastimes.”
His arm had dropped away from hers, and she took a step closer to him. “I have to admit that at first, I thought it was just Zoey being . . . overly protective. Now, however”—she tilted her head and ran her eyes over him—“I’m going to be keeping an eye on you.” She knew she was already watching him, but letting him know it somehow made her feel stronger. She turned to go, but his next words stopped her.
“Good, because I’ve been keeping a close eye on you.”
CHAPTER THREE
He knew his words had come out as a threat, and if he had to be honest with himself, he meant them. The woman who stood in front of him somehow had the appearance of a naive beauty, but he knew more than anyone that appearances couldn’t be trusted.
“You’ve . . .” The shocked look on her face told him that his words had struck a nerve. “Why are you keeping an eye on me?” She moved closer to him.
He glanced over her shoulder as a group of guests in swim attire walked up the pathway. “Later, princess.” He took her arm and started walking toward the pool house. He smiled when she jerked her arm free of his hold. Whatever he thought of his father’s latest mistress, he was pleased that, unlike all the others his father had gone through, this one had a little fire to her.
For the next hour, he watched her deal with customers as if she was born for the job. She smiled, chatted, and delivered orders like she’d been doing so all her life.
He’d spent a summer working behind the bar at one of the resorts his father had dragged him to, just so he could hook up with women. It had done the job. That summer he’d not only learned how to tend a bar and become a man, but he’d also learned a few things about women that even his father probably didn’t know.
Apparently, he still had it. By the time the dinner hour came around, he had at least five invitations and a few numbers tucked into his pockets. Which he quickly tossed into the trash can.
“You don’t have to throw those out. I’m sure you earned each one.” Elle surprised him. He turned to see her leaning against the bar top.
All the guests had returned to their cabins to prepare for their first dinner in the main hall. Now, the pool and the patio area were completely empty. He had finished cleaning the bar top and had loaded the last of the glasses into the dishwasher unit when he’d found and wadded up the numbers and tossed them.
“It’s just not right.” He shook his head and glanced down at the trash. “Women stuffing their numbers down some guy’s pants. Married or otherwise.”
“That ‘some guy’ was you. You can’t tell me that you and your brothers have never . . . taken a married or otherwise woman up on her offer.” She gazed at him as she stretched her back as if it hurt her. “Something tells me you’ve had a pocketful of numbers like that before.”
“True.” He moved over to wipe the bar top in front of her, even though it was already clean. He enjoyed being closer to her and knew that he wanted to keep as close an eye on her as he could. “Though I’ve never taken a married woman up on the offer.”
“Never?” she asked, shifting to sit at the barstool.
“Would you take up a married man’s offer?” he asked.
“No,” she said without hesitation, and something deep inside him believed her.
“What about age?” he asked.
Her eyebrows shot up. “Shouldn’t really matter, if it’s just a hookup. Does it matter to you?” she asked.
He’d never really thought about it. But the fact was, the beauty sitting across from him was shacking up with his father, a man easily twenty years her senior.
“Don’t you have a fancy dinner to get ready for?” he asked in lieu of an answer.
She sighed. “Yes. Where did you work before?” she asked, surprising him.
“Club Med,” he answered and watched her blonde eyebrows shoot up.
“Florida?”
He shook his head. “Bahamas.”
She whistled. “I bet you had a line of women there.”
He smirked as he leaned on the bar, his hands spread on the wood top, caging her elbows between them. “Why so interested in my sex life?” He enjoyed the spark that was building in her blue eyes as she brushed off his comment.
“Curious,” she said, waving her hand.
“About my sex life or . . . me?” He let his voice dip.
“Why not go back to Club Med?” she asked, as if unfazed. “There are a million of them.”
He turned the question around. “Why turn a defunct privileged girls’ summer camp into . . . whatever this is?”
“A snowbird retreat camp.” She kneaded her hands. “You didn’t answer my question.”
“We wanted to stick close to home.” It was the truth. About the only one he’d told her since first stepping onto the campgrounds.
Destin, Florida, had been their home for almost ten years now. Dylan had his own place just outside town, while Owen stuck closer to the downtown Destin building that the family owned.
Liam had taken advantage of a condo the family also owned—his for the moment.
“Why do I get the feeling there’s more to t
hat story?” she asked.
“Your turn. Why open this place back up?”
“It seemed the right thing to do.” She stood up and glanced back at the clock. “Aren’t you helping out at the bar in the main dining hall?”
“Yes.” He shut the heavy wooden door that closed off the bar area to guests and locked the padlock. They made their way together back to the main building.
“This was your grandfather’s place, right?” he asked.
“Yes,” she answered without meeting his gaze.
He already knew almost everything about her, since he and his brothers had done their homework on her and the place. What they hadn’t found out yet was how she had funded the remodel. Her grandfather hadn’t been a wealthy man, and from the look of the camp, there had to have been a big investment to get the doors opened again.
“You must feel a little overwhelmed with all of the loans.” It was a gamble, but he figured one way or the other, he could get her to confess something about her financial status.
“Loans?” She glanced over at him.
“Sure, I mean, this place will probably make your investment back soon enough, but . . .” He dropped off when she stopped walking and cut him a sharp look.
“I don’t have any loans.” She tilted her head. “Is this your way of asking me if your paycheck will clear?”
“No.” He glanced around with a chuckle as the sky started to darken around them. The pathway lights flickered on. “Just making small talk.”
It would have to stay at that, for now—he couldn’t figure another way to get the information he wanted. After all, his brothers were searching for answers as well. Answers to the financial aspects of the camp while they searched for their father.
It had been a few months now since they had last heard from their father. Not that it wasn’t normal for their old man to disappear, but this time, the family’s money had gone too. So, the three of them had stepped away from their lives and poured everything they could into researching River Camp and Elle Saunders, whom they believed to be their father’s last conquest.
Looking at the pretty blonde standing across from him in cream shorts, a camp logo shirt, and tennis shoes, he just couldn’t see it. Not that she wasn’t his father’s type. She was, after all, twenty-one and beautiful. She could have easily walked off the cover of any magazine, even in that camp uniform.
Summer Heat Page 3
