by Elena Aitken
“The potential site for the zip line,” he finished. “Come on. We better get a move on if we’re going to make it in and out before dinner.”
“Before…what?”
Tess got out of the Jeep and looked around again. There was nothing but towering pine trees and…well, forest around her. They were definitely not anywhere near a site for a zip line. They were absolutely in the middle of nowhere. She walked around the vehicle to find Max pulling backpacks out of the backseat.
“Here.” He handed her a pack, which she almost dropped. “This is yours.”
“For what?”
“To carry. It has water and snacks and a first aid kit.”
“First aid?”
Max swung his own pack over his back with ease and walked toward the trees.
“Why do I need first aid?”
“You don’t,” he said without turning around. “And hopefully you won’t. But you never know. It’s best to be prepared before going into the wilderness.”
“Wilderness?” The word was stupid. It was even more stupid that she said it out loud when she was, in fact, surrounded by wilderness. But she was having trouble wrapping her head around what was going on. “You said we were going to see the site?”
“Yes.” He turned around and stared at her with barely contained amusement. “We are. But we have to hike there. I normally hike up from the Lodge but I figured you might not be up to such a long trek. It’s not far from here, though. Are you up to it?”
Tess didn’t actually know whether she was or not, but she wasn’t about to tell Max that. It was bad enough he thought she was a huge liar for fabricating her bio.
But you ARE a liar! And not because of the bio.
Her head spun with all the lies that were piling up on one another. She was getting in way too deep for what was supposed to be a simple in and out assignment and she was seriously questioning whether it was worth it.
“Of course I’m up to it.” She quickly swung the heavy pack onto her back and caught up with him.
His hand reached out and brushed her shoulder. “Here,” he said. “Let me adjust that for you.” Max slid his fingers under the straps over her shoulders, and pulled and tugged until the backpack felt significantly more comfortable, the weight of it almost gone. “Better?”
“Much.”
He hesitated for a beat. His hand lingered on her arm; their eyes connected and she could see that whatever was going on between them was much more than just a work arrangement. She had to say something. “Max, I…”
Tess swallowed hard. Max blinked.
“You what?”
“I…” She forced a smile. “I’m excited for my first hike.”
He laughed, but the sound didn’t ring true. “Well then, let’s get started.”
6
Tess actually turned out to be a decent hiker, not that it really surprised him. After all, she was in great shape. A fact that he enjoyed as she hiked in front of him. Her jeans hugged her curves in all the right places as she scrambled up some of the steeper sections. He could have taken her on the lower trail, but it wouldn’t have been nearly as much fun if he couldn’t put his hands on her waist to help her up the rocky portions of the trail. No, he’d definitely made the right choice.
It didn’t take long for them to get to the first clearing where he’d envisioned building the base camp and first tower for the zip line. “So?” he asked. “What do you think?”
He watched as Tess took in the site. He didn’t really have to ask what she was thinking, because he could see it all over her face. Besides, he knew the site was perfect. The trees opened up into a small valley over a creek where the zip lines could stretch across to give guests the most spectacular views. With the mountains towering all around them, it was like a little piece of paradise tucked away and it would be absolutely perfect. He’d always thought so. From the moment he’d first laid eyes on the valley, he’d known a zip line and treetop park would be just the thing to add a little adventure for the guests of Castle Mountain Lodge; he just didn’t actually think he could pull it off. Not until Clara’s report. Or Tess delivering Clara’s report…whatever. And then after she’d tried it back in Hope Falls, and he’d seen her reaction, Max knew. He could give that to hundreds of others just like her. Guests who never thought they could do something so wild. So out of their wheelhouse.
Tess had taught him that.
“This is amazing, Max.” She shook her head in wonderment. “You could put the first tower right there.” She pointed to the exact spot Max had picked out. “And maybe on that side, you could build some rope course activities to challenge guests before another line back to this side.”
“That’s a great idea, Te—Clara.” He corrected himself quickly and then for good measure, added, “I don’t care what your bio says—you’re really good at your job.”
She laughed and in doing so, stumbled backward. Max caught her quickly and pulled her close to keep her from toppling down the slope. “I got you.”
And did he ever. She fit perfectly in his arms and he certainly wasn’t in a hurry to let her go. Especially when she turned so her face was only inches away from his. Her heart beat so rapidly he could feel it against his chest. He should have let her go. He should have stepped back and set her on her feet.
But he wasn’t doing any of that.
Not. A. Chance.
She licked her lips as he bent his head to hers. That slight action broke the last bit of resolve he had. Max’s lips crashed onto hers. He held her tight as he explored her mouth with his, tasting every inch of her. And she kissed him back. Oh, did she ever. If there was any doubt that she might have similar feelings for him, they were completely blown away with the way her mouth moved on his.
A small moan escaped her lips as Max slipped his hand up and under her shirt. Her skin was warm, and soft and oh, so smooth. It took every bit of restraint that he could muster to stop himself from letting his hands circle around her waist to her front.
No. He had to be patient. There was still so much to discover between them.
Like her name.
That annoying voice of reason piped up from deep inside him and he paused; his lips stilled on hers. Not long, but long enough to catch her attention.
“Max?” She pulled back, but he didn’t release her. “What’s—”
“Nothing.” He kissed her hard but it wasn’t enough to close out the little voice in his mind that kept reminding him that there were still too many secrets between them.
Dammit.
Reluctantly he pulled away and put his hand to his mouth, either in an effort to hold onto the memory of the feel of her lips on his, or to let it go. Either way, what he really wanted to do was turn around and grab her again. She fit so perfectly in his arms, none of the rest of it mattered.
Except it did.
It really did.
Max wasn’t the type of guy to start something he couldn’t finish and there was no way he could start anything at all with a woman who couldn’t be honest with him. Especially about the most basic of things.
Like who she was.
What the hell?
Tess stood for a minute, stunned at what had just happened.
And what had just happened?
One minute Max had his arms around her and was kissing her. And, oh, was he ever kissing her. And the next minute…nothing. He literally pushed her away.
He stared out over the valley, so Tess took the chance to run her hands through her hair in an effort to compose herself. Not that it helped—exactly the opposite. Her head spun with how quickly things had changed. There was no way she could have made up the chemistry between them. Especially when he was the one to kiss her.
What she should do was demand an explanation. It wasn’t okay to be treated that way. It wasn’t okay to…oh, who was she kidding? Righteous indignation wasn’t her thing. Especially considering she owed him an explanation. A huge one. And it had never been more clear than it was in that moment.
She turned and walked a few feet away toward the tree line and the path that she assumed would lead her back to the Jeep. Not that she had any intention of heading out on her own. She wasn’t that stupid. But she did need a little distance. Even if it was only a few feet. It was something. And given the swirl of feelings going through her at the moment, distance was the best thing for her. She had no right to be hurt, but at the same time, she had every right.
It was too—
“We should probably head back.”
Tess managed a nod. “Yes. If you think you’ve shown me everything I need to see.”
“You tell me, Clara.”
Was it her imagination, or did he emphasize her name? Did he know? Could he possibly know?
Tess ran her hand through her hair in an effort to straighten her ponytail and compose herself. Of course he could know the truth; she was a terrible actress and an even worse business consultant. The whole trip had been a bad idea. All she was doing was making things worse.
She nodded again but didn’t say anything.
“Right.”
When Max walked past her to take the lead on the trail, her body reacted immediately to his closeness. Every nerve ending was on alert and her body yearned to reach out to him. Not that she could. She was afraid she’d never be able to touch him again. And after that kiss they’d just shared, that was the only thing she wanted.
But whatever had happened between them on the ridge a moment ago had changed things and the worst part was…Tess had no idea what it was. Sure, she’d managed to screw things up to an extent that she wouldn’t have imagined but he didn’t know that. Not yet anyway. But one thing she did know for sure: once he did know the truth, everything was just going to get worse.
They hiked for a few minutes in silence, which gave Tess the unfortunate opportunity to get caught up in her own thoughts. That was never a good idea because that meant she was overthinking everything.
How could she feel about Max the way she did after such a short time? More than that, how could she allow herself to develop any feelings at all when she was pretending to be someone she wasn’t? And wasn’t he obviously feeling something too? After all, he was the one who kissed her.
He’d also been the one to push her away.
Why?
That one word replayed in her head over and over until it completely consumed her. She didn’t see the root that stuck up on the path and tripped her, causing her to tumble, hands flailing, right into the back of Max, who, caught off guard, couldn’t catch himself. Together they fell to the forest floor with a thud. Max took the brunt of the impact, landing flat on his back with Tess on top of him. His arm threaded around her back to hold her close. Their faces were only inches apart and Tess knew she shouldn’t do it. After all, she had him at a disadvantage, but that’s exactly why she should do it.
Before she could give it any more thought, Tess leaned down and closed the distance between them, pressing her lips to his. She kissed him hard, and judging by the groan that he made, followed by the tightening of his arms around her body, he wasn’t objecting to her forwardness. She pulled back just enough to look into his eyes and the want reflected back at her. She didn’t have a chance to say anything before Max threaded his fingers through her hair and pulled her back down to his mouth. And then, all at once, there were hands everywhere, and his lips on hers, and then they were on her neck and his hands moved under her t-shirt. Every inch of her skin was on fire with his touch.
With a grunt and a move that left her breathless, Max flipped her over so he was on top of her, his arms on either side of her. His eyes were full of heat as they stared down at her. Instead of letting herself think of all the reasons they shouldn’t be doing what they were doing, all Tess could think of was all the reasons they should. Primarily because of the insane attraction between them.
Was there anything wrong with that?
She licked her lips and he bent to kiss them.
No. There was nothing wrong with it.
Except, then he was hesitating again. His lips stilled on hers and he pulled back. “We shouldn’t do this.”
She shook her head. “It’s okay, Max. I’m not…”
“You’re not what?” He watched her, the question in his eyes.
If his objection was that they were working together and it was a conflict of interest, she could end that right now. All she had to do was tell the truth.
It was so simple. She bit her lip just hard enough to feel the sting of it. “I…I’m not sure what I was going to say.” She lied and gave him the sweetest smile she could manage before she swallowed hard and added, “But if you don’t think we should be doing this, I just want to tell you that I really don’t see a reason why we shouldn’t. After all, we’re both consenting adults. There’s really no—”
“What I meant was that we shouldn’t be doing this here.” Max pushed himself up and held a hand out to her, which she took. As soon as she was on her feet, he pulled her into a hug. “I want to take you out, Clara. I want to show you everything the Lodge has to offer. Not just the beauty of the forest.”
She kissed his cheek chastely. “That sounds amazing.”
And it did, too. All except the part where he called her Clara.
7
“You can’t tell him.”
Tess paced the living room of her suite for at least the tenth time with her cell phone pressed to her ear. She’d known it would do no good to ask Clara about telling Max the truth. In fact, she should have trusted her instinct and just gone with her gut. With Clara, it was often easier to beg for forgiveness rather than ask for permission. But the guilt had gotten the best of her and she’d picked up her phone.
“I have to tell him, Clara. I don’t think you understand.”
“Oh no.” Clara’s voice came through loud and clear despite the fact she was calling from thousands of miles away. Of course it was too much to ask that they have a bad connection and then Tess could claim ignorance. “Castle Mountain Lodge is a huge account. I mean, huge, Tess. You can’t screw it up.”
Tess stopped short. “Wait. If it was such a huge account, why am I here?” Hadn’t Clara told her it was no big deal? A no-brainer? In fact, weren’t those her exact words? “Shouldn’t you be here taking care of your business if it’s such a big deal?”
“I knew you could handle it.”
“More like, you wanted to go to Europe with your latest sugar daddy more than you wanted to handle your very important account?” Tess knew it was a low blow, but she didn’t care. As every day went on, she got more and more upset as it became crystal-clear that Clara had set her up for disaster. “I know you were trying to do me a favor, Clara.” She took a deep breath and tried to keep things in perspective. “And I really appreciate it. I do. But I think things have gone a bit too far.”
There was a beat of silence on the other end and for a moment, Tess was sure they’d been disconnected. But then Clara said, “What do you mean, things have gone too far?”
Oh crap. Tess spun in a circle, looking for something to help her out of telling the truth to her best friend, but the empty hotel suite offered up no help.
“Tess?”
“Um…well…it’s not…”
“Tess, what has gone too far? What’s happened? Please tell me my account is okay. Castle Mountain Lodge is—”
“I know, I know. It’s a big account.” Tess rolled her eyes. “Which I still don’t understand. But it’s fine. I think…”
“What do you mean, you think? Tess! It was easy. I set it all up for you. All you had to do was go through the file.”
“No, Clara.” Tess stamped her foot on the floor. “That is not all I had to do. He wanted me to come back here and see the site, Clara. The site. What do I know about a site? Nothing. I know nothing about the site. I know nothing about adventure travel. I know nothing about any of this. I’m just trying to do my best and not screw things up too badly for you because I know this is yo
ur business and it’s important to you and it’s important to me, too, because you know I need the money. But you know what else is important to me? Not lying. Not telling someone I’m somebody I’m not. I’m not good at it, Clara. In fact, I’m really, really bad at it. And what’s more is that I don’t want to be good at it. All I want to do is tell him the truth about who I am because you know what, I’m a nice person and he’s a nice person. Except I’m not a nice person because I’ve been lying to him about who I am when all I really want is for him to know who I really am because I like him. I like him a lot. I might even be falling in love with him.”
She tossed the phone onto the counter as if it were hot and would burn her. Her hand flew to her mouth. Did she really just say all that? Out loud?
“Tess?”
She shook her head at the phone even though there was no one there to see it.
“Tess?!”
She swallowed and picked up the phone. “I’m here.” She was trying for a level of calm that she certainly didn’t feel. She’d just admitted to her best friend that she might actually be falling in love with their client. The same client who thought she was Clara.
“You’re falling in love with Maxwell Grant?”
Tess nodded but didn’t say anything. But she didn’t have to.
“Really?”
“Yes,” she said after a minute. “I really think I am.”
“Well then, that changes things,” Clara said matter-of-factly.
“It does?”
“Of course.”
Tess’s head spun. “Do you mean I should tell him? What about your account? Don’t you think he’ll be upset and fire you from the account?”
“Honestly? I don’t know. What do you think will happen?”
“I…I’m not…” Tess swallowed hard. “I’m actually not sure.”
“Where do things stand right now?”
“I encouraged him to put in a zip line and he showed me the site.”
“What? He wants to put in a zip line? That wasn’t in the proposal I gave you.”
