by Nora Roberts
"All right. So we'll get to know each other."
"You're simplifying."
"Isn't that what you just said you wanted?"
Feeling trapped, she turned away and sat down. "Cody, I told you, I have reasons for not wanting to get involved with you, with anyone."
"Let's just stick with me." He sat across from her. For the life of him he couldn't understand why he was so keyed up. He had very little time or energy to put into a relationship at this point in his life. He certainly wasn't looking for one. He corrected himself. Hadn't been. This one, one he couldn't seem to resist, had crashed onto his head. "Okay, Wilson, why don't we look at this logically? Engineers are logical people, right?"
"We are." She wished the flowers weren't sitting so bright and lovely between them.
"We have to work together for a few months yet. If there's tension between people, they don't work well. If we keep walking on eggshells around each other the way we have been the last couple weeks, the project's going to suffer."
"Okay, you have a point." She smiled. "But I'm not going to go to bed with you to ease the tension."
"And I thought you were dedicated." He sat back and braced his ankle on his knee. "If that's out…" He raised a questioning brow.
"Definitely."
"How about pizza and a movie?"
She started to speak, then stopped. She was logical. She was trained to take facts to the correct conclusion. "Nothing else?"
"That would depend."
"No." Shaking her head, Abra lifted her mother's untouched lemonade. "I prefer to deal in absolutes. If we agree to get to know each other, to try to develop a professional and a personal relationship, I have to know that the personal relationship will remain on a certain level. So we set ground rules."
He lifted a brow. "Should I get out my notepad?"
"If you like," she said mildly. "But I think we can keep it simple. We can see each other, as friends, as associates. No romantic situations."
Amused, Cody watched her. "Define 'romantic situation.'"
"I think you get the picture, Johnson. You're right in the sense that we are working closely together. If either one of us is in a snit, the work suffers. A personal understanding and respect can only lead to better professional communication."
"You ought to write that down for the next staff meeting." He held up a hand before she could snap at him. "Okay, we'll give it a shot your way. Pals." He leaned over and offered his hand. When she took it, he grinned. "Guess I'll have to take back the flowers."
"Oh, no. You gave them to me before we set the rules." She rose, pleased with herself. "I'll buy the pizza. You spring for the movie."
It was going to work. Over the next few days Abra congratulated herself on taking a potentially volatile situation and making it into a pleasant arrangement. There were times, inevitably, that they rubbed each other the wrong way on the job. When they saw each other after working hours, they met as casual friends to enjoy a meal or a show. If she caught herself longing for more after she dropped Cody at his hotel or he left her at her apartment, she smothered the need.
Little by little she learned more about him, about the farm he had grown up on, about his struggle to finish his education. He didn't speak of the financial hardships or the backbreaking hours he'd had to put in, but she was able, as their time together went on, to hear what he didn't say through what he did.
It changed her view of him. She'd seen him as a pampered, privileged partner in a top architectural firm. She hadn't considered the fact that he had worked his way Up to where he was in much the same way she had. Abra admired ambition when it was married with drive and old-fashioned hard labor.
She was more careful than he about giving away pieces of her private life. She spoke easily about her years with Thornway and about her admiration for the man who had given her her chance. But she never mentioned her family or her childhood. Though he noted the shield, Cody made no attempt to pierce it. What was growing between them was still fragile. He had no intention of pushing harder until a firm foundation had been laid.
If Abra was pleased with herself and the arrangement, Cody was growing more and more frustrated. He wanted to touch her-a fingertip to her cheek, a hand to her hair. He knew that if he made even so gentle a move the tenuous thread that was spinning between them would snap. Time and again he told himself to back off completely, to call a halt to their platonic evenings. But he couldn't. Seeing her, spending time with her, had become a habit too strong to break.
Still, he was beginning to think that whoever had said half a loaf was better than none hadn't known anything about real hunger.
Hands on hips, Abra stood and watched the crew of engineers and mechanics work on the mechanism for the sliding roof. The envelope for the glass was completed, and the glass itself would be installed at the end of the week. The sun beat mercilessly down on the smoothed concrete while she worried over her design like a mother hen.
"Darling!"
"Mom?" Her concentration broken, Abra managed to smooth her frown into a smile. "What are you doing here?"
"You talk about this place so much, I thought it was time I came to see for myself." She tilted her hard hat at a jaunty angle. "I talked Mr. Blakerman into giving me just a smidgen longer for my lunch hour." She linked arms with her daughter as they stood in the stream of sunlight. "Abra, this place is fabulous. Absolutely fabulous. Of course, I don't know anything about these things, and all those little places over there look like a bunch of stick houses in heaps of dirt."
"Those are the cabanas."
"Whatever. But that big building I saw when I drove in. Incredible. It looks like a castle out of the twenty-fourth century."
"That about sums it up."
"I've never seen anything like it before. It's so alluring, so majestic. Just the way I've always thought of the desert."
Abra glanced back at her mother. "Really?"
"Oh, yes. I can tell you, when I first saw it I could hardly believe my own little girl had a part in something so, well… grand." She beamed as she inspected the empty pool, which was even now being faced with mosaic tiles. She didn't miss the tanned, muscular arms of the laborers, either. "Why, it's shaped like a half moon. How clever. Everything's curved and arched, isn't it? It makes for a relaxed tone, don't you think? Just the right effect for a resort."
"I suppose," Abra murmured, hating to admit that she was beginning to see the appeal of it herself.
"What goes up there?"
Frowning again, Abra looked up through the roof at the hard blue sky. "Glass, movable glass. It'll be tinted to filter the sunlight. When it's opened, the two panels will separate and slide into the curve of the walls."
"Wonderful. I'd love to see it when it's finished. Do you have time to show me around, or should I just wander?"
"I can't leave just now. If you can-"
"Oh, look, there's your architect." Jessie automatically smoothed her skirt. She had already zeroed in on the shorter, broader man who was walking beside Cody. "And who's that distinguished-looking man with your beau?"
"He's not my beau." Abra took a swift look around to be certain no one had heard Jessie's remark. "I don't have or want a beau."
"That's why I worry about you, sweetheart."
Patience, Abra told herself. She would be patient. "Cody Johnson is my associate."
"Whatever you say, darling. But who's that with him?"
"That's Mr. Barlow. It's his resort."
"Really?" Jessie was already aiming a smile at Cody and holding out both hands. "Hello again. I was just telling Abra how much I like your design. I'm sure this is going to be the most beautiful resort in the state."
"Thank you. William Barlow, this is Abra's mother, Jessie Peters."
"Mother?" Barlow's bushy brows rose. He'd already tried, and failed, to suck in his stomach. "I didn't know Abra was only sixteen."
Jessie gave a delighted laugh. "I hope you don't mind my popping in like this, Mr. Barl
ow. I've been dying to see what Abra's been working on so long and hard. Now that I have, I'm convinced it's been worth it."
"We're very pleased with Abra's work. You can be proud of her."
"I've always been proud of Abra." Her lashes swept down, then up. "But tell me, Mr. Barlow, how did you ever imagine putting a resort here, and such a beautiful one?"
"That's a long story."
"Oh." Jessie sent a rueful look at Abra. "Well, I know I'm keeping everyone from their work. I'd hoped Abra could give me a little tour, but that will have to wait."
"Perhaps you'll allow me to show you around."
"I'd love it." Jessie put a hand on Barlow's beefy arm. "But I don't want to be in the way."
"Nonsense." Barlow gave her hand a quick pat. "We'll just leave everything in capable hands and have a nice stroll."
They started off, with Jessie sending a fleeting smile over her shoulder.
"There she goes again," Abra muttered.
"Hmm?"
"Nothing." With her hands jammed into her pockets, Abra turned away to watch her men. It disturbed her, and always had, to watch her mother in action. "We should have the wiring and supports finished by the end of the day."
"Good. Now do you want to tell me what's bugging you?"
Bad-temperedly she shrugged off the hand he put on her shoulder. "I said nothing. We had some problems with the angle."
"You've worked it out."
"At considerable time and expense."
They were going to fight. Knowing it, Cody rubbed the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger. "Don't you get tired of singing the same song?"
"With a slight change in degrees-"
"It would have changed the look, and the feel."
"A fly stuck on the glass wouldn't have noticed the changes I wanted."
"I would have noticed."
"You were being obstinate."
"No," Cody said slowly, struggling to pace his words well behind his temper. "I was being right."
"Stubborn. The same way you were being stubborn when you insisted we had to use solid sheets of glass rather than panes."
Without a word, Cody took her arm and dragged her away.
"What the hell are you doing?"
"Just shut up." With Abra dragging her heels, he pulled her down the steps into the empty pool. Laborers glanced over, tiles in hand, and grinned. Taking her face in his hands, he pushed her head back. "What do you see?"
"Sky, damn it. And if you don't let go you're going to see stars."
"That's right. Sky. That's what I want you to see. Whether the roof's open or whether it's closed. Not panes of glass, not a window, not a roof, but sky. It's my job to imagine, Wilson, and yours to make it work."
She shrugged out of his hold. The sides of the pool rose around them. If the water had been added, it would have been well over her head. For now the pool was like an arena.
"Let me tell you something, hotshot. Not everything that can be imagined can be engineered. Maybe that's not what people like you want to hear, but that's the way it is."
"You know the trouble with you, Red? You're too hung up to dream, too buttoned into your columns and calculations. Two and two always make four in your head, no matter how much better life might be if once in a while it came up five."
"Do you know how crazy that sounds?"
"Yeah. And I also know it sounds intriguing. Why don't you take a little time out to wonder why not instead of always assuming the negative?"
"I don't assume anything. I just believe in reality."
"This is reality," he said, grabbing her. "The wood, the glass, the steel, the sweat. That's reality. And damn it, so is this."
He clamped his mouth onto hers before either of them had a chance to think. Work around them stopped for ten humming seconds. Neither of them noticed. Neither of them cared. Abra discovered that, though the pool was indeed empty, she was still in over her head.
She'd wanted this. There was no denying it now, not when his lips were hot and demanding on hers. She curled her fingers into his work shirt, but not in protest. In possession. She held him close as the need spi-raled high inside her, very fast and, yes, very real.
He hadn't meant to touch her this way, to take what he had tried to convince himself she would give him in her own time. Patience had always been an integral part of his nature-the knowing when, the knowing how. But with her none of the old rules seemed to apply.
Perhaps if her response hadn't been so complete, if he hadn't tasted desire warm and waiting on her lips, he could have pulled back. But, like Abra, he was in over his head and sinking fast. For the first time in his life he wanted to sweep a woman up and away like some knight on a white charger. He wanted just as badly to drag her to the ground and have her like a primitive warrior reaping the spoils of victory. He wanted, like a poet, to light the candles and set the music. Most of all, he wanted Abra.
When he drew her away, she was dazed and speechless. He had kissed her before and sent the passion swimming. But there was something different, something deeper, something desperate, about this. For a moment she could only stand and stare at him, giddy with the knowledge that a woman could fall in love anywhere, anytime, even when she had barricaded her heart against it.
"That real enough for you?" Cody murmured.
She only shook her head as the buzzing in her brain cleared and separated into sounds. The whirl of drills, the slap of trowels, the murmur of men. The color rose into her cheeks quickly, and with it a combination of fury, embarrassment and self-reproach.
"How dare you do something like that here?"
He hooked his thumbs in his pocket when he realized he was still angry enough to do something rash and regrettable. "You got someplace else in mind?"
"Keep away from me, Johnson," she said under her breath. "Or you'll find yourself hauled up on sexual harassment charges."
His eyes remained very calm and very level. "We both know that what happened here has nothing to do with harassment, sexual or otherwise. It's personal, Red, and keeping my distance isn't going to make it go away."
"Fine," she said, going toe-to-toe with him. The argument interested the men around them almost as much as the kiss had. "If it's personal, let's keep it that way. Off the job, Johnson. I'm on Thornway time, and I don't intend to waste it arguing with you."
"Good."
"Good," she echoed, scrambling up the steps and out of the pool.
Cody rocked back on his heels as she stormed out of the building. They would both be off the clock soon enough.
Chapter Six
It was nearly five when Abra stopped by the trailer to splash cold water on her face. After her scene with Cody it seemed as if everything that could go wrong had. A part for the elevators had proved defective, and then there had been another tiff between Rodriguez and Swaggart. One of the carpenters had gotten a splinter in his eye, and Tim had dropped by the site to moan about the budget.
It had all started with her mother's visit, Abra thought as she wiped her dripping face with a towel. It wasn't fair to blame Jessie, but no matter when, no matter where, she was a woman who trailed complications behind her, then waited for other people to clear them up.
Maybe it wasn't right to resent the fact that her mother had hit it off so well with Barlow or to worry about the fallout. But history had a habit of repeating itself. The last thing Abra wanted added to her plate was the possibility of a romance between the owner of the project and her very susceptible mother.
Better to worry about her, Abra decided as she gathered up a load of files to take home. Jessie's varied and colorful love life was much safer to fret over than her own.
She didn't have a love life, Abra reminded herself. She didn't want a love life. Her plans, personal and professional, were all mapped out. She wasn't about to let some high-handed Florida cowboy botch them up.
What the hell had he been thinking of?
The moment the thought ran through her head, s
he grimaced and kicked the door open. She knew very well what he'd been thinking of, because she'd been thinking of exactly the same thing.
Rockets exploding, volcanoes erupting, tornadoes swirling. It was difficult to think of anything but power and chaos when she was in Cody's arms.
Was it that way for him, too? she wondered as she locked the trailer door. Did he lose part of himself when they came together? Did everything and everyone fade away until they seemed-no, until they were totally unimportant?
Of course not, she decided, and gave in enough to rest her forehead against the side of the trailer. He was just another good-looking man with a glib tongue and clever hands. The world was full of them. God knew her mother had made a science out of the search and discovery.
Not fair, Abra thought again as she straightened. Jessie's life was Jessie's life. It wasn't fair to Cody, either, she admitted, shifting the files and starting toward her car. He had initiated the kiss, but she had done nothing to stop it. That made her behavior every bit as outrageous and unprofessional as his.
She should have stopped it. A dozen times through the rest of the day she'd asked herself why she hadn't. It hadn't been shock, it hadn't even been overpowering lust. Though she would have preferred to lay the blame on either one. It had been… Just for a moment it had been as though something strange and wonderful and completely unexpected had happened. There had been more than need, more than passion, more than desire.
There had been a bang. Those rockets again, she ¦thought ruefully, looking at the buttes, which were shadowed in the lowering sun. But with this bang something had shaken loose. She'd almost believed she had fallen in love.
Which was nonsense, of course. She dug in her pocket for her keys. She was far too levelheaded to take that route ever again. Nonsense or not, the idea was giving her some bad moments.
So, she wouldn't think about it. There were plenty of other problems to occupy her mind, and most of them were in the files she carried. With a little effort and a lot of concentration she could dig out the calculations, work the equations and find the solutions. Finding a solution to Cody was out of her sphere, so she would leave it alone and spare herself the headache.
