by Zara Chase
“Why spoil a surprise? Look, I have to go, but you know where to find me. Let’s have a drink together soon. I want to know how you get on.”
“Now you’ve really made me really nervous.”
Casey just laughed, waved to Ellie, and was out the door. Ellie wiped steam from the window with her sleeve and watched Casey walk across the road, the guy who’d tapped on the window close at her side. Another equally good-looking man joined them, and the trio disappeared inside the Emporium.
“What’s that all about?” Ellie wondered aloud.
* * * *
Josh surveyed the building site that was supposed to be his dream hotel and expelled a long, frustrated breath.
“Relax, buddy,” Rex said, slapping him on the shoulders. “It’ll all come together in time. You know it will. Our projects always do.”
“All I know is that I must be out of my freaking mind even thinking I could make a go of this damned thing. It’s one fucking problem after another.” Josh scowled at the retreating foreman, having sent him away with a flea in his ear. “Why tell me the timber for the bar hasn’t arrived? What the heck does he expect me to do about it? It’s his job to coordinate supplies.” Josh scrubbed a hand down his face. “Why do I surround myself with incompetent idiots?”
“He’s not incompetent, he’s just keeping you informed. You didn’t need to chew him out like that.”
“No, you’re right. I shouldn’t have chewed him out like that.” Josh shook his head. “I guess I need to apologize.”
“It couldn’t hurt. Come on. The promotions woman’s due any minute. Let’s go and meet her. It’ll take your mind off things.”
“She’ll probably be useless as well,” Josh grumbled as he trailed along behind Rex. “We should have done the interviews ourselves.”
“You couldn’t spare the time,” Rex reminded him.
“Yeah, that’s true. I just didn’t expect so many applications. Anyway, we were needed in New York. I haven’t yet figured out how to be in two places at once.”
Rex chuckled. “I dare say you’ll come up with a way. Anyway, relax. The agency that handled the applications hasn’t let us down when we’ve needed help in the past.”
Josh refused to be placated. “We haven’t taken on such a harebrained project before either, all because I have a point to prove.” He threw himself into the chair behind his desk. “Okay then. Where’s this Ellie Kirkwood character?”
He checked his watch, vaguely recalling that he once met an Ellie, a friend of a friend, back in New York. He had no idea what her last name was, but it surely couldn’t be the same person, could it? Life didn’t deal out those sorts of coincidences.
Rex flipped through the agency’s report. “She was employed by a big conglomerate in Denver straight from college and was with them for seven years,” he said. “She’s twenty-eight, British—”
“British?” The Ellie he’d met in New York was British. Even so, it couldn’t possibly be, could it?
Rex waved the report at Josh. “That’s what it says.”
“But went to college here?”
“Apparently. She worked her way up the ladder and was well respected by everyone. Her boss has given her a glowing review.”
Josh scowled. “Why did she leave, then?”
“Wanted to be her own boss, pursue her own ideas without the restraints of a parent company, blah, blah—”
“Sounds a bit odd to me.” Josh took the résumé from Rex’s hand and scanned its contents himself. “She was earning a good wage and threw it all in for no apparent reason.” He scowled. “Do you buy that? Not many people resign from the outfit she worked for out of choice.”
“Dunno, but she’s worked on some pretty high-profile campaigns and seems to know all the right people, so hopefully we’ll benefit from that.”
“I reserve judgment. It’s easy to know the right people when you work for the sort of outfit she was with. I’m betting it’s a different matter getting their attention when you’re going it alone. Anyway, if I don’t like her or her ideas, then she doesn’t get to stay.”
Rex rolled his eyes. “What else is new?”
“I’m serious, Rex. I have an odd feeling about this.”
“You’re just overwrought, buddy.”
“Hello, is anyone there?”
A sleek curtain of long, silky black hair appeared around the door. An attractive face with translucent skin, finely etched features, and a pert nose dusted with freckles emerged from beneath the canopy of silk. Large green eyes latched onto Josh and widened in evident alarm.
“What on earth are you doing here?” the owner of the eyes asked him.
Chapter Two
“Ellie?” Josh half rose from his chair. “What the—”
“You,” she said accusingly at the same time, barely able to believe her eyes.
Ellie stepped into the room, her insides churning with anger as she gazed into the eyes of the man who had unceremoniously dumped her best friend, almost at the altar, and disappeared into the sunset.
“Am I missing something?” the other man in the room asked, his words cutting through the electric atmosphere. Ellie and Josh ignored him and continued to glare at one another. “Excuse me, earth to Josh. What the hell’s going on? I take it you two know one another.”
“You could say that,” Josh responded curtly.
“I’ve obviously made a mistake.” Ellie turned toward the door. “I can’t work with you.”
“You have no choice,” Josh said. “You already signed the contract.”
Ellie tossed her hair and treated him to a belligerent glare. “Only because I had no idea you were behind this scheme. How was I supposed to know that you grew up in Spirit?”
“Glad to know the gossip machine continues to thrive,” he said caustically.
“It doesn’t matter where I heard that. All that counts is that you and I can’t work together. Frankly, I’m surprised you’d even want to.”
“Sometimes I surprise myself. Rise above your personal feelings, sweetheart, and be professional. There’s no time to find anyone else.”
“I’m not your sweetheart, thank God. Show me some respect, if you even know the meaning of the word.”
Another heavy silence descended as Ellie and Josh glared at one another, neither willing to look away first. Even though Ellie hated him for what he’d done to Annabel, she couldn’t deny his attractiveness. Over six feet of hard, taut muscle and the powerful aura of a man who was used to getting what he wanted out of life. Yeah, Ellie completely got what Annabel had seen in him. She’d only met him a couple of times when she’d gone to visit Annabel in New York, but she’d never forgotten him. He wasn’t the sort of guy any woman could forget easily, which made it hard for her to accept that he’d treated her college roommate so shabbily. She’d had him pegged as a man of principle. He’d grown up with nothing and had made a success of himself in a very short space of time, driven by ambition and an obvious need to prove himself. Shame he hadn’t learned how to treat people right along the way. Still, wasn’t ruthless disregard for the feelings of others the hallmark of a natural entrepreneur?
He continued to glare at her, an ironic half smile flirting with his lips, as though he found her dilemma amusing. Instead of thinking about her next move, she registered his thick, dirty-blond hair, a little too long, just the way she’d remembered it. It flopped across his brow and touched the collar of his shirt. She felt an irrational desire to push it away from his eyes, as though he was a small child in need of tidying up.
But Josh Cooper wasn’t a child, she reminded herself. He was a dangerously attractive man. She had every reason to think the worst of him, but it seemed she might also have to work with him. Hazel eyes flecked with silver projected annoyance and a superior kind of smug satisfaction that infuriated her. Even so, she was obliged to swallow several times, wondering why her body felt so alive. Why her nipples should tighten and her pussy moisten while crossing sword
s with a man she actively disliked was a total mystery. It was insanity in its purest form.
“Since you both appear to have been struck dumb,” the other man said, “I’ll introduce myself. I’m Rex Moore, Josh’s business partner. And you, presumably, are Ellie Kirkwood.” Rex stuck out his hand. “Pleased to meet you.”
Ellie took his hand. His long fingers closed about hers, and her sensitized body sizzled with awareness. “Yes, I’m Ellie,” she said shortly, imagining that her face must be washed with color, playing havoc with her freckles. It always happened when she got mad, and right now she literally burned with anger.
“Well, now that we’re all acquainted, why don’t we sit down and talk about this?” Rex suggested. “Whatever this is.”
Rex led the way to a comfortable arrangement of chairs on the opposite side of the office, motioning Ellie to one of them. She sank into it, simply because she didn’t know what else to do.
“Coffee?” Rex asked.
“No thanks. I won’t be staying.”
“Yeah, you will,” Josh said, taking the chair directly across from her. “If you want to work anywhere in this country ever again, that is.”
Ellie leaned forward and offered him the benefit of her best assault glare. “Why are you so determined to keep me here when it must be obvious that we can’t work together?”
“I thought you were a professional.”
“I am, but I can’t do a professional job for a man I don’t respect.”
“Hey, hold up.” Rex raised a hand, palm toward Ellie. “That’s my buddy you’re talking about.”
“Then perhaps you should choose your friends more carefully.”
Ellie knew she shouldn’t have said that, but every time she thought of how distraught Annabel had been by Josh’s desertion, renewed anger made her incautious. Annabel had fallen in and out of love many times, but her beautiful, spirited friend was usually the one to end the relationships because she got bored. She bounced back pretty quickly when she wielded control, but Josh’s arbitrary behavior had destroyed her. She’d been smitten from day one and was deliriously happy. When he left her, she was almost suicidal, and for a while Ellie was seriously worried about her mental health.
“Is one of you going to tell me what this is all about?” Rex asked, clearly losing patience.
“Your buddy dumped my best friend for no apparent reason, having agreed to marry her, that’s what it’s about.”
“Marry her?” Josh looked convincingly confused.
“Yes, marry her,” Ellie shot back. “She had her dress picked out and everything.”
“Ah, now I start to get it,” Rex said, rubbing his brow as though their sparring had made his head start to hurt. Ellie understood it, because she was fighting off a headache, too. A six-foot-one headache with piercing hazel eyes and attitude who was really starting to piss her off. “The gossip columnist you dated in New York while I was over in Belize, right?”
“That’s the one.”
“He did more than just date her. They were together for almost six months, practically lived together. He made promises and then bailed on her.”
“Is that what she told you?” Josh asked, his tone silk on steel.
“Look,” Rex said, raising both hands this time. “I don’t know what happened between Josh and your friend, and you probably don’t either.”
“But I do! Annabel said—”
“Enough. You took a job with us, and we expect you to see it through.” She had Rex down as easygoing, so his intransigence surprised her. “If you’re not professional enough to put personal animosities aside, then you’d best say so right now while there’s still time for us to find someone else.”
Josh watched her from beneath half-lowered eyelids, leaning back in his chair, as relaxed as though they were discussing the weather. Damn him, how dare he be so casual when she was wound tighter than a coiled cobra—or should that be a coiled spring? One foot rested on his opposite thigh, and those damned thighs looked as taut as the rest of him. Still, it didn’t matter how imposing a figure he cut. If he was the sort who kissed and ran, he had no integrity and she didn’t like him.
“I can be professional,” she said stiffly, damned if she’d crumble beneath Josh Cooper’s blistering gaze. “When do I start?”
“Tell us why you left that publicity giant you worked for,” Josh demanded. Not asked, Ellie noticed, bridling. It definitely wasn’t a request. It was an impolite demand.
“I wanted to—”
“The real reason.”
“All right.” If she told them the truth, they’d probably peg her as a hysterical woman and give her the elbow anyway. Then she’d be out of here quicker than the workforce of her previous employer at quitting time on a Friday. Which is what she wanted, wasn’t it? Josh Cooper in her life would be one complication too many. “I worked all the hours God sent for seven years, never took my vacation time, sold my soul to that company, and—”
“And got well paid for it.”
“Yes, but I wasn’t motivated by money. That wasn’t what it was about. I wanted recognition for what I’d achieved through promotion, which is when people start to notice you.” She paused, glancing down at hands clasped so tightly in her lap that her knuckles had turned white. She could sense Josh following the direction of her gaze and forced her fingers to relax. Hell, it still hurt when she thought of how she’d been passed over as though her contribution counted for nothing. Still, she was damned if she’d show weakness before this Greek god. “I had an assistant who I trained up and then covered for when he screwed up.”
“And let me guess,” Josh said, his tone softening fractionally. “He got the promotion over you.”
“Yep. And not because he was any better than me. He wasn’t.” She finally lifted her head and met Josh’s gaze. “He got it because he was my male boss’s secret boyfriend.”
“Shit,” Rex said. “That’s tough.”
“So you just threw in the towel and ran?” Josh said scathingly. “I had you down as a fighter.”
Ellie’s gaze swiveled in Josh’s direction. “What would you have done? The whole place knew what had happened but not why. My reputation was shot, and I was the butt of everyone’s jokes. No one would take me seriously after that.” She shook her head. “Besides, I would have had to report to my goddamned assistant.”
“But your boss gave you a glowing testimonial,” Josh said.
“Only if I went without revealing his secret,” she said. “I deserved all the things he said about me but had to horse trade with him to get them.”
“Yeah, life can be a real bitch sometimes.”
Josh’s cool dismissal of her grievances fuelled her anger. She averted her gaze and looked at Rex instead. That didn’t help her to calm down much. He was just as fit as Josh and had the added bonus of an amiable personality. Almost as tall as his buddy, with thick, curly brown hair and intelligent gray eyes, Ellie suspected that little escaped his notice. She understood now why Casey had said she was in for a treat. Shame about Josh, but, if they really did force her to go through with this fiasco, she’d ignore him as much as possible and deal directly with Rex.
Ellie recalled Annabel talking about Josh’s partner, telling her they were closer than brothers. That was apparent in the way they communicated now by making occasional eye contact, no words necessary. They’d been involved in some sort of development in Belize that Rex oversaw while Josh and Annabel were involved, which was why Ellie hadn’t meet Rex when she went to stay with Annabel. Shame, they could have double-dated.
Whoa! Where did that come from?
“What have you been told about our project here?” Rex asked.
* * * *
Josh watched Rex and Ellie interact, understanding now why he’d been in such a funk all day. His trusty sixth sense had been trying to warn him that trouble was on its way, albeit in a very tempting package. And Ellie Kirkwood was certainly that. He’d thought so on the couple of occasio
ns he’d met her with Annabel and, in spite of her attitude today, had no reason to change his mind.
Tall and slim with all that silky hair and eyes too large for her face, she had a penchant for both speaking her mind and playing devil’s advocate. He remembered her from before, intelligently arguing with him over some political point late at night when drink had loosened all their tongues, refusing to back down when he and Annabel sided against her.
Her tits were pert and firm. She had a slim waist and a cute butt that could give a man ideas. Hell, in spite of everything, it already had. He could see that Rex was already taken with her. Josh would admit to feeling the same way, but for the specter of Annabel spoiling the party. Ellie thought he was the guilty party. If he tried to put her right, Annabel would probably tell her he was lying, and who would she believe then?
Her friend, of course. Just as well, really, Josh thought, stretching his arms above his head and grimacing. If she disliked him, then sexual tension wouldn’t rear its ugly head during their working days. Well, it would. It already had come to that, but if she could ignore it, he sure as hell could. Besides, Rex and Josh liked to share their women.
Annabel had been the exception to that rule in more ways than one. When he felt no desire to introduce her to Rex in a personal way, he’d pretended it was only because his buddy wasn’t around much at the time, but in his heart he’d always known he was deluding himself. His reaction told him all he needed to know about the relationship, and he should have gotten the hell out of Dodge while he still could. Except he hadn’t been thinking with his brain at the time.
Ellie was altogether another matter, Josh thought, eyeing her speculatively as she chatted with Rex. Unfortunately, he doubted whether she was a player. Far as he could tell a year ago when he first met her, she was married to her work and had no time for men, singularly or otherwise.
