Bunny Hills and Bikinis

by Heather Thurmeier

  Say something, stupid.

  “Sorry about that. I guess all the fun and excitement of the weekend is finally catching up with me.” He laughed, trying to lighten the weird feeling that hovered over the room like a thick plume of smoke.

  “As I was saying, I hope you all enjoyed your time here with me. I hope you learned a lot about team building—” he stopped.

  A commotion at Amelia and William’s table caught his attention.

  Nate couldn’t tell exactly what was going on, but from his angle, it looked like Amelia wanted to get up from the table and William was restraining her by the arm. Even from the distance, Nate could see William’s grip on her arm was tight. She scanned the room, noticed that Nate had stopped speaking and glanced at him. The streaks of tears running down her cheeks were visible, even from a distance.

  Something was very wrong.

  Finally she broke free of William’s grasp and bolted from the room, William right behind her.

  His head spun. What should he do? Go after her and leave his speech hanging in the middle like that? Ignore them and let it be their problem since they were probably just having a lover’s quarrel? He didn’t want to be a part of that. But what if Amelia was in trouble? What if William had done something to hurt her?

  Damn it.

  “So anyway, thanks for coming this weekend,” Nate continued. He refused to look at Jim who was sure to disapprove of this poor excuse for a closing speech. “I hope you had a good time and learned a lot and if you did, please take a few moments to fill out a comment card to evaluate the workshop before you leave. Now please enjoy the buffet and if you’ll excuse me there’s something I need to see to,” he rushed through the words, barely getting them out in a coherent way.

  He dashed away from the podium and out of the door Amelia and William had just disappeared through, not stopping long enough to let anyone speak to him. There would be time for talking later. Now was the time for action.

  He skidded into the lobby and scanned the area for where they could have gone. Spotting them by one of the doors that led out to the back deck overlooking the ski runs, he raced toward them. He had to know what was up with them and what had made Amelia so upset.

  Just as he neared them, he heard Amelia’s voice again, shaky and weak. “I can’t okay. I just can’t. If you don’t understand why, then leave me the hell alone.” She bolted for the nearest exit door.

  Nate came to a stop, too confused to do much of anything but watch.

  William didn’t hesitate. Instead, he took off after her, following her out into the cold morning air. “Wait, Amelia.” The door closed behind him.

  Why was William going after her when she’d just told him to leave her alone? Something was wrong, Nate was sure of it now. He didn’t bother to glance back into the conference room to see if everyone watched him or wondered what was happening to make him leave so quickly. He didn’t give a shit if they were. He just wanted to make sure William wasn’t pushing himself on Amelia again because it looked an awful lot like that might be the case.

  If it was, William was in for a world of hurt.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Nate pushed open the door to the back deck area and instantly wished he could be anywhere else but here. Amelia was wrapped in William’s arms, her face buried in his chest. Nate’s own chest felt like it had just been pounded open with a sledgehammer.

  He turned back toward the door to leave the two lovers alone and in peace. Seeing him in the conference room must have upset her after how she’d betrayed him and he didn’t feel like talking to her about it anymore. Better to leave things as they were and simply walk away. No good would come from a confrontation with them.

  “No, please don’t,” Amelia’s voice begged William.

  Nate stopped, frozen in place with his hand on the door handle. He wanted to walk inside and leave them alone to deal with their own problems, but his body wouldn’t let him. Not after he heard her say those words with that kind of tone in her voice.

  “Please don’t. It won’t help. I’m sorry. It’s my fault, not yours,” she said again.

  “Amelia, you have to let me,” said William forcefully. “I have to make this right.”

  “I said no,” she cried out, her voice straining like she was in pain.

  That’s it.

  Nate turned from the door and stormed up to William. Grabbing him by the collar of his shirt, he ripped him away from Amelia. As William turned, a shocked expression on his face, Nate pulled back his right arm and balled his hand into a fist, slamming it into the side of William’s face.

  “She said stop, you pig,” Nate yelled, pulling back his arm to strike him again.

  Amelia pushed between him and William and Nate let his hand fall to the side. He couldn’t risk hitting her by accident even though he really, really wanted to put another dent in the punk’s ugly face.

  “Nate,” she screamed in his face. “What the hell are you doing?”

  “I’m getting this pig to leave you alone once and for all, that’s what.” He stared past her at William. Blood poured from his nose, turning the snow beneath his face a deep red. Seeing William hurt gave him a strange satisfaction. “What makes you think you can manhandle her anytime you want? You deserve that for putting your hands on her again.”

  “What?” Amelia sounded confused. Her eyes still glistened, but the rivers of tears on her cheeks had dried. “What on earth are you talking about Nate? William’s hands weren’t on me.”

  “It sure didn’t seem that way. Are you just trying to cover for him?” he asked. Was she one of those battered girlfriends who would stick up for her boyfriend even as she sported a black eye?

  No, she couldn’t be. Amelia was strong-willed, outspoken, and certainly wouldn’t let herself be pushed around by someone like William.

  “Nate, he was trying to comfort me, you idiot.”

  “Comfort you why? What did he do to you?” he demanded. There had to be more to this story.

  “It’s not what he did, it’s what you did.” She jabbed her finger into Nate’s chest.

  Even though her touch was in anger, it still felt nice to feel her body connect with his. He’d missed it more in the last twelve hours than he cared to admit.

  Wait, what did she just say? My fault?

  He pointed at William who still lay in the snow holding his nose. “How is any of this my fault? I’m the one who stopped him from forcing himself on you again like he did outside your room.” He paused, thinking back on it. “Wait. Maybe he hadn’t forced himself on you. Were you two already an item back then, the first time I stopped him from kissing you? Was he going in for a kiss like any good boyfriend would do?”

  “No, we weren’t an item then. We’re still not an item.” She shook her head at him, her eyes scrunching up around the corners. It was cute.

  Focus.

  “Then I’m not following you. How is it my fault he wouldn’t listen to you when you were telling him to stop, because I’m pretty sure that’s all him?”

  “It’s your fault because I wasn’t telling him to stop touching me,” she said.

  “Great, thanks for clearing that up. It makes me feel a ton better knowing you’re happy with him and his slimy hands all over your body.”

  “Would you shut up and listen?”

  He shut his mouth and waited.

  “I told him to stop because I didn’t want him going after you, okay? I was stopping him from going off and hitting you and now you’ve turned around and hit him instead. This is such a mess.”

  “Why would he come after me? What the hell did I do to him?” Nate felt even more confused than he was before Amelia had started explaining.

  “Because you left me that note and broke my heart. There, are you happy now?” Tears spilled from her eyes again. “William’s been trying to make me feel better since you closed the door on me last night, and every time I think I’m finally getting myself under control again, I think about our night
together and I fall to pieces all over again.”

  She pulled a ratty tissue from her pocket and wiped her nose. “Seeing you this morning was more than I could handle. I wanted some distance from you and now here you are, in my face again.”

  Nate felt deflated. “Is that why you left in the middle of my closing speech? Is that why William tried to hold you back?”

  “Yes.” She spoke so quietly he almost didn’t hear her. “I couldn’t stand to see you up there, knowing I’d never get to be with you again because you were done with me.”

  Nate shook his head and reached for her hands. She crossed them in front of her chest so he couldn’t. Shoving his hands into his pockets instead, he took a deep breath before speaking again.

  “I didn’t do this to us,” he started. “You did. You’re the one who lied to me about your dinner with William. You said it was for work, but I saw you guys together and there’s no way what I watched was a work dinner. Hell, William even told me he was my competition after your little lunch date together. But I guess one date wasn’t enough for you, was it? You needed to have a real date at a romantic restaurant so you lied to me about being tired.”

  “I was tired and it was work, Nate. I swear I didn’t lie to you.”

  He couldn’t help but raise his voice as he pointed an accusing finger at her. “Don’t lie to me anymore. You held his hand. You shared a bottle of wine. You leaned into him as he stroked your cheek. That wasn’t work.”

  He was so furious he wanted to hit something again. William would do, but he still wisely took a back seat to this conversation and sat on the snowy ground. Nate alternated making fists and relaxing his hands instead, trying to get the tension out of them without anymore violence. He wasn’t a violent man, but love could drive a person to do crazy things sometimes.

  Love? Yes.

  “Stop lying to me, Amelia.”

  “It was work.” She held up her hand to him and spoke in a calm voice. “Let me finish explaining before you start disagreeing with me again.” She took a deep breath before continuing. “It was work. William caught me leaving your room yesterday morning and he told me that if I didn’t agree to one date with him, he would get us both fired.”

  “He did what?” Nate moved to go around Amelia so he could get to William again. “You blackmailed her for a date? Are you kidding me?”

  “I had to,” William defended himself. “I didn’t want to. I wanted a date and she couldn’t see past your ugly face for long enough to give me one.”

  “You didn’t have to blackmail her. You could have listened to her tell you no. You did this for your own sick pleasure,” Nate yelled, the fury boiling inside of him.

  “None of this would have happened if you had kept your filthy hands off of Amelia to begin with,” William yelled back.

  Nate took a step around Amelia to get to William. He was totally justified in hitting him. Any jury would see that.

  “Wait. Don’t hit him again,” Amelia begged, stepping in front of Nate and putting her hands on his chest to stop him. The feel of her hands on his body again was enough to take his attention from William and focus it on her again.

  “I agreed to it,” she continued quietly. “It was my choice to go. He promised he’d be a perfect gentleman and if at any point I was done with the date, he’d be fine with that. He wouldn’t hold me to anything and he wouldn’t rat us out to our jobs.”

  “Well, isn’t that so kind of him.” Nate snarled in William’s direction. “So why the touching at the restaurant then? Did you all of a sudden start to have feelings for the blackmailer?”

  “No. I don’t know. Not really,” she stumbled over her words.

  That doesn’t sound very convincing.

  “I didn’t have romantic feelings for him, but I did feel bad for him. He told me a lot of stuff about his feelings that I didn’t know before and it made me sad I couldn’t reciprocate them. That’s all. I felt bad turning him down, but I did turn him down. Nothing happened between us. Nothing.”

  “She’s right, dude,” William piped up from the snow. “She told me it was you who she wanted to be with, not me. Then she left me only to find the note from you shoved under her door, like a spineless weasel I might add. Bad move, dude. Bad move. Now who’s the one treating her like shit?”

  Nate ignored William’s comments. Getting into it with him wasn’t going to fix this. He needed to focus on making things right with Amelia. He put his hands on top of hers, holding them tighter against the ache burning in his chest.

  “Why didn’t you just come to me when he threatened you instead of trying to deal with him on your own?”

  This time when he squeezed her hands again she smiled back at him instead of pushing him away. He pulled her closer, their bodies almost touching, her warmth cutting through the cold air.

  “I thought I could handle it and then it would be over and we could be together. I didn’t want to risk your job, not after you told me how much you were looking forward to your promotion and all that traveling you wanted to do. Especially not after Jim turned up here unexpectedly and made you even more stressed.”

  Amelia looked down at her feet and Nate felt his defenses crumbling. He hated seeing her defeated. He wanted to see the strong feisty Amelia he’d fallen in love with, not this defeated, tired girl before him.

  He sucked in a breath. Fallen in love? Yes. He did love her. How had that happened so fast?

  Amelia looked back up at him, her lashes heavy with fresh tears. “I didn’t want to be the reason you missed out on your dream.”

  “You could never get in the way of my dream.” He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her flush against him. Her body fit perfectly with his. “You are my dream.”

  Tilting her chin up to him with his hand, he peered into her eyes. “I would happily lose a thousand jobs if it meant I could have one more night with you.”

  He brought his lips to hers, softly brushing them across her mouth. “Just one more night,” he whispered, before pressing his lips firmly against hers. She gasped and opened her mouth to let him in, meeting his tongue with hers, licking his lip with a flicker. He groaned, plunging deeper into her mouth, pushing aside any remaining doubt he’d had about her feelings for him. They were transparent in the way she kissed him back.

  A click sounded somewhere near them. Nate pulled away from her long enough to notice William was gone. Only a red stain in the snow remained as a reminder of his role in all of this. Finally they were alone again.

  “Don’t ever do something like that again, okay?” Nate asked. “I will happily do whatever it takes to protect you from anything and everything from this point on. Deal?”

  “Deal. But I’m not sure that’s going to be much of an issue since our weekend is over and we’re supposed to go back to our real lives. In two different places.”

  “I don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow, but I know we still have today.” He kissed her again. The feel of her lips on his was better than he could have hoped for. He could live happily for a hundred years as long as he had these lips to kiss each day. “I love you, Amelia, and I will do whatever necessary to be with you if you’ll just let me.”

  She smiled again. A playful grin he’d only seen once or twice before, but that he hoped he’d see many more times in the future.

  “You love me?” she teased. “After one little weekend together, you can be certain that you really love me?”

  “Absolutely and without a single doubt in my mind. The only question is whether or not you love me back.”

  “I do. I do love you, Nate, and only you.”

  Epilogue

  Amelia leaned back against Nate while they stood on the balcony attached to their hotel suite, his arms wrapped around her securely, his chin resting in the crook of her shoulder. As she peered out over the ocean, she was overcome with a feeling of contentment for him, for her new life.

  The last six months had been a whirlwind, but now that she was finally
getting settled, she’d never been happier.

  After their crazy workshop had ended Nate had gotten such rave evaluations on the comment cards from the workshop attendees that he’d been given the promotion he’d always wanted. He’d relocated his home base to a tiny apartment in New York City and started on the east-coast circuit almost immediately.

  Amelia hadn’t been eager to go back to life as usual in Minneapolis. With Nate’s encouragement and her desire to be with him, she’d left her job and taken one doing online marketing for the workshops instead. She loved the work and the best part was she could do it from anywhere—including a new hotel room every few days.

  “This place is amazing,” she said as the reflection of the sun danced along the water’s surface. “I’ve never seen anything so beautiful in my whole life.”

  “I have.” Nate kissed the side of her neck and sent a shiver down her back and warmth into her core. “You are more beautiful than any place I’ve ever been. I love you so much.”

  “I love you too. Especially when you’re laying on the flattery as thick as cream cheese on a bagel. That makes me hungry for bagels.” She laughed.

  “That’s good, I’m glad to hear I make you think of bagels. Excellent.” His sarcasm was a thick as cream cheese, too.

  “That’s not what I meant.” She giggled and turned in his arms so their chests were pressed together. She went up on her toes and kissed him. Their kisses were still filled with passion, but now they were sprinkled with hints of comforting familiarity, too. “You know, sometimes I still can’t believe this is all real, that this is my life now, with you.”

  Leaving Minneapolis and a job she only marginally liked to move in with Nate had been the right choice. She hadn’t looked back since. Sure, she missed her friends and family, but she stayed in contact with them as best as she could, and she and Nate both agreed to go home to visit at least twice a year. It was as good a compromise as they could manage and they were happy with the arrangement.