by Cora Seton
No, wait—
The sound of a tent fly being unzipped stopped her in her tracks. Someone was here. Was it Samantha?
No. Curtis. Daisy following at his heels.
He’d have to do, Addison decided. The boning of the corset must have rubbed a welt into her skin by this point. Every move she made was torture, and she honestly thought she might cry if someone didn’t help loosen it. He wouldn’t see anything. These outfits had so many layers she could strip several of them off and still have more clothes on than she would have worn on a normal summer day.
“Curtis, wait. Can you help me?” she called as he headed off toward the building site.
“What’s up?” He turned around at her voice.
“Come here.” She gestured impatiently, and when he made his way over, she told him, “I need someone to untie me. It’s an emergency.”
She tugged him inside her tent, zipped the flap back up, knelt down on her pallet and presented her back to him. Outside, Daisy whined. “Undo my dress,” Addison ordered.
“Uh… Addison. Are you sure—”
She was past caring about modestly. Way past. The corset felt like sandpaper rubbing a wound. “Right now, Curtis!”
Daisy yipped again.
Curtis shushed her. “Okay, okay.” He must have caught the desperation in Addison’s voice, for his fingers worked at the fastenings of the dress and soon enough he had them off. “I’ll leave you to it.” He already had a hand on the tent’s zipper when she turned on him.
“Curtis, I need you!” Addison got herself under control and lowered her voice as Daisy barked a warning outside. Curtis didn’t understand how much pain she was in. “It’s not my dress. It’s my corset. It’s rubbing so bad.”
The big man hesitated. “Maybe we should find someone else—”
“Curtis, please! And tell Daisy to stop.” Daisy was still barking. She was sure to attract someone’s attention.
With a sigh, Curtis shushed the dog again and began to work at the corset lacings, but it took forever for him to get them undone. Crouched in the low tent, her knees aching from the cramped position, Addison wanted to tear the whole outfit off and be done with it.
Instead she stayed still until the knots gave way and he was able to work the laces until she could breathe freely.
“What masochist did you up this morning?” Curtis chuckled now that the job was done.
“Riley. She didn’t mean to screw it up, but we were both in a hurry.”
“You want to take that off?”
“No.” The dress simply wouldn’t work without it. She straightened out the undergarment and realized her shift had become bunched up beneath it. No wonder it had been so uncomfortable. She adjusted its folds to a better arrangement. “Do me up again. Just leave me some breathing room this time. A lot of breathing room.”
It took even longer for Curtis to do up the corset again loosely. Addison began to grow aware of the position they were in. Daisy was still whining from time to time outside the tent.
“Hurry up before someone else comes.”
“Exactly what I was trying to say before.” Another minute went by, Addison counting every second. “There. All done. Now, your dress.” He helped her pull it on and got that done up, too. “Right as rain.” He undid the tent flap, climbed out and Addison followed him. There was no one in sight except Daisy, who danced with joy at Curtis’s feet now that he’d reappeared.
“Thank you,” Addison said in relief. “That was perfect. You were fast.”
“Magic fingers,” Curtis said, gesturing with his hands. “Don’t say I’m not talented.”
“You’re talented, all right.”
She headed for the bunkhouse, breathing freely for the first time that day. The place where the corset had rubbed was still uncomfortable, but she was far better off than she’d been before. She reached the bunkhouse nearly a full half hour after she should have been there.
“Kai? Sorry I’m late. What do you want me to do first?”
The kitchen was empty. Addison was about to go looking for Kai when he came in behind her, went straight to the refrigerator and began to pull out food.
“There you are,” she said cheerfully. “Should I chop some onions?” Every meal seemed to start with onions.
“Not today.”
“Salad stuff?”
Kai grunted. She wasn’t sure what that meant.
“Lettuce first?”
“Look,” Kai said, dumping the load of vegetables he’d fetched from the refrigerator onto the counter. “Thanks for coming around and helping all the time, but I don’t need you tonight. All right? In fact, maybe you should—” He cut off, but Addison could guess what he meant to say. Maybe you should leave.
Addison stilled. What had happened? “But—Why—?” Was Kai still upset about that phone call?
“Can’t you give me some space?” he growled.
“Of course.” Addison rushed from the room.
Chapter Ten
‡
WHEN KAI WOKE up to a torrential downpour slapping against the fly of his tent, he knew the day wasn’t going to go well. He’d learned there was no sense trying to avoid getting wet on mornings like these. The best way to keep from spending the rest of the day damp was to dress in the bunkhouse. He threw on yesterday’s boxer briefs, gathered new ones and the rest of his clothes, shoved his feet in his boots, climbed out of his tent, getting soaked while zipping the flap back up, and dashed to the bunkhouse to find several soggy Base Camp members already there.
Angus catcalled when he caught sight of Kai in his boxers, and Riley flung her hands up to block her eyes, quickly turning her back to him. Kai hotfooted it to the kitchen, peeled off his soaking drawers, dried off with a towel and dressed in the outfit he’d managed to keep reasonably dry on his dash to the building.
He turned to find a crew filming the whole process.
“You’d better not show my bare ass on TV,” he snarled.
“We won’t. We’ll just save it to blackmail you with later. We got more than your ass,” Chris said with a grin. He was an older member of the camera crew. A real smart aleck.
“Out. Out!” Kai wasn’t in the mood for the crew’s banter. He didn’t care if they flashed his genitals to the whole world. His life was already shit. Sleeping alone last night had brought home how badly he was going to miss Addison.
But he’d been hurt before and survived.
The crew retreated. “Got enough footage of you cooking to last a lifetime, anyway,” Chris said as they disappeared into the main room, where the cacophony of voices told him more people had arrived. No one would get anything other than the most basic outside chores done on a day like this. People were going to be bored, wet—cranky.
He needed to do what he could to stave that off.
Breakfast burritos it was—with the last of their store-bought tortillas. Everyone loved breakfast burritos. Not fancy, not flashy.
Just pure, yummy calories. One final feast. No more of those until the show was over—without flour, he couldn’t make them.
“How can I help?”
Addison stood in the doorway, obviously unsure about her welcome.
She should be, Kai thought. He’d heard enough last night to understand she was having a relationship with Curtis. An intimate relationship.
He’d been fooled by Addison. She’d made him think she was the kind of woman who waited until she really knew a man before she got intimate with him. The kind of woman who’d meant it when she’d agreed to marry him. Instead she’d played him with as much callousness as a hustler on the street.
Now he wanted her gone, before she finished the job of destroying him. He’d only known her a short time, but… damn it… he’d—
No, he told himself. He hadn’t fallen in love with her. He wasn’t that stupid.
But he was. Stupid enough to pick the same kind of woman he always picked—sexy, flighty, devil-may-care gypsies who set you alight while
they were with you—
And then walked away from the blaze without a backward look.
She’d said she’d marry him. Then slipped away into a tent with Curtis, leaving Daisy to guard the door. He couldn’t believe how wrong he’d been about her.
“Kai? You seen my paperweight?” Boone stuck his head in the door.
“Paperweight? The bullet one?” It had sat on Boone’s desk since Kai had gotten to Base Camp—a large caliber World War II bullet encased in resin.
“That’s the one.”
“No, man. Sorry.”
Boone disappeared, and Kai got back to cooking. What the hell else could he do? Addison hesitated in the doorway.
“Kai—where’s the food?” Angus boomed from the main room. A chorus of “yeahs” followed. He was going to have a mutiny on his hands soon. The quicker he fed them, the quicker they could all get on with their business. Then maybe he’d get some peace and quiet to figure out what the hell he was going to do next.
“Kai—”
“Onions,” he snapped, cutting Addison off. He didn’t want a conversation. Didn’t want excuses or pretenses. She made him sick. He turned his attention to slicing rounds of green pepper, deliberately not looking her way.
“I don’t understand what’s—”
“We don’t have time to talk. We’ve got a crowd of hungry people.” He looked up. Spotted a camera. Fuck.
Addison didn’t say another word as they prepped the meal, even when Kai thumped the last of the green peppers in front of her and handed her a knife.
While he prepped the rest of the vegetables, Addison assembled plates, forks, knives and condiments and carried them out in batches to a folding table Kai set up to serve the meal.
Each time she stepped from the kitchen to the main room, the onlookers “oohed” in anticipation. The whole group was in an unsettled mood. They were joking, teasing each other—
But there was tension there, too.
He knew they all were worried about the coming winter—whether they could meet Fulsom’s demands or whether they would blow it all and lose everything they’d built. Knew they were wondering what the food supply would look like over the coming months. They were at a crisis, and the snow hadn’t even begun to fly yet.
When he and Addison finally carted out the rest of the fixings for the breakfast burritos, the other members of Base Camp hurried to get in line. There was a lot of good-natured pushing and shoving, but again, Kai thought he felt a darker undercurrent.
He wanted the meal done and the people scattered to their work before anything happened.
Someone had pulled out the folding chairs they used for meetings, set them up and scattered them around. Soon the chairs were all occupied, and the meal began. The tension dissipated as bellies warmed and clothes dried. Kai chose a chair near the kitchen, although there wasn’t anything left to do there. Addison chose a chair at the far end of the room near Riley and Avery.
Halfway through the meal, Kai noticed something else. Curtis kept glancing from him to Addison and back again, Daisy drowsing on the floor by his side. The muscles in Kai’s jaw tightened. The man had courted Addison behind his back. Was sleeping with her. And he had the nerve to sit here and eat Kai’s food?
As if he read the condemnation on Kai’s face, Curtis handed his plate to Clay, stood up and crossed the room. “In the kitchen. Now.”
Kai set his plate down on the floor with a thump and stood to meet him face-to-face. If Curtis had something to say, he’d better say it. “Why don’t we do this right here?”
“For fuck’s sake—get in the kitchen.” Curtis pushed past him and led the way.
Kai stalked after him, itching to punch Curtis’s daylights out. A camera crew followed but kept their distance.
Smart move.
“What’s the deal between you and Addison?” Curtis demanded.
“What’s the deal between you and Addison?” Kai countered.
Curtis nodded. “Yeah, I thought so. You saw me in her tent.”
“I heard you,” Kai corrected. “Fucking couldn’t keep your hands off her, could you?”
“I was helping her with—”
Kai shoved him. “Helping her with what? Your fucking d—”
Curtis shoved him back. “Maybe I should help her see what a fucking ass you are—”
“Maybe I should help you see if my foot fits up your ass!”
Curtis threw a punch. Kai blocked it, and they locked together, grappling and swiping at each other, crashing around the kitchen until they fell against a cupboard and made the dishes inside rattle. Curtis lunged to trip him, and they both went down hard but quickly resumed the fight, thrashing around on the floor, each trying to land a punch whenever they could.
“What the hell?” Boone burst into the room. Clay and Angus, too. They quickly separated him from Curtis. Restrained by his friends, Kai fought to reach him again.
“That asshole thinks he can—”
“He was helping me fix my corset because Riley tightened it too hard and I couldn’t breathe,” Addison cried. “And you were too damn busy sulking about your TV show to listen to me!”
Kai stiffened. Spotted Addison and the other women grouped in the doorway.
“Oh, my God,” Riley said to her. “I’m sorry, Addison. Why didn’t you tell me?”
“It didn’t seem that bad at first.” Addison lifted her hands helplessly.
“TV show?” Boone asked. “What TV show?”
“I’ve had that happen,” Avery said. “It gets worse and worse until you can’t stand it another minute.”
Kai shook Clay and Angus off. “You couldn’t get some woman to help you?” he demanded. It was becoming all too clear he was in the wrong, but he was too far gone to acknowledge that now.
“There was no one else around.”
“I was there.”
She laughed, a hollow sound. “Where? Outside my tent? Watching me? I didn’t know that. Obviously.” She shook her head at him. “Did you honestly think I would hit on Curtis right after I agreed to marry you?”
“What TV show?” Boone asked again.
Addison’s eyes widened when Kai didn’t answer, and he thought she’d turn and flee.
The enormity of his mistake flooded Kai.
Hell, he was a fool. She was right; she’d pledged him her heart. Bared her soul to him. Listened to him bare his.
And he’d jumped to conclusions.
“Nothing happened,” Curtis told him. “Nothing is ever going to happen. I’ll get my bride soon enough. I know what’s it like to lose one to another man. You think I’d do that to you?”
Kai closed his eyes. He’d let his fears get the better of him. Let the stress about the food supply and the cooking show mess with his mind.
“What TV show?” Boone demanded.
As the silence stretched out in the kitchen, Kai realized he’d have to make amends. This was all on him.
“I’m… sorry.” Swallowing his pride was one of the hardest things he’d ever done. He opened his eyes and faced them. “I shouldn’t have jumped to conclusions.”
To his surprise, Curtis chuckled. “Fuck it,” he said, a grin turning up one side of his mouth. “It would have taken a saint not to jump to that conclusion. I’d have done the same thing.” He turned to Addison. “I was undressing you,” he pointed out.
A smile quirked her lips, too, and Kai relaxed a little. He supposed he could see the humor in the situation. “I guess he’s right,” she said to Kai. “What you thought was understandable given the circumstances, but I’d never betray you like that. I’ve made you a promise. I’m going to keep it.”
Another memory crashed through Kai—a night when he was eight. Wanda Ledbetter had caught him waiting up for her and Eric when they’d left the kids with a sitter to go to a work party.
“Why aren’t you sleeping?” she’d asked, tucking him back into his bed.
“Just wanted to make sure you were coming back.”<
br />
She’d touched his face. “I will always come back,” she’d told him. “I’ve made you a promise, and I’m going to keep it.”
Wanda always had. To this day she and Eric—and his siblings, step- and otherwise—were there whenever he needed them. Some people let you down.
But not all of them. Maybe Addison was more like the Ledbetters and less like the women he’d dated previously.
Kai nodded, the only thing he could do. Then reached out, tugged Addison close and crushed her to his chest.
“I love you,” he told her fiercely. “I’m sorry.”
“I love you, too.” She tilted her chin to look up at him, and he captured her mouth with his, hoping his kiss could say everything he didn’t know how to put into words. When her arms wrapped around his neck and she kissed him back, he knew he’d been successful.
Whistles and clapping filled the room, and when he pulled back, Kai let out a ragged breath. “All right. Show’s over. Keep moving, citizens; nothing to see here.” He waved the rest of them out of the room, but Boone didn’t budge.
“I’m waiting,” he said.
Kai nodded. “It’s called Feed Your Army,” he said ruefully and explained the whole thing.
“Sounds like a good step forward for your career,” Boone said when he was done. “The name sucks, though.”
“I know. Should have told you sooner, but I wasn’t sure it was going to pan out.”
“Got it. I’ll get out of your hair. Good luck with the show.”
Addison stepped aside and let him pass by.
When he was gone, Kai kissed her again. “Can you forgive me?”
“You were jealous,” she pointed out in a teasing voice.
He tightened his arms around her. “Hey.”
“I liked it,” she said simply and shrieked when he growled again and kissed her noisily on the neck.
“WHAT WAS THAT call earlier about?” Addison figured it had to be part of the reason Kai had overreacted so strongly. Whatever he’d heard had upset him enough to make him lose all sense of proportion.
“It was Linkley. He wants to change some things.” Kai made a face. “He wants to change everything. It’s pretty bad.”
