by Unknown
He swallowed, the smile falling from his face. “Why’s that?”
“We’re co-workers. You know what they say about dating people you work with. It can get messy. And I don’t want to let Hannah down after she worked so hard to get me this job.”
He raised his free hand and ran his glove-covered thumb across her cheek. “Who said anything about dating?”
What was with these men? Zoe knew she wasn’t bad looking but she wasn’t all that, either. To have two men after her at the same time was unheard of.
But maybe it had nothing to do with her. Maybe she was just available and convenient.
She put her hand on his chest and pushed him back a little. “A fling would be even worse. Please, try to understand. I need this job.”
He pushed off the building and stalked two steps away before glaring at her. “I’ve got something I have to do tomorrow. I can’t do your tour for you.”
No. “You’re my backup.”
“Yeah, and if Ellie tells me you need me to cover for you, I’ll do it. But I have a feeling you’re asking for something off the books here. And if you’re not willing to play ball, I’m not either.”
Dammit. It wasn’t like she could go to Ellie. He had her. “I’m sorry you feel that way.”
He turned his back and knelt to continue working on the generator.
Fine. He could be that way. She trudged back to the main lodge. If she couldn’t get someone else to do the tour, she’d have to do it herself. But no way could she be alone with Bastian again. If he put his hands on her one more time, she wouldn’t have the strength to resist him. So she’d have to modify the tour and make sure they were always within sight of several other people.
And then she’d have to grit her teeth and keep her distance.
***
As soon as Bastian saw the look on Zoe’s face, he knew she was up to something. She stood by the concierge desk waiting for him, a sly smile on her lips as she talked with her friend. The woman sure knew how to run him in circles.
He hadn’t had this much fun in ages.
One thing about being as rich as he was–everyone said yes. Not just to dates; to everything. He’d seen too many of his wealthy friends fall victim to that, asking for things they shouldn’t have asked for and shouldn’t have received–and still getting that ‘yes’ no matter what. Having Zoe say ‘no’ felt so good it surprised him. And it made him wonder if he would find her as interesting if he ever did get her to say ‘yes.’
He wouldn’t worry about that now. She was still saying ‘no’ and he was still chasing her with everything he had.
He walked up to the desk and leaned against it, mirroring her. He didn’t say anything, just watched her, saw the second when she realized he was there, the conscious decision to finish her sentence in spite of him, the tension in her body.
After they’d met the day before, he’d contacted his personal assistant and got him to start looking into Zoe’s financial problems. So far, Steve had tracked down the hospital where Zoe’s mother had been treated and had compiled a list of the doctor’s names. Today, he was contacting each of them to get a list of which collection agencies now had the debt. He was also going to double-check the situation with Bastian’s lawyer to find out whether there was any legal obligation on Zoe’s part or if the agencies were just trying to make her think that.
Bastian had decided to wait until everything was resolved before telling her, so for now he’d stay silent.
Zoe turned to him, a professionally polite expression replacing the animated one on her face. “Good morning, Mr. Marks.”
Still with the formality. He decided to ignore it and instead lifted the basket full of food he’d procured from her favorite restaurant. “Lunch from Anthony’s. You ready?”
Zoe’s friend’s head snapped up when he mentioned the lunch. She studied them.
Maybe he shouldn’t have said that within hearing distance, especially after all of his proclamations about being discreet.
Zoe didn’t seem to notice, though. “Of course. Let me just put my gloves on and we’ll go.” She picked up her gloves from the counter and pulled them onto her hands as they walked toward the door.
“What’s on the docket for today?” he said. “We could go back to that waterfall.” After the two kisses they’d shared there, he was starting to think of it as “their” waterfall. He definitely wanted to go for a third...kiss.
They passed through the door and outside. She focused on pulling her gloves tighter onto her hands, although they already looked like they were snug. “I realized I’ve neglected showing you some of the more popular sites, so I thought we’d do that today.”
Popular sites? In other words, she wanted to make sure they weren’t alone. “I kind of like the out of the way places you’ve shown me so far. I’ve been here before; I’ve probably seen the more popular sites already.”
She pasted a cheerful smile on her face but wouldn’t meet his eyes. “Oh, I think we should go see them anyway. You might have missed some.”
Bastian stopped short. He didn’t take her arm the way he wanted to–they were still within sight of a whole raft of guests and staff, even out in the parking lot. “I see what you’re doing.”
When she realized he’d stopped, she did too. “Fine. I don’t think we should be alone together. I need to fulfill my responsibilities as your tour guide, but that doesn’t have to mean giving you opportunities to take things further than I want to take them.”
She was right, dammit. She was right, but he didn’t want it to be that way. “I promise I won’t–”
She huffed out a laugh. “Right. You can promise all you want, but we both know what will happen if you get a good opportunity.” She gazed steadily at him and he wondered if she knew she was staring him down.
He walked closer to her, lowering his voice. “I like you, Zoe. I think you like me, too, or you wouldn’t kiss me like that.”
When he got close, she started walking again. “I can’t. I’ve told you this over and over. I need to keep things professional.”
Falling into step beside her, he said, “You’ve already failed at that.” He kept his voice low so no one else would hear.
“That doesn’t mean I have to fail again. What is it they say about learning from history? I’ve learned from my history that we shouldn’t be alone together. End of discussion.”
She was awesome. He really shouldn’t feel so excited and admiring when she’d just shot him down, but he did. “All right. Where are we going to eat, then?”
“We can sit at one of the tables in the ski lodge and eat.”
The ski lodge. With tons and tons of people all around. “You’re really afraid I’ll jump on you at lunch?”
“Oh, come on. Even if I could find a shack we could eat in, it wouldn’t be heated and probably wouldn’t even have chairs. We’ll freeze if we sit for very long in the cold. This will be much nicer.”
She had him there. “I’ll give you that one. But you could at least show me one out-of-the-way spot.” He wanted at least one chance to kiss her.
“We’ll see.”
He let it go for a moment, following her down a well-traveled path that led toward the ski lodge. He had a feeling he knew where she was taking him. As they wound through snow-covered bushes and across a wooden bridge with a frozen stream underneath, he became even more sure. “The treehouses?”
“Yes. Have you ever seen them in the winter?”
The resort had several luxury suites that were essentially built into the branches of towering trees. He’d stayed in one of them once and it was definitely an experience. “I thought they were closed during this season. No heating, right?”
“Right. But we decorate the outside of them so they look like ice houses all winter long. The stuff we put on them actually protects the treehouses from the weather, but from the outside it just looks gorgeous.”
As they walked, they passed other people coming and going. Not a lot
of people, but just enough so they didn’t have real privacy. She’d planned this well.
But not well enough. He wanted to kiss her, sure. He wanted to do a whole lot more than kiss. But he also wanted to get to know her. And they could do that with other people walking by. If she’d been smart, she’d have found a way to cancel the tour altogether.
The path led past the ski lodge then turned into a wooded area. A minute or two later, the walls of the closest treehouse peeked through the bare branches of the trees.
As Zoe had said, the walls were encased in some sort of plastic polymer that looked both hard and liquid at the same time. It looked like a thick layer of clear ice with wide swaths of blue inside it covering the entire building.
“How do they do that?” he said.
Zoe made a face. “I asked, but the answer was really technical. I don’t remember, sorry. What I can tell you is the stuff is sort of like fabric at normal temperatures. They wrap the buildings in this stuff and it hardens as the temperatures drop. In the spring when it gets warmer, it becomes soft again and they’re able to peel it off.”
“Very cool.” He’d never heard of such a thing, but the advances being made in technology were almost too much to keep up with so he wasn’t surprised this one had snuck by him.
“Before they came up with this stuff, the resort had to wrap the treehouses in big tarps to protect them from the winter, and it wasn’t very good-looking. And you know the resort is all about looking good.”
Any place that regularly catered to the uber-wealthy and famous had to keep up appearances. “The resort didn’t come up with this themselves, did they?”
“No, they heard about the small inventor who’d created it and they bought him out. We’re the only place that has this stuff.”
Exclusive rights. Seemed the resort was taking a tactic out of the billionaire’s handbook.
A quick glance around showed another couple much further down the path and no one else. Bastian watched the other couple move out of sight, then stepped closer to Zoe, slipped his arm around her waist and kissed her.
Zoe stiffened at first and made a small move as though to pull away. Bastian held her tighter, coaxing her until she softened, her lips opening to accept him. He wrapped both arms around her, tight as he could, his hands cupping her delicious rear. Zoe squeaked as he squeezed her.
He lifted his head all too soon, but didn’t let her go. “I’ve been wanting to do that since I saw you in the lobby.”
“Bastian–” The word sounded soft and breathy.
“I know. I can’t do that. But I did. And you liked it.”
She sucked in her breath but didn’t say anything.
“Zoe, I swear, I can be discreet about this. Just let me in. No one has to know.”
She studied him. “You’re dangerous, you know that? Tempting me to do things I know I shouldn’t do.”
“I won’t let anything happen to you.” He realized he meant it. Even if all her fears came true and she lost her job because of their fling, he’d make sure she landed on her feet. “I promise.”
Chapter 5
Zoe didn’t know what to do. Everything had been so much easier before Bastian came along. She’d never had to worry about dating any of the guests because none of them had interested her.
Bastian was different. She liked him. If it weren’t for her job, she’d date him in a second. But there was her job. More–he was leaving soon. This would never be more than a fling to him. But it was different for her. She had a feeling she could lose her heart.
But back to the fact that he was leaving soon. She might never see him again. Shouldn’t she grab this opportunity while she had it? Who knew when she’d feel this way about a man again.
She looked into his eyes. What should she do?
Carpe diem. If she didn’t grab life with both hands, it would pass her by.
“We’ll be discreet?”
A smile appeared on Bastian’s face, his eyes brightening. “Yes.” His voice sounded soft.
Oh...what was she doing? This was a mistake, such a mistake. “Where could we even meet? There’s nowhere where people wouldn’t see us.”
He stepped closer to her and she could feel the heat of his breath on her cold cheek. “Do you have to work tonight?”
“No.”
“We’ll drive to the next town over and have dinner. I’ll even pick you up somewhere secluded so no one sees. All right?”
She shouldn’t do this. This was the absolute last thing she should do. “Yes.”
Out of the corner of her eye, Zoe saw people rounding the curve in the path and walking toward them. She jumped away from Bastian, her face burning. “Let’s look at a few more of the treehouses and then go to the ski lodge to eat.”
He smiled knowingly but said nothing as she led him down the row of houses, pointing out different features and variations in coloring. It was a good thing she knew this stuff inside and out, because her brain wasn’t working quite right. The fact that she’d agreed to dinner that night–and who knew what after dinner–showed just how off-kilter her thinking was. What if someone saw her get into his car? What if someone saw them at the restaurant? This was crazy.
A little later, they sat at a table in the ski lodge, eating the food Bastian had gotten from Anthony’s. Considering that the ski lodge made good food themselves, his picnic basket seemed a bit much. Zoe hoped no one else noticed, but her hopes were dashed when Hannah walked in and spotted them, her eyes narrowing.
Bastian’s back was to Hannah, so he didn’t see her as she put her hands on her hips and gave Zoe a look that translated into a big question mark.
Zoe couldn’t answer her without Bastian seeing, so she pressed her lips together and returned her attention to Bastian. He was telling her something about his business but she wasn’t following it very well, because her attention kept wandering. She couldn’t stop looking at the shape of his lips, the way his hair curled over his ears, the tiny creases that formed by his eyes when he smiled.
Hannah moved on, but Zoe knew she’d have a lot to answer for later.
She managed to get through the rest of the tour without slipping up and letting him kiss her again. She even kept them in more populated areas, so he had to keep his flirting to a minimum. In spite of what she’d agreed to, she counted it a victory that she’d been able to maintain control for that one hour.
She said goodbye to him in the lobby, and he told her he’d call with details for that night. She agreed, but continued to feel torn.
***
Bastian did what he always did when he needed help. He called his assistant, Steve. “I need you to make a reservation for dinner tonight at a nice restaurant a couple of towns away from here. For two.”
“Will do. Do you need me to arrange a car?”
“Please. And how are you coming on the collection agency issue?” Bastian said.
“I’ve compiled a complete list of collection agencies involved. And I reviewed the situation with Dave.” Dave was their in-house counsel. “He said Mrs. Mariani did everything right, and so did Zoe when she dissolved the estate. Zoe is not legally responsible for the remaining debt. However, if she starts to pay any of it back out of her own money, it will be as though she has accepted responsibility for all of it, and at that point she will have to pay all of it back. She hasn’t done that yet, so she’s still okay.”
“Did Dave make any suggestions for how to get the agencies off her back?”
“He suggested we start with a few sternly worded letters. If we threaten legal action and they see that we know what we’re talking about, that may be enough to make them stop without having to actually take any action.”
“Good. Tell Dave to send letters to the entire list of collection agencies. I want this stopped immediately.” Considering what it was doing to Zoe, immediately wasn’t soon enough.
“I’m on it.”
They covered some other business that couldn’t wait until Bastian retur
ned from his vacation, then signed off.
A few hours later, Bastian checked himself one more time in the mirror. He wanted everything this evening to go perfectly. He debated whether or not to tell Zoe about the collection agencies, and decided to play it by ear. If it came up or seemed like a good time, he’d tell her. Otherwise, he’d save it until later.
He had decided to meet the car at the side entrance, and then to pick Zoe up behind the ski lodge. There were plenty of people at the lodge who might see them, but they had no reason to go out back.
He met the car then sat behind the lodge waiting for Zoe. She was late, and he started to worry that she wouldn’t show up. He’d trusted her when she had agreed to the date, but he’d never seen a more conflicted woman. He wouldn’t be surprised if she changed her mind. Disappointed, yes. But not surprised.
Then she appeared, clacking down the shoveled sidewalk in heels and a skirt that just showed underneath her long white coat. As usual, she wore clothing that straightened out all of her curves. He’d have to talk to her about that. He wanted to see those curves—every one of them.
Bastian let the driver know that Zoe was approaching. The driver climbed out of the car and opened the door for her. A moment later, she slipped into the seat across from Bastian.
“I’ve never been in a limo before,” she said.
It was just a town car, but he hesitated saying so. He didn’t want to make her feel ignorant. “I started to think you weren’t coming.”
“I’m sorry. I couldn’t figure out what to wear.”
He leaned forward and took the hem of her coat between two of his fingers. “About that. Why do you wear clothes that hide all your curves? You’re beautiful and sexy. Why do you hide your body?”
She shifted in her seat, her cheeks turning red. “I’m fat. I thought you would have noticed.”
He gripped the bottom of her coat and yanked her toward him. “You’re not fat. You’re beautiful. You’re sexy. Say it.”
She opened her mouth but nothing came out.
“Say it. Admit that you’re beautiful. And then stop wearing shapeless clothing that hides your sexy curves.”
