She turned to look at Christian and found him watch ing her with a bemused expression on his face. Funny, she hadn’t even met him a week ago and now, he was the one spot of familiarity in a rapidly changing world.
“No,” she said firmly, taking a deep breath as she did so. “No second thoughts. I made the decision to come here and I’m going to stick with it.”
A flash of admiration lit up his dark eyes briefly and Erica felt warmed by it.
“Good for you,” he said, then waved one arm out toward the interior of the hotel. “Ready to see your new home?”
“As I’ll ever be,” she told him and started walking.
The honey-colored wood walls and floors shone like a jewel box in the overhead lights. Framed photos of the mountain taken during every season dotted the walls and there were tables and chairs scattered around the wide lobby. A hum of conversation rose and fell as people wandered around the room and through it all, there was an almost electrical air about the place.
Erica swiveled her head from side to side, looking at everything as Christian guided her across the lobby to an elevator off by itself. “This is the private elevator to the family quarters,” he told her and took a card from his pocket to slide into the key slot.
The door slid open and they stepped inside. Again, honey-colored wood set the tone, making Erica think not only of a mountain cabin, but warmth and luxury.
“Your key will be in your suite, waiting for you,” Christian was saying. “Your luggage probably beat us here, since we took the scenic route. You’ll find everything you need in your suite. There’s even a small efficiency kitchen there and it’s been stocked with the basics.”
“Okay.”
“There’s also a main kitchen on the family level, if you really feel the urge to cook something. But the hotel restaurants will deliver, so you don’t have to worry about that if you don’t want to.”
“Oh, I like cooking,” she told him as the elevator stopped and the door opened.
“Well, then, you and your brother Guy should get along just fine. He’s a chef.” Christian stepped out and held the door back for her. “He was, anyway. He owned his own restaurant in New York before coming back to Aspen and now he’s pretty much taking over running the resort restaurants.”
“A chef,” she mused with a smile. “I’m not in his league, then. I said I like cooking. Didn’t promise I was good at it.”
“Make me dinner some night,” he said, then stopped and frowned to himself as if he already regretted the words.
Judging by his expression, Erica ignored what he said, stepped into the hall and sighed as she looked around. “It just keeps getting prettier.”
The hallway they stepped into was wide, leading off in two directions. Wood floors, walls the color of fog and a narrow table boasting a cobalt vase stuffed with roses and hydrangeas greeted her. Every few feet, an arched window let in sunlight and provided a view that was breathtaking. But she didn’t have enough time to look around and enjoy it.
Christian pointed to the left. “Down there are four suites, and just past them, along the hallway, is the family room.”
“Okay…” She noted that the private quarters followed the line of the hotel, only the windows here looked out over a palatial pool area. The aquamarine water held a few guests lounging on rafts and on the flagstone area surrounding the pool, cabanas, tables and chairs with brightly colored umbrellas offered places to sit and chat. There was a bar tucked into one corner of the space and uniformed waiters and waitresses hurried back and forth seeing to the guests’ comforts.
No doubt about it, she had walked into a very different world in Colorado than the one she was accustomed to. Then she realized that Christian was still talking and she turned around to watch him and listen.
“Past the family room is the original family quarters. The master bedroom and bedrooms for your brothers and sister when they were kids.”
She tried to imagine growing up in this place, but it was hard to envision. So much space. So much open land for children to run and play. Smiling, she recalled that as a girl, she’d thought the park her nanny had taken her to was a veritable wilderness.
“As his kids got older,” Christian said, “Don had the place rehabbed, building each of them their own suite and a few extras for guests.”
It sounded as though Don Jarrod had done everything he could to keep his children at home. Yet each of them had fled Colorado. She had to wonder why.
Erica took a breath and nodded. “Are they all living here now?”
As if he could read the trepidation on her face, he smiled and said, “No. Right now, there’s only Guy in one of the suites and Guy’s twin, Blake, and his assistant living in two of the others. The rest of your family are here—staying in different lodges.”
Only a couple of siblings to worry about facing every day then. That was good. Erica would prefer to settle in a little before she was forced to deal with Don Jarrod’s other children. But if Guy or Blake and his assistant were there at the moment, now was as good a time as any to get the first of the introductions over with.
“Are any of them here now?” Erica tried to steel herself for meeting the first of her new family. Though now that she thought about it, she wished she had a minute to drag a brush through her wind-tossed hair and to put on some makeup and—
“No,” Christian said, interrupting her frenzied thoughts. “Blake’s gone for a few days at the moment. He and Samantha have been flying back and forth a lot to Vegas, wrapping up loose ends in the business and getting ready to take over here. Blake and your brother Gavin have been building hotels, mostly in Las Vegas and they’ve done exceptionally well out there.”
“And they’re giving it up to come back here?”
“Yeah,” Christian said. “Like you, your brothers and sister have closed down their old lives and are here to start over again.”
But they were returning to something familiar at least. She, on the other hand, felt as though she’d fallen into the rabbit hole. Nerves rattled through her again, but resolutely, she fought them down.
“What about Guy?”
“This time of day, he’s probably downstairs in the main restaurant.”
She drew a breath and let it go. “What about Gavin? Is he in Vegas with Blake?”
“No, he’s here. But he’s living in one of the private lodges on the grounds.” Christian shrugged. “He wasn’t interested in moving into the Manor.”
Erica was beginning to understand that none of her brothers and sister were exactly thrilled to be back in Aspen. Yet, they’d all come, putting aside their plans and lives outside Jarrod Ridge to return and take up the family resort again. That told her that despite what were probably mixed feelings about their father and this place, their loyalty to family meant more than their reluctance to return. And that knowledge made her feel better, somehow. If family was everything to these people, then eventually, she might be able to have a relationship with all of them.
“What about the others?” she asked. “Where are they living?”
He led her down the hallway in the opposite direction from Blake’s suite as he continued.
“Well, like I said, Trevor has his own place in Aspen, but he’s here most days. Guy stays here mainly because he’s working here at the Manor. And Melissa…” He paused. “She lives in Willow Lodge. It’s the farthest lodge from the Manor, but anyone here can tell you where that is. She also runs the hotel spa, and you’ll find her there most days.”
“How big are the family quarters?” she suddenly asked, astonished at the length of the hallway in both directions.
“As big as the top floor of the hotel. Including wings,” Christian added with a smile.
“Amazing,” she murmured as she followed after him.
“Yeah, it is. Down here is your suite, plus two more. Farther along this hall, you’ll find the kitchen, the great room and what was Don’s office. My office is down on the main floor, but I do most
of my work at home.”
“Right. You don’t live at the Manor. Where’s your place from here?”
He steered her toward one of the high, arched windows lining the hallway and pointed. “See the red roof just past that tall pine?”
She did. The building couldn’t be more than a five-minute walk from where she was standing. “Close.”
“It is. So if you ever need anything…”
He was standing so near, she felt heat radiating from his body toward hers. He smelled so good, she wanted to breathe deeper and when she looked up into those chocolate-brown eyes, she had the strangest desire to lean in and… What was she thinking? Didn’t she have enough going on in her life at the moment?
“Thanks,” she said abruptly, taking a safe step back from him. “I’ll keep that in mind.”
He watched her for a second or two and Erica wondered if he could tell what she’d been thinking. If he could see that she had been wondering what he would taste like. If his lips were as soft and warm as they appeared to be.
But if he did know, then he was as determined as she to not draw attention to it. He scrubbed one hand across his face, then waved one arm out in front of him in silent invitation to continue on down the hall. He walked beside her and the heels of their shoes sounded out like gunshots in the stillness.
When he finally stopped in front of a door and opened it, Erica stepped past him and stopped dead on the threshold.
It was gorgeous, which shouldn’t have surprised her. Everything about Jarrod Ridge was breathtaking. But somehow, she hadn’t expected her room to be so…wonderful. After all, she was the stranger here and from what she could tell so far, her new brothers and sister had been no more thrilled to hear of her existence than she had been to hear about them. She’d half expected an ordinary hotel room, lovely, but generic. This, she told herself as she walked farther into the room, was anything but generic.
The living room was done in various shades of blue. Pale blue walls, dark blue, overstuffed furniture, cobalt vases stuffed with flowers dripping heavy scent into the air and navy blue drapes at the arched windows. The wood floor was dotted with braided rugs in shades of blue and cream and even the fireplace was fronted by tiles that looked like delft.
“Wow,” she said and even that word was just so insignificant to the task.
“Glad you like it,” he said, moving into the room behind her.
“What’s not to like?” She did a slow turn, trying to see everything at once. Then her gaze landed on Christian again. “To tell the truth, I wasn’t expecting anything like this.”
He grinned briefly and something inside her twisted up tight in response. Really, the man had an almost magical smile. Good thing he didn’t use it often.
“What were you expecting? A cell in a dungeon?”
She smiled and shrugged. “No, not that bad, but nothing so…”
“Melissa suggested you stay in this suite. She thought you’d like it and your brothers had no objection.”
“No objection.” Well, that was something, she supposed. “It was thoughtful of Melissa.”
“You’ll like her. She’s looking forward to meeting you.”
“And my brothers?”
He paused for a long moment before he said, “They’ll come around.”
“Just one big happy family, huh?” Funny, her excitement-driven nerves had become anxiety-driven in the blink of an eye. It seemed there were plenty of hard feelings for everyone to get through before they could even begin to relate to each other.
“You have as much right to be here as they do,” he told her.
“Do I?” Erica shook her head and frowned as she threw out both hands as if to encompass the entire resort. “They grew up here. I’m the interloper. This is their home.”
“The home that every one of them escaped from the minute they got the chance.”
Her hands fell to her sides. “Why did they? Was Don Jarrod such a bad father?”
“Not bad,” he said, crossing the room to stand by her side. “Just busy. Opinionated.” Christian smiled ruefully. “He wasn’t even my father and he was full of orders about what I should do with my life and the best way to do it.”
“Sounds familiar,” Erica mused, strolling to the window and staring out at the pool area and the mountains beyond. “I grew up with a father much like him. Ironic, isn’t it?”
“Maybe that insight will make it easier for you to understand your siblings.”
“I guess we’ll see. Seems strange that this lovely place is practically empty. It’s sad, somehow. That none of the Jarrods want to live in their family home.”
“Well,” Christian allowed, “like I told you, Don wasn’t the easiest father in the world. Most of them have issues with the place and aren’t very happy about the way their father arranged getting them back to Aspen.”
She sighed a little. “So, we’ve got father troubles in common, anyway.”
“You could say that.” He shoved his hands into the back pockets of his jeans and watched her as she walked to the sofa in her new home. “Speaking of your father, how’d it go when you spoke with him about all of this?”
Erica shot him a look. “As I expected. He didn’t want me to come.”
“Why did you?”
She stopped, leaned over and picked up a throw pillow. She ran her fingertips across the heavily embroidered fabric, then set it down again. “I had to. I had to come and see and…”
“Find yourself?” he offered.
She laughed a little. “Sounds pompous, doesn’t it?”
“Not really. I’ve been lost before. It’s not always easy getting found again.”
Erica tipped her head to one side and studied him. He looked so in control. So at home. So sure of himself, it was hard to imagine that he might have suffered self-doubt or anxiety. But she supposed everyone did from time to time. The trick was to not let those times get the best of you.
She turned around and let her gaze slide across the room that would be her home for who knew how long. There was a hallway off the living room that she assumed led to the bedroom and— “You said there was a stocked kitchen?”
“Yep.” He pointed. “Right through there.”
She went to investigate and off a short hall, she found a two-burner stove, a small refrigerator and several cupboards. The fridge was stocked with water, wine and soda along with fresh vegetables. There was a bowl of fruit on the abbreviated counter and she noticed that the window in the kitchen overlooked an English-style garden.
“You hungry?” Christian’s voice came from directly behind her.
She turned around to look at him and admitted, “Actually, I am.”
“Why don’t we go get some lunch downstairs? I can answer your questions and you can meet one of your brothers at the same time.”
That brother being Guy, she reminded herself. The chef. Well, that meeting just might kill her appetite, but gamely she said, “Give me one minute to freshen up and I’m ready.”
Ready for all of it, she added silently.
Five
Guy Jarrod had once been a sought-after chef, with a reputation of excellence, but when he opened his own restaurant, he’d stepped out from behind the stove so to speak. He’d learned to love the business of running the restaurant even more than he had the actual art of cooking.
Now, he hired and fired chefs, made sure everything ran the way he wanted it to. But being back at Jarrod Ridge doing what he did best hadn’t been on his agenda. Trust his father to make sure he eventually got his way where his children were concerned…even if it meant he had to die to do it.
Still irritated at being managed from beyond the grave, Guy had to admit that running the five-star restaurant at the Ridge was turning out to be a better gig than he’d expected it to be. He had big plans for the place.
Over the years, the restaurant and the general manager of the hotel had become, not lax, exactly, but complacent. They stayed with what worked rather t
han trying out new things. That was about to change.
All he had to do was get accustomed to being back here again.
“Excuse me, Mr. Jarrod?”
“What is it?” He looked up as one of the servers rushed into the wine cellar off the kitchen. A young kid who looked familiar, Guy hadn’t had time to learn all their names yet.
“Mr. Hanford’s in the dining room with a guest. He asked if you could come out to speak with them.”
Christian. Well, part of being back in Aspen was going to entail dealing with his brothers, his sister—sisters, he reminded himself sternly—and Christian. They’d been friends once, Guy reminded himself. Now, they were business colleagues all because of one old man’s stubborn refusal to let go of his children.
“Fine. Tell him I’ll be right there.” He left the wine cellar where he’d been taking a personal inventory—he wanted to know exactly what the restaurant had on hand and didn’t trust anyone else to do it right.
That thought brought him up short. Maybe he was more like his old man than he’d ever thought.
He stalked through the kitchen, out into the main dining room, his gaze constantly shifting. He checked on the servers, on the table settings, on the flowers. He noticed the tablecloths and the flatware and the shine on the silver and brass espresso machine. He had a sharp eye, no tolerance for sloppy work and he intended to make good use of those traits now that he was back running this place the way it always should have been run.
Guy spotted Christian sitting at a booth in the back. As he got closer, he saw that across from him was a trim, pretty brunette with amber eyes. She looked vaguely familiar to him, but he couldn’t place her. Which meant, Guy thought suddenly, this was the long-lost sister they’d all been waiting to meet. Her familiarity was simply that she had something of the Jarrod family stamped on her features.
Claiming Her Billion-Dollar Birthright Page 6
