“I yelled. Nobody seemed to take me seriously, least of all Blake.” She shrugged. “Maybe a lot of his women yell.”
Harvey’s brows shot up. “Blake, is it? What happened to employee respect for the company president? What happened to Mr. Marshall?” He glared at Blake and added significantly, “Not that you deserve it.”
“I told her she could drop it after I kissed her the first time,” Blake said solemnly, but with a definite twinkle in his eyes.
That brought another horrified groan from Harvey. “Kissed her? You kidnapped her and then you seduced her? A sweet, innocent girl like Audrey?” he said incredulously. “I should have known the minute I heard the two of you were out in the middle of nowhere all alone that something like this would happen. That does it. I quit. Not even I can figure out how to handle this one.”
Blake sat down next to the distraught Harvey, placed an arm around his shoulder and squeezed. “Come on now, Harvey. You don’t really want to quit, do you? Think of this as a challenge, an opportunity. The company needs you.”
His voice dropped persuasively. He figured he’d better ooze sincerity or the best PR man in the business was going to walk out in a huff. “I need you.”
Harvey accepted the flattery as his due. “Damn right, you do. But I can’t work for a man with the morals of an alley cat. Forget the company’s image for the moment. How will I explain this little escapade of yours to Audrey’s mother? She’s a nice, middle-class, church-going lady, who raised her daughter for a better fate than this.”
“Right. Embroidering samplers,” Blake grumbled under his breath.
Audrey didn’t even hear him. She was regarding Harvey in confusion, trying to make sense of his reference to her mother. “What does my mother have to do with anything? You don’t even know her.”
“I do now. She’s been on the phone with me all night. She’s worried sick. She told me if anything happened to her daughter, it would be on my head. She sounded pretty convincing. I see now where you got your temper.”
“Terrific,” she muttered.
“Some guy named Derek’s been calling, too. He seemed real concerned.” He studied her with renewed interest. “How come you’ve never mentioned him?”
A knot formed in her stomach and she ground out between clenched teeth, “Because there’s nothing to say.”
Blake stared at her. “Derek’s the jerk?”
She nodded.
“Okay,” Blake said decisively. “That does it. Let’s get in the copter and get back to Snowmass. Audrey can call her mother and reassure her and I’ll deal with the press.”
“And what about this Derek?” Harvey demanded.
“He can take a hike.”
“Sure, Blake, just dismiss him. You’ve gotten too damn sure of yourself. You make this whole thing sound perfectly simple,” Harvey grum bled. “Exactly what do you plan to tell the media, when this guy goes to them and starts screaming about alienation of affection?”
“I don’t think that will be a problem,” Audrey said with wry conviction.
“I’m not so sure.” He stared pointedly at Blake. “You will have to deal with the media, no matter what. What can you possibly say that won’t make you look like the flake of the century?”
Blake gazed into Audrey’s eyes—not Harvey’s, she noticed—and said quietly, “I’m going to tell them I was up there falling in love.”
Nine
Audrey wasn’t sure whose gasp was more shocked, hers or Harvey’s. Then she noticed the wily glint in Harvey’s eyes. She’d seen that look before, usually when some outrageous promotional scheme was forming in his clever little mind. She had a pretty clear idea where this one was headed—to a church. More likely a cathedral, with her in satin and lace preceded by a line of bridesmaids that went on forever. Before she could get too attached to it, she tried to block the image of Blake in a tuxedo waiting for her at the end of the aisle.
“Forget it, Harvey,” she said.
“But the man just said he’s in love with you,” he said, his enthusiasm making him speak in a run-together burst of words. He was practically rubbing his hands together at the prospect of all the plans to be made. “What could be more perfect than a wedding? If we play this right, hit hard on the romance angle, it’ll get international media attention. You’ll be on the cover of every magazine. The gossip columnists have been waiting for years for a story like this about Blake. You’ll be the most talked-about bride since Fergie walked down the aisle in England.”
“The ‘romance angle,’ as you call it, will get no media attention,” she said adamantly as Harvey’s enthusiastic expression dimmed. She was not stupid enough to believe he was ready to give up, so she armed herself for more. It took about ten seconds.
“But—”
“No, Harvey! Whatever there is between Blake and me—and I’m not saying there is anything—will remain between the two of us. Not even a tiny little hint about weddings, no leaks to your favorite reporters, nothing.” She glanced from Harvey to Blake and back again. To her irritation, Blake’s lips were twitching in amusement. He seemed to find her little display of assertiveness cute. She gritted her teeth.
“Is that clear?” she demanded. “I will not have my private life turned into a public spectacle.”
“Your desire for privacy is all very nice, and under ordinary circumstances I’d agree with you,” Harvey said, clearly trying to placate her. She’d heard that tone too often to be swayed.
“But these aren’t ordinary circumstances,” he reminded her. “We have a public relations crisis here for the company. We have to do something and do it quick.”
“I don’t care if the company drowns in a vat of its own wine,” she muttered with feeling, before Blake’s startled expression set her awash in guilt. “Sorry. I didn’t mean that. Of course, I’m worried about the company’s image.”
She shot a pleading look at Harvey. This whole outrageous adventure was getting out of control. She might play along with Harvey’s craziness once in a while, but she was not about to get married to keep a wine company afloat. Frankly, she thought he’d greatly exaggerated the depth of the crisis.
“Isn’t there some other way?” she asked.
“I think I know one way we can avoid the whole thing,” Blake said at last. “Come on. Let’s get out of here. I’ll explain in the chopper.”
After directing several curious glances toward the arguing trio, John and the crew had busied themselves gathering up the balloon. Now John was waiting for them at the door of the helicopter.
“What are you going to do about today’s competition, boss?”
Blake glanced at Audrey. “I think I’d better just drop out. There are things I need to take care of, and after yesterday it’s a lost cause anyway.”
“Blake, no,” Audrey said, dismayed. “You can’t do that.” She looked at John. “Is there still time for him to get in the air this morning?”
“We’ve got the equipment at the rodeo grounds. They’re only about halfway through the entries now. It won’t take us long to get back. There should be plenty of time for him to launch. They’ll probably make some allowances, given the circumstances.”
“I’m dropping out,” Blake said firmly, taking Audrey’s hand and staring into her eyes. She was lost in that blue-eyed gaze, hardly hearing the rest of what he said. “If I stay around today, we’ll never get away from the press. My whole idea was for the two of us to just disappear. My jet’s at the airport. We could be away from Colorado in a matter of an hour or so. A day or two from now the story will die down.”
Finally this so-called plan of his registered. A couple of years in public relations had taught her the folly of trying to ignore the press. “Blake, you’re dreaming. If you just vanish, they’ll only have more questions. They’ll be like a bunch of bloodhounds on the scent of their prey.”
“I don’t much care if they have questions, as long as we’re not around to answer them.”
“Audrey’s right, though
,” Harvey said, beaming at her approvingly. “Sooner or later they will find you. It’ll be better if you give a few interviews today and then just get on with the competition. They’ll admire you for sticking with it, fighting back against the odds and all that stuff. Everybody likes to be on the side of the underdog.”
“But I want to keep Audrey away from the media. I don’t want her to go through the third degree because of what happened.” He studied her closely. “Wouldn’t you rather we just got away from here?”
Her breath caught in her throat as his meaning sank in. She wasn’t sure why it had taken it so long. He’d been emphasizing “we” for the past ten minutes. “You mean together?”
Blake nodded. “Of course.”
She closed her eyes as if that would ward off the tantalizing possibilities that threatened to overwhelm her. It was wonderful of him to think of her, but hiding out together in some secluded place? It would never work. It would lead to trouble. Trouble, hell. It would lead to bed, no doubt about it.
“Blake, I need some space and you need to finish the competition. Running away will just...” She searched for the right word. “It will just complicate things.”
“The competition be damned!” he exploded. “And I don’t care about any complications, not for myself anyway. It’s you I’m concerned about. If the press twists what happened between us into something tawdry, I want to be there for you. I don’t want you forgetting for a minute that that’s not the way it was.”
She squeezed his hand and lowered her voice to a whisper that would exclude Harvey and the others, all of whom were watching them with fascination and clearly hanging on every word. Whoever said women were the world’s worst gossips had never met these men.
“I won’t forget that,” she promised. “Ever. How could I forget about learning to build a camp fire for the first time and skinny-dipping in an ice cold stream at dawn and waking up in your arms?”
He searched her eyes for what seemed to be an eternity. “Are you sure?”
“Very. Go out there today and win. Don’t just turn the victory over to Larry Hammond, not when you could still take two events, today’s and tomorrow’s.”
To her relief, he finally relented. “Where will you be, when I get finished this afternoon?”
Harvey, who had the sensitive ears of a forest creature and was clearly tired of being excluded, heard the softly spoken question and responded without hesitation. “She’ll be back in California out of mischief.”
Audrey’s annoyance was evident in the scowl she directed at him. She was about fed up with Harvey’s interference in her life. “Oh, no, I won’t. You promised me a vacation in Aspen and I intend to hold you to it. I haven’t hiked a single trail or seen the Maroon Bells or heard a concert. I am not leaving here until I have.”
He seemed startled by her firm tone. Too startled. She realized she’d better start using it more often. “If you stay up here, the reporters are bound to track you down,” he warned. “I won’t be able to keep ’em away. You won’t have a minute’s peace.”
“I can handle the reporters,” she said valiantly. “You’ve taught me how. Besides, they’re going to be much more interested in Blake than they will be in me.”
Harvey’s eyebrows rose. “You’ve got to be kidding. They’re going to want to know all about the lucky mystery lady who was stranded for a night with the notorious and very eligible Blake Marshall.”
“Well, they’re going to be disappointed.” She grinned at Blake. “I never kiss and tell.”
He winked back at her, then his expression turned serious. “But you will stay? You won’t let them frighten you away without talking to me first?”
“I’ll stay.” She had no idea why she felt so certain that waiting here with Blake was the right thing to do. It was every bit as dangerous as going into seclusion with him, but she knew she couldn’t have done anything else. At the very least, she owed it to him to stick around and cheer him on for the remaining two events. At the most, they had fragile new feelings to explore.
Apparently Harvey had other ideas. As soon as the still reluctant Blake had been dropped off at the rodeo grounds, Harvey whisked Audrey away to his rental car, once again ignoring her protests.
“I always thought you were subtle, but you can be every bit as arrogant as Blake,” she grumbled as he locked the car door and slammed it shut.
“I can be very pushy when it’s called for,” he agreed. “I’m surprised you haven’t noticed that before.”
That was the last thing he said as he drove her back to her motel. Throughout the short ride he maintained a tight-lipped silence.
“Look,” she said at last. “I don’t blame you for being furious with me at the way this turned out, but it wasn’t my idea to come out here and it certainly wasn’t my idea to go up in that blasted balloon. Maybe if you’d warned me about Blake, I would have known how to handle him. I tried to talk him out of dragging me along, but he isn’t an easy man to convince. It was all pretty innocent, really. He seemed to have some crazy idea I’d enjoy the ride.”
“Yeah, I know. John Harley filled me in with as much as he knew.”
“Then what’s the problem?”
He glanced over at her and, if anything, his lips compressed even more tightly. He shook his head.
“Come on, Harvey, spit it out. Something’s on your mind.”
“Dammit, I’m worried about you,” he finally growled.
She stared at him, stunned. “Me?”
“Yes, you. There’s something going on here and I don’t like it, in spite of that pretty little speech Blake made back there.”
“Less than an hour ago you were willing to give me away in marriage to the man.”
He had the grace to look guilty. “I got a little carried away. I’m sorry. That doesn’t change the fact that you’re no match for a man like him, Audrey.”
“Thanks,” she grumbled.
He ignored her sarcasm and continued aiming low blows to her midsection. “Let’s face facts. He travels in fast circles, too fast for you.”
Audrey swallowed another angry retort and tried to deal with Harvey’s burst of protectiveness rationally. “That’s what I thought at first,” she admitted quietly. “Now I’m not so sure. He’s not at all the man I expected him to be. He’s certainly not the man whose every romantic interlude is detailed in all the gossip columns. He has more substance than that. Just as important, I’m different when I’m with him. Tougher. More assertive. I think I like what he brings out in me.”
Harvey tried another tack. “It’s a lousy idea to go getting mixed up with your boss.”
“You’re my boss,” she pointed out. “Not Blake.”
“Stop splitting hairs. Blake pays the two of us and don’t you forget it. I guarantee you he won’t.”
“If you’re implying that he’s going to take advantage of our professional relationship, then I think that’s a crummy thing to say about both of us. Blake wouldn’t try and I’d never let him.”
“Sorry. It’s just that I’ve always thought of you sort of like a daughter. I hate to see you getting mixed up with a man who’ll walk all over you and leave you hurting. I agree with you that deep inside Blake’s a decent enough man, but I don’t know that he’ll ever settle down.”
“Who says I want him to?”
Harvey shook his head. “Oh, Audrey, who are you trying to fool? Me or yourself? I caught that look in your eyes back there. For all your objections, you’re a woman with wedding bells ringing in her ears. Besides, settling down is what you deserve. I saw you down at Fisherman’s Wharf with those kids a couple of weeks back. You were great with them. You should have a half dozen of your own. But, I’m warning you, that hearth and home bit isn’t Blake. If you think you can tame him, you’ll be in for some rocky times.”
A tiny half smile formed on Audrey’s lips as she recalled the conversation she’d had with Blake the previous day, his professed desire for just that sort of tame
existence. “Apparently you don’t know the man nearly as well as you think you do.”
“Audrey, I’ve known him a long time now. I even admire him as a businessman. But I’ve known his type even longer.”
“His type?” she said indignantly. “Just what is his type? That wealthy playboy facade he puts on for the public so we can sell more wine or the gentle, sensitive man who kept me from panicking when we had to land during that storm?”
“You would never have been out in that storm if that ‘gentle, sensitive man’ hadn’t dragged you into that balloon. He didn’t hesitate for a minute to just take what he wanted then, did he?”
Audrey sighed. “Okay. You have a point.”
“Another point.” Harvey was apparently keeping score and wanted to be sure she realized she was losing. She glared at him.
“Harvey, I’m not saying that the idea of getting involved with Blake doesn’t scare the daylights out of me, because it does. But I’m beginning to think it’s a risk worth taking. Besides,” she added emphatically, “this is really none of your business.”
“Suit yourself,” he said as he pulled up behind her motel. “You’re a big girl and I can’t stop you. But if you come back to work sniffling and carrying on about what a creep he is, I’ll see to it you do nothing but filing for the next six months.”
She heard the gruff tenderness and concern in Harvey’s voice and grinned. “Deal,” she said as she dropped a light kiss on his cheek and slid out of the car. “By the way, am I officially on vacation now?”
He rolled his eyes. “Go. Enjoy. I’ll go back and deal with that pack of journalistic wolves at the Balloon Festival.”
“Thanks, Harvey.”
“Don’t thank me yet. The jury’s still out on this mess. Think about what I’ve said.”
By late afternoon Audrey was convinced that the jury had come in with a guilty verdict—against Blake. Surely the competition had ended hours earlier, but there had been no call and no sign of him. Determined not to sit around in her room moping and wasting another minute of her well-deserved vacation, she dressed in a floral-patterned cotton skirt, a bright pink camp shirt and sandals and set off for the main part of town, thoroughly enjoying the friendly atmosphere of Aspen, the patches of park, the sparkling fountains, the crisp air.
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