by Nicola Marsh
Annoyed at her physical reaction, she sat straighter. She should be ecstatic she’d got the job, though a small part of her felt cheated. She’d expected a proper interview, a chance to impress with her enthusiasm, not some odd cat-and-mouse game.
‘You certainly have an interesting interview technique. Where did you pick it up? Bosses-R-Us?’
He ignored her barb, though his smirk said it all. ‘Call me Rhys. We’re fairly informal around here.’
His confident tone rankled as much as his smug expression.
‘Does that informality extend to harassing prospective employees?’
He frowned, sat forward and placed both hands on the desk, asserting his power.
‘What I put you through was a test. Unconventional, I know, even unfair, but I’m the boss and what I say goes.’
She shook her head, resisting the urge to stab a pen through his hand. ‘I’m not some crash-test dummy you can experiment with.’
He raised an eyebrow, a hint of a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. ‘No, I guess not.’
An awkward silence lingered before she blurted, ‘Look, I’m really keen to start. Do you want to ask me any questions? Check out my credentials?’
She could’ve bitten her tongue as his gaze briefly flicked over her, checking out credentials of a different kind.
For a brief moment she wanted to get the hell out of here, job or not. But she couldn’t. The memory of the last confrontation with her parents, the truth of Julian’s treachery, hadn’t waned. If anything, the truth about her family, her fiancé, motivated her to stick this out, whatever warped game her new boss was playing.
After another lengthy pause, he nodded, curt, dismissive, as he gestured to her résumé sitting on top of the desk.
‘You’ve ticked all the boxes—sense of adventure, love of nature, excellent customer service skills and an advanced certificate in first aid. Looks like you match our job description.’
Grateful play time was over, she nodded.
‘I wouldn’t have flown all this way if I didn’t feel I could be an asset to your company.’
‘You haven’t listed any formal training apart from a first aid certificate, though Callum was suitably impressed with you at the screening interview.’
He picked up her résumé from the top of his in-tray and flipped through it. ‘Impressed enough to get you this far, anyway.’
She blushed, incriminating heat creeping up her neck and into her face. How could she list any formal training if she didn’t have any? Pity attending theatre and nightclub opening nights, colour co-ordinating the latest haute couture and shopping for a living couldn’t be classed as essential job skills.
‘As you can see, one of my career objectives is to become a biologist. This job would be perfect, giving me on-the-job experience and further credits when I apply to enter university as a mature student.’
She sucked in a deep breath, silently praying he bought her spiel. While all of it was true—her dream to be a biologist, her need for on-the-job training, her intention to enrol at uni—all the enthusiasm in the world didn’t stack up too well against a lack of formal skills.
‘As far as qualifications go I believe life experience is more important than a piece of paper. I’ve always been a people person, and I’m confident I can handle leading tour groups competently.’
She didn’t add, If I can handle your weirdo interview I think anything Alaska tosses my way will be easy.
To her relief, he closed her résumé and tossed it on the desk.
‘Though the job sounds adventurous your main role is customer service. Is that going to be stimulating enough for you?’
The way he said ‘stimulating’ almost sounded X-rated. What was wrong with her? The sooner she got to Alaska, surrounded by all that ice, the better.
Suave Superman had undermined her confidence and lowered her defences quicker than she could rebuild them. And when the walls tumbled, her common sense usually got lost in a tidal wave of useless emotions, like trust and believing not every man was a lying, cheating hound.
Now her outrage at his strange interviewing techniques had fled, she needed to get out of here. For the longer he stared at her with those all-seeing, too-intense blue eyes, the more chance she’d fluff it and he’d realise exactly how ill-equipped and under-prepared she was to tackle a job of this magnitude.
‘I’m looking forward to everything about this job.’
The moment her life in Sydney had fallen apart, she’d made a decision.
She could’ve wallowed, gone berserk on retail therapy, maxing out Daddy’s Platinum in petty revenge. Instead, after a day’s private pity party holed up in her favourite day spa, she’d realised what she had to do.
Grow a spine. Cast off her rose-coloured glasses. And do what she should’ve done years earlier.
Follow her dream.
‘You’re aware we cater to a high-end market? Luxury tours all the way?’
She nodded, confident in that aspect of her job. She’d grown up in moneyed circles, had rubbed elbows with the world’s elite, so relating to them in this forum would be the least challenging aspect of her new job.
‘Callum gave me a full rundown on the company. I’m looking forward to the challenge.’
His silence was disconcerting, his gaze too inquiring, too sceptical, too potent.
Keeping her voice crisp and businesslike, she forced a smile. ‘Thanks for the opportunity. I won’t let you down.’
She stood and offered her hand. As his fingers curled around hers the shock of physical contact shot up her arm and zapped her in places she’d deliberately ignored since learning the truth about Julian.
‘Welcome to the team. I look forward to liaising with you.’
Nodding, she whirled around and strode across the office, anxious to reach the door. Her mind had conjured up all sorts of intimate ways she could liaise with her delectable new boss.
‘Drop by tomorrow. Cheri will have your travel arrangements and training schedule waiting. Good luck, Jade. Great meeting you.’
His words sounded genuine as he opened the door for her and she briefly wondered if she’d imagined the whole bizarre scenario.
‘Thanks. See you in six months.’
Great, she had the job. Not so great, her new boss had tied her up in knots and she thought he was hot, despite her personal vow to ignore men for…oh, the next millennium or so.
Luckily, Alaska and Vancouver were poles apart. She’d be traipsing around glaciers while he stayed behind his desk a thousand miles away. Perfect.
Nothing like a good dose of hypothermia to cool hyperactive hormones.
Chapter Two
AS JADE left his office, Rhys leaned back, exhaled slowly and rubbed his right temple where the beginnings of a headache hovered.
He didn’t get headaches. Discounting the woman who’d just left. She was a headache just waiting to happen, every prissy inch of her.
From the top of her designer suit that would fund his payroll for a month to the bottom of her exorbitantly expensive shoes, Jade Beacham was one big headache.
She might be a stunner, with those endless legs, big breasts, huge dark Bambi eyes and long hair the colour of double-shot espresso, but he’d known the instant he’d first seen her snooping around the office she’d be more trouble than she was worth.
She had rich, uptight, society princess stamped all over her.
The expensive clothes, the immaculate make-up, the cultured accent, all added up to one thing. He’d lost his mind in hiring her, favour to her hot-shot dad not withstanding.
He hated owing anyone so when Fred had requested a job for his precious little girl, he’d reluctantly agreed.
Didn’t mean he had to like it.
The moment she’d strutted down the corridor as if she owned the place, totally at home casing the joint when she should’ve been waiting, he’d wanted to make her jump through hoops, wanted her off guard.
So he’d
gone through that odd scenario: testing her, pushing her, expecting her to fling her hair over one shoulder, hitch her designer bag higher and stroll out of here back to her cushy life.
She’d surprised him: by sticking around, by putting up with his crap and, most of all, by appearing genuinely happy when he’d given her the job.
It begged the question: why would a wealthy society princess need a job? Why here? What had happened to her life in Sydney for her to end up thousands of miles away?
Shaking his head, he snatched up the phone, not caring about the time difference between here and Melbourne. He needed to talk to Callum. Now.
‘Callum Cartwright.’
‘Hey, bro, you still at the office?’
An ear-splitting squeal gave him his answer before Callum responded.
‘Uh-uh, I’m home minding the twins. Starr’s understudy for the lead in Mamma Mia, and it’s opening night.’
‘Good for her.’
He paused as a ‘gimme now’ filtered down the phone, the demand so like Callum when he’d been a child that he laughed. ‘Is that my favourite niece, the gorgeous Miss Polly?’
‘Little tyrant more like it.’
A loud crash swiftly followed by tears had him grinning more as Callum cursed and muttered, ‘Give me a minute, I’ll be right back.’
‘No worries.’
While his brother attended to domestic duties, he flicked through Jade’s résumé, her lack of skills taunting him.
Realistically, if he hadn’t owed Fred—who’d set him up with a major cruise line to use Wild Thing for their tours when he’d first started the business—he would’ve continued interviewing other candidates. But he didn’t have time with another tour starting shortly. So he’d hired her, towering heels, sassy suit and all.
That figure-hugging suit had been something else: fitted jacket, pencil skirt, clinging to curves that made his hands itch. If she looked that good in a suit, he wondered what she’d look like in his preferred outfit for women: skin-tight jeans, turtle-neck sweater and a wind-break?
He bet faded denim would fit her just fine, hugging that great butt he’d glimpsed as she’d left his office, and for a crazy moment he regretted he wouldn’t be around to find out.
The way her eyes had blazed and her lips had pursed when he’d flirted he guessed a fiery passion for life pounded through her veins. And where there was fire, there was usually a raging inferno of hot woman just waiting for a soothing touch to douse the flames.
It had been far too long since he’d played with fire, with any woman, and he had a sudden insane wish to see if Jade wanted to set off some pyrotechnics with him.
‘I’m back.’ Callum huffed into the phone while silence momentarily reigned. ‘I’ve set them up with crackers and juice in front of the TV. That should give me about five minutes’ peace.’
‘Don’t know how you do it.’
And he didn’t, considering they’d never had a good role model for a father. Frank Cartwright had ignored both of them, only having time for their eldest brother, Archie. And once Archie had died in a car accident, their recalcitrant father had closed off completely.
Even now, after the successes they’d made of their lives, Frank rarely acknowledged them, acting as if his younger sons didn’t exist. Which made Rhys admire Callum and the job he was doing with the twins even more.
‘It’s hard work, tougher than any business deal, but I love it.’
He heard the genuine emotion in his brother’s voice, the sense of achievement, and for a split second he envied him. Not that he’d ever settle down long enough to have a family. Uh-uh, he’d leave that to the people who wanted ties to one place, to one person, and that sure as hell wasn’t him.
Being emotionally invested with anyone, even kids, was tantamount to handing over his heart and begging for it to be carved up. Too risky, too painful, too masochistic.
‘So what’s up?’
Rubbing the spot over his left breastbone that had flared to life for a startling second, he tossed Jade’s résumé back on his desk.
‘I interviewed Jade Beacham today.’
‘She’s great.’
‘Hmm…’
His non-committal response guaranteed Callum would push further.
‘You didn’t like her?’
He liked her too much, that was the problem, and it had nothing to do with her role as tour guide for the company.
‘It’s not that. She just seems too green.’
‘We all had to start somewhere.’
Fair call, considering he’d spent years travelling the world after he’d finished his degree, moving from job to job, place to place, not willing to stop for fear the past—and the memories of his dead brother—would catch up with him.
If it hadn’t been for Callum helping him set up Wild Thing he’d still be wandering, chasing shadows.
‘You know Fred Beacham called in a favour to have me hire her?’
‘Yeah, but after the initial screening I knew she’d be a good candidate anyway.’ Callum paused, cleared his throat. ‘You hate owing anybody anything. Is that what this is about?’
Rhys bit back his instant rebuttal. Was that why hiring the rich princess irked? Because he’d owed Fred and had had his favour called in?
Ignoring the question, he fired one of his own. ‘You move in the same circles as the Beachams. Do you know why Fred was so gung-ho about a job for Jade?’
‘Beats me.’
Callum paused as a long squeal interrupted their conversation, his resigned sigh making him chuckle. ‘Haven’t seen Fred socially for ages, not since the terrible two were born.’
Rhys laughed. ‘You’d take a stake to the heart for those kids and you know it.’
‘Got me.’ Callum’s rueful chuckles petered out. ‘You coming to visit soon? Like sometime in the next decade or so, before they get their driving licences?’
‘Yeah, yeah, sure,’ he said, despising himself for how easily the lie tripped off his tongue. He had no intention of meeting his niece and nephew any time soon. Seeing their beaming faces in the photos Callum constantly emailed was bad enough, their toothy grins and chubby cheeks and all-round happiness exacerbating the sense of loss he strove to ignore every day.
Callum wouldn’t be put off for ever but, thankfully, he let his reticence slide this time. ‘Look, why don’t you give Jade a trial? See how she handles the job for a few months?’
A few short months if he had anything to say about it. He hadn’t stipulated a time frame with Fred, just agreed to give his darling daughter a job. Wouldn’t be his fault if he had to fire her for incompetence.
‘That’s what I had in mind.’
A loud, prolonged shout of ‘da-a-a-a-d-d-dy’ heralded the end of their phone call.
‘I’ll leave you to it, bro.’
‘Thanks for the call.’
Callum hesitated, making him wonder what was really going on with his reserved older sibling.
‘From our initial interview I got the feeling Jade really needs a break. So give her a fair go, okay?’
‘Shall do. Catch you later.’
As he hung up he managed a wry grin. Looked as if Jade had added his brother to her growing fan club.
‘Excuse me, Rhys. Do you have a minute?’ Cheri stuck her head around the door.
His latest secretary was the best he’d ever had: punctual, reliable and efficient, qualities he valued in an employee. Particularly skilled at handling problems, she dealt with them swiftly and with minimal fuss, allowing him to concentrate on running the company. And she didn’t bat her eyelashes at him or wear microminis and bend over his desk like the last bimbo he’d had the misfortune to hire.
‘Sure. What’s up?’
He hoped his latest employee would be half as competent as Cheri, though he wouldn’t mind if Jade batted her eyelashes at him. Not one little bit. As for bending over his desk in a short skirt…
‘We have a problem.’
He wre
nched his attention out of the gutter. Cheri wasn’t prone to exaggeration so he braced himself for the worst.
‘Allan called. He has glandular fever and won’t be doing the season this year. I called our two back-ups and both are unavailable. What do you want me to do?’
He swore softly. The wilderness safaris couldn’t run with three people, especially when one of them was a novice.
‘Thanks, Cheri, leave it with me.’
She exited quietly, casting a worried glance in his direction.
‘Damn.’
He grabbed the nearest pen, twirling it between his fingers, a stupid habit he had for doing his best thinking.
Wild Thing was more than a business; it was his pride and joy. He’d developed it from scratch, starting as a park naturalist for various national parks all around the world before migrating to Canada and venturing into the beautiful wilds of Alaska. He’d nurtured the idea of forming his own tour company and with dedication, patience and countless hours of hard work—plus the steadying influence of Callum—he’d finally succeeded.
This season promised to be the best yet, with two more cruise lines signing up for the luxury tours his company was famous for, and there was no way he’d squelch on a business deal.
The pen twirled faster the harder he thought, mulling over solutions as he stared at the print hanging on the opposite wall: a majestic bald eagle soared above snow-capped mountains, the caption FREEDOM in bold letters under it.
A germ of an idea sprouted in the back of his mind, yet he stifled it.
Don’t even think about it.
However, the harder he tried to ignore it, the more it nagged until he couldn’t focus on anything else.
Cursing under his breath, he picked up the phone. ‘Cheri, tag me onto the travel arrangements you’re making for Jade and the boys, and arrange my equipment. I’m going to Alaska.’
He slammed the phone down without waiting for a response and redialled before he had a chance to renege on the stupidest thing he’d done in a long while.
‘Aldo, I need you in my office pronto. You’re acting CEO for the next six months and we’ve a lot of planning to do. See you in five minutes.’
