“It’s breathtaking, isn’t it?” she said as Keaton settled in the driver’s seat.
“Let’s hope we both still think so when this is all over.”
She wasn’t sure if he was joking or not, so decided to let that one slide. Tami watched as Keaton keyed in a few details to the GPS, then she fastened her seat belt as he put the car into gear and they drove away from the airport.
“A forty-five-minute drive, you said?” she asked as they negotiated their way out of the parking lot and onto the main road, away from the airport.
“Thereabouts,” Keaton responded.
“Do you mind if I put on the radio?” Tami asked, reaching for the power button on the center console.
“That will depend on the music you choose.”
“I’m pretty easygoing. I listen to most things. Tell me what you like and I’ll see what we can find.”
“How about you find something and I’ll tell you if I don’t like it.”
She shrugged. “Works for me.”
After a few minutes she settled on a classic rock station, and as the SUV began to eat up the miles she felt the last of the tension she’d experienced on their flight ease from her muscles. She hadn’t realized she’d fallen asleep until she felt Keaton shake her by the shoulder.
* * *
The woman certainly could sleep. She’d dropped off about two minutes after finding that radio station and hadn’t so much as twitched since then. Still, if she was a nervous flyer, she probably was already feeling pretty tired. Add that to the early start this morning and the weight of lugging her pack around into the equation, and it was no wonder she’d dozed off.
He’d flung her the occasional glance. Just to check that she was breathing, he’d told himself, but he knew it was more than that. Knew it and didn’t like it. He wasn’t in the market for a girlfriend. Not now and maybe not ever. Trusting someone enough to want to spend all your free time with them was something he didn’t know if he’d ever feel comfortable doing again. Logically, he knew he probably wouldn’t be alone forever, but now, with the brutality of Honor’s betrayal with Logan, on top of his father’s web of lies, he certainly planned to be alone for a good while yet.
Keaton looked again. She wasn’t conventionally beautiful. Not in the polished way the women who moved in his family’s circle usually were, anyway. But Tami Wilson certainly was striking, and there was a quality to her skin that made her look almost as if there was a hidden glow from inside her. He shifted his attention back to the road ahead and growled at himself. This was not someone to stare at. She was staff and he didn’t engage with staff that way. Not ever again.
By the time he pulled up at the outdoor center he was beginning to feel a little tired himself. Always an early riser, he hadn’t balked at the early start today, but that, teamed with another sleepless night and driving in unfamiliar territory, made a nap look mighty promising right now. If he did naps, which he didn’t. He could see his sister, Kristin, roll her eyes at the very thought of him napping. She was often telling him to slow down, to take time out, but she didn’t understand how driven he was, or why.
And now, here he was, in the middle of nowhere, somewhere in Sedona, about to spend far more time with a total stranger than he’d ever anticipated. Oh, sure, he did believe in the benefits of the team-building strategy he, Logan and Kristin had all agreed upon as a strong initiative to pull their staff together again. But that was before he’d realized he’d be having his own intimate twosome for part of the trip.
“Tami, wake up. We’re here,” he repeated with another gentle shake of Tami’s shoulder.
The woman slept like the dead.
Her eyes shot open and for a moment her pupils remained fully dilated and her gaze unfocused, but she snapped out of her daze in an instant.
“Oh, heck, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to fall asleep. That wasn’t very companionable of me.”
“I’m not looking for a companion,” he snapped, before he could stop himself.
She looked startled for a second and then composed her features into a mask of indifference.
“Of course, you’re not,” she said smoothly.
In fact, it was the most professionally she’d spoken since he’d met her and he had the feeling that her instant shutdown was a facade. As if it was something she was used to doing to protect her feelings. He gave himself yet another mental shake. Why on earth was he even worried about her feelings? They were here to do a job and to learn to become a more cohesive unit...working unit, he corrected.
He alighted from the car before he could say anything else potentially volatile and extracted their packs from the back of the vehicle. Hers really was far too heavy, especially for the trekking they’d be doing in a few days’ time. But she’d been adamant and he wasn’t about to enter into an argument with her. Not my circus, not my monkey, he told himself. But she was his employee and he had a duty to her, he reminded himself. And she had a duty to him, too. They needed to build themselves into a team, and that’s where his concern began and ended.
So why, then, were his eyes caught by her as she got out of the car and stretched, before bending deeply from her hips and reaching down to the red soil at her feet? And why did that fluid movement make his body tighten uncomfortably?
“Oh, it feels so good to move,” she said. “I’m not used to being inactive for so long.”
He cast her what he hoped was a friendly smile but he suspected more resembled a bare-toothed grimace. “I’m sure you’ll have plenty of opportunity to move while we’re here. We both will.”
And he would need to make a note to be in front of her wherever possible. Not because he felt he was better than her. Not because he was her boss, or even because he was a natural-born leader. It had far more to do with self-preservation, because he had no doubt that if she walked ahead of him, he’d end up face-first in the red dirt of the trail because he knew he wouldn’t be able to keep his eyes off that shapely butt.
Three
Keaton turned as a tall, slender man came down the stairs of the large two-story cabin, which he assumed was the accommodation block. The man stretched out his hand in welcome and a warm smile spread across his face.
“Hi, and welcome! You made good time. I’m Leon, one of your hosts and guides.”
Keaton made the introductions. “Hi, I’m Keaton Richmond, and this is my assistant, Tami Wilson. The advance guard, so to speak.”
Leon grinned in response. “It’s a cool thing your company is doing. Come on in and I’ll show you where you’ll be staying until the weekend, when the others join you. It’ll give you a head start on getting used to the elevation here.”
“Does that mean you’ll take it easy on us the first couple of days?” Tami asked.
“Perhaps a little less strenuous than what we’ve got planned for farther down the track,” Leon said with a wink.
He turned as another man came down the stairs from the cabin. Slightly shorter than Leon and with a sturdier build, he bounded down the steps with unrepressed energy.
“Ah, here’s my husband, Nathan. At the moment he’s our chief cook and bottle washer until we’re back to full staff for the beginning of our season. That will coincide with when the rest of your teams arrive so don’t be put off by how quiet it is right now.”
“Quiet is good,” Tami said with a small smile. “And all too rare these days.”
“I think you will enjoy it here then,” Leon said before introducing Nathan to Keaton and Tami.
“Come on inside,” Nathan said. “Leon will show you to your rooms and then bring you down to the kitchen. I have a late breakfast set up for you because I’m sure you’re starved. You must have been up since before the birds woke today.”
“It was an early start,” Keaton admitted, beginning to really feel the weariness he’d tried to ignore earlier pull at him a little
harder.
He stumbled a little as they picked up their packs and followed the men to the house.
“You okay?” Tami asked, a worried crease appearing between her eyebrows.
“Fine,” he said shortly. “We didn’t all get a nap on the way here, is all.”
He didn’t mean it to come out the way it did, but he saw his words found their unintentional target. Her cheeks colored up a little and she ducked her head.
“Maybe it’s the altitude,” she said quietly. “You don’t strike me as the kind of person who suffers from a lack of sleep.”
Nathan turned and looked back at them. “Don’t underestimate the elevation here. We’re about four thousand feet higher than what you’re used to. While I don’t expect you guys to suffer true altitude sickness, you may feel a little—” he paused while he searched for the right word “—hungover, for want of a better description.”
“Great,” Keaton muttered. “All the punishment without the fun getting there.”
Leon laughed. “Oh, you’ll have fun all right. Just give yourself a little time to adjust. And keep drinking plenty of water. We restock the bottles in your room fridges twice a day. Staying hydrated is probably one of the most important things you can do to cope.”
After being shown to his room, Keaton took the time to have a quick shower, then returned downstairs. He followed the sounds of voices and laughter to the massive kitchen at the back of the cabin. There, Tami was perched on a barstool at one end of a large kitchen island. She looked happy and relaxed, right up until she spied Keaton standing in the doorway.
“Everything okay?” she asked. “Can I get you a coffee?”
“Fine. Everything’s fine.” At least it had been until he saw her again. He’d thought the time alone to get his thoughts back in line would have inured him to the ridiculous reactions he’d been having to her, but no. “And, yes, coffee would be great. Thanks.”
“Black and sweet?”
He cracked a half smile. “You remembered that from yesterday?”
She shrugged. “What can I say? My mind has a cast-iron ability to remember small details.”
Keaton pursed his lips and nodded. “That could definitely come in useful. As long as you never lose sight of the big picture.”
Again he realized he was the direct cause of her losing the animation on her face, replacing it with that expressionless—almost subservient—look she’d worn earlier. And, dammit, he felt guilty. He needed to learn to temper his remarks. This was as much about him learning how best to work with her as it was about her working with him.
“Sorry,” he said gruffly as he accepted the steaming mug of coffee she’d poured for him. “I get a bit intense at times.”
“Accepted and noted,” she answered with a small smile. She gestured to Nathan, who was at the wide stove. “Nathan’s finishing off huevos rancheros. I keep trying to peek over his shoulder and learn his secrets, but he shooed me back to my chair. Doesn’t it all smell divine?”
Keaton realized, with some relief, that he hadn’t repressed her excitability completely. “It does, indeed,” he agreed.
He was hungry and the food did smell great. Hungry? Hell, he was starving. Last time he’d eaten was a quick snack at the office late last night. By the time Nathan turned around with two heaping plates of steaming food, Keaton was just about drooling.
“There you go. Have at it. You’ll need the energy,” he said with a short laugh. “Just kidding. Leon is going to take it easy on you guys today.”
“Should we be worried?” Tami asked.
“Nah, I mean it. I’m just kidding.”
“I don’t want to let anyone down. Especially on our first day,” she said quietly.
“You’ll be fine,” Keaton said, feeling an uncharacteristic urge to reassure her. While this experience was supposed to test its participants, it wasn’t supposed to strike fear into their hearts. “You can set the pace, okay?”
Leon arrived in the kitchen as Keaton spoke. “Sure, today’s just a bit of a walk to get used to the terrain, that’s all. When you’ve both eaten, get your hiking boots on and make sure you have day packs with a couple of bottles of water each. And wear light layers. It’s going to get warmer, so you’ll probably need to peel off at a certain point.”
“Certainly not like the weather we left behind at home, is it?” Keaton said to Tami before sitting down beside her and tucking in to his breakfast.
“No, it’s not.”
While she was agreeing with him, he couldn’t help but feel she had some other concerns she wasn’t expressing. All in good time, he told himself. Right now he needed to apply himself to his plate. He allowed the taste explosion of the beans, eggs and salsa to fill his mouth. Beside him, Tami moaned in what was clearly an expression of extreme delight. It was an expression more suited to a bedroom than a kitchen, he mused. And just like that he felt a very unwelcome tug of desire.
* * *
Tami felt Keaton stiffen beside her. Should she have done that? She was a spontaneous person and it was only natural to her to express pleasure in something, especially something as delicious as the food on her plate. This wasn’t going to be a lot of fun if she couldn’t be herself. She’d spent her entire childhood being firmly reined in, and she wasn’t going to permit any unnecessary restrictions in her world now, not from anyone. Keaton Richmond would just have to get used to the fact that she was open in her appreciation of the finer things in life, be they food or otherwise. And if it made him uncomfortable, then he was going to have to learn to deal with it. But thinking about her childhood and her father reminded her of why she was here in the first place, and suddenly the food in her mouth took on a bitter flavor.
She forced a smile toward their host.
“This is really good, Nathan. Thank you.”
“My pleasure. Always good to see our guests enjoying our efforts.”
“Are we the only ones here right now?” she asked, pushing her remaining food around her plate.
“Until the rest of your staff and those from DR Construction arrive on Saturday. Your two companies have booked us out, exclusively.”
Tami looked at Keaton. “Exclusively? Wow, that’s quite a commitment. To the adventure center and your staff.”
Keaton shrugged. “When we do something, we like to do it right. This is all about helping all of us to work better as a team.” He gestured to her now-empty plate. “Are you done? If so, we should probably get ready to go meet Leon. Remember your water.”
He rose from the bench and took their plates to the deep sink on the other side of the kitchen.
She returned to her room, grabbed her day pack and stocked it with sunscreen, a light waterproof jacket in case of rain—although the sky this morning was such a clear blue she doubted it would be necessary—and three bottles of water. Tami hesitated about putting her phone in the side pocket of her bag, but remembered her father’s admonition to keep it near at all times in case he needed to call or text her. She had to remember that, right now, she was operating under his instructions and, no matter how much she wanted to rebel against him, she needed to glean the information he wanted. She made sure the phone was turned to silent, then slid it in the pocket and zipped the pack closed. The last thing she wanted was to have him attempt to call her during the hike with Keaton. How on earth would she explain that? She threw on an extra layer over her long-sleeved T-shirt and jeans, laced her hiking boots and shoved her favorite hand-knitted beanie on her head, then bounded back down the stairs.
The air outside was brisk, but not quite as cool as it had been when they’d touched down at the airport earlier. The men were waiting for her as she walked outside to meet them. She groaned inwardly. She’d been quick, she knew she had, but it seemed Keaton had been quicker, and by the casual glance he made at the gold-rimmed watch on his broad wrist, he didn’t like being kep
t waiting.
Her father had always been the same. In fact, he’d been such a stickler for time it had made her a very nervous youngster, until she’d learned that it made no difference if she was on time or not. She always disappointed him in one way or another. Even if she was on time, he wouldn’t approve of what she was wearing or how she’d done her hair. After that, she’d made every effort not to be on time, knowing how much it would annoy him.
Tami sighed. She may as well grab the bull by the horns, she decided. This wasn’t the time for petty games and she had a new boss to impress. And draw secrets out of, she reminded herself grimly.
“Sorry I kept you both.”
“Not a problem, Tami,” Leon said. “Keaton just arrived a minute or two ahead of you.”
Ha! she thought with a private smirk. So much for checking your watch and making me feel bad. Instead, she merely smiled.
“Shall we go then?” she asked cheerfully.
“What’s that on your head?” Keaton asked with a bemused expression on his face.
“This?” She gestured to the glaringly bright pink beanie. “It’s so you can find me easily if I get lost. Do you like it? I can probably knit one up for you tonight if you want one?”
“Um, no, thank you. I don’t think pink is my color,” Keaton said with a spark of humor in his gray eyes that she found most gratifying.
It was good to bring other people joy. It was something she always strived to do and it was one of the driving reasons why, as an adult, she’d had next to nothing to do with her parents, who were manipulative, emotional vampires at the best of times. Not seeing them was one thing but she’d taken the further step of changing her surname from Everard to Wilson when she turned eighteen to help increase the emotional distance between them. Plus, it helped her avoid the need to make excuses for not using her family connections to give other people entry into her father’s world or, through her, access to his money. She’d had enough of that as a kid.
Scandalizing the CEO--A Workplace Romance Page 3
