by Joanne Rock
But what if she didn’t feel like being careful every moment of her life? a rebellious part of her asked. An overinflated sense of doing the right thing had sent her into a two-year engagement with a man who had barely winced at losing her.
“I was just leaving,” she said, lifting her chin to look Marcus in the eye. It might not be totally his fault that she was feeling exasperated. But he certainly played a role. “You can have the room all to yourself.”
“What’s wrong?” His dark brows swooped together, his expression puzzled as he moved deeper into the room. “You seem upset.”
She took her time folding one of the larger maps into sections. “Do I? Not surprising, considering how difficult you’re making it to do my job. You gladly ignore me, except for the moments when you claim tremendous interest in me, followed by more cold suspicion and distance.” She managed a tight smile. “I’m actually delighted to work on my own. Without you.”
She hadn’t realized how much she’d craved the chance to tell him exactly what she thought of his hot-and-cold routine the day before. But she recognized now how much his behavior had weighed on her, and it was a relief to have her resentment out in the open.
“I didn’t know you had a sarcastic streak.” An amused smile played across his lips.
“There’s a great deal you don’t know about me.” Flustered, she jammed the remaining paperwork into her bag, unwilling to take the time to smooth out the folds. “But then, your assumptions are always so accurate, why bother to really get to know anyone?”
She plowed past him, her eye on the exit.
“You’re right. I’ve been hell to work with and unfair to you, Lily. I’m sorry.”
The stark honesty of the words slowed her step. She found it impossible to keep the full head of steam when his apology had just stuck a pin in her anger. She pivoted to face him.
“Thank you for acknowledging that,” she said stiffly, feeling adrift in this relationship unlike any other she’d been in.
Marcus wasn’t just a professional colleague anymore—not after that kiss they’d shared. But they didn’t have a friendship. Or a romantic relationship. And they couldn’t really be enemies with that apology hanging between them, softening the edges of what she’d been feeling. Whatever she was navigating with him sure felt like uncharted terrain.
“What would you say to a fresh start?” He took a step closer. “We clear the slate, forget about the assumptions and misunderstandings, and begin again?”
Wariness mingled with the attraction she couldn’t seem to escape.
“You make it sound easy.” She couldn’t imagine clearing her mind of all the preconceived notions she had about him. And she was pretty sure that damned sensual awareness of him wasn’t going anywhere.
“Maybe it won’t be.” The deep resonance of his voice was like a caress. “But since we took on the ranch as a high-profile client, I think there’s too much riding on our working relationship for us to fail.”
She took a deep breath to steel herself and ended up catching a hint of his aftershave. She resisted the urge to close her eyes and savor it.
“Agreed.” She didn’t want to mess up the career she’d built. Besides, she needed it now more than ever to prove to her grandparents that she could stand on her own two feet. She had too much pride to go running to them for help.
“Good.” A glimmer of satisfaction lit his dark eyes as a smile kicked up one corner of his mouth. “Why don’t we start by you telling me where it is you’re trying to go with all those maps? Chances are, I can help you get there.”
For a breathless moment, her brain conjured tantalizing images of what that might entail. She suspected Marcus possessed a great deal of knowledge about getting her where she’d like to go.
But then he pointed to the papers sticking out of her bag at odd angles, redirecting her thoughts. Cursing her wayward imagination, she reached into the tote and hastily rearranged the maps.
“I want to tour the whole ranch,” she admitted, grateful to focus on something other than Marcus’s hands or his compelling voice. “I thought I’d try to gather some inspiration for a kickoff event, possibly something set on the ranch.”
“Let me take you,” he offered. “Do you ride?”
She met his gaze, wondering what it would be like to spend the whole day with him. Alone.
“I do.” She pushed the words past the dryness in her throat.
“Good.” He backed up a step, offering her a clear path to the exit. “I’ll meet you at the stables in half an hour.”
Nodding her agreement, she darted past him and headed to her room to change. She’d need every moment of that half hour to figure out how to make a fresh start with him, all while keeping his brother’s secret and somehow guarding herself against any more sizzling kisses.
* * *
Two hours later, Marcus steered a spirited quarter horse named Evangeline along a high ridge on the westernmost border of the ranch. The weather was clear and warm, a perfect autumn day in Big Sky country, the canopy of blue so crisp it looked like you could reach up and touch it. He’d been ignoring the urge to take photos in deference to his riding companion, making an earnest effort to learn more about Lily.
She rode a half step behind him on a quieter mount the foreman had suggested for her. Penny was an older paint with an easy disposition, and Lily had accepted her with thanks, although it was quickly obvious to Marcus that she was an excellent horsewoman. She sat in the saddle with the proper form that came from training and the ease that resulted from many hours of riding.
He hadn’t asked her about that yet, however, carefully keeping the conversation on work as they took in the ranch sights. Her accusation about him making assumptions had hit close to the mark. His father had once pointed out something similar about his character. At the time, Marcus had ignored it. But today, when Lily had flung the words at him in anger, he’d recalled his dad’s gentle suggestion that he look deeper than the surface.
You do that so well with a camera, son. You get to the heart of things with a lens. Without it, you sometimes miss the big picture.
The memory had slammed him unexpectedly. His father’s death had been too swift for Marcus to appreciate all the ways he was going to miss Alonzo Salazar’s quiet presence in his life. Now, months afterward, memories like that one could blindside him. Taking Lily on the tour of the ranch felt like a concession made to his father. An effort to be a better man.
Or, hell, maybe he was simply rationalizing the need to spend more time with Lily. Sure, he still found it difficult to trust her. But he couldn’t deny he was attracted. And they damned well needed to get work done this week.
“Oh, how pretty.” Lily breathed the words reverently. “Marcus, look at the fox.”
Reining in, he turned to look where she was pointing. In the valley below them, a large red fox picked her way slowly through the golden fields while three energetic kits frolicked around their mom. The little ones playfully jumped at each other, their heads appearing and disappearing over the tops of the dying meadow grasses. The mother slowed at the edge of a brook to take a drink.
“That’s a lively crew mama fox has to look after.” He watched the animals for a moment, but the curve of Lily’s appreciative smile was more of a draw for him. She seemed to be enjoying herself after their tense exchange at the lodge.
She’d worn a long anorak with fitted khakis and tall riding boots for the trip, an outfit that gave him renewed appreciation for her curves. She had an athletic leanness about her, but she was still distinctly feminine.
“Sometimes I tell myself that having a sibling is overrated, but that little group sure makes it look fun.” Her blue gaze flicked to his while her horse’s ears twitched.
“I wouldn’t know. Devon and I were destined to be enemies, having mothers who were locked in their own conflict.” He hadn’t m
eant it as a swipe at Devon. It was a simple fact that had set them at odds early on. But in deference to Lily’s friendship with his half brother, he changed the subject. “Have you noticed all the little feeder streams we’ve passed in the last hour and a half? Coop said the revival of the wetlands is one of the best indications of the local environment’s renewed health.”
“They’re doing something right here.” She hesitated, and for a moment he thought she was going to redirect the conversation back to the topic of siblings. But instead she said, “Aren’t foxes a pest for ranchers?”
“Coop said they’re trying to grow the whole ecosystem, pests and all. Within reason, of course. The theory is each level of predator has one higher up on the food chain, so a balanced system stays in balance.” He’d been reading a lot about the ranching model since taking on the client. It beat brooding about Devon’s long delay in arriving.
Or his mistrust of Lily’s motives.
“Would you mind if we stopped for a few minutes so I can make notes?” She pointed toward a cliff with a few jutting scrub trees behind them. “There’s a low rock wall over there.”
“Of course.” He dismounted and ground-tied Evangeline. He would have helped Lily down, but she was already on her feet, digging through a saddlebag to retrieve a notebook and camera. “You ride very well,” he observed, trying not to linger on the sight of her long legs encased in soft twill.
“It was part of the curriculum at my boarding school.” She arched a dark eyebrow at him. “Another gift from my grandparents that I’ll never be able to repay.”
“The Carringtons are one of Newport’s oldest families. I doubt they need to be compensated for educating their granddaughter.”
“In theory, no.” She moved toward the cliff and dropped down to sit on the flat rocks under a juniper tree. “But in the same way that your mother and Devon’s mother have always been at odds, my grandparents have never forgiven my mother for making foolish romantic decisions. And since I’m her daughter, I’ve always felt like their words were a warning directed at me, a reminder that I need to be a better person than their disappointing daughter.”
He wouldn’t have guessed that someone like her—born into one of the nation’s wealthiest families—would battle those kinds of feelings. But how damn naive of him to think that. Every family had its own issues, its own fierce divisions and rivalries.
“It’s sad that any kid is blamed for the actions of their parents,” he said carefully, still feeling his way in this new attempt to broker a peace with her.
He swept aside some fallen leaves to sit beside her on the stacked rock wall. He crossed his ankles and stared out at the view, the light flurries giving the mountain vistas a gray filter.
“Sad, but common.” She tapped a few things into her phone and then set it aside to pick up her paper and pen. “I’ve always tried to tread lightly with them, really weighing what to accept in terms of help. I couldn’t argue about the boarding school since I was too young. But I opted for a college that was paid in full by scholarship instead of an Ivy League. And I took the job with Salazar because it was something outside the family realm of influence.”
“I wondered why you didn’t go to work at Carrington Financial.” He had a new respect for her choices; working as the COO of a company like Salazar Media would never rival the kind of salary and influence she surely would have wielded at her grandparents’ company.
“I sit on the board to represent the family, but I don’t take a paycheck.” She shrugged. “Of course, my grandparents like to remind me that they never took one, either.”
He couldn’t stifle a laugh. “As if they needed to.”
“Right?” She glanced over at him, mischief in her eyes.
It was a shared moment of connection that would have been nice if it hadn’t been followed—almost instantly—by a lightning bolt of heat. He felt it blast through him, and he guessed the same thing hit her, too, because her smile faded. Her gaze dropped to his mouth.
And the heat redoubled.
He wanted to pull her close and taste her, but he’d barely walked away from the last kiss with his sanity. Their chemistry was far too potent. Unpredictable. And no matter how much he wanted to justify an affair in his mind, he couldn’t get around the fact that she worked for his company.
“I’ll get my camera.” He seized the idea like a lifeline as he sprang to his feet. “I can snap the photos you wanted.”
He took his time going back to his horse and retrieving the camera, wishing he could find some restraint before rejoining Lily. He dragged in long breaths, hoping the pine-scented air swirling with flurries would cool his jets. When he’d stalled as long as he could, he turned around to face her.
She chewed her lip, her pen and paper forgotten beside her. She’d drawn her knees up and looped one arm around them. Her dark hair was caught in a ponytail, the end trailing over one shoulder.
“Can I ask you something?” She studied him with thoughtful blue eyes.
He nodded, still wanting to kiss her until they forgot everything else. To the point where he didn’t trust himself to speak.
“Just a minute ago, when you were right here.” She pointed to the spot he’d vacated. “I thought for a moment—” She hesitated. “Maybe I imagined it—”
“You didn’t.” His voice was hoarse, his fingers tightening around his camera. “I felt it, too.”
Her eyebrows rose, and she gave him a look of genuine surprise.
At least, that’s what he thought he saw. He was trying his damnedest to appreciate the bigger picture. To not make assumptions.
Could she be that innocent, where she didn’t recognize the most elemental hunger? Or maybe she’d simply been sheltered in her relationship with the ex-fiancé she now labeled a friend. The possibility that this level of chemistry was new to her pleased him more than it should have. Tantalized the hell out of him.
“So we’re right back where we started—things between us are either hot or cold,” she mused, although there was a hint of breathlessness in her voice. “No middle ground.”
“On the contrary, I’d argue that’s where we are right now. I’m not walking away, but I’m not sure I trust myself to come closer. So...yeah.” He couldn’t take his eyes off her. “We’re right in the middle.”
She straightened as she seemed to think that over. Weighing the words. Trying the idea on for size. He could almost see the wheels turn in her head as she processed it. Around them, the birds sang and hopped from tree to tree, oblivious to their dilemma.
Then, suddenly, Lily was on her feet, her riding boots cutting through the dry grass as she charged toward him.
“I don’t like how that feels one bit,” she announced, only stopping when they stood toe-to-toe. She was so close he could see a tiny spray of freckles along her nose, so close he could catch a hint of her rose scent.
His pulse sped faster, urging him toward her. But he told himself to be sure. To listen to what she was saying, and to be certain about what she wanted before he acted.
“Considering that we’ve misunderstood one another in the past, I want to be sure I’m clear...”
He quit talking when she tugged his camera out of his hand and set it on the ground, safely tucked between two tree roots. When she returned to face him, he could see the heated intention in her eyes, right before her hands slid up his shoulders.
“How’s this for clear?” she whispered, arching up on her toes to kiss him.
Six
Lily knew this wasn’t wise.
And still she couldn’t scavenge a scrap of restraint where Marcus was concerned. Because just once hadn’t been enough. That first kiss had been too fleeting. She hadn’t really been able to savor the onetime thrill.
Was it so wrong to want a do-over now that she knew what a kiss was capable of? She’d never experienced the kind of m
elting heat he made her feel with just a look. Never dreamed that a sensual connection could manifest this kind of power over her. It was daunting. Irresistible. What better time to explore it than here, two thousand miles from home, when she needed to reevaluate her whole life anyhow?
At least, that’s what she told herself when she closed her eyes and fell deeper into Marcus’s arms.
His hands roved over her with a possessiveness that thrilled her. She may have initiated the kiss, but he took it over, nipping her lower lip gently between his teeth, licking soothing strokes with his tongue afterward. She clung to him, her arms wrapping tighter around him, dragging him closer.
The meadow and the horses fell away until Marcus was her whole world. His touch. His breath in her ear as he kissed his way along her jaw and down her neck. Pleasure spun out from every place he touched, the heat flaring hotter and wilder. She speared her fingers into his hair, testing the texture of the thick, dark strands. It was silkier than she’d imagined.
A low growl in his throat felt like wordless approval as his fingers clamped on her waist before venturing lower to cup her hips. She felt dizzy from how much she wanted this. Her arms banded around him, anchoring her body to his.
“Lily.” Her name was a whisper against her damp lips.
“Mmm?” She pried her eyes open to answer him, her heart beating madly.
“I don’t want to take advantage.” He sounded so serious. And sincere.
“You wouldn’t be,” she assured him, still dazed from the pleasure flooding her veins. Still trapped in the combustible heat and wanting to stay there. “I kissed you first.”
“A technicality.” He tipped his forehead to hers, his hand cupping her cheek. “The bottom line is things are going to get out of hand in a hurry unless we...rein it in.”