by Joanne Rock
“So we should eat rubber chicken in the local hotel’s conference center instead?” Marcus strode to the bar and pulled the champagne bottle out of the ice bucket. “I won’t apologize for enjoying my work.”
He used a linen napkin to cup the cork before twisting it off with a satisfying pop. At the sound, one of the waiters hurried over to take charge of the task. Marcus gave the younger man the bottle and took his seat opposite Lily.
She smiled politely while the drinks were poured. But as soon as the waiter disappeared, Lily’s gaze tangled with his.
“I just don’t want to muddle our working relationship any further,” she confided. “I know we got sidetracked earlier today with whatever was happening between us, but I think it’s important we figure out an event for Mesa Falls Ranch. I’m here tonight to work.”
“As am I. And I’ve been very clear that you’re in charge of what happens next between us, if anything. In the meantime, however, I plan to make sure you enjoy yourself whenever you’re with me.” He hadn’t realized how much he meant that until he spoke the words aloud. No matter how often he reminded himself that Lily’s first loyalty was to his brother, or that a relationship between them would cross a professional line, Marcus wanted her anyway.
Her lips were pursed; she looked deep in thought.
Before she could plan a rebuttal, he lifted the faceted crystal champagne flute. “In fact, let’s toast to a perfect fall evening. The atmosphere is sure to hatch the exact right event idea.”
At the mention of their work, a slow smile curved her glossy pink lips, and she clinked her glass lightly to his. “Cheers.”
The swell of victory in his chest was undeniable. He sipped the champagne and savored the sight of her across the table from him. He wanted to touch her again. To skim her bare shoulders with his hands and hear her breathy sighs in his ear. To pull every pin from her hair until it cascaded over him like a silk curtain.
The hum in his veins was about more than just this one small victory. It was the growing anticipation of everything the night might bring.
Seven
Two hours later, swirling dark port in a dessert wineglass, Lily tried not to fall any further under Marcus’s spell.
It wasn’t easy, given his charming side she’d glimpsed during dinner. He’d obviously put a lot of thought into the evening, from having the dinner in the sunroom with its breathtaking mountain views at twilight, to the discreetly placed patio heaters that ensured they would be warm enough to linger over the meal. A fire also blazed in the huge stone hearth.
The food had been exquisite, thoughtfully prepared by an innovative chef the ranch owners were working with to open a seasonal restaurant nearby. Marcus had not only hired him for the evening meal, he had also convinced the chef to retain Salazar Media’s services for his other restaurants in Miami and Los Angeles.
“Are you always working?” she asked after a careful sip of the port.
She’d indulged very little during the meal, wary of letting her guard down around a man who intrigued her on every level. She needed to protect her professional standing, and an affair with one of the owners of the company seemed unwise in the extreme. Although, she had to admit, she’d weighed the idea often enough over the last two hours. Memories of his kiss were never far from her thoughts.
Was she deceiving herself that she could spend time with this man and not cross the line she walked so warily? She had been so certain she could come here tonight and focus on the job, on firming up plans for an event at Mesa Falls Ranch.
“When you enjoy what you do for a living, is it really work?” he asked, pulling his dark gaze from the crackling fire to meet her eyes across the table.
The shiver of awareness she experienced wasn’t a surprise anymore. She’d come to expect it.
“You really find that much fulfillment with the company?” She noticed the server heading their way.
“Most of the time. The only aspect I don’t like is reining in good ideas to fatten the bottom line or make our performance stats look more impressive.” Marcus offered her his hand. “Would you like to take a walk around the grounds?”
She took in his dark suit, surely custom-tailored because it fit him perfectly.
“That sounds nice.” She left her port behind on the table and followed him to the coatrack, where he retrieved her lightweight cashmere jacket.
His hands lingered a moment as he settled it on her shoulders. Or had she imagined it?
Before she could decide, he took her hand and wrapped her fingers around his forearm so he could steady her as they walked.
A chivalrous touch.
Maybe that’s why she couldn’t will herself to let go as they followed the line of the four-rail fence around the huge guesthouse. She was hyperaware of where her fingers rested on his forearm.
“I’ve got a suggestion for the event.” Marcus stopped close to the stables, where two horses stood in roofed stalls open on both ends to let air flow through. “Although it’s probably over budget.”
With the help of a low-hanging full moon, she recognized Evangeline and an Appaloosa he favored.
“I’m listening.” She tipped her face into the breeze blowing in off the mountains.
“What if we hold the party on the ranch, but host two simultaneous galas in New York and LA, with staggered starts to accommodate the time difference.” Marcus laid his other hand on top of hers and, in a gesture that seemed almost instinctive, stroked a thumb along the backs of her knuckles, stirring her senses.
He’d told her that what happened next was up to her. Yet she didn’t want to pull away.
Instead, she tracked the path of his touch with her eyes. “I’m not sure how we could generate enough interest for such a big undertaking. Unless it’s a benefit.” She had already considered a charitable tie-in.
“What if we entice two major corporations on each coast to hold the satellite events by offering them a cut rate on their first retreat?” His touch stilled on her fingers.
She glanced up at him, his dark eyes enticing her closer when she should be thinking about work. She battled an urge to splay her hands along his broad chest. But she began to see where he was going with the party idea. It would definitely increase their reach—digitally and physically.
“That could work,” she admitted.
“Then we offer the guests the opportunity to sponsor a wildlife family. Adopt a sage grouse or a wolf or even a bear—hell, I don’t know.” He rested his free arm on the fence rail, warming to the topic. “Or, for a small donation to the sustainable ranching efforts, a guest could become a caretaker of a section of the river.”
“Like Adopt A Highway?” She’d seen signs like that on major roads before.
“Exactly. Then, when your group visits for the retreat, you can see how your waterway is doing or get reports on the sage grouse population.” He guided her toward the sunroom, one palm at the small of her back.
Lily was working out the logistics, focusing on the nuances of his idea as she tried to ignore the way his voice stirred her senses and made her want to lean into him. “But the ranch isn’t a charity.”
“No. The donation would go to greater conservation and education efforts from whatever nature conservancy group we work with. But offering some kind of tangible return on their investment—like bragging rights that your sage grouse is thriving—would make the efforts more real. Plus it gives people an emotional attachment to the place.”
Lily couldn’t hold back a smile. “I know there are green ranching initiatives that we could work with who could put the dollars to direct use.” With a few more notes, the idea would be ready to pass off to the staff in the New York office to make it happen. “I think you’re really on to something.”
She liked the scope of the idea. And the budget they had to promote the ranch was impressive, so they needed a
n event with real impact for their dollars.
“We could show plenty of video footage at the New York and Los Angeles parties. I think if people saw the land and the creatures who call it home, they’d feel more invested in protecting it. Or seeing it firsthand by scheduling a retreat.”
The idea of visiting a part of the country known for its beauty, spending time among people who were working hard to retain that natural splendor, was going to really draw forward-thinking businesses to Mesa Falls Ranch.
“I agree.” She felt more invested, too, recharged to do her job tomorrow. “Your creative team is going to have a field day with an event like this.”
As they neared the sunroom again, they stopped short of the doors. She knew their time together had probably reached its natural conclusion. She should thank him for a lovely evening and head back to her suite at the main lodge.
But his touch gave her butterflies. And she still needed answers. She wanted to use this week to figure out what she wanted from life before returning to the rigid expectations of her grandparents back home.
When she spun to tell him good night, he was close behind her. Strong and warm, his physical presence was an undeniable draw.
“I should...” She bit her lip, weighing her options while the breeze blew tendrils of hair to tickle her neck and graze her shoulder. The scent of wildflowers teased her nose. “That is, I’d better—”
Marcus quieted whatever she was about to say by lifting a strand of her hair between two fingers. He didn’t touch any other part of her, but the gentle tug at her scalp made a thousand pleasurable tingles race along her spine.
“Would you like me to drive you back to the lodge?” he offered, the look in his eyes melting her insides.
She’d never felt anything as potent as this. It shamed her to think it when she’d been engaged for two years. But better to know now that she’d been playing at romance before. This? It might not be romance, but it was the most seductive feeling she’d ever experienced.
“I’m having a difficult time knowing quite what I want tonight,” she confessed, more drunk on moonlight and Marcus than anything she’d sipped over dinner.
Marcus leaned fractionally closer, his voice a low rumble near her ear.
“When it’s right, you’ll know for certain.” He slid his arm around her shoulders and pointed them in the direction of the driveway. “I’ve got one of the ranch trucks out front. I’ll give you a lift, because I don’t want you walking back to the lodge in the dark.”
He made an excellent, sensible point. And even as she followed him to the truck, Lily knew she didn’t care for this sensible path. Yes, it reinforced everything she’d been telling herself all week long.
Don’t be too hasty.
Don’t kiss Marcus again.
Don’t risk the career you need now more than ever.
“Wait.” She turned on her heel just shy of the running board of the shiny black 4x4. Here, under the floodlights of the detached garage, she could see him clearly. “I feel like this is the safe, reasonable sort of decision I’ve been making for my entire life.”
She wasn’t telling him so much as thinking out loud, feeling the need to talk through the knot of confused impulses, hoping she could untangle them. She paced a few steps away from him, her boots tapping a quick rhythm on the stone driveway.
“No one would ever blame you for doing the reasonable thing,” Marcus agreed calmly, as if his dinner companions routinely sorted through pros and cons of their wild attraction to him out loud.
“You do.” She pivoted to face him where he lounged with a shoulder against the truck door. “You told me I’m a people pleaser.”
“I didn’t mean it as an insult,” he said carefully. “I was simply pointing out how different we are.”
“Because you don’t always do the reasonable thing.” She didn’t want to be like Marcus, the creative, fiery genius who was forever tugging the company into new terrain. Did she? “I remember a memo you sent out to everyone last year that said best practices are for people who don’t know how to forge a new path.”
She remembered rolling her eyes at the memo when it had shown up in her inbox. Because she lived by best practices. They were in place for a reason.
“I believe I was more diplomatic than that.” He folded his arms across his chest as he watched her pace.
“I forged a new path when I broke my engagement.” She halted as the idea fully sank in. No doubt about it, her grandparents weren’t going to view the loss of a Winthrop marriage prospect as following a “best practice.”
“Did you?” Marcus straightened where he stood but didn’t move closer. “I think it’s all a matter of perspective. And that’s strictly between you and the man foolish enough to lose you.”
She only partially heard him, as her brain raced in new directions.
“This week is not about doing the sensible thing.” She’d already done something that would shake her grandparents’ trust in her. And she’d already rattled her own view of herself by going after that combustible kiss with Marcus—a kiss that had ended far too soon.
How much more harm could it do to take this night for herself, to see what she might be missing in a life bounded by others’ expectations of her? One night wouldn’t magically transform her from a woman who lived by best practices into a woman like her mother, who turned her back on family for the sake of romance.
“What is it about then, Lily?”
She walked toward him with a new sense of purpose. A new certainty.
“Right or wrong, it’s about what I want.” Clearheaded, single-minded, she laid her palm on Marcus’s chest, her fingertips grazing taut muscle hidden only by a fine layer of cotton twill. “And I want to be with you tonight.”
* * *
Marcus couldn’t imagine anything sexier than hearing this grounded, strong woman talk through her thought process like a trial attorney, steering her argument to a logical—and sensual—conclusion. Desire flared hot at the thought of having her in his bed.
“It would be my pleasure and my privilege to honor that request.” He stilled her wandering hands, taking them both in his before lifting first one, and then the other to his lips. He kissed the back of each, breathing in the scent of her skin. “But first, let me bring you inside where it’s warm.”
She gave a quick nod of agreement, and he turned to lead her in the front door of the guesthouse. The catering staff had gone home for the night; Marcus had noticed earlier that their van was gone from the front driveway.
They were very much alone.
Marcus bolted the door behind them and took her coat before Lily slipped out of her boots. Seeing her step deeper into the living area, a pair of thin socks peeping out from the hem of the yellow dress, filled him with a sense of protectiveness and made the line they’d just crossed feel all the more real. He hit a button to lower the blinds around the whole room, and another to start the fire in the hearth. The only light came from a hallway chandelier and the two sconces on either side of a bookshelf, but the low blaze in the gray stone fireplace lent a warm glow to the room.
He’d wanted Lily since the first moment they’d met—at a client meeting four years ago, before she’d gotten engaged. Even then, she’d been off-limits because she was his brother’s assistant and friend, so he’d tried his damnedest to stay away. It had helped that they worked on opposite coasts. After he’d heard she was engaged, he’d shoved all thoughts of her even further to the back burner.
Now, suddenly, she was here with him.
His gaze followed her as she slowed her step near the sofa. He didn’t want to rush her. Just because she’d committed to the idea of being together didn’t mean he was done romancing her. Not by a long shot.
“You’re making me nervous,” she confessed in a breathless rush, her fingers digging into the cushioned back of the gray
sectional. “Are you thinking this is the craziest idea ever?”
“Hell, no.” He loosened his tie a fraction of an inch before he stepped into her path, standing inches away from her. The last thing he wanted was for her to feel anxious. “I was just thinking how damn long I’ve wanted you. I’m also wondering if I’ve developed some kind of superpower, since I feel like I willed this night into being.”
She laughed lightly. “I’m not sure luring women into your arms counts as a superpower.”
She still wore her jacket. He peeled the fabric away from her shoulders and let the garment fall over the back of the sofa.
“Most men would beg to differ.” He stroked her arms, liking the subtle shiver he felt move through her. “Though I’m not interested in convincing anyone but you.”
“No?” Her blue eyes tracked him, a new alertness in her gaze.
“I’ve wanted you since the first time we met.”
“You hid it well. I had no idea.”
“Do you remember that day?” He bent to graze a kiss beneath her ear, a tendril of her fallen hair tickling his nose.
Her head tilted, and he felt the rapid thrum of her pulse where his lips lingered. Her fragrance, something lightly floral, intensified as his breath warmed her skin.
“I remember. We had a meeting with a resort chain, and I felt you watching me while I was taking notes.”
Straightening, he stared down at her, waiting for her eyes to open.
“I thought you were unaware.” He stroked a finger along her cheek while her lids fluttered.
Then she met his gaze fully. “I didn’t know what you were thinking. I knew you and Devon didn’t get along well, so I guess I thought you might be suspicious of me, too. Looking back, I can see where that feeling was a spark of awareness, but at the time, I had a boyfriend, and I knew from Devon that you were in a relationship, as well.” Her fingers walked up his chest, circling around one of his shirt buttons. “Besides, after those first few meetings, you hardly noticed me.”