Tempting Levi (Cade Brothers Book 1)

by Jules Barnard

  Distracted with “what if” scenarios on her way back to the executive offices, Emily didn’t notice Hunter coming in from the pool until he was nearly in front of her.

  “Wait up, Emily.” Hunter ran the beach and boat dock, taking out guests on the lake for booze cruises and other tours, and was currently wearing jeans and a Club Tahoe T-shirt.

  “Is everything set up for the Emerald Bay cruise tomorrow?”

  He laughed and shook his head. “Do you think of anything besides work?” He gave her a charming smile. One that had probably dropped some panties in his lifetime.

  “Sometimes.” If only he knew her naughty thoughts about his older brother. “But not often. Too much to do.”

  “You sound like a peppier version of Levi.”

  She swallowed back her lust-filled guilt over the man in question. “I’ll take that as a compliment. Was there something you needed? You got the list I emailed you of the people who signed up?”

  “I have it. The boat’s all prepped.” His cocky composure dropped and he shifted his feet. “I wanted to talk to you about something else… Do you think you could suggest something to Levi? Without telling him it came from me?”

  Emily understood where the tension between Levi and his brother came from. That didn’t mean she wanted to be caught in the middle of it. “I won’t lie for you.”

  “Not lie”—he glanced away as though thinking—“but just don’t mention you got the idea from me.” Emily didn’t respond at first, and Hunter scratched his jaw, looking even more uncomfortable. “It’s nothing bad. I’d like to do more for kids and teens visiting the club. Most of our activities are geared toward adults: gaming, the spa, golf. We have a pool and paddleboards, but I see the same kids each day at the beach and I’d like to start a program for them. We have the clearest water on the lake right in back of our hotel. We could offer snorkeling lessons, or have our yoga instructor do a children’s class on the beach. Wes could offer lessons for kids… I don’t know.” He rubbed his neck again. “It’s just a thought.”

  She tried to smooth her brow. “It’s—a good idea, Hunter. A really good idea.”

  “Hunt. Just call me Hunt. Only my father called me Hunter.”

  “Why don’t you want to bring up the idea to Levi?”

  His expression turned dark. “Nothing coming from me goes over well with Levi. Trust me. And this is something I kind of…care about. I remember spending summers here while the adults were inside doing their thing. I want to offer more for the kids.”

  Emily gave him a light smile. “I’ll bring it up to him,” she said. “Providing more children’s activities on some type of schedule makes a lot of sense. And you’re correct, the number of guests we house under eighteen has increased. Safe activities can only benefit the hotel and guests. Thank you for the suggestion.”

  He nodded and quickly walked off before she could say another word.

  Emily watched Hunt make his way toward the beach. He wasn’t what she’d imagined when she first heard about his reputation. There was the dashing, playboy side of him, but there was also something more there…

  “Admiring Hunt’s ass?”

  The voice came from behind, and it was one Emily immediately recognized. Only the tone was off. Levi never spoke to her with a sharp edge in his voice.

  She turned and smiled, ignoring what looked like a disapproving stare. If she brought up Hunt’s suggestion now, Levi might know it came from his brother, since she’d just been talking to him. And Hunt’s suggestion of a children’s program was one Emily would love to look into. So she kept her mouth shut for now, because Hunt was right. It probably wouldn’t go over well if Levi knew the idea came from his youngest brother. “Just saying hello in passing. Beautiful day, isn’t it?”

  Levi looked like he didn’t believe her. “Don’t you have something to do?”

  She frowned. “I always have something to do. That doesn’t mean I can’t take a second to admire the Lake Tahoe sky.”

  He closed his eyes and breathed out. “I apologize. I’m not myself this week. Please”—he waved at the view—“enjoy. We’ll talk later.” And he walked away.

  Whiplash, that was what working at Club Tahoe was like. One moment, Levi treated her as though she were an underage teenager who’d had too much to drink, and the next he was checking her out in an ugly one-piece bathing suit. And maybe that was all this was. Men looked all the time. It didn’t mean anything.

  He was a wealthy, rugged man’s man who dated women that looked like centerfold models. She wasn’t his type.

  Emily stormed to her office, sinking heavily in her chair. She made the phone calls she’d put off this morning. Doing her job—that was what she needed to focus on. Levi had been a teenage fantasy. He was a man now, with flaws and hard edges…and walls. Walls her soft heart couldn’t break down. She wasn’t sexy enough to melt them away. Which left her bumping up against that hard edge daily.

  She needed to develop a thicker skin, because she wasn’t breaking her promise to Levi’s father and quitting.

  Chapter 12

  No, no, no.” There was no way Emily would do it. “You’ve got to be kidding.”

  Levi leaned against the doorframe of her office. “We need you there. What’s the problem?”

  She came around her desk and propped a hip against the edge, crossing her arms over her chest.

  His eyes dropped to her waist, then rose slowly.

  She blinked and glanced away. She had to stop thinking he was looking-looking at her. “The problem is,” she said emphatically, “I suck at golf. I’ll embarrass myself. I’ll embarrass you. Believe me, you don’t want me around a bunch of balls.”

  His face went still, and then a slow smile slid across his mouth.

  She brought her hand to her forehead. “Forget I said that.” She looked up. “You know what I meant.”

  “I do. But you don’t have to be good at golf. If you hit one in the trees, just drop another ball and move on.”

  “You mean after I’ve lost several hundred in the woods?”

  He shrugged.

  “You want to humiliate me, don’t you?”

  He turned without responding, but there was a smile on his face and a swagger to his step as he walked away.

  “Shit,” she muttered.

  “Don’t forget to pick up golf attire from the store,” he called from down the hall. “On the house.”

  The one thing about dating a stockbroker who wore bow ties? He liked to play golf, so Emily knew how to play the game. In theory.

  She tucked the fitted white polo shirt from the hotel store into her new navy golf shorts, the fabric smooth over her belly, the shorts fitting nicely against her thighs. She might not possess giant jugs, but she had a flat stomach and her butt wasn’t half bad. But for someone athletically built, she had a hell of a mental block when it came to golfing. Or so her ex-boyfriend had told her. Typically, with a look of annoyance. And a roll of his eyes.

  God, he’d been an ass.

  No more dating asses. The next guy she dated would never tell her what to do, and he wouldn’t look down on her either. She was accomplished, dammit.

  And she’d just made an argument for why dating Levi was impossible, even if he hadn’t already dated her sister. And was her boss.

  Levi told Emily what to do daily. He even told her what to do the one night she wasn’t technically on duty, by shoving her out the door and into a cab.

  She took a deep breath, held her head high, and strode out of the employee exit toward the first tee near the pro shop. Levi had said they needed her on the golf course because the entire Shin Electronics group had decided to play this morning. Wes had made good on his promise to close the course for a couple hours to allow the company exclusive play, and Levi wanted her and her translation skills present.

  “I can do this,” she said as she caught sight of Levi, his brothers, and their guests. But her hands began to shake.

  Levi turned aro
und, scanning her—his gaze lingering on her legs.

  He was a guy; of course he looked at women’s legs. Nothing unusual about that. Didn’t mean anything. Hunt looked too. It was just normal guy stuff.

  She stopped beside Levi. “I don’t have clubs.”

  He lifted his chin, and Wes disappeared into the pro shop.

  Wes returned seconds later with a full set of golf clubs and handed them to a caddy nearby, pulling out a putter and driver. “Test these out. You’re tall for a woman, but these should work.”

  Great. They expected her to swing with an audience?

  Emily propped the putter on the ground and bent her legs. “This is fine.”

  “What about the driver?” Levi said.

  She frowned at him and his eyes sparkled, as though he was enjoying this.

  She gave the putter to the caddy and bent her knees again, getting into position with the driver. Her form wasn’t terrible, exactly; she simply couldn’t hit the ball straight to save her life.

  She gave it a light half swing and straightened. “All good.”

  “Excellent,” Wes said, and looked around. “Everyone here?”

  Levi scanned the large group and nodded. “We’d better go out if we want to take advantage of the course while it’s empty.”

  Wes called out the groups, placing Emily with Levi in the first group to tee off, along with the CEO of Shin Electronics and another Shin employee.

  She approached the CEO and smiled. “Tee-shot har Joonbee Dae-syeoss-seub-nee-ka?”

  The man nodded and walked toward the first tee box. He took a couple of practice swings.

  Levi came up behind her and leaned down, his mouth near her ear. “How did you learn to speak Korean so well?”

  “A year in Korea, remember?” He stared at her, and she wagged her head. “And I took lessons in graduate school. I thought it might come in handy in the hospitality business.”

  “Do you always plan things so thoroughly?”

  “Yes.”

  He watched the other Shin employee tee off. “Interesting.”

  “Is it? I would think my planning skills would come in handy for you.”

  “Maybe I don’t want everything planned out.”

  She stared at the side of his face. “That’s not what I remember. You’d had your entire future planned with my sister at one time.”

  He shot her a strange glance. “And look how well that turned out.”

  Was he trying to say he’d made a mistake?

  While Emily tried to figure out his cryptic response, Levi moved toward the tee and took a practice swing. He had excellent form. Very athletic. All the Cade brothers were.

  He lined up his driver behind the ball, then pulled the club straight back until it was horizontal above his right shoulder. He swung downward, nailing the ball with a loud crack. The ball went flying—out, out—so far Emily couldn’t see it anymore. But Levi could, and so could the businessmen, who all seemed impressed.

  And then it was Emily’s turn.

  Perfect. She had to follow the guy who hit it straight and with so much strength the ball flew into Timbuktu.

  Time to get serious and not make an ass of herself. Emily wrapped her hair into a low pony with a band she’d tucked into her shorts.

  She grabbed the driver her caddy held out and stepped up to the women’s tee. After taking a quick practice swing, she approached the ball. And that was when things fell apart.

  Oh, she swung like everyone else. Had the right form, the right grip. But at the last second, she pulled her left arm too hard, or maybe she opened the face of her club? In any case, the ball smacked off the toe of her driver, made a sharp right turn, and ricocheted off a Tahoe pine. The other players instinctively ducked. That would have been embarrassing enough, but the ball wasn’t finished. It shot to the opposite side of the fairway, parallel to them, and landed in two feet of rough.

  Emily sighed and blindly handed her club to the caddy so she couldn’t do any more damage. No one said anything, but she didn’t dare look either.

  Emily, Levi, and their two guests moved on while the next group lined up behind them.

  She pulled out a fresh ball—no need digging in the rough for the last one—and dropped it on the fairway approximately where her original ball had taken a trip into no-man’s land. Levi strode past her, way the hell down the fairway to where his ball had landed a hundred yards ahead of anyone else’s. And that was about how the first half of the round went.

  By the ninth hole, Emily decided she needed to say something to Levi. Not because of her crappy play—but because of his performance.

  She pulled out a spare ball and tucked it into her shorts pocket. The one she’d teed off with was another goner. Sidling up to Levi, she casually said, “You might want to ease up on the power swings there, buddy.”

  He glanced at her confidently. “Power swings, eh?”

  “Even Wes isn’t giving it his all.”

  Levi chuckled. “Wes is a scratch player. No way he’s giving it everything he’s got. Probably told his group he’s having an off day. Even on an off day, though, he’s still stronger than any other player. Got to show them he has something to offer in private lessons.”

  “Right. Exactly.” She looked at him pointedly. “So simmer down, will you? If Wes can set his ego aside, so can you. You might not understand what our guests are saying, but you’re making them nervous—or irritated. Sometimes translation is tricky. In any case, I doubt either emotion is in the best interest of Club Tahoe.”

  He frowned. “I see your point.”

  Levi was up next, but instead of pulling back, he let it rip, his ball nearly landing on the green.

  He moved past her and she elbowed him. “You call that holding back?”

  So she was being feisty. No more soft, gushy heart smashing up against the big, sexy boulder. If she was going to do her job, she needed to show more backbone.

  He quirked an eyebrow. “I held back.”

  “No you didn’t.”

  “My short game still needs work. Can I help it if I have a long drive?” He gave her a crooked grin.

  Her lips parted. Long drive? Was that some sort of innuendo?

  She’d show him long drive.

  The next time Levi teed off, she waited until he was mid-swing, dropping her voice low enough that only he could hear, and said, “I keep a pair of balls in the palm of my hand.”

  Levi’s arm dropped mid-swing and his aim was off. Okay, not as badly as hers every single time, but enough that his shot landed short and just off the fairway in the rough.

  Success.

  He looked back and she smiled. “In case I need to drop one.”

  She smirked and walked past him to take her position at the women’s tee. If she had to break his concentration to get him to stop showing off with his power drives, she’d do it.

  They eventually made it onto the green, and Levi lined up a short putt.

  Emily walked up behind him, holding two golf balls in her grip. “Boy, these balls are hard to juggle.”

  Levi’s putt missed badly, and he growled. He turned to her with the scariest look on his face.

  Granite, meet ice. “What?” She tried for an innocent smile, but she was a terrible liar. It was bad form to talk when someone was lining up a shot. Especially talk of balls, which seemed to distract Levi. Was it her fault his mind was in the gutter?

  He picked up and made his way to the next hole.

  If Levi didn’t like her distractions, he had no one to blame but himself. It was his fault she was here to begin with.

  Emily’s game never improved and her translation skills were hardly needed, but she’d managed to put out one fire. The clients’ moods perked up by the end of the round, and Levi even had them laughing over a funny story about a past president who’d brought both his wife and his mistress to the resort—at the same time.

  She handed her putter to the caddy as she neared the clubhouse and clapped her ha
nds together, pleased with a job well done. Oh, her golf game was in the crapper, but she’d saved Levi from disaster with the clients, and that was all that mattered. She turned to head back to her office. There was so much work—

  Levi grabbed her arm, one of his large fingers gently rubbing the tender underside. “Distracting me with dirty references?”

  She gave him a smug look. “Is it my fault that your mind goes there whenever I talk about golf balls?”

  His gaze dipped to her lips. “When the word balls comes out of your mouth, I don’t think of golf. You caught me off guard and you know it.”

  If Emily didn’t know better, she’d say he was flirting with her. None of this looking, because all guys looked. This was legit. But men could be charming. Didn’t mean they were interested in more than flirting.

  When she’d made the accidental ball pun in her office earlier, Levi had smiled. Making the same mistake was the first thing she thought of to distract him. She hadn’t considered what it implied.

  That she was flirting too.

  “I was just trying to knock you off your game so you’d stop intimidating our clients.”

  He walked past her, brushing her shoulder lightly as he did. “It worked.”

  Chapter 13

  The last night before Shin Electronics continued with their American tour, Emily stared at herself in the mirror and glanced at her sister, who stood behind her. “Well? What do you think?”

  Shin Electronics had other options for West Coast resorts—Club Tahoe was only one of several on their list. That was why tonight had to be perfect.

  Lisa nodded. “Hot.”

  Originally, Emily had planned for the ball to be earlier in the week, but upon reflection, it made more sense to have it the last night so they could end the company’s stay on a high note.

  “Hot, but am I classy?” Emily said. “I don’t want to draw the wrong attention.”

  Lisa groaned. “Listen, I’ve held back when it comes to your clothes this week. Like, hard. I’m trying to keep things simple, but you’ve got to give me something. This gown is knockoff couture. It’s drool-worthy and you need to wear it.”