Every detail was vivid as if she were going through the whole ordeal all over again.
“My grandmother screamed my name as she flew out of the house. She banged two metal pots together and shouted obscenities at the animal. The bear let loose one more horrible growl before lumbering off the deck and disappearing back into the woods.
“The next thing I remembered was being scooped up by Grandma Gail and taken into the house right before I passed out. When I woke up, I was in the hospital stretched out on my stomach. My father and grandmother were there and fussing all over me.”
She’d thought they’d never leave her alone, and truthfully, she didn’t want them to. They’d surrounded her in a steady noise—a noise that drowned out a growling bear that had taken up residence in her mind. In the quiet, that damn bear got damn loud.
“Lily.”
At the sound of Rick’s voice now, she became aware that she wasn’t in the hot tub. She was, in fact, still on the porch with him.
He cupped her face in his hands and kissed her lightly on the forehead. “That was a freak thing, you know. Bears don’t usually behave that way.”
“I know.” She shrugged. “Doesn’t keep my mind from replaying it every time I see the woods. Every time I hear something crunching around out there, I think it’s happening all over again.”
“That’s the way the human mind works, isn’t it? Damn thing.” Rick paced away from Lily and leaned against the porch railing, his back to her. “I don’t leave Vermont because New York gave me a heart attack at age thirty-one.”
Lily set her purse by the door and put her arm around Rick’s waist from behind him. She snaked her hands up until her left palm rested where his heart would be.
“My secretary found me keeled over on my desk. She called 911 and when I came to, I wished I hadn’t. I was in a too bright hospital room, and it felt as if someone had taken a sledgehammer to my ribcage.” He let out a slow, even breath and curled his hand around Lily’s still on his chest. “An orchestra of beeps and clicks filled that room while machines kept me going. The smells of bleach and death...” He shook his head, unable to finish.
“Everything all right in there now?” She gently patted his chest as she pressed her cheek into his shoulder.
“Since I moved back to Vermont, not one problem, but it’s pretty easy for me to imagine pain shooting down my left arm and a tightness in my chest. As if someone had taken my heart and put it in a vise.” Rick leaned his head against Lily’s on his shoulder.
“Guys my age aren’t supposed to have heart attacks. They have skiing accidents, fall on extreme rock-climbing expeditions, drown in the rapids of a whitewater rafting trip. Their hearts don’t decide to up and quit on them like mine did.”
She gave him a squeeze. “It didn’t completely quit on you. You’re still here, right?” She dropped her hands and leaned her butt against the railing next to Rick. “The lifestyle here keeps you calm and healthy, right?”
“Yeah. The city’s a killer,” Rick said.
“So are the woods.” She pushed off the railing. “But even though there could be a bear out there watching me right now, I still want you tonight, Rick.”
“I want you too.” He tugged on her hand, brought her to the door. “I’ll bet we can make each other forget all the reasons we shouldn’t do this.”
After a kiss that made Lily wonder if she’d been alive before this point in time, Rick opened the door and pulled Lily inside. He shut the door, backed her up against it, and shed his jacket, letting it drop to the floor. He lowered the zipper on her coat while teasing her neck with his lips. What else was that fantastic mouth capable of? Lily looked forward to finding out tonight.
“Found something to keep you warm this evening?”
Lily gasped, and Rick whirled around. He kept his body in front of hers, his arms out to his sides further shielding her.
Drew stood in the kitchen, his shoulders squared, his arms folded across his chest. He still wore his work clothes—navy dress pants and a powder blue dress shirt. His tie was gone, but Lily figured he came straight from the office. Had to have left early this morning.
He was much shorter than Rick, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t a worthy opponent. Drew did Jujitsu and other martial arts. He competed, and he was good. Lily had been to a few of his matches. Very Jean-Claude Van Damme in Bloodsport. Drew had made her watch that movie. She hadn’t cared for the fighting, and Lily didn’t want any blood on the marble tile of her grandmother’s floor.
Especially not Rick’s blood.
“Hey, Drew,” she said. Friendly, keep it friendly. No need to get Drew’s testosterone level up any higher.
“Hey, Lily,” Drew said, mocking her tone. “Hey, whom I assume is Mr. Rick Stannard. Have a nice night out, you two?”
He was about seven layers deeper than pissed. The firm set of his jaw, the defensive stance, the glower. He was ready to blow. Lily had never seen Drew this upset.
She maneuvered out from behind Rick, but not without having to silently convince him to let her. “What are you doing here, Drew? I thought we decided I’d finish up and see you in California in a few days.”
“You decided that,” Drew said. “Not me. I’m your boss, so I decided to see for myself why Vermont was suddenly not the place for a resort.” He let out a short huff as he stared at Rick. “And I see the reason is exactly as I predicted.”
“Look, buddy,” Rick started.
“We’re not buddies, Mr. Stannard,” Drew interrupted. “I wouldn’t be buddies with someone interfering with my work and trying to fuck my woman.”
Rick took two quick steps forward, the air cast banging against the tiled floor. He stayed steady on his feet as he said, “That’s not the way you speak around a lady.”
“Don’t tell me how to speak around a lady. Lily is probably the first lady you’ve ever seen.” Drew edged forward and so did Rick.
Lily wiggled between them and forced Drew back a couple steps. “Let’s all settle down here, all right?” She turned to face Rick. “Maybe you should go.”
“If I recall,” Rick said, “I’m the one with the invitation to be here. Not him.” He glared at Drew then looked at Lily, his eyes full of blue fire. Even mad he was ultra-sexy.
“I don’t need an invitation,” Drew shot back as he pushed Lily out of his way. He stood nose to chin with Rick, but that didn’t diminish his confidence. “I’ve known Lily much longer than you have. We’ve been all over the world together. We’ve made love on almost every continent.”
Lily cringed. “That’s enough, Drew. Go into the great room while I see Rick out. I’ll deal with you in a minute.” She grabbed Drew’s arm and pulled him back toward the great room.
“See?” Drew said. “I get to stay.”
The smug look on Drew’s face made Lily want to toss him out, but he was her boss and he was usually reasonable. She needed to calm him down and make him listen to some logic. He was an intelligent man. He’d come around to her way of thinking on this project, but not while he was all fired up. Not with Rick standing here, his lips still swollen from the mega kissing they’d done on the porch.
Drew settled on the couch as Lily walked back to the kitchen. Rick shook his head. “I don’t think I should leave you alone with him.”
“I don’t want you to leave me alone with him.” Lily coaxed Rick to the door. “I want to be alone with you, but we can’t do that with one angry boss in my living room, now can we?”
“Let’s get rid of him then.” Rick looked over Lily’s shoulder. “Or come to my place.” He ran his hands down her arms, and she closed her eyes, let her head drop back a bit.
“Tempting,” she admitted, “but I need to sort the project out with Drew so he’ll get on the next plane back to California.”
“He’s not going to leave you here now that he’s seen me with you.”
Lily thought the same thing, but didn’t say so.
“Let me stay,” Rick said
. “You can talk to him, but let me be around. Just in case.”
“No, your presence is what’s making him nuts right now. In fact, it’s making me nuts, but in a very different way.” She dug out a smile and relaxed a little when Rick grinned back.
He leaned down and rested his forehead against hers. “We’re not done. You and me. You know that, right?” His voice was low, and the rumble of it burrowed deep into her soul.
“I know,” Lily whispered as she backed Rick into the foyer out of Drew’s sight. “We haven’t even started yet, have we?”
He pulled her against him and feasted on her lips. Lily fought not to moan aloud as he ran his hands along her hips, wrapped his arms around her, raked his fingers over her back. His kiss was hot, hungry, all-consuming.
Why am I making him leave?
She had to break away to catch her breath. To keep herself from stripping down naked in the foyer and offering herself to Rick right here, right now.
He took a step toward her. “I still don’t feel right leaving you here with him.”
“It’ll be fine. I’ll talk to him. Make him see. He’ll come around. He’s usually pretty reasonable.”
Lily rested her hand on Rick’s chest. How horrible it must have been to have a heart attack so young. Her fear was avoidable. Stay out of the woods. His, however, was inside him. Sure, staying out of the city helped, but he must live with a continuous ticking time bomb feeling.
Yet, he had come out to the tavern tonight, because she’d asked him. He’d played guitar in public, because she’d asked him. He was leaving right now, because she had asked him.
She pressed a kiss to Rick’s cheek. “How about if I do join you and your aunt tomorrow to check the taps?”
“What?” Rick’s eyes widened. “You want to hike into the woods?”
“I want to be with you. If that means hiking in the woods, then yes.” She’d probably freak out over this later, but now it felt absolutely right.
“If you’re sure…”
“I am. What time are you heading out?” She picked up Rick’s jacket from the floor where he’d dropped it, stole one more look at that wonderful blue thermal shirt, and handed him the jacket.
“Eight o’clock too early?”
“Nope.”
“Come to the store. I’ll get Aunt Joy to make us her famous coffee.” Rick traced a finger along her cheek.
“Sounds good. See you then.” She opened the front door.
He threw a glance toward the great room, but Lily lifted a hand and cupped his cheek. “I can handle Drew. Don’t worry. I know how his mind works.”
“I could send Poe over,” Rick said.
“I thought she wasn’t vicious.” She wagged a finger at him, and he swatted it away.
“She’s not, but she can look the part when necessary.” He walked through the door, but poked his head back in to leave behind one more kiss. “I’m right next door, Lily.”
“Thanks.” She watched by the open door as Rick got into his truck and started it up. Soon, he was nothing more than fading taillights in the dark.
“This is better.”
Lily jumped at the sound of Drew’s voice in her ear. She closed the door and turned around to come face-to-face with him. “Back up, will you?”
“C’mon, honey.” He rested his hands on her hips right were Rick’s hands had been moments ago.
She pried his fingers off her and pushed him back. Made him give her the space she’d requested. “The couch. Now.” She pointed to the great room.
“How about the bed now? The couch later. Maybe the kitchen table, the hot tub too.” Drew tried to take her hand, but she sidestepped out of his reach.
“Drew, we’re not having sex.” Lily entered the great room and sat on the couch, mulling over the fact that she had been perfectly ready to have sex tonight.
With Rick.
Maybe several times.
“No, we’d be making love, honey.” Drew lowered his knees onto the couch and pressed on Lily’s shoulders to get her to lie down.
She clamped her hands onto his wrists to stop him. “I’m serious, Drew.”
“You were going to fuck him though. You were ready to tear into Stannard.” He threw his arm out toward the foyer as a vein bulged on the left side of his forehead. Lily had never noticed that before. Probably because she’d never seen Drew this wound up.
“Maybe I was,” she said, “but I have that right. You and I are not a couple. I’ve told you this. We have our work relationship, and we’re good friends, but that’s all. That’s all I can give you.”
Red washed over Drew’s face, and Lily braced herself for… for what? Was he going to scream at her? Hit her? Why hadn’t she gone with Rick?
No. This is my place. I don’t need to run away. My rules. Not Drew’s.
“Look, you’re here.” Lily put her hand on his shoulder, and his body relaxed under her grip. Some of the red dimmed on his face. “Let’s discuss business. I’ve been working on evidence to support why this isn’t a place for Utopia. You must have seen for yourself. You had to drive through to get here.” Lily paused. “Wait a minute. Where’s your car?”
“I parked it around back.” Drew sat on the couch beside her and traced the crease in his dress pants. “I wanted to surprise you.”
Mission accomplished.
“How did you get in?” He didn’t have a key, and she hadn’t told him the security code. Her mind just now registered the fact that she hadn’t had to disarm the house alarm when she and Rick had entered.
“That lock on the front door was easily picked.” He shrugged as if it weren’t a big deal.
“And the alarm?” Lily’s stomach felt as if she’d filled it with sour milk.
Drew reached into the pocket of his dress pants and tossed a small piece of paper into her lap. When she unfolded it, she recognized it as stationary from her desk back in California. Drew had used a pencil to reveal the impressions from what she had written on the sheet before this one. The security code was right there in a small leaden rectangle.
“You snooped on my desk?” Lily never thought Drew would do something like this. He never appeared to be that… that desperate.
“No, I had Tam snoop.”
Of course. Why snoop yourself when you can get someone else to do it for you? Tam was technically her assistant, but Lily had seen the woman gazing at Drew from across conference tables. She’d snoop if it meant pleasing Drew.
“I needed to be with you, Lily. Get everything back on track. The project. Us.” He picked up the paper Lily had dropped on the coffee table. “This was the only way.”
“Why couldn’t you trust me to handle things over here?” She tried to keep a lid on her rising anger. She knew it would do her no good. If she stayed calm, so would Drew.
“Because we’re a team.” He put his hand on her knee. “This deal wasn’t going right, because we weren’t together.”
Lily shook her head. “It wasn’t going right, because I was wrong about Vermont.” She scooted to the edge of the couch and opened her laptop. After pulling up the photos Hope and Sage had taken, she turned the computer so Drew could view the screen. “Utopia can’t build here. Look.”
Drew scrolled through the pictures. Lily watched over his shoulder, and when the bear shot came up, she looked closely at the creature. Why didn’t it cause her to drop unconscious now? It made her uneasy, but her heart wasn’t racing in her chest, her body wasn’t coated in a sheen of sweat. Instead, the memory of Rick squeezing her shoulder out on the porch this evening when something had rustled in the woods filled her mind.
Lily leaned forward to get a better view of the computer screen. She hadn’t seen any of the photos beyond the bear one and chuckled at the last shot.
“Who are they?” Drew pointed to two blonds hugging a maple tree and pretending to kiss it.
“Hope and Sage.” Lily pulled the computer into her lap. “Rick’s cousins.”
“So you know
his entire family, do you? How much time have you spent with the lumberjack?”
“He’s not a lumberjack. He owns a maple syrup company.”
Drew waved a hand as if he didn’t see the difference.
“It’s actually divine syrup.” Lily clamped her lips closed. Idiot. Why don’t I tell Drew everything? “That’s what folks around here say anyway. I went to a tavern tonight, and everybody knows his syrup. We can’t take his land, Drew.”
“Sure we can. We’re Utopia Resorts. We can do anything we want.”
“You saw the pictures.”
“Big deal. A couple of tree photos aren’t going to stop Utopia. Guests want the great outdoors. These pictures just show how great the outdoors is up here, and we’re the company to bring it to the guests.”
“Guests don’t need us to bring it to them. All they need is a tent, some hiking gear, whatever. They don’t need a fancy resort that’ll cut the woods down and impede the beautiful view.”
“Beautiful view?” Drew grabbed the laptop from Lily and flipped back to the bear photo. “You call that beautiful? This thing looks ready to eat a man. I thought you were afraid of the woods.”
Lily shivered, but took a deep breath at the same time. “Most people like it.”
“People who have never experienced a suite in a Utopia Resort.” Drew stood and paced away from the couch. “My God, Lily, these people don’t know what they’re missing. That’s all. They need us to show them how to vacation.”
“They need us to leave them alone.” Probably what Rick needed too. If she’d never shown up here, he wouldn’t be caught in the middle. He didn’t need to be worrying about his land, his business. She didn’t want to be the cause of any stress that might be unhealthy for him. No, she had to get Utopia to fold on this one.
“Look, I’m tired,” she said. “I’m going to take my laptop upstairs to bed and work on my presentation. I’m going to make Rita and Webster see. Make you see.”
More Than Pancakes (The Maple Leaf Series Book 1) Page 16