by Karina Halle
“Not when it comes to the people I work with,” I point out.
Riley’s mouth curves into a wicked smile before she covers it with her beer. “But you’ve never worked with me before.”
Damn. She just threw that out there.
“You know, Riley, it sounds like I should be the one watching out for you.”
You hot little minx.
“Maybe you should,” she says, finishing the rest of her beer and pushing it away from her. “I probably shouldn’t have another beer. I probably should go home. My boss expects me at work tomorrow morning early, and I hear he can be a hardass.”
“I heard he has a hard ass. And it’s spectacular.”
She laughs again, a deep throaty laugh that’s beyond sexy. “Del also said you were full of yourself.”
“Did she tell you I have good reason to be?”
Subtly, she looks me up and down and gives me a slow smile. “No, she left that part out.”
Okay man, pull back. Now you’re on thin ice here.
I’m not sure how this conversation went from me telling her that hooking up with each other is a fireable offence, to us actually flirting with each other, but I have a feeling if I don’t put a stop to it soon, things are going to get complicated really fast.
I reach over and push her beer further out of reach. “Well, if I were you I would play it safe. Your boss might have a nice ass, but he’s still your boss. And after everything that just happened with Neil, you probably need to start your week out on the right foot. It’s better for everyone.”
She watches me for a second and it looks like disappointment flashes across her eyes. I wish I hadn’t seen that look. I wish I didn’t have to tell her otherwise, because if I wasn’t her boss and I hadn’t just cockblocked myself, I could have easily spent the rest of the night drinking with her and talking to her and looking at her. Fuck, the places it could lead.
“Got it,” she says, clearing her throat and getting off the stool. She places her hand on my shoulder and gives me a quick smile. “Thanks for the warning. Really. I’ll see you in the morning. Off on the right foot, this time.”
And then just as she left earlier from the office, she’s off again with her abrupt exit, heading over to the hooks by the door where she grabs her parka and pulls it on. She’s gone before I can even find the words to say anything at all.
“What did you do?” Del says accusingly, rushing over with a dart in hand.
“First of all, put the dart away,” I tell her, plucking it from her fingers and tossing it over her shoulder toward the board. It hits the wall, sticking into the wood. Not even close. “Second of all, I didn’t do anything.”
“Mav,” she whines. “She’s a nice girl. Have you seen her tattoos? She’s a million times cooler than me and I want to be her friend. I don’t have any cool friends.”
I snort. “You’re cute, Del.”
“I’m serious. I love Rachel but she’s in the loved-up zone right now and if I hear one more thing about how wonderful Shane is, I think I’ll start hating him.”
I chuckle at her dramatics. “Well, I’m sure you will be friends with Riley. I just told her about our company policy, that’s all.”
“Company policy?” She scrunches up her nose. “And what’s that?”
“Just that team members are forbidden from sleeping with each other.”
Her brows go to the ceiling. “Why are you having this conversation already?”
“It’s none of your business,” I say with a sigh, not about to tell her what Riley did. She doesn’t need the further humiliation, though I am positive Neil has already told half the town. “It just had to be said.”
“So that means you can’t sleep with her.”
“That’s exactly what it means.”
“Huh,” she muses as she goes around the bar and starts wiping down the counter. “It feels redundant now that I warned her about you.”
“Yeah, thanks for that,” I say dryly. “Since when have you taken an active interest in the women I do or do not sleep with?”
“Since so many of them end up crying in my bar.”
Ah, just as I suspected.
“Well, anyway, that’s not going to happen.”
“That’s a fucking shame,” Fox says as he saunters over, having grown bored of darts. Del passes him a beer. “She’s unbelievably gorgeous.”
I glance slyly over at Del for her reaction. She doesn’t look too pleased.
“But,” he adds, “there’s no way she would have slept with you, brother.”
“And what makes you say that?”
“I don’t know, she seems kind of smart.”
“Fuck off.”
“I’m just saying. Even if you didn’t have a company policy, you’d just end up jerking off alone every night thinking of her.”
“Ew, I do not need that mental image, thank you very much,” Del says in disgust.
But Fox isn’t too far off with that one. All work and no play makes Mav go crazy with sexual frustration. The real question begins tomorrow: just how bad is this going to get?
4
CHAPTER FOUR
Riley
Snow.
Endless white as far as the eye can see.
There are no trees here, no mountains, nothing but white snow and white sky.
And somewhere in this desolation is Levi.
I can’t hear him, can’t see him, but I can feel him. In my bones.
The cold takes my breath away.
I start running, but quickly slow as my feet sink deeper and deeper. He’s so close and yet so far away. I might reach out and touch him, if only I could keep going.
The snow is at my neck now and someone is pulling me under. I know from the grip around my legs that it’s my mother and my father. Trying to pull me to the life I once knew, the person I once was. The person I’ve been running from. The person Levi saved me from.
I kick and I fight but the fear crawls up me, icy tentacles that wrap and wrap and wrap. Somewhere out there is Levi, the man I once loved, the only friend I really had. He walks somewhere into the snow and I’m too scared to save him. Too afraid to follow.
If I was stronger, better, I would be able to break free.
But I can’t.
So I let the past pull me under, I let the snow fill my lungs.
And I fail once again.
The world drifts away.
White to black.
Black to white.
Dream to reality.
FUCK.
My eyes fly open.
I’m lying in bed, staring up at the ceiling and trying to breathe. The room looks unfamiliar, everything is cold and foreign and strange. My lungs feel like they’re filled with ice, my heart is hammering many miles a minute.
It was a dream, I remind myself. Just a dream. Just another stupid dream.
I used to dream about Levi a lot after the accident, but they slowly started to taper off after a year. My counsellor said it was completely normal. But they’ve appeared again after I decided to take the job in North Ridge, and my parents being in them is something else entirely new.
I don’t like it. I don’t want to dwell on the past, not when I’ve got my future at my feet. And I especially don’t want to think about any of that today, my first official day on the job.
I groan and rub my hand across my eyes, trying to get the courage to get up. I might have been nervous yesterday because I didn’t know what to expect, but today is even worse because I have some idea.
And the idea is that this whole thing is going to be awkward as fuck.
I mean, leave it to me to do something so royally stupid as to have a one-night stand with a loser right before she’s set to work alongside him. And Micropenis Neil is even worse than my nickname suggests. The guy seems like a total jerk and I now know that if Maverick had to talk to me about him, then Neil had to have told him what happened. I can just imagine, he was probably bragging. Who knows what intimate details came
out, details my fucking boss now knows.
Ugh. I’ve gone through life trying not to berate myself for bad choices. I’ve owned most of them, I’ve made mistakes and learned to look at them as learning tools more than anything else. There are some words I wish I never said, there are things I wish I never did and yes, sometimes there’s a guy I wish I didn’t get involved with in one way or another.
But I am regretting every single second of Micropenis Neil, and what makes it all that much worse is that my new boss, that giant hunk of a man, had to lecture me about it. I felt like I was teenager being scolded by her parents (not that they ever gave a rat’s ass what I did).
To top it all off, despite how embarrassed and ashamed I was last night over the whole thing, my body kept on running like nothing was said at all. Every look that Maverick gave me set my skin on fire. The way his eyes trailed over me, like I was the dessert he’d been saving up for. Then when he pushed the hair behind my ear, I nearly lost it.
Or maybe I did lose it, because then I started flirting with him. I had only had three beers so I know I wasn’t out of control, but my fucking hormones were definitely acting like it. After everything he had just told me about being my boss, I still had to slip into seductress mode.
Which he promptly shut down. Yet again, embarrassing. I’ve become really fucking good at exiting the scene though lately. I just have to wonder what I’m going to do today and how I’ll get out of it. I’m supposed to be going for a helicopter ride. Will I be bailing out the door the moment I put my foot in my mouth again? I should probably pack a parachute.
All my hemming and hawing over the day has me running a bit late, so I walk to the office as quickly as I can, nearly eating shit a few times on the sidewalks. Even though I work a job that’s physically taxing and I have to be in excellent shape and health, I’m surprisingly klutzy. There’s something about me and ice that ironically don’t mix.
There’s barely anytime to compose myself though before I’m at the office. I try to take a second outside the door to get my thoughts in order but it’s swung open, Maverick on the other side.
“I was worried you wouldn’t show,” he says to me, keeping his voice low. He’s got such a distinctive voice, gravely and rough, these whisky-soaked words every time he speaks. There are a few things that really get me raring when it comes to men, and a good, panty-soaking voice is one of them, along with tattoos, large forearms, wide shoulders, a firm ass, and a big dick. So far Maverick is five out of six, though the way things are, I don’t think I’ll ever figure out the truth about number six.
Damn it, why did it have to be Micropenis Neil at the bar?
“I was running a bit late,” I tell him, “the sidewalks are icy and I’m such a huge klutz when it comes to that sort of thing. I can’t tell you the amount of times I’ve publicly face-planted. I’ve turned it into an art form.”
He purses his lips, squinting at me. “Are you sure you’re cut out for this job?”
I sigh. “I’m sorry. Sometimes I don’t know when to shut up. It’s early. I—”
“I’m just fucking with you.” He grins and puts his hand on my shoulder. I can’t help but stare at it, so big and meaty and strong. In seconds I’m already imagining what it would be like to have it skirt over my naked body, the feel of it rough and wild on my skin. I wonder how hard his grip would be on my hips.
Focus, focus.
“Come on in, meet the team.” He opens the door wider, ushering me in as he leans in close and whispers in my ear, “aside from the one you’ve already met.”
And there he is, sitting down at a desk with his feet up on it, still wearing that ridiculous Big Bird jacket and that smug look on his face, beady eyes taking me all in.
I ignore Neil and look to the rest of them.
“This is Tim,” Maverick says, gesturing to a lanky man of Asian descent. “He’s been here longer than me and technically he should be the boss, but I try not to tell him that.”
“Responsibility is overrated,” Tim says in a soft accent. “Nice to meet you, Riley.”
I nod my thanks and then Maverick introduces the short but spry Italian guy next to him, looking to be in his late forties. “This is Tony. Don’t let his size fool you. He’s seen Cliffhanger enough times to brainwash him into thinking he’s Sly Stallone.”
“But better looking,” Tony says.
I laugh, grateful that so far everyone here seems nice and completely normal.
Maverick then introduces me to Jace, who looks to be the youngest out of all of us, even me. He’s got a stocky build and a quiet demeanor, with dark, watchful eyes.
“Jace is our go-getter,” Maverick says. “Day or night, if you need him, he’s there. I don’t even think you take a fucking break, do you man?”
Jace doesn’t say anything, just manages a small smile that doesn’t reach his eyes. Okay, so maybe he’s not as friendly as everyone else, but he’s still better than Neil.
Speaking of. Maverick is nodding in his direction. “And you met Neil yesterday. So that’s that. That’s the team. I won’t further embarrass you by making you make a speech about yourself and telling us all what your favorite color is. Or food. I already gave them the rundown on your background before you got here.”
I meet Maverick’s eyes, hoping he didn’t tell them everything. And by everything, I mean what happened with Levi. I don’t want everyone to know about that, to treat me any different. But from the way his eyes stare back at mine, soft, and then his slight nod, I know he didn’t.
Relieved, I give everyone an awkward wave. “Hi. Nice to meet you all and I look forward to us working together. And for the record, my favorite color is red and my favorite food is cheeseburgers.”
“Any kind of cheeseburgers?” Tony asks.
I nod. “Any kind. McDonald’s are classic, but I’ll take the fancy ones too, though the less toppings the better.”
“Then you have to check out Smitty’s,” Maverick tells me with a smile.
“Absolutely,” Tony adds. “It’s a cheap little diner but they do the best greasy, old-fashioned burgers in town.”
“I’m sure I will then.” I’m so close to turning to Maverick and asking if he’ll go with me one day, but again, inappropriate. The funny thing is, I’ve never been like this in a working environment before. Even with Levi, we were so ingrained as friends and co-workers having worked together so often, that I’d learned to bury everything mildly inappropriate deep down. It always took a back seat, even though sometimes I have my regrets.
When it comes to Maverick though, I can’t seem to keep my head on straight. I need to be less distracted by him. Especially now, since today he’s showing me the ropes.
He explains the office, what everyone does, our schedule, what our average week looks like during each month, the most common rescue scenarios, how we’re basically on call all the time at all hours of the night but we still have to put in a set number of hours. Sometimes it’s preventative work, like the avalanche triggering that Tim was doing the other day, sometimes it’s patrols, sometimes it’s hanging out at the resorts and doing safety talks and watching over the hills, sometimes it’s checking in with the tour and heli-skiing operators, or heading over to other areas and helping out there in emergencies. Sometimes it’s just doing the boring paperwork in the office. And that’s just all in the winter. The rest of the year is a whole different ballgame.
All in all, it seems pretty much on par with what I was doing in Aspen, except the provincial government is controlling this operation.
“Which can be a pain in the fucking ass sometimes,” Maverick says, as we head outside to his truck to get my tour started. “They like to have their eyes on everything, to make sure resources are being allocated properly. AKA, see if there’s any reason to let anyone go.”
I head over to the passenger side but he beats me to it, opening the door for me like a gentleman.
I raise my brows. “Do you do this for everyone else?”
“Fuck no,” he says. “Get in.”
I oblige, even though I hope the rest of the crew aren’t watching us through the windows. The last thing I want is for them to think I’m getting special treatment.
I take a quick look around his truck as I buckle up and he gets in. It’s relatively clean, though there’s what I assume is dog hair absolutely everywhere.
“Do you have a dog or do you just shed a lot?”
He laughs as he starts reversing down the driveway, looking behind him. He’s got a good laugh, loud and heart-warming. “I have a dog,” he explains with a sentimental grin. “Chewie.”
“What kind?”
“She’s a pit bull. A rescue. Sweet as pie, even though she chews through everything.”
“So it’s not just a clever name.”
“Wayne’s World fan?” he notes. “You can’t be old enough to remember that movie.”
I shrug. “I’m a fan of everything. You don’t have to grow up with a cult comedy to find it funny. If it’s funny, I’ll find it funny, no matter my age.”
“And how old are you?”
I give him a funny look.
“What?” he says. “Your age isn’t on your resume.”
“Twenty-five,” I tell him. “How old are you?”
“Thirty-one.”
“That seems about right.”
“That age where you look like an adult but you can still get away with a lot of shit?”
“I don’t know,” I say, feeling a teasing smile slowly turn my lips, “what kind of stuff can you get away with?”
He stares at me for a moment, trying to suss me out, before turning his attention back to the road. “I think you just might be trouble, you know that?”
“I know.” I pause, looking out the window. “So where are we going anyway? I thought that Neil was supposed to take me up in a chopper for a bird’s eye view.”
“You really think I’d let you be alone with him now?”
“Let me?” I repeat.
“Look, as your boss, I’m looking out for you.”
“You’ve only been my boss for like a day, and I think I can take care of myself. No need for you to act like a caveman.”