“Any hike that starts at six sounds pretty shi—”
Lexy tramped on Noah’s foot before he could finish and then turned her attention to Tate. “What makes it so tough, Tate?”
“That hurt,” Noah muttered.
“Good,” she muttered right back.
Tate ignored the byplay and kept selling the hike. “It’s all off-trail. There’s some slick places and steep ledges. Inclines over red rock. That sort of thing.”
The good news just kept coming. Noah cut to the important information before he said something that made Lexy take out his other foot. Hard to hike without feet.
“How long?” he asked.
Tate’s eyebrows snapped together in a look of confusion. “Excuse me?”
“How many miles?”
“Well, I don’t—”
“Round numbers are fine. Preferably lower ones.”
“Noah,” Lexy warned again.
He pulled his foot back before Lexy could take aim. “Don’t even try it.”
“Then stop badgering Tate.”
“I asked a simple question about mileage.”
“Eight,” Tate said the number with a smile as if climbing uphill for hours was not a big deal.
“Wouldn’t it be faster for you guys to run around the complex a few times and call it a day?” Noah asked.
Lexy skipped the next round of violence and went right to staring. Tate wore the same “what the hell?” expression.
“What?” Noah asked. “What did I say?”
Tate broke his glare to focus on Lexy. “I know you will want to rest this evening, but—”
Noah looked at his watch. “It’s not even seven thirty.”
“As I was saying, you’ll probably want to go to bed early, but I’d stick around for a few minutes of fun if I were you.”
Noah could think of fun things to do in the dark and none of them included Tate. “Why should she stay here with you?”
“We’re going to have a social gathering on the porch. Throw open the doors and enjoy the lovely evening.”
“It’s about a hundred degrees on that patio.”
“Noah.” Each time Lexy said his name her voice grew a touch more menacing.
“We do not have streetlights and other intrusions here, so you can see the clear night sky. It is quite something,” Tate said.
“We have sky in San Diego.” Noah did a double take when Lexy started grumbling. “Well, we do.”
“There will be music and dancing,” Tate said.
“Sounds fabulous.” Lexy lowered her foot to the top of Noah’s as if waiting for the perfect opportunity to shove her heel through his leather sneaker.
Despite the potential attack, Noah spoke up. “That’s not the word I would have used.”
“Forget Noah. He hates to dance.”
“No, I don’t.”
Lexy gave him full-on eye contact. “Since when?”
Since he figured out dancing might be the closest he could come to holding her for a few minutes. “Right now.”
“That’s what I thought.”
“Of course, I seem to have picked up a foot injury over the last few minutes, so I’m not so sure how good I’ll be at the moves.”
“Be happy that’s the only body part I went after.”
“I’ll leave you two alone.” Tate picked up his orange beverage and green food, then stared at Lexy. “I hope to see you later, Alexa.”
“You scared him,” Lexy said once Tate moved on to greet guests at another table. “And notice how he only mentioned me being invited to the party.”
“Then my plan worked.”
“Come on. Tate is friendly enough.”
“He’s annoying.” Noah had a few other descriptions he wanted to use, but he kept them quiet.
“It’s his job to sell the place. He’s the—”
“Owner. Yeah, I know. He told me right before he made a pass.”
Lexy spit out a piece of green apple on the stark white tablecloth. “What?”
“You okay?”
She coughed a few times as she cleaned up her mess with a napkin. “Stunned.”
“I can get some help.” Noah glanced around. “There are about twenty people staring at us. One of them probably has some third-grade medical training.”
“Get back to Tate and the pass comment.”
Noah rubbed a hand over his face. “Look, I know you told me not to act like an ass and get all up in someone’s face over this sort of thing, but the guy came on strong. I don’t care what people do in their bedrooms, but when they ask me to join in, that’s a different story.”
“How?”
Noah debated stopping the conversation right there. “There was some touching.”
“By Tate?”
“Sure as hell not by me.”
“Tate touched you?” She separated each word with a smile.
“Can we talk about something else?”
“But Tate isn’t gay.”
Noah let his hand fall against the table. “No offense, but you’re not the best judge of this sort of thing. After all, you refuse to believe limp-dick William is gay.”
She rolled her eyes in the dramatic way that only Lexy could do. “William is not gay, either.”
Noah refused to go down that road. One gay guy at a time was enough. “Why do you think Tate plays for my team?”
“Oh, now that’s a very evolved way of putting it.”
“Trust me. I used up all my restraint in the last five hours.”
She smiled. “That’s probably true.”
“So? Did you give him some sort of woman quiz or what?”
“I know because Tate made a pass at me. Subtle, but he tested.”
“What?” The rage hit Noah in the middle of the forehead and spread from there. He stood up so fast that he knocked his chair over backward and slammed it against the thin carpet with a boom.
“Sit down.” She tugged on Noah’s jeans to get his attention. “That’s enough.”
“I knew I should have squashed him into the floor.”
She waved off a few of their fellow guests, who stared with alarm. “You’re scaring people.”
“Tate’s the only one I want right now.”
“It was no big deal.”
Noah balled his hands into fists as the anger surged through him. “It will be when I break the guy’s legs.”
“You were angry two seconds ago because you thought he was making a play for you. Now you’re mad because you think he wants me.”
“That pretty much sums it up.”
“Tate has one of those flirty personalities. Once I figured out he was sleeping with the aerobics instructor, I wrote him off as harmless and ignored the touching thing.”
Just one punch. “He actually touched you?”
“You claim he touched you, too.” She pulled Noah down into his chair. “Sit down and cool off.”
“I can catch him later, you know.”
“Probably. Tate looks your age, but he’s almost fifty-six. He has that touch of gray hair around his temples, but there’s not a wrinkle on him.”
“I didn’t get close enough to tell.”
“Either way, I’m betting he has a lifetime Botox pass.”
“Sounds as if you’ve conducted an in-depth study on the subject.” And Noah was not sure he liked the idea.
“Tate is like an impressionist painting. Pretty from far away, but all blurry and not so hot from close up.”
“And you insist that I’m the one who says strange things.”
“You do.”
“So Botox is why Tate looks about forty, which is older than me by four years, by the way.” And Tate would look forty and injured after Noah smashed his face in.
“That’s what clean living will do for you.”
Noah pitched his voice out of eavesdropping range. “Probably has more to do with banging the aerobics instructor.”
“The married aerobics instructor.”
“So much for your clean-living theory.”
“Imagine my surprise when I walked into class early and saw his hands all over her butt.” Lexy took a turn at whispering. “Did I mention she’s twenty-something?”
“Never wise to shit where you eat.”
“What a lovely visual image.”
“Would you rather I drown the guy in the pool?”
“Maybe another time.” Lexy pushed her plate to the center of the table. “So, why are you still at the resort?”
“Because you are.”
“I don’t need a chaperone.”
“Maybe I needed to see you.” No maybes about it. Seeing her, touching her, making love to her—without all of it, the world began to grind to a dull halt.
“My experience is that you don’t need anything from anyone.”
“For a smart woman you can get things pretty damn wrong.”
Her eyes softened along with her voice. “You know how to woo a woman.”
“I’m trying.”
The tension broke the minute the wide smile fell across her lips. “Seems we’ve reached an impasse on that point.”
In his view, it was one they could breach if she would set aside her stubbornness for two seconds. “You know what you have to do when that happens.”
“Fight to the death?”
“Dance.”
“You have never danced with me.”
He had not danced in a decade. Since the last time was with Karen, he skipped providing that piece of information. A tentative peace descended. He wanted to enjoy the calm for at least ten minutes before he gave Lexy a reason to start screaming again.
“Then I’m an idiot,” he said and meant it.
“I should go to bed.” The yearning in Lexy’s voice sounded as if she wanted to do anything but leave.
“Dance with me first.”
She hesitated. “This can only lead to trouble.”
“I sure as hell hope so.”
Chapter Five
“A re you sure you want to do this?” Lexy asked as she tried to ignore the warmth of Noah’s firm hand on her lower back.
He steered her through the center of the dining room and past two tables of gawking spa-goers. She noticed more than a few appreciative female stares aimed his way. Hard to blame the women for taking a good long look. Noah Paxton wore faded blue jeans better than any man on the planet.
The way his navy blue polo stretched across his broad shoulders and over his muscled chest deserved attention. Had hers. Walking beside him, feeling the heat radiate off him, made her realize just how much she missed him.
“Afraid I’ll embarrass you out there on the fake dance floor?” he asked.
Never that. Despite their very different backgrounds and his rough edges, she never felt anything but pride at being by his side. Which was one of the reasons his determined secrecy hurt so much. The more she opened up, the more closed off he became. She was raised with secrets. She did not need or want more of the same in her adult life.
Noah stopped in the middle of the floor. “Are these people made of Teflon?”
“Just skin and wheatgrass, I believe. Why?”
“Not to be redundant, but it is a hundred degrees out here and some moron set up a fire pit.”
Exaggeration came with Noah’s black-and-white personality, but the reaction still made her laugh. “It wasn’t even a hundred this afternoon.”
“Felt like twice that.”
“Because you were wearing dress pants and a long-sleeved shirt.” She stopped to let him open the door.
They stepped outside. Fading sunlight streaked across the sky, casting shadows and highlighting the stark contrast between the towering red rocks and the pale blue of the sky. From the stone patio, out beyond the fire pit and gathered chairs, she saw miles of open, awe-inducing land. No houses. No traffic. No pollution.
The harsh beauty made her wish she could stick around and try out an actual vacation. But she traveled to Utah for a much more practical reason: to figure out what Noah did and how to make him pay for it.
Being with him now made her memory of that goal fade. She kept repeating the reality in her head as a way of working up an immunity to him. Problem was, it wasn’t working.
“It’s about seventy degrees out here now. If people stare at you this time, it’s the dancing and not because you’re melting into a big puddle of Noah.”
He waved to the women from the aerobics room. “In the span of five hours, some of these people have heard about my divorce, saw you spit food across the table, and watched me throw chairs around the dining room. Seeing me dance can only be a step up.”
She gave him a thoughtful look. “It’s hard to argue with that logic.”
“I love when you’re agreeable.” His hand slid into hers.
Yanking her hand away would have been the smart thing to do. Continue to take the tough stance and not allow for any confusion about her position. No waffling. All business. Noah was the kind of man who interpreted signals without gray areas. Slapping him down was the answer.
But holding on tight felt better.
“Don’t do anything to ruin my good mood,” she whispered before saying hello to three women gathered by the door.
She sat with Noah on the stone bench closest to the fire. Music, a mixture of blues and jazz, filled the air from the outdoor speakers. About ten guests and a few scattered employees roamed around getting drinks and talking about how difficult the exercise classes were that day.
“Tell me something.” Noah pressed her hand between his palms and rested it on his knee. “What’s so special about this place?”
“Meaning?”
“Why are you happy here when you weren’t at home?”
That was just it. She had been unhappy and unsettled at the resort until he arrived. Lonely even. Waiting for the right moment to hunt down the information she needed, only to have the man who was both so right and so wrong for her drop down next to her shocked the boredom right out of her.
“Look around you,” she said. “It’s peaceful. The perfect place to get in touch with your feelings and remember what’s important.”
“Air-conditioning?”
She shot him her best scowl. “You are killing my meaningful moment.”
“Sorry.” He kissed the back of her hand. “Go ahead.”
She opened her mouth then smacked her lips together. “Actually, that’s all I had.”
“See, I don’t get it. For me, being content isn’t about things or a place.”
“Apparently it’s about finding cool air.”
The smile that broke out on his mouth resonated down to her toes. “Not even close.”
“Hunting down non-green food?”
“Well, yeah, there’s that.” He nuzzled his nose against her fingers.
A breath caught in her throat, would have come out as a sigh if she had not swallowed it back. “Then what brings you peace?”
“You.”
Typical Noah. Nothing flashy or extravagant. Just a simple word that stole inside her and chipped away at her doubts.
To prevent her protective shield from falling to the ground, she fell back on humor. “If I didn’t know better, I’d say you were trying to seduce me.”
“Working?”
More than she wanted it to. After all of those weeks of swinging back and forth between emotions, of fighting off anger and tears, she convinced herself she had no feelings left for him except anger. A few touches and sweet smiles later and her heart tumbled all over again, which proved her theory. Seven hundred miles of space was not enough distance to insulate her from Noah or her own vulnerability.
“The days of us being together as a couple are gone, Noah.”
“You are stubborn as a…” He rubbed her hand against the stubble on his cheek. “What’s the most stubborn animal in existence?”
“You.”
“Speaking of animal.” Noah nodded toward the door. “The aerobic
s instructor, I presume?”
Lexy followed his gaze to Marie Parks. Big brown eyes and even bigger boobs. Somehow she had managed to jump up and down and lead a class that afternoon without tipping over forward.
Clear skin. Wavy blond hair. The tiniest waist ever. From the previous peek Lexy had gotten of the hand-to-hand wrestling with Tate, Marie’s fresh-faced, wide-eyed innocent look was nothing more than an elaborate act. The way Tate and Noah locked eyes on the girl, her swish-and-giggle shtick was working.
“How did you know it was her?” Lexy asked as if the way Tate was drooling over her had not given it away.
“The fact she’s wearing her black and pink…outfit thing.” Noah waved his hand in Marie’s direction.
“It’s a leotard.” An uncharacteristic wave of insecurity crashed over Lexy. “She’s pretty.”
Noah finally stopped staring at the young blonde. “Huh?”
“You’re ten seconds away from panting, old man.” And from getting his ass kicked.
Noah squeezed Lexy’s hand. “She’s not my type.”
“You’re not into pretty now?”
“I’ve never been into unfaithful chicks. Besides, I prefer the sassy, wrongly named, stubborn, brown-haired, naturally buxom type.”
“Did you really just use the word ‘buxom’ in a sentence?”
“Yeah, and believe me when I say it wasn’t easy to work that in.”
“I’m still trying to figure out if you meant to compliment me or not.”
“Definitely the former. If you don’t like it, you shouldn’t have worn that dress. Christ, woman. That’s a concentration killer.”
Lexy stared down her torso. She had picked the sundress to ward off the blazing heat. With the sun dipping below the horizon, the flowing material allowed for a bit too much air. Up the skirt, on her face, and across her shoulders. Everywhere.
And then there was the fact she looked good in it. Really good. It hugged her torso, nipped at the waist, then flared a bit from the waist. The dress hid her flaws and highlighted her best features, those being her high, firm breasts.
Seeing Noah made her want to dress up and enjoy a girly moment. She refused to analyze the need to entice and torture him, but she did appreciate the fact he took a few minutes to notice.
“There’s nothing wrong with this dress,” she pointed out.
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