by Cora Seton
She missed the animals—their noses butting against her hands as she wandered among them, the way they were always happy to see her, no matter what. Their native optimism.
She could use some of that. Evan was proving to be a true competitor, and if she was going to win she needed to focus all her attention on her goal.
Which meant a good night’s sleep.
“I can’t keep my eyes open anymore,” she said.
“I’ll take care of the fire and be in soon. Don’t hog all the covers.”
She repressed the anxious feeling that tightened her gut at his words. “I’ll leave a corner for you.”
She visited the bushes some yards from off the path and awkwardly washed her face and brushed her teeth with some of her drinking water. Soon she was in the still-warm tent with the sleeping bag unzipped and spread lightly over her. Despite the hardness of the ground and the earliness of the hour, her eyelids were drooping closed when Evan unzipped the tent flap and stepped inside.
Instantly, she was wide-awake again.
The tent was so small he had to crawl on his hands and knees to get inside of it. She heard him rustling around before she felt the sleeping bag lift and the warm bulk of a man slip in beside her. Every nerve ending she possessed went on high alert as he wriggled closer and spread the sleeping bag back over the two of them.
“You good?” he asked.
“Uh…yeah,” she said.
“We’re set,” he called out and she frowned when she remembered that the remaining cameraman was supposed to install a small, remote camera inside the tent. She stifled a curse as the tent flap unzipped again and a man’s hand reached in and hooked something to a fabric loop in the ceiling. That must be the camera. She glared at it for a moment before pulling the sleeping bag high around her shoulders despite the heat.
The heat that was increasing moment by moment with Evan’s bulk pressed against her.
“Do you have to be so close to me?” she snapped when she couldn’t stand it anymore.
“Where am I supposed to go?” he asked, a hint of humor—strained humor—in his voice.
“Just—don’t touch me.”
He laughed and moved half an inch away from her. “How’s that?”
“Not good enough.” She moved this time, and almost immediately came up against the fabric of the side of the tent. She wriggled back and encountered Evan again. “For God’s sake, isn’t there more room on your side?”
“Not really.” This time he sounded chagrined. “Guess we’ll just have to deal with close quarters.”
She sighed heavily but lay still and closed her eyes again. It didn’t help that the sun was barely down. Evan turned, which pressed him even closer to her. She was aware of every single place their bodies touched, even if they were modestly dressed, as Jake put it. Evan was muscle all over. For a billionaire, he was actually pretty hot. She wondered if women threw themselves at him all the time and nodded to herself; of course they did. Handsome and filthy rich? What a combination.
Did he ever wonder about people’s motives? How did he protect himself from everyone who wanted to use him for their own gain? He came across as very self-contained, and she wondered if that was merely a defense mechanism he had to use to survive.
Had he always been a billionaire? Yes—Hannah showed her an article about him that said Mortimer Innovations had been in his family for generations now, so he must have grown up knowing that he could always have exactly what he wanted.
What did he want?
The question brought a rush of heat to her body that she tried unsuccessfully to squash. More than once today she’d been convinced that he wanted her. Ridiculous. He must be surrounded by beautiful women all the time. She wasn’t anything special. Cute. That’s the word people used to sum her up.
She’d always been cute, from when she was a child trying to keep up with her older brother to when she’d spent her high school years competing with girls like Lacey Taylor, who wrapped all the cowboys from the nearby ranches around her little finger.
Cute and broke.
The thought depressed her and she turned to her back. Now her shoulder was pressed against Evan’s.
“I thought you’d be asleep by now,” he said, his deep voice rumbling through her and setting her senses alight.
“I thought you’d be asleep. What’s keeping you up?”
There was a long pause and just when she thought he wasn’t going to answer at all, she felt his arm move and his fingers touched hers, under the covers. They slid between her own and he squeezed her hand.
Her breath caught in her throat and she didn’t move. His thumb traced across her palm softly once, twice—a caress so small, yet so intimate it made her tingle all over. He squeezed her hand again, then let go, and she felt the loss. His admission—for that’s what it had to be—unnerved her and set her on fire all at the same time.
She fought the urge to roll over and press herself against him, all too aware of the video camera rolling just a few feet above their bodies. Besides, he was her enemy—her opponent. His goal was to force her to marry him and to tie up her time for a whole year, while she lost everything that really mattered to her.
Still, his nearness was a powerful aphrodisiac, especially to a woman who hadn’t seen any action since…well, since the last president was in office.
Close your eyes and go to sleep. Don’t even think about him, she told herself. Easy to say. Harder to do when Evan announced his presence with every breath he took. He was obviously still awake, too. Was he thinking about her?
Desperate to squelch her rising libido, she pictured Misty, a small, wiry dog who’d been dumped at the clinic recently, half-starving, with the worst case of mange she’d ever seen. The poor dog stunk when she’d first handled her, and shrank away from Bella as if embarrassed about her appearance. Who would look after pets like Misty if she lost? She couldn’t let Evan distract her. Turning her back on him, she closed her eyes tightly and began to count sheep.
* * * * *
As Bella’s breathing evened out beside him, Evan stared at the stupid camera hanging from the roof of the tent and counted the number of ways he’d screwed up today. Somehow Bella had cast a spell on him and he’d lost the ability to think rationally, while she made use of each of his blunders to catapult herself into a stronger position. When he’d taken her hand beneath the covers just now, a spark of desire had lit up his whole body, yet she remained unmoved.
Several times today he thought she returned his interest, especially on the zip line platform, where he’d come perilously close to kissing her, but now he wasn’t at all sure he’d read her right. Maybe she was playing him like a fiddle—teasing him to a fever pitch of wanting, while she laughed at him all the way to the bank. It would be just like a woman to want to humiliate him that way.
Well, she wasn’t going to win—no way. He was two points ahead of her and he’d pull further ahead tomorrow. Heck, he would be at least five points ahead if he’d kept his mouth shut at the archery range. No more mister nice guy, he promised himself. He’d show Bella his true colors tomorrow.
Still, as the minutes ticked by and his eyes remained open, Evan grew more and more uncomfortable. He hated confined spaces—even tents—and while he could sleep in one just fine when he was on his own—as long as the flap remained open—it was too much to bear having Bella pressed against him—in more ways than one.
She turned him on, for one thing, but her presence also made it hard to breathe. In fact, the longer he stayed inside the tent the less oxygen there seemed to be.
Shit. He recognized this tightness in his chest and the feeling that the walls were about to cave in and smother him. If he didn’t get outside—pronto—he would head into a full-fledged panic attack. He didn’t need that broadcast over national TV.
He quickly threw the sleeping bag back and made a big show of wiping his brow and peeling his damp t-shirt from his chest a few times, to indicate he couldn’t sta
nd the heat. Nothing unmanly about getting too hot, he thought as he struggled to the front of the tent and unzipped the flap. He exited it gratefully just as the sun finally set. Heading back to the campfire, which he’d carefully put out a half-hour before, he leaned against a rock and settled in for the night.
CHAPTER SIX
Bella slept much better than she’d imagined she would, but when she pushed herself to a sitting position in the morning and felt the coolness of the sleeping mat next to her, she realized that was partly due to Evan not sharing the tent with her. When had he left? God—had she snored so loud it drove him out? That was an embarrassing idea. None of her previous bed partners had complained about her snoring, however, so maybe it wasn’t that. Maybe he was an early riser.
Pushing her way outside a moment later, she realized that wasn’t the answer, either. Evan lay sound asleep near the ruins of their campfire from the night before, and looked like he’d been there for some time. She remembered his fingers wrapping around hers so intimately. What had driven him away?
Don’t even think about it, she told herself. Instead she waited as a crew member came and dismantled the tent camera, then took the opportunity to change inside it before Evan woke up. Back outside, she checked her heel. It looked far better than it had last night, and the insert she’d been given for the back of her boot should help, too. She wondered what surprises this day would bring.
She decided to stretch some of her stiffness away while she waited for breakfast. Evan wandered past, back from his own visit to the bushes. He looked worse than she felt—like he’d aged ten years overnight—but she wouldn’t underestimate him. If today’s contests were as badly skewed toward his strengths as they were yesterday, she’d be in trouble. Her right arm twinged from the unusual activities of drawing bowstrings and throwing beanbags. Still, stretching felt good. Thank goodness for all those yoga classes over the years.
“Love this view!” Evan proclaimed from behind her as she pushed up from a prone position into downward dog.
He’d better mean the valley, she thought, willing herself not to drop back to the ground. When she shifted into a new pose, however, she saw he most definitely wasn’t looking at the vista below them. She faltered, but continued with her routine.
He’s just trying to make me nervous. I can’t let it work.
Still, a few minutes later she gave up trying to reclaim the calmness she’d felt at the beginning of her stretching. Evan’s frank perusal of her body sent waves of heat through her until she wobbled in her poses. Best to stop before she keeled over and hurt herself. She joined him at the firepit where a crew member fed her coffee and a breakfast burrito. Mmmm. Maybe today wouldn’t be so bad.
Three hours later, however, she conceded that today would probably turn out to be worse. She, Evan, Jake, and a platoon of camera crewmen and assistants stood on the banks of the Athabasca River while a woman named Jessie outlined basic kayaking safety procedures. When she was done, Jake took over.
“Welcome to day two of Can You Beat a Billionaire. Bella, Evan, I hope you slept well?”
“Like a baby,” Bella said. She thought she was getting the hang of this acting enthusiastic thing.
“Evan, we noticed you were rather restless during the night. Any specific reason for that?”
A muscle in Evan’s jaw twitched. “I like sleeping out under the stars.”
“Without a mattress pad or even a sleeping bag?” Jake widened his eyes theatrically.
“I like roughing it.”
Jake shrugged theatrically, and returned to his spiel. “You’ve already hiked for several hours. Your first challenge this morning involves kayaking. You will need to use strength, skill and accuracy to collect five plastic fish along the kayaking route we’ve made for you on the spectacular Athabasca River. Notice the poles.” He waved at the river behind him where a series of differently colored poles stuck several feet out of the water. “Keep the yellow stripes to your right and the green stripes to your left and you’ll stay on track. If you leave the course you are disqualified. You may not turn around at any time. Put your fish in the nylon pouch attached to your kayak. Each fish is worth one point. Do you understand?”
“Yes,” Evan said.
“Yes,” Bella echoed. The river water seemed to be traveling awfully fast, however. How were they to control their kayaks with one hand on the paddle and grab a fish from a basket with the other? This was all too similar to yesterday’s beanbag toss—only worse.
Much worse.
“Evan, you reached the challenge ahead of Bella, so you go first,” Jake said. “Good luck!”
Bella wasn’t sorry Evan was to go ahead of her, even though he’d only beaten her to the river by a few steps. They’d hiked together for the most part, talking little as the day warmed up and they worked the kinks out of their muscles. Too much of her time was spent considering the way he’d furtively squeezed her hand last night under the covers. What had he meant by it? And why had he abandoned the tent halfway through the night? It couldn’t have been comfortable sleeping outside without a sleeping bag.
When he approached the river, Jessie handed Evan a wetsuit and ushered him toward a makeshift changing room the crew had rigged up nearby. A few minutes later, Bella watched him squeeze into the kayak and Jessie snap him in. The woman made him practice rolling the kayak and flipping himself back to vertical several times, and Bella was relieved to see six other men and women joining him in the water in their own kayaks. Apparently there would be plenty of help should something go wrong out on the river.
She bit her lip as Evan fought the current to get away from shore. A guide kayak led him upstream far enough so he could turn around and get going in the right direction before he reached two bright red poles that demarked the starting point. The current grabbed the kayak immediately and whisked him down the course. The poles which marked the sides must be farther apart than they looked from the banks, because he didn’t seem to be struggling to stay between them. He was struggling, however, to head towards the first container of fish, and to her surprise, he missed it all together.
“Harder than it looks, eh?” Jake said.
“Yes—it must be.”
Evan paddled like mad and managed to snag the next fish, and the next one. He nearly missed the fourth container, but with a last desperate struggle and heave, he snagged one, nearly lost it, managed to hold on and shoved it in the bag, too.
“Damn it—miss!” she yelled, forgetting for a moment she was on camera. That wouldn’t look very good. She sighed. No sense even wondering if Madelyn might not choose to air that—of course she would.
But she whooped aloud as Evan did miss the last one. He’d been heading straight for the container when his kayak jerked away from it, nearly unbalancing him. She had to remember the current went funky there.
“Three points for Evan. Looks like a challenging course, Bella. Are you ready for it?” Jake asked.
She was getting sick of his smarmy television-announcer tones, but she answered clearly, “Yes—I’m all set!”
She wished it was true. She wasn’t afraid of a river like she’d been of the zip lines yesterday—she’d actually gone whitewater river rafting before, which seemed much more dangerous than this—but seeing Evan flailing around told her the current was very strong and she knew she might not make it through the entire course without being pulled right past the boundary poles. Plus, she had to make up some lost points, or Evan was going to get too far ahead of her to beat.
You can do this, she told herself as she struggled into her wetsuit. Evan may be stronger, but he’s also heavier. You don’t need to be as strong as him to stay on course. She had no idea if that made any sense, but it sounded good.
She allowed Jessie to help her into the kayak, her courage lasting right until Jessie made her flip it. She went over just fine, but she struggled mightily to get back up and was gasping for breath by the time she managed it.
“You all right?” Jes
sie asked.
“Yes.” What else could she say?
“Do it again.”
“What?” She had to be kidding.
“Again—I can’t let you out there until you know how to flip and recover.” The stocky blonde stared her down.
Bella sighed but flipped over again. This time she came up rightside more quickly, but the effort it took made her arms ache and she hadn’t even started the course yet.
“You’d better try that one more…” Jessie began but Madelyn appeared on shore.
“We’re behind schedule. Move it!”
Apparently even Jessie was afraid of the director, but the woman’s expression was uneasy as she said, “All right, get out there.”
Bella paddled unsteadily out to a position far upstream of the starting gate. She wanted to stall for time and recover from her exertions and the cold slap of ice water on her face when she’d gone over, but fighting the current to stay in place sapped her energy too much. Best to just get this over with.
Evan had missed the first container. She had to get that fish. She decided to overcorrect, get as close to the guide-poles on the right-hand side of the course as possible and allow the current to bring her back to the container. She turned the kayak, drifted to the starting point, and paddled for all she was worth to the right. Her strategy worked, except when she judged it time to ease up and let the current take her, it swirled her around and she was nearly facing backward when she got to the container. She just managed to fling her arm out and make a wild grab as it went by.