Wyoming Rugged

by Diana Palmer

  “Miss Ashton?” he called through the open door. “Can you take a letter, please?”

  “Of course, sir,” she said politely, and got her notepad.

  He dictated at an even, slow pace so that she never had to ask him to stop or repeat a sentence. The terms, and their spelling, were familiar to her, since she’d helped her father with his paperwork for years now.

  “That will need to go out today,” he added when he finished.

  “Yes, sir. I’ll have it ready.”

  “You’ve been a surprise, Miss Ashton,” he said unexpectedly.

  She turned. “Sir?”

  He shrugged. “Blair Coleman handed you to me without any explanation except that I was to give you the position. Forgive me, but I thought perhaps there was some personal reason for that.”

  She lifted her chin. “There was. My father asked him to.”

  He nodded, then smiled. “I figured that out on my own. You’re quite young for a man his age,” he added on a chuckle. “You’ve surprised and delighted me. You’re efficient, courteous, and you can spell. I’m pleased with your job performance. Quite pleased.”

  “Thank you, sir.”

  “I understand that you’re going to be away until Monday,” he said.

  “Well, yes, if you don’t mind. My father has trade talks in Cancun and he wanted me to go with him...” She flushed. She was too insecure to mention Blair’s name, as well.

  “I like your father,” he said unexpectedly. “He’s an empire builder, like our own Mr. Coleman. Certainly, you don’t have to be here if I’m not, but we’ll both have to make up our time, you know. It might mean some overtime later on next week.”

  “I don’t mind in the least,” she assured him with a smile.

  “You do know your geology,” he said. “You have a degree in it, don’t you?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Wouldn’t the field position we have open have been a better fit for you?” he asked, but kindly.

  She sighed. “Yes, sir, it would, but I’m plagued by asthma. A position that required great amounts of time outdoors, especially in spring and autumn, would be a health risk.”

  “Health.” He rolled his eyes. “My daughter, God bless her, has rheumatoid arthritis. She’s only ten. Mr. Brady actually said that he could prescribe a helpful diet and list of herbal medicines that would cure her overnight. As if two generations of researchers haven’t been knocking themselves out trying to find even a temporary relief for the pain and inflammation!”

  “He said he could cure my asthma with a new diet and herbal remedies, too,” she said. Sensing a kindred spirit, she smiled. “I just agreed with him and walked away.”

  “I should have done that,” he chuckled. The smile faded. “The discussion got rather heated. I imagine asthma is difficult. But RA...” His face tautened. “Sometimes I hear her crying at night. She doesn’t want me to know how bad it gets. Herbal medicine. Diet...”

  “We could have someone rope Mr. Brady to a chair and fill him full of fried chicken and hash brown potatoes,” she suggested helpfully.

  He threw back his head and roared. “I’ll just smile and walk away myself, next time.” He smiled, and meant it. “Thanks, Miss Ashton. You’re a tonic.”

  “Thank you, Mr. Jacobs.”

  “Get that letter typed, then. I’ve got to make some calls.”

  She nodded, smiled again and went out the door. One new disaster averted, she thought to herself. At least Mr. Jacobs didn’t think Blair had designs on her. That was probably true. Blair might like the way she looked, might even have a purely physical attraction to her. But his mind was still locked up in Elise and their past together. He was too bitter to think romantically about any woman right now, let alone Niki.

  Well, Blair had said there might be gossip. She hadn’t anticipated how it might look, when he insisted on letting her have this job. On the other hand, it hurt her that Mr. Jacobs thought Blair was too old for her.

  Who was she kidding? she thought miserably. Blair thought she was too young for him. He’d said it many times. Why should it surprise her when other people agreed?

  She gave a thought to Mr. Jacobs’s poor daughter, in so much pain. Someday there would be a cure for that terrible disease, even one for asthma. Meanwhile, she used her medicines and tried to mitigate the damage by avoiding triggers.

  She sat down at her computer and started to work.

  * * *

  DAN WAS WAITING for her at the exit when she’d clocked out and was on her way to her car in the parking lot.

  “Feel like going jogging with me?” he asked with a grin. “I’m just going to do three or four miles, nothing heavy.”

  That was nothing heavy? She thought fast. “I promised Dad I’d get some letters out for him tonight. They’re important.”

  “Oh. I see.”

  “Thanks anyway,” she said, smiling.

  “Okay. Your loss,” he mused, sticking his hands in his pockets. “You really don’t like physical activity, do you? That’s going to be hard for you later in life.”

  “I’ll see you tomorrow, Dan,” she said pleasantly, with her social smile pasted on her face.

  She walked away from him, got into her car and drove off.

  * * *

  BUT THE MINUTE Niki walked in the door, her father’s eyebrows started climbing.

  “Tidbit, what in the world is the matter with you?” he burst out.

  She stared at him. “Excuse me?”

  “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you in a real temper before.” He scowled. “Did somebody say something about how you got that job?”

  Mr. Jacobs had, but she wasn’t about to tell her father and have Blair heave him out a window. That would really mess things up. Besides, she liked Mr. Jacobs a lot better now that she knew more about him. He really was nice.

  She put her purse down and took off the lightweight sweater she was wearing over her beige dress. “No. It was one of my coworkers, Dan Brady. He thinks I coddle myself too much. He was irritated because I turned down a four-mile jog with him tonight.”

  “Four miles?” he exclaimed.

  “He said it was just a little light exercise.” She drew in a breath. It was hard just to do that, with all the pollen in the air, and she hadn’t even been outside long. Actually, though, getting the air back out was easier than getting it inside in the first place. “Honestly, the man is a nut!”

  He shook his head. “It takes all kinds,” he said.

  “Yes, it does, and I find them like pennies on the sidewalk,” she muttered.

  “Want me to talk to him for you?” her father asked, his blond eyebrows meeting in the middle of his forehead.

  “No, thanks,” she said, having heard stories of her father’s “talks” before from Edna.

  He pursed his lips. “Come on. I probably wouldn’t hit him. Hard.”

  She laughed softly. Then hugged him shyly. “You’re the best dad in the world and I love you very much. But I can manage one annoying coworker. Honest.”

  “All right.” He hesitated. “Better not tell Blair what he said,” he added suddenly.

  She glanced at him, eyebrows raised.

  He shrugged. “He’s pretty protective of you,” he said.

  She smiled. “He’s my friend.”

  He cocked his head. He was still smiling. “Just friends?”

  She nodded, hiding what she really felt. “Just friends, Dad.”

  There was an odd expression on his face. But he just shrugged again and turned away.

  * * *

  BLAIR HAD A small Learjet waiting for them at the airport in Billings, complete with pilot and copilot and a flight attendant.

  “What’s the use in having money if you don’t
ever use it?” Blair chuckled as Todd and Niki buckled up beside him. “I told you. I hate flying commercial.”

  “So do I,” Todd commented drily, “but some of us don’t have the option.”

  Blair just grinned. “Doesn’t matter, if you have friends who do. And we’re off!” he added as the jet taxied down the runway.

  * * *

  CANCUN WAS INCREDIBLE. Their hotel was one of many on a long strip of beach separated from the mainland of the peninsula. They ranged from fancy to luxurious. Blair apparently owned one of the more opulent ones, right on the beach, with a five-star restaurant downstairs. He’d booked a suite for himself, and one for Todd and Niki, so that they both had enormous bedrooms right off an elegant sitting room.

  “This is too much, Blair,” Todd protested.

  “I own the hotel,” Blair reminded him with a smile. “It’s not an extravagance.”

  “All right, then. Thanks,” Todd said, returning the smile.

  “I have ulterior motives,” Blair confessed. “The Mexican industry leaders we’re seeing are staying here, as well. No travel time involved in the meetings.”

  Todd’s eyebrows arched. “I see. And are they getting the full treatment? Lovely beach, excellent food, all the amenities?”

  He grinned. “Of course. And,” he added, tongue in cheek, “a group of world-class models are filming a commercial here. Eye candy.” He glanced at Niki, who was glowering. “Pretend you didn’t hear that,” he instructed.

  She grimaced.

  “You’re much prettier than any of them,” Blair teased. But his eyes weren’t teasing. They were intent on her face, very dark and quiet.

  She flushed, to her embarrassment. “I think I’ll go get unpacked,” she said. “You men can talk about...swimsuits and stuff,” she added with a wicked grin as she left.

  * * *

  SWIMSUITS, INDEED. SHE COULD just picture darkly handsome Blair surrounded by svelte models with gorgeous faces and bodies while poor Niki in her boring black one-piece bathing suit lounged on a towel nearby.

  No. That wasn’t going to happen.

  There was a nice boutique downstairs. She went shopping. She did settle for a one-piece after all, but it was golden and stretchy with bare flesh displayed tastefully inside golden rings that outlined it at both sides of her waist and just above her breasts. It had a built-in bra so that she looked a lot more endowed than she really was.

  She bought it, and a lacy cocktail dress, in black, that she could pair with strappy black high heels and her evening bag. She left the shop feeling extravagant, although it was her own money she’d spent, inherited from her late mother, who had been an heiress.

  On the way out the door, she spotted Blair. She almost went to him, to show off her purchases, when he was joined by a woman. This one wasn’t a model. She was only a few years younger than Blair, from the look of her, dark-haired and elegantly dressed with long hair in a complicated bun and a fancy manicure, her fingers trailing lovingly across his shirt as she spoke to him.

  Blair wasn’t protesting her touch. In fact, he was smiling.

  They knew each other. Niki knew it without a word being spoken. And from the look of things, it hadn’t been a platonic sort of thing. There was a familiarity in the way they stood, in the way they looked at each other. A former lover, probably, she thought miserably. Just when Niki had hoped against hope that she might do something, anything, to make Blair see her as older, more sophisticated, desirable...

  She turned away, almost colliding with her father. “Watch where you’re going, there, Tidbit! What have you been doing?”

  “Just shopping,” she said, trying to smile and failing miserably.

  He looked over her head. “Well, I’ll be. That’s Janet Hardman over there with Blair.”

  “You know her?” she asked, trying not to sound interested.

  “Yes. She and Blair were an item years ago, before he married that wild woman and got taken for the ride of his life. She’s an executive with a film company. Apparently, they’re involved with the commercial he was talking about. Lovely, isn’t she?” he added, with a calculating look at Niki that she missed.

  “Lovely.” She hesitated. “He likes brunettes, doesn’t he?” she added, recalling a photo of Blair and Elise that she’d seen in a tabloid just before they’d married.

  “They remind him of his mother. He loved her very much. She had a raw deal with his stepfather. He was nobody’s idea of the perfect husband, and he was brutal with Blair. His mother liked Janet, if I recall correctly.”

  The comment about Blair’s stepfather went right over her head. She was miserable. Her heart was breaking. She would never be the same. She wished she’d stayed home. She wished...

  “I’m going to the beach for a while,” she said.

  “Okay, but watch the flags on the beach before you go into the water out there. If they’re red, don’t even tip your toe in.”

  She frowned. “Flags?”

  “They tell you the condition of the ocean,” her father said patiently. “Red means danger. Riptides.”

  “Oh. Okay. There’s a pool, anyway, if I want to swim,” she added. She smiled. “I don’t like sand in my bathing suit.”

  He chuckled. “Neither do I. Go on, Tidbit. Have fun. We’ll see you for dinner later.”

  “Of course,” she agreed. But she was thinking it likely that Blair wouldn’t be joining them. Or, worse, that he might invite his old flame to eat with them. In which case, Niki was already planning on a vicious headache that would appear at the very best time.

  “I won’t be out long,” she added, touching her forehead. “My head feels achy.”

  “You shouldn’t lie in the sun,” her father said, concerned.

  “Just for a little while. I can’t help it. I love beaches!”

  “I know. Don’t stay out too long, then.”

  “I won’t.” She tossed him a smile and walked away. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Blair joining her father and looking after her with an odd expression. She ignored both of them and went on her way.

  * * *

  NIKI’S SWIMSUIT HAD an odd effect on her looks. With her platinum-blond hair long, waving around her shoulders and reaching almost to her waist in back, with designer sunglasses perched on her straight nose, it made her look older, sophisticated, very worldly. She loved it. The way it clung to her figure gave away secrets that didn’t normally show. That she had long, tanned, lovely legs. That her breasts were high and firm. That she had a tiny waist and curvy hips. That she was almost perfect physically. Usually, she didn’t like those things to show. She dressed conservatively. But today she felt reckless, as if she had nothing to lose. Blair had found a woman from his past, who was obviously still interested in him, and she was apparently staying at the hotel. Niki felt the sting of competition for the first time in her life.

  She walked down to the beach without even a coverup, picking up a towel from the steward at the beginning of the beach. She smiled at him, trying to ignore his very appreciative stare.

  She picked a spot near an elderly couple, spread her towel and stretched out. The sun was very hot, but she loved the feel of it on her skin. She slid her sunglasses over her nose and settled into the soft sand.

  Overhead she heard birds. Seagulls, by the sound of them, dancing in the air as they fluttered by. She smiled to herself. Her father had mentioned that there was a day trip out to the Mayan ruins at Chichen Itza. She thought she might go tomorrow, even if her companions didn’t have time to spare. It would be the trip of a lifetime.

  She arched her back to ease the stiffness she’d felt from the long trip here, relaxed, then dozed lightly, trying not to remember the way Blair had looked at the dark-haired woman in the hotel. Why had she been born blonde? Why wasn’t she older and more sophisticated?
Why, why, why?

  When she’d had dinner with Dan Brady at the seafood restaurant, he’d lectured her nonstop on her lifestyle, her lack of physical stamina and her diet, especially when she’d ordered the fried fish plate. She liked him, in a way. But he was a shadow of Blair. They both cared about her well-being, but she was definitely attracted to Blair much more than Dan.

  Well, wishing wouldn’t do her any good. Blair was determined to keep her at arm’s length, and she couldn’t change his mind. Somehow, she had to accept that and deal with it and move on. Somehow, in the middle of her misery, she fell asleep.

  * * *

  A TINY SPRAY of water hitting her face woke her. Blair was standing over her, glowering. He was wearing swimming trunks, white and clinging, and the rest of him was bare. He was absolutely glorious. Niki ached just looking at him. He was broad-shouldered, narrow-hipped, with legs like tree trunks, tanned and muscular. His chest had a wedge of curling black hair that ran down into the waistband of the trunks. His feet, like hers, were bare. He was staring at her. Not only staring. She’d rolled over to her side in her sleep, so that the deep cut of the suit showed her breasts to their very best advantage. His eyes were on them, and she felt his look all the way to her toes.

  His eyes zoomed in pointedly to her breasts and she knew, now, what he was seeing. The tips went hard when she looked at him. She wanted him. And he knew it.

  Self-conscious, she sat up and brought up her knees, hiding her breasts from view. She laughed, trying to make light of her embarrassment. “I wasn’t going in,” she said, anticipating the reason for the scowl. “Dad told me about red flags.” She indicated them, flapping madly in the breeze, a few feet away. She felt the hunger in him in a way she never had before.

  His trunks were wet, like his hair. Even the hair on his massive chest glittered with water. He was trying desperately to reason with his aching body. In that bathing suit, Niki was the most beautiful, seductive woman he’d ever seen. She was years too young for what he wanted from her. But he couldn’t drag his eyes away. And very quickly, he had a physical reaction to her that he couldn’t hide.