Patience, Hadley told herself. “Mother, I’m in the middle of nowhere. Why don’t you just buy the bags and I’ll pay you?”
“It’s hardly a gift from you if I do the buying,” Irene said tartly.
“The nearest Louis Vuitton store is three hours away in Boston.”
“So? You have access to the Internet, don’t you?”
“I suppose.” Though she wasn’t thrilled about spending two grand for a purse online. By phone, perhaps, if she could get them to agree to it. If not… Hadley sighed. “I’ll see what I can do.”
“And don’t forget to wrap them.”
“Of course.”
“You’re a dear,” Irene said, sunbeams in her voice. Hadley thought of Robert. The demands, the occasional praise for complying. Irene’s style was different but the message was the same. Always the same.
“Now I’ve got something very special picked out for you. The only problem is that it’s being shipped from Austria. They’ve promised me you’ll get it before the holiday, but just in case, I wanted you to know it’s coming.”
Hadley thought of the collection of antique figurines that Irene had sent her over the years, exquisitely worked and utterly insipid. Irene adored them and if she refused to listen to Hadley’s gentle attempts to dissuade her, at least she was trying.
They’d just never figured each other out.
“It’s okay if it doesn’t get here. It’s the thought that counts.”
“You’re sweet. Now have a good day and don’t work too hard. I love you.”
“I love you, too, Mother.” Even if I don’t understand you.
“Just give me an average for cost per square foot.” Gabe interrupted the real estate agent before he could go into full sales pitch mode by phone. “Just a ballpark figure, land only.”
“We have some nice listings.”
“I’m sure you do. Right now, I just need information.”
When he heard the number, Gabe smiled. Lower, far lower than he’d expected. It would help, he thought as he keyed the number into his spreadsheet and thanked the agent before disconnecting. They had a starting point for discussion. He and Hadley could massage the numbers and see what they could come up with for an offer.
Hadley…
His plan was working. The hotel, he thought, was getting under her skin. No surprise there; it got to everyone sooner or later. The only problem was that she was getting under his skin at the same time. If he could have thought of her as just a corporate shark, he could have held out against her. But she was a real woman, warm and vulnerable, and he didn’t have a defense against that.
In time with the thought he heard the tap on his door and looked up to see her standing on the threshold. He should have gotten used to the quick jolt he felt every time he saw her. Instead, it was getting harder to ignore. “Good morning.”
“Hello.” She walked toward him, all red and gold with her hair swinging at her shoulders. “Ready to get to work?”
“Sure.” A hint of her scent drifted over to him, whispering of spring mornings and midsummer nights. He forced his mind to business. “I’ve got the top line numbers assembled for the ski area. Property value, capital equipment, earning power and so on. All estimated, except for the assessment, but it ought to put us in the ballpark.”
She took the sheet from him and sat. “I drafted the proposal for them last night. I just need the numbers.”
“I can e-mail you the file.”
“Only if it’s small. Don’t forget, I’m on dial-up. Which is becoming a problem, by the way.” She nibbled her lip. “Any chance you can set me up with some office space here? A cubicle, even, as long as it has a T1 line.”
“I could if we had any open. Unfortunately, we’re crammed for space as it is.”
“I suppose I could set something up once I move into Cortland House,” she said dubiously.
“You could, but you’re not going to have anything better than dial-up there.”
“The house doesn’t have high speed access?”
He resisted the urge to smile at her surprise. Definitely a city girl. “We haven’t routed it that far. Don’t forget, you’re in the sticks here. Maybe in the spring.”
“I suppose I could work out of Cortland House and just bring my laptop to the business center in the mornings to receive e-mail.”
“You could. Or you could move in here.” The impulse came from nowhere, surprising him as much as her.
Hadley blinked. “You mean here, here? This room?”
Gabe nodded. “We’d be sharing but least you’d have a place to work. We can bring in a desk, hook up a new phone extension and data line.”
“I don’t think it’s a good idea.” The look on her face was interesting. Not annoyed, not unhappy. Alarmed. Now why would she be alarmed at the fact of sharing an office with him?
Unless he was getting under her skin, as well.
Interesting indeed, he thought. “It makes sense,” he said aloud. “We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us for the acquisition. We need to have immediate access to one another.” And before he could block it, the image bloomed in his mind, vivid and sudden, Hadley, just Hadley and nothing else, no tidy red suit, no silk blouse, just her hair loose and spilling over his cheek, and her naked skin, heating under his hands.
Her eyes darkened as she stared at him, as though the words had worked on her, as well. “But…” She moistened her lips. “What about your privacy?”
He banished the image. “You think I have any privacy now? Look at this place. Go get your stuff and let’s try it out.”
Try it out, indeed.
Morning dragged into lunch, lunch dragged into early afternoon discussions with Jason Keating, the CFO, as they fought with the numbers, massaging the proposal, struggling to build a coherent offer and strategy. Finally, Gabe looked across the table at Hadley. “So do we think this is a deal that could work?”
“I think it’s worth testing the waters,” she said. “I’d like to keep the offering price as lean as we can for the board. Is there any way to drop the cost?”
“We can drop it all we want,” Gabe told her. “The only downside is that your board will approve a number and then Miller and his friends will tell us to go jump in a lake. We need this resort, Hadley.”
“And I’m trying to find a way to make it happen,” she reminded him sharply. They stared at each other for a moment, gazes crackling.
Keating cleared his throat. “There is a way, but it depends on us closing the deal by year end.”
Hadley looked at him as though he’d sprouted two heads. “Pull off a deal like this in three weeks? With the holidays coming? You’re out of your mind. We wouldn’t even have time to get the idea cleared by the board in that time, let alone talk to the sellers.”
“Our fiscal year closes December thirty-first. Our bookkeeping is on a semi-yearly depreciation cycle. If we can buy the ski area by year end, we get six months’ of depreciation on it. The write-off will offset the cost of the acquisition by…” He tapped at his laptop keyboard. “We’d be looking at a real outlay a good ten percent lower than the actual bid.”
“Ten percent? That’s worth pushing it,” Gabe said.
“It’ll take a big push,” Hadley pointed out. “We’ll have to go through due diligence in a matter of days. That’s site reviews, checking for lawsuits and liens, everything.” And it would mean moving forward with contacting Miller before Robert had approved the idea.
“I think the payoff’s worth it. A little hard work isn’t going to hurt us.”
She’d be taking a chance, a big one. The question was was it one she was prepared to take?
Gabe held her eye. “What do you think?”
Hadley took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Sometimes it was worth taking a risk. “I think we’re ready to contact your friend Miller about a meeting.”
Day had slipped into dusk by the time Hadley walked with Gabe toward the lobby, feeling the familiar combi
nation of tiredness and exhilaration she always experienced after working hard to put a deal together. Of course, they were only in the starting phase, but they were in good shape to pull it off.
The area around the fireplace and grandfather clock was more crowded than usual, with people spilling out of the conservatory. “I had no idea Friday nights were this busy,” Hadley said.
“They are when we kick off a theme event. This is the welcome reception for the Decadent Desserts weekend. As you might imagine, it’s popular.”
Ice sculptures glittered in the centers of the refreshments tables, where tiny petits fours, éclairs and truffles formed complicated patterns on doily-covered silver trays. Tureens of hot cocoa steamed, islands of whipped cream floating on the surface. Chocolate scented the air. Hadley couldn’t remember what they’d done for lunch, but it seemed a very long time ago.
Gabe raised his eyebrows. “Want some?”
“Well, I don’t know if we should…”
“Consider it research,” he suggested. “Do you want mocha or straight chocolate?”
“Fully leaded,” she said, giving in to temptation.
“Good girl.” He handed her a mug and they found a pair of chairs away from the crowd where they could sit and watch. “It’s Lynn the pastry chef’s recipe,” he said as Hadley stirred the cocoa. “I don’t know what’s in it because she guards it like a state secret.”
Hadley took a sip and closed her eyes in bliss as the flavor burst through her mouth. “You should guard her like a state secret. This is incredible.” She opened her eyes to find Gabe watching her. The warmth that flushed through her had little to do with the temperature of the chocolate.
“I’ll tell her you said so. Too bad she couldn’t see you enjoy it.”
Bring it back to something safe, she thought, and raised her mug. “Here’s to a good day’s work.”
“We make a hell of a team.”
A hell of a team.
She was having a harder and harder time keeping her head above water here, Hadley realized. Reminding herself not to get involved wasn’t helping. Reminding herself it was work helped even less. Instead, she found herself wondering how it would be if things were different, if they could just try out a relationship like normal people.
Even though she knew where that would lead.
Looking away was no help. Couples dotted the room, standing arm in arm at the windows and staring at mountains in the fading afternoon, holding hands at the bar. The sound of low, liquid laughter came across to Hadley, and she saw a nearby couple nestled close together on a wicker love seat. Like a slave girl with her Caesar, the women brushed back her dark hair and picked up a miniature éclair off a plate to feed to her companion. When he nipped at her fingers, she leaned in to chastise him, her humming chuckle sounding quick and intimate.
“It’s your turn now.” The man picked up a truffle and placed it on the woman’s tongue. An expression of orgiastic pleasure slid over her face and Hadley could practically see the heat leap between them. When the man leaned in for a kiss this time, it wasn’t quick and careless but hard and proprietary as though she was what he wanted to consume, not the chocolate.
Hadley blinked.
“Chocolate’s an aphrodisiac, or so Lynn swears,” Gabe murmured in her ear as they watched the couple rise and walk quickly and single-mindedly out of the room. “I think she might have a point.”
Something rolled over in Hadley’s stomach. When she turned to Gabe, his eyes were very dark.
She cleared her throat. “It looks like your weekend is a success.”
“It’s improving all the time. Drink your chocolate.” He set aside his mug. “Do you still have those expensive snow boots you got yesterday?”
Hadley blinked. “Yes, why?”
“Put on warm clothes and meet me in the portico in about fifteen minutes. There’s something I want to get your opinion on.”
“What is it?”
He rose. “You’ll see.”
“A sleigh ride?”
Hadley stared up at Gabe. Dusk had come and gone. The rising moon cast silver light over the landscape. They stood on the grounds just below the portico, where the big drays picked up guests for sleigh rides. But they weren’t looking at a dray.
Before them, a big, dark gelding stood patiently in the traces of a light, two-passenger sleigh, his breath showing white in the air. A red blanket covered his back and quarters, matching the glossy red panels of the vehicle.
“It’s for the Winter Carnival next weekend,” Gabe explained. “I want to take it for a test ride, see what you think.”
“Why not stick with the drays?” Hadley asked as he helped her in. The sleigh was smaller than it looked, the seat soft, the front panel curving up before her.
“Not exactly romantic, with twenty people. I wanted more of a couples thing. We’ve made it part of one of the packages.”
When Gabe slipped in beside her, Hadley had the first inkling that she’d made a mistake. He was far too close for comfort. “Where’s the driver?”
“There isn’t one, at least not for us. Ernie from the stables will drive the guests next week, but I figured we could just take a spin for ourselves.” There was a glint of devilry in his grin. “You don’t mind, do you?”
Hadley gave him a suspicious look. “You do know what you’re doing, right?”
“Sure. We used to have horses at the farm. I’ve got lots of experience.” He laid the tartan wool rug over their lap, tucking it in around her. There was something far too intimate about the gesture, she thought, stifling a sudden impulse to flee. “I don’t have a lot of time,” she hedged. “Maybe—”
“This won’t take long. It’s just a little track through the woods.” Gabe shook the reins and clicked his tongue.
“Through the woods?” she squeaked, even as the sleigh jerked into motion.
“It’s perfectly safe. Don’t worry.” Gabe flicked her an amused glance. “I don’t bite.”
It wasn’t biting that she was worried about, Hadley thought as the bells jingled and the hotel slid away behind them.
“So how long is the ride?”
“That’s one of the things we have to decide,” Gabe said. “There’s a short version and a longer version. Quality versus quantity. We’re using one of the bridle paths, which runs along the edge of the golf course. I thought it was more atmospheric than the grounds below the portico.”
A little more atmospheric. That was the problem. “Wouldn’t it be better to do this in the daylight?”
“Oh, we’ll offer day rides as well, but I thought the moonlight would be good.”
“Let me guess. Atmospheric.”
“You have to admit it is.”
The nearly full moon cast a wash of light over the snow covered expanse, making the landscape seem to glow. There was an unreality to the whole scene, as though she’d been taken away to some magical world where nothing truly mattered.
“So what do you think about the trail? A short version so we can get lots of guests through or a long version?”
It was hard to think about much of anything at all with his thigh pressed warm and hard against hers under the lap robe. “What about longer and faster?”
“You think?” The sleigh bells rang out as Gabe immediately shook the reins and the horse broke into a trot, making Hadley laugh in surprise.
“Too fast?” Gabe asked.
The trail whizzed by and she laughed again in exhilaration. “No, it’s wonderful.”
“What about the sleigh bells? I know they’re traditional, but I’m wondering if they’re just annoying.” He gave her a searching look. “On or off?”
“Let’s try off.” And maybe if he moved away so that she wasn’t feeling his body heat anymore she could remember her priorities and stop wondering what it would be like to have him kiss her mindless.
“Whoa, boy,” Gabe murmured to the horse, and pulled up, bringing the sleigh to a stop. He wound the reins around the
anchor post and patted her knee. “Don’t go away.”
There was promise in his quick grin, and mischief and fun. And desire; she could see it. A little rush of adrenaline rippled through her.
Snow-iced trees lined one side of the trail. On the other, a creek burbled and beyond it stretched the broad, glowing white expanse of the golf course. Gabe snapped loose the bells and walked back to the sleigh.
“Now we’ll try this again.” In the ghostly moonlight, his face was stripped down into light and shadow—dark brows, shadowed jaw, gleam of teeth. When he stepped into the sleigh again, Hadley didn’t look away, and she didn’t look away when he slid onto the seat beside her.
Something deep within her began to thrum.
This time, their travel was nearly silent, with only the occasional jingle of the harness, the breathing of the horse and the sibilant hiss of the runners over the snow. On the hillside behind them, the hotel glowed with light. Here on the snowy trail, the world shrank down to just the two of them.
Ahead, the path forked, part of it continuing and part of it curving back toward the hotel. Gabe brought the sleigh to a halt. Crystalline silence wrapped around them. The mountains glowed in the moonlight.
“This isn’t the part where you say your horse is out of gas, right?”
“I thought he might like a rest. Besides, this is the point where we have to decide what happens now.”
He could have meant the sleigh ride. He could have meant something else. She wasn’t sure she wanted to know. Instead, she stared across the open whiteness of the golf course. “It’s beautiful out here,” she said softly.
“And you’re shivering. Do you want my jacket?” When she shook her head, he shifted closer to her and tucked in the lap robe more tightly. His hands rubbed her thighs. Even through the thick wool, his touch made her dizzy.
Gabe leaned closer to her. “It’s your call. Do we go on or do we stop here?”
She needed to tell him to go back. It was the responsible thing, the sensible thing. But when he reached out to trace his fingertips up the line of her jaw and curl them around the nape of her neck, it was already far too late.
Under The Mistletoe (Holiday Hearts #2) Page 10