Bunny Hills and Bikinis

by Heather Thurmeier

  She grabbed onto the side of the elevator, feeling the world spin on its axis faster than it should. Panic washed over her at the idea of speaking again. Every time she opened her mouth, it was as if someone took control of it and made her spew words incoherently. It was awful. She wanted to die.

  Okay, Universe, you’ve had your fun. Now kill me.

  She almost did a little happy dance right there in front of Mr. Hunky when the elevator finally chimed, signaling they’d reached the second floor. She held her breath as she waited for the elevator to bump to a stop and the door to release her from the chamber of hell that she’d created for herself.

  One Mississippi, two Mississippi. Come on. Open.

  The moment the doors parted, a huge sigh whistled out from between her lips and she bolted through the opening with her suitcase cradled in her arms like protective armor. “Sorry,” she called again not waiting for an answer.

  “It’s okay,” a deep, raspy voice said. A slight chuckle wafted out of the elevator as the doors closed behind her.

  She froze.

  That wasn’t just any voice. That was the voice she’d heard while waiting in line downstairs. The same voice that sent a spark of heat straight to her stomach each time she’d heard it. And, it was probably the only voice that could simultaneously arouse her and mortify her at this very moment.

  Well, that’s just frickin’ wonderful.

  Chapter Two

  “It’s okay.” Nate managed to say as the elevator doors closed behind the woman who’d made such an interesting and distinctive first impression on him. He couldn’t remember any other occasion where he’d been called a jackass and then ‘hot’ only moments from each other. She was definitely something different—someone different and intriguing.

  She was also beautiful.

  Stunning blonde hair paired with light brown eyes and skin so fair it made the red of her cheeks even more pronounced when she’d blushed. A blush so appealing he could hardly resist the urge to reach out and touch the apples of her cheeks. Such a sweet quality in a woman and one he rarely found—but loved.

  Most of the women who wanted to date him weren’t exactly the blushing type.

  Watching her attempt to explain herself had been enjoyable. In all honesty, he didn’t really care very much that she’d yelled at him. He didn’t mind a woman who could speak her mind. He actually preferred that over someone who was too afraid to think for herself.

  He could tell by the fact that she was carrying her suitcase—and appeared a little frantic—that she hadn’t been having the best day. He’d logged more than his fair share of frequent flyer miles over the last couple of years, and he knew traveling could be rough even on the most seasoned travelers. He would have happily forgiven her regardless of her explanation, but to hear she thought he was hot was all the more reason to speed up the process so they could move on to other topics.

  Like finding out who she was and how he could get in touch with her again. Those were important things and he hadn’t gotten the chance to discover the answers. Their time together in the elevator ended too quickly.

  She’d fled the elevator before he’d gotten a chance to tell her not to worry about yelling at him. Now how was he supposed to tell her? How would he ever figure out who she was? It’s not like she’d taken the time to tell him her name while she rattled on about everything else.

  He couldn’t wander over to the front desk and ask. No one would ever tell some strange guy what room a single girl was staying in. Not that he even knew she was single, but she did appear to be traveling alone. That was a good sign. Encouraging.

  Maybe he could casually ask around at one of the restaurants later to see if any of the waiters knew of the girl he was interested in. It was a long shot, but it was worth a try. He really didn’t have any other options, but asking would have to wait until later. First, he had to present the opening kick-off speech for the workshop retreat he was conducting this weekend.

  Too bad his partner Jim was too sick to help him with this workshop—damn flu. Now Nate was on his own for the entire weekend for the first time ever. He didn’t mind so much except that it meant a lot more work for him than usual. He had a long, busy weekend with very little downtime ahead of him.

  Also, doing the kick-off speech wasn’t supposed to be his part of the weekend—Jim always handled the speeches since he was more comfortable speaking to the group as a whole, whereas Nate preferred working one-on-one with each table of attendees. Now Nate was going to have to perform his least favorite part of the workshop and give the kick-off speech. Good thing he had it memorized after years of hearing it every weekend.

  Or he could live dangerously and skip the kick-off speech all together. The workshop attendees would never know the difference anyway.

  Nah.

  He couldn’t do that and he knew it. This workshop became infinitely more important now that Jim had dropped out. If Nate did well on his own, he might just get the promotion he’d been working for.

  So far he hadn’t found any way to stand out from the others he competed with at work. If he could do this workshop on his own and do it really well, there’s no way his bosses could ignore him for the promotion. A promotion would definitely lead to better workshop locations and then from there, he would be headed overseas.

  He had big plans for his career and they were starting right now.

  Decision made—he would deliver a killer opening speech. One so great that all the workshop attendees couldn’t help but comment on it when they filled out their evaluation forms at the end of the retreat. He would work hard and earn his promotion this weekend, starting with this silly speech. Besides, if he did get that promotion it would mean doing the kick-off speech on a regular basis. He may as well get used to it now.

  Reaching for a pen and paper from the small bedside table, he jotted down a few key points to help him remember the speech in case he got flustered when he was up at the podium. He was going to give the best kick-off speech in history. That wasn’t too much to hope for in only an hour, right?

  * * *

  Amelia sat at the large round table with a few other people she’d never met before. Their nametags said they were Stacy and Stewart from Orlando—sucks to be them stuck here in the snow and cold when they could be laying on a beach somewhere back home—and Tonya and Daniel from Detroit.

  And William. No matter how hard she tried, it was impossible to forget about him. Ugh, William.

  William Mitchell was the other manager at Minneapolis Marketers along with herself. He was also quickly becoming the bane of her existence. He’d been hired about six months ago and since then he’d hit on her more times than she could count. At least once a day she had to deflect one of his attempts at a pick-up line or an all-out request for a date. And not in good, fun, sexy ways either. His attempts were usually annoying and bordering on obnoxious.

  He was one of those guys who couldn’t take no for an answer, and she was tired of saying no. She’d even tried complaining to the human resources girl Sarah at work, but nothing seemed to come of it. Amelia couldn’t confirm it, but she’d always suspected that Sarah had a crush on William and therefore didn’t understand Amelia’s annoyance over William’s attention. Thank god he was harmless—persistent, but harmless.

  She wasn’t the only one in the office who got annoyed with William either. There were a small group of girls who were completely turned off by his attitude and personality. Sure, he was fun to look at once in a while, but there was a lot more qualities needed for her to be interested in dating someone than just a great face.

  Of course, there were also a bunch of girls in the office who drooled over William every second he was at work, but she wasn’t one of those girls. She was happy to sit and gush over his good looks with the other girls. Who doesn’t like a little eye-candy around the office to brighten an otherwise boring day? But the second he made a pass at her, his steely blue eyes and tree-trunk arms disappeared behind his mostly ob
noxious comments. He was fun to admire from a distance but there was no way she wanted to spend any amount of time with him alone.

  For some unknown reason, William didn’t seem to want to give those other girls—the ones who were actually interested in dating him—the time of day. His attention was always directed entirely on Amelia. She was probably the one girl who gave him the least amount of consideration and yet he couldn’t seem to get enough of being pushed away from her. The harder she tried to push him away, the more he pursued her.

  Currently, William sat far closer than he needed to given the fact they were in the middle of a crowded conference room waiting to start the workshop. He’d snuggled up close beside her the second he’d sat, leaning in like he belonged there by her side—like he was a boyfriend or something, which he most definitely was not. If she weren’t mistaken, she would swear he actually blew in her ear a little. It was incredibly weird and more than a little annoying. How many times did a girl have to say “no” before he actually listened?

  Maybe I should complain to someone else? Someone higher up. Probably not. If William ended up having to watch a sexual harassment video because of her complaint, they’d all end up watching it—and wasting a day. She liked her free time at work to involve a coffee run, not sitting in a meeting room watching a video of some lame actors pathetically trying to hit on their coworkers. Ugh, were the extra meetings and sexual harassment workshops worth it just to get William to stop asking her out?

  No, she was a strong-willed girl and he was just a nuisance. She could ignore him until he gave up and moved on to someone more willing.

  “William, I don’t want to be rude or anything but I’m not so sure it’s appropriate for you to be snuggling with me like this at a work function. I’m a little worried that our other tablemates might get the wrong idea about us.” She acted as casually as she could muster without sounding like a prude.

  “Let them think what they want to.” William winked at her with a smirk spreading across his face. “Hell, maybe we’ll let loose and have a little fun this weekend and then they’ll actually be thinking the truth. What do you say? Wanna let loose with me?”

  Not likely.

  “I’m not so sure I’m really feeling ready to let loose exactly. I think I’m more comfortable holding tight on to reality this weekend. Maybe you could give that a try, too?” She hoped she didn’t sound too bitchy.

  The last thing she wanted to do was make the other people at the table uncomfortable with her and William, but she didn’t want him to think there was any hope for them hooking up this weekend either.

  That wasn’t going to happen. Period.

  She made a mental note to only drink one alcoholic beverage at any one meal for the entire weekend. That way there would be no chance of her losing her senses while William was nearby to take advantage of her. She didn’t believe he was actually slimy enough to take advantage of her if she was inebriated, but she wasn’t willing to risk letting herself get to a point where she might give in to one of his advances and kiss him—or worse, end up in bed with him and make his fantasies come true. It was best not to tempt fate in any way.

  As though William could sense her discomfort, he put his arm around the back of her chair. Did he want to make her crawl under the table in an attempt to put a little distance between them? He wasn’t physically touching her, his arm was only on the back of her chair, but with his arm in that position, she worried the onlookers at the table might think there was something more going on between them. She squirmed in her seat at the idea. They were not an item and she didn’t want anyone to mistakenly think they were.

  She didn’t want him to be anything other than a fellow manager. She was perfectly fine with their relationship staying completely platonic and work-related only. Letting him sit with her like this, she had a nagging feeling she was inadvertently giving him permission to take things further.

  As if on cue to make her feel even more awkward, she suddenly felt his fingers gently caressing the curve of her shoulder. It was the kind of subconscious movement someone would make if they were intimate together. Instead of sending a shiver of pleasure down her spine, it sent her skin crawling. Not good.

  “Let’s get you on the slopes later and maybe after a couple of the ski runs with me, you’ll have a sudden change of heart and want to loosen up. I hear the hot tubs here are nice and steamy. I bet we could make ours boil.” He wiggled his eyebrows her.

  Actually wiggled them.

  Ugh. Why do guys do that kind of thing? Do girls ever really find it that appealing? Maybe she was some weird anomaly that was turned off by those kinds of gestures instead of turned on.

  “I don’t know if I even want to go skiing. I’ve never been on skis before.”

  “How is that possible?”

  “Because we live in Minnesota. It’s basically flat there. Remember?” The sarcasm was thick in her voice but she couldn’t help it. The flat, barren landscape was one of the things she liked least about living in Minnesota. She longed for rolling hills covered in grape vines. Maybe even cliffs and valleys if it meant there was something interesting to look at out her window each day. Heck, mountains would be fine as long as they weren’t covered in snow—anything but snow.

  “There are hills where you can ski not too far from us,” he said. “I can take you when we get back home if you want.”

  She shrugged.

  “I’ll take you up on these ski runs tomorrow,” he continued. “I think we have some kind of team-building thing on the slopes for a while, but then we’re on our own for the rest of the morning. I’m sure I can show you how fun skiing can be.”

  “Great. Sounds great.”

  Maybe I can be sick tomorrow. Just long enough to miss the skiing section of the day.

  “It’s a date then.” He sounded satisfied. Too satisfied.

  Oh hell no. Not a date. I definitely need to contract some kind of contagious disease in the next twelve hours. Maybe I should go lick door handles or something?

  She leaned forward in her chair, putting as much distance between her skin and his arm as she could. It wasn’t the most comfortable way to sit, but it would have to do for now. She didn’t want him touching her anymore, not here in front of these other people, and not on the ski slopes.

  Her thoughts were interrupted as a redhead walked across the stage and tapped on a microphone set up at a small podium. “Is this thing on?” the redhead asked, the nervousness evident in her voice.

  A murmur of voices coming from near the front of the stage confirmed she could be heard. She said a little prayer of thanks that at least she’d been seated near the back. She wasn’t a “get involved” kind of girl and the further she sat away from the action, the better. Besides, back here the less people there were to see William try to put the moves on her. She didn’t want his ego to get hurt too badly in front of everyone else when she continued to reject him.

  “Great,” the redheaded woman continued. “Then without further ado, I give you your workshop presenter and weekend-long advisor, Nate Miller.”

  A round of applause filled the conference room as a man strode across the stage to take his place at the podium. The stage was dimly lit, so she couldn’t make out his exact appearance, but he seemed tall, especially on a slightly raised stage.

  Amelia glanced down at her information packet wondering if there was anything else they had to do between his boring kick-off speech and finally getting to eat dinner. She hadn’t eaten since before her flight and she was suddenly starving. They couldn’t serve dinner fast enough.

  “Welcome to the Evergreen Lodge and your weekend workshop retreat.” The man’s voice slid out of the overhead speaker and into the room, smooth like honey and so warm she wanted to cover herself in it. The kind of voice that had a habit of making her insides melt just like the voice in the lobby had when she’d checked-in earlier.

  Oh no. It can’t be the same guy.

  Amelia raised her eyes from the pa
pers in front of her and was overcome by the sudden desire to faint or melt into a puddle of hormonal goo or both. It was him—the hot guy from the elevator.

  * * *

  Nate focused on the words on the page in front of him. He’d done well so far, hadn’t stumbled over his words and the audience actually seemed to be enjoying what he had to say. Maybe he really was giving the kick-off speech to end all speeches.

  Confidence surged inside him as he neared the end. A few more words about working together to build a team that can overcome all obstacles, and a little something about trying to have fun this weekend, and he’d be done. Why had he always pawned this off on Jim? He could totally rock a speech.

  He paused for a moment to give the part about building a happy workplace, one where employees are cherished for their ideas and encouraged for their initiative, a minute to sink in. He wanted them to not only hear the words, but also digest them.

  They’re totally eating this up. I can do this speech from now on. Who needs a partner?

  He scanned the crowd of people while he waited for them to absorb what he’d said. Honestly, he was enjoying the feeling of having their undivided attention too, so waiting a moment was kind of fun and exhilarating. He had his quick closing remarks to make and then it was done and he could revel in the knowledge that he’d done as well as Jim would have, if not better.

  Then he saw her.

  Sitting almost at the back of the room at one of the round tables sat the girl from earlier. The one he’d decided he would try very casually—and most likely very unsuccessfully—to find out some information about later at the hotel bar. He hoped he’d get lucky and she’d have a drink at the bar, and maybe a bartender would remember her based on his crappy description. But now he didn’t have to worry about that. Now the girl from the elevator was here.

  Elevator Girl looked even more beautiful now that she wasn’t frantic and carrying a heavy suitcase.

  Obviously, there were people at the table she probably didn’t know since each company usually only sent two employees to each workshop session. But there was someone beside her who seemed awfully cozy next to her. In fact, his arm appeared to be around her. Was she involved with someone here? A boyfriend?