Gold Fire

by Starr Ambrose

  “And a burning garbage can that could have set your house on fire.”

  She met his hard stare. “Big deal.”

  “Don’t play dumb, Zoe, it doesn’t look good on you.”

  He knew adding insult to injury wouldn’t help, but damn it, she made him furious. Apparently, it was mutual. “Leave,” she ordered through gritted teeth.

  Instead, he snatched the bag she held in her hand and pulled out the paint solvent. “Get me a rag,” he snapped.

  “I certainly will not. This isn’t about you.”

  He already knew arguing with her was futile. He dug his keys out of his pocket, using one to pry the metal lid off the can of solvent.

  “Jase, I mean it.”

  He set the can aside and pulled his cotton T-shirt over his head. Wadding it into a ball, he picked up the can.

  “Jase, stop!” She made a desperate grab for the shirt, but he held on. Her expression crumpled with defeat. “Don’t ruin your shirt.” Frustration kept the edge in her voice, but he knew he’d won when she sighed deeply. “I’ll get a rag.”

  “Thank you.” He meant it; he really liked the T-shirt.

  She disappeared inside, leaving him on the porch. Two minutes later she came out with two rags. He took them both.

  “One is for me,” she said, reaching for it.

  He jammed the extra rag into his waistband, out of her reach. “No, it isn’t. Zoe, look at me.” He waited until she huffed out an impatient breath, folded her arms, and met his eyes. “Listen to me carefully, because this is nonnegotiable. There’s no way in hell I’m going to let you debase yourself by kneeling out here where all your neighbors and anyone driving by can see you while you scrub this filth off your door. I’m doing it, and you’re going in the house. If anyone sees it before I get it off, at least they’ll know someone’s got your back. Is that clear?”

  Her eyes were suddenly overly bright. She blinked and swallowed hard, then turned without a word and went inside. He let out a relieved breath. Then tried not to be furious at the world that Zoe was so unaccustomed to having someone take her side.

  Picking up the can, he set to work.

  • • •

  Zoe spent the next hour peeking out the living room window. He’d put his shirt back on—she tried not to be disappointed—and she could see small sweat stains under his arms. When she could tell he was finishing up, she poured two glasses of lemonade and went outside.

  He gave her an appreciative smile as he took the glass. “Thanks.”

  An hour had given her plenty of time to feel guilty . . . and grateful. She sat on the edge of the porch, bare feet planted on the sidewalk as she made her confession. “I’m the one who should thank you.”

  He settled beside her and took a long drink, downing nearly half the glass. She watched his throat move as he swallowed, noticed the thin sheen of sweat on his neck, the bulge of muscles in his upper arm. Realizing she was staring, she looked away before he noticed. If he weren’t so physically distracting, it would be easier to say this. Feeling awkward, she rubbed her toe across the rough cement surface of the walk, then glanced at him and spit it out. “I’m sorry I was so bitchy. I’m not used to people taking my side.”

  “I gathered that.” She noticed he didn’t deny the bitchy part, but he smiled at her, a slow smile that gradually widened to a grin.

  Responding to his smile was automatic. For a moment she was caught by the warmth in his eyes, her heart tripping as her mind went blank. As infuriating as the man was, he had a physical attraction she couldn’t deny. She liked looking at him. Liked remembering what it had felt like when he’d held her close and . . .

  Damn it! She blinked and frowned, irritated that she could lose herself in a simple gaze. She kept her eyes on the sidewalk. “Jase, I appreciate what you did, but . . .”

  “But you still won’t do what I asked. You won’t walk away.”

  “I can’t. But I can do something else.” She met his expectant gaze. “I have an idea who might be behind everything that’s been happening to you.”

  “So do I—Matt Flemming.”

  “No.” She glared, indignant. “You keep accusing him when he’s been nothing but considerate of you.”

  “Uh-huh.”

  It seemed the only way to convince him was to prove him wrong, which she intended to do. “Someone else has a lot to gain if you sell, and he’s totally without scruples. He could easily have done everything that’s happened, or arranged to have it done.”

  “Who?”

  She paused, remembering how he hadn’t wanted to rat out Jennifer. But he’d had years of loyalty to base that on; she had no reason to protect David. “My direct supervisor. David’s doing anything he can to suck up to Ruth Ann Flemming and get me out of his way. Matt doesn’t think highly of him, but if he can get you to sell, Ruth Ann would probably give him whatever he wants.”

  “You work with a fun bunch of people.”

  She drank her lemonade and stared morosely at the sidewalk. “Tell me about it.”

  They sat in silence for a few minutes. Finally, Jase said, “I like your friend Pete.”

  She glanced over to see if he was being sarcastic, and was pleased that he wasn’t. “He’s a great guy. A lot of people think he’s weird, though. You know, the beard and ponytail and all. I’ve seen some townies point and snicker behind his back.”

  He laughed softly. “I’m a townie, huh?”

  She smiled at it herself; it had been a long time since she’d used the term, since before she’d become a townie herself. “The commune is another world. When we went into town we looked different, so it became an us-and-them mentality. Hippies and townies.”

  He grinned. “I can’t see you as a hippie.”

  “Picture hair down to here.” She indicated a line a few inches above her waist. “Ripped jeans, several woven leather bracelets, and beads.”

  He cocked his head, giving her a long look. “I’ll bet that side of you is still there. I’d like to see it.”

  She didn’t know what to say to that, and looked away, uncomfortable. She knew he was talking about more than her clothes; it was the rigid behavior they’d argued about last night. His judgmental words still hurt, mostly because she knew they were true. She had become rigid, with all the lack of fun that implied. It had felt necessary in order to redeem her reputation in the eyes of those despised townies, but she was starting to wonder if it was worth it. Some of them would never believe she was anything but a wild child at heart.

  “So that’s the reason for your big teenage rebellion?”

  He must have wanted to steer away from another argument. Relieved, because she did, too, she nodded. “Basically. We had a lot of freedom at the commune, which is why our grandmother insisted we stay with her during the school year instead of being home-schooled. She wanted us to learn how to fit in, but it backfired. Maggie and I handled it okay until high school, when the rules started feeling oppressive. We weren’t used to so much structure. We rebelled in the only way we could, by breaking the rules.”

  “All the rules?”

  “Every one we could. Skipping school, failing classes, smoking pot . . .” She hesitated to admit it, but it was suddenly important that Jase know the real Zoe Larkin. “And sleeping around. For a few years I was what you’d call easy. I did whatever would shock my mother and grandmother.”

  “Sounds like you did a good job of it.”

  “My grandmother was humiliated.” She felt her cheeks blush just thinking about it. “I owe her a lot for not kicking me out and washing her hands of me.”

  “How about your mom?”

  She shook her head, amused by the memory. “I don’t know if anything shocks Mom, short of polluting the planet, which will send her into orbit. Let me warn you now, never toss a gum wrapper on the ground in front of anyone from the People’s Free Earth Commune. But improper social behavior . . .” She sighed. “Before she went AWOL from society, my mom earned a doctorate in psy
chology at Berkeley. Just my luck, huh? She explained in clinical terms exactly why I was acting out, and told me to do whatever I had to in order to find my place in the world, and to remember that she’d never stop loving me.”

  He burst out laughing. “I’ll bet that took the wind out of your sails.”

  “Well, I didn’t feel quite so radical after that, but it still took me a while to figure out that I didn’t do well in an unstructured environment. I needed boundaries and goals. So I set up my own rules, and made a list of the things I wanted to accomplish.”

  “You have a list?” A spark of interest flashed through his amusement. “Out of curiosity, how does one go about getting on it?”

  She felt herself color so fast that she looked away, hoping he hadn’t notice. She recalled typing his name on her list, with a question mark, and her cursor hovering behind it, leaving her intentions open.

  He could come off it just as easily. One moment of insanity wasn’t a commitment to anything.

  “One doesn’t. It’s just for abstract goals.”

  “I see. Very anal.” When she shot him a dirty look, he held his hands up in surrender. “Not criticizing, just saying. And I think your mom’s a pretty smart lady.”

  “She is. She’s just . . . different. They all are. It’s a true commune, you know. Shared work, shared profits, and as environmentally friendly as they can get without giving up their cell phones.”

  “Modern hippies.” He nodded happily. “I like it. Will you take me up there sometime?” When she blinked with surprise, he reminded her, “Pete invited me.”

  “I know, but . . .” She scrunched up her eyebrows. “Most people don’t want anything to do with them.”

  “Why?”

  “Because they look like 1970, and except for phones, they live like 1870. They grow most of their own food and keep goats for milk and cheese. They don’t watch TV and they homeschool their kids. They don’t much care for the government, and they’re good at skirting laws they don’t like. They’re . . . different.”

  He leaned back on his elbows. “I don’t want to watch TV with them or have a political debate, I want to see Pete’s fishing lures.” He looked suddenly pained, as if he’d just realized she had a fatal disease. “Oh my God, you don’t fish, do you? If you did, you’d understand how monumental it is that he’s willing to show me his lure-making secrets.”

  She found it hard to act concerned. “Is it a serious flaw in my character?”

  “Tragic.” He shook his head sadly. “But you’re pretty and otherwise smart, so we can still be friends.”

  The word sank in slowly. Friends. She swiveled on her butt so she could look him directly in the eyes. “Are we friends?”

  His grin was wicked. “I hope so, because I intend for us to have another of those flaming-hot kisses, then see where things go if you don’t run away afterward.”

  The fire in his eyes nearly stopped her heart.

  Her head swam as heat raced to her cheeks at the memory of that kiss. A completely different sort of heat flared between her thighs. The response was so sharp it unnerved her. Lust was fine, but she didn’t care for feeling out of control, which was how she’d felt kissing Jase. She didn’t have to do it again to know where it would go, and that she wouldn’t be able to stop it.

  It would never happen. But just because she wouldn’t give up control, it didn’t mean she was afraid. She drew a steadying breath and lifted her chin. “I didn’t run away.”

  He grinned. “No, you didn’t. We were interrupted.”

  The fire in his eyes burned hotter. He still leaned back on his elbows, making no move to touch her, but he felt closer. For a panicked moment she realized she had inched closer, drawn like a magnet. His grin dared her to go all the way. Part of her was ready to fall on him right there on her front porch, and she knew he wouldn’t do a thing to stop her. Taking a shaky breath, she threw up the only obstacle she could think of. “I don’t think your girlfriend would care for you kissing me.”

  “What girlfriend?”

  “The little blonde who flutters her eyes adoringly at you.”

  He wrinkled his brow, then burst out laughing. “My niece, Hailey. She’s been sucking up big-time, trying to get me to teach her every last thing I know about pool.”

  Her cheeks flooded with color again, and this time she couldn’t hide from his amused look, which made it even worse. She’d give anything to take it back, but could only manage a lame “Oh.”

  The laughter in his eyes was gradually replaced by something far more intense, pinning her in place. “Hailey doesn’t give a damn who my friends are. Or who I kiss.”

  Great, nothing to stop him. Or to stop her from throwing her reputation away with a do-nothing saloon owner. She drew on every rigid, straightlaced impulse she could find. “That’s not the sort of activity I normally engage in with my friends.” You couldn’t get more prudish than that.

  “Okay, then I guess we can’t be friends.” He got to his feet suddenly, and she stared up at him. Leaning down, he cupped her chin, sending her heart on a mad gallop. “Because we are definitely going to do that again,” he said, his voice low and certain. Then his lips found hers with a quick, teasing taste of what he had promised.

  He pulled back, his direct gaze as dizzying as his kiss. She barely had time to blink before he turned and left.

  She watched him walk to his truck, too stunned to move. He backed out, sent her a casual smile and a wave, and drove off. She watched until the black tailgate was out of sight, then sagged. She was so screwed.

  Lying back on the warm cement porch, she stared blankly at the puffy white clouds drifting over Tappit’s Peak, trying to wrap her mind around the shocking realization. Despite her ability to arouse the interest of checklist-perfect Matt Flemming, the man she wanted was Jase Garrett.

  • • •

  By the time Matt picked her up Sunday evening, she’d analyzed it to death. She’d finally decided she knew what made Jase so irresistible—he accepted her, hippie commune, wild past, and all. The whole package. Matt only knew the present-day Zoe Larkin, the one who wore suits and gave 100 percent to her job. If he could still accept her once she told him about her past, she figured it would be an instant aphrodisiac. He’d be beyond perfect, and she’d be so hot for him that her feelings for Jase would fizzle like an ember hitting a bucket of water.

  Theoretically. She meant to test that theory tonight.

  The bouquet Matt handed her at the door was gorgeous. He kissed her cheek, then stood back to look her over from head to toe with a big smile. “You’re stunning, Zoe. I hope our reservation at the Peak measures up to the standard you set.”

  The Peak. The nicest restaurant in a town that prided itself on its four- and five-star resorts and restaurants. She smiled nervously. If he was going to be uncomfortable about dating a Larkin girl, the Peak was the last place he’d want to be seen with her.

  She plucked at the bouquet. “Matt, before we go out there’s something we need to talk about.”

  “That sounds serious.” He smiled, as if nothing could be that wrong between them. If only that was true.

  “Matt, you didn’t grow up in Barringer’s Pass, and I know you haven’t lived here long. We might get high-profile visitors, but we’re a small town, with a small-town mentality.”

  “Are you trying to tell me the nightlife is limited? Because I already know that. I’m okay with flying to L.A. or New York for a weekend every now and then.”

  He said it as casually as someone else might suggest driving to Denver. He not only met all the qualifications for the perfect man, he went above and beyond them.

  Don’t get distracted.

  “Uh, no, that’s not what I was getting at. I’m talking about how everyone knows everyone else, and how gossip gets around.”

  “I’ve heard that. Do you want to get a vase for those? You’re going to turn your fingers green if you keep picking at those leaves.”

  “In a minu
te.” She laid the flowers on the closest living room chair and clasped her hands together to keep her fingers still. “Matt, I’m trying to tell you that if you’d been around ten years ago, you would have heard people talking about me and my older sister. The Larkin girls had a reputation.” She looked down at her hands, too nervous to look him in the eye. “It wasn’t a good one. In fact, it was pretty bad. If you ask around town, you’ll still hear about it.”

  “I know.”

  She jerked her head up. “You know?” My God, he’d been here barely a week, and he’d spent most of his time at the resort. Was she that infamous?

  “Zoe, I told you, I have confidence in your ability. I didn’t come to that opinion without something to base it on. I had extensive background searches done on both you and David before I ever came to the resort. I learned about your outstanding performance at the Alpine Sky, and yes, I learned about the way you and Maggie tore a swath through this town when you were teenagers.” He raised an eyebrow. “Mostly through the men.”

  She would have blushed if she wasn’t so stunned. Her handsome, rich boss had known about her wild child reputation when he’d kissed her and when he’d let her know he wasn’t giving up on winning her affections. Maybe she would blush.

  “Did you think that would stop me from going out with you?”

  “Well, uh, yes.”

  “I’ll try not to be hurt that you thought I was so shallow.”

  Now she did blush. “I didn’t. I thought you might be justifiably concerned about your image, especially since people around here don’t know you yet.”

  He chuckled softly, pulled her close, and kissed her. “I’m pleased to be seen with you, and I’m sorry you were worried. Okay?”

  She smiled. It was more than okay. Now she had absolutely no reason not to get all tingly over Matt’s kisses and feel hopeful about their possible future together.

  She wasn’t tingling yet, but that last kiss hadn’t counted. She’d still been in shock. Next time she’d be ready for it.