“It’s not a job,” she corrected. “It’s my career.” One she was damn proud of.
This time, the sigh was a tad more exasperated. “Whatever it is, I’m assuming you want to continue it.”
“Yes.”
Finally, agreement. He wondered if he was dreaming. “That means we need to behave like rational people.” Although he doubted that she was capable of that for more than half an hour at a time. And that was at her best. “That also means we don’t fight.”
And how many times had she promised herself not to be drawn into an argument with him, she mused, only to fail miserably the next time their paths and tongues crossed? “To accomplish that, we would have to stay out of each other’s way.”
The hotel was large. How many times would they really run into each other? “If that’s what it takes.”
The simplest way of dealing with Chase was not to deal with Chase. “That’s what it takes.”
He put out his hand. “Agreed.”
She hesitated for a heartbeat, then slipped her hand into his. She braced herself at the same time. Gina needn’t have bothered. It came anyway.
It was stupid to think that chemistry could be generated from a fleeting touch.
But it was.
Gina felt sparks shooting through her. Actual sparks. Maybe it was because having Chase just walk into her life like this after all this time made her feel vulnerable and needy. Maybe it was because, since Chase, she hadn’t been with a man, hadn’t risked sharing herself again the way she had with him.
Whatever the reason, when his hand touched hers, all the emotions that she had experienced while married to him came flooding back.
And made her yearn. For long, star-filled nights and warm embraces.
Chase stared at her, his words evaporating in his head before they were even formed. Damn, but she could still work the same old magic she always had on him just by being there. It almost made him wish that things had been different between them. But they hadn’t and never would be.
They dropped their hands at the same time.
Chase nodded, as if he was indicating something that was tangible instead of a situation. “I’m sorry about before.”
Her eyes widened as she stared at him. “An actual apology? That’s a first.” She bit her lip, instantly contrite. He was making an effort. Since he was, the least she could do was meet him halfway. “Sorry.”
He grinned at her and she struggled to shut out more memories. He’d grinned just that way when he had accidentally bumped into her on the library steps that first day, scattering her books all over. Scattering her heart all over. “So we start fresh?”
Gina pressed her lips together and then nodded. “Fresh.”
He wished she wouldn’t look like that, so damn tempting that he wanted to—
No, he didn’t.
“In a manner of speaking, of course,” he pointed out. “I mean, there is all that history behind us.”
She wasn’t going to think about any of it. At least, not the good parts. They would only undermine her and get in her way. “Way behind.”
She sounded as if she would just as soon forget everything. That bothered him even though it was just what he wanted her to do. Or would have said that he wanted her to do.
He felt saddened, although for the life of him, he didn’t know why. “At least there’s one good thing.”
She hadn’t a clue what he was talking about. “And that is?”
He shrugged, then spread his hands wide. “We don’t have to worry about that sexual tension thing.” She stared at him, obviously confused, so he pressed on, a little bitter, a little defensive. “You know, when a man and woman are thrown together, there are always those questions silently throbbing between them. ‘Will we?’ ‘Won’t we?’ ‘Does he like me?’ ‘Does she like me?’” He waved a hand dismissing all of that. “We know straight off that we can’t stand each other.”
It took her a minute to regain her voice. “Is that how you feel?”
It was on the tip of his tongue to declare yes, even though it wasn’t true. But he couldn’t get himself to do it, though she deserved it. “Well, no, but I thought that’s how you felt.”
She softened a little, but the tension she felt vibrating didn’t abate. “I never said I couldn’t stand you.”
Was her memory that poor, or was she just clinging to semantics?
“No, no, you didn’t,” he agreed. He remembered the incident vividly, as well as the way the words had stung. “I believe the exact words you used were ‘I hate you and I wish you’d never been born.’” He saw by the look in her eyes that she remembered the incident, too. “I kind of extrapolated on the rest of it.”
Gina felt color creeping up her neck and cheeks. “You deserved it.”
“I deserve—?” Chase caught hold of himself before his temper could get the better of him. “We’re rehashing again.”
She blew out a breath. He was right. If she continued to backslide this way, this wasn’t going to work.
“Sorry.”
Gina looked out the window, trying desperately to think of something other than Chase and their past together. Anything else.
Leaning her elbow on the armrest, she cupped her chin in her palm and really looked out the window for the first time. She got her bearings and realized that they were flying out of John Wayne Airport. For some reason she had thought that it was going to be LAX. The difference meant a saving of at least an hour. That was good. She didn’t think she could survive the close quarters much longer.
Her eyes wandered toward the sky, possibly seeking deliverance. And then she smiled to herself.
Chase watched, unable to help himself, as the smile curved her mouth. Nothing had changed, he thought, and that included the way he reacted to her. He had always found that little secret smile of hers irresistible.
He cleared his throat, wishing he could clear his mind as easily. “What are you smiling about?”
Caught up in her mental wanderings, she forgot whom she was talking to for a moment. A man with feet of clay the size of Bigfoot. “Look at that cloud formation. What do you see?”
He leaned over so that he had the same view as she did. They were passing a construction site. White-helmeted men were just beginning to bring machinery to life. He saw nothing to make her smile.
“Where?”
“There.” She jabbed a finger upward.
He looked, and still saw nothing noteworthy. “Clouds.”
Gina shook her head. “It’s an angel, dancing with another angel. Can’t you see it?”
Chase raised his brow dubiously. She was as flighty, as fanciful as ever. “You’re letting your imagination run away with you. Those are just clouds, Gina, nothing more. Just clouds.”
What had she expected? A transformation just because he had declared a truce? A feeling of sadness permeated her. “Same old Chase. Nothing’s changed.”
He detected a touch of pity in her voice and it annoyed him. If anything, she was the one to be pitied.
“No, nothing’s changed. I still see reality.” To curtail any further argument, he leaned forward and turned on the small television set nestled next to the bar in front of them.
Gina didn’t see that as a plus. There was nothing of the dreamer left in him anymore, she thought. Annoyed, she switched off the set to get his attention. “And nothing beyond.”
She still hadn’t learned, had she? “There is nothing beyond reality.” He turned the set on again.
She hated it when he became so unyielding. That was the accountant in him, only seeing black and white. The credits and the debits. Not the implied.
“You’re wrong there, Chase. There’s so much more beyond reality.” This time, she left the television set on.
Chase threw up his hands as he sank back in the seat. So much for the truce. “There you go again, telling me I’m wrong.”
Her eyes narrowed as she glared at him. “Well, you are.”
She was the one who was wrong, not he. “Maybe we just see things differently.”
That it was true didn’t make it any easier to accept. “Yes, maybe we do.” She frowned. “A lot differently.”
Gina looked out the window again. The angels were still there, but they weren’t dancing any longer. Instead, the clouds looked wispy, as if the wind had torn through them with angry fingers.
She withdrew into herself while someone on the television set was spilling out their soul to an interviewer. Lucky thing she had never done that with Chase. He would only have trampled on it.
Why, after all this time, did he still know how to press all her buttons? And why, after all this time, did she let him? Why didn’t she just cover up the buttons, for heaven’s sake? Or rip them out?
He couldn’t do anything to her that she wouldn’t let him, she told herself firmly. The trick was, she thought, to remember not to let him. To think with her head and not with her heart.
Chase stared at the screen and saw nothing. Well, that went well, he thought sarcastically. But then, he hadn’t really expected things to fare much differently. Not where Gina was concerned. Hot words had littered their very brief relationship.
Hot words and hot sex, he recalled.
No, not always hot, he amended as a memory arose from the corners of his mind to prove him wrong. Some of it had been very tender. Like that weekend when he’d borrowed his friend’s cabin in Mammoth and he and Gina had pretended to be snowed in, even though there was only a tiny patch of white on the ground.
They had spent the entire weekend in and around the bed.
Chase shifted in the seat, as if the memory of that weekend was crowding him. He was making himself crazy, remembering that. What he should be remembering was the pot roast that Gina had thrown at him, followed by those tiny potatoes he always liked. One at a time. It had felt as if he were being pelted by white BBs.
That was the night he had come home to tell her about his new promotion. He’d been three hours late, but it was one of those situations that couldn’t have been helped. It was only after the fireworks had died down and he was spending the night on that damn uncomfortable chair that he had looked at his watch and seen the date. It was their first anniversary.
Things had really unraveled right after that.
Chase glanced in Gina’s direction.
It was going to be one hell of a long month. He hoped that Reed appreciated this. Chase knew that he certainly didn’t.
* * *
For Gina the plane ride to Albuquerque turned out to be far less stressful than the limousine ride to the airport had been. Though James was the only passenger on board besides themselves, he readily took up the slack, talking for all three of them.
The questions, when there were any, all revolved around work. It went a long way to setting Gina at her ease. And Chase was at his best when talking about work.
Why not? Numbers didn’t require emotion. Work was his element, she thought ruefully as she looked out the window. There was that same cloud formation. The one with the two angels. The one that Chase didn’t see.
Too bad that human relations ran such a very distant second for him.
She was out of that race, she reminded herself as she rose to stretch her legs.
It wouldn’t matter if Chase had become an eight-day wonder in that department. That chapter of her life was over, closed, finished. There was no chance of it ever being started up again. She just wouldn’t let it, wouldn’t let herself in for that roller coaster ride that ended in a one-way, kamikaze plunge.
As if to prove her wrong, the airplane suddenly seemed to shudder and then dip, throwing her completely off balance. Chase grabbed her arm to steady her and she wound up tumbling into his lap instead.
“Dang turbulence.” James laughed shortly as he shook his head. A dash of orange juice had splashed over the side of his glass and landed on his knee, leaving a mark on his gray slacks. “Wonder what that’s all about. We’re supposed to have smooth sailing all the way.” There was an intercom switch located on his armrest and James pushed it. “Jake, everything okay out there?”
“Sorry, Mr. James.” The pilot’s calm, soothing voice filled the compartment. “Just a little air pocket. Nothing to worry about. Everything’s fine.”
The man’s voice could have put Muzak out of business, but no, everything wasn’t fine, Gina thought in acute distress. Distress she prayed wasn’t showing. She’d fallen right into Chase’s lap. And remembered how much she liked being there. How warm and safe it had once made her feel to be curled up against him when they slept at night.
Physical, she reminded herself adamantly. It was all just a physical response. The emotional support, which she needed far more than the physical backup, had been lacking. And always would be.
His hands had automatically curved around her once she had landed so unceremoniously in his lap. He didn’t want to release her.
Habit, just habit, nothing more.
“Haven’t gained any weight, I see,” Chase finally murmured after he’d found his tongue.
God, but it did feel good to hold her again, even for that one instant. He hadn’t exactly been celibate since Gina, but it almost felt that way now that he was holding her.
She always could light his fire the way no other woman could.
And that was his problem.
She couldn’t look into his eyes, she thought. She couldn’t. She’d always been a sucker for his eyes.
“Lost some, actually.” She struggled out of his lap and to her feet again. “A hundred and seventy pounds.”
He stared at her, his lap feeling oddly empty. “A hundred and seventy—oh, you mean me.”
“You.”
James had ceased communicating with the pilot and had been silently watching the scene, and the sparks, between Gina and Chase. Last night, obviously, hadn’t been a fluke.
He cocked his round head, his eyes squinting so that they were almost shut, an indication that he was working on a thought. “You two have been together before, haven’t you?”
Gina guessed that “together” was a euphemism James was using for something far more personal. She supposed that it would come out eventually. She sat down again for a moment. “Yes.”
Crafty eyes shifted from one face to the other, judging, surmising. “How together? Or ain’t that any of my business?”
Chase’s immediate reaction was to say no, it wasn’t any of the man’s business. But James was his client, one he didn’t want to lose for the company. Besides, the man actually sounded as if he was genuinely interested. Probably what made him as successful as he was.
“Very together,” Chase finally volunteered.
James looked utterly intrigued.
That sounded positively clandestine, Gina thought. Leave it to Chase not to place their relationship in the right light. “We were married.”
“Briefly,” Chase interjected.
More than a little interested now, James prodded. “How briefly?”
“Fourteen months.”
“And two weeks and five days,” she said, letting it drop carelessly, as if keeping track of relationships to that extent was commonplace.
James steepled his fingers together, his elbows on the armrests. After making money, people were his main hobby. “Amicably?”
“Yes,” Chase replied quickly, like a man making a reply to a word association test.
Right, Gina thought, but said nothing. What would be the point?
James wasn’t fooled, but he let it go for the moment. Maybe there was something he could do to promote things along later. There was just too much smoke here for there not to be a fire.
“Good, nothin’ I like better than to have all my people getting along. Glad we cleared the air about that. You two sure had me wondering last night, what with those words flying back and forth like gunfire at the Alamo.” He slapped his knee as he leaned forward. “Glad to hear that there are no hard feelings still lingering be
tween you two.”
Like hell there weren’t. One of them had walked out on the other or he was a dirt farmer like his grandfather had been. James smiled even broader. Hard feelings or not, he’d seen the way they’d looked at each other during that unexpected dip that the plane had taken. The words might be heated, but the relationship was far from dead, even though neither one of them knew it.
This was going to be a very interesting time, he mused, delighted with the way things were developing. He was going to get his accounts in order, have his hotel tastefully decorated and be entertained at the same time. A man couldn’t ask for more.
Chapter Four
Gina pressed a button and the limousine window rolled silently down. She peered out at the tall, imposing building that was going to be both her project and her prison for the next month.
Old in an obvious, yet genteel way, the hotel seemed to have a presence about it, a spirit that set it apart from other hotels. It stood like a stately, aging matriarch, with the desert at her back and the hub of the city at her feet. A wide, pristine white fountain stood in the center of the courtyard. It was surrounded by old Spanish tile that fed its way into the hotel entrance and beyond. The courtyard and fountain were a blending of the old and the new.
Though she was only to concern herself with the interior, Gina saw definite possibilities out here as well.
James was convinced that the Hotel Grandee, located less than three miles from the airport and comfortably nestled away from the general flight pattern, was an excellent investment at the asking price. It just needed work. A lot of it.
He sat back quietly and allowed Gina to absorb her first look in peace, a father displaying his talented, but somewhat homely child, hoping that the viewer saw the same potential that he did.
“Location’s the most important issue,” he finally said. “Everything else can be fixed, painted, altered. Can’t very well move the airport if it ain’t here, can we?” His words were addressed to Chase, who found no flaw in the argument. But then, he already knew that James was no fool.
The limousine came to a stop and the driver, someone named Edgar this time, hurried out of the car and to the rear. He opened the door for James.
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