by Unknown
“That’s completely admirable,” he said. “But also unnecessary. Unless I misunderstood, a dalliance with a guest isn’t forbidden, it’s just frowned on.”
She slid her papers into a pile and moved a little down the counter, away from him.
“If no one finds out, they’ll have nothing to frown about.” He took a couple of steps so he stood in front of her again. If she thought she’d escape that easily, she needed to think again. “But if it would make you feel better, we can have dinner here, and I can let everyone I come in contact with know that it’s a business meeting.”
“Some business meeting.” She dared to meet his gaze. “You’ll be flirting the whole time and I’ll be blushing. No one will miss that.”
He leaned forward on his elbows. “So we’re back to my original plan. A business dinner at an out-of-the-way location where no one will see us.”
“And yet if someone does see us, it’ll look that much more suspicious.” She grabbed a folder and walked back to her original spot, away from him.
He didn’t usually have so much trouble getting women to go out with him. She was giving him a hard time—and he loved it. He hadn’t had to chase a woman in ages. Strolling back to stand in front of her, he said, “Or I could have dinner for two delivered to my suite and you can join me there.”
Her mouth dropped open. “And have all the staff talking? Are you mad?”
Oh, she was amazing. Most women would be simpering by now. “Do you have another suggestion?”
“Why don’t we discuss the things you need right now, here, and forego the dinner. You wanted lift tickets, if I recall.”
He growled low in his throat. Clearly his clever dinner idea wasn’t going to work, so he’d have to come up with something else. “I don’t have it all worked out yet. Maybe we could meet tomorrow morning? Are there meeting rooms or anything? Or would you let me buy you a coffee and we can talk at the café?”
She hesitated. “We have a few meeting rooms. Let me see if any of them are open.” She tapped on her keyboard.
Her light brown hair curled over her shoulders, a lock of it falling in front of her eyes as she typed. Almost unconsciously, she whisked it away, tucking it behind her ear.
“It looks like they’re all booked this evening and tomorrow.” She chewed on her lower lip. “I suppose talking over coffee would be okay.”
Sweet, sweet victory. “Ten o’clock?”
She nodded. “I’ll meet you there.”
“I’ll be waiting with bated breath.” Their eyes met.
She licked her lips. “I’ll bring my laptop so I can arrange any tickets or other reservations for you on the spot.”
He knew what she meant. ‘On the spot,’ so there’d be no need for an additional meeting or phone call or impromptu stop at the concierge desk. She was fighting him with everything she had. That just made him want her more. “I’ll see you then.” With a final look, he turned and headed for the elevator.
He needed to go over that folder she’d given him with a fine-toothed comb and figure out how to arrange a few more meetings with Zoe. She might fight him, but in the end, he’d win.
Chapter 2
Zoe watched Bastian walk away, trying to ignore that he looked just as good going as coming. What was it with billionaires and their sense of entitlement? She’d told him she didn’t want to get involved but he was bound and determined to have it his way. Damn him.
At the same time, she had to admit she found him attractive. And his bulldog mentality had a certain appeal. If it wasn’t going to threaten her job, she’d go out with him in a heartbeat, sense of entitlement or no.
But she couldn’t. If she lost this job, she’d be in deep water. Not that they’d fire her over a fling—she knew there weren’t any explicit rules against it—but she also knew her boss, Ellie, would be very disappointed if she dated one of the guests. And Ellie could be strict sometimes. Zoe didn’t want to disappoint her or risk looking bad in Ellie’s eyes.
So Bastian would have to stay away, no matter what he wanted.
Zoe finished off her stint at the concierge desk then bundled up in her coat, hat, scarf and gloves to walk down the path to the small staff cabins. She could hardly believe she had her own place, all to herself. She’d never lived alone before, much less in an entire house. The cabins might be small, but they were still larger than the apartment she’d shared with her mother growing up.
This job was a dream come true.
When she opened the door she immediately spotted the blinking light on the answering machine. She didn’t even want to check it. There might be a message on there from a friend, but they would have been more likely to call her work cell phone. No; that blinking light meant nasty messages from creditors who were trying to squeeze her for her mother’s medical bills.
When her mother got sick, she made sure all the bills were only in her name and that there was no legal way the burden of them could fall onto Zoe. But after her mother died, Zoe started getting calls from collection agencies claiming that she had to pay those bills. She’d argued with them and then started dodging the calls, even changing her cell number twice when the creditors got ahold of it. Nothing seemed to stop them. She could hardly stand it anymore.
Worse, in spite of everything her mother had done to protect her, Zoe had started to worry it hadn’t been enough. Maybe the creditors were right. Maybe she did have to pay all that money back. Just the thought made her stomach clench. She’d be in debt the rest of her life if she had to pay off those bills.
Zoe bypassed the blinking answering machine and headed into the small kitchen. The calls could wait until tomorrow. Or hell, maybe the next day. It wasn’t like she was going to call them back. But she had to listen to at least part of each one to make sure it wasn’t a call from a friend, and she didn’t want to hear the awful things they said.
After heating up some leftovers, Zoe sat at the small kitchen table and ate dinner. With every bite, she wondered what would have happened if she had taken Bastian up on his offer and was sitting across the table from him instead of eating alone. She could almost see his intense expression, his charming smile and the sparkle in his eyes as he found her soft spots and poked at them.
She could imagine him holding out his hand, palm up, and holding hers while they waited for dessert to be served. His warm fingers would move over her skin sending tingles down her arm.
No. She couldn’t fantasize about him while he was still here or she’d never be able to face him again. She needed to forget.
***
The next morning, Zoe met Bastian at the small café in the shopping area of the resort. She’d purposely worn her business suit in order to promote a professional image. Clutching her laptop to her chest like armor, she made her way through the tables to where Bastian already sat nursing a large cup of coffee.
His face lit up when he saw her, those gorgeous brown eyes shining. Once again, she wished she were in a position where she could explore this thing with him. With her extra-fluffy body, she didn’t get male attention like this very often. But she couldn’t. She hugged her laptop closer to her breasts.
He stood up, waiting to sit again until she’d slipped into her chair. “Good morning.” Innocent words, but the tone of his voice spoke volumes. If she didn’t know better, she’d think they’d just woken up in bed next to each other.
“Good morning, Mr. Marks,” Zoe said. She’d decided that morning in the shower that she needed to be as formal with him as possible. She hadn’t quite managed to call him ‘Mr. Marks’ in her head yet, but she’d damn well do it out loud.
He rested his elbow on the table and leaned toward her. “Oh, come on. We were making such progress yesterday. And now we’re back to ‘Mr. Marks?’ You’ll call me Bastian. I won’t accept anything else.”
He wouldn’t accept it? Zoe bit her tongue to keep from saying something rude. He was a guest, after all. If he decided to lodge a complaint about her, she could be in tr
ouble. “Very well.”
“Very well, what?”
Zoe gritted her teeth. “Very well, Bastian.”
He grinned with all his teeth. “I love the way my name sounds on your tongue.”
She felt her cheeks flush hot.
“And there’s the blush. You’re adorable.”
“And you know very well I can’t get involved with you.”
“Won’t.”
“Fine. Won’t get involved with you. By flirting with me, you’re being unkind.”
He leaned forward. “I thought I was being persuasive. I can be very discreet if you’ll let me. Don’t even try to tell me you don’t feel the chemistry between us.”
“Even if I do, there’s nothing I’m going to do about it.” She cringed at her sharp tone but couldn’t find it in herself to apologize. Yes, he was a guest. He was also stepping way over the line. “Now, what did you want to meet about?” She avoided his eyes as she opened her laptop.
“Lift tickets,” he said.
Lift tickets. She could have arranged those the afternoon before and he knew it. “Anything else?”
He didn’t answer for a long time. When she looked up, she found his gaze trained on her. “The stuff you gave me yesterday said you do guided tours. Personally.”
Dammit. Yes, she had been designated the guided tour girl. She loved the country around here and enjoyed showing it off to guests, no matter the season. Except him. Walking through the forest alone with him seemed like a very bad idea. “It’s a little cold for–”
“The brochure said all four seasons. Talked about how beautiful the mountains could be in the winter. I’m available this afternoon.”
Inwardly, she groaned.
“This is me being persuasive,” he said.
“No, this is you being hard to avoid.”
“Same difference. The more time you spend with me, the harder it will be to resist me. At least that’s my hope.”
His hope? Seeing this first chink in his armor, a little bit of doubt, somehow made him that much more attractive. Dammit.
Zoe pulled her calendar up on her computer. “I could do two to three.”
“I’ll take it. Although that’s a little short. Maybe we can do a second tour tomorrow for two to three hours.”
Heaven help her. “I’m not sure I can manage two whole hours tomorrow.”
“Three. Three hours.” He grabbed the edge of her laptop and pulled it toward him. “Let me take a look at your calendar and I’ll see how to fit it in.”
She yanked her computer toward her. “I can check my own calendar, thanks.”
A smile danced around his lips. “The more you fight this, the more I can see I’m getting under your skin.”
Like a bur. She didn’t say that, though. He was a guest. She had to keep reminding herself that or she’d say something totally out of line and then she’d regret it. “I’m just protective about my laptop. Most people are.”
“Ri-ight.”
He wasn’t going to give up on the tour. She knew it. She looked over her calendar. “The day after tomorrow I could do two hours together at lunchtime. But it’d be pretty hard to hike over lunch…”
“I’ll get them to make us a picnic.”
She’d totally walked into that one. “It’s a little cold for a picnic.”
“Surely you can think of some cabin or shack or something where we can sit down for a few minutes and eat?”
She could, but she didn’t want to. The two of them, alone in an enclosed space? Recipe for disaster. “I’ll think about it.” Yeah, she’d think about how to avoid it at all costs. “Eating while on the move might work better. We’ll get cold quickly if we stop.”
“I imagine we can find ways to keep warm.”
“Mr. Marks!”
“Bastian.”
Dammit. Why couldn’t she keep control of the situation with him?
“Bastian. Say it, Zoe.”
She added the two guided tours to her calendar. “Besides the lift tickets and the tours, was there anything else you needed?”
“Yes.” His voice sounded like a low growl.
She couldn’t help but look up at him and immediately wished she hadn’t. His gaze bored right through her.
“I want you to say my name.”
Zoe sucked in her breath. Was this some kind of game? Or maybe a test? And how could she back out of this without playing?
She’d just have to ignore him. “Do you expect to ski every day? I can arrange a week-long pass for you.”
“Ignoring me isn’t going to work.”
“It’s working so far,” she said under her breath.
“Think again.”
“Week-long pass–yes? No?”
He waited several long seconds and then said, “Yes.”
“Good.” She typed up the order as quickly as she could. “Anything else?”
“I still need to know your favorite restaurant in town.”
“You never give up.”
“No, I got the message. I just thought I could get them to make up the picnic for our walk.”
He was incorrigible. Every wall she tried to put up, he found a way around. What the hell was she going to do with him? “Anthony’s makes good Italian.”
He leaned toward her. “And that’s your favorite.”
“Yes,” she gritted out. She supposed she could have lied and given him a different restaurant but what would be the point? If he really was going to get a picnic from them, Anthony’s was the best.
She finished setting up his lift tickets. “You can pick up a paper copy of your pass at the concierge desk any time.” She stood, snapping her laptop closed. “I’ll meet you there at two o’clock for our guided tour. Dress warmly, more warmly than usual. We’ll be outside for the entire hour and you don’t want to get frostbitten.”
He had jumped to his feet as soon as she rose. Now he held his arm out for her to go in front of him, then slipped his hand onto the small of her back as they left the café. She tried to ignore the tingle that spread from his hand downward. As soon as they got to the door, she stepped away from him, breaking contact.
“I’ll see you at two,” he said. She’d swear he had a knowing gleam in his eye, but it might have been her imagination.
She’d known the super-rich were demanding, entitled, sometimes downright obnoxious, but this was the first time she’d been the subject of an all-out campaign to bend her will. She was a little afraid she was going to lose.
***
At two o’clock sharp, Bastian strode across the lobby to the concierge desk wearing his snow suit. He knew she hadn’t been kidding about the cold, and he had no desire to have any of his parts frozen.
Zoe stood by the desk wearing a hunter green suit clearly designed to hide every curve she had. He hoped she wasn’t like most women who thought they needed to look different in order to be beautiful. Without fail, the thin women wanted to be curvier, the curvy women wanted to be thinner. He thought they were all beautiful; why shouldn’t they think so too?
He stopped in front of her. “Hi.” What he really wanted to say was “hi, gorgeous” but he didn’t think she’d like that. He’d never seen a pricklier woman. It just made him want her more.
“All ready for your guided walk, Mr. Marks?” She didn’t meet his eyes.
Bastian just barely managed not to groan. Mr. Marks? She’d better be saying that for the benefit of her co-worker standing behind the desk. Because if they were really still arguing over his first name, he thought he might hit something. Stubborn woman. “All ready.”
Zoe said goodbye to the woman behind the desk. Then the two of them set out across the lobby, heading for the front door.
As soon as they’d gotten far enough away, he said, “You’ll call me Bastian. I understand if you want to be more formal in front of your co-workers, but while we’re on this tour, I don’t want to hear you call me Mr. Marks. Not even once.”
She shoved her gloved ha
nds into her pockets. “Very well.”
“Good.” He stepped aside to let her precede him out of the building. “What are we seeing today?”
“Since we only have an hour, I thought we’d stick a little closer to the main hotel. There are some nice views not too far from here. One looks out over the valley. You can see the town below and the mountain on the other side. The other place I was thinking about taking you is on the other side of the ski lodge. There’s a small pond and waterfall and when they freeze over in the winter time it’s really pretty.”
“That sounds nice.” Bastian fell into step beside her.
As they walked across the wide circular drive in front of the main hotel, he stayed silent. He knew he wanted to establish some rapport with her but he wasn’t sure where to start. And he sure wasn’t going to do it where prying ears could hear. So he waited until they reached the tree line and headed down a small beaten path into the woods.
Bare tree branches reached for them as they made their way toward the overlook. “So, how did you end up working as a guest personal assistant?”
She paused, and he knew she was figuring out what to say. “I just fell into it, I guess.”
“Come on, there must be more to the story than that. Did you see an ad online or something? Or did a friend let you know about it?” Getting information out of her was like pulling teeth. Not for the first time, he wondered if pursuing her was worth it. At the same time, he loved a good chase, and he was having more fun than he’d had in a long time.
“My friend Hannah got me the job. That’s why it’s so important that nothing happen between us. I can’t let her down.”
Well, dammit. Just what he didn’t want to hear. It wasn’t enough that she had strong principles. She also had a solid reason to stay away from him.
Chapter 3
If he were a good guy, he’d back away. But he just wasn’t that good. “I see. And where were you before this? Or did you grow up here?”
She hesitated. After a long half minute, she said, “I lived in Seattle before this. Hannah and I went to high school there together.”