His first impression of her in the office a couple of days ago had not been a great one. Seeing her spinning on her office chair with reckless abandon had felt like an affront to him, an indication that she wasn’t prepared to take her role as his executive assistant seriously. But the past couple of days had shown him that she wasn’t quite the flighty character she appeared to be on the surface, and her deep compassion for those less fortunate—something she’d volubly demonstrated last night—exhibited a clear understanding of their plight.
He hadn’t been able to stop thinking about it after she’d gone up to her room, and he’d emailed Kristin and Logan to ask if they could look in to the logistics and viability of including some lower-cost housing into their plan. It was only after he’d done that that he’d been able to drift off to sleep somewhere around midnight.
But right now, his biggest challenge was getting Tami on that zip line, and her adamant refusal to even step into the harness was something he hadn’t anticipated.
“There’s lunch at the other side,” he said in an attempt to cajole her.
“I figure if I climb back down and start walking it’ll only take me another hour. I can wait that long.”
Her stomach rumbled loudly.
“Or we can be there in a couple of minutes.”
Her stomach rumbled again.
Keaton tried again. “C’mon, I’ve seen little kids do this with their parents. How bad can it be?”
“Have you seen how high we are? Do you understand anything about terminal velocity and the laws of physics?”
Keaton couldn’t help it. He laughed. In fact, he laughed so hard, he felt tears spring to his eyes.
“Actually, yeah, I do. Physics was one of my better subjects at school.”
“Of course it was,” she muttered and turned away from him in disgust.
“Tami, please—trust me. You’ll be completely safe. How about this—why don’t we go in tandem? Would that make it easier for you?”
She turned back to face him, her lower lip caught between her teeth and a nervous expression on her face.
“We could do that?”
Keaton looked across to Leon, who had met them here at the zip line launch point and who was waiting patiently to harness them up. He must have seen this kind of reaction many times before, Keaton realized, because he made no move to rush them along. The fact they were the only ones there probably helped, too.
“Leon? Would we be able to go across in tandem?” Keaton asked.
“Sure,” Leon answered. “Just give me a few minutes to change the rigging.”
Tami’s eyes were wide when Keaton looked at her.
“There, see? Problem solved.”
“I think you’re forgetting one thing,” Tami insisted.
“What’s that?”
“Me. I can’t do it. I. Just. Can’t.”
“Of course you can. Look, you conquered your fear of flying. This is way more fun. And like I said before—lunch.”
“Flying took me years, Keaton. Years!”
“Well, we don’t have years. We have now. C’mon. Where’s your adventurous spirit. I know I don’t know you all that well yet, but you strike me as the kind of woman who usually gives anything a go, right? And didn’t you tell me last night that you’ll try anything once?” he paraphrased in reminder.
She begrudgingly nodded.
“Then let’s do this.”
She sighed heavily, then uncrossed her arms.
“Okay. But if I throw up all over you, it’ll be your own fault.”
Keaton fought the urge to fist-pump the air in triumph, but reminded himself quickly that they weren’t there yet. And then there was the vomit thing. He really didn’t want that to happen. He held out his hand.
“Look, I’m with you every step of the way. I trusted you to get us here during the orientation and you can trust me to keep you safe on the zip line. Okay? Let’s go get harnessed up.”
She tentatively accepted his hand, her smaller fingers curling around his and sending a trickle of warmth up his arm. Trust. It was such a simple concept, yet the weight of it was huge. He could feel the tremors that rocked her body as they walked toward Leon, but she didn’t balk. He honestly hadn’t considered what pushing her to do this might cost her in emotional terms until he held her hand right now. The sense of responsibility that put on his shoulders was huge.
“All ready?” Leon asked, looking carefully at them both.
“We are,” Keaton said firmly. “In tandem, okay?”
“Yep, I’ve got the harnesses all set. Tami? Are you sure you’re okay with this?” Leon asked her directly.
She nodded. “Let’s just get it over with.”
Leon moved quickly and efficiently to get them into their harnesses and gave them simple instructions on what to do and what to expect when they reached the other side. They positioned themselves at the end of the platform and Tami emitted a small moan that was as different from her delight in good food as chalk was from cheese. She was absolutely terrified—he could feel it in every quake of her body.
“Any last requests?” Leon said cheerfully as he smiled from his position at the other end of the platform.
Keaton laughed and looked down at Tami. Her arms were wrapped firmly around him and her eyes were scrunched shut. And were those tears squeezing out from under her lashes?
“We can do this. C’mon, Tami,” he said firmly. “We’ll go on three, okay? One, two, three!”
And then they were flying. Tami’s eyes sprung open the second they launched, but she didn’t so much as scream or say a word. In fact, Keaton wasn’t even certain she was breathing. He was so busy watching her, he hardly noticed the journey himself, and it was over all too quickly. Nathan was waiting on the landing platform at the other side.
“So, guys, how was it?” he asked with a beaming smile on his broad face.
Keaton looked at Tami, who was as white as a ghost. Would she need medical attention? he wondered worriedly. But then a transformation took place and a massive grin pulled her lips wide. Excited energy poured off her in waves and she danced a little jig as she shrugged out of her harness. Tami looked back along the zip line they’d traveled on before turning toward him and Nathan.
She closed the short distance between them and grabbed his hand, then reached up and planted a kiss on his lips.
“That was a-mazing! Thank you so much for making me do it. Can we do it again?”
Keaton looked at her in absolute shock, his lips tingling from the unexpected contact. His face must have reflected his surprise because the joy in her eyes dimmed instantly and she took several steps back.
“Oh, heck, I’m sorry. I overstepped the mark, didn’t I? That was really inappropriate.”
“It’s okay,” he said stiffly. “I’m glad you enjoyed it in the end.”
“And you? Did you enjoy it, too?”
“I think I was too concerned for your safety and state of mind to even be aware of what was happening, to be honest.”
She gave him a smile. “Thank you. I really mean it. Without your support, I would never have attempted anything like that. I guess that’s a tick in the box for teamwork, right?”
He barked a short laugh. “Yeah, that’s a tick in the box, all right.”
While they’d been talking, Nathan gathered up all their equipment and packed it away. When he was done, he joined them and asked them to follow him to a lookout, where they’d be enjoying lunch. The whole way there, Keaton tried not to think about that kiss. It had been spontaneous. Something born of her sheer joy in conquering a fear. He compressed his lips more firmly together in an attempt to rid himself of the memory of the soft, sweet pressure of her mouth on his.
It had meant nothing, right?
Right. It couldn’t mean anything. He wouldn’t let it.
These were extreme circumstances and they’d just taken part in an extreme event together. Emotions, especially hers, had been running high. There. He’d managed to compartmentalize it. Fold it neatly in a box and shove it into the darker recesses of his mind. Where it would stay. And he wouldn’t think about how it had felt to have her arms tightly wound around his body as they’d swung along the zip line, or how her hands had clung to him as if he was the only thing between her and certain death. Nope, not at all.
* * *
Tami stood outside in the cool morning air and watched the sun begin to rise. Her fingers were wrapped around a hot, steaming mug of coffee and she listened to the sounds of the desert waking around her. The past few days had been a challenge. Not physically—at least, not too much—because with each day she felt stronger and fitter and more capable of the tasks that had been set before them. But mentally things had been tough. She’d let her exuberance cross personal boundaries after the zip line and that was not a good thing. Keaton had been very distant with her since then. Sure, they’d enjoyed their dinners together, and by mutual agreement had continued to discuss work over the table, but there’d been nothing personal. In its own way that was a relief. Tami wasn’t about to race to reveal her own past, but she couldn’t help being more curious about Keaton’s. It was one thing to probe his plans for Richmond Developments, moving forward, and he was opening up more and more about that, but her dad had made it clear in last night’s text message that he wanted all the information she could get on the family members themselves. It turned her stomach to think her father would use the information she passed him against the Richmonds but, as he had reminded her again last night, she was here to do a job—for him and no one else.
At least they wouldn’t be forced to spend as much time alone together from today. Two new groups would join them today, one headed by Fletcher Richmond, from Virginia. Apparently, he was the eldest Richmond brother and from the secret family Keaton’s dad had maintained on the East Coast. The other group was headed by Logan Parker-Richmond, the long-lost twin. She’d met him, and his fiancée, Honor Gould, very briefly on her first day with Richmond Developments. She’d been struck by just how identical the twins were. But where Keaton had a simmering intensity and a very driven attitude, Logan appeared to be a little less intimidating. Maybe it was because when he’d found his family, he’d also been lucky enough to find love with Honor at the same time. Or maybe it was just the way he’d been raised.
Tami remembered hearing a little about his situation and how he’d been abducted from the hospital nursery as a newborn and then spirited away to New Zealand, where he’d been brought up by his abductor and her family. From what she’d heard and seen of New Zealand in the media and from friends who’d visited the country, the lifestyle there was relaxed and less frenetic than many other parts of the world and the few Kiwis she’d met had an easygoing way about them. Even in that brief introduction she had to him, Logan certainly appeared to be more laidback than Keaton. It would be interesting to see how the two brothers interacted together.
What she had noticed even in her brief stint in the office on her first day, was a distance between Logan’s fiancée and Keaton. She wondered if there was something to that or if she’d just imagined things. Obviously things were strained in the office with all the turmoil they’d been through, and with Tami being the newbie on the floor, it wasn’t as if she’d been privy to the details of what had been going on prior to her starting there.
Ah, well, she told herself. The next few days with the new teams would give her plenty of time to get to know others better. And to hopefully find something to get her father off her back. She’d tried ignoring his text messages but that had only encouraged him to try phoning her, which had not been at all convenient. In the end, she’d told him she’d check in, by text, each night. Though she’d taken notes on her phone each day after dinner, she didn’t really share the details, only sending her dad the briefest of messages before she went to bed. If he wanted more than that, he would just have to wait until she returned to Seattle and made her full report.
And while making that statement clearly in her head should have made her feel as though she was in control, she’d never felt less so in her life. Over her head still hung the obligation she had to somehow repay the money Mark had stolen. She’d given her word she would, and it was only on that promise that the administrators at Our People, Our Homes had agreed not to go to the police...yet. The whole thing made her stomach crunch in a tight knot. She sighed heavily.
“Everything okay?”
She spun around as Keaton came across to join her.
“Yes, sure.”
“You just looked as if something was bothering you. Or maybe it’s just that you’re supposedly not your best until eight a.m.,” he said with an injection of levity.
The man was too astute for his own good. Tami forced a smile to her face. There’d be distraction enough to keep her mind off things very soon.
“No, I’m fine. Kind of wondering how we’re all going to work together when the new teams arrive, I guess.”
“Well, in the initial couple of days we’ll each be pairing up with someone from Virginia. DR Construction run on very similar lines to us and have experienced similar fallout from my father’s deceit.” His mouth twisted harshly on that last word. “Anyway, we’re all committed to making this work, going forward. The sooner we get used to each other, the more easily we’ll work together. After breakfast, let’s go through those pairing lists before everyone else begins to arrive.”
“Yes, good idea. I see Leon and Nathan’s extra staff have begun to arrive, too.”
Keaton looked back at the main cabin and surrounding buildings, which were starting to light up with new activity. “Yeah, it’s going to feel quite different, but I’m glad we had this time to work out the kinks ahead of time.”
“Not that there really were any,” she commented.
“True. The guys run a well-oiled machine here.” He went over to the coffee carafe on the hot plate and poured himself a mugful. “Shall we go in for breakfast?”
“In a minute. I just wanted to watch the sunrise. It’s something I don’t take time to do at home.”
He stood beside her in the stillness as they faced east and watched the myriad shades of gold and orange as they unfurled into the sky. There was a calmness that came from being alone with Keaton that she’d never experienced with anyone else. Despite what he’d said when she’d started at Richmond—about speaking without thinking—she’d noticed he was happy to be silent, which was something she never did enough of. After a few more minutes of watching the sky, she tipped the last of her coffee into the bushes and turned to the cabin.
“I guess we’d better go in and start preparing for the day,” she said stoically.
“You don’t sound keen. Is there a problem I need to know about?”
“No—no problem. I’ve just enjoyed it being just us here. More than I thought I would, to be honest. It’s going to feel strange being surrounded by a whole lot more people again, even if it is the purposes of the whole exercise.”
“Yeah,” he said with a slow smile. “I get what you mean. But we’ll adjust. C’mon. Let’s go eat.”
After breakfast, Keaton got up and helped himself to more coffee from the perpetually brewing pot on the countertop.
“More for you, too?” he asked.
“Any more and I’ll be jittering, so, no thank you. I guess I’d better go and get ready. I have the printed name lists in my pack. I’ll bring them down in a few minutes.”
She got down from her stool and headed for the door.
“Good, thanks. Oh, and Tami?”
She hesitated and faced him. “Yes?”
“I just wanted to say I’ve been really impressed by how you’ve tackled the challenges we’ve been set. I think we’re going to work really well together when
we get home.”
“Was there ever any doubt?” she asked flippantly.
“Well, including spinning around on office furniture, you’ve managed to surprise me every day with your strength and resilience.”
“A girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do,” she said, suddenly feeling awkward.
He cracked a grin that just about made her knees melt. “Yeah, something like that. Anyway, I just wanted to say that I’m really glad you’re on my team.”
“Me, too.”
She would have said more but her throat had choked up on the swell of guilt that pummeled through her with the pace of a freight train. On his team? She hadn’t been on his team from the minute she’d set foot inside Richmond Developments. He was beginning to trust her, which was exactly what she’d needed, but she was going to take that carefully wrought trust and exploit it. Use it against him in the cruelest way imaginable. Remembering that fact made her feel sick in her soul. She liked Keaton. Was attracted to him, too, to be totally honest. Knowing that she was merely a tool of her father’s making—being used to bring Richmond Developments down another notch—made her the worst kind of person and totally undeserving of Keaton’s praise. But she couldn’t tell him any of that, could she?
Tami swiftly turned and went back upstairs to her room. Once there, she locked her door behind her and took out her phone. Yes, there was another message from her father.
Remember your promise to me.
She blew out a breath and composed a text reply.
Going off grid for a couple of days. Will text on return.
She pressed Send and waited for his reply. She didn’t have to wait long.
You’d better have something good for me by then.
His disapproval was loud and clear. Tami checked the phone was fully charged and turned off all mobile data before tucking it away in her pack. Not for the first time she wished she’d been born into a different family. Even a family like the Richmonds, who’d had their fair share of trouble, but still remained tightly knit despite everything.
Scandalizing the CEO--A Workplace Romance Page 6