by Kira Archer
“No!” Her face drained of color except for two bright red spots on her cheeks, and she looked like she’d knock the phone out of his hand if he tried to use it.
Okay. He’d been kidding, but that reaction was a bit extreme.
She made a visible effort to rein it in and went back to fiddling with the first aid supplies on the floor. “I made the decision so there’s really no one to complain to but me.” She gave him a vague smile.
“You could have said no.”
“You’ve met Izzy, right?”
He chuckled. “She’s good at getting her way, I’ll give you that. But you still could have said no. It is a…highly unusual, if not downright inappropriate, set of circumstances.”
“That’s what I said!”
He lifted his eyebrows again. “Yet here you are.”
“Izzy made a good case for why inappropriate was a bit of an exaggeration. Business trips do happen all the time. Besides, if you thought it was inappropriate too, you could have said no,” she said, though that faint blush he was beginning to love stole across her cheeks again.
“I did. But you’ve met Izzy.”
Charley snorted. “I’m starting to sense a theme here.”
“You still haven’t answered my question,” he said. “You’ve said a hundred times that you could’ve just done the evaluation from home. In fact, when we met for dinner, you said you were almost done. So why bother coming all this way if you were just planning on condemning me anyway? And don’t blame it on Izzy.”
She took a deep breath and blew it out. “I’m not sure, okay? I knew it would probably be a disaster. But I thought it could be kind of fun. Unlike you, I can’t just jet off to any part of the world I want to at a moment’s notice. It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and I didn’t want to regret not going. And, yes, Izzy. You can’t take her out of the equation when she’s 90 percent of it. She’s your friend, and I know you were doing her a favor choosing me for the job because I’m her cousin. So, while I have no intention of giving you any special treatment where the assessment is involved, it would’ve still been nice to be able to recommend you, so when Izzy suggested the trip…” She shrugged. “I don’t know. I guess it was a straw I grasped at to try and reach the outcome everyone wanted.”
He nodded. “Fair enough.”
“You never answered my question, either,” she said.
“Which was?”
“Why do you do this? Why flirt with danger? And don’t give me more of the book-hating BS. What makes a person like you crave the adrenaline rush so bad they’d jeopardize everything?”
He sighed and ran his hand through his hair. He couldn’t really refuse to answer after he badgered her into answering his questions. He leaned back against the couch behind him and stretched out his legs, crossing his ankles. He kept his eyes on his feet. Finally, he shrugged and decided to just tell her the truth.
“It probably sounds lame, but I made a vow to myself when I was ten years old that I’d always live life to the fullest. And I’d hate to let myself down,” he said with a small smile.
“You decided that at ten years old? That’s a pretty mature outlook.” She tilted her head to the side, obviously wanting more.
“I was born two months early. Spent seven weeks in the neo-natal intensive care unit. Spent another three months after coming home on an oxygen tank. I walked late, talked late, and didn’t catch up to the other kids size-wise until around fourth grade. Despite all that, I was pretty healthy, except for slightly weaker than normal lungs. I didn’t ever go full-blown asthma or anything, but if I got a cold, it went straight to croup or something worse. I spent every winter barking like a seal and wheezing to catch my breath when ‘normal’ kids would just shrug off a regular cold.
“It made my mom a little over-protective of me, which was understandable. She always said she almost lost me as a baby, so she was determined to make sure I made it through childhood okay.”
He smiled again. “I love my mom. She’s great. But as a kid…it was hard to take. She wouldn’t let me join Little League or go outside without at least three layers on. She even tried to make me wear a mask to school when there would be the usual school breakouts of some illness. When I was ten years old, I finally talked her into letting me join the soccer team. She figured that one would be the safest since it was a no contact sport and there were no rock-hard balls flying around.”
He laughed. “She figured out that wasn’t the case pretty quick when I came home with my first concussion from the ball slamming against my head. But I healed up just fine and was actually in better shape because I was out running around instead of hiding out in the house all the time. She loosened up a bit, and I started joining every team I could. I loved it all. Loved the physical exertion, the adrenaline, the intensity of the competition. The first time I stepped on that field was when I promised myself I’d never just sit around watching the world go by again. I was going to be out there in the thick of it. And I have been ever since.”
Charley nodded. “I get that. Really, I do. But I still think there’s a difference between playing sports, and even doing something like skydiving where you can at least control most aspects of it, and purposely putting yourself in front of a chummed-up shark or pissed-off bull.”
He forced himself to meet and hold her gaze, though he wanted to do anything but. Because he knew she had a point and he really didn’t want to admit that.
She stood up and headed toward the door before stopping to look back at him. “All I’m saying is that when you have people who care about you, who are counting on you, purposely putting yourself in harm’s way just for the fun of it is kind of a dick move. There are other ways to get your kicks.”
She wasn’t wrong. Not that she was right, either. She was maybe 60 percent right. Okay, maybe 75 percent.
More importantly, the flush of her cheeks and the passion behind her words made him think that maybe, just maybe, she might be one of the people who cared about him. At least a little. And damn, if that didn’t stir up all kinds of emotions he really wasn’t sure how to process.
Hope was at the top of that list.
And hope was a dangerous thing.
Chapter Eleven
She couldn’t believe she’d talked to him that way.
The guy was her client.
One who could make or break her fledgling career. One she really needed to stay on the good side of because if he decided to call her company to complain, he’d find out it was really her former company, and she hadn’t been exactly forthcoming about all that. Really, it shouldn’t matter. She was still doing the same job for him. But…she sighed. Of course, it mattered. Or she would have been upfront in the first place.
She needed to tell him. Maybe he wouldn’t care. But if he did—and he might, seeing as how his main endgame was getting insured—well, the thought of losing everything she’d worked so hard for sent a shiver through her. Though a healthy dose of anger went with it. It shouldn’t matter. She wouldn’t do any better of a job if she’d still been at her old company.
In fact, working for them had made it more and more difficult to do an honest, good job. They would’ve been pressuring her to recommend him no matter what the numbers said. All they cared about was their bottom line. She cared about doing her job to the best of her ability, and she was damn good at it. She was the best at what she did, no matter who she worked for.
She sighed again. She’d tell him. But…maybe not yet.
She stood at the window in her room and gazed out at the incredible landscape spread out before her. They were staying at one of the properties Chris owned so he could check it out, make sure everything was as it should be. If she owned a place like this, she’d never leave. She didn’t know if someone was skimming money on maintenance repairs or what. But this property at least was in amazing shape, from what she’d seen. She could happily spend the rest of her life there, surrounded in breathtaking luxury. Chris didn’t know how go
od he had it.
Then again, he probably did, which was why he spent all his time traveling the world and visiting these amazing places. A far cry from her rooted life. Not that she had too many complaints. Sure, it would be fun to be able to jet off to some exotic location whenever she wanted. But she also really loved having an established home. Traveling the world was fun, but there was definitely something to be said for finding a perfect home and planting some roots.
The sun highlighted the sprawling hills outside the small villa outside the city, touching the tiled roofs of the houses nearby. A friend of hers once asked her why she was so obsessed with all things European. She was forever liking posts and pinning pictures of incredibly beautiful buildings and locations from Europe and Russia and other far away locations she never dreamed she’d get to visit.
Honestly, she wasn’t sure. The beauty of these places just struck a chord in her that nothing else did. The United States was filled with breathtaking beauty as well. But as she gazed at the ancient castle that sat on the hill in the far distance, she shook her head. The U.S. just didn’t have anything that could compare to the ancient beauty European countries could claim.
A knock sounded at her door, and she told Chris to enter without bothering to take her eyes off the view.
He joined her at the window, and she tried to resist the urge to inhale deeply as the slight breeze from the window blew that manly scent that was uniquely him in her direction.
“Beautiful, isn’t it?” she said.
“Breathtaking.”
She glanced over at him, her heart thumping in her chest when she realized he wasn’t looking out the window, but at her.
Her mouth opened and closed a couple times, but she couldn’t dredge up a single response to that.
“Hungry?” he asked, his mouth quirked up with that amusement that never seemed to completely desert him.
“I could eat,” she said.
He grinned. “Excellent. Carmen left some of her amazing food this morning when she came in to clean.”
“Carmen?”
“My housekeeper. She keeps everything going when I’m not here. Why don’t you join me? I’ve got some ideas on what’s going on with the maintenance discrepancies.”
She nodded and followed him out to the back patio where he’d set everything up. She sat down, closing her eyes and deeply inhaling the tantalizing aroma of Carmen’s cooking.
Her stomach audibly rumbled, and he laughed, especially when she covered her flaming cheeks with her hands. It wasn’t bad enough that she was always embarrassing herself. Now her body had to chime in and help make it even worse.
“Guess I’m a little hungrier than I thought,” she said.
“Carmen’s food will do that to you.”
They heaped their plates high with piles of rice, chicken, and beans and dug in. They were silent for several minutes, too busy eating to talk much.
“Oh my God,” Charley said, covering her mouth with her hand while she chewed. “This is amazing.”
He nodded his agreement and shoved another forkful of marinated meat in his mouth. “I’ve been tempted more than once to make this my home base just so I can eat like this every day.”
“Well, if you want a full-time house sitter, you let me know.”
He smiled. “I’ll keep that in mind.”
Her stomach flipped at the flirtatious look in his eyes, and she suddenly wasn’t nearly as hungry as she had been a few minutes ago.
“Speaking of house sitters,” she said, taking a sip of her wine before turning back to her plate, “what ideas did you have regarding all the discrepancies?”
“Ah. Well, I have a manager who oversees several of my properties. Many of the ones, in fact, that I’ve been concerned about. There have been some personnel changes lately, and I wasn’t sure who was managing some of these properties. He’s supposed to have several people under him taking care of various locations.”
“And he’s been making some personnel cutbacks and taking care of everything himself?”
Chris shrugged. “From what I can tell, yes. One of the managers under him left with no notice a few months ago. And the other apparently went over his head last week and emailed my office about reports he’s sent in being ignored or mishandled.”
“Well, that doesn’t sound good.”
He nodded. “Tenants are supposed to contact the manager in charge if there are any problems, and if it’s something that needs attention, the head manager is notified so he can take care of whatever issues come up. If it’s something abnormal, then he contacts me. But for regular maintenance-type stuff, he’s supposed to take care of it. And he has a company credit card to pay for expenses.”
“Ah,” she said, nodding with understanding. “Let me guess. There’s been an unusual number of repairs needed on multiple properties and unusually high charges made on the card in order to supposedly take care of these issues.”
“Right,” he said, taking a sip of his wine. “And these complaints were never brought to my attention for the most part. I’ve also never seen a bad review posted to the website or on Yelp or any other site. In fact, all the reviews that have been posted have been glowing recommendations. Generally, if someone has an issue, even if that issue is handled, they mention it.”
“Right,” she said. “Like—when we arrived, the hot tub was broken, but one call to the manager had it up and running in no time. Four stars.”
“Exactly. But there hasn’t been anything like that. And with the repairs that have been supposedly needed, I’d expect to hear something about it. Instead, all I’ve seen are his notes from when the tenants supposedly contacted him.”
“Hmm. It does sound suspicious. Is this one of the problem properties?”
He nodded. “According to Juan, the French doors were sticking so badly they were almost unusable, and the hot tub’s jets were damaged when a tree limb fell in it, and the repairs were going to cost so much it would be cheaper to just buy a new hot tub. Which he supposedly did.”
Charley glanced to the other side of the patio where the hot tub bubbled away happily, waiting for them to climb in. “Is that the new one?”
Chris shook his head. “Juan said he had a new one installed, but it’s the same one that was here before.”
“How can you be sure?”
He stood up and held out his hand to her. She hesitated for just a second and then took it, hoping her hand wouldn’t tremble when she slipped it into his. Really, there was nothing sexual at all about the gesture, yet the feel of her skin against his sent a fine tremor up her spine.
Luckily, he didn’t seem to notice anything, although his hand did grip hers a bit tighter. He led her over to the backside of the hot tub and pointed to a small scratch in the wood. “That happened when we first had it installed two years ago. One of the delivery guys banged into the wall while they were moving it. Yet there is a charge on the company card for a state of the art, brand new hot tub, purchased a week ago. A hot tub Juan told me was installed here.”
“So where’s the new hot tub?”
Chris shrugged again. “Good question. At Juan’s house maybe? Or maybe he was able to return it for cash. Or never bought it in the first place but was somehow able to forge the receipt. I don’t know.”
Charley leaned over and trailed her fingers in the water. “So, what are you going to do about it?”
“My accountant is already looking into any purchases Juan made. And it looks like I’m going to have to have a conversation with him.”
Charley would not want to be Juan. The look on Chris’s face was not one she’d want turned against her.
“That’s something I’ll deal with later. For now, I think we should focus on relaxing.” He sighed, sucking in a deep breath and letting it out again. The tension in him loosened up as he exhaled. It was almost like a dog shaking himself and flinging all the water off. Chris seemed to mentally set aside all those problems and refocused on her. It was both env
iable and disconcerting.
“Would you like any more?” he asked, gesturing to their plates.
She shook her head. “No thanks. Though there’s a good possibility I’ll be sneaking into the kitchen in the middle of the night for seconds.”
He laughed. “Not if I beat you to them.”
“Do you mind if I use the hot tub?”
“Not at all. First, though,” he said holding his hand out to her again. She took it with much less hesitation this time. “We’re going dancing.”
…
Charley’s mouth dropped open and she tugged on her hand a little, but Chris didn’t let go. He’d figured he might get a little resistance from her, but he was hoping that fun-loving rocker chick from the bar would make an appearance and decide to live a little.
“I’m not sure…”
“Come on. It’ll be fun. You can’t come to Spain and not go salsa dancing.”
Her eyes widened. “Salsa dancing? Isn’t that a South American thing?”
“Sure, but it’s pretty popular over here also. It’s a little different but still a blast.”
“I don’t have anything to wear. I didn’t pack for dancing.”
“Not a problem.” He led her up the stairs to his room, but she stood rooted at the door. He either had to drag her in or let go of her hand. He contained his inner eye roll but let go.
“Do you have a white blouse or something?” he asked.
She shook her head. “Just T-shirts.”
“No problem.” He went to his closet and pulled out a white button-up shirt and tossed it at her. “Wear that, only button a few of the buttons in the middle, and tie the bottom in a knot. It’ll work great.”
Then he pulled a colorful, tasseled shawl off the armchair in the corner. “This should work. Come here.”
She remained in the doorway.
“I’m not going to bite. Unless you ask me to.”
That got a shy grin out of her, but she still didn’t move. So, he went to her, and this time, he pulled her into the room. Then he took the shawl and wrapped it around her waist, leaving one end out. It went around her twice, and he tied it off with the end he’d left sticking out at her waist. “Perfect!”