Kitabı oku: «Risky Business», sayfa 3
4
AFTER LEAVING RACHEL’S office, Jack headed back to the Fairfax Hotel, where he met with the manager and got a tour of the place. Everything was as he’d expected it to be, and more. He called Tom, gave him some specifics, and told him to start working up a bid. Then he dropped the news that he wouldn’t be back to the work site for a couple of days. Tom had gone a little nuts over that, but this trip wasn’t negotiable. Business would keep.
Rachel wouldn’t.
He certainly hadn’t planned for things to go the way they had today, and he could hardly believe his luck. A four-day retreat? Sharing a room? And Rachel had to pretend he was her husband?
Did it get any better than that?
Okay. She clearly didn’t want him around. Or she thought she didn’t, anyway. But now he had four days to convince her otherwise. To put her into the same kind of atmosphere they’d experienced in San Antonio and see what might happen between them. If he could bring back just a glimmer of the connection he’d felt with her, it would all be worth it.
At the Fairfax, he begged for the use of a computer from the hotel manager’s secretary. He researched the Web sites of humanitarian groups who flew to other countries to offer medical assistance, committing buzz words to memory that he could use if necessary. Rachel would undoubtedly fill him in on information concerning what she’d told the people she worked with. Then he’d mesh the two together and come up with a profile he could use so he wouldn’t get tripped up. Even without the preparation, though, he wouldn’t have anticipated any problems in that regard.
After spending his entire childhood as the son of a petroleum engineer who was transferred every year or two, Jack had lived all over the United States and in several foreign countries. He’d been forced to give up friends, then turn right around and make new ones so many times that he’d become a master of the game.
At first it had been painful. Then he discovered the secret. If he made the other kids laugh, pretty soon he had them eating out of his hand. Life could be pretty dull, and the person who spiced things up was the person who had a list of friends as long as his arm. He sometimes felt that he could parachute into anyplace on the planet, and within two days he could have a party and invite twenty people who’d be happy to come. Consequently, he’d never met a situation in his life that he couldn’t talk himself into or out of, and this one would be no different.
After he finished his research, he went by a couple of downtown stores and picked up a few things. Ski equipment he could rent at the resort, but he needed enough clothes and other items to last him four days. He hadn’t planned on going on a buying spree, but as an independently wealthy doctor, shouldn’t he really look his best?
Then, at the appointed hour, he returned to Rachel’s office. Her attitude toward him hadn’t changed a bit. In fact, she acted so coldly toward him as they drove to her condominium that he wouldn’t have been surprised to see icicles forming on the inside of her car. Once they got there, she parked her car, strode inside and didn’t even bother to look back to see if he was following her or not. Jack just smiled. She couldn’t hold out forever. Sooner or later, the sweet, congenial, sexually insatiable woman he’d known in San Antonio would rise to the surface, and when she did, he’d be waiting.
Then he went inside her condo, and he wondered if maybe locating her wild side again would be a taller task than he’d imagined.
Her decor consisted of off-white carpet and off-white walls. Generic art that matched the drapes that matched the sofa that matched the chairs. Not a speck of dust anywhere or a statuette out of place. Dreary traditional furniture that looked as if nobody had ever sat on it. Her home looked like a place where a person twice her age might live—a person twice her age with a desire to freeze the pants off anyone who stepped foot inside it. It reminded him of the decor he’d seen at her office today—modern, efficient, practical, heartless. If he’d found just one cracked wall, a mismatched pillow, or even a family picture or two, he might have been able to feel comfortable.
No chance of that.
Did the same woman live here whom he’d shared the room with in the historic San Antonio hotel? The one with the leaky clawfoot tub and the four-poster bed? The one with the cracks in the walls? The one she said she loved the very smell of?
Impossible.
Rachel hung her coat in the front closet, then did the same with his.
“Have you eaten?” she asked him.
“No, but I’d be happy to take you out.”
She gave him a yeah, I’ll just bet you would look, then strode toward the kitchen. “I’ll order something.”
“Order?”
“I don’t cook. Not very often, anyway.”
“Then what do you eat?”
“Yogurt and granola for breakfast. A salad for lunch. Anything ready to microwave for dinner. Low fat, low cal.”
“How about a pizza?” he asked.
She winced. “I guess one without meat would be okay.”
“I was thinking pepperoni.”
Her lip curled, clearly showing her distaste. “Do you ever think of your arteries?”
“As little as possible.”
“I don’t blame you. They’re probably a real mess.”
“If you’ll remember, we ordered room service in San Antonio.”
She looked away. “So?”
“Steak and potatoes. Chocolate cheesecake for dessert. Extra whipped cream. In fact, as I remember, we talked the room service waiter into bringing us an entire can of whipped cream.” He grinned. “Amazing what you can do with one of those, isn’t it?”
Her cheeks flamed red all over again. She started to say something, then clamped her mouth shut, probably figuring that denial was pointless since she was the one who’d emptied most of the can.
She pulled open a kitchen drawer and grabbed a coupon. “Go ahead. Order pepperoni. Extra cheese. Stuffed crust. And why don’t you get a bunch of those bread sticks while you’re at it? The ones that you dip in garlic butter? That ought to really send the old cholesterol through the roof.”
He smiled. “Now you’re talking.”
She rolled her eyes with disgust. Slapping the coupon on the counter, she went into her bedroom and closed the door behind her. Jack sighed and shook his head. He knew at heart she was a pepperoni pizza eater, but now was not the time to push the issue. He grabbed the phone, dialed the number of the pizza place and ordered a vegetarian supreme.
By the time the pizza got there and they ate, it was approaching eight o’clock. No matter how often he tried to start a conversation, Rachel rebuffed him at every turn. If she couldn’t stop him from coming to the resort with her, she clearly intended to make their time together as unpleasant as she possibly could. That was okay. He wasn’t blessed with an excess of virtues, but patience was one he had in spades.
After they finished eating, Rachel sent him to the living room, then cleaned up the kitchen. She then disappeared down the hall, brought back sheets, blankets and a pillow and lay them on the sofa. She returned to her bedroom. A moment later, he heard a shower running.
Well. So much for an evening of pleasant conversation. Or great sex.
Okay, the “great sex” thing had been a real long shot. But a guy could always hope.
Figuring he’d seen the last of her tonight, Jack located a TV behind the doors of an armoire. He pulled out the remote, ran the dial, stopped on a few things that he thought might be interesting only to find he really didn’t give a damn.
Finally he flipped the TV off, then got up and inspected her bookshelves, where he found all the latest titles of the day—Oprah picks, up-to-the-minute nonfiction, a few classics, a pristine coffee-table volume of modern architecture. On a wall next to the bookshelf hung two diplomas, indicating that she had both a bachelor’s degree and master’s degree in architecture from an institution he recognized as a prestigious women’s college.
Women’s college. He’d often wondered what kind of people went to a place for four years where they spent all day without ever setting eyes on a member of the opposite sex. He’d had a nightmare like that once. It wasn’t pretty.
Then he glanced down the hall and noticed a second bedroom. Guest room? Probably not, since he was sleeping on the sofa. Then again, she was out to punish him.
He walked quietly down the hall. The door was ajar. He pushed it open and peered inside.
A desk sat along one wall, a drawing board in the corner. More bookshelves. But the books they contained were hardly literary masterpieces or full of contemporary buzz. Most of them were history texts and books on architecture of all periods—ancient, medieval, eighteenth and nineteenth century—mostly used books with ragged covers. And the balance of the titles were fiction, mainly mysteries and romance.
Yes. This was more like it. He had the distinct impression that the books in the living room with the unbroken spines were the ones she showed to the world, while these tattered ones lived in her heart. Then he turned and got another surprise.
That day in San Antonio, they’d browsed through the Alamo gift shop, where he’d bought her a poster of an 1830s map of Texas. Here it was, matted, framed and hanging on the wall.
He remembered so clearly the time they’d spent there, perusing every document, every artifact. To find a woman with that kind of knowledge of the historical periods that fascinated him had pleased him to no end. That he was attracted to her in every other way possible made him feel as if he’d found the perfect woman. A soul mate, and he didn’t even believe in such things.
And then she’d disappeared.
“What are you doing in here?”
He spun around. Rachel was standing behind him, wearing a blue terry-cloth robe that gave a new meaning to the word frumpy. He knew a really hot body lurked under there somewhere, but he sure as hell couldn’t see it right now.
He shrugged. “Just looking around.”
“Well, don’t.”
There it was again. That crimson flush on her ivory cheeks, as if somehow he’d embarrassed her.
“The poster,” he said. “It looks good.”
She turned instantly and left the room. He followed. She started to go into her bedroom, but he caught her arm and pulled her back around.
“Hey, hold on. What’s the matter?”
She looked up at him, her pale blue eyes brimming with annoyance. “It’s bad enough for me to look up and find you standing in my office this afternoon. Then you beg your way into my house. And now you’re snooping around.”
“I wasn’t snooping.”
“Then what do you call it?”
“The door was open.”
“That room is private!”
She looked genuinely angry. “Okay. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have gone in there.”
“That’s right. You shouldn’t have.”
“But I can’t imagine why you wouldn’t want me to. The rest of this place isn’t you. That room is.”
She ducked her head, the color still hot on her cheeks. “You don’t know anything about me.”
He inched closer to her and placed his palm on the wall beside her head, dropping his voice. “Yes, I do. Maybe a whole lot more than most people do. That day in San Antonio, and then that night, I found out all kinds of things about you.”
“You have to stop this.”
“What?”
She closed her eyes. “Reminding me.”
“You don’t want to be reminded?”
“I did a very dumb thing that night, something I’d just as soon forget.”
“So that’s the way you remember it? As something you want to forget?”
“Yes.”
“You even want to forget how we met? The time we spent together that afternoon?”
He saw the indecision on her face. Was she going to acknowledge the truth, or continue to act as if their entire encounter had been the biggest mistake of her life?
“No,” she said finally. “That was nice.”
“Ah. Finally something we agree on.”
“But I wasn’t looking for a relationship then, and I’m still not looking.”
“I didn’t know we were talking about lifetime commitments here.”
“I don’t even want a four-day commitment from you. I don’t want anything from you. In fact, if you’d just go back to San Antonio and leave me alone, I’d be the happiest woman alive.”
“No, Rachel. I know what would make you the happiest woman alive, and it has nothing to do with me going back to San Antonio.” Slowly he dropped his head and placed a gentle kiss against her neck, then brought his lips up to brush against her ear. She was tense—so tense—and he wanted nothing more than to kiss all that tension away, for her to melt in his arms again.
“Let her out,” he whispered. “Right now. Show me that woman I knew in San Antonio.”
“Jack—”
“She’s in there,” he said. “I know she is. A beautiful, sexy woman I can’t wait to touch. We can be together again the way we were before, just the two of us, for hours on end—”
“No!”
She twisted to the left, then ducked beneath his arm and strode back down the hall.
Damn.
He thought about stopping her, then thought again. More than anything, he wanted to follow her into her bedroom, slip that frumpy robe off her shoulders, kick it aside, then make love to her until daybreak. But even if he managed to accomplish that tonight, he had the feeling she’d only wake up tomorrow morning as wary as she’d been in San Antonio, and he definitely didn’t want that. If he pushed her too hard right now, he could end up odd man out for the next four days, and there was no way he was going to let that happen.
As she reached her bedroom door, he called out to her. “Don’t you want to know what I was doing in Denver?”
She stopped, then slowly turned, eyeing him suspiciously.
“There’s a hotel not too far from where you work,” he said. “The Fairfax. They’re tearing it down.”
Her eyebrows flew up. “They’re what?”
“Tearing it down. Every brick, every chandelier, every doorknob, every strip of oak flooring—”
“But I love that hotel! I have lunch there at least once a week. Why don’t they just renovate it?”
“Because a new high-rise is going up in its place.”
She stepped back toward him. “But how can they tear down such a wonderful old building?”
“With a few well-placed explosives.”
“But all that history will be gone!”
“Not all of it. I’m bidding for the right to salvage the interior of the hotel.”
Rachel’s eyes lit up. “Oh! That’s right! You do restoration! Can you use all those fixtures somewhere else?”
“Absolutely. I’ve got one project I’m working on now in San Antonio of the same vintage, and another one is coming up. I’ll do something with all of the salvaged items eventually, or piece them out to other renovators who can put them to good use.”
“I guess it’s not the same as leaving the hotel standing, but at least you’ll be saving parts of it, right?”
There it was. That smile. That animated expression. That look of sheer radiance when she talked about anything connected to history. For the first time since he’d walked into her office this afternoon, he saw a glimmer of the woman he’d met that warm, sunny afternoon in San Antonio.
“That’s better,” he said.
“What?”
“You’re smiling. I was beginning to think you’d forgotten how.”
She looked flustered and turned away.
“Don’t stop now,” he said.
“Jack—”
“History. You love it. We talked nonstop about it that day, remember? And the hotel we stayed in. That was a piece of history all by itself, wasn’t it?”
“I—I have to go to bed.”
He nodded. “Okay. I’ll see you in the morning.”
She looked at him suspiciously.
“Don’t worry, Rachel. As much as I’d like to join you, I’m not going to force my way into your bedroom.”
She seemed totally unconvinced of that. “You’re not?”
“No. Tonight I’ll just settle for the smile.”
She looked flustered all over again. She turned and disappeared into her bedroom, clicking the door shut behind her.
He found it amazing that a woman of her obvious professional capability could be so rattled by a tiny compliment. There was so much contradiction in her that he could probably take a year out of his life and still not figure it all out. Still, he had a feeling that it would be a year well spent.
She could try to fool him. She could wrap herself in that god-awful robe, or in wool from head to toe, put every hair in place and surround herself with hideous decor, but still he knew the truth. A passionate woman lurked beneath that cool surface, and he had exactly four days to get her to come out. And once she did, he’d never let her hide herself away again.
5
RACHEL SPENT MOST of the three-hour drive to Silver Springs, Colorado, with her stomach in turmoil. She’d barely slept last night. Just the thought of Jack being anywhere near her, even if he was in the other room, made visions of hot sex flash through her mind. And that was the last thing she needed to be thinking about.
Right now he was lounging comfortably in the passenger seat, as if they really were married and they really were going on a vacation, with a maddening attitude of total and complete nonchalance. But his attitude was the least of what was making her so uneasy right now. It was the physical aspect of the situation—sitting side by side with him in a closed-in space for hours—that was what was making her crazy.
Jack stood at least six foot two, with a body that said he was no stranger to physical activity. She remembered that his construction company was a small one, which meant he probably pitched right in beside his employees. An image formed in her mind of him working in the San Antonio heat, his body glistening with sweat, his T-shirt adhering to every muscle of his shoulders and chest, his biceps bulging…
Stop it.
Not once in her life had she allowed herself to succumb to the cliché of swooning over a sweaty man wielding power tools, yet here she was doing it. That kind of attraction was for people like her sister, who hopped into bed with any man with a hot body and a smooth come-on. Actually her sister married any man with a hot body and a smooth come-on. After Laura’s third divorce, Rachel thought maybe her sister ought to consider that possibly she was looking for the wrong characteristics in a prospective husband, but would she listen? Not a chance.
Still, being in such close quarters with Jack right now, Rachel couldn’t get that hunky-guy image out of her mind. Maybe that was because she knew that his work wasn’t the only thing he sweated over. She remembered a time when she’d sweated right along beside him. And beneath him. And above him. And—
She took a deep, calming breath. She had to get a grip here. It was time to focus. To plan. To make sure she did everything in her power to keep this man under control. Thinking about what he looked like naked only complicated an already complicated issue.
She’d coached Jack on the part he was getting ready to play, but true to his nature, all he did was make light of the whole thing, treating it as if it were a meaningless little game that her whole future wasn’t riding on. All it would take would be one slipup, and the whole world would know she’d lied about being married. And if that happened, she’d have no choice but to crawl into a hole somewhere and die of humiliation.
“Let’s go over it again,” she told him. “We were married two years ago in Austin—”
“We’ve been over it three times already. Once was plenty. Fortunately you don’t tell your co-workers much, so there wasn’t much for me to learn.”
“Just remember not to get freaked out if somebody refers to you as ‘doctor.”’
“Actually, Rachel, I don’t remember the last time I got freaked out about anything.”
She believed that. Wholeheartedly. Nothing bothered this man. It certainly didn’t bother him to join her on this trip when she’d made it absolutely clear that she didn’t want him to come. He just smiled and said he was coming anyway, which was enough to make her wish for a handful of antacid.
As they drove, a light, fluffy snow began to fall. She turned on her windshield wipers, slowing her speed on the winding road. Then, moments later, they rounded a curve, and The Summit came into view.
Since her company had designed it, she’d been up here several times already, but as usual it took her a moment to orient herself to its sudden presence on the mountain landscape. The Summit was a four-hundred-room hotel that connected to a shopping mall, several restaurants and nightclubs, all within walking distance of the ski slopes. It sprawled along a steep hillside, then spilled out into the edge of the valley
“Well,” Rachel said, “there it is. Impressive, isn’t it?”
Jack sat up straight, the strangest look coming over his face. “Uh…yeah. I’m having some strong impressions, all right.”
“What do you mean?”
“I thought the mountains were supposed to be bigger than the resort. You know. Way bigger.”
“Before you say too much negative about this place, I think you ought to know that my company designed it.”
“You’re kidding.”
“No. And I had a hand in it.”
“Just one hand? Maybe I could forgive that.”
“I worked mainly on the shopping mall. The atrium area in particular.”
“Ah. A shopping mall. How nice.” He said the words with unmistakable disgust.
“I take it you don’t like shopping malls.”
“Not when they screw up my view of the mountains.”
“Okay. It’s big. But the demographics were here for a major expansion. The client wanted to corner the market in Silver Springs.”
“I think they cornered the market for the entire state of Colorado.”
“Come on, Jack. Don’t be shy. Tell me what you really think.”
“I think it would look great on the Sunset Strip. Does it light up with neon at night?”
She pulled into a parking space near the lobby entrance of the hotel and brought her car to a halt. “No. It doesn’t light up with neon at night. Actually it’s quite beautiful.”
“I’ll have to take your word for that.”
“Our client’s studies showed that people like all the conveniences of home, including shopping malls. But you’ll notice,” she said, pointing toward the building, “there are log accents around the lobby entrance, and major landscaping was done to reincorporate the native flora.”
Jack unhooked his seat belt and faced her. “You sound like you’re giving a presentation to a client. If you want to sell me on the place, show me a ski slope, a stone fireplace, a comfortable sofa, any drink with hot rum in it, and lose all the bells and whistles.”
“My, you’re easy to please.”
“Oh, yeah. And I’ll need somebody to keep me warm.”
“That’s what the fireplace is for.”
“Nope. That wouldn’t keep me nearly as warm as I intend to be.”
“Then I suppose you’ll have to put on an extra sweater.”
“What I’ve got in mind involves taking clothes off, not putting them on.”
Rachel closed her eyes. Is this what it was going to be like for the next four days? Knowing Jack, there was no doubt about it.
But at the moment there was a more immediate danger to deal with: the possibility of running into her boss and co-workers with her imaginary husband at her side before she could get settled. But looking around the parking lot, then through the monstrous wall of glass into the lobby, she was relieved to see no one she knew.
“Let’s go check in,” she told Jack, opening her car door. “But be careful. I don’t see anyone from my office right now, but they could be anywhere. At anytime. We have to stay on our toes.”
“Will you take it easy? I can handle this. Let’s see…what was it again? We’ve been married ten years, three kids, house in the suburbs—”
“Jack!”
He slumped with resignation. “Rachel?”
“What?”
“We’re going to get along a lot better over the next four days if you quit taking every word I say seriously. Just lighten up, will you? Have fun?”
Fun. At this point, nothing on earth was further from her mind.
“If anything happens we don’t expect,” Jack went on, “we can just wing it.”
Wing it. For somebody who liked to lay out her clothes the night before, plan menus by the month and schedule dental appointments a year in advance, those two words struck fear in Rachel’s heart.
A bellhop strode to their car and welcomed them to the resort. Taking their luggage, he escorted them into the lobby. To Rachel’s immense relief, somehow they managed to check in, get their key and make it to the fourth floor without running into anyone she knew.
So far, so good.
She wanted to get into their room, close the door, then survey the schedule they’d been given at the front desk for their group’s activities over the next four days. With a little strategic planning, she and Jack could probably put in appearances here and there without actually having to interact in a significant way.
As they walked down the deserted hall toward their room, Rachel felt more at ease. Just the thought of planning made her feel calmer. Less anxious. More in control. Then Jack opened the door to their room, and her control flew right out the window.
It had a king-size bed, but she’d anticipated that. What she hadn’t anticipated was the fireplace. The balcony. The wet bar. The canopy over the bed that made it look like something out of an Egyptian harem.
And mirrors. Everywhere there were mirrors.
“This has to be a mistake,” she said. “I didn’t book this room!”
“You didn’t?”
“Of course not!”
She rushed into the bathroom and just about fainted. A whirlpool bathtub? A shower big enough for two? A bow-tied basket filled with massage oils? How could the hotel have screwed up like this? How? This was an environment made specifically for two people who wanted to do nothing but…
Oh.
Wait a minute.
She came out of the bathroom and saw Jack lounging casually on the sofa. Sure enough, there was the tiniest hint of a self-satisfied smirk on his face.
“You did this, didn’t you?” she asked.
He blinked innocently. “Me? What makes you think it was me?”
“Are you denying it? Are you denying that you changed this reservation?”
He shrugged. “I just kind of…upgraded it a little.”
“A little?” She looked at him with total disbelief. “When did you do it? Last night, after I went to bed?”
“I might have made a phone call.”
“This is unbelievable.”
“Hey, don’t worry! I’m paying the difference. It won’t cost Walter a dime.”
“You know that’s not the issue!”
“Then what is the issue?”
“The issue is that you’re trying to…trying to—”
“Seduce you?” he said.
“Yes!”
“Uh…yeah. And your point is…?”
She glared at him, then threw her overnight bag down on the bed and followed it with her purse, the two of them clapping together. This was what she got for taking her eyes off him, even for five lousy minutes. He was a menace. That was what he was. She spun back around, intending to let him have it all over again.
Then she looked at the sofa.
Ha. He thought he was so smart.
She took a deep breath, let it out slowly, peace descending on her. She smiled sweetly. “Never mind, Jack. Thank you very much. I appreciate your getting this room. It’s lovely.”
Her looked at her warily.
“Yes. I’d forgotten. These suites really are deluxe. They come with a fireplace, a balcony, a whirlpool bathtub, and…” She gave him a smug smile. “A very comfortable sofa.”
He sat up suddenly and looked down at the sofa, his own smile melting away.
“Which is where you’ll be sleeping,” she added.
“Now, wait a minute—”
“Sorry, Jack. You made your bed. Now you get to lie in it. Alone.”
His look of distress lasted only a moment before he settled back on the sofa again. “That’s okay.”
“It is?”
“Sure. Just because we don’t sleep together doesn’t mean we can’t do other things together.”
“You’re not getting this, Jack. When we’re alone in here, I don’t want you to touch me. I don’t even want you to come near me.”
He just smiled. She’d just told him he couldn’t have what he came here for, and all he could do was smile? Did he think she was kidding about this?
“You’re getting a free vacation here,” she said. “The least you can do is agree to one simple ground rule.”
“Actually that’s a very complicated ground rule. Sharing a hotel room with you and not touching you…” He let out a sigh of misery. “God, Rachel. I’m a man. We don’t do too well with restrictions like that.”
“Sorry, you’ll have to manage. When we’re in this room, you have to promise me that you won’t touch me.”
He sighed again. “Sure. No problem.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“You think I’m going to force myself on you? Is that what you think?”
“No, of course not. But—”
“If you say you don’t want me to touch you when we’re in here, then I won’t.”
“Good.” She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I’m glad we understand each other.”
“Of course we do. This has just become a no-touching zone.”
“That’s right.”
“Are you planning on posting a warning sign?”
“Do you think that’ll be necessary?”
He didn’t respond. He merely smiled again, with a glint in his eyes that worried her. What was he thinking? Or plotting, to be more exact?
Rachel picked up the schedule. “Okay. Let’s see. It says here that we’re supposed to meet everyone for dinner tonight in the main dining room. We’ll keep to ourselves as much as we can, then come back here as soon as we can. I want you to speak only when spoken to, and then as little as possible.”
“Sounds like a real minimalist approach to a good time.”
“We’re not going there to have a good time.”
“Then what are we going there for?”
“Because my boss expects us to be there.”
“Oh. Does he also expect us to be miserable?”
Rachel closed her eyes. She couldn’t believe this. Jack literally couldn’t wait to jump right into the middle of things to see if he could continue to pass himself off as her husband, while she was already shaking in her boots at the very thought of saying hello.
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