Читать книгу Tall, Dark And Daring - Joanne Rock - Страница 10

HE’D KEPT the love seat.

No matter how much she tried to concentrate on developing a marketing plan, that one thought kept recurring in her brain.

Tessa paced the suite bedroom in her towel as she read over Mitch’s file for the third time since her bubble bath.

Why had he moved the love seat into his offices? Didn’t he remember what they had shared on that glorified pine bench? Or worse, what if he did?

Berating herself for her lack of focus, she planned her strictly business approach to tonight’s meeting. She could do this. She had to.

If she could keep things professional between them for one week, she’d fulfill the dare and she’d be free and clear of Mitch, of Lake Placid, of her marketing job. She could start fresh with her sedate life next Monday, go online with her small clothing venture and forget this entire mishap.

Forget Mitch?

She tossed the file on the dresser and turned to the wrinkled clothing selections in her suitcase. Why had she ever agreed to spend the last week of her job in Lake Placid?

As she combed out her damp hair, Tessa noticed her watch read six-thirty. She had just enough time to rest her eyes before her appointment with Mitch at seven. She deserved a few minutes of downtime after her ten-hour trek to the Adirondacks and three-hour cramming session to develop Mitch’s marketing plan. She’d been running on too little sleep all weekend.

Flinging aside her towel, Tessa slid between the taut sheets of the hotel bed and smiled. She snuggled into the embrace of flannel blankets and down pillows and tried not to think how much better her free time would be spent right now if she had a gorgeous man to massage her feet. A gorgeous man with gray eyes and the power to steal her breath.

Tessa squeezed her eyes closed more tightly, hoping to will away images of Mitch. Still, the tickle of cool sheets against her bare skin sent her mind on a vivid replay of this afternoon’s meeting. Especially the first few minutes when he’d been soaking wet and half naked. All those hours on the slopes had given him a washboard stomach and thighs like iron.

If memory served—and she knew darn well it did—the rest of him was equally impressive.

Of course she shouldn’t be visualizing her client in the buff. She wouldn’t get involved with an adrenaline addict again, not when she’d promised herself she would embark on a new era in her life starting with her business venture next week.

She’d been so hung up on Mitch after she left Lake Placid the first time, she’d ended up married to a man eerily similar to him two years afterward. Her husband had seemed like a reserved man with a quiet banking job, but he’d sought his thrills in the stock market. He’d bankrupted himself, filched Tessa’s credit card and run off with a wealthy figure skater before Tessa knew what hit her.

Too bad things hadn’t worked out with fiancé number two. Rob had seemed so safe. So rooted.

So colorless compared to Mitch.

Yawning, she pulled the bedside clock radio on to her pillow and turned up the volume to prevent herself from sleeping. Why did she have to be attracted to such reckless men?

Oh, well. None of that mattered right now while she snuggled in the nest of blankets. She didn’t have enough time to nap, and the dreamy love song on the radio defeated the purpose of music in her ear, so she spun the dial until she found a polka station and cranked the volume to full blast.

No way would she sleep now.

Or so she thought until she lost herself in sensual dreams. She could feel the heat of Mitch’s hands upon her body, breathe the scent of his skin. They lay entwined on the old love seat in the library, their bodies a tangle of hungry limbs. The back of the love seat knocked a seductive rhythm against the wall.

Knock. Knock.

The sound transmuted, mingling with strains of Lawrence Welk.

“Tessa!” Mitch called her name. Too bad the hoarse cry sounded more like a shout of worry than one of ecstasy.

Knock. Knock.

“Tessa!” The object of her dreams shouted to her in time with an accordion riff blaring in her head.

She tried to blink her way out of her dream.

The door to her bedroom flew open. Mitch and a middle-aged woman in a maid’s uniform burst into her room.

“Are you all right?” Mitch’s brow creased in worry. He seated himself beside her and gently shook her bare shoulder. He flipped off the accordion. “The room next door complained about the noise. Sorry about busting in here, but I got worried when you didn’t answer the phone.”

A shiver tripped through Tessa at his touch. Her dreams were still too close to the surface for her to hide her reaction to him.

The little maid peeked around Mitch, biting her lip. “She looks okay. Perhaps she was only tired.”

“Thank God.” His gaze pierced Tessa so deeply she feared he could read her recent wanton thoughts. She might have yanked the covers over her head to escape him if he hadn’t turned away then.

“Sorry to have bothered you, Daniela.” He nodded to the maid. “Tell your son we’ll resume our practice schedule next week. Joey is really turning into a pro on his snowboard.”

The woman beamed with maternal pride. “He looks up to you so much. Thank you for all you do for him.”

Tessa blinked again as the maid left. She tried to gather her thoughts. “What time is it?”

He dropped down to sit on the edge of the bed and waved the clock radio in front of her nose. “It’s quarter past seven. I was just starting to wonder if you were going to keep our appointment when I got a call about the noise up here.”

Her sleepiness evaporated as the full impact of Mitch’s presence in her bedroom hit home. He sat so close his thigh pressed against her waist and hip. In light of the awareness zinging through her, the goose down comforter separating them seemed as substantial as a bargain brand tissue.

She was definitely not dreaming.

“I guess I fell asleep.” Too many cross-country trips for her clients. Too many Jell-O shots the other night. Only one more week and she’d reclaim her life.

He barely suppressed a laugh. “How could anyone fall asleep to the musical stylings of a German oom-pah band?”

She wriggled a few inches away from him in a vain attempt to halt the hormonal overload his thigh had instigated. The fact that she was naked beneath the sheets didn’t help matters, either. If she had to stand much more of this, she’d be wrestling Mitch to the mattress in no time.

“Sorry I’m late.” She tried to discreetly pull the covers closer to her chin. “If you give me five minutes, I’ll meet you downstairs.”

She hoped he would take the hint and go before she spontaneously combusted.

“Are you sure you’re up to it?” He skimmed his hand over her forehead and leaned closer, a wolfish grin spreading over his face. “You feel kind of warm to me.”

He didn’t know the half of it.

Those long fingers called to mind the nights he had touched her, teased her in ways she hadn’t experienced before or since.

Heat kicked through her even though she wasn’t about to let herself be swayed. “I’m fine. I’ll be in the lobby in no time.”

She waited for him to leave, a prisoner of her nakedness under the covers.

He straightened but remained on the bed.

Mitch stilled his questing fingers, but his eyes were as predatory as ever. “Just out of curiosity, what have you got on under there?”

Every nerve ending leaped to life at his pretended interest, yet she would be damned if she would acknowledge it. Besides, she could handle his teasing. This was much easier than his caring.

“It’s really none of your business.” It strained her dignity to look coolly professional when she had a rat’s nest for a hairdo and had no choice but to lie down.

“I notice your bathrobe is hanging on the back of the door.” His voice turned husky and low as he jerked his thumb toward the length of navy blue terry cloth. “My guess is that it’s a hell of a lot less than that.”

Her skin tingled. Still, she pointed toward the exit. “I want you to go now.”

“Do you really?”

No.

“Yes.” She forced a determination into her voice she definitely didn’t feel.

“If we were playing our old truth or dare game right now, Tessa, I think I’d have to penalize you for fibbing.” He trailed a finger along her bare shoulder and then skimmed the length of her arm.

The touch reverberated through her, tickling nerves all the way to her thighs.

Lava streamed through her veins at the memory of past penalties. Mitch had been so very inventive….

But as delicious as those memories might be, Tessa had a job to do. She would never get it done by drooling over a man whose idea of commitment was to hire a management staff for his hotel property while he hopped the globe and broke hearts.

“I’m not here to play games this time, Mitch.”

The quiet seriousness in her voice seemed to call him from his teasing flirtation.

He scrubbed his hand over his forehead and nodded. “You’re right.”

She realized how unfulfilling being right could be when she experienced a rush of aching loss as he backed away from the bed.

He held up his hands in mock surrender. “No games this time.”

“No games.” Clutching the sheet more tightly to her, she assured herself that’s what she wanted.

Mitch had nearly reached the door when he paused at the dresser to examine a sheaf of papers she’d left there. “Can I take your Mogul Ryders file to occupy myself until you come downstairs?”

He scooped up her papers and began leafing through them.

“Could you wait with that? I’ll only be five minutes.”

Engrossed in the file, he barely acknowledged her. “See you then,” he mumbled, folder in hand. He shuffled to the door as he read, seemingly oblivious to Tessa’s protest that her notes were still too rough for his review.

At last the outer door finally closed.

Frustrated he’d absconded with her work, but very happy to have escaped the temptation of his presence, Tessa breathed a sigh of relief.

That was close.

Much too close.

How was she ever going to stay out of Mitch’s bed when she’d found herself naked with him inside their first twenty-four hours together?

She headed to her suitcase to choose her most conservative suit for their business dinner. After the close encounter in her bed, she needed a no-nonsense armor to ward off any stray charm he might fling her way.

Because no matter how appealing Mitch might be, Tessa had no intention of failing in her dare. She’d conquered the bunny hop, by God. She could darn well keep her hands off an overgrown playboy for one week.

MITCH WATCHED Tessa storm into the lobby about fifteen minutes after he left her room. He’d had just enough time to read over the file she had told him not to touch.

He could tell by the gray tweed suit and the all-business French twist of her hair that she was mad. The stern set to her jaw and the pursed lips reinforced the impression. But he could not compel himself to regret filching her file on Mogul Ryders. The marketing plan she’d sketched out for his enterprise was ingenious.

He handed over the sheaf of papers as a peace offering. “You’re brilliant.”

“You’re a thief.” She snatched it out of his hand and tucked it under one arm.

So much for charming her. “Sorry, Tessa. You hadn’t even closed the folder. Once it caught my attention, I could hardly put it down.”

“You shouldn’t have been in my room to start with,” she grumbled.

He would bet she had no idea how the damp hair curling in sexy waves around her neck defeated the rest of her uptight hairdo.

“I suppose you would have been happier if I’d let you go deaf? C’mon, Tessa.” He nodded toward the front doors, eager to pick that sharp brain of hers. “Let’s have some trout and start this evening all over again. You can wow me with your plans.”

Thankfully, she seemed to forget her annoyance once they got outside. Tessa was like a kid in the snow. She held out her hand to catch the snowflakes and tilted her nose in the air to let them fall on her cheeks. She even forgave him enough to take his arm as they crossed the slippery parking lot. She’d traded in her heels for black leather boots that hugged her calves.

He tried not to think about the legs inside the leather. He needed to focus on learning everything he could from her about promoting his company. This venture embodied all his hopes for the future. He couldn’t afford to foul up another career since his professional snowboarding days had run amok.

She seemed more relaxed while discussing business over dinner, although Mitch questioned his wisdom at bringing her for a walk down memory lane at MacRae’s. The café had an outdoor service window that accessed the ice pond. He and Tessa had once skated up for cocoa before heading back to his place….

And he really shouldn’t think about that now. He grilled her about marketing in an effort to distract himself. When he was thoroughly satisfied she knew exactly how to handle his account, he paid the check and ushered her outside.

“It’s no wonder you’re at the top of your field, Tessa,” he remarked as they stepped into the crisp night air. “I can’t believe you put all those plans together in a few hours.”

Another inch of snow had fallen in the time they’d eaten dinner. Mitch knew he shouldn’t court temptation by keeping company with her any longer, but she eyed the frozen pond and the skaters with open longing. He could empathize. Lake Placid in the winter seemed like a Christmas card come to life.

He nodded toward the bench near MacRae’s skate-through window. “Want to watch?”

Shades of the adventurous Tessa flashed in her wide grin. “Sure. Cocoa’s on me.”

As she paid for the steaming beverages, strains from the restaurant’s lone guitar player drifted through the skate-up window to serenade them.

“Don’t be too impressed with my work, by the way,” she remarked as they seated themselves on the rough-hewn plank that served for a bench.

He blew on his cocoa and watched the steam curl into dancing white wisps in the cold air. “You’re being modest.”

She shook her head. “Hardly. I had the office fax me a lot of the contact names and the links for the Web site we’ll make for you.” She shrugged, as if compiling fifty pages worth of resources had been no big deal. “We’ll hit your target audience with an interactive, flashy site. Between that and the other ideas, we’ll get a broad range of exposure.”

He believed her. And felt relieved for the first time in months. He’d been so worried about taking his company to a new level that he hadn’t been able to really relax in ages. But somehow Tessa’s conviction rubbed off on him. With her by his side, he could make his new venture a success. It had been easy to buy the Hearthside, which had been a well-run business to start. The self-sufficient hotel would never give him the same degree of satisfaction as getting his snowboard business off the ground.

“So why did you leave Tahoe?” she asked between delicate sips of hot chocolate.

He stared at the tiny rim of foam on her top lip. Eight years ago he could have leaned over and licked it off. He wondered what she would do if he tried it now. “Too young. Too full of X Games wannabes.”

She licked her lip, sending shockwaves of primal hunger right through him.

“You mean too many youthful Mitch Ryders.”

The guitar player inside launched into “Bad Moon Rising.” Mitch knew half the kids in Tahoe would think Credence Clearwater Revival was an environmental movement. “I was never that young.”

Tessa snorted.

“I take it you disagree?”

“You used to be pretty wild.”

The key words being used to be, Mitch thought with disgust. Since his accident, he hadn’t even hit the top of Whiteface. He still spent some time showing the local kids the tricks and twists that had once put him at the top of his game, but he’d never have the edge that he used to. Fortunately, he had a new game to conquer, a new field to dominate. The business world.

And as long as he had Tessa to help him, he would be on top in no time.

He groaned at the image. On top.

He definitely didn’t need to think about how much Tessa liked being on top.

Tessa watched Mitch stare at the stars and wondered what he was thinking. He didn’t seem to want to talk about the past, but Tessa didn’t want to leave their winter wonderland just yet.

While she was thinking of a way to linger, a boy broke free from the skating pack and careened toward them.

“Look out!” he shouted, his face contorting into a theatrical version of fear.

“Hey, Joey,” Mitch called. “No pratfalls over my guest.”

Seconds before slamming into their bench, the boy regained control, gliding to a stop beside Mitch.

“Pretty good, huh?” The kid tried to play it cool, but he looked at Mitch with undisguised hero worship in his eyes.

Garbed in the garish colors the snowboard crowd favored, the boy looked to be somewhere between eight and ten years old.

Mitch ruffled the boy’s hair. “Did your mother tell you I’m busy this week with business?”

Joey grinned. “That’s okay, I think I’ve got all the moves down.”

“Yeah, right. Stay out of trouble this week and I’ll take you to Whiteface next week when I have some time.”

“Really?” The boy’s cool facade vanished, and his voice was pitched a notch higher.

“Really. Now take yourself off so I can get some work done.” Mitch gave the kid a nudge and sent him cruising backward on his skates.

Tessa watched the exchange with interest, curious about the ties Mitch seemed to have to the community. He’d been more of a wanderer when she’d first met him.

“That’s Daniela’s son,” he explained. A smile played about his mouth. “You remember, the maid who was with me when I came into your room when you were, um…”

He touched her shoulder and skimmed his fingers down the length of her arm, a vivid reminder of the caress he’d given her earlier when only a blanket had separated her naked body from him.

Tessa straightened, prepared to curtail any flirting before it started. “He seems very nice.” She searched for a new conversational route before Mitch could look at her with that teasing light in his eyes again. “So where are you living now? At the hotel?”

He had dropped the subject of Tahoe and his accident so fast she hadn’t figured out where he called home at the moment.

“I got a good deal on a log cabin a mile up the road from the inn.”

“You bought it?”

“You sound surprised.”

She shrugged. “I can’t picture you settling down in one place.”

“I’m grounded for awhile.”

His grimace made it clear he found the idea of staying put as painful as the monstrous fall that stalled his former career two years ago.

“It’s been a long time since I read the article about your accident, Mitch.” She’d practically memorized it, actually. Yet she wanted to hear his version. “What happened?”

“Stupidity.”

She wouldn’t press. She watched a family of skaters clutch one another as they giggled and wobbled their way around the pond. The crisp scratch and skritch of the blades on ice reminded Tessa of the home-wrecking figure skater her husband ran off with. But sitting here under a snow-speckled velvet sky with Mitch, the thought didn’t rankle as much as it had in the past.

“I caught a lot of pop coming off the pipe,” Mitch finally explained.

She made the time-out sign with her hands. “I don’t know if I can interpret snowboard-ese anymore.”

“I had too much height over one of the banks at a Swiss meet.” He gestured with his hands, using his cocoa for the bank and his free hand for the snowboard. The snowboard hand sailed above the foam cup. “I should have limited my moves to something simple so I could have regained control, but I had been on fire all day.”

Tessa remembered all too well what Mitch was like when he was on fire. On the slopes, it had meant he owned the course.

In her bed, it had meant she’d be smiling for days.

“Let me guess. You used the height to do something outrageous and reckless.”

“I got spinning so fast.” He maneuvered the snowboard hand into a single snowboard finger and demonstrated it twirling around and around in the rising steam from the cup. “Observers say I spun well over a thousand degrees. Guys frequently spin nine hundreds or ten-twenties, but this was beyond that.”

Tessa cringed. How could he be proud of an accident that nearly killed him? “And you lost control?”

He frowned and stared at his pantomimed performance as if he didn’t know where to move the players next. “More like I lost concentration for a fraction of a second. I think I let myself enjoy the moment for an instant, and in that nanosecond, I miscalculated the landing.”

He allowed the finger snowboarder to fall over and careen downward past the cocoa cup to land in a heap on the wooden bench. “I didn’t just hit the pipe and fall, I flew butt over boot heels halfway down the mountain.” He shook his head as his gaze turned from the drama of his fingers and locked on her. “I lost control.”

The regret she discerned in his eyes almost made her want to throw her carefully constructed professional persona to the wind and reach out to him.

But she refused to dare anything more with this man.

She had another dare she planned to honor, and it involved thinking with her head instead of her heart.

“I’m sorry, Mitch.” Too late, she realized her voice conveyed all the emotions she had sought to suppress. The throaty whisper reverberated in the silence like the echo of a far-off church bell.

Embarrassed by her transparent feelings, she stared downward, only to spy his hand laying on the bench beside her thigh. Almost touching.

He yanked it back after a moment and drained his cocoa. “It was a good lesson,” Mitch declared, crinkling the cup and tossing it into a nearby trash can with a hook shot. “I’m more cautious now. I have a business of my own and employees to consider. I can’t afford to be reckless anymore.”

Tessa chose her words with care. “You’ve invested a lot of yourself into Mogul Ryders.” He might be creating some stability with his business. Yet she’d be willing to bet if given a snowboard or skis—or a meaningful relationship, for that matter—he’d be as impulsive as ever.

“It means everything to me, Tessa.” He leaned forward with his elbows on his knees, eyeing the action on the ice like a benchwarmer eager to get in the game. “That’s why I’m so glad you’re going to help me get the new product line off the ground. You’ve got the expertise I need.”

“Westwood Marketing has a great team. They’ll make sure your line makes an impressive debut.” She knew her first pang of regret about leaving her firm next week. A part of her would have liked to supervise the implementation of her plans for Mitch’s company.

“Your firm has quite a reputation. But it’s you I trust.” He winked.

A warning buzzer went off in Tessa’s head. She had to make certain he understood that she wouldn’t be part of the package after Friday. “Of course, my contribution is complete once your plan is polished and approved.”

Mitch straightened. The music from inside MacRae’s stopped, and the dinner crowd applauded. “What do you mean?”

Silence surrounded them but for the scrape of blades on the ice and the far-off giggles of the skaters. The falling snow insulated them from the rest of the world.

“I’m leaving my firm. Setting up the marketing plan for Mogul Ryders is my last project.”

Mitch’s jaw flexed in silent testament to his vexation. “Why? They don’t pay you enough? Because I can hire you—”

“No.” She didn’t care to hear how much he needed her brains when he’d never had any need for her heart. “It’s not that. It’s the pace. I don’t want to spend all my free time in airports anymore.”

He clasped her shoulders in his hands. Logically, she knew his skin must be cold from their time outdoors. His touch sent heat waves through her anyhow.

“But this is big, Tessa. This is my whole life.”

He’d said much the same thing to her eight years ago when he asked her to trot the globe with him while he chased his dreams on the pro circuit. She hadn’t been able to make him happy then, either.

“I’m sorry, Mitch. I’ve already given my notice.”

“How much longer will I have you?”

She knew he didn’t mean the question in the provocative way her ears heard it. That didn’t stop the shiver that tripped through her in response.

She took a deep breath and told herself she only had a few days to endure the sensual torment of just being in the same room with him. She could do this.

Braving his gaze, she repeated the motivational mantra she had been using to fulfill Ines’s dare. “I leave in just one week.”