Читать книгу No Ring Required - Laura Wright - Страница 16

The airport was packed, but Mary maneuvered her way through the crowds with the fierce determination of a woman going to war. According to the itinerary Ethan’s secretary had sent over yesterday morning, the plan was to fly to Chicago, then to Pellston Airport in Michigan, then take a cab to the Mackinac Island ferry. After their declarations of mutual disgust for each other, Mary was more than a little shocked that she and Ethan would be traveling together. She could’ve easily caught her own flight and met him at the hotel, but he’d insisted they make the trip together.

After checking in and making it through security without a body search, Mary headed over to the gate to wait for Ethan. She winced as she slid her carryon bag off her shoulder and onto one of the hard plastic chairs.

The captain’s regatta gala had been successful yesterday, raising a huge amount of money for the Cancer Research Institute, but Mary had forgotten to apply a liberal coat of sunscreen and had managed to give herself quite a sunburn in the process. And the painful moments just kept coming as she spotted Ethan walking toward her, looking anything but the stuffy business traveler in a long-sleeved white shirt and jeans, his large frame and hawklike gaze sending people out of his way without a word from him.

“Ms. Kelley.”

Her body instantly betrayed her, her insides jumping with awareness at the sound of his voice. “Mr. Curtis.”

“You look well,” he said, barely glancing at her striped polo shirt and white cropped jeans.

“Ah…thanks,” she muttered with a touch of sarcasm.

Ignoring her tone, Ethan handed her a large envelope. “I’ve taken the liberty of providing a dossier on the potential clients we’re going to see. Their likes, dislikes, food preferences and hobbies.”

“Great.” Mary couldn’t help but notice all the wistful stares Ethan was getting from women walking past. No wonder he could be so arrogant.

“As far as staff to hire for the party goes,” he continued brusquely, “I have the name of the best—”

“I’ve already been in touch with several staff-for-hire agencies on the island,” Mary informed him proudly. “I know who I’m going to hire and have already spoken to most of the staff.”

The only sign that Ethan might be impressed by her actions was the slight lift of his brows. “You’re nothing if not on top of matters, are you?”

Mary couldn’t tell if his words were meant as a backhanded compliment or sexual innuendo, but she flashed him a defiant glance regardless. “I’m good at what I do, how about that?”

“Make-believe,” he muttered.

“Excuse me?”

“A wife-for-hire agency, Mary?” he stated, as if that said it all. “What is that but pretending to be someone else?”

Mary was silent for a moment, her ire moderated by observation. “You know, I think there’s hope for you yet, Curtis.”

“I guess it’s my turn to say, excuse me?”

“If you can recognize the phony in me, you’ll be able to see it in yourself soon enough.”

Before Ethan could even react to her words, a woman approached them with a plastered-on smile. “Mr. Curtis, you may board now if you wish. The first-class cabin is ready.”

“Thank you.”

Ready to follow him, Mary shouldered her bag. “Should I go with you or are we boarding separately?”

A slow grin touched Ethan’s mouth, and he nodded at her boarding pass. “Better check your seat assignment first.”

Confused, Mary looked down at the ticket in her hand. When she looked back up, Ethan was already on his way toward the gate. How lovely, she mused. While he got pampered with warm towels and chocolate chip cookies in first class, she was going to share a bathroom with forty other passengers in coach.

“What’s wrong with your neck?” Ethan asked her once they were aboard the ferry and headed for Mackinac Island.

“It’s nothing,” she grumbled.

“Nothing my ass,” he countered as they walked the length of the deck and back again. “You’re moving like a robot.”

Ethan was just full of compliments, and she felt like socking him. “It’s just a pulled muscle. No big deal.”

“You can’t meet clients like that.”

“It’ll pass, okay? Relax.”

“How did it happen?”

The wind off the water whipped Mary’s hair around her neck as she tried to pick up her pace and shake off the stiffness in her limbs. “Do you really care? Why don’t you go inside and have a cup of coffee or a bourbon or something and let me work out these kinks myself.”

“I care, okay?” he said dryly. “What the hell happened on the flight?”

She sighed, stopped in her tracks and faced him. “A very large man decided to take a nap on my shoulder, and no amount of pushing and prodding and poking would wake him up. I was stuck in this insanely awkward position for two hours. I wonder if they have a chiropractor on the island.”

Ethan stared at her.

“What?” she asked.

“You poked someone?”

She sighed with heavy patience. “It was just with the eraser end of a pencil.” But, oh, how she had wanted to do so much more. “Little good it did. It only made him snore harder. And don’t even get me started with the lady on my right.”

“Did you poke her, too?”

“No, but I thought about it.” Mary pressed a hand to her lower back and stretched out her spine a little.

“Wanted to tell you her life story?”

“No. But that would’ve been okay, life story I could’ve handled. I can work up a good conversation with a stranger.” Her memory of the woman was pretty fresh and a wave of nausea hit her full-on. “No, this was a lack-of-deodorant thing.”

Amusement played behind his eyes. “I’m not going to feel sorry for you.”

“Who asked you to?” she returned playfully, using every ounce of will to make herself start walking again.

“You belonged in coach.”

She gave him a mock bow. “I know that, Mr. Curtis. I’m an employee, and I’m cool with that. In work and in life I know who I am and where I belong, and I fully accept it.” She couldn’t help herself, the words just fell out. “Unlike other people.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” he asked as they reached the railing.

Only wanting to make a quick dig, not have a full-on fight, Mary glanced over the edge to the choppy sea below and tried to deflect. “Look at that water.”

Ethan wasn’t having any of it. Not that she expected him to. “Don’t go all female on me, Mary.”

Mary considered. “I don’t think that was as much female as it was passive-aggressive.”

“Whatever it was, just say what you’ve got to say,” he said impatiently.

She exhaled and turned to face him. “This is just a thought, but maybe if you’d stop trying to be something you’re not, you could actually enjoy your success. Maybe you wouldn’t have to resort to blackmailing people into doing what you want. They might come willingly.”

He grinned then, his gaze moving lazily over her. “If I remember correctly you came very willingly.”

“Don’t be crude.”

He shrugged, looking like a bad little boy. “I was talking about coming to work for me. But I like where your dirty mind goes, Ms. Kelley.”

“If you remember correctly, working for you was something I fought tooth and nail.”

“I remember you giving in pretty quickly, actually, as though you wanted to be as close to me as I wanted to be to you.”

Were they always going to end up here? Mary wondered. Bantering back and forth, both wanting to out-smart and outplay the other. And to what end…? It was only a few more days. “All I’m saying is that if you’d accept who you are and where you came from maybe you could be happy.”

“Who says I want to be happy?”

“Everyone’s looking for happiness, in some form or another.”

“Not me.”

She ignored him. “The problem is you’re going about it the wrong way.”

He gave his back to the water and lounged against the railing. “And you know the way to true happiness, Mary?”

No, but…“I’m trying. I’m sure as hell trying.” She cocked her head to the left to look at the island as it came into view and felt a searing pain in her neck. She groaned.

Ethan cursed softly. “You can hardly turn your head.”

“I’m fine. Nothing that a hot shower and a massage won’t cure.”

He touched her shoulder. “You know, I’d offer to help you with both of those forms of physical therapy, but—”

“But you pretty much hate me right now,” she answered, trying to ignore the heat from his hand.

“Nope, that logic doesn’t matter so much for a guy.”

She tried to look shocked, but laughter quickly bubbled in her throat. “Okay, so what is it, then? You can’t help me take a shower because I can’t stand you?”

He considered this for about two seconds. “Ah…no. A guy can get past that sad fact, too.”

She laughed again.

His voice lowered to a sexy timbre. “And you don’t hate me, Mary.”

His arrogance and unflinching confidence could be a real pain in the ass sometimes, especially when his assumptions were right on target. “Well, so what is it, then? Don’t tell me you won’t assist my shower time out of some misplaced sense of duty.”

“No.” He faced the coming island and looked pensive. “I’m just afraid it might make me happy, and as I said, I’m not looking for that.”

The Birches was an authentic 1890s Queen Anne Victorian, and when Mary first stepped inside the entryway, she thought she’d fallen asleep and woken up in a dream—or at the very least a movie. The nine-bedroom, six-bath original Victorian had beautifully restored hardwood floors, luscious paneled ceilings, three fireplaces, extensive property, and from the wraparound porch, a panoramic view of the Straits of Mackinac, Round Island, Mackinac Bridge and the Grand Hotel.

She couldn’t even imagine how much it cost to rent such a place. Harold, the real estate agent Ethan had used for their trip, gestured gleefully around himself. “Here we are, Mr. Curtis. Beautiful home, isn’t it.”

“Nice,” Ethan said unenthusiastically as he checked his Blackberry.

Poor Harold looked so dejected that Mary felt compelled to offer up her best smile. “Well, I think it’s lovely.”

He gave her a grateful look. “It was rumored that Rudolph Valentino and Nita Naldi stayed here at one time.”

“Really?”

“Right after Blood and Sand.”

“Wasn’t Valentino married?”

Harold nodded and said conspiratorially, “To two women, actually. He hadn’t yet divorced the other.”

“I hate silent films,” Ethan muttered, checking his e-mail.

Mary rolled her eyes at Harold. “So, where am I staying?”

Before Harold could even open his mouth, Ethan jumped in with, “I arranged for you to have the house next door.”

“What?” Mary looked from Ethan to Harold and back again. “A whole house? Come on, Curtis. I thought I’d just get a hotel room close by.”

Harold cleared his throat, his neck growing as red as a ripe tomato as he tried to make eye contact with Ethan. “Actually, sir, we had an emergency, and the family staying there had to remain on. But,” he said, brightening, “we have a lovely suite for Ms. Kelley across town at the Mackinac Inn.”

“That will be fine,” Mary said pleasantly, but she could feel Ethan already shaking his head.

“No, it won’t,” he informed her. “We have work to do, and you need to be here. Across town…” he said in a tone that sounded as though she were going to stay somewhere in Paris. “You can’t even get anywhere around here without a horse or a bicycle. It’ll take forever.”

“Sir,” Harold attempted deferentially. “I assure you that on an island so small, transportation is quick and very easy to—”

Ethan ignored him, his gaze hard and fixated on Mary. “You’ll stay with me.”

She was getting awfully tired of Ethan Curtis’s demands. “No way.”

“This house is large enough for ten people,” he said.

“Again. No way.”

He scowled. “You’re acting like a child.”

“I’m acting like a professional. Forget for a moment how it looks and feels to me, but how would it look to your clients if the woman you hired is also staying in the home you rented?”

He shrugged. “Practical.”

“No.” She lowered her voice as Harold pretended to inspect a wall sconce. “Like she’s also being hired for another purpose.”

They stared at each other, a haze of lust blanketing Ethan’s expression. Mary felt helpless, weak for a moment as a quick shiver shot through her. She tried to control the sudden pounding of her heart, until finally the look on Ethan’s face dissolved.

“You’re being paranoid,” he said roughly. “This is business. I’ll have offices here and so will you. You can take the entire second floor and I’ll remain down here. Barring business, we never have to see each other.”

Mary sighed. She didn’t want to argue the point anymore, and poor, miserable Harold had all but tried to crawl up inside the wall sconce and disappear. She would figure out her situation on her own. “All right, Harold. Can you show me upstairs?”

The man released a weary breath and started up the stairs. “There are some beautiful rooms to choose from and incredible views of the water.”

Before she followed him, Ethan put his hand on her shoulder. “Make sure you get that shower. You’re still walking like a robot.” Then he leaned in, whispered in her ear, “And if you need any help…”

Yes, she’d have to find another arrangement as soon as possible. Just the warmth of Ethan’s hand made her want to curl into him, nuzzle his neck and remove his shirt, but she detached herself anyway, and followed the agent up the stairs. “Hey, Harold, how old is this house did you say?”

“It was built in 1891, but everything’s been updated for your convenience.”

“Like the plumbing?”

“Of course.”

“And locks on the doors?”

“Every one of them, miss.”

She heard Ethan chuckle below, and the sound shot to every nerve, every muscle, every spot that ached for his touch.