Chapter Two
The helicopter took off without Caroline while she fell into step with her former lover. He walked her around the outside of the hotel. When they came to a line of employee golf carts, he climbed into one and gestured for her to join him.
She did so, eager to learn the bad along with the sugar-coated press releases. She’d left Javier for a reason.
They circled the premises for an hour as he explained the workings of the resort, the chores the guests could help with, and the available activities. In between fun, games, and pampering, he’d created a real working ranch, regardless of whether the customers discerned a difference.
While she debated throwing her name into the hat of candidates for the president of operations position, he stopped the cart in front of a bar disguised as a wooden ranch house. The large rocking chairs on the front porch served as outdoor seating, giving patrons a full view of the stables.
“I need to run home and shower, so I can at least shake your hand. The bar is air-conditioned, if you don’t mind waiting here.” He spoke to her with the polite distance of an acquaintance.
“Sounds perfect.” Yet, disappointment plagued her as she followed him across the smooth wooden planks to the front door. This man meant so much more to her than a colleague or congenial stranger. She missed the intimate connection they’d once shared.
Pulling the door open, he called across the room, “Mac, the lady can have whatever she wants.”
“Anything?” the burly bartender asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Anything,” he repeated with absolute certainty, pinning her with his gaze. Her disillusionment vanished, and she shivered with anticipation. For her conscience’s sake, she should have worked her engagement into their earlier small talk.
A traitorous part of her never wanted him to know.
“What would you like?” the bartender asked, as Javier left her alone.
Strolling over, she sat on a stool. “Iced tea, please. Have you worked here long, Mac?”
“Since the boss opened the doors.”
A loyal employee. Caroline smiled. “He’s created an amazing place.”
“He envisioned combining a working man’s world with high class luxury.” The barman handed her a tall glass with a lemon wedged on the rim. “To tell you the truth, I didn’t think it would work, but he proved me wrong.”
She squeezed the lemon into the glass, grateful to have something to occupy her hands as second guessing invaded her thoughts. Would he have made their relationship work against the odds, too? Wondering how far away he was at the moment, she changed the subject. “So where do you all live? Is there a town close by?”
“Twenty miles. A lot of us live there. Some commute farther. My wife and I live in the country. A few ranch hands stay on the premises.”
“Javier is one of them?” She still knew him well enough to be confident he’d live on site, despite his responsibilities extending beyond those of a simple ranch hand.
“He has his own place, two buildings over. Don’t even think about going there,” Mac warned. “In all the time I’ve been here, he’s never taken anyone inside with him—no employees, not his friends, nor a single girlfriend.”
She bit her tongue to keep from asking about his current girlfriend status. None of her business. Anyway, having never invited her to his house, a relationship couldn’t be serious.
She shifted uncomfortably on the stool. Despite welcoming Blake in her physical house, their relationship cruised on a superficial level. She never let him inside her psyche, and he showed no interest in checking it out. Yet the pending wedding pointed to a more serious relationship. If she critiqued Javier’s intimacy levels, she needed to examine her own.
A family entered through the front door, pulling her from her uneasy musings. The parents ordered drinks and snacks, and Caroline chatted with the kids. From the East Coast, they’d enjoyed their ranch vacation so much the previous year, they’d returned as repeat customers.
The kids’ contagious enthusiasm combined with their parents’ high praise for the staff sent her into another spiral of wishful thinking. If only she’d been part of building her and Javier’s dream destination from the ground up.
The mentality at Sunburst Hotels shunned big dreams. Her innovations had been stifled from the start. Life with Blake would be little more than an exercise in maintaining the status quo.
After the family took their food to the porch, another couple came in and ordered margaritas.
“We’re on our honeymoon,” the lady announced. Her husband splayed his hand across her ass, and she kissed him fully on the lips then straddled him on the bar stool.
Their public display of affection stabbed Caroline with longing. In a week, she, too, would be on her honeymoon but couldn’t imagine acting so unrestrained with Blake, even in private.
“You know, we’re going to take a rain check on those drinks.” The groom lifted his giggling bride in his arms and staggered for the door.
“Newlyweds,” Mac muttered, more amused than annoyed, pushing the couple’s abandoned cocktails toward her. “On the house.”
“No thanks.” Raising the iced tea to her lips, she tried to remember acting so embarrassingly lovesick. Memories flashed so swiftly and vividly, she reached for the nearest margarita to blur them.
Javier came into focus anyway. He strode into the bar, radiating his ever-present aura of raw sexuality. Freshly showered, with dark, wet hair curling around his ears and broad shoulders stretching his clean cowboy shirt, he epitomized everything she found irresistible in a man.
Arriving in the helicopter, she’d looked down over the oasis created in an endless plain of land and sky, and fallen in love. After an hour touring the grounds, her affection had cemented into a need to make herself one with the place, and she’d considered interviewing for the top job to run the resort. But working for Javier would never be just a job. And living so close to him, she’d never remain faithful to anyone else.
His exhaustion hadn’t left him too tired to respond to a woman. The purely feminine appreciation in Caroline’s eyes as he walked toward her stirred his awareness and long-suppressed need. Unfortunately, Madame Eve had picked the worst time to set him up with a one-night stand. No matter how perfect the date he had yet to meet, he only wanted the woman who’d stolen his teenage heart.
He offered his right hand. “I’m finally presentable enough for a handshake.”
Curling her fingers around his, she flooded him with heat until he damn near forgot what he planned to interrogate her about.
“Thanks for keeping me company, Mac.” She tipped her head toward his bartender then rose from her stool, leaving her drinks behind with a folded bill discretely tucked under one coaster.
People didn’t end up sipping frou-frou drinks at his resort because they were passing through and needed a place to crash for the night. No, she’d shown up deliberately and very much alone in her fancy-schmancy helicopter, clueless about the job opening.
Was she trying to rub her wealth in his face? He immediately discarded the notion and not because his worth had surpassed her parents’. She’d never put stock in riches and social status, even when everyone else, including him, believed she could do better than him.
He led her to the seclusion of the stable then spun to face her. “Are you buttering up my employees to gather secrets about my resort so you can undermine my success and create your own for Sunburst Hotels?”
She blinked, her blue eyes owlish and innocent. “You think I arrived in a helicopter and announced my presence to the entire county to engage in corporate espionage? Granted, I don’t have any prior experience, but I think I’d take the under-the-radar approach. Arrive in a rental car and check in anonymously. Maybe apply for a job as a janitor.”
Okay, so he’d accused before thinking the idea through. Her closeness rendered him temporarily insane. He gripped her upper arms. “What are you doing then?”
“For Sunburst Hotels? Absolutely nothing. I quit my job a month ago.”
“You want to apply as my private janitor? I’m only in my office at night, and if you came in I guarantee you wouldn’t be emptying garbage cans.”
Her eyes grew even more luminous. “What would I be doing?”
“Stripping, so I could take you on my desk.”
Her lips parted, as if the image turned her on.
The hell with the desk. He pulled her flush to his body, wanting her immediately—in the stable, on his real turf.
“Wait.” She pushed against his chest. “We can’t just pick up where we left off fifteen years ago.”
“Why not? We’re two consenting, unattached adults.”
Of course, they had issues from the past to work through. But when they’d been together, she understood him the way no one else ever had.
“Um.” Her gaze dropped away from his. “Actually, I’m not unattached. I’m engaged.”
Oh. Fuck.