5 ~ DARCY

The interior of Oliver’s Range Rover might have been expansive but it somehow didn’t feel large enough as we drove to Tradewind.

Heat and energy, impossible to absorb, radiated between us. The way it was captured in the vehicle made me jittery and I wanted to lower the window to set it free. I thought I’d feel better if I could hang my head outside the car like a dog and experience something to distract my high-alert senses—the scent of leaf mold from the bush, decomposing roadkill—anything to take my mind off the man beside me. I opted for closing my eyes.

“Open your eyes, Darcy.”

His voice ran through me like warmed molasses, coating my nerve endings, and except for raising my lids I remained completely still in my seat.

“The view as we round this corner is stunning.”

Just kill me. I wished he could do something about that voice because even in tour guide mode, it sent a sexual tremor through me that settled as an ache between my legs. I squeezed my thighs together to curtail the arousal. It had been so long since I’d had an orgasm at the hands of a second party, I was ill-equipped to be this close to him.

Oliver slowed the car as we rounded another hairpin bend, stopping in a safe spot, the vehicle’s engine idling quietly. He was right, the view was astonishing in its beauty. The day was clear, Waitapu township stretched before us in sparkling blue, rolling hills of rich green and the long stretches of the bay’s white sand. There were possibly better places to be poor, but I’d yet to hear of them.

I told him I agreed, it was beautiful, and that he was lucky to have grown up here. His gaze lingered on my face and while still watching me, he slipped the vehicle into drive and started the long wind out of the hills.

I had to keep telling myself that Oliver wasn’t the man for me. At this point, all he knew was what he saw of me in the passenger seat of his vehicle. He couldn’t see inside me, he couldn’t view my past. You don’t share everything when you’re trying to make an impression so when I’d talked about the work I’d done in Australia, I left out the part where I’d lost the best job I’d ever had. A dream job, at a global agency with clients who adored me.

I left out the hours of police interviews, the court case, the constant fear, and the muck I was dragged through.

That situation had sucked up my savings and the only work I could get was at a creepy sandwich bar on the fringe of an industrial estate where they thought curriculum vitae was a flash name for a deep-fried squid ring. The owner couldn’t have cared less what my CV said, nor whether my name was real. He paid me cash, and I kept my head down and tried not to think of my career change from one of Sydney’s top advertising agencies to Chief Roach Beater and Sandwich Maker. So, I left out the roach killer part, and my burger skills.

Still, I knew I was capable of doing a good job for Oliver, and I would. As long as he stayed out of my past and let me forget it, too.

“You all good?” he asked the second time our glances collided.

“I’m better than good,” I said.

When we arrived at Tradewind he switched off the engine and we sat, playing with that energy between us. I fought the urge to lean toward him.

“If we weren’t at the yard with several sets of eyes trained like snipers upon us...”

He left his incomplete sentence for me to fill. I made a sound back at him. Not a word but a little noise that suggested I went along with his idea.

“It would be foolish,” he said.

“It would.” I agreed.

“Good, glad we’re on the same page.”

With that he opened his door and did that quick skirt around the car he had done at the Lodge, reaching my side and opening the door by the time I had my seatbelt released. I could get used to that move, and his manners.

The automatic doors to the reception area opened in a whisper and his hand on my lower back steered me in the right direction, drawing a raised eyebrow from an older, smartly dressed woman who was talking to the receptionist.

The older woman was Oliver’s PA, Gail. She greeted me warmly. “You have no idea how pleased I am to have you here.”

“Gail was left to pick up the pieces when your predecessor left,” Oliver explained.

“Unfortunately, I dumped them into a big box labeled ‘Ignore’, so I hope you enjoy a challenge.”

“I certainly do,” I told her.

“Great, I’ll come and see you shortly.”

Oliver took me along the hall past various offices, pointing out a room with a kitchen and various tables, chairs and sofas. He threw open a door to an office with a million-dollar view of the river, down to the marina and out to the islands. The tide was high, the river the deepest emerald shade. A stately pōhutukawa tree reached out across the water, twisted and bowed as if someone had tried to extract its secrets. Soon its deep crimson flowers would signal the arrival of summer and the Christmas season.

Today I was getting a fresh outlook on my home country and I’d forgotten how iconic the tree was to a Kiwi summer. The childhood memory of a swing under a tree just like the one I looked at settled the butterflies in my stomach.

“Your office,” he said. “I hope it’s suitable.”

I thanked him. It was stunning. “I hope the view won’t be too distracting.”

Oliver cast me a look that said the view from the window was the least distracting thing around here at the moment. He cleared his throat, the first time there’d been any indication he might not trust his gorgeous voice to perform, and explained Gail would be setting me up on the technical side of things.

I spent the rest of the day sorting out my actual duties. Gail turned out to be an efficient no-bullshit type which I appreciated. Her sense of humor was dry, and she expertly handled the abundance of men who worked for Tradewind. She had a whole bunch of reports from the previous year’s event for me to go through, and she handed a stack of files over with something that could only be described as relief.

It was so good to be back on a job that gave me some self-worth and a reasonable salary. I spent the afternoon listing ideas for promotion, ticket sales and companies to go to for products for the auction. As long as what happened in Australia stayed there, my summer was shaping up way better than I’d hoped.

The only bug in the process would be my attraction to Oliver but I felt certain after a couple of weeks the ridiculous infatuation would pass.