Bunny Hills and Bikinis Read online

  “A hundred miles an hour, huh?” William returned her smile and eased back into the couch beside her, turning slightly so he faced more toward her than the fireplace.

  She turned to match him, folding one leg and tucking it under the other. She cringed as needles of heat shot through her shin where it had connected with Nate’s leg. The tenderness hinted at unseen bruises she’d likely find later when she inspected the damage. Bruises she could live with, considering how much worse she could be suffering if things had gone differently.

  Thank God for Nate.

  “I worried when I got to the bottom and you didn’t follow right behind me. At first I thought you were just slow.”

  “Gee thanks.” She laughed at his straightforwardness.

  “But then when you still didn’t come down a few minutes later, I started to get really afraid. In my mind, I ran through all the terrible things that could go wrong and kicked myself for every single one of them.”

  “You’re sweet.”

  He does have a heart.

  “It’s true. I never would have forgiven myself if anything terrible happened to you because of me.” He took a sip of his hot chocolate before staring at her with more seriousness than she’d ever seen on his face before. She was taken aback by his emotion.

  “I know I’ve given you every reason to think I’m a total ass,” he continued, “and I deserve you thinking that way because of some of the things I’ve said to you and the other girls around the office. But the truth is, I’m not that cocky guy you think I am.”

  He reached out to her, his thumb gently stroking across her cheek for a brief moment before he pulled it back. “I’m sorry for how I treated you around the office, and I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you today when you needed me the most. I’ll never let that happen again, I promise.”

  Her heart broke a little seeing William so vulnerable and open. She hadn’t come here wanting to like him, but every time he said things like this, she couldn’t help feeling like she’d judged him too quickly. Maybe he did deserve a chance—if things were different.

  Glancing past him out the window toward the ski slopes, she hoped to catch a fleeting glance of Nate. Her pulse fluttered for a moment, thinking she’d seen him, but as the dark green jacket moved closer to the chalet, it was obviously not Nate, merely someone else in a similar color.

  She’d only just met Nate and he had no obligation to her, but she couldn’t help the disappointment invading her senses. Why couldn’t it be Nate sitting beside her on the couch in front of the fireplace rather than William?

  Flickering her gaze back to William, she found him watching her intently, like he waited for some kind of answer from her. She sighed and wished William would remain his usual asshole-ish self. A date with him wasn’t an idea she could entertain.

  Not now that she’d met Nate.

  Definitely not now that she could remember the weight of Nate’s strong, hard body pressing against her, or the whisper of his breath dancing across her anxiously awaiting lips. Nope, Nate occupied her thoughts now and she didn’t want anyone else.

  “I’m sorry I judged you so harshly this whole time.” She glanced down at her hot chocolate. “I can see now that you are a nice guy. I’m absolutely positive that if you acted this way around the other girls in the office, you’d have them lining up to date you instead of wanting to smack you. You should try it and find out when we get back.”

  “I’m not interested in those other girls.” His hand grazed her shoulder as his arm rested on the back of the couch beside her. “I’m interested in you—only you, Amelia. I don’t care what the girls at work think about me.”

  The hot chocolate in her mug swirled as she flicked her wrist gently in a circle. She watched it for a moment, wishing she didn’t have to tell him no. She didn’t want to see the pain in his eyes when she told him she was interested in someone else. But she couldn’t ignore her feelings and lead him on either. The truth was, she just didn’t see a future with him and there was no reason to pretend otherwise.

  “I’m sorry, William. I’m just not interested in you that way. I think if you and I were to really click, we would have noticed it a long time ago at the office. I don’t think we need a little getaway to show us that.”

  “You’re wrong,” he said. His fingers stroked figure-eight patterns on her shoulder as he spoke. “We do click together and if you’d just give me a chance, I’d show you that. How about one dinner? There’s a great restaurant here in the lodge.”

  “I don’t know,” she said, repositioning her body on the couch so there was a little more room between them. “Maybe when we get home, okay? We could get some people together from work and all go out for drinks or dinner or something. You know, a group of us. It would be fun. Right now I just want to concentrate on the workshop.”

  He pulled his hand back to grab his mug from the table in front of the couch. A grin played across his lips. “I’m going to hold you to that,” he said with a sound of intense satisfaction in his voice, “with or without the group.”

  Great.

  “I should go. I’m so tired from traveling yesterday and my fall this morning, I really want to take a quick nap before the workshop starts up again this afternoon. And I’m freezing. I might need to warm up with a hot bath for a while.”

  “You know, if you’d take me up on my offer, I could help keep you warm on these chilly nights. I promise I wouldn’t tell anyone about our little tryst when we get back to the office, even though I know how you girls like to gossip about that stuff.”

  “And there goes the warm, fuzzy feelings I started having for you,” she said, shaking her head. “Just when I think you’re a nice guy you go and say something stupid. Thanks for the reminder about your real personality.”

  She stood from the couch, stifling a groan that threatened to escape because of the stiffness overtaking her body. She didn’t want to hear another comment about being with him and a groan in his presence would surely be asking for one. She didn’t have to think too hard to guess what kind of groaning comments he was capable of. With William, the possibilities were endless—most likely graphic as well.

  “Wait. What did I say? I hear you girls talking about guys you want to be with all the time, but I can’t make a comment about it? What kind of double standard is that?”

  “We joke. That’s the difference. The girls at the office aren’t really going to jump into bed with every guy they think is hot, myself included. The fact you seriously think that I would do that tells me a lot about who you really think I am.”

  She set her empty mug back on to the coffee table. “Oh, and forget about any kind of date—group or otherwise—when we get home. I have better things to do than spend my weekends with a jerk like you.”

  She walked out of the door of the small café and toward the elevators that would take her back up to her room. She needed a break from William and an ibuprofen before the workshop started again. William called out behind her but she ignored him and stepped onto the elevator. Whatever he had to say to her could wait until later when she was better equipped to deal with it. Blissful silence filled the elevator as the doors shut.

  * * *

  Nate glanced into the windows of the chalet’s café as he skied passed them on his way to the chairlift for one last run before coming in for the day. He didn’t know what he’d expected to see, but it certainly wasn’t William’s hand on Amelia’s shoulder while they sipped hot chocolate in front of the fireplace.

  She’d been too cozy sitting there beside him with his arm draped intimately across the back of the couch. Hadn’t she said earlier that they weren’t dating? So what were they doing? Or was she always this cozy with guys she worked with?

  Either way, Nate didn’t like it. And he didn’t like William.

  His anger toward William escalated. What was it about that guy she found so great? The few things Nate had heard William say to Amelia and his actions on the mountain had solidified his belie
f that William was a cocky jerk. And he certainly wasn’t worthy of a girl like Amelia.

  Amelia deserved a better guy than William. A guy who would treat her nicely, who would see how beautiful she was, and who would show her some respect. A guy like…well, himself. So far he hadn’t seen any of those qualities in William.

  What are you doing, Amelia? Weren’t you into that almost-kiss as much as I was?

  He thought back to their intimate moment on the mountainside. There had been something there between them for sure. Whatever she had with William didn’t stand a chance against what Nate felt for her. He needed an opportunity to show her. Maybe tonight, after the workshop ended, he’d find a way to make that happen.

  His buddies always teased him about having a girl in every city, but that wasn’t the case. It was hard to hook up with women when he worked the whole time with only a few hours off in the evenings to sit in some crappy hotel bar. Even when he was able to hook up with someone, it was always a one-nighter. He’d never even been with anyone for the entire weekend. He didn’t mind so much since he wasn’t looking for anything long-term anyway. A long-term relationship wasn’t conducive to traveling so much and he preferred to travel rather than the prospect of getting tied down to one place forever.

  He’d seen many of his buddies from the workshop circuit fall into relationships, and it always ended one way—settled down somewhere, married with babies and working a very local schedule. Far too local for his liking. One-night flings suited him much better right now.

  His last fling had been a few months ago and already the memory of it had long since faded from his mind. Sadly, the experience hadn’t even been worth remembering. It was nice to share an intimate moment with someone once in a while, but the moments rarely sparked any kind of feeling inside of him other than the heat of a fleeting lust. All of his weekends tended to blend into each other in a giant blur of time passing unless there was something interesting about the location.

  For some reason, he already knew the same wouldn’t be true of this weekend with Amelia attending his workshop. This weekend would stay with him long after he left the lodge. The sight of her splayed out in the snow under him, the slight pout of her lips which he almost had the pleasure of tasting, her body, warm and curvy heating his skin despite layers of clothing and the chill in the air—everything about Amelia would remain with him after he’d left the lodge and moved on to the next workshop.

  Nate grasped the side of the chairlift as it swept him up the side of the mountain and away from the chalet. He stared off into the distance at the breathtaking view as he rode up the mountain and let the thoughts of Amelia and her supple lips fill him with warmth. Later. He’d have his chance with her later.

  * * *

  Nate strode into conference room C and quickly scanned the room to see if all the attendees were present. A quick head-count told him they were.

  Great. Let’s get on with it then.

  Nate was still upset about having seen William and Amelia together earlier. As much as he tried to get them out of his head, he just couldn’t. His thoughts kept returning to Amelia and that almost-kiss in the snow and then instantly he’d flash back to Amelia and William snuggling on the couch by the fireplace.

  He couldn’t take it anymore. The images drove him crazy. He had to find out the truth about them and soon. Had Amelia lied to him when they were in the snow bank together? Was she really with William and just looking for a little fun with Nate on the side?

  He couldn’t worry about that anymore right now. Right now, he had to get on with the workshop. If he really wanted that promotion, then the workshop was going to have to come first and his personal life would have to come last. Not much he could change about that.

  He’d been stupid to think making everyone do a ski challenge was a good idea. It had been a terrible idea. He’d never been so worried about his workshop attendees before and he never wanted to repeat the event. Sure some of them had fun, but many of them had needed more help on the mountain than he’d expected they would. So by the time everyone was done skiing, he was totally exhausted. And now he still had to run the workshop part of the day.

  The sooner he could put this workshop day behind him and get some time to himself, the better. Maybe after it was over, he’d get a chance to talk to Amelia and find out what was really going on with her and William. If not, then maybe overnight he’d find a way to forget about Amelia so that he could get his head back into running his workshop and hopefully focused enough to earn himself that promotion. For now, he’d focus as best as he could and try to make it through the workshop afternoon without screwing anything up.

  “It’s nice to see everyone back inside where it’s warm, and safe,” he joked, putting on his friendliest smile. He wrapped his hands around a warm cup of fresh coffee, hoping the heat and caffeine would perk him up a little. “I must say that I much prefer seeing all of you in this boring conference room rather than sailing down the side of a mountain going far faster than is good for my blood pressure.”

  His gaze fell to Amelia automatically. She blushed. Warmth spread through him, erasing the last of the winter chill from his body, but it wasn’t because of the coffee.

  The crowd laughed at his joke and he relaxed into his usual role. He forced his gaze away from Amelia’s. A few more minutes and he’d be back on track to giving the best workshop he could—that is, as long as he could focus on his task and not on Amelia.

  “Okay, I think I can safely speak for everyone when I say that we’re all tired and ready to soak away the cold and aches from skiing in one of the lodge’s awesome hot tubs. So let’s not waste anymore time, because the sooner we’re done, the sooner we all get to relax for the rest of the day. And hey, don’t we all want to start learning about how we can work better as a team before we go soak away the day?”

  He walked around the room handing out packets of information about the things they would be discussing over the course of the workshop. Some of it applied to today’s exercises, but mostly it was stuff for them to take home with them to refer back to later on. He greeted everyone personally as he walked through the room and finally ended up at the front again.

  “Inside those packets, you will find some information that you can review at your own convenience. For now, just take out the one form on top about trust. We’ll be working in your groups to complete that worksheet before you leave for the afternoon.”

  As the murmur of conversation and the sounds of shuffling papers filled the room, he tried to give himself a mental pep talk. He needed to get through this next couple of hours without thinking about her and that would be easier to do if he could just focus on the task at hand. When the shuffling quieted, he spoke again.

  “Before we work on those sheets, we’re going to do a couple of exercises. These are all designed around the core value of trust. You must always trust yourself to make the right decisions. You must have trust in your partners and colleagues to make good choices on your behalf and on behalf of the company. Lastly, trusting that if you provide good products and good customer service, your customers will always come back for more.”

  He pulled out a canvas tote bag and tossed it onto the table closest to him. “Please take one blindfold per pair and pass the bag along to the next table.”

  He waited a few minutes as the bag circulated the room before the last person brought it back up to him. He tossed the bag aside until later.

  “We’re going to work in our teams of two for this exercise. I need one of you to put on the blindfold you took from the bag. That person is going to retrieve objects that I’ll place around the room in a moment. Your partner will be your guide. They will lead you around the room to collect these objects. How you lead each other is entirely your choice. You could use verbal commands, or lead each other by the hand or any other way you see fit to get around the room safely. Okay, that’s all there is to it. Let’s get started.”

  While the participants donned their blindfo
lds, Nate hoisted a large box into his arms, which contained items that the groups would find inside. He moved around the room placing piles of various items from the box in uncommon places. Some were under tables. Others were out in the middle of the room. Even more hung on the backs of chairs. On his command, one member of each of the groups began leading their partners through the task of collecting one of each of the objects.

  He tried not to care what William and Amelia were doing, but he couldn’t seem to prevent his eyes from finding them in the sea of people. He was just drawn to her, simple as that. He could continue to try and fight it if he wanted to, but something inside him kept him coming back for more—regardless of being pissed off.

  Amelia played the leader role, choosing to guide William by verbal cues rather than touching him. Nate had to admit that he was very happy to see that. He didn’t want to imagine her hands on any part of William’s body for any reason, not even this silly workshop exercise. She did a good job, too. William had collected a few things, which were currently being cradled in one arm and the other arm was outstretched searching for obstacles in the way.

  You could let him run into one chair.

  Nate forced his attention to the others in the room and assisted a few of the groups through the exercise for a few more minutes before deciding it was a good time for the partners to switch roles. Around the room blindfolds were swapped and now the other partner became the leader.

  Plenty of items still waited to be found, but it was certainly more difficult for the person blindfolded second. While the second person going had already seen where the items were, at least half of them were gone. Not to mention, finding the items while blindfolded was tricky, even when you knew in advance where they were hidden. Things just had a tendency to look and feel differently in the dark. That’s where trust for their partner really came into play.

  The groups moved off in search of the remaining items again, crisscrossing the conference room like a drunken school of fish. William and Amelia moved closer to him. This time it was Amelia who wandered blindfolded. William tried to describe how she should move, but for some reason, his message wasn’t coming across very well. Amelia kept bumping into things and yelping out in surprise.