B008KQO31S EBOK (27 page)

He hadn’t known that about her until just now. He straightened slightly, intrigued.

She leaned closer, her eyes shining, that little smile tempting him to take just one taste. “But I can’t ever imagine selling off my business, Nick, because it’s part and parcel of who I am and what I love. And you’re exactly the same way. You still love traveling, and don’t tell me you don’t because I’ll know it’s a lie.”

The fact that she had seen through him should have made him feel more edgy than he did.

He wasn’t going to think about that just now.

“I’m starting to miss it again,” he conceded warily. “But the rest is unimportant.”

The look she gave him was scathing. “How dumb do you think I am?”

He almost smiled. “Not very.”

“Gullible, then? Fat Philippa was a sap, but I like to think I’ve gotten over that.”

He did smile then. “You’re trusting, Phil. You see the good in people, probably more than they deserve. It’s very sweet.”

She blushed a bit and he decided it was a good thing that she was keeping her distance. He certainly would have lost sight of his noble urges if she was close enough that he could snag her hand.

“Well, I didn’t get that from my family,” she mumbled, clearly embarrassed. She pleated the acres of flannel between her fingers. “They won’t take anything on faith.”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

She looked up as pertly as a little bird. “What do you think my mother is going to ask me about you on Saturday? You know, when she drags me into the kitchen to get all the nitty gritty details.”

He hadn’t thought of that. “I have no idea.”

“She’ll want to know what you do, where your money comes from, where you’ve been for the past fifteen years.”

“So, tell her I run an adventure travel company.” He shrugged. “It was true two months ago.”

Phil shook her head and the light glinted golden in her auburn hair. “But not now. I’m a lousy liar, Nick, and I couldn’t compose a story on the spot to save my life.” She sat back, so pleased with herself that it was hard not to smile. “You’re just going to have to tell me the truth, that’s all there is to it.” She snapped her fingers. “Cough it up.”

“Just so you don’t blow our cover?”

“Mmm hmm.” Her smile was pure mischief, the glint in her eyes triumphant. That look alone brought his simmering blood right to the boil. He was thinking of naked skin and legs tangled together, of Phil beneath him, sweet and hot and welcoming.

He was thinking about that kiss and wondering why the hell he’d stopped.

Which was exactly what he shouldn’t be thinking. He knew why that was a bad road to travel. But the sensible part of him wasn’t getting a lot of air time right now. He reminded himself that he’d screwed up many things and he didn’t want to mess this friendship up too. Following primal urges would hurt Phil in a way she didn’t deserve.

He frowned and dragged his thoughts back to their conversation.

The scary thing was that her argument made a certain amount of sense. Maybe she would understand better the kind of man he had become after he told her the story she wanted.

Maybe it would do the dirty work for him. He reached down and picked up his T-shirt, giving himself a moment to compose his thoughts.

He hadn’t told anyone his real reasons for finally accepting the buyout offer and he supposed it would be good to share the weight of it. And Phil, for all her cocky talk, was the most trustworthy person he had ever known. The story would go no further, a fact that reassured him, Reticent Man that he was.

Who else but Phil would have made such an accusation?

“All right, you win.”

She shook a finger at him in playful warning. “And none of this “oh I changed my mind and that’s that” crap. I want the
whole
story.”

“Or else what?”

She jerked her thumb towards the door.

He pretended to be shocked. “After I cooked and everything. Why do I feel so unappreciated?”

She chortled with laughter and tucked up her feet, giving him another quick view of those fabulous legs. “Hey, I’m no pushover.” She pushed one hand through her hair, leaving it rumpled. She looked young and impish and very kissable. He seriously thought about edging a little further down the couch and making her forget all about the sale of his company.

And not just because he was less than thrilled about telling the story. There was something about Phil that he was starting to suspect wouldn’t be easy to walk away from.

Much less forget. He thought about the way she’d kissed him as though she’d swallow him whole, and his jeans got even tighter.

But there was no point in making it harder to do what he knew he’d do.

He stared at the ceiling to get his mind out of the gutter. Phil seemed content to wait all night for him to find the beginning thread.

“I started the company after I’d been traveling around the world myself. I had lots of time and enough money that I didn’t have to rush, and I found a lot of places that most vacationers, even the adventurous ones, miss. The idea of helping other people see these places had been running around in my head for a while before I got to Asia.”

The words came easily once he started, and Phil didn’t interrupt. She’d always been easy to talk to, though he was only coming to remember that now.

“I lingered a long time, checking out beaches, kayaking, wandering through markets. It was beautiful and the culture was so different. I just couldn’t explore enough of it. At that time, there was almost no tourism outside of the big cities, so there was an entire world to discover.

“There are always lots of local kids willing to show you something for a price, but they’re often scam artists. I usually shrugged them off, but there was one insistent kid where tourists were pretty much a rarity. So, I gave him what he wanted—five bucks or something—and he really did take me to the most marvelous place.”

He paused for a moment, reliving that first glimpse. “It was a valley that no one would ever have found on their own. The jungle was thick and there was no path, but this kid knew the way. One minute I was pushing through the undergrowth thinking the kid was setting me up, the next I was standing on a rock where an underground stream bubbled up. It was like stepping through a curtain, the change was that sudden. The stream flowed onward, reflecting sun and sky and untouched perfection.”

“Shangri-la,” Phil murmured.

“Something like that. It sure didn’t look real. And it was untouched. There was no sound but the birds and the running water, the hum of huge insects. I can’t even begin to describe the sheer beauty of the place. A naturalist would have had a field day.

“The river went on for about half a mile, then disappeared into the jungle again. You couldn’t walk the shoreline though—it was too choked with growth. I finally understood why we’d carried this kayak all the way in. He paddled and I rubbernecked.

“In some places the stream pooled and was as smooth as a river; in others, it gushed and gurgled over rocks. Everywhere I looked there were creatures I’d never seen before, tree frogs and birds and butterflies. It was as though we had stepped into a dream. Paradise. I must have shot eight rolls of film that day.

“Late in the afternoon, he took me back to his village. It was a shock to see how impoverished the people were, despite living near such beauty. He was so proud that he had earned that five dollar bill—I was humbled by little it meant to me in comparison. Not that I was flush in those days, but we learn to take a lot for granted.”

He looked at an avid Phil. “So it was there, in his village, that I had my idea.”

“To start an eco-tourist company?”

“Well, more importantly, to make a difference. The company was just the vehicle. This kid was willing to work, to do something. He was just itching for a chance. He had a huge family and they were getting older. Farming was subsistence at best.

“So, I made a partnership with him—though he probably thought it was bogus at the time. We set rules for visiting the Hidden Paradise—that’s what they called it—and limits as to how many people could visit a week. I wanted to make sure that it stayed as pristine and beautiful as it was, that other people felt that same joy of discovery that I had felt that day.”

“Leave nothing but a footprint, take nothing but a picture.”

“Exactly. That’s why the company had the name it did. My new partner hired villagers to be guides and we sponsored a couple of households who wanted to provide accommodation to guests. It was a hefty investment but one I could handle. Barely. I came back to the States and printed up a brochure using some of the pictures I took, then hit every travel show I could talk my way into, spreading brochures on all available surfaces.

“I went with the first tour group to make sure everything ran smoothly and the village laid out a welcome like you wouldn’t believe. There was a naturalist on that trip and he took more even pictures than I had. It was a resounding success.”

“And they told two people and they told two people.”

“Well, not quite as easily as that. Eight happy tourists does not a company make. I had to keep finding more adventurous souls, a lot of them to turn a profit. There were more than a few lean years. The first office was in a warehouse loft where I also lived. Just when I thought it was never going to work, it really started to cook.” He smiled. “I remember when we went into the black as though it was yesterday.”

Phil smiled back at him. “There’s nothing like it.”

He took her hand, because it seemed a natural thing to do. Her hand fit perfectly into his, her fingers small and slender compared to his own.

“No. And after that, everything just went insane. People loved the trip but wanted to go somewhere different the next year. They liked the no-impact tourism and the small groups. They liked stepping into another world, and wanted to give us their vacation tour business. That was too good a chance to turn down, so I was on the run, finding new destinations, making partnerships, training guides, booking, hiring office staff, putting together brochures and selling selling selling.”

“But you wouldn’t have had it any other way.”

He shook his head. “Probably not. It was fun in a hectic kind of way. That naturalist was the first one on every trip and found me so many new customers I used to joke about putting him on commission.”

He stopped then, because this was the hard part of the story.

She tilted her head to watch him. “So you just got tired?”

“No.” He looked at her hand in his, not as certain how to continue as he had been of how to begin. She waited, and he decided she was more patient than he deserved. “That first place always held a special corner of my heart. It was the beginning of everything and even though I used the same model everywhere, always taking a local partner, always hiring local people, that valley was my touchstone.”

“That makes sense.”

“But I had a few complaints this last summer about that trip. The first one or two I figured were anomalies—on a trip like the ones I arranged, anything can happen. Some people adjust less well than others to the unpredictable. Then that naturalist revisited the valley and afterward he came to see me personally. He was pretty solemn when he told me that I’d better go have a look. So I did.”

He shook his head, still unable to accept what he’d seen. “The village was so different, Phil, that I didn’t recognize the place. It had grown and prospered, which was good, but it had gone far beyond my expectation. The roads were paved and there was advertising all over the place. The people were wearing jeans and sweats covered with logos. You could have plucked them out of anywhere in America.

“The worst thing though was that there were now six different companies doing the same thing that we were, but doing it without the rules. They had signage everywhere and salespeople prowling the streets. And the valley itself...”

He shook his head and shuddered. “It was infested with tourists, all grabbing samples and souvenirs. They were swimming in the river and climbing the rocks, shouting in a dozen languages and leaving litter all over the place. The birds had left, the flowers had been plucked, there were footpaths worn all along the shore. The dream had become a nightmare. My partner looked a hundred years older.”

“Why didn’t he tell you sooner?”

“He didn’t want to worry me.” Nick sighed. “More likely, he didn’t want me to think he was incompetent. But I knew he wasn’t. Maybe he didn’t want me to shut the business down, because that would affect the income he’d gotten used to, not to mention his status in the village as the one who’d started them all on the road to wealth. He’d done the best job he could, but couldn’t make my mistake better.”

“What are you talking about?”

He gave her a sharp look, wondering why she was being coy about something so obvious. “I made a mistake, Phil. I should never have started that partnership. Far from taking nothing but a picture, I took everything from those people. They lost their independence, they’re probably losing their culture and the whole world lost a treasure that can never be refound.”

“Surely they could legislate...”

He didn’t let her get any further, though his irritation with himself was starting to show. “Phil. We’re talking about third world governments. They’re not big on environmental issues, but they are fond of revenue. The tourists have to pay a head fee, so the more the merrier. The locals are consuming more manufactured goods, so they’re paying more taxes. The government there is not going to do anything to discourage this—in fact, I’d expect just the opposite. The damage is done.”

He rubbed his temples where a headache was beginning to loom. “So I tied up all the loose ends and let my partner decide whether he wanted the business or to be bought out. Then I flew around the world and did the same at all the other partnerships. Most of them opted to stay in the game, but I didn’t have the stomach for it anymore.”

Her silence made him certain she agreed with him. “Then I took the offer that the competition had been shoving under my nose for five years, albeit with a bunch of conditions. Surprised them, but that’s the way it goes. They’re a good bunch of guys. Maybe they’ll do better than I did. If nothing else, I can’t make it any worse.”