Authors: Cara Ellison
A slow smile spread over her face. “What an amazing way to wake up.”’
Mark set the computer on the ottoman and stood up. He wore black workout pants and somehow managed to look scrumptious. He slid next to her, and smiled adorably. “Good morning.”
“Hi.”
“I have an idea.”
“Tell me.” She couldn’t help but reach out to his face. He hadn’t shaved yet and a fine stubble was growing on his jaws. Such an amazingly good man. Good inside and out.
“Josh will be here in about an hour. After our meeting, I was thinking we head out to a great kayaking spot I know.”
“Kayaking! I always wanted to learn how.”
“Are you physically up for it?”
“Definitely.”
“Let me see your sutures,” he said.
She pulled the covers down and Mark frowned. “Let me remove those.”
“Are they going to scar?”
“Only very slightly,” he replied. “They don’t hurt anymore do they?”
“Nothing hurts anymore.”
“Okay. Let me remove those.”
“Now?”
“Why not?”
She shrugged and watched him get up to find his medical equipment. He returned with antiseptic and a pair of small, very sharp scissors. With a sterile cotton ball, he gently daubed her wounds. Then he expertly removed the stitches.
“There. Now you’re officially all patched up.”
“You’re amazing.”
“That was nothing.”
His answer was a shockingly quick movement, dragging her down and under him so fast she barely had time to yalp. Not that it was a bad position to be in, with his sexy, sinewy body atop hers, pinning her wrists over her head. He placed a searingly sweet kiss on the side of her sensitive neck. His lips brushed her skin an excruciatingly slow caress, leaving her heart pounding and her body buzzing.
“Aimee,” he whispered.
She’d never heard her name uttered so sexily before. It made her toes curl.
He slowly pulled the mounds of covers down over her bare breasts, bunching them down around her waist before she squirmed because the bulk prevented contact with the hard ridge in his pants. He kicked the covers onto the floor.
He placed another glancing kiss across her lips, making her rise up slightly to increase the sensual contact before he allowed his lips to settle upon hers. His warm, teasing fingers traveled to the straining tip of one breast. Heat flared through her trembling body. Too soon, Mark broke the kiss, only to set his lips against her peaked nipples, running his tongue over the sensitive flesh. How eagerly she wanted to surrender it all to him. Heart and soul.
The gift of her body would have to wait, however, because the doorbell chimed through the house. May streaked out of the bedroom, barking her head off.
Mark groaned. “That would be Josh.”
“I already dislike your cockblocking brother,” Aimee muttered, clenching her thighs against the glowing heat.
Mark laughed. “I like your priorities.”
The doorbell chimed again, sending May into another fit of howling.
“Get dressed, and I’ll see you downstairs.” Mark stood up, the full glory of his thick erection distending his workout pants in an obvious flag. He irritably rubbed the back of his neck. He reminded her of a caged panther in that moment, all coiled power.
Aimee couldn’t help but laugh. “I’ve never actually seen you look so frustrated.”
“Baseball scores, Batman… diminishing rainfall averages in Peru…”
“What are you doing?”
“Thinking of unsexy things before I answer the door.” He flung the covers over her chest. “And you are no damn help, woman.”
She felt oddly proud that she could drive him to distraction. “I’ll take a shower,” Aimee announced, and stood up. She pat him on one hard, well-shaped buttock, and walked into the bathroom.
“Nuns… the Denver Broncos….”
Aimee shut the door before she teased and tempted the poor man anymore.
She turned on the full force of the six-headed shower, tempted to keep it ice cold. Considering her level of arousal, it would take a deep freeze to have any impact on her libido. Might as well be comfortable, she reasoned, and stepped into the steamy deluge.
Her skin was luxuriously sensitized after last night; even the water felt sensual. As she soaped her breasts, her nipples remained hot and flushed with desire, buzzing with the memory of Mark’s slow, sweet explorations with his mouth and hands. That hot, tingly glow between her legs was not normal either.
It would be bad enough if it were just a sexual affair, a furtive little hookup to break a streak of body boredom. But the emotional component left her dazed, dazzled, and disarmed.
The best she could hope to do was manage her runaway emotions. This was part of her main problem – she felt too exuberantly too soon. That was how she got ensnared with Seth.
There was nothing to do but enjoy the time with Mark. Hell, she couldn’t really help but enjoy her time with him. She just had to figure out a way to indulge in the outrageous pleasure and sweetness while simultaneously keeping enough emotional distance that she wouldn’t be completely seduced by him.
Easier said than done.
As she emerged from the shower, she dried off and dressed in a black and white dress she bought from Flowers Vintage. She wanted to look nice to meet Josh Spanner. She dried her hair, taking a little bit of time to make it style it straight, and then put on the lip gloss she bought at Carrie’s Apothecary.
When she trounced down the stairs, she found Mark finishing cheese blintzes with strawberries and blueberries. “It wasn’t Josh,” he said.
“Who was it?”
He started to laugh and shake his head. “You won’t believe it. A reporter wanting some inside info on Robert Reid.”
“See, I told you – just like Aspen!”
He turned and looked at her. “Wow, you look amazing.”
She smiled. “Aren’t you glad I went crazy at Jane’s vintage shop?”
“You didn’t go too crazy. You look terrific.”
“Those blintzes look terrific,” she replied, and opened the fridge to fetch orange juice.
After breakfast, Aimee walked outside with May while Mark showered and dressed. She was at the paddock when Mark walked out with fresh apples and carrots for the horses. She watched as he led them into the paddock where they ate.
“Miss America is so cute,” Aimee said. “When is her owner coming to take her back?”
“I don’t know. I told her to take all the time she needs.”
“Well I happen to think these guys are just gorgeous. I want to have them as long as we can.”
The words – surprising even to herself – were interrupted by the unfamiliar purr of a car engine. It was such an unusual and out of place sound here that it took a moment to identify it. She glanced toward the road where a gleaming black Mercedes Benz was cruising at high speed toward the house.
“That would be Josh,” Mark said dryly.
The man who climbed out of the fancy car was an older, blonder carbon copy of Mark. Even with the black designer shades covering his eyes, the resemblance was uncanny. He wore black pants and a blue polo shirt. His loafers were polished to a high shine.
He took off his sunglasses as he approached, and hugged his brother. Mark then introduced Aimee.
“Nice to meet you,” Josh said and shook her hand warmly. No denying it, the Spanner men all had that alluring, seductive quality.
They walked inside and Aimee busied herself by giving May a biscuit. She was about to take the puppy upstairs to give the brothers some privacy to discuss the resort when Mark called to her.
“I thought you’d like to chat with us about the resort,” Mark said.
Nervously Aimee took a chair beside Mark, across from Josh on the sofa. She didn’t know anything about real estate or the Spanner dynasty, so she wasn’t sure what she could offer. But she was happy to listen to Mark so she sat.
“Bob Hayes is offering a thirty-five percent premium on comparable property,” Josh said.
“What property would you consider comparable? It’s right on Jubilee Mountain. There is no other analogous property.”
“There are other skiing mountains with lakes in Montana, Mark,” Josh said in an exasperated tone. “A hundred thousand acre ranch on Peachtree Mountain went for six million dollars. Hayes is offering fifteen million for Starlight Resort.”
Aimee listened as Josh rattled off more facts and figures. He was the consummate businessman, persuading by using facts and leaving all emotion out of it. But the numbers seemed to not matter to Mark.
She glanced over the beautiful living room, noting the architectural flourishes, and had no doubt that Mark could make the resort beautiful again. She imagined the sweeping views of the mountain from the main lobby and dining room, the snug cabins on the lake where families could swim in the summer and ice skate in the winter. Their spa… the yoga studio where she could teach on occasion… Whoa. No. Those were the dangerous thoughts; the ones she couldn’t really entertain.
“Look, Josh, if it comes down to it, I’ll buy you and Rex out of your ownership.”
“What about Maggie?”
“She is not inclined to sell.”
“When did you talk to her?”
“A few weeks ago when you brought this up.”
“She’s not even in Montana. She hates Montana. Why does she even care what happens to it?”
“She doesn’t hate Montana. She just has complex feelings about it. And Starlight Lake Resort is part of her heritage and inheritance, too. She’s not inclined to sell at any price. We’ll buy out you and Rex if it comes to that. But I hope it doesn’t.”
After a quiet moment of reluctance, John said, “I think that’s the only fair solution.”
Aimee saw a flicker of disappointment cross Mark’s face. But then he stood up and crossed to his office. He returned with a checkbook. Silently he wrote a check, then handed it to his brother.
Josh took it, folded it, and tucked it into his pocket. “Well I guess that settles it.”
“I suppose so.”
“Hey, are you up for a round of golf this afternoon?”
“Sorry, I have plans,” Mark replied shortly.
Aimee felt a surge of wild affection for him. She detected he was disillusioned about his brother’s hardheaded business sense; she was certainly a little dazed and taken aback by Josh’s acceptance of that check. But since she didn’t know the facets of their sibling relationship, she certainly could not judge.
On the other hand, she had six hundred thousand dollars in cash. She knew the lure of money. She struggled to justify her actions with her noble intentions. Money was a corridor between two rooms, a way to propel oneself into the future. She took that money to get to the next phase of her life.
And, she grudgingly acknowledged, she wanted to hurt Seth in the only way she could. He had stolen three years of her life. He’d diminished her and made her world progressively darker and narrower until she held herself in as much contempt as he did.
The canvas bag upstairs, stuffed full of hundred dollar bills, felt suddenly like a bomb.
Josh rose to leave. “It was nice meeting you,” he said to Aimee.