Everything with Olivia felt like uncharted territory. Their arrangement should have suited him to a tee. Sex without expectations, without emotion. He’d lived his entire life with the same unspoken arrangement every time he’d been with a woman. But when it was spelled out and agreed upon in advance with Olivia, it felt different. Perhaps because he’d never been with the same woman day after day.
One day, Jack pulled Olivia down the hallway and into his bedroom. She put up a halfhearted protest, but he knew it was mostly for Erica’s benefit. He’d barely been able to keep his hands off her all through dinner. Something was bothering her and he was bound and determined to get it out of her. Since he knew her body, where and how to touch her to elicit a reaction, he knew she’d be much more willing to talk after he’d pleasured her into a stupor.
He traced the line of her jaw with his finger as she lay sprawled across his chest. “What’s wrong?”
She rubbed her cheek against his chest and fisted her hand where moments before it lay prone. “Nothing.”
“Olivia, something’s wrong.”
She heaved a sigh and sat up on her elbow, looking down at him. At close range, he could almost make out her features. “It’s been a week since the interview and I haven’t heard a peep. I’m getting worried.”
“Should you have heard something?”
“I don’t know. My advisor said the investigator came to school yesterday and talked to him and a few of my teachers. He said she seemed professional and a little eager.”
“Eager?”
“That’s the word he used. It has me worried.”
“He could have meant eager to resolve the case,” Jack suggested and twirled her hair. It was so soft and he liked that it smelled of his shampoo.
“Or eager to find evidence against me.” She burrowed into him and settled her leg over his. As it always did when she was near, desire began to stir. “I told you she doesn’t like me.”
“Even if that’s true, and I’m not convinced it is—”
“You weren’t there. You didn’t see the way she looked at me.”
“True enough, but even if I had been there, I wouldn’t have seen the way she looked at you.”
She slapped his chest. “I’m serious, Jack. People are talking about me behind my back and sometimes right in front of my face. They think I’m getting what I deserve.”
“What people?”
She flipped over and stared up at the ceiling. “I ran into the drug store today. A group of women I went to high school with were huddled around the feminine aisle, and when they saw me, they stopped talking. One of them works for the county.”
“How do you know they were talking about you?”
“When I turned to walk away, one of them said something about how the mighty have fallen.”
“Were you friends with those women in high school?”
“Not really. I cheered with one of them. She never liked me because her boyfriend broke up with her and asked me out. I said no, but she hated me anyway.”
Jack moved onto his side and traced her nipple with his finger. “Poor Olivia. Despised for her beauty.”
“Don’t make fun of me.” She slapped his hand away. “I can’t help the way I look. I see beautiful women all the time on the TV and in magazines and I don’t hate them.”
“You might if they tried to steal your boyfriend.”
“I didn’t!”
“Beauty fades, Olivia. Most ladies get to ride on your high until somewhere around the midway mark, but some have to face it sooner. You’re getting the dark side of it with all this mess. You’d better learn to love yourself outside of the looks department.”
She pushed at his chest. “That’s a hell of a thing to say. And for your information, I do like myself. I’ve just never had anyone judge me so wrong based on my looks.”
“Haven’t you?” he asked. “Come on, love, you’re smarter than that. You said yourself you have a reputation.”
“I mean judge my character or my morals based on my looks.”
He didn’t know why he felt so compelled to make a point with her. He wanted her to see herself as he did. “Wake up, princess. People have been judging you based on your looks all your life. You’ve been judging you on your looks since you first toddled up to a mirror.”
“Oh, really? And you know this because?”
“Stripped bare, remember? It comes with a whole dump truck full of clarity.”
“For you, maybe, but I don’t see as how losing your sight made you an expert on the human race.”
“Not an expert, but an acute observer. You’re being judged negatively and you don’t like it. The one thing you hold near and dear has let you down and you don’t know what to do or how to think.” She tried to break free of his embrace, but he held her firm. “When you come to count on things like the sky being blue, the sun coming up in the morning, or liking what you see in the mirror—
if
you can see yourself in the mirror—when the things you count on let you down, your whole world tips. You either learn to adapt or fall to your death.”
“Now you’re being a little overdramatic. I don’t think I’ll die if the school board doesn’t let me teach in Westmoreland.”
“Hating yourself is its own kind of death. It’s slow and painful.”
“Newsflash, smart guy, I don’t hate myself. Haven’t you heard? I’m the most self-absorbed, egotistical woman in the valley. I chew on men and spit them out. I seduce little boys in class with my inappropriate dress and flirtatious nature. I’ve left a trail of broken hearts in my wake and I never look back.”
Some people had to learn life’s lessons the hard way. “That’s the problem right there. You care too much what other people think.”
“That’s the last thing I care about.”
“If that were true, you wouldn’t have made me promise to keep things between us a secret.” He wasn’t sure why he’d said it. It had bothered him from the beginning, like a splinter he couldn’t dislodge.
“And parading around town together would be so much better? When everyone knows why you’re here and that you have no plans to stay? Why, yes, that wouldn’t hurt my reputation at all.”
“It would help your reputation. Poor, innocent Olivia Golden gets sucked in by the rich and powerful Jack Forrester. No one could blame you.”
“That’s your take on it?”
He shrugged and pulled her on top of his chest. “It’s not my fault I’m irresistible.”
“You’re a smug bastard, Jack.”
“Yeah, I am. But I got you to smile.”
***
Erica grabbed her bowl of cereal and scooted onto the patio where her Adirondack chair waited. She felt like a third wheel when Jack and Olivia would come out of the bedroom together and share breakfast. They would crack eggs, crack jokes, and touch. They were always touching each other, a brush of the hand here, a sideways rub there, like they were both a couple of cats in need of a scratching post.
The way her brother and her tutor had opened up to one another made her envious. They shared a bed, they shared meals, and they were beginning to share their lives. It made Erica edgy about the future and edgy for a whole other reason. A reason that was scheduled to come by that afternoon for an interview.
Erica shoved the thought away. She’d hide in her room or take a walk or go to the grocery store like she always did when Lyle came over. It hadn’t been so bad, avoiding him. If she didn’t count the way her skin itched when he was around. Or the way the light from his cabin shone brighter through the trees as they lost their leaves.
He certainly hadn’t made any effort to talk to her. The one time she’d come home with a car full of groceries, some that needed to be put in the refrigerator or freezer, he’d only looked up from his spot and quickly glanced down. She’d put the groceries away, retreated to her room, and tried to play her guitar, but that reminded her of him and the way he liked her singing.
He’d ruined almost everything she’d come to like about the valley. She couldn’t wait to get back to Denver where at least she knew her place and there wasn’t any chance she’d glimpse him behind every corner of town.
She felt trapped as she sat on the patio in the cool morning air, listening to Jack and Olivia in the kitchen and the monotonous sound of building from across the river. If she could have clicked her heels three times like Dorothy in the
Wizard of Oz
, she would have been back in Denver where she belonged.
“What do you mean don’t come by the Tap today?” she heard Jack ask.
“Tommy’s going to be there,” Olivia said.
“I’m not afraid of your brother.”
“I know you’re not afraid of my brother, but I don’t want him giving me a hard time about you. I’ve had all I can take.”
“Why don’t you tell him to go to hell? Or better yet, I will.”
“No, you won’t.” Olivia sighed. “It’s not just that we’re sleeping together. He knows about your wind study.”
“So?”
“So, he thinks you’re planning to sell power back to whoever is trying to develop Bear Stream.”
“I am.”
Olivia turned around from the stove where she was making eggs. “You are? Why would you do that?”
“Why not?”
“Are you…have you been working with the developer this whole time?”
“No. I don’t even know if there’s enough wind to qualify for a mill farm.”
She turned back to the skillet. “Then why are you doing the study? What’s the point?”
“The point is money. I knew we would be down here for a month or so working with Lyle, so I did a little research on the area. When I discovered the projected development, I figured there’d be a way to piggyback the trip with a business opportunity.”
“Did you ever think about the people who live here? What if we don’t want a bunch of windmills in our back yard?”
“What if those windmills bring a good source of energy to the valley?” He brought his toast to the table and reached for the butter. “Chances are, if the wind’s strong enough on my place, it’ll be strong enough all throughout the valley. When your neighbors are raking in the dollars, they won’t care about the ugly windmills or who brought them here.”
“That’s not the point. My brother’s fighting tooth and nail to keep this development from happening.”
“You can’t fight progress. From what I’ve gathered, this Holcomb fellow has spent too much money to back down. He stands to make a tidy return on his investment when the project is complete. And you can hate me all you want, but this is just business. You can’t make business decisions based on emotion. If the project goes through and I’ve got enough wind, I’ll profit, and so will your neighbors if they follow my lead.”
“And if there’s not enough wind?” she asked.
He shrugged. “Then I’ll have a riverfront investment that’s not going down in value. It’s a win-win.”
“For you, maybe.”
“Take out the emotion and it’s a win-win for the valley. What do you think a premier ski development will do for the area?”
“Make the land prices go up so high the locals can’t afford to ranch. Change the whole dynamic of the area.” Olivia stopped scooping eggs onto Jack’s plate and stood with her brow creased.
“What’s wrong?” Jack asked. “You’re too pissed to share?”
She snapped out of it and gave him the rest of the eggs. “I’m just wondering when Tommy’s fight became my own. It wasn’t so long ago I coveted the culture and shopping the development would bring.” She shook her head and sat down, stealing a piece Jack’s toast. “Tommy and most of the locals aren’t going to give up, no matter how much money everyone stands to make.”
“Have you ever heard the phrase, ‘If you can’t beat them, join them’?”
“They’re not beaten yet.”
“I don’t want to fight about this.” Jack placed his hand over hers. “I don’t want to fight at all.”
“I don’t either.” Olivia kissed Jack’s cheek and dove back into her food.
Erica noticed the look on Jack’s face, like he’d been kicked in the balls. Her brother was falling for Olivia and was as surprised by it as Erica. She liked Olivia well enough. She’d taken so much time to help her, and Erica’s reading had really improved. But if Jack decided he wanted Olivia by his side in Denver, there wasn’t anything stopping him from asking Erica to leave. Had Erica been training her replacement by teaching Olivia to cook Jack’s favorite meals?
Where would she go? As far as she knew, Jack wasn’t planning to sell the property in the valley. He said the study would take a year. She could stay, work on her reading, and get a job doing…something. When a loud boom came from across the river, she remembered why she wanted to get out of the valley.
She didn’t want to stay and watch Lyle Woodward move on with his life. She’d had her chance and she’d blown it. By the time she read well enough to chance spending time with him, he’d have moved on. He was too good-looking, too
normal
to be alone for long. Hadn’t he admitted to her just over a week ago that he wanted to marry and settle down? A man like that, a man like him, wouldn’t have to look for long.
“Erica?” Olivia called. “Quit hiding out there and get in here. I’m tired of feeling guilty for chasing you out of your own home.”