The Cowgirl Ropes a Billionaire (13 page)

A smile curved her lips. Time for her to make some headway—she wouldn’t let this opportunity slip through her fingers. Forgetting her own qualms, she decided to put his to very good use. Whatever the next challenge was, it obviously was going to take place on top this mountain. She needed to make sure he was thoroughly freaked out by the time they got off that tram.

* * * * *

Evan kept his fingers wrapped tightly around the railing as the tram filled with passengers. Bella squeezed in beside him and various crew members took up the rest of the space with their bodies and equipment. He could feel them using up all the oxygen. Already the metal walls pressed back upon him and they hadn’t even left the ground. The only thing he had going for him was the knowledge that the ride was only seven minutes long. He could stand anything for seven minutes.

Bella pressed up against him, as if the crush of bodies gave her no other choice. She leaned into him heavily and although normally he’d relish the feeling of her soft breasts pressed against his arm, right this moment it felt like someone had tossed a woolen blanket over his head and was about to smother him. The image of his mother flashed into his mind, rushing to pull him into her arms just when he’d been about to escape outside to play with his friends. “No, Evan, stay with me. Mommy needs you.”

He brushed the memory aside and stared out the window as the tram lurched forward.

Breathe. Just breathe. In. Out. Empty your mind.

Bella slipped an arm around his waist and pressed closer. “You know sometimes they overload these little cars,” she said conversationally. “They don’t mean to, but they have to make as much money as possible, so they make sure to get as many people on as they can. Sometimes they only count the number of people—not their weight. North Americans are getting heavier all the time, so even though 10 people might have fit just fine in here a century ago, they don’t really fit now, do they?” She crowded him against the wall.

Evan wanted to push back. In fact, he wanted to shove Bella as hard as he could against the other riders. A sheen of sweat coated his hands and the back of his neck and he was beginning to find it hard to breathe. “Back up a little, would you?” he managed to ask instead.

“What?” She crowded even closer. “This is just like riding in a really crowded elevator, isn’t it? Do you ever worry about elevators stopping in between floors and you’d get stuck and you’d have to wait for hours and hours until someone came along and rescued you?”

Hell, getting stuck in an elevator was his worst fear. He never took elevators if he could help it. He passed off his obsession with taking the stairs as part of his dedication to staying fit. “Good practice for climbing mountains,” he always said just before he disappeared into the stairwell of a high rise. Luckily he was too rich for people to question him too closely.

“Imagine if the tram stopped. It could be days before we were rescued. We’d have to take turns lying down to sleep while the others stood up.”

Days? He dragged his gaze away from the spectacular mountain scenery outside the window and looked down at her, finally catching her evil grin. “It isn’t working,” he ground out.

“What isn’t working?” she asked innocently, pushing him farther into the wall.

“You’re not scaring me.”

“I think I am,” she laughed. “You’re really sweating.”

Damn it, she was right—he was practically dripping. “So I don’t like small spaces, so what?”

“So, it’s kind of pathetic, Moneybuns. This is just a tourist attraction.” She draped herself over him. “A really, really small and confined tourist attraction.”

This time he did push her away, firmly but not too roughly. No need to make a spectacle of himself while the cameras were rolling. “Enough. I know I’m impossible to resist, but you’re going to have to control yourself until you get to the top. Once we’re there, I’ll be happy to indulge your every fantasy.” Out of the corner of his eye he saw the upper station come into view and breathed a sigh of relief. A couple more moments and he’d be done with this ride from hell.

With any luck they’d hike down.

* * * * *

Even scared to death, Evan was hot. Once he succumbed to his claustrophobia he stopped complaining about the hordes of money-hungry women who threw themselves at him on a daily basis, and she was able to remember why she’d found him so attractive. The fact that billionaire Evan Mortimer had an Achilles heel made him all that much more interesting. What had happened to make him so antsy in small spaces?

Bella filed out of the tram onto the top of Whistler’s Mountain, no relation to the famous ski resort far to the southwest, as Madelyn pointed out. The air was noticeably cooler up here, even in the broad sunshine, and the view took her breath away. She only glanced at the upper station, which looked to contain a restaurant as well as a gift shop, before she turned to face the valley spread out below them and the jagged mountains that marched in every direction off into the distance.

Canada had so far exceeded her expectations, she had to admit. She’d heard about Banff and Jasper from many of her friends and family members—since Montana bordered Canada, the park was a popular vacation destination for Chance Creek’s citizens—but their descriptions and even their photographs didn’t do it justice. For one minute all her worries about the show, Evan, her animals and business slid away and she let the light breeze and thin air refresh her. She wished she always had this view in front of her to remind her of the infinite wonder of the world she inhabited. Somehow, in the day to day of life and work, it was all too easy to forget.

“Pretty spectacular, isn’t it?” Evan said, coming up beside her.

“It sure is. Feeling better?”

“Much. No thanks to you.”

“You deserved it,” she said tartly.

“Look, I never meant to imply that your goals in winning this contest are any less worthy than my goals,” Evan said.

“Yes, you did,” she retorted.

“Well, I guess I did,” he admitted. “But I want you to know I do admire your work.”

“I wish I could say the same.” She wasn’t going to fall for his charm again. She’d watched him turn it on and off too many times.

“Oh, yeah? Is your filing and appointment system computerized?”

“Sure. Everyone’s is,” she said. “So what?”

“Mortimer Innovations has five patents that pertain to that software. Do you use the new, longer-lasting lightbulbs?”

“Uh-huh.”

“We helped develop them. Do you care at all if people in Africa have access to clean drinking water?”

She just looked at him.

“We’re a major backer in a plan to deliver simple, low cost technology to a thousand remote villages in the next three years. How about disease control…”

“I get it, I get it. You’re a saint and we’d all be lost without you,” Bella said, waving him off.

“All I’m saying is I’m not a bad guy, Bella. I want to retain control over Mortimer Innovations because I have a vision for the company—one that values improving conditions for human beings all over this planet above stockholder profits. Unfortunately, if I don’t get married I’ll lose control over the company and my brother will take charge.”

“Let me guess; your brother is the devil incarnate and he’ll use his super-powers for evil?”

“Something like that,” Evan said. “Let’s just say his belief in the bottom line trumps everything else. I’m in an incredible position, Bella—I can affect millions of lives for the better.”

“Or my life for the worse,” she said and walked away.

* * * * *

Evan stared out of the mountaintop restaurant’s huge windows without seeing the incredible panorama spread below them anymore. His first attempt to impress Bella and get her thinking positively about the possibility of marrying him for a year had failed utterly because once again he’d forgotten she wasn’t one of the legions of women back in California throwing themselves at his feet in order to get hold of his money. He wanted to tell her more about what his company could do—why she should look at it as a force for good rather than just another enormous corporation—but if he thought she would be wowed by a list of patents and inventions, he was highly mistaken.

He needed specifics. He needed to prove that his need to maintain control over Mortimer Innovations was just as important and valid as her need to keep control over her veterinary clinic. If he could introduce some doubt into her mind about who deserved to win, he could wrap up this contest in no time. Who could have guessed the little vet from Montana would prove to be such a competitor?

Or maybe he was just getting soft.

If you’re not a winner, you’re a loser.

His father’s favorite saying. Damn it—he wasn’t going to be a loser in this competition. He’d walk off this show with a wife on his arm contractually bound to be where he wanted, when he wanted. Mortimer Innovations was his—no one else’s—and it was going to stay that way. He’d already set up a series of labs and think tanks around the country to provide guidance for ways Mortimer Innovations could lead the United States into a golden age of sustainable technology production.

He noticed Bella picking at her food and wondered what she was thinking about. Probably her precious animals. Didn’t she realize the world was overrun with pets? No amount of money could solve that problem permanently. Still, as he watched her finally raise a bite to her mouth, he found himself memorizing the shape of her lips and all his thoughts of business strategy slipped away. She’d make someone a wonderful wife. She was kind, thoughtful, full of energy. She was the kind of woman who would be a true partner to her husband, bringing her own thoughts, ideas and plans to the marriage.

He had no experience with that.

His mother had been a pampered invalid as long as he could remember, and now he wondered how she came to play that role. He’d have to ask Amanda to do some research. What if he’d had a mother like Bella, a mother who wasn’t afraid to step out of her door, leave her community, and head out into adventures? A mother who encouraged him, rather than tried to hold him back? He frowned, considering this. Between his mother and father, his childhood was by no means ideal, but it had pushed him in the right direction to become the man he was today. So was it all bad? He was determined, strong, competitive to the extreme, refused to be held back by others’ fears… an excellent businessman.

Maybe he should thank them for being so messed up.

Yeah, right.

“Okay, people, finish up,” Madelyn said. “Time for the next challenge.”

Bella met his gaze and rolled her eyes. He grinned despite himself.

Here we go again.

* * * * *

They stood at the end of the wooden boardwalks that traversed the ground around the upper station. The cameras rolled as Jake gave his spiel. “This contest is different than the previous ones in that it does not require any strength of body to win. Instead, it requires a sharp eye and quick reflexes. The summit of Whistler’s Mountain supports a diverse ecosystem of creatures. You have fifteen minutes to find some of these creatures and photograph them. You’ll earn a point for every different species you photograph.”

Bella tuned Jake out as he shifted into a spiel about the digital cameras they were going to use in the contest. Obviously some company had paid a mint for this particular product placement. Instead she adjusted her hat and covertly studied Evan. She didn’t buy his earlier argument that he deserved to win because his company couldn’t do all the wonderful things it did for the world unless he was running it, but it had changed her perception of him, just a little. Maybe being a billionaire didn’t stop you from being human or caring about other human beings. It didn’t stop him from having irrational fears just the same as everyone else, did it? She stifled a chuckle as she pictured his white-knuckled grip on the handrail inside the tram. Poor Evan. Poor little Moneybuns.

She was still going to beat him.

She accepted a laminated card that showed a variety of species of mammals and birds that made their homes on Whistler’s Mountain, and a compact digital camera whose workings proved nearly identical to her own. Taking her place next to the white-taped starting line someone had made near the end of the boardwalk, she waited for Jake’s “Go!” before plunging off it onto the rocky summit of the mountain itself, heading in the opposite direction that Evan took.

With the thud of her camera crew’s boots behind her on the rocks, she quickly realized what the true challenge was going to be in this contest. Gritting her teeth, she kept up her pace until she got a good distance from the crowds near the upper station, and slowed to a walk. She took a moment to peruse the laminated card, absorbing the types of critters she might see, rolled it up and shoved it into her pocket. From now on, she needed to keep her eyes peeled.

As she scanned the barren, rocky ground of the summit, she began to think this challenge was a joke. No sensible animal would make their home here, and even if they did, they’d hide until all the people left.

Except—what was that?

A scurry of movement stopped Bella cold and she crouched, as if that made her less visible on the barren mountaintop. She waved a hand behind her, hoping the camera crew understood she wanted them to stay still, and inched forward. There. Some kind of furry little beast ran around the rocks. She pointed the camera, clicked, and swore as she realized she still had the cap on. Before she could try again, the critter was gone.