“Easier than I thought,” he said. He looked serious. He narrowed his eyes. “But I guess I trust you.”
She smiled. “Saying that couldn’t have been easy, either.”
At that, he glanced at her. “You’re wrong.”
The car shrunk. He was too close. Her heart hammered in her chest. She looked away from him and caught more air.
She dropped her gaze to the balance sheet on her lap. She tucked it at the bottom of the stack. She felt way too vulnerable so she started reading again.
With each company, including the investment portion of Hunter Enterprises, she had another financial statement to review. She began adding figures together but stopped when she reached the half billion mark.
Well past Black Canyon City, she finished the last article, which featured his gas-coal plant in New York.
“I’ll say this for you, Quint, you’ve got class. Even the COO’s office in New York looks like it belongs in an Architectural Digest spread.”
“Sylvie,” he stated. “But I still plan on using Grace. Your friend knows her stuff. Sylvie told me she was ‘rather impressed’ with Grace’s designs. If you knew
the Sylvie
, you’d know what a momentous compliment that was.”
“I’ll take your word for it.” She sat staring at the road ahead for a long moment then readjusted her seat belt. Quint had turned off onto Carefree Highway heading east.
“So, what’s this all about, Quint? Why am I here with you, reading all about you and your empire, and driving to Phoenix?”
“I did a lot of thinking and wanted to balance this out. I wasn’t trying to hurt you when I hired the PI. But I did and for that, I apologize. This is my version of a PI report, my way of trying to make it up to you, but don’t think this is all there is.” He waved at the black pouch still weighing her lap down. “I have something else for you as well.”
“More stuff to read?”
He chuckled. “No.”
“What, then?”
“You’ll see.”
Carly got a panicky feeling that she was being drawn into deep waters with nothing but her flimsy purse-slash-life-preserver to save her. She set her gaze out the window once more and folded her arms over her chest.
Leave it to Quint to find a way back in when she’d started to hope that this whole business between them was finished. She’d felt relieved, in between a dozen or so weepy moments, that her affair with him had ended.
But this makeshift PI report had set her to paddling for open seas again.
Well, she wasn’t lost yet and with a little luck the ruthless businessman beside her would screw up once more and she could return to her simple Sedona life. But right now, God help her, all she wanted to do was rip his clothes off and have one more go at him.
* * * * * * * * *
A half hour later, Carly shook hands with at least twenty different employees of Hunter Enterprises. Quint introduced her to everyone and gave brief descriptions of each job before passing to the next. He knew the names and histories of all his employees. He even spoke to her later about possible promotions, unexplored abilities and professional courses he would soon recommend to this or that employee. To say he was ‘involved’ was to say a cat had whiskers.
She liked his management style, which seemed pretty close to her own. She said so over lunch and ended up talking about her Jeep drivers. “Let me tell you one of my biggest satisfactions,” she said, savoring a duck
confit
sandwich at a French bistro in Scottsdale. “Have you seen my driver with the long wavy black hair?”
He nodded, dipping a thin herbed French fry into one of three provided sauces. “Very pretty. She has an almost exotic look.”
“That’s Joni. She’s had it rough for several years now and I so admire her. I would do anything for her. Her mom got sick with cancer and when she passed she left behind a pile of medical bills. And if you say
why haven’t I helped
, I have tried at least a dozen times but she insists on doing it on her own. I adore her. Anyway, Joni loves Sedona and has made her home there. But it’s Jumpin’ Jeep Tours that makes it possible not only for her to afford to live in our expensive canyon country, but also to keep working away at that mountain of medical debt.”
* * * * * * * * *
Quint didn’t quite understand why he was enjoying himself so much. But as he listened to Carly talk, he heard her say many of the same things he’d always said, about health benefits, providing jobs, taking good care of employees, taking pride in business ownership.
He sat back and watched the animated way her hands moved as she spoke about almost being ready to add a new Jeep to the bay, about finding ways to improve the tour experience, about maybe even adding a stable of horses that could take tour guests deep into the back country.
This wasn’t a date, but it kind of felt like one.
He put a hand to his chest and struggled to draw in the next breath. All that heavy equipment had moved in again, shifting dirt around, displacing boulders, excavating. He made another mental note to see his primary physician about a check-up soon.
“Are you okay?” she asked. Her gaze fell to his hand and she frowned.
“Sure,” he said. He dropped his hand to his lap.
“Not convinced,” she responded. “Acid indigestion, maybe?”
He met her gaze and the pain drifted away. This time his chest warmed up. Was this what
normal
felt like—kind of a date, good conversation, a sharing of values? He smiled. “I’m fine.”
She looked worried, a line between her brows, her lips tucked into a faint grimace. But the check arrived and he distracted her by telling her that he was taking her to the first of his three Phoenix businesses.
* * * * * * * * *
After a round of visits to Quint’s factories in south Phoenix, Carly was worn out. She shook her head. “What I want to know is how you keep up with all this? How you retain control of so much? I mean, I could tell your COO’s are on top of things and actually seem to like you—”
He cut her off with a smile. “Hard to believe, huh?”
Carly laughed. “That’s not what I meant. The woman exec and both the men were as enthusiastic as you were.”
“I can tell you this, they were impressed with you.”
Carly was taken aback. “Why would you say that? I didn’t exchange more than a half dozen sentences with any of them. It’s probably just guilt-by-association.”
“That’s not true,” he mused. “All of us—you included—share that same ability to size people up right away, gut instinct. Body language said it all—my execs liked what they saw. Although I can tell you Tom Meyers would have been all over you if I’d dared to step out of the room.”
“Is that why you were glued to my side and twice put your arm around my waist? I have to say I was little embarrassed.”
“He’s excellent at what he does but he barhops like popcorn on a hot skillet.”
Carly laughed. “Where are we headed now?”
“My house.”
Carly swallowed hard. Quint was taking her to his house. Her body lit up like someone had just thrown the switch at a nighttime baseball diamond. She tried to calm down, but her veins hummed all the way to the tips of her fingers.
She drew in a deep breath and opted to continue the harmless part of the conversation. “I think I met enough new people to last the rest of the year.”
“What do you mean? You meet new people every day at work?”
“That’s different. These people today were important to you.”
“Well, you did great today.”
She turned into him as the BMW sped east on I-10. She scooted lower in her seat and leaned her head against the headrest. “Seriously, Quint. How do you do what you do? I have Jumpin’ Jeep Tours and I refurbished a winery and plan to start fermenting my first harvest in the next couple of months. Through all that, I didn’t have one spare minute for anything other than sleep and even then, six hours a night was a luxury.”
“Sounds familiar. I would have to say that I spend hours every day talking to my managers and my clients. But I confess I’m thinking of splitting off a division soon. Brad has been bugging me for the last three years to let him take over the manufacturing end of the business, which would mean I wouldn’t get the daily interaction with the COO’s.”
“Do you think you could let it go, that much control?”
“To be honest, I don’t know. But if I intend to expand—and I do—I’m going to have to learn to adopt a more expansive way of working.”
Carly released a sigh. At this angle, Quint’s earthy-citrusy scent flowed over her in repeated waves and built up a steady buzz in her chest. This conversation was way too pleasant, too satisfying and felt way too much like that thing called intimacy for her to be comfortable.
But what was Quint’s game in all of this? To get her back into bed?
Of course.
At least that.
She knew he still wanted her winery but she felt confident that
just saying no
would keep her property safe. Maybe this would be one of the few times in Quint’s life when he failed to reach his goal. She smiled a little. Given his supreme level of confidence, which rocked precariously close most of the time to
arrogance,
she didn’t think it would be a bad thing for him to lose, just this once. Might even do him some real good.
He looked at her and smiled. “We should have dinner before we head to my house.”
She nodded. “Good idea.”
He took her to a small Italian restaurant. She agreed to try the lasagna he recommended and the house Chianti. He told her more about his experiences in Japan and outlined his forthcoming China adventure.
She sipped her wine, her gaze fixed to his blue eyes. She loved his enthusiasm and the way he almost knocked over his wine glass twice while talking about expansion plans.
Yep, too much like intimacy.
Later, Quint’s home bowled her over. She didn’t even want to know about the square footage but she thought his Scottsdale residence was at least twice the size of her winery house. He had built in a gated community on a hillside and had arranged the house so that the principal entertaining rooms and long rectangular pool, overlooked the glittering lights of metro Phoenix.
“That’s a beautiful view,” she said standing in front of the back window slider. The sun had slipped below the horizon.
“I wanted you to see the stars from my patio.”
He stood behind her and slid his hands up her arms and caressed her shoulders. Carly’s knees did their usual sink-to-the-floor routine. Quint had the best hands.
He leaned close and whispered against her ear. “I’ve missed you but I know I screwed up. Tell me today helped, that it meant something to you.”
Carly’s instincts flew in two directions at once. The first one told her she’d have some great sex if she just let herself go and the second warned her that she was too susceptible to Quint.
“I appreciate what you did today, Quint. I suspect you’ve never taken a woman around to your companies like that before.”
“No, I haven’t,” he said, moving in a little closer, his hips connecting with her buttocks. His chest covered her back and his chin rested against her head.
He slid his hands down her arms and laced his fingers with hers. Desire rippled through her and pooled between her legs. “Remember when you bit the back of my leg?” he whispered.
The night in his hotel room sped through her mind like a DVD on fast-forward. The images left her breathless. “Yes,” she whispered.
He leaned forward, placed a gentle kiss at her temple then lower to her eyebrow and lower still to the top of her cheekbone. She wanted to turn and capture his lips with her own.
“For the sake of fairness,” he said, “I need a second bite. My other leg has been demanding equal time.”
She chuckled. The trouble was she wanted to bite him again, but she really shouldn’t.
He turned her in his arms and drew her into a full, tight embrace. He kissed her hard, his tongue demanding entrance. Her mouth opened as though he’d spoken the secret password. She slung her arm around his neck.
What was she doing?
She drew back from his kiss then settled her head on his shoulder. He wrapped his arms around her and held her. She took deep breaths.
What was she doing?
Was she really letting him back in? Oh, God. Her heart-rate sped up. This threshold didn’t compare with the others. She could see the progression now, in hindsight, beginning with
possibilities
on the Rim, to an agreement to work together on the Napa weekend, to the payment of Grace for her design services, to his PI report, to the leather pouch containing everything there was to know about Quint’s assets, to an introduction at his businesses. Each event, good and bad, had led her by the hand, seduced her heart, her mind, her body, made her willing even now to close her eyes and embrace him.
Everything had changed…again. But this time, the stakes had broadened to encompass so much more than her desire to be in Quint’s bed, to have his body cover her.
This time, he’d engaged her heart and he didn’t even know it. He’d done it by opening himself up to her. Maybe he thought of this as a mere tactic in his consuming strategy to get her winery, but she knew differently and this she knew in her bones—Quint had invited her into a relationship.
The problem was, there was nothing in his past to support him in a true sharing of lives. His foundation had been birthed in poverty, death and divorce. By his own admission, his childhood had forged his empire-building drive. There was no place for marriage in his life. How could she then hope for a happy ending with him?
She had a choice to make, to back off right now, to close him off permanently or to take a chance that he would awaken to his love for her.
She hugged him harder. If only he didn’t smell like heaven. If only his body didn’t feel so wonderful to her. If only she’d never known the pleasure of being joined to him physically, how much easier would such a decision be?
But he held her in his arms now, he nuzzled her hair, her ear, her neck. He drew back and looked into her eyes. “How about a swim?”
She put her hand on his face. Time to decide, right here, right now, if she would take a chance on Quint Barron.