He chuckled but he also felt a little guilty. How could he enjoy himself like this when she looked like the top of her head could blow at any second?
She had red smudges on her cheeks, she hadn’t bothered with a single bit of make-up and still she was beautiful. He sipped the ale a little more. Desire crept over him like a tide that just kept moving in.
He remembered taking her the first time, from behind, her body so ready for him, her groans, his hand rubbing up and down her back, then he was inside. He wanted to be there again, but by the look of her mulish expression, he had a lot of work to do.
But how he loved a challenge.
He took a big gulp of ale and forced his body to calm down. This battle wouldn’t be won any time soon. Right now he needed to concentrate on business, on getting her geared in the right direction. Once he had this stage of his plan in place, he could focus on getting close enough to her ear to tease her with that little flip of his tongue that had made her whimper all night.
He had hammered out the details with his lawyer and his accountant. He felt certain Carly would go for this new, but quite temporary angle.
If she didn’t, he’d find some other way to get in, simple as that.
Carly jerked the door open and entered the restaurant.
He waved to her and smiled.
She met his gaze, but her lips settled into a grim line. He would so love to kiss away all that dreary determination.
“Quint,” she stated, approaching the bar.
“Have a seat. You know, I’ve heard they make a nice prickly pear margarita.”
“Why did you come back?” she asked, straight to the point, her voice hushed.
Her tone did nothing to encourage his ‘naked ASAP’ plans. “I’ve solved the dilemma.”
“There was no dilemma to solve. I’m keeping the winery. Period.”
Quiet but determined.
He liked her a lot but decided on a different tack. “I’m ready for a good meal, how about you? They’re holding a table for us. Can I at least buy you dinner?” He heard her stomach growl. He chuckled. “I know you’re hungry.”
A blush crept up her cheeks vying with all the red Sedona dust still on her face.
She compressed her lips. “Fine. We might as well get this settled now rather than later.”
Of course she’d meet things head on.
“That’s the spirit.”
She glared at him.
As the hostess led them to their table, he put his hand on the small of her back, but she jerked away from him and cast him a look from hell right over her shoulder. His face felt scorched.
He tossed up his hands, but he couldn’t keep from smiling. What was it about her that set his body on fire? Although all this resistance wasn’t helping, kind of like putting one foot on the brake, while pressing the accelerator full force with the other. Now if she’d just let go of the brake, man would this car fly.
* * * * * * * * *
Carly felt stretched to the limit and irritable. She accepted the suggestion and ordered the prickly pear margarita on the rocks. After several minutes she realized that Quint no longer talked. He sat adjacent to her on her left and when she glanced at him, she saw that he watched her over the rim of his bottle of ale. “What?” she snapped.
“I apologize for just showing up. That was rude of me.”
“Yes it was,” she said, as though she fired her words through a pistol.
Her margarita arrived.
Quint grew silent once more.
“What?” she shot again.
“Did you have lunch?” He frowned a little. Maybe it was a scowl.
“No. What does that have to do with anything?”
“You’re edgy tonight.”
I’m edgy because you’re here.
She sighed. “I didn’t expect to see you again. I thought we’d already wrapped this up.” She sipped her margarita through the straw. She shoved the straw aside and took a deep drink.
“What’s good here?” he asked, flipping through the menu.
“The restaurant is called, ‘The Cowboy’. You figure it out.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he drawled.
This time she laughed. She sipped her margarita a little more. She scooted down in her seat. She’d been sitting like a soldier at attention and now her shoulders ached. Okay, maybe she’d been
a lot
edgy.
After she devoured a salad, baked potato and a beautifully grilled spencer steak, and after Quint had done the same, he asked, “Will you hear me out?”
“Shoot.” But she didn’t intend to listen.
She had said no and she meant no.
She sighed. She leaned her elbow on the table and sunk her chin in her hand. She watched his mouth open. The words of his proposal began to flow.
Now why was such a gorgeous man still unattached? Oh, yeah. He didn’t intend to go the marriage-and-rug-rat route. But what about love? Probably no time. But why was he like that? How had he gotten to be
Quint
in the first place? Wounded by a woman once? Scorned? Betrayed?
“Are you listening?”
She shook her head. “Sorry.”
“What were you thinking about?”
“What made you such a solitary man?”
He narrowed his eyes. “I wouldn’t use the word
solitary.
There’s very little about my life and my work that doesn’t involve other people, working together, solving problems, forging ahead. Oh, you mean because I don’t want a wife.” She nodded, her chin still resting on her hand.
He continued, “I’m just not interested. Not the marrying kind. My dad had three more wives after my mother passed. I thought I’d keep my life simple and forgo the
married-and-divorced
part of the equation.”
“But you would make the prettiest babies as handsome as you are.”
His mouth fell agape. “We’re talking business, Carly.”
“No
we’re
not.
You
are. I’m just not interested.”
“What are you interested in?” he asked.
Carly answered his question with the first thoughts that came to mind. “The stars on a crystal clear night, the moon, the red earth, making sure my company keeps each of its drivers working to capacity, excellent health care, taking care of widows and orphans.”
Having my arms around your shoulders as far as I can get them and settling my head on your strong, muscular chest.
Listening to the strong beats of your heart…
These unwanted thoughts made her sit up straighter. She reminded herself that she wasn’t skilled at all in handling mountain lions and that the margarita had made her lazy since the greater part had been consumed before the meal arrived. “Quint, can’t you forget about the winery? I’m not selling.”
“But I would just be leasing your property for a month.”
She scowled. Had she heard him right? “What?” Maybe she
should
listen.
“I started at the wrong place. In this plan, I would just be leasing the winery for my Napa client deal.”
She had a sense the lease was not the whole story. “What are you proposing?”
“One month, a hundred thousand dollars and at an additional cost I would furnish the house according to your preferences. But there’s one more thing. I would want you to work with me, to help organize the Napa visit, orchestrate a simple itinerary for entertaining the guests, and be in the house during the long weekend of the visit. In other words, we’d be business associates until the deal closes which would be the last weekend in July.”
“Let me get this straight. You want to pay me an enormous sum to make use of the winery, you want to furnish the house, and you want my help entertaining your guests?”
“Yes. Exactly.” His eyes were still hooded. He breathed in even draws and appeared relaxed, but she could tell his entire body was tuned into her, waiting. In this moment, he was sexy as hell, all drive and dominance. “Do you have any other questions?”
“I need to know what you would expect me to do as your
business associate
.”
She had half thought he would sidle close and whisper bad things in her ear. Okay, maybe she
hoped
he would do that.
Instead, he remained in business mode, still at full attention. “I need you with me on this deal one hundred per cent, the way you went about refurbishing the winery property. I’ll be sending you profiles of all six guests so that you’ll understand each like and dislike, quirk and eccentricity, strength and weakness.
“During the weekend they’re with us at the winery, you’ll advise me from hour to hour with perceptions and suggestions. You already know this from giving Jeep tours, that each group is a living, breathing entity all on its own, with peculiar needs fixed to the moment. Some of the continual flux can be guided. Some can’t. But a decent amount of preparation will allow for adjustments along the way.”
Carly met his gaze aware that he had just let her into his world and into the workings of his mind. He was so seductive in ways she was certain he didn’t even understand. She had anticipated a list of duties encompassing a tour-guide-slash-hostess role. She now realized she would be playing a much more intuitive, guiding hand. “Thank you for that.”
He lifted his brows. “What do you mean?”
“I’m flattered that you think I could be an asset to you in the process of landing your clients.”
He turned into her, all his strength and confidence pouring over her like a Tsunami. “Why do you think I concocted this plan in the first place? After I saw what you’d done with your property, I knew you could do anything.”
Dizziness hit her hard. His compliment coupled with the heat radiating off his chest worked on her like dynamite. She kept feeling explosions inside her chest. She mentally checked and found that he’d done some serious damage to the stone fortifications around her heart.
She dropped her gaze to her glass of ice water. She picked up the glass and with fingers that trembled, drew it to her lips then took a sip. She struggled to breathe as she so often did whenever he was near. She made her decision and set the glass down.
“I’ll need this in writing,” she said, not daring to look at him just yet.
“I have the contract in my car. Everything’s detailed just as we’ve discussed.”
“I’ll also want my attorney to review your offer.”
“Of course.”
She finally felt able to look at him. “Quint, I still don’t think I get why you’ve been so intent on my winery.”
At that, he relaxed his shoulders a little. “It’s just an instinct, although a powerful one, that Red Canyon is where the weekend needs to happen. I’m going with my gut on this one. That’s all.”
“And you’re certain that a nice stay at the Phoenician or The Princess wouldn’t do the job?” Both were extraordinary Phoenix hotels.
“It’s about connections, all kinds of connections.” He smiled. “This is what I do. I figure out what pieces need to come together and on this deal that includes you. Don’t ask me how I know, I just know.”
“Okay,” she said at last. “Let me see the contract and have a long talk with my lawyer. I’ll call you as soon as I’ve had a chance to meet with him.”
“Not good enough. This offer expires tomorrow at five o’clock. I’ll deliver everything I’ve promised but I’m done waiting. It’s now or never, Carly. If you refuse this offer, you won’t hear from me again.”
“That simple, huh?”
He nodded. “Absolutely.”
She returned with him to his car. He opened the trunk and withdrew a folder from his briefcase. “Here you go.”
In her stunned state, she was about to turn away when he caught her chin in his hand. She looked into extraordinary blue eyes that had grown serious.
“If we sleep together, that’ll just be an unexpected but very hoped-for bonus.”
She would have pushed his hand away, but her heart hammered so hard she couldn’t concentrate on anything except the loud thumping in her ears.
When her mind did engage, her thoughts landed on the various images of the night she’d spent with him in her bed. She became fixed on a third or fourth time when she had been half off the bed and he’d been kneeling on the floor. What he had done to her. She had never been so satisfied nor more surprised.
She smiled suddenly. She shook her head. Her cheeks felt hot. “I never told you how much I loved that you stayed until dawn. It was really…nice.”
He let her chin go, but a slight frown dipped between his brows. He lowered his voice. “You kept pulling at my arm and whispering,
more.
How could I have refused a request like that?”
Desire crashed over her. She dragged more air into her poor, afflicted lungs. She wanted him…again…now. “I’ll have an answer by five tomorrow,” stumbled out of her throat.
He nodded, then touched the sensitive underside of her arm. “Are you sure you don’t want a sleepover?”
At that, she pulled herself together, stepped away from him then forced herself to say, “Let’s just stick to business.” Maybe the hardest words she’d ever spoken.
He laughed and got into his car. “Tomorrow, then.” The engine purred to life. He guided his BMW into traffic.
She watched until his car disappeared from sight.
Her knees wobbled a little as she walked back to Jumpin’ Jeep Tours.
* * * * * * * * *
The next day, Carly discovered how useless lawyers could be. Her attorney insisted she couldn’t pass up such a sweet deal. She had hoped for a strong warning that she needed to avoid Quint Barron at all costs. Instead, her counsel had said,
you won’t see a deal like this again ever. Take it. I’m sure you can put that hundred grand to good use.
The truth was, she could. The windfall would make the widows home a breeze to purchase with enough left over to make some much-needed improvements.
Another thought occurred to her as well. Grace would be thrilled to know that, according to the contract, the design budget had just been expanded about five times from the original size. Grace was very successful but her ongoing medical bills could always use an influx of much needed cash. Well, now she had two strong reasons for accepting Quint’s not-to-be-turned-down offer.
Once back at the office, she picked up her phone and punched in Quint’s number. She didn’t need to be worried about his profound effect on her heart-rate since he wouldn’t be around all that much. His empire, which no doubt reached into global markets, would keep him tied to metro Phoenix. All their interactions could be handled on the phone, or by fax or through email. There would be no reason for him to be in Sedona very often, if at all, until the actual four days when the Napa clients would arrive at her winery.