The Jarrods were seated around a sunken conversation pit in front of a fireplace, which in winter would give the room a warm ambience.
Blake patted the table to get everyone’s attention. The group slowly fell silent. “Gavin…Trevor…you’re both here. Anyone missing?”
Gavin and Trevor were remarkably similar-looking in coloring and build and even mood, Avery noticed. Much more so than Blake and Guy. She compared the twins. Their dark hair and determined jawlines were the only resemblance they shared.
“Except Melissa,” said Erica from an armchair set to one side. “She was feeling off color and went home.”
“She’s been tired a lot lately,” said Christian, Erica’s fiancé, who was perched on the arm of her chair. “Perhaps she should go see a doctor.”
Guy shuffled a pile of papers. “Okay, let’s get down to business.”
Nothing could’ve more effectively made Avery realize how wrong he was for her. All he cared about was business…and sex.
Even his sister’s health was of little concern to him.
Nothing about him made him a good prospect for the husband she wanted, for the father of the family she yearned for. So why had she wasted three whole days pining after the darn man?
He didn’t want a family. Look how relieved he’d been when she’d told him there had been no consequences to their affair. If she’d had any sense she might’ve told him about the very light period she’d had and made him fret a little.
In fact, it was probably worth purchasing a pregnancy test just to make sure there’d been no slip. Not that she expected there to be a baby, but the two weeks she’d spent in Guy’s bed in New York had been over her most fertile time of the month. She’d been on the Pill then, even though she was off it now.
She doodled on the pad on front of her. A row of daisies with smiling faces. She told herself that it was for the best that she couldn’t have conceived. That she should be as happy as the daisies she’d captured on the legal pad.
After the meeting was over she’d go into town. Just to make sure.
Guy couldn’t find Avery anywhere.
He’d unexpectedly missed her in the days he’d been gone, and now she’d vanished into thin air.
Rita confirmed Avery wasn’t booked for a treatment in the spa. Nor had Louis seen her all morning—much as it galled him to ask his friend if he’d seen her. So she hadn’t been to Chagall’s. Reception said she hadn’t used her card to access her room.
He was dying to tell her about the success he’d had with Go Green. Jeff hadn’t made the meeting in the end, and Guy had been left to do all the wheeling and dealing alone. It was the first time that Jeff had let him down, and Guy knew it could only be because his partner still felt awkward about having slept with Avery. The relationship between them had become strained.
Despite Jeff’s absence, the supermarket chain had placed a large order, but there were tough deadlines and production would have to get moving. Now Guy found himself wanting to watch Avery tip her head to one side as she evaluated the progress he’d made, to hear her arguments against it. And watch her eyes widen and her head bob if she considered the opportunity as good as he did.
So where the hell was she?
Grumpily, Guy took his cell phone out from the chest pocket of his white business shirt and located her number. Three rings later her breathy voice greeted him. Instantly desire curled in his groin.
“Where are you?” he asked more brusquely than he’d intended.
“In town.”
She’d gone to town? Why? “You didn’t tell me you were going.”
“You didn’t ask.”
“Why the big secret?”
“It’s not a secret.”
A chill feathered along his spine at the defensive note in her voice. Avery was not being completely truthful with him. Why?
What was she hiding?
Was she meeting someone—hell, be honest—he wanted to know if she was meeting Todd. He swallowed the bile in the back of his throat. Had they become an item in his absence?
Guy suspected he was being unreasonable…he’d never reacted with this kind of unwarranted jealousy with his other girlfriends. But then he’d never experienced this degree of turmoil over any of them.
“I wanted to talk to you,” he said finally.
“What about?”
Suddenly it all felt flat. This call wasn’t going the way he’d planned. “It doesn’t matter.”
“We can talk when I get back—sorry, I have to go now.”
Guy stared at his BlackBerry in disbelief. She’d killed the call. No woman ended a call until he was good and ready…it was always he who cut the woman short. In New York Avery had been openly admiring, now she barely had time for him. He didn’t like the role reversal one little bit.
But why the hell did it matter?
He didn’t want her to love him. The last thing he wanted was a needy woman—he’d made it his life’s mission to avoid them. All he wanted was sex. Good sex. No, he wanted more, he wanted great sex. The kind of sex he’d always had with Avery.
But that didn’t explain this sudden pressing need to talk to her about how the Go Green meetings had gone.
Guy shook his head, confused.
The sooner he got Avery back into his bed the better. In his experience sex fixed everything.
Seven
Back in her hotel room, Avery stood in the bathroom and stared at the applicator stick.
The emotion that surged through her at the sight of the single pink line was not the relief she’d expected. Instead she felt unaccountably sad.
Her throat was tight and achy. She wanted to cry.
There’d been two tests in the box she’d driven to Aspen to buy earlier. Both had given the same result.
One pink line.
Not pregnant.
It’s for the best, she tried to convince herself. It was what Guy had wanted. What she should’ve wanted, too. If she’d had any sense.
She ought to be dancing around with delighted relief. Not staring at the second stick praying for the second pink line to appear.
Because she wanted a baby. She longed for a family.
And, damn it, she wanted Guy, too. All in the same breath. Even though she knew such pie-in-the-sky dreams were utterly impossible.
Pink. She felt downright blue.
A knock sounded on the door of her room.
Avery stuck the traitorous stick back into the box and hurried out of the bathroom.
Wrenching the door open she found Guy on the other side.
Horrors. For a moment she couldn’t marshal her thoughts. All she could think of was the telltale pregnancy test sitting on the bathroom slab, incriminating evidence of all her dashed hopes.
“Aren’t you going to invite me in?”
“Wh-what are you doing here?” she stuttered. For a wild moment she considered slamming the door in his face.
“I came to help you move your stuff.”
“Move my stuff?” She retreated into the room, and barely noticed that he’d followed.
“Didn’t Reception call? I’ve changed your room.” He frowned as he scanned it. “I didn’t know you were given a room in this wing. The view isn’t great.”
“It doesn’t matter—I spend so little time here. Frankly, I’d be grateful for a broom cupboard, I know how scarce accommodation in Aspen is.”
“Now’s not too bad, but during the ski season it’s diabolical.”
She didn’t bother to remind him she wouldn’t be here for the ski season.
He strode across the room.
“Where are you going?” she squawked, intent on distracting him before he entered the bathroom and discovered the tell-tale stick. She’d already told him she wasn’t pregnant, she didn’t want him doubting her.
Instead he stopped just to the left of the door to the bathroom, and threw open the wardrobe doors.
Avery’s breath whooshed out in a gust of relief.
He spoke into the wardrobe. “It shouldn’t take you long to pack up.”
“I’m not packing up.”
“If you don’t want to move into another room, you can move in with me. Because you never did give me an answer. And I’ve been very patient, I’ve given you more time than you need.”
She stared at his back, achingly conscious of the shaggy length of his hair where it brushed the collar of his T-shirt.
“I’m not moving into your quarters.”
“The view is far better from my suite upstairs.”
She wished she could see his face. “I’m sure it is. But as I just said, I’m not in my room enough for it to matter.”
He spun away from the wardrobe.
Avery caught a glimpse of tumult in the dark gray eyes, before his jaw firmed, and he moved toward her with long, swinging strides.
Hooking his arms around her shoulders, he bent his head until his forehead touched her hair.
“I want you with me,” he said into the cave of space between them.
Oh, dear heaven. How was she supposed to resist this?
If only he’d been a different kind of man…
A family man.
But he wasn’t. And she had to be strong. She had to resist.
“I’m not going to have an affair with you.”
“And I’m not going to accept no for an answer.”
Her breath whooshed out in frustration. “You have to accept it. You can’t force me to move in with you.”
“I can certainly use every advantage I have to persuade you.” His lips brushed hers in a light teasing kiss.
“I need some space,” she said desperately.
“Why? Just admit you want me.” He kissed her again, his mouth lingering on hers. Unfair!
“We’re working together. Trying to keep a professional distance.” Her breath mingled with his. “We’re both going to need space, time away from each other. Otherwise we’ll drive each other crazy.” And she refused to let herself fall in love with him all over again.
“I don’t want any space between us….” He pulled her up against his body. “Almost a week has already slipped away, I want to spend every remaining minute we have together.”
He sunk his tongue into her mouth in a primitive act of possession that sent a thrill of desire along Avery’s bloodstream.
The sentiment was all well and good, but Avery knew he didn’t mean it. Not in the way that she needed him to mean it. All he was talking about was sex.
He wanted her within reach all night long.
And first thing in the morning, if it came to it.
Guy was a demanding lover. He’d take whatever she gave, without giving much of himself in return. Having her in his bed, at his convenience, didn’t mean he wanted to be close to her.
Not in any of the ways that really mattered.
Avery drew away. “No. I’m keeping my stuff in my room. This room. I’m not your lover anymore. I don’t want special treatment. I don’t want the staff, your family, thinking that I am your lover.”
His hand brushed her hair off her face, his touch so gentle her throat thickened. “I’m not going to give up until you agree.”