“So what do you think?”
She looked up at him and loved how the wind had ruffled his short dark hair onto his forehead. She just managed to catch herself from reaching up and pushing it back. “Um,” she said, gathering up her scattered thoughts, “I hate to keep using the word amazing….”
He grinned, and her breath locked in her lungs. Seriously, when the man flashed an unguarded smile, he was a danger to any woman with eyes.
He pointed off in the distance. “The stables are down there, alongside a paddock, and there are riding trails through the woods. Tennis courts are over there and the golf course is back at the opposite end of the resort.”
She laughed to herself. “It’s like a little city all in itself.”
“Exactly how Don saw it, too,” Christian said. “We’ve even got a small clinic on site. Joel Remy runs it. He’s got a nurse who helps out and they can take care of any minor situations the guests might have. Of course, anything more serious is treated at the hospital in Aspen.”
“Our own medical staff. Wow.” She turned from him and stared out at the surrounding cabins and lodges.
“That’s the first time you’ve said ‘our’ about this place,” he commented. “Starting to feel more connected?”
She looked back at him. “I guess I am. It’s a little nerve-racking, but I’m excited about it, too, you know?”
“I do,” he said, then looked around as she had, as if he were seeing it for the first time through her eyes. Finally, he turned his gaze back on her. “You’ll make your place here, Erica.”
“Yeah,” she said, giving him a smile that lit up her eyes. “I will.”
He nodded as if he sensed her commitment, and said, “A long time ago, I decided to make this my place. To carve out my own slice of Jarrod Ridge.”
“Why? I mean, what drove you to want this?” She asked the question quietly, not wanting to disturb the intimacy of the moment. Despite the fact that they were surrounded on all sides by happy, chattering guests, it felt as though they were alone, just the two of them.
He smiled to himself and tucked his hands into his jeans pockets. “I told you I grew up here. Well, in Aspen.”
She nodded but didn’t say anything, encouraging him silently to continue.
“My first job was as a busboy in the main restaurant in the Manor.” He glanced back over his shoulder at the palatial mansion, its rose brick walls nearly radiant in the bold, summer sunshine. “I loved it. Well, not working in the restaurant, but being here. Being a part of it all.” He paused, as though he were gathering up stray thoughts and straightening them out. “My dad died when I was three. My mom worked constantly, but it was hard, you know?”
Erica nodded, caught up in the soft cadence of his words, the faraway look in his eyes.
“Anyway…” He took a long breath and released it again. “I knew what I wanted. I wanted to belong at a place like this. So I worked my ass off in school, got a scholarship and eventually, with Don’s help, went to law school.”
“Why did he help?” she asked, curious now about the father she would never know.
“To tell you the truth, I don’t really know,” he admitted with a half smile. “There was never any telling what Don would do or why. I like to think he saw something in me he thought would work well here. That he knew I’d do the job for him.”
“Sounds like that’s exactly what he thought,” she told him.
Christian sent her a glance. “Maybe. I’ll never know for sure. I do know that he helped shape me into the kind of lawyer I am. And I helped him reshape this place into the growth it’s enjoying now.”
“Then you did what you set out to do,” Erica said. “Made a place for yourself. Ensured that you belong here.”
“Yeah, I did. And I owed Don a lot—which,” he added wryly, “he never let me forget.”
“What’s that mean?” It didn’t sound good and by the look on his face, Christian wasn’t happy about whatever he was going to tell her.
“It means, that in my contract with the resort, Don laid it out just the way he wanted it. Hell, he even made sure the codicil was in his will, just in case I needed reminding.”
“What?” A curl of apprehension settled in the pit of her stomach. Erica had the distinct feeling she wasn’t going to like what he was about to say.
Christian locked his gaze with hers. “For me to keep my invested shares in Jarrod Ridge, I’m to remain loyal to the business.”
“That doesn’t sound so bad.”
“Then there’s the added warning to stay away from his daughters.”
“What?” Erica shook her head as if she hadn’t heard him right. “Say that again.”
Christian huffed out a breath. “He didn’t put it in those words, exactly, but the meaning’s clear enough. I might be a big-time, rich lawyer now, but Don still saw me as the poor kid looking for a chance. And he didn’t want that kid anywhere near his daughters. Either of them. Bottom line, Erica? You’re off-limits.”
Seven
“But that’s ridiculous,” Erica argued, astounded at this turn of events.
He shrugged. “That’s Don.”
“It’s medieval.” She took a step away from him, turned around and came right back. Looking up into his chocolate eyes, Erica felt that bone-deep hum she always did when she was around him. She knew he felt it, too. She could see desire in his eyes, feel heat rippling off him in thick waves. Erica looked up at him. “Why are you telling me this?”
“You know why,” he said and his eyes darkened even as his mouth tightened into a hard line. “Because there’s something between us.”
“So you want to stop it.”
“Didn’t say I wanted to,” he corrected with a shake of his head. “But this is my life. One I worked damn hard for.”
“That’s right,” she countered. “Your life. And mine. Don Jarrod has nothing to do with this.”
He snorted a laugh. “The fact that you can say that and mean it just goes to prove you didn’t know him.”
“No, I didn’t. But even if I had, I wouldn’t let him make my decisions for me,” she snapped. Anger shot through her and she let her words ride the wave of it. “I didn’t let Walter decide whether I’d move here or not. I won’t let Don decide who I become involved with or not.”
“You think I like this?” he asked, reaching out to grab hold of her shoulders. “Do you think I like dancing to Don’s tune? I don’t. It goes against everything that’s in me.”
“Then why?”
“My mom worked hard her whole life,” he said tightly. “Thanks to my work here, my shares of Jarrod Ridge, she’ll never have to work again. I bought her a condo in Orlando. She has friends. She plays golf. She gets her hair done in a fancy salon and she buys her clothes at the best boutiques in town. She takes cruises with her friends and she has fun for the first time in her life.”
Her heart twisted in her chest as everything nebulous that she’d felt for him over the last several days solidified into something bigger. More important. Staring up into his eyes, she saw the kind of man she used to hope she’d meet. The kind who saw loyalty as a virtue. The kind who took care of his family no matter the cost to himself. The kind who put his own needs last behind everyone else in his life who mattered.
“No matter what I feel for you, or might feel for you,” Christian said, “I won’t take that away from her.”
“I wouldn’t ask you to.”
“So you understand that this can’t go anywhere.”
“No,” she said, “I don’t. But I understand why you believe that.”
He hissed in a breath, grabbed her hand and said, “Come with me.”
She refused to move when he would have tugged her along. “Where?”
“We need to talk this out and…I want to show you something.” His gaze searched hers for a long moment until he said, “Please.”
Erica nodded and went with him, her fingers curled tightly around his. He led her off the concrete path and down a short slope that ran behind a short row of shops. In the distance, the forest loomed, green and filled with shadows, and he was walking right for it.
“Where are we going?” She held on to his hand and quietly enjoyed the rush of heat that linked them together.
“Thought I’d show you something here that Don Jarrod had nothing to do with building.”
“You’re kidding, right?” she asked as she ran to keep up with him. “I thought this was completely his.”
“Most of it,” he said, glancing back over his shoulder. “But this part was here first.”
He led her through the trees, his steps sure as he continued on, deeper into the cool gloom. The farther they got from the resort, the quieter it became. Erica heard birds high overhead and from a distance, there was a muted roar of sound that got louder and louder as they approached.
Erica looked back over her shoulder and couldn’t see the resort at all. The trees were so thick it was as if a dark green wall had been erected between them and the grounds of Jarrod Ridge.
When Christian at last came to a stop and released her hand, she was simply staggered by the beauty around her. A river rushed past them, growling and roaring over stones in its path. Lined on either side by thick stands of trees, and a narrow ribbon of rock and sand, the water was frothy and beautiful and completely untouched. It was an oasis of privacy in a sea of people and Erica loved it.
She walked closer to the water’s edge, her sandals sinking and sliding on the sand. She felt the spray on her face as a soft wind kicked up, rattling the leaves of the trees until they sounded like whispered conversations.
“This was my spot when I was a kid,” Christian said softly as he came up behind her. “When I needed to think, when things got bad, I came here and everything felt…all right again.”
“I can see why,” she said and wondered how anyone could be sad or depressed if they had somewhere so beautiful to go. She looked at him and asked, “And how many women have you brought here, I wonder?”
“Counting you?” he asked, gaze fixed on hers with an intensity that shot a lick of flame through her center. “Just one.”
“Why did you bring me?” she asked, her voice as breathless as she felt. “After everything you told me about Don and the will and everything…why did you bring me here?”
“Because,” he admitted, his gaze moving over her face like a caress, “I had to.”
Then he pulled her in close and kissed her.
He took her mouth with a hunger he’d never known before. Instantly, her lips parted, allowing him access, welcoming him into her warmth. He’d known, somewhere deep inside him that it would be like this with her. Known that the pulse of electricity between them would erupt into a shower of light and heat the moment he got close enough to her.