Tall, Dark And Daring

Although the green love seat used to reside in the library, site of many of their out-of-control kisses, he’d moved the small couch in his office when he bought the ski lodge. Perhaps he wasn’t really playing fair to tease her with it, but he couldn’t resist the temptation to see her reaction.

She looked so much more buttoned-up than she used to. So off-limits.

When he’d first met her, Tessa had searched for adventure around every corner. She was the only girl he’d ever dated who gladly let him teach her how to snowboard. And she’d taken to it like a pro. He doubted she’d ever be so daring now. In her trench coat and navy pumps, she looked more fit for the boardroom than the slopes.

She faced him, cool as you please in spite of the steamy memories the love seat from the library had to call to mind. “Why don’t you box up the files and send them to my room? In fact, I should probably settle in now so I can review my notes before tonight, Mitch. I really can compile a comprehensive plan for your company once I sit down and—”

“I know you can. That’s why I hired you.”

She arched a brow as if she didn’t believe him.

“If you think I hired you because of what happened between us, you’re wrong.” Mostly. “I requested you because you’re reputed to have one of the sharpest marketing minds on the Eastern seaboard.”

That much was true. He’d been amazed to read her bio.

He stood in front of her, making sure to leave enough space between them to reinforce his claim that he only brought her here for business. He couldn’t afford to scare her away. “I need an expert to help me make Mogul Ryders a blowout success.”

Ever since Mitch had lost his ability to compete on the slopes, he’d hung his voracious need to succeed on his business. Tessa would be his ticket to realizing his goals.

She looked him in the eye. “I can do it.”

He shook his head. He didn’t want to hear the pat assurances she’d reel off to any of her clients. “But you said you hadn’t fully researched my company. What if—”

“Frankly, Mitch, if you made snake oil, I could sell it for you with a kick-butt return on your investment.”

He couldn’t help a low whistle of admiration. The cool confidence in her gaze made him a believer. “Really?”

She grinned. “Really.”

Mitch nodded, pleased his company rested in good hands and strangely proud to think Tessa O’Neal had turned into a business dynamo. “Then I guess I’ll show you to your room and let you go to work.”

He ushered her out of his office and toward the elevator. He didn’t need to ask which room she was in. He’d chosen it himself. Number 326, the executive suite.

She shuffled a few of the papers under her arm. “I’ll have at least a portion of this mapped out by dinner. Shall we meet in the hotel restaurant?”

Mitch followed the progress of her stocking-clad ankles as she stepped on to the elevator. “How about we head over to MacRae’s?” he suggested, dropping the name of their favorite restaurant as he punched number three.

Frowning, she cinched the belt around her coat a little tighter. “I don’t know, Mitch. I—”

“They still fry up a mean lake trout.” His mind conjured a wayward image of Tessa in her tan trench coat with nothing on underneath it but high heels. He really shouldn’t torture himself like this.

“You should have gone into my field, Mitch,” she muttered as the elevator doors swished open. “Which way?”

He pointed down the hall. “I’ll take that as a yes?”

She didn’t say anything as she paused in front of her door and slid the key into the lock. When the green light appeared, she pushed her way inside then turned to face him. She stood there a moment, poised in the entry, propping the door open with her hip. “Yes.”

The word hit him with the force of a mogul at high speed—jolting his whole body and launching him through the air. God, but she packed a provocative punch.

She looked at him, her breathing a little fast, her cheeks tinged with color. Right then, Mitch knew he wasn’t the only one who had mentally replayed every moment of their time together in the years since they’d seen each other.

He would have kissed her if he didn’t think she might turn around and hop the first plane back to Miami.

But maybe she’d relax around him after they tied up their business.

“Meet you in the lobby around seven?”

She nodded. “I’ll be there.”

Backing away, he opted for a quick retreat before he did something stupid, like tug on the ties of that trench coat until it fell to her feet.

The door swung shut between them, but it didn’t stop him from envisioning her every move behind it. Would she have that coat off yet?

Mitch hoped Tessa was every inch the marketing genius she was reputed to be, because the quicker they dispensed with the business portion of her trip, the faster he could get her back to that love seat in his office to relive a few fond memories.

2

HE’D KEPT the love seat.

No matter how much she tried to concentrate on developing a marketing plan, that one thought kept recurring in her brain.

Tessa paced the suite bedroom in her towel as she read over Mitch’s file for the third time since her bubble bath.

Why had he moved the love seat into his offices? Didn’t he remember what they had shared on that glorified pine bench? Or worse, what if he did?

Berating herself for her lack of focus, she planned her strictly business approach to tonight’s meeting. She could do this. She had to.

If she could keep things professional between them for one week, she’d fulfill the dare and she’d be free and clear of Mitch, of Lake Placid, of her marketing job. She could start fresh with her sedate life next Monday, go online with her small clothing venture and forget this entire mishap.

Forget Mitch?

She tossed the file on the dresser and turned to the wrinkled clothing selections in her suitcase. Why had she ever agreed to spend the last week of her job in Lake Placid?

As she combed out her damp hair, Tessa noticed her watch read six-thirty. She had just enough time to rest her eyes before her appointment with Mitch at seven. She deserved a few minutes of downtime after her ten-hour trek to the Adirondacks and three-hour cramming session to develop Mitch’s marketing plan. She’d been running on too little sleep all weekend.

Flinging aside her towel, Tessa slid between the taut sheets of the hotel bed and smiled. She snuggled into the embrace of flannel blankets and down pillows and tried not to think how much better her free time would be spent right now if she had a gorgeous man to massage her feet. A gorgeous man with gray eyes and the power to steal her breath.

Tessa squeezed her eyes closed more tightly, hoping to will away images of Mitch. Still, the tickle of cool sheets against her bare skin sent her mind on a vivid replay of this afternoon’s meeting. Especially the first few minutes when he’d been soaking wet and half naked. All those hours on the slopes had given him a washboard stomach and thighs like iron.

If memory served—and she knew darn well it did—the rest of him was equally impressive.

Of course she shouldn’t be visualizing her client in the buff. She wouldn’t get involved with an adrenaline addict again, not when she’d promised herself she would embark on a new era in her life starting with her business venture next week.

She’d been so hung up on Mitch after she left Lake Placid the first time, she’d ended up married to a man eerily similar to him two years afterward. Her husband had seemed like a reserved man with a quiet banking job, but he’d sought his thrills in the stock market. He’d bankrupted himself, filched Tessa’s credit card and run off with a wealthy figure skater before Tessa knew what hit her.

Too bad things hadn’t worked out with fiancé number two. Rob had seemed so safe. So rooted.

So colorless compared to Mitch.