Bearllionaire(12)

“Something wrong?” Ryder asked, hefting her heavy suitcase like it weighed nothing and reaching for the backpack she was holding in front of her.

“No,” she said quietly, looking up at the lodge, and the man in front of it, and trying not to be intimidated. Both the man and the building were rough, powerful, and strong. Hewn seemingly from the wilderness. Hard as rock. But she could tell from the quirk in Ryder’s lips that there was also softness there. “Just thinking.”

“I guess we have that in common,” he said, slinging the backpack over his shoulder and extending an arm for her to take. Her hand barely wrapped around his bulging bicep and she swallowed as a wave of arousal made her almost woozy. What was up with the effect this man had on her?

“What in common?” she asked, feeling off kilter.

“Getting lost inside our heads. Common thing for intelligent people, you know. I find myself thinking a lot when I should maybe be participating in conversation instead. But it’s just that—”

“The thoughts in your head interest you more?” she asked, sharing a grin with him as she finished his sentence. When she let her reservations go, it was nice to have met someone whom she seemed to click with immediately. Now, if only she could get over her own insecurity and the fact that he was rich as Croesus while she was struggling to pay her mortgage due to the poor interest rate Scott had given her. She was an accountant, she knew better, but she’d been heartbroken and not all the way there mentally. All her issues were on high alert, distracting her from reading the fine print.

A mistake she made sure she never made with her clients. But then again, a theme of her life was she tended to treat other people better than she treated herself.

“So tell me more about you,” he said, walking up to the lodge and then taking a little road off to the side.

She cocked her head curiously but followed him anyway. “Not much to tell. Moved from San Diego. Raised there with a normal family. Got a finance degree.” She shrugged but felt her hackles rise slightly as they moved into the woods around the lodge. “Where are we going?”

“I thought maybe I’d set us up with something special,” he said, walking toward a cabin a few yards away. “Keep you out of the main lodge where you might be bothered by the noise level.”

“I don’t remember it being loud before,” she said.

“That was before Riley Hart was in residence,” he said. “I’d rather you didn’t have to be a part of the kind of parties he throws.”

“Must be weird having a brother who’s a movie star,” she said. “And a heartthrob at that.”

“Well, we haven’t lived near each other in a long time. And I get enough press on my own. And then there’s Ryan, with his Olympic career. I guess when you’re high profile yourself, it’s not as big a deal to have high-profile siblings.”

“Hm,” she said, not entirely convinced. Damn, she liked the look of his back as he pulled away from her to unlock the front door of a cabin. So wide, so tall. She guessed he’d have no trouble carrying her to the bedroom, if he wanted to. The thought made her blush and squirm, eager to get inside away from the cold and put her mind to unsexy thoughts, like unpacking and their work schedule together.

Together. Damn, that was a word that kicked off the heat in her again, and she wondered once more at her odd connection to Ryder Hart. She’d seen him in magazine articles once or twice and couldn’t remember ever feeling anything but admiration. But the man in person? Pure liquid lust. Which wasn’t usual for logical, rational Janna.

Ryder set down her things and then flipped on a light. Then he went about the cabin, which was more like a pricey, five-star suite, checking to make things were in order.

“Would you like me to get the fire going?” he asked.

A real fire. The smell, the feel. It was tempting. She bit her lip. Sitting in front of the fire with Ryder…

“Or would you like to get dinner?” he asked, picking up her things and taking them through a door off to the side. He disappeared for a moment and reappeared without the bags. “I was thinking we could get takeout from the lodge.”

“I don’t know,” she said. “This all happened so quickly. I mean, you only gave me an hour to pack.”

He shrugged, not looking at all abashed for having whirlwinded into her life and made everything complicated. “I had to move fast. Lover boy there didn’t look very patient.”

“My love life isn’t your concern,” she said patiently. Yet.

He frowned. “I told you, Janna. What I want, I get. And I want you. Yes, right now, I want your expertise with financial matters up at the lodge. Mainly to check me as I go over things to make sure I’m not screwing them up. I’m better with big picture than small details like bookkeeping. But aside from going to hire an accountant, my next job in town would have been to find out where you lived and go to meet you and somehow convince you to come back here with me and give me a chance.”