“I didn’t think you were coming to the spa,” she said breathlessly.
He had to clear his throat, because there was something lodged in it.
“I changed my mind. After being out in the sun all day, I thought a dip in a pool would be just the thing. You talked about this Paradise Room, so…” Damn it, his voice still sounded rough.
Out of gentlemanly instinct, he’d finally looked away, knowing from the flush on her face that she was embarrassed to have been caught like this.
But they’d been intimate, and neither of them could pretend otherwise.
When he looked back up at her, she had that robe closed, the sash tied. Yet, even though she was dressed, she seemed so painfully vulnerable.
In the face of that, his walls went up. He hated what he’d done to her that night, hated that he’d caused this kind of tension between them.
Even so, he wondered what it might be like if his defenses ever stayed down. But what would he be left with if not for those walls?
She began to walk out of the room. “I’ve got a lot to do.”
“Wait, Mina.”
She halted, her posture stiff, as if she expected to be called out for something.
“Don’t let me chase you away,” he said. And he wanted her to stay, more than anything, because when she wasn’t near him, he was wishing for it.
Then again, asking her to stay wasn’t going to get them back to where they’d been before he’d touched her, made love to her. Even more importantly, being alone in a seductive room while she was half-naked under that robe wasn’t going to go over too well in a conservative company like the Barron Group if a staff member came in and picked up on this sexual awareness between them.
Chet wasn’t worried about his reputation so much as hers, because, if the rumors started up, even his most minor fears might come true and she might never be taken seriously again.
And Chet knew the power of words. The power of a lie.
But he also knew he was lying to himself right now, making up excuses about why they shouldn’t be here, standing with a curtain of anticipation between them.
She was watching him again, with that weighted look he’d noticed last night, as if she was trying to figure what was running through his mind.
“You have no idea what to do with yourself, do you, Chet?”
Once again, she could see right through him.
“Things were so simple eight months ago,” he said. “I’m trying to figure out why they can’t be that way now.”
“Things change.”
Hearing her say it drove this new reality home. Things had changed, and he was sure doing a poor job of rolling with it.
That shamed him somewhat, because he’d always believed himself to be a stronger man than that. And what he was seeing in himself wasn’t acceptable: this wasn’t the person Abe had raised from boyhood up before they’d gone their own ways.
Was this Eli coming out in him?
Mina waited there in her robe, as if she was still wishing that he would say more.
But he couldn’t and when she walked away, she took a little bit of his hopes with her, leaving him as aimless as ever.
Chapter Four
That evening after dinner, Chet’s entire staff met at the pavilion, where they were having a “game night,” just like the ones that would be offered to the guests once the resort opened. A few of the local contractors had shown up, too.
There was an excited buzz in the air, everyone getting to know each other outside of work as Danny, one of the young Barron Group staffers, stood next to Mina, his hands stuffed into his khaki pants pockets. Meanwhile, another staffer, Corrine, who’d put together tonight’s activity, welcomed everyone.
Danny leaned over to Mina and whispered, “I’m gonna make sure I’m on your side.” They were going to play a round of softball—a team-building exercise. “I figure backing up the boss might score me some points.”
As Danny shot her a grin, she realized that he wasn’t talking about Chet—he was referring to her as the boss.
A glow of pride caught her right in the middle of the chest. This resort development had been the first big project that Chet had let her run with, but she’d never looked at herself as anything more than his assistant.
Yet, what would Danny and the others think if they knew that Chet had given Mina more responsibilities at this resort after they’d been together?
She tried not to believe that Chet had raised her status out of guilt or favoritism. Chet had gradually been giving her other projects with higher esteem for a while now, even before that night. Besides, he was a fair man in general, and when he said that he wanted to make sure that no one thought she had slept her way to the top, he’d meant it.