“Yes, you were.”
“And you didn’t introduce yourself to me as my boss.”
“No, I didn’t.”
I wait for an explanation. When it doesn’t come, I go on. “I wish you had. Maybe I wouldn’t have made such a complete ass of myself.”
“Maybe you wouldn’t have been yourself then.”
“That was not me. That was me drunk for the first time in my life.” I wince, recalling how utterly wretched I felt yesterday. “And the last.”
“Probably a good thing, considering you nearly went swimming. Aside from that, you were entertaining.”
“Entertaining?” I turn to face the window so he doesn’t see my red cheeks, recalling some of the things I said and did. “It didn’t sound like you were amused, given the whole employee-code-of-conduct speech yesterday morning.” I read through it last night. Section five states no romantic relationships between management and their subordinates. It doesn’t specify anything about a drunken subordinate hitting on the hotel owner, but I’ll bet they’re adding that in as we speak.
“I didn’t have a choice. I can’t have my employees stumbling around drunk.”
Or trying to kiss you. “You could have told me who you were, at least.”
He sighs. “Sometimes I need a break from all the Mr. Wolf and the nervousness and people walking on eggshells around me.”
“I crushed every eggshell there was.”
His chuckle fills the truck and my heart swells. I like making him laugh.
It would be easy for me to get lost in the nature around us, unlike anything I’ve ever seen before, the forest thick and lush even in early spring, the snowy ridge in the distance. If not for the man accompanying me, I would. But I still can’t seem to keep my eyes off him for long.
“You’re managing without your glasses?” he finally asks.
“Yes. Contacts.” As if reminded that they’re there, I blink repeatedly. I’m not used to wearing them all the time.
“Good. I was afraid you’d be blind.” He glances over at me. “You look different with them off. Your eyes are...”
“Too big for my face?” Kids used to tease me about them growing up, especially the boys. They called me “Bug Eyes” and “Owl.”
He doesn’t answer. Instead he asks, “How is everything so far? The food, the accommodations? Do they suit your needs?”
“Everything’s great.”
“Everything can’t be great. Everything’s never great.” His lips purse. “Tell me the truth.”
“Is this Mr. Wolf asking? Or Henry?”
He turns to spear me with a glare.
“The food is great. The cabins are good, if not a little bit crammed.”
“And your roommates?”
“Um. They’re...fine.” Thankfully Katie and Rachel were still asleep this morning when I ducked out.
He frowns. “That doesn’t sound convincing. We’ve never utilized a staff village like this before. I was worried about such close quarters, but my team promised me it would work out, with the way scheduling will be managed. Why? Are you having a problem with someone already?”
“No. Not at all. It’s just...” I hesitate. I shouldn’t be telling him this, should I?
“It’s just...” he pushes. I glance at him, and see the genuine worry etched in his face.
“I think two of them have sort of a thing going on.”
“Oh.” Henry’s brow pops over his sunglasses as realization dawns on him. “And it’s making you uncomfortable?”
“No. Well, not really. Last night, I kind of saw them in bed together.” I can’t believe I’m telling him this. I had no intention of telling anyone. But apparently I don’t have to be drunk to say inappropriate things around this man, after all. “I didn’t mean to, but their bunk is right next to me, and they didn’t pull the curtain around.” I blush with the memory. “One of them crawled into the other one’s bunk.”
He pauses for a moment, his eyes trained on the road. “So you saw two of your roommates fucking?”
Just the way he says that, so casually, sends heat through my core. I can’t believe I’m reacting this way to his words alone. I clear my throat. “Yes.”
“And you have a problem with that? Two women?”
“No! Not at all.”
Henry’s mouth opens then closes several times. When he finally speaks, his voice has turned low. “So you watched them?”
Is that an appropriate question for the owner of the hotel to ask me? I look out the window, my cheeks heating. “I didn’t mean to.” Please don’t ask me if I enjoyed it. Now that the moment’s over, I’m embarrassed about what I witnessed last night, and what I did afterward. But I also can’t ignore how alive it made me feel, how in tune with their pleasure my body was. How much I wanted to feel that.
How I came thinking of the man sitting right beside me.
“That must have been a shock for someone like you.”
I frown. “Someone like me?” It takes me a moment to understand what he’s saying.
A virgin. Someone who’s never even had a guy’s hand in my pants. That’s right. I told him that, too.
Henry pulls the truck to a stop near a logging road on my right. “Hold on. It’s going to get a little bit bumpy.” Throwing it into four-wheel drive, he then eases the truck through the deep divots in the muddy ground.
“Whose land is this?” I ask, grabbing on to the door with one hand and wrapping my other arm across my chest, the rough bouncing hurting my breasts.
By Henry’s sideways glance, he notices and slows down a touch. “Mine.”
“Your family’s?”
“No, mine. My grandfather left it all to me.”
So I guess that particular rumor was accurate. As we ease deeper into the woods, I can see the devastation where chainsaws cut into hundreds of years of growth, mowing down mass clearings. “This is so sad.”
“The hemlock and cedar used for the lodge was sourced from in here. Why buy from someone else what I have right in my backyard.”
“Yeah, I guess. You’re going to replant it all, though. Right?”
“Eventually. When I have the staff to do it.”
The wheels in my brain are turning. “I could do it.”
He stops the truck next to a fallen tree and turns the ignition. The deep rumbling stops, leaving us in eerie silence. Peeling his sunglasses off his face, he turns to level me with his beautiful eyes. “You’re going to plant all these trees yourself?”
“I could. It would take me all summer.”
His head tips back with his laughter, and I marvel at the sight of his Adam’s apple, the way it juts out. “You really don’t want to be in Housekeeping, do you?”
My giggle escapes me unbidden. “Like I said, I’m better suited to the outdoors.”
His gaze does a lightning-speed assessment of my body before muttering, “Come on.”
The second I crack the door, a cloud of mosquitos swarms me. It’s like they were waiting for fresh blood. I swat as I walk around to meet him in front of the truck. The bugs are way worse out here. “You’ll need these.” He tosses me a pair of work gloves. “And this. The stuff they gave you isn’t strong enough.” A can of bug spray sails through the air.
I quickly douse myself from head to toe while Henry disappears behind the truck. He emerges with an ax.
“We’re cutting wood?”
“Have you ever swung an ax before?” He strolls over to a massive stump nearby and rests the blade against it.
“No.”
“Then I’m cutting wood. You’re going to stack it in the back of the truck.”
“Really?” The guy’s a billionaire and he’s out here, chopping wood?
“Do you think you can handle that?”
I snort. “I bail hay at harvest. I can handle this.”
Again, another quick scan of my body, only this time his gaze slows over my thighs. I was in such a rush to get out of the cabin this morning, I grabbed a pair of jeans that are a tad too tight for outdoor work.