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“My crew. My work,” she countered.
“And here we go again,” Sean said, shaking his head. “Yeah, you’ll be doing the work, but you’re going to do it the way I want it done.”
“Even if you’re wrong.”
His mouth tightened. “If I want it, I’m not wrong.”
“You don’t know anything about construction,” she argued, even knowing it was fruitless. Her hands fisted on the coffeepot and the bag of coffee. The man had a head of solid rock. Hadn’t she been hammering at it for the last week?
He pulled his hands from his pockets, crossed his arms over his chest and stood, hipshot, giving her a look of resigned patience. “And how much do you know about video games? Specifically ‘Forest Run’?”
“Okay. Not much.” This argument was circular. They’d had it several times already, so Kate knew nothing would be settled and still, she had to admit again that he was right.
“Or nothing.”
“Fine. Nothing.” Her voice sounded defensive even to her, but she couldn’t seem to help it. “I’m a little too busy to be wasting my time playing video games.”
Briefly, insult flashed across his features. “Thankfully, there are a few hundred million people worldwide who don’t feel the same way.”
In a heartbeat, he’d reminded her of the difference between them. He was the billionaire. She was the hired help. “You’re right,” she said, though the words burned her tongue and nearly choked her. “I don’t know what gamers would want in a hotel designed especially for them.”
He gave her a short, nearly regal nod.
“But,” she added, “you don’t know about construction. What can and can’t be done and more importantly, what should and shouldn’t be done. You hired me because I’m a professional. When I tell you a wall is load-bearing, it’s not because I want to deny you the ‘open space to reproduce the sorcerer’s meeting rooms.’ It’s because if I take down that wall it destabilizes the entire building.”
His mouth worked as if he wanted to argue, but all he said was, “You have a point.”
“Thanks, I thought so.”
A brief twist of a smile curved his lips and was gone again in a flash. “You’re the most opinionated woman I’ve ever met.”
Kate took a breath. Strange but it was only Sean Ryan who brought out the argumentative side of her. Normally, she found a way to deal with clients with patience and reason. But he pushed every button she had and a few she hadn’t even been aware of. She found herself digging in, defending her position and never giving ground, which was no way to complete a job. Especially this job. She was going to have to learn how to deal with Sean Ryan in a calm, rational way, and she might as well start now. “Okay, I guess you have a point, too.”
His eyebrows lifted and amusement shone in his eyes. “Are we having a moment, here?”
Why did he have to be amiable along with irritating? Something inside her flipped over, and Kate took a long, hopefully calming breath. She’d been so solitary, so insulated, since Sam died, being this attracted to a man was staggering. And a little nerve-racking. But all she had to do was get through this storm. Survive being stranded with Sean Ryan long enough to see him get on his private jet and head back to where he belonged. Then everything would get back to normal and she could forget about how he made her feel.
“Why don’t you bring more wood and I’ll make that coffee.”
“And the moment’s over,” he muttered, shaking his head. “I’ll let it go for now, though, since I really want some caffeine.”
Kate held her coffeepot and the bag of grounds up like trophies. “The gas is connected. All I have to do is light a pilot light and we can use the stove.”
“You’re a goddess,” he said with a dramatic flair.
Amused, she shook her head. “You’re easily impressed.”
“Really not,” he told her and winked.
He winked, she thought as she walked to the kitchen and got things started. Why did he have to be gorgeous? she wondered. Was it some sort of trick by Fate, to send a man like him to her when she least wanted him?
Mumbling under her breath, she filled a pan with water and used a kitchen match to light one of the gas burners. While she waited for the pot to boil, she headed for the kitchen pantry to look through the food supplies she and her men had left here over the last week.
On normal jobs, they kept a cooler on the job site, stuffed with food, snacks and the guys’ lunches. But the hotel job was different. They would be working here for a long time and no doubt with lots of strange hours, so they’d more or less taken over the kitchen to store extra supplies—including paper plates, cups, towels and even, she saw, a plastic bag of disposable silverware.
Smiling to herself, she looked through the snacks and realized she could identify who on her crew had brought them in. Andy had a thing for Cheetos and Paco always had nacho-flavored corn chips with him. Then there were Jack’s Oreos and Dave’s peanut butter crackers. Kate herself had brought in chocolate, tea bags and those always-had-to-have Pop-Tarts. Brown sugar and cinnamon, of course.
“Not exactly a five-star restaurant,” she murmured a few minutes later, “but we won’t starve.”
“Yeah?” Sean’s voice came from directly behind her, and Kate jumped in response. He ignored her reaction. “What’ve we got?”
Kate moved away, forcing him to back up, too. “Cheese and crackers. Chips, pretzels and cookies. Everything you probably shouldn’t be eating.” She glanced at him. “My crew likes their junk food.”
“And who can blame them?”
A small smile tugged briefly at her lips. Kate closed the pantry door and opened the refrigerator. “There’s more in here, too. The storm hasn’t taken out the power yet. That’s good. Okay, we’ve got lots of those little cheese sticks, plus there are three sandwiches from yesterday, too. A few hard-boiled eggs thanks to Tracy, and some macaroni salad.”
He frowned. “When we brought lunch for everyone yesterday, there was one sandwich each. I didn’t expect leftovers.”
“Normally, you’d be right. The crew’s usually like locusts, mowing through anything edible—especially if they didn’t have to buy it themselves,” she said with an affectionate smile for the people she worked with every day. She looked up at him and added, “But thankfully for us, Lilah and Raul are both on diets so they didn’t eat theirs and Frank left early because his wife was in labor. So we’ve got food.”
“I forgot about Frank’s wife having a baby.” Sean leaned against the counter. “What was it, boy or girl?”
“A girl.” Kate couldn’t stop the smile as she remembered Frank’s call late the night before. “He’s so excited. They’ve got four boys already, and he really wanted a girl this time.”
“Five kids?” Sean asked, then whistled low and long. “Are they nuts?”
He looked so appalled at the very idea, Kate was insulted on behalf of her friends. “No, they’re not. They love kids.”
“They’d better,” Sean muttered and shook all over as if trying to ward off a chill.
“Wow, really hate the thought of family that much?”
Something flickered in his eyes—a shadow—and then it was gone, so fast, Kate wasn’t really sure she’d seen it at all.
“No,” he said, half turning to lean one hip against the battered kitchen counter. “Just not interested in having one of my own.”
“So no driving need to be a father,” she said flatly, thinking this was just another insight into the man she would be dealing with for months.
“God, no.” He shook his head and laughed shortly. “Can’t see me being a father. My brother maybe, but not me.”
Though he was brushing it off, Kate remembered that shadow and wondered what had caused it, however briefly. Curiosity piqued, Kate couldn’t help asking, “Why?”
He blew out a breath, crossed his arms over his chest and said, “I like having my own space. Doing things on my own time. Having to bend all of that to fit someone else’s schedule doesn’t appeal to me.”
“Sounds selfish,” she said.
“Absolutely,” he agreed affably. “What about you? If you like kids so much, why don’t you have three or four of your own?”
Her features froze briefly. She felt it, couldn’t prevent it and could only hope that he didn’t notice. One thing she didn’t want was to tell Sean about her late husband and the dreams of family they’d had and lost. “Just hasn’t worked out that way.”
“Hey.” Sean moved closer and his voice dropped. “Are you okay?”
“Fine,” she said briskly, lifting her chin and giving him what she hoped was a bright—not bitter—smile.
This was simply another reminder of the differences between them, Kate thought. Mister Billionaire Playboy probably thought having a family was like being chained in a cage. But it was all Kate had ever really wanted. She’d come close to having the whole dream—home, husband, kids—but it had been snatched from her grasp and now she was left with only the haunting thoughts of what might have been.
Something Sean clearly wouldn’t understand. But that wasn’t her problem, was it?
“Anyway,” Kate said, “we’ve got enough food for a few days if we’re careful.”
“Right.” He accepted the change of subject easily enough. “Do we have enough coffee to last?”
We. Now they were an unlikely team. As long as the storm lasted, they would be we. And she could admit, at least to herself, that in spite of everything, she was grateful not to be stranded up here by herself. Even if it did mean that she and Sean were going to have far too much alone time together.
But for now, dealing with their shared addiction to caffeine took precedence. “I’m on it.”
The water in the pan was boiling, so she carefully poured it into the drip filter on her travel pot. She felt Sean watching her. How odd, she thought, that the man’s gaze could feel as tangible as a touch. And odder still, she caught herself wishing he was touching her, which was just stupid.
For heaven’s sake, hadn’t she just been reminding herself how different the two of them were? How he was temporary in her life—not to mention being her client, so in effect, her boss. It was undeniable, though. This flash of something hungry between them. It was dangerous. Ridiculous. And oh, so tempting.
It was the situation, she told herself. Just the two of them, stranded in an empty hotel with several feet of snow piling up outside. Of course, her mind was going a little wonky. And the only thing wrong with that explanation was that her mind had been wonky since the moment Sean had arrived in Wyoming.
Over the sound of the howling wind outside, Kate listened to the water plopping through the filter into the coffeepot. A rich, dark scent filled the air, and behind her, Sean inhaled deeply and released the breath on a sigh.
“Man, that smells good.”
“Agreed,” she said and carefully poured more water into the filter. While the coffee dripped into the reservoir, Kate walked to the pantry, where she’d stored a few paper supplies for the crew. She grabbed two cups, tossed one to Sean and then turned to the now-ready coffee and poured some for each of them. The first sip seemed to ease some of the jagged edges tearing at her mind.
Leaning back against the counter, she turned to stare out the window above the sink. It was a bay window, with plenty of space for fresh herbs to grow and thrive in the sun. Right now it was empty, but Kate could imagine just how it and everything else about the hotel would look when she and her crew were finished. Still, it was what was happening beyond the glass that had most of her attention.
The snow was coming down so thick and fast, swirling in a wind that rattled the glass panes, she couldn’t see past the yard to where the lake stretched out along the foot of the mountains, and the forest was no more than a smudge of darkness in the world of white.
“This happen often?” Sean asked, as he moved up beside her.
His arm brushed against hers, and Kate sucked in a gulp of air to steady herself. “Often enough,” she said, determined to get a grip on the rush of something hot and delicious pulsing inside her. Another sip of coffee sent a different kind of heat sweeping through her. “Ask anyone and they’ll tell you. If you don’t like the weather in Wyoming, wait five minutes. It’ll change.”
He leaned forward and tipped his head back to see what he could of the sky. “So five minutes from now, the sun should be shining and the snow melted?”
She had to laugh because he sounded so hopeful. “Not likely. This looks like a big one. I figure we’re stuck here for a couple of days. Maybe more.”
He sighed, nodded and looked at her. “At least we have each other.”
And that, Kate told herself, was the problem.
* * *
They decided to ration what food they had, so an hour later, the two of them split a sandwich and shared a few crackers. Sitting in front of the fire, with the wind and snow pelting the windows, Sean glanced at Kate beside him. They’d pulled the old leather couch closer to the hearth, and now each of them had claimed a corner of the sofa for themselves.
Kate stared into the blaze, and firelight danced across her features and shone in her hair. Her eyes were fixed on the flames, as if looking away from the fire would mean her life. Her behavior told him she was nervous around him. He liked knowing it. Made his own unease a little easier to take.
He frowned to himself as that word reverberated a few times in his mind. Unease. Hell, Sean hadn’t been uneasy around women since freshman year of high school. Dana Foster—her red hair, green eyes and wide, smiling mouth had turned Sean into a babbling moron. Until he’d kissed her for the first time. That kiss had opened up a world of wonder, beauty and hunger that Sean had enjoyed ever since.
The women in his life—most of them—had come and gone, barely causing a ripple. Of course, there’d been one woman, years ago, who had affected him, changed him. But he didn’t allow himself to think about her or what had happened between them. Ancient history that had nothing to do with who and what he was today.
Now there was Kate. And what she did to him was so much more than that long-ago woman. Admitting that really bothered him and acted as a warning bell. Kate had him tied into knots, and he didn’t appreciate it. She made him feel nearly desperate to have her. And while his body clamored for him to go for it, those warning signals continued to ring out in his brain, telling him to keep his distance and to get the hell away from her as fast as he could. But that wasn’t going to happen, thanks to this blizzard.
He’d avoided any kind of entanglements for years and wasn’t looking for one now. But logic didn’t have a lot to do with anything he was feeling at the moment.
He wanted her. Wanted her badly enough that his mind was filled with images of her all the damn time. When he was with her, his body was tight and hard, and the longer he was with Kate, the worse it got. That need clawed at his insides, demanding release. Still, sex with her would only complicate matters, and Sean was a man who didn’t like complications.
His life would have been a lot easier if only he’d been able to escape Wyoming and put several hundred miles between himself and Kate. That wasn’t going to happen, though, so he had to find a way to survive this enforced closeness.
“Why are you staring at me?”
He came out of his thoughts and focused on the woman now looking at him. “Just thinking.”
“Now I’m worried,” she said, a half smile curving her mouth. “Thinking about what?”
Well, he wasn’t going to tell her the truth—that he was thinking about how soon he could get her out of her clothes—so he blurted out something that had been on his mind lately. “Wondering how you became a contractor.”
Her brow furrowed, her eyes narrowed and he had the distinct feeling she didn’t believe him. But then she shrugged and answered.
“My dad is the easy answer,” she said, shifting her gaze back to the fire snapping and crackling just a few feet away from them. “He’s a master carpenter. Started his own business when I was a kid.” She smiled in memory, and Sean noticed how her features softened. “I used to work for him every summer and he and the guys on his crew taught me everything I know about construction.”
“Funny, I worked summers for my dad, too,” Sean said, remembering how he had tried desperately to get out of work so he could go surfing instead.
“What’s your dad do?”
“Lawyer,” Sean said, bracing his hands on the floor behind him. “He wanted my brother and I to go to law school, join his firm.”
“No interest in being a lawyer?” she asked.
He shuddered. “No. When you worked for your dad, you were outside, right?”
“Usually, yeah.”
“Not me. Dad had us shredding old documents, sweeping, mopping and in general doing everything the building custodians needed us to do.” He shook his head. “Hated being locked up inside, so I promised myself that I’d find a job where I could take off and go surfing when I wanted to.”
She laughed. “Not many employers allow surfing breaks, I imagine.”
“Nope.” He grinned and added, “Just another reason I like being my own boss. You’d know what I mean by that.”
She nodded. “Yeah. I do.”
A moment or two of silence, broken only by the snap and hiss of the fire, stretched out between them. It was almost companionable, Sean thought. It was the first time since he’d met Kate Wells that they’d gone so long without an argument. It surprised him how much he was enjoying it.
“So,” he asked, “who’ll run things for you while you’re stuck here?”
