“Oh, you’re going. He told me what he has planned and I’m telling you right now, you don’t want to miss out on this.”
“You didn’t tell me you knew what he was up to.”
Tina held out a beige silk halter dress. “Maybe this one.” She took both dresses and hung them inside a garment bag.”
“Would you please stop, Tina? Quint would have to kidnap me to make me go anywhere with him right now.”
Tina turned and faced her. “You know, I may not be all that familiar with Quint’s likes and dislikes but something tells me that if you suggested a kidnapping, he’d take you up on it. Better just go along for now.”
For some reason, all those images, like being tied up and thrown over Quint’s shoulder, worked on Carly in a bad way. She swallowed hard and moved into the vanity to collect several plastic bags that she used to organize her toiletries for travel.
“That’s the spirit,” Tina called out.
Carly shrugged. “You’re right about him. Once he gets something fixed in his head, he won’t rest until he sees it through. I have a pair of black heels somewhere. Oh, and I haven’t worn that flower thing ever. See if you can find sandals to go with it.”
“I’ll find them.”
“Fine.”
“Fine.”
* * * * * * * * *
Carly had the house locked up, her rolling suitcase and garment bag in hand and her purse slung over her shoulder as Quint pulled into her driveway.
She met him with a hard stare. “This had better be good.”
The mountain lion only smiled as he took her travel gear out of her hands. Then he looked at her and kind of froze in place for a long moment. “You’re wearing a dress.”
“A sundress,” she said, glancing down at the bold teal, red and yellow print. “It’s hot here so it has to be blazing in Phoenix.”
He stood there, the garment bag over his shoulder, the flight bag held in one hand. He just kept looking at her. His gaze slid down to her bare knees all the way to her polished toenails.
She had no idea what he was thinking until his gaze slid all the way back up her body liked he jogged a slow marathon. His eyes turned half-lidded.
Uh-oh.
She felt those dangerous vibrations begin in her abdomen, the ones that sent streaks of treacherous desire flowing to every part of her. Little arcs of electricity passed through the air and her lips parted in an effort to help her take her next breath. This was what Tina didn’t understand. Carly had such a thing for Quint, something that ranged well outside what was healthy and normal. She was still so mad at him and yet sunk in a well of pure craving at the same time.
He turned away from her at a snail’s pace, so much so that he looked like he moved in slow motion. He shook his head over and over. Maybe she wasn’t the only one being tormented today. He stowed her luggage inside the trunk. He returned to the passenger door and opened it for her.
Carly stared at the charcoal gray paint of the vehicle, at the lighter gray leather bucket seats. He’d left the motor running and cool air flowed toward her.
Another threshold.
She so shouldn’t get in. She’d be trapped in this car with a wild four-legged beast for at least two hours if she did.
But her feet moved her forward, even if she shuffled a little with each step. As she drew close to the car, Quint murmured, “You look very pretty today.” He sounded like he had gravel in his throat. She knew that sound. She always heard that exact pitch and resonance when he said devastating things to her like, you feel so good in my arms or I love being in your bed. She was in such trouble.
By the time she crawled into the seat her breasts ached and her white lace thong was way too damp. She clutched her purse on her lap like it was a life preserver.
When Quint slid behind the wheel, he growled, “Why do you have to smell like flowery seas?”
She knew one thing about this trip. If this kept up, she would very soon go insane or she’d force him to pull over to the side of the road then she would do wicked things to him while he remained seated behind the wheel.
Heaven help her.
Quint turned up the air-conditioning and a big blast of cold air did wonders to cool her off, in more ways than one. She released a deep sigh of relief. She settled her purse on the floor beside her teal sandals. She adjusted her seatbelt.
Before he put the car in gear, he reached into the space behind her seat and pulled forward a large, black leather zippered pouch. “Just a little reading material for the road,” he said.
“Just a little?” she asked, as the heavy packet plopped onto her lap. She had no idea what was inside.
He backed out of her drive. “Go ahead. I put this together just for you.”
She rubbed her palm over the fine, soft leather then unzipped. When she opened the pouch, she found that the contents were grouped in thick clumps, which would make for an easier handling of the sheer volume of material.
“What is this?”
He put the car in gear and drove down her street. “You’ll see.”
She thought perhaps he’d brought her more information on Gerald Thompson or the rest of the Napa guests. Instead, the first page was a color copy of an article from Fortune magazine, which featured Quint seated on the edge of a desk and staring into the camera with that I’m-taking-on-the-world stare of his. He was so handsome and so ridiculously photogenic. She ran her hand over the picture just as she had the surface of the pouch.
“With this kind of exposure,” she said, “you must have every gold-digger in these United States hunting you down.”
“What is it about women and their pursuit of men with money?” He turned west onto 89A.
“I don’t think that’s so complicated. Every woman who comes after you just has strong survival instincts. A powerful man could take charge of a tribe, should we one day revert to Neanderthal hunting-and-gathering units. In the simplest terms, that means that her man would be able to protect their children. Get it?”
“And you believe that?”
She glanced at him. “On a basic level, I guess I do.”
“Then why aren’t you all over me?” He smiled, probably at his choice of words.
She grinned and a lot of the tension left her. “Because I have another set of survival skills that my female ancestors developed during the post-Neanderthal era. We learned to detect the emotional unavailability of powerful men and shunned them.”
He narrowed his gaze. “And do you really believe that as well?”
She laughed. “Sort of. I guess. Why not?”
“Just read, Grayson. You’re kind of annoying me right now.”
As the car sped by Tlaquepaque, Carly settled down into the seat and did as instructed. She surfaced now and then to enjoy a stretch, to glance out the changing landscape then to sink again.
Quint had provided her with a mountain of information, most of which came from newspapers and magazines, all about him. The various sources brought together a solid portrait of his several businesses, his philosophy of enterprise, which she had to admit wasn’t half-bad, and a number of photos of remodeled executive suites that would have pleased Grace’s artistic sensibilities to no end.
She read through one hour and began the second. She opened her eyes wide when she came across his financial statements. Her mouth fell open. He’d revealed just about everything to her about his personal finances.
She looked out the window and dragged air into her mouth. She couldn’t fathom his level of wealth.
“This couldn’t have been easy for you,” she said, frowning at him. “Giving me access to all this private information.”
“Easier than I thought,” he said. He looked serious. He narrowed his eyes. “But I guess I trust you.”
She smiled. “Saying that couldn’t have been easy, either.”
At that, he glanced at her. “You’re wrong.”
The car shrunk. He was too close. Her heart hammered in her chest. She looked
away from him and caught more air.
She dropped her gaze to the balance sheet on her lap. She tucked it at the bottom of the stack. She felt way too vulnerable so she started reading again.
With each company, including the investment portion of Hunter Enterprises, she had another financial statement to review. She began adding figures together but stopped when she reached the half billion mark.
Well past Black Canyon City, she finished the last article, which featured his gas-coal plant in New York.
“I’ll say this for you, Quint, you’ve got class. Even the COO’s office in New York looks like it belongs in an Architectural Digest spread.”
“Sylvie,” he stated. “But I still plan on using Grace. Your friend knows her stuff. Sylvie told me she was ‘rather impressed’ with Grace’s designs. If you knew the Sylvie, you’d know what a momentous compliment that was.”
“I’ll take your word for it.” She sat staring at the road ahead for a long moment then readjusted her seat belt. Quint had turned off onto Carefree Highway heading east.
“So, what’s this all about, Quint? Why am I here with you, reading all about you and your empire, and driving to Phoenix?”
“I did a lot of thinking and wanted to balance this out. I wasn’t trying to hurt you when I hired the PI. But I did and for that, I apologize. This is my version of a PI report, my way of trying to make it up to you, but don’t think this is all there is.” He waved at the black pouch still weighing her lap down. “I have something else for you as well.”
“More stuff to read?”
He chuckled. “No.”
“What, then?”
“You’ll see.”
Carly got a panicky feeling that she was being drawn into deep waters with nothing but her flimsy purse-slash-life-preserver to save her. She set her gaze out the window once more and folded her arms over her chest.
Leave it to Quint to find a way back in when she’d started to hope that this whole business between them was finished. She’d felt relieved, in between a dozen or so weepy moments, that her affair with him had ended.
But this makeshift PI report had set her to paddling for open seas again.
Well, she wasn’t lost yet and with a little luck the ruthless businessman beside her would screw up once more and she could return to her simple Sedona life. But right now, God help her, all she wanted to do was rip his clothes off and have one more go at him.
* * * * * * * * *
A half hour later, Carly shook hands with at least twenty different employees of Hunter Enterprises. Quint introduced her to everyone and gave brief descriptions of each job before passing to the next. He knew the names and histories of all his employees. He even spoke to her later about possible promotions, unexplored abilities and professional courses he would soon recommend to this or that employee. To say he was ‘involved’ was to say a cat had whiskers.
She liked his management style, which seemed pretty close to her own. She said so over lunch and ended up talking about her Jeep drivers. “Let me tell you one of my biggest satisfactions,” she said, savoring a duck confit sandwich at a French bistro in Scottsdale. “Have you seen my driver with the long wavy black hair?”
He nodded, dipping a thin herbed French fry into one of three provided sauces. “Very pretty. She has an almost exotic look.”
“That’s Joni. She’s had it rough for several years now and I so admire her. I would do anything for her. Her mom got sick with cancer and when she passed she left behind a pile of medical bills. And if you say why haven’t I helped, I have tried at least a dozen times but she insists on doing it on her own. I adore her. Anyway, Joni loves Sedona and has made her home there. But it’s Jumpin’ Jeep Tours that makes it possible not only for her to afford to live in our expensive canyon country, but also to keep working away at that mountain of medical debt.”
* * * * * * * * *
Quint didn’t quite understand why he was enjoying himself so much. But as he listened to Carly talk, he heard her say many of the same things he’d always said, about health benefits, providing jobs, taking good care of employees, taking pride in business ownership.
He sat back and watched the animated way her hands moved as she spoke about almost being ready to add a new Jeep to the bay, about finding ways to improve the tour experience, about maybe even adding a stable of horses that could take tour guests deep into the back country.
This wasn’t a date, but it kind of felt like one.
He put a hand to his chest and struggled to draw in the next breath. All that heavy equipment had moved in again, shifting dirt around, displacing boulders, excavating. He made another mental note to see his primary physician about a check-up soon.
“Are you okay?” she asked. Her gaze fell to his hand and she frowned.
“Sure,” he said. He dropped his hand to his lap.
“Not convinced,” she responded. “Acid indigestion, maybe?”
He met her gaze and the pain drifted away. This time his chest warmed up. Was this what normal felt like—kind of a date, good conversation, a sharing of values? He smiled. “I’m fine.”
She looked worried, a line between her brows, her lips tucked into a faint grimace. But the check arrived and he distracted her by telling her that he was taking her to the first of his three Phoenix businesses.
* * * * * * * * *
After a round of visits to Quint’s factories in south Phoenix, Carly was worn out. She shook her head. “What I want to know is how you keep up with all this? How you retain control of so much? I mean, I could tell your COO’s are on top of things and actually seem to like you—”
He cut her off with a smile. “Hard to believe, huh?”
Carly laughed. “That’s not what I meant. The woman exec and both the men were as enthusiastic as you were.”
“I can tell you this, they were impressed with you.”
Carly was taken aback. “Why would you say that? I didn’t exchange more than a half dozen sentences with any of them. It’s probably just guilt-by-association.”
“That’s not true,” he mused. “All of us—you included—share that same ability to size people up right away, gut instinct. Body language said it all—my execs liked what they saw. Although I can tell you Tom Meyers would have been all over you if I’d dared to step out of the room.”
“Is that why you were glued to my side and twice put your arm around my waist? I have to say I was little embarrassed.”
“He’s excellent at what he does but he barhops like popcorn on a hot skillet.”
Carly laughed. “Where are we headed now?”
“My house.”
Carly swallowed hard. Quint was taking her to his house. Her body lit up like someone had just thrown the switch at a nighttime baseball diamond. She tried to calm down, but her veins hummed all the way to the tips of her fingers.
She drew in a deep breath and opted to continue the harmless part of the conversation. “I think I met enough new people to last the rest of the year.”
“What do you mean? You meet new people every day at work?”
“That’s different. These people today were important to you.”
“Well, you did great today.”
She turned into him as the BMW sped east on I-10. She scooted lower in her seat and leaned her head against the headrest. “Seriously, Quint. How do you do what you do? I have Jumpin’ Jeep Tours and I refurbished a winery and plan to start fermenting my first harvest in the next couple of months. Through all that, I didn’t have one spare minute for anything other than sleep and even then, six hours a night was a luxury.”
“Sounds familiar. I would have to say that I spend hours every day talking to my managers and my clients. But I confess I’m thinking of splitting off a division soon. Brad has been bugging me for the last three years to let him take over the manufacturing end of the business, which would mean I wouldn’t get the daily interaction with the COO’s.”
“Do you think you could let it go,
that much control?”
“To be honest, I don’t know. But if I intend to expand—and I do—I’m going to have to learn to adopt a more expansive way of working.”
Carly released a sigh. At this angle, Quint’s earthy-citrusy scent flowed over her in repeated waves and built up a steady buzz in her chest. This conversation was way too pleasant, too satisfying and felt way too much like that thing called intimacy for her to be comfortable.
But what was Quint’s game in all of this? To get her back into bed?
Of course.
At least that.
She knew he still wanted her winery but she felt confident that just saying no would keep her property safe. Maybe this would be one of the few times in Quint’s life when he failed to reach his goal. She smiled a little. Given his supreme level of confidence, which rocked precariously close most of the time to arrogance, she didn’t think it would be a bad thing for him to lose, just this once. Might even do him some real good.
He looked at her and smiled. “We should have dinner before we head to my house.”
She nodded. “Good idea.”
He took her to a small Italian restaurant. She agreed to try the lasagna he recommended and the house Chianti. He told her more about his experiences in Japan and outlined his forthcoming China adventure.
She sipped her wine, her gaze fixed to his blue eyes. She loved his enthusiasm and the way he almost knocked over his wine glass twice while talking about expansion plans.
Yep, too much like intimacy.
Later, Quint’s home bowled her over. She didn’t even want to know about the square footage but she thought his Scottsdale residence was at least twice the size of her winery house. He had built in a gated community on a hillside and had arranged the house so that the principal entertaining rooms and long rectangular pool, overlooked the glittering lights of metro Phoenix.
“That’s a beautiful view,” she said standing in front of the back window slider. The sun had slipped below the horizon.
“I wanted you to see the stars from my patio.”
He stood behind her and slid his hands up her arms and caressed her shoulders. Carly’s knees did their usual sink-to-the-floor routine. Quint had the best hands.