More Than One Night

“I have a confession to make.” Jill moved the sugar packets away from Grace. Her reach was getting long.

“Oh, this should be interesting,” Carly said.

“I may have done more than simply rate this ‘Chris.’ I may have spent some time with him.”

“How much time?” Zoey narrowed her eyes.

Jill inspected her fingernails. She needed a good manicure. “Um, all night?”

Zoey slapped the table. “Dude! You said you’d never done that before. A one-night stand?”

“Well, it was just this once. I figured... I needed it. Deserved it.”

“Right on.” Carly laughed.

“Look, I’m the one who’s been celibate for three years. That night has had to last me a long time. Three years!”

“It’s been even longer for me,” Zoey protested. “I’m not even going to say how long.”

“Aw,” Jill said, hugging Zoey.

Jill and Zoey both turned to Carly.

“This morning, before Grace woke up.”

“You’re not even supposed to be able to have morning sex when you have a baby!” Jill said.

“I know, right?” Carly kissed Grace’s plump cheek. “She’s possibly the best baby ever.”

Zoey glanced lovingly to Grace, then outside to Boo. “I don’t see why you can bring her in here and I can’t bring Boo in. He’d behave.”

Carly wrinkled her nose, but apparently chose to ignore the comparison of her stepdaughter to a well-trained Great Dane.

“So what are the men like who showed up today?” Carly said. “Anyone to help you, um, get over that dry spell?”

“Funny you should mention that,” Jill said. “Because Chris? He’s one of my guys. Except his name is Sam.”

“Get out! Chris is here?” Carly squealed.

“His name is Sam.”

“Sam, Chris, what’s the difference if he’s hot?” Zoey said.

“You forget,” Jill said with great patience. “I’m now his boss. As in, he’s my employee. As in lawsuit waiting to happen.”

Carly snorted. “Technically, Levi was my boss for a while when I was Grace’s nanny.”

“But you and Levi fell in love. Maybe I don’t want to get sued.”

Both of her friends looked at her expectantly. She’d never been one to doubt equality, both in the workplace and the bedroom. But now... Well, it was a little icky to come on to her employee. And there was the whole ethical/legal dilemma. She couldn’t ignore that issue even if she wanted to. If her investors were to find out they might think her less than professional.

Besides, she’d be twenty-eight this year. Even if she’d never had a one-night stand before Sam, she had a past filled with go-nowhere relationships with Class A commitment-phobes. And for the first time, she wondered what that said about her. Why did she always wind up with men who were in some fashion or another unavailable? While her mother might have something to say about that, Jill was sure she didn’t want to hear it. Point being, she had to learn to want a man who was available to her, and that certainly wasn’t her employee.

And that night in San Francisco, it hadn’t been Jill in Sam’s arms. It had been her alter ego, Angelina. That Angelina was a wild woman. She was fearless.

“It was one night.” One wild and crazy night she allowed herself. A little fun for once with no strings. “He wasn’t supposed to be a part of my daily life.”

“Well, now he is,” Carly said.

“Thanks for the 411,” Jill deadpanned.

“Oh my God, you’re not going to fire him, are you?” Zoey looked on the verge of tears. “He might need this job.”

Jill patted bleeding-heart Zoey’s hands. “No, of course not. I’ll just make it work. Take a hands-off approach. Lay down the law and all that.”

“You’re so good at that,” Zoey said.

“But wait,” Carly said. “Maybe there’s something you’re not telling us.”

“Right.” Zoey turned to Carly. “Like...what?”

“Like he wasn’t any good.” Carly set Grace back in her stroller and handed her a set of plastic keys. “Looks aren’t everything. Maybe he was high on the Chris Scale, but um, you know, was ‘lacking’ in other vital ways.”

That would have been nice. Or rather convenient. Not then, but now.

“No.” She cleared her throat. “Not lacking. At all. In any way.”

Carly grinned. “I see.”

Wrong though it seemed for someone she’d met once, Sam had been the best she’d ever had. And if it was going to be difficult to work with him, day in, day out, watching him all sweaty, challenging himself physically, working hard... Well, she was up to the task. She would look but not touch. A woman had to get her kicks somewhere.

Hers was a tough job, but hey, someone had to do it.

Chapter Three

Later that evening, Jill went back to the office trailer as she often did, this time to work on the bookkeeping she’d been avoiding. She had stacks of receipts to enter into a spreadsheet so the accountant could put together the next financial report for their board of investors. The board already wanted her to hire a general manager to report directly to them. They really needed a receptionist and scheduler since lately the phone had been ringing off the hook for bookings. Now that they were a month away from opening, all their advertising was coming to fruition and they were booked six months in advance for the most popular events. The bookings could be outsourced but Jill did this herself, too.

The office phone rang, and heck, since she was here at nine o’clock, she picked it up. “Wildfire Ridge Outdoor Adventures. How can I help you?”

“Hi! I thought I was going to be talking to a machine. We’re having a big family reunion and want to water-ski and kayak. You guys do that?” a woman’s voice said.

“Absolutely. Our Anderson Lake here on the ridge is equipped for all that. Where did you hear about us?”

“Your Facebook page and one of my friends.”

Good to know all her hard work for the business was working. She should probably spend more time on social media. She spent several more minutes talking with the woman, who was arranging a fortieth anniversary surprise for her parents.

Guess it was high time to hire some more administrative help. For her, the guides had come first, and she’d wanted to pay them a decent salary so she’d insisted that most of their initial payroll budget go to that.

But Jill seriously should spread the workload around so she could focus on her strengths—marketing and growing the business. She wanted to hire a general manager, but she’d looked through stacks of résumés and they all seemed like corporate drones to her. She wanted someone else who would put their heart into this business the way she had. Anyway, she didn’t even have the time to interview anyone. She’d simply taken on all the work herself and made the job her life for the last year.

Jill understood hard work. She had studied business at Cal Poly, trying to find her place in the world of high finance. Aiming high, after all, was the Davis way. With her father the doctor and mother the scientist setting the bar, it was always just high enough to be out of Jill’s reach. Then her older brother, Ryan, her hero since the time she was a child, had made his own way. Shown Jill there was another way to succeed. He’d gone to West Point, become an officer and later a decorated war hero. Now he was the newly elected youngest Sheriff in Fortune.

No one in her family did anything halfway.

No one other than Jill. She’d dropped out of business school when she realized she’d never be happy in corporate America. Not what her parents pictured for their straight-A-earning daughter, but they’d never understood her anyway. Never accepted that she didn’t quite fit in with the Davis family.

She’d always had an entrepreneurial spirit instead of an academic spirit, and loved a well-placed challenge. She’d been scouting locations to open a B and B in Fortune when she’d happened upon an article in the local newspaper about the employment challenges for young veterans coming back from the war. The next thing she knew she’d worked out a business plan for an outdoor adventure company, hiring veterans to be the guides.

The park would open in a month’s time. She needed the men to help finalize the courses and do test excursions for their first group of booked test clients.

An hour later, Jill rubbed the heel of her bare foot, leaned away from the monitor and stretched her aching back. For someone who would launch an outdoor adventure company, she was spending far too much time on her behind lately. She managed to hit the gym for her scheduled torture twice a week, but being around all these hard bodies, that wasn’t going to be enough.

She stood up, stretched again and forced herself to do fifty jumping jacks. Out of breath and sweating, she took a break and went to her window. The side of her trailer faced Sam’s, but that’s not why she’d assigned it to him. It only made sense that since he’d been enthusiastic enough to arrive early, he deserved the bigger trailer. There was no other reason.

She peeked through her window’s blinds. And there, framed by a sliver of moonlight, she caught the distinct figure of Sam’s back, hunched over the fire pit. He was with the other guys that had come in after him. Michael, Ty and Julian. They were laughing and seemed to be enjoying themselves.

Sam poked at the fire. He looked over his shoulder in her direction. And caught her staring.

“Oh crap.”

She quickly shut the window blinds to give the men their privacy. The last thing they’d want is a boss who lived here 24-7 spying on them. They could take care of themselves and didn’t need her guidance. She trusted them, too, and wanted them to know it. And she also didn’t want Sam to think she was lusting after him, because the man already had enough confidence in himself.

For good reason.

She headed back to her desk to shut down her laptop. Rather than get the attention of the men as she left her trailer, maybe she’d sleep on the little cot she kept in here. Sleeping here was a good way to annoy Ryan, who hated the thought of her up here on the hill at nights by herself. He’d made her promise not to do it again after catching her a month ago. And she hadn’t since, but tonight was different. Tonight she wasn’t alone on the hill with the occasional mountain lion and deer.

There was a rapping on her trailer door. Jill’s head jerked up, she stood, and in her haste, she tripped over her shoes and nearly landed on the floor. Instead of falling, she braced against one thin aluminum wall, which jostled with the weight of her body. Great. Stuck up on a flagpole and almost falling on her butt. She was such a prize.

“Jill.” Sam’s voice.

“I’ll be right with you!” She quickly stood and toed one flat back on, then the other.

“You okay in there?”

“Fine.”

“You don’t sound fine.”

“Well, I am!”

“This doesn’t have to be an argument.”

She opened the door and shoved on a smile. “Can I help you?”

“No,” he said, stepping inside. “But maybe I can help you.”

“That’s not necessary. I just tripped over my...shoes. There isn’t much room in here, you know.” A little defensive, are we, Jill?

“That’s not what I meant.” He glanced around the room. “But you’re right. Since it looks like you’re trying to sleep here, too.”

Sam was dressed as he had been earlier, but now his square jaw was darkened with stubble. It was the scruffy, just-rolled-out-of-bed look that drove most women crazy. She was no exception.

“I don’t do that anymore. Much. My brother wasn’t too crazy about me sleeping out here alone.”

He quirked a brow. “I’m not too crazy about it, either.”

“I can assure you I’m not going to go next door to your trailer and attack you once the sun goes down.”

Again. A little sensitive, are we?

He gave her a slow smile. “I was actually thinking that my cot is much bigger than your cot.”

She was a little taken aback, not that she should be. “You’re not shy, are you?”

“You should know that about me.”

Funny, she did. But what he didn’t remember, apparently, or maybe had just chosen to ignore, was that she’d come on to him. He’d been sitting alone in the bar, nursing his beer for most of the night, looking like someone who’d lost his best friend. He hadn’t talked or had a smile for anyone, not even the leering cocktail waitress who kept “accidentally” brushing her breasts against him. He might as well have been wearing a sign that read: Do Not Approach—Dangerous When Provoked. Besides nursing a beer and giving surly looks to anyone who approached, he rolled a coin between the fingers of his right hand over and over again.

And yes, she’d been intrigued.

Nothing had changed in that regard, she had to admit, but now he knew she was a natural redhead. She knew what his sex voice sounded like. And he knew hers.

Sue her if she thought that two people who’d been horizontal should know a lot more about each other. But even so, were she still into rating her mistakes, of which there were many, he’d be, hands down, her favorite one.

“W-why did you knock? Do you need something?”

“Wanted to tell you that you’ve hired a first-rate group of men out there.” He nudged his chin. “All of them former Army, but I don’t hold that against them.”

“Thank you. That’s...great.”

“And we’re on board with what you’re trying to do here.”

“That means a lot to me.”

His gaze did a slow slide up her body and she became intensely aware of the heat of the day.

“Was there anyone special to you in the service?”

“My big brother. Ryan. He went to West Point.”

See, this was the kind of get-to-know-you conversation she should have had with him before going to bed with him. He hadn’t been all that much into talking that night and frankly, at that time she hadn’t needed conversation.

Sam quirked a brow. “An officer. I won’t hold that against him, either.”

“Actually, he was infantry and got hurt. They gave him a medal.”

Why was her voice so shaky? That was a while back and she was over it now. Besides, Ryan hated any talk about “the medal.”

“Sorry. Most of the officers I knew didn’t get their hands dirty.”

“That’s not Ryan.” Her chin rose. “And please forget about the medal. He hates when I talk about it, or tell anyone.”

“Got it.”

She leaned on her desk, arms folded across her chest. “You know, I was just thinking that we know very little about each other.”

“That’s true. I didn’t even know you had a brother.”

She pointed. “Exactly. Now you know something about me you didn’t before. I should know something about you.”

He narrowed his eyes. “Such as...?”

“Anything. Just one thing about you that I don’t know.”

Why don’t you have an emergency contact?

“I like dogs. Grew up with Labs and missed having one while I was away. I intend to adopt one first chance I get.”

“Good to know.” That certainly hadn’t come up the night they’d spent together, but it also wasn’t quite what she meant and he knew it. “And why don’t you have an emergency contact?”

He frowned. “You said one thing.”

“Okay. One thing a day.”

“You’re pushing it.”

“But you owe me.” She took a breath. “For the most incredible night of your life. For rocking your world.”

Hell, yeah. No one ever said she lacked confidence, either. Or, at least, was extremely good at faking it.

He gave her another slow smile, with a panty-melting heat in his gaze. “Point taken.”

Suddenly it was a little too hot in here, like August had landed only in the perimeter of this trailer and the approximate two feet of distance between them. She tried not to look at him. “You should probably go now, before the guys start to wonder.”

“Whether I’m in here being ravaged by the boss?”

“Or something.”

He opened his mouth to speak, and she could almost see the wheels spinning in his brain, but then he turned to go.

She suddenly had a fleeting and terrible thought. “You didn’t tell them about us, did you?”

He scowled, and she flashed back to that night and the same irritated look he’d had on his face until she’d given him something else to think about.

“Hell, no. That’s between you and me. Always will be.”

He smiled again, and then he was gone.

Chapter Four

When Sam woke before dawn the next morning, he did not immediately recognize his surroundings. He froze, his heart rate must have hit the triple digits, and sweat poured off him.

Tim and Dave were dead. They were gone.

“The threat’s been neutralized.”

No. That happened a while ago. It wasn’t happening now. He shook the memory off, tossing and turning, eventually kicking off the soft cotton sheets.

Man, how he hated this. Hated the fear that shot through him as he fought to slow his heart rate down. Fought to forget. Fought to remember. He was home. Safe. He was back in the Bay Area. Fortune, to be exact. In a trailer on Wildfire Ridge.

And just like that his thoughts turned to his Angelina. Angelina, who was not Angelina. She was Jill, and still every bit as gorgeous as he remembered. Since he’d thought back to that single night many times over the past three years, he’d recognized her the minute he heard her voice. Heard the sound of her nervous laughter. Saw her long red hair whipping in the wind. Her equally long legs curved around that flagpole. Told himself he had to be imagining things. A look-alike, maybe. He’d waited until she was inches away from him to be sure he wasn’t hallucinating.

The night they’d met, he’d been in San Francisco on leave. He should have dropped in on his parents, who were not that far away. Not a long drive to the other side of the bay and Berkeley. He could have called them, let them know he was stateside, and he’d struggled that night to make the right choice. In the end, he couldn’t do it. In the end, a tall redhead had made her way to his table and made him an offer he couldn’t refuse.

And good thing, too, because he didn’t think he would have made it through the next three years without the memory of her. Of that night. The knowledge that it was possible to get so lost in someone you forgot everything else. It was possible to forget the fear and the guilt and the pain. Possible to simply allow himself to feel something good again because she made it difficult not to do just that. He hadn’t wanted to hold back from her that night, but he had. Everything but the physical. And so had she. She’d been the one to suggest the fake names.

Just one perfect night.

Without the pressure of knowing he’d eventually drive her away like he had everyone else, he handled that one night. One day at a time was the only way he could manage his life.

Everything was different now. She was here, and she was his boss. A man did not mess with that.

He hadn’t expected the form to be a problem, but something told him she wouldn’t leave this alone. She wanted to know why he wasn’t in touch with his parents. Why he didn’t think enough of their relationship to put their names on a form.

Hell, it took a lot for him to put someone’s name on a damn form.

Right now, he wasn’t interested in talking to them, and he didn’t see that changing anytime soon. So no, their names weren’t going on her damn form.

He dressed quickly and went for a run, the cool spring morning air waking him so he was no longer groggy from lack of sleep. Then he hit the shower, and thought about coffee. Sure enough, his employer had been more than generous and stocked the kitchen with some essentials. He had his coffee and was out the door by 6:00 a.m. One by one, the men came out of their separate trailers on the grounds until all of them were gathered outside the office trailer.

No Jill anywhere in sight.

“What do you think ‘bright and early’ means to her?” Michael said.

“She didn’t give us a time,” Ty said with a shrug.

“Strikes me as being new to this boss thing,” Julian said.

It had struck Sam the same. Granted, he’d never asked about her occupation nor had any interest in knowing. In his fantasies, she’d had many jobs and not one of them had been owner and manager of an outdoor adventure company. Stripper? Yes. Masseuse? Hell, yes. Naughty nurse? Possibly. Porn star? Definitely.

“She’ll be here.”

And an hour later, as the guys stood around debating whether the Warriors would take the championship again this year, she drove up the hill. She parked her sedan a few feet away from the office trailer. When she noticed them all standing there, she did a double take, then seemed to mutter something to herself as she opened the driver’s side door.

“Hot damn, she’s cute,” Julian said.

“Yeah.”

Sam had been thinking the same thing. Thinking how she made him want to smile. Made him want to do a lot of other things, too, first and foremost making her smile. And scream out his name again. This time his real one.

“Usually I don’t even like redheads. Too bad she’s the boss,” Julian said.

“Exactly,” Sam said firmly.

There was some relief in realizing that he wasn’t the only one who couldn’t have her.

Jill walked down the path to the office trailer, carrying several plastic shopping bags in her arms. Her hair was up in a ponytail today; she wore long hiking pants and a tight-fitting black performance tee that read, Wildfire Ridge’s Outdoor Adventures in red stitching across her right breast. Hiking boots, too.

“Good morning.” She set the plastic bags on the benched picnic table near the trailer. “Everyone grab a shirt. Mostly large and extra-large, and they run small.”

Sam grabbed one first. He pulled off his shirt and tugged the other one on and the others followed suit. If Jill seemed shocked that they’d take their shirts off in front of her, she didn’t say anything.

She went into a welcome speech that, while it sounded sincere, also might have been scripted. She looked nervous to Sam, not that he should know. He’d never seen nervous Jill before.

Next was a discussion about equipment sorting.

“We had a delivery two days ago, and I need help inventorying. Next I’d like each of you to try out all the courses and give me your feedback. Is it challenging enough for you guides, and if so, is there a way to level it so that we can work with, um...”

“Different levels of fitness?” Sam offered.

She snapped her fingers. “Yes, exactly. And we’ve got our first group of testers coming out next week so we want to be ready.”

“We got you covered, boss.” Julian winked.

“Thanks! Oh, and another thing. I’ll eventually want to take photos of you guides doing some of the activities so I can put them on our Facebook page.”

The next few hours were like family camp on steroids. Leadership came naturally to him, so he wound up organizing the guys as they pulled equipment out of boxes, counted and categorized. The fun part was trying out some of the equipment. The zip line stretched across a small canyon that was nevertheless about 100 feet up and a long drop. It was obvious some great engineering had gone into it. After each of them had gone across the zip line twice, Sam decided they were having too much fun to be technically working. At least, he was.

“Next,” he found himself ordering.

Julian, Ty and Michael went ahead to the rock face that looked to have been partially man-made, working with some of the rockier and craggier areas of the hilltop. He was about to follow when he saw Jill staring at the zip line from a few feet away.

“Want a go at this?”

She shook her head a little violently. “Oh no. I’ve got paperwork to get back to. I just wanted to check on you guys. I see everything’s going smoothly.”

“Well...”