As he climbed the first rock, he noticed her attention. “Come with me and I’ll show you something,” he called.
She gave a skeptical half-smile and silently denied any interest. “I’m fine here.”
“It’s easier than it looks. Come on. It’ll be fun.”
Kendra gave in to her curiosity. It looked challenging, and she enjoyed challenges more and more these days. Who’d have thought?
When she reached the base of the rock, Colton stood some twenty feet above her, but the climb wasn’t as perpendicular as it appeared from a distance. Exhilaration assailed her when she made the final step and stood alongside him.
“See, that wasn’t so bad, was it?”
She returned his grin, then looked for more to climb. Colton led the way and they scaled rocks and boulders until they were a couple hundred yards from their picnic area. A little out of breath, she wasn’t sure if it was from excitement or exertion; nor did she care. When they could go no further, they sat side by side on a ledge, surveying their accomplishment.
With one elbow resting on his drawn up knee, Colton tossed loose pebbles into the water some thirty feet below.
“Noah mentioned earlier that you aren’t real big on the outdoors. I find that hard to believe after the way you climbed up here.”
She grinned. “I hate it—or at least I used to. Bugs and dirt—no thanks. Two months ago, shopping on Fifth Avenue was the closest I got to the outdoors.” She laughed with a hint of wonder. New York seemed forever ago, and totally ridiculous when she considered her life now.
“Fifth Avenue?”
“Yeah, you know, Saks, Bergdorf’s, Tiffany’s? I suppose growing up here doesn’t really expose you to things like that.”
He snorted. “I’m not some poor, backwoods country hick.”
Kendra blinked at his offended tone. “I didn’t say that.”
“Of course you didn’t say it—you didn’t have to. Where I grew up has nothing to do with it. It’s the silver spoon you were born with that makes the difference.”
“I was not born with a silver spoon.”
“Did you not just hear yourself? Saks, Tiffany’s—I watch movies, I’ve seen Sex in the City. I’m not ignorant, Kendra. People who shop at those kinds of stores spend more money in a single year than I’ll see in a lifetime. It doesn’t mean they—or you—are any better than I am.”
“I never said that,” she protested indignantly. “And I certainly didn’t mean it that way.”
He didn’t believe her, she could tell by his face. She stared across the lake, wondering how things had gone from good to bad so fast. She’d enjoyed the afternoon, in part—a large part—due to his company. Imagine that.
“So, what are you doing here then?” he asked.
She glanced at him, then looked away again rather than meet his probing, suddenly tense, gaze. “Since we came to the ranch, it’s grown on me—the great outdoors, I mean.”
“I meant, what are you doing in Colorado? If you had that kind of money two months ago, why aren’t you shopping at Saks now?”
Tell him. It scared her how bad she wanted to. Scared her enough to prompt the words she seemed to say to him every time she turned around. “It’s none of your—”
“Business,” he finished, a razor sharp edge to his voice.
Kendra rose to her feet and glared down. “Well, why would it be? It’s my life—it
has nothing to do with you.”
“It sure as hell does.”
“How?” She tilted her chin when he stood beside her. “We’re not related. You’re my boss, that’s it—we’re not even friends.”
“Believe me, Kendra,” he said in a low voice. “The last thing I want to be with you is friends.”
That hurt—until she met his stare. In the space of a heartbeat the air crackled to life between them. She still wasn’t used to it—this instantaneous surge of awareness that flared at unexpected moments. She took a step backwards.