Awakened in August (Spring River Valley Book 8) (6 page)

“Mmphf,” he muttered and tightened his grip around her. “Not moving.”

“Don’t you want to find inner peace?” She nudged him. Wild horses couldn’t drag her to a class this morning, but she loved the idea of teasing him. “Achieving a state of Zen can help every aspect of your life.”

He opened one eye. “You’re joking right now, right?”

She clamped her lips shut to avoid laughing and shook her head, her eyes wide.

His eyes narrowed for a second, then he dove under the thin blanket and his hands were everywhere, tickling and caressing, leaving Lydia breathless from begging for mercy.

“What are you doing?” she pleaded, trying to stifle hysterical laughter.

“I’m searching for inner peace, and I think I found it.”

She gasped. He most certainly had. A moment later her laughter turned to sighs of delight then to moans of passion. When he’d finished his search, she lay utterly spent, her body tingling in all the right places. Sleepily, she decided she’d found a new definition of inner peace that involved heavy breathing, a little sweat, and cries of satisfaction.

Next to her, Riley bunched up the pillows and propped himself in a half-sitting position. “If we didn’t have to go to the Long House for breakfast, I’d be perfectly happy to stay here all day.”

Her muscles warm and sensually liquid, Lydia crawled across him and laid her head on his chest. “I wish we could, but the housekeeping staff can’t find you in here. I’m not supposed to have guests in my cabin. It’s not quite light yet, so I can sneak you out now, and I can meet you later, maybe after morning yoga.”

He sighed. “So I don’t get to spend the day with you?”

“Sure you can, but I still have to work. You can come to all the activities I’m scheduled for.”

He growled. “I want you all to myself.”

“Tomorrow. It’s my ‘day off.’” She made air quotes with one hand. “I don’t have anything scheduled. I’m supposed to just show the guests how to relax by example.”

“Can we leave the resort? I’d love to go for a drive.”

“Sorry, not tomorrow. But we will. We have time for everything, don’t we?” She held his gaze to let him know there was a lot more to that question than just the words.

He nodded and kissed her forehead, then the tip of her nose, then her lips. “Yes, we have time for everything.”

* * * *

Riley hadn’t thought it possible. He’d come to Green Solutions under protest, figuring a few days off would probably bore him to death rather than relax him. Instead, he felt like a new man. He lay on a hammock in the shade, watching Lydia teaching guests to float on their backs in the lake and overcome their anxieties about relinquishing control. She looked amazing, standing waist deep in the dark blue water, laughing with people who’d probably had to schedule every minute of their lives up until now.

His heart skipped a beat every time he looked at her. What shocked him even more than discovering this depth of feeling for someone he’d known for so long but hadn’t really known at all was that for the first time probably since he’d hit puberty, he had no desire to get up and accomplish anything. He lay in the gently swinging hammock, secure in the belief that there was nowhere else he needed to be and nothing else he needed to do.

An intrusive voice in the back of his mind asked him how long he could realistically expect that feeling to last. He tried to dismiss it and concentrate on Lydia’s smile and her laughter, but the concern grew the more he attempted to ignore it. He hadn’t even looked at his phone today. In fact, after giving it to her last night, he hadn’t seen it. He wondered where she’d put it and if anything had happened at work that he should know about. Things had been in flux at the offices since rumors broke last month that Mitzi Danziger may have been having an affair with Tyler Brady. Of course, the controlling partners in the firm had neither confirmed nor denied anything, but very few employees had missed the scene when Tyler’s wife had come to the office to confront the two attorneys with evidence of their infidelities.

Riley shook his head. The days leading up to his bar exam had been fraught with greater than usual tension, and he hadn’t been able to take the time off that he’d planned in order to make final preparations for the big exam and then unwind afterward. Only his unplanned trip to Lakeside Hospital’s emergency room had convinced the partners he really did need the vacation they’d been expecting him to take before moving up to his promised executive office.

He sat up in the hammock, and after a brief struggle, managed to plant his feet on the grass below.

The moment he rose, Lydia glanced in his direction and waved. She headed up the sandy bank of the lake toward him, and he pasted on a guilty smile.

“How are you doing, Mr. Lounge Lizard?” she asked, wringing water from her dripping braid. Cool droplets hit his arm and they practically sizzled. What he really needed right now was a swim, preferably with Lydia in a spot where bathing suits were optional.

“I’m fine. I was thinking of wandering over to the snack bar for some chocolate-dipped rice cakes and a green tea.” Had he really just said that? What he needed was an angus beef burger and cheese fries, not something that tasted like Styrofoam and chilled dishwater.

“That sounds great. Let me grab a towel—”

“No, you look like you’re having fun down there. Go swim. I’ll get two orders and bring them back here.”

She glanced over her shoulder at the guests she’d left soaking in the lake. A couple of people waved to her, and she waved back. “Well, all right. Maybe I’ll try to get everyone to head over to the Jacuzzis so you and I can have the lake to ourselves for an hour or so.”

“That sounds perfect. I’ll be back.” He kissed her quickly, one eye on the group of guests which happened to include Dale. The man definitely noticed the PDA, but if it bothered him, he didn’t show it.

“Okay. I’ll take a mint sprig in my tea, please, and lots of ice.”

“Will do.”

Riley jogged up the gentle slope, hoping to outrun the shame of what he was about to do. Rather than take the trail to the right which led to the snack bar and the pool area, he cut left through a stand of trees and took the trail to the staff cabins. At this time of day the snack bar was busy, so he had that as an excuse. Lydia wouldn’t become suspicious if he was gone a while.

The little village of staff huts was deserted when he arrived, but he looked around guiltily first, like a second story man, before jiggling the lock on her door the way she’d showed him this morning so he could sneak in later this evening to spend the night again if he wanted to.

He hated himself for this, but he reasoned that he wasn’t doing anything legally wrong. She’d showed him how to get in and invited him to do so, and he was only going to retrieve his own property and not even take it, just quickly check his voice mail now before the work day ended in case he needed to call in.

She would never know, and he would never have to tell her.

Once inside, he rooted around in the drawers of the tiny bureau and the night stands. “It’s not breaking and entering,” he repeated, imagining himself on trial. “No, your honor, my client’s only intention was to find his own cell phone.”

God, what am I doing?
He stopped and eyed his reflection in the small mirror opposite the bed where he’d made love to her all night long. I should be able to just tell her I need to check in with the office. But he didn’t want to upset her. He didn’t want her to think he wasn’t having a great time today and truly enjoying a much-deserved day off.

And I can enjoy it even more if I know everything is okay at work.
Closing argument won, he panned around in a slow circle, trying to think like a woman. Where would she hide something that she didn’t want him to find?

He headed into the bathroom where he found his phone under the sink in a basket of soaps, lotions, and feminine products. Logic prevailed.

Checking e-mail and voice mail took five minutes. No one had called all day. No one had texted him.

He tried to convince himself that was good news.

Noises from outside startled him into action. He stuffed the phone back where he’d found it. After checking through the cabin windows that no one was around, he slipped out and jogged down the path toward the snack bar telling himself, No harm done, and now I can enjoy the evening.

“How about we spend tonight in
my
cabin?” Riley suggested, punctuating his question by stroking his thumb down the length of Lydia’s bare arm. Her skin tingled in the wake of his sensual touch, and at the moment, she would have agreed to anything. They’d skipped the early meditation class, after an energetic night, and now lay in her bed, tempting fate that the housekeeping staff wouldn’t show up too soon, since it was nearly nine a.m.

“Sure,” she replied, wrapping her leg over his thigh. “But I’d have to sneak in after dark. I’m not supposed to be spending the night in guests’ cabins either.”

“I find this rebellious side of you very sexy.”

“That from the man who hates to break rules.” She giggled and ran a hand down his chest to his ridged abdomen. He made a sound low in his chest like the rumble of a jungle cat.

“Just because my job is to interpret rules, doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate the illicit thrill of flouting them once in a while.”

She glanced up at him. “Flouting? Who uses words like that?” She straddled him, one eye on the bedside clock. If they were quick and dirty, they could make love once more before she absolutely had to throw him out.

“I can’t help it if I have a highly developed vocabulary.”

Lydia slid her hands down his hips, gently shifting the blanket that lay between their bodies. “How about I see if I can leave you speechless?”

“Uh…oh. Well, you’re on…”

She might have been on, but her plans for a hasty seduction were interrupted by a vaguely familiar melody.

They stared at each other for a second, heads tilted to opposite sides until it became clear where the sound was coming from.

The expression on Riley’s face morphed into one of guilt and disappointment. He moved from the bed and headed for the bathroom, scooping up his discarded clothes along the way.

Lydia remained in bed, hugging her knees, attempting to pinpoint the source of her anger while she listened to his conversation echoing against the bathroom tiles.

“What? When? Is it official? Wow. I really didn’t see that coming. Yeah…um…I’ll see what I can do. Maybe later today, but there’s no way I could make it any earlier than say three… All right. Keep me informed. Thanks, Brenda.”

Hastily, she slipped on a T-shirt and panties before he emerged from the bathroom. He looked genuinely contrite and a little shell-shocked as well. For a second she forgot her irritation. “What’s wrong? Was that about the bar? Did you pass?”

He shook his head. “I don’t get the results until November. That was Brenda from my office—”

“She calls a lot.” Lydia had never been the jealous type, but right now, she didn’t want to hear about Brenda.

Riley shrugged. “My boss told her to call me. She didn’t want to, but one of the partners, Mitzi Danziger, handed in her resignation last night. All of her case files need to be reassigned, and all her clients have to be contacted. All hell’s breaking loose right now.”

Lydia nodded. It did sound like a serious problem, almost a legitimate excuse for them to call Riley back from vacation. “So you’re rushing back?”

“I’m sorry.” He pulled on his shirt and started looking for his shoes. “I don’t want to leave you. Really, but this is a major issue, and we’re going to have dozens of very angry clients to deal with. I can’t sit this out.”

She said nothing, just remained motionless on the bed, watching him collect his things.

“I know you’re angry, and I don’t blame you. You predicted this would happen, and I guess I should just admit I’m never going to be completely free of my job, even when I’m on vacation. I’ll do anything to make it up to you.”

“I don’t think you can.”

His expression hardened a bit at her deadpan reply. “So that’s it? This is over before it even had a chance because I have an emergency at work?”

“No. It’s over because clearly you think I’m some kind of idiot.”

He froze, his eyes narrowed. “How can you think that? What do you mean?”

“You had no trouble finding your phone under the bathroom sink, did you?”

“Well, it was ringing. All I had to do was follow the sound.”

“Riley, it was shut off when I put it there. You shut it off yourself right in front of me. Please, give me a good excuse as to how a phone that was turned off started ringing.” She didn’t need to hear the words. The truth in this case would be just as bad as a lie.

He hung his head. “I’m sorry. I guess I forgot to shut it off when I checked it yesterday.”

“So you found it sometime last night. Were you looking for it, or did you happen to need some body lotion or a tampon?”

He sighed. “I found it yesterday afternoon, while you were at the lake. I let myself in here. I didn’t want you to catch me and get upset.”