Climbing High (12 page)

“Exposure to the press is a given if she does agree to date you. It might shake her deep-seated issues to the surface, where she’ll be forced to confront them. In hiding from them she’s done nothing but buy herself time, too much time, it seems.” Sharon stopped speaking and turned her head to listen.

Voices came from the front hall, followed by the shutting of the door and laughter. “They’re back.” Sharon looked at her watch her brows rising in surprise. “Would you like to stay to dinner? It would just be the four of us. Siree and Ty decided they’d cook for me. You can help supervise. I fear for my kitchen.”

Her warm laugh teased out Jake’s smile. She’d given him her blessing and now her backing by providing an opportunity to spend time with Siree. He ran through his plans for the evening, work and more work. He could easily back it up a few hours. Suddenly, he felt carefree, worries sloughing off his mind. An evening in company with Siree, Ty and Sharon seemed like the ultimate release.

Chapter Six

Siree chopped bok choy and watched Jake from beneath her lashes. Jacket off, sleeves rolled up, tie discarded, he lounged at the kitchen bar. Awareness sizzled between them, hotter than the oil in the wok Ty cradled over a gas burner.

The tinkle of ice drew Siree’s attention to Jake’s mouth. She watched him lift his glass of scotch to his beautifully sculpted lips. Clamping down on the impulse to trace them with her finger, she began slicing the carrots and broccoli. “Tell Mom your news, Ty,” she encouraged.

Ty still had his runner’s buzz. He radiated exhilaration after a week of working out at the gym with Sharon, and several runs with Siree. His face appeared tauter, his paunch tighter.

“Now that you girls have me back to running, I’ve decided to keep it up at home. And”—he used a set of chopsticks to do a drum roll on the lid of the wok—“I’m signing myself up for the Vancouver half marathon next spring.”

“That’s wonderful.” Sharon walked around the island to give him a hug then went back to setting the table tucked into a corner of the large kitchen. “I’ll be honest and admit that I’ve been concerned about your health since your blood pressure went up. I’m so glad you’re doing something about it.”

Ty projected a silent plea in Jake’s direction. He’d put the idea out there and now obviously floundered at the thought of following through.

“A half marathon sounds like a good goal. I’m not running as much as I used to and it’s starting to show.” Jake patted his flat belly. “I think I’ll join you, Ty. We’ll keep each other honest in our training.”

“Well then, I’m in too.” Sharon set an arrangement of tulips in the center of the table and stood back to check its affect. “I’ve never run a half marathon. But with almost a year to prepare, I don’t see why I can’t.”

“Sounds like we need to make it a mother-daughter thing. Of course Uncle Ty will have to give me the time off to come back and run it.” Siree made little girl eyes at Ty.

Ty dumped a plate of chicken strips into the wok and jumped back as it spat hot oil. “How can I resist?” He groaned. “You women gang up on me all the time. Thank God Jake is here to pump more testosterone into the room.”

Yes
, Siree thought, piling shitake mushrooms on her cutting board. He certainly put out the testosterone. Standing on the other side of the island from him, she could smell a blend of lime and leather and something darkly mysterious wafting from his warm body. His forearms beneath the rolled up sleeves were ridged with tendons under a light coating of sun-bleached hair. A vee of dark hair showed in the open neck of his shirt. It looked silky, tempting her to touch. A glance down at the mushrooms showed them closer to minced than sliced. Her mind needed to take charge of her libido. She handed Ty the last of the vegetables and popped the noodles into the pot of boiling water. “Three minutes to go,” she warned. “If anyone needs to top up their drink, do it now.”

“Jake, will you take care of the sake?” Sharon asked.

He slid from the stool in one athletic move, and bent over to pour the warmed sake from the small flask called a tokkuri into the matching ceramic cups set at each place. Siree’s eyes locked on his taut butt.

They settled around the table, Jake beside Siree on the bench, Sharon and Ty in chairs at right angles to them.

Jake encroached on her senses, her thoughts and her space. His arm brushed hers as he twirled noodles onto his chopsticks. His warm breath heated her temple when he passed her the bowl of almonds. His husky laugh spangled through her system leaving little pockets of excitement behind.

He fit into the trio of lifelong friendship seamlessly. Ty shamelessly dug for details on his latest acquisition. Sharon, face animated, lobbed ideas to raise money for APTS, across the table at him.

“Why don’t we go after pledges for running the half marathon?” Siree suggested. “Between our friends and the corporations we do business with, we’ll make a bundle. We just have to finish the run to collect.”

The others jumped on the idea. Ty teased Jake that it would just take one word to the media and he’d have half the female population of North America sending in pledges.

Siree watched the muscles in Jake’s face tighten before he steered the subject in a new direction. While she appreciated his consideration, she gave him a sideways glance of disbelief.
As if I don’t know that every woman out there would go after him given half a chance. And I’m being given one and haven’t jumped on it.

“How much longer are you here?” Jake asked Ty.

“Sharon’s willing to suffer with me through the weekend. I took a two week vacation and it’s time to get back to the office.”

“I have a climb planned for Sunday with some of my buddies and will be heading back to Toronto on Monday if you want a seat on our corporate jet,” he offered.

Siree’s tummy tightened in revolt. She set her chopsticks on her plate. If she kept to her stand of not getting involved with him, this might be the last time she spoke to Jake. A trickle of melancholy infiltrated the joy of the evening.

“Thanks, I’ll take you up on that. It would save me a lot of waiting around time. I believe Siree is heading in that direction on Monday as well.”

“You’re going back east?” Jake’s total attention swung to her.

“Ty needs me to go to Copenhagen, but is giving me to the end of the week so I can have a little time with Mom.”

“Of course you’re welcome to travel with us.” Jake had his boardroom face on so she couldn’t read his thoughts at all. “So you’re going to be out of the country for…”

Ty answered for her. “It won’t take my financial whiz kid more than a week to set up a banking system that allows our client to open in three new countries simultaneously. What we learned from this experience with JDI will come in handy in making sure there are no blind overlaps, don’t you think?” Ty looked from Siree, who had gone silent, to Sharon for a clue as to the sudden tension at the table. He cleared his throat, arranging his chopsticks on his empty plate.

“After that I head for Curaçao,” Siree added. She turned to Sharon. “A hotel chain comprised of thirteen resorts on various islands in the Caribbean is going under because of the problem with government graft and embargoes and continually changing tariffs on their supplies. So many bureaucrats are taking bites out of them they’re bleeding to death. I will design a centralized system to handle their finances. It will minimize the number of governments involved. I expect it to take me a minimum of three weeks.”

“So you’re out of country for a month.” Jake’s thumb brushed his bottom lip.

“It appears that way.” She met the dark storm in the center of his eyes, not sure if she read passion or consternation in their heated depths.

“Did you think about the climb I suggested for Sunday? We’re going to scramble on Mt. Harvey. There’re some good multi-pitch routes we can access. I could arrange for one of my friends to pick you up and bring you back so you don’t have to worry about being seen with me.”

“Surely, that’s not necessary.” Sharon rested her hand on his arm.

Faced with yet another instance of Jake protecting her privacy over his own desire to spend time with her, Siree felt like a coward. Yet her chest tightened at the mere thought of exposing herself to the paparazzi that followed him around. She twisted her chopsticks, picked crumbs from the table, fighting her inner demons.

He laid his hand over hers. “Relax. There’s no pressure. Sam’s a great guy and lots of fun. He and Josh and I have been friends since college. Josh and Sam were part of my first technical team, but broke away to form their own companies once JDI got off the ground. We try to get together to climb several times a year, just like you with your friends in Paris. It will be a great day of climbing, and you don’t have to expose yourself to the press if he picks you up here and brings you back.”

“It sounds like something you’d really enjoy, darling,” Sharon encouraged. “Who knows when you’ll get another climb in with the schedule Ty has planned for you.”

Who knows when I’ll get another chance to be with Jake.
Siree picked up on the thought her mother had left unspoken. She turned to Jake, letting him see her pleasure. “I’d like that, Jake. It’s a date.” Her choice of words was deliberate. “I hope your friends don’t mind that you’re including me in their time with you.”

“No, they’ve brought girlfriends before, so the precedent’s been set.” Gold flecks brightened Jake’s azure eyes to aquamarine.

Siree knew he’d chosen his words just as deliberately.

“I hope you
don’t mind that I’m stealing her away from you for the day,” he said to Sharon.

“Nonsense. We have tomorrow and Saturday, and there is a rumor”—her eyes met Ty’s—“that she’ll be back in Vancouver at the end of the month.”

“Oh?” Siree’s brows rose. “What rumor?”

Ty cleared his throat, patted his mouth with his napkin and cleared his throat again. “Your mother persuaded me to give you a few days break.”

“It’s the price of getting me for a running partner when he comes out in June for business,” Sharon explained with a smug look.

“She’s a tough negotiator, your mother.” Ty waggled his bushy brows at Sharon. “Says she’s taking me in hand and whipping me into shape.” He hid his pleasure in a pseudo scowl.

Siree and Jake looked at each other in surprise, while Sharon took enormous interest in the last slice of water chestnut left on her plate.

“Well, I won’t say no to that.” Siree lifted her wine glass and tapped it to her mother’s. “Here’s to a tough negotiator.”

“
Kanpai
.” Sharon spoke the toast in soft guttural Japanese. She switched to English. “And thank you both for a lovely meal.” She put her hands together and bowed first toward Ty, then Siree.

The men lifted their glasses in turn. “If I don’t want to be the odd man out, I better come up with a reason to be in Vancouver early in June, too.” Jake spoke lightly, but the intent in his eyes sizzled through Siree’s body like water through an espresso machine.

****

Sunday dawned clear and golden. Siree dressed for the climb, prepared for just about anything, except for the great purring beast of a motorcycle Jake’s friend pulled up to the front entrance.

When she walked out the door to meet him, Sam Prazynski pulled off his helmet and gave her a saucy grin. “I can see why Jake insisted you come along,” he flirted. “I hope you don’t mind the Beast.”

With his golden good looks, Sam went through women like wind through a tunnel, she guessed, but with no harm in him.

She let her gaze run over the gleaming machine to his leather-clad figure and gave him a saucy smile of her own. “Oh, I think I can handle
the Beast
.”

Sam acknowledged the hit, and handed her a helmet with a bow. “A worthy opponent indeed.”

In minutes they were off, weaving through the Sunday morning traffic. Sam handled the bike with skill and no need to show off, so Siree soon settled into the rhythm of curves and speed.

Clear of the city, Sam opened the throttle and they went for several miles, climbing steadily up a secondary highway, before turning off on a dirt road. He slowed to a stop and put his foot down to brace the bike. “You okay, Siree?”

“Just fine.” She had been enjoying the feel of being one with the wind, the throaty purr of the bike and the sense of timelessness that had taken hold.

“It’s going to get a lot rougher from now on,” he explained. “This is the reason we rent the bikes, so we can get in closer to the climbs we want, avoid some of the more popular areas. Josh and I came in Friday night to get some time with Jake. They left just ahead of me and should be waiting at the trailhead we’ve chosen. Hang on.”

In the next ten minutes she gained experience in becoming one with the Beast. It leapt and twisted, turned on a dime, fishtailed and jostled around the rock-strewn base of Mt. Harvey to the east slope. When they rounded a curve and she spotted Jake leaning against a black motorcycle, she drew a breath that sucked her heart up into her throat. He straightened at the sight of the bike, threw his leather jacket across the saddlebag and set his helmet on the seat. He strode toward them, his eyes radiating welcome enough to flatter any woman.
And I’m not so easy to flatter. Oh, God, I’m a goner. This man has me acting like a giddy teenager.

Before she could dismount, or Sam could reach to help her, Jake set his hands on either side of her waist and lifted her high enough to pull her foot across the bike. In slow motion he let her slide down his body to the ground. Hokey, yes, a move right out of a bad boy’s play book, and it turned her bones to jelly. She clung to his biceps while she regained her balance, feeling his warmth radiating along the parts of them that still touched. Hips, thighs, even the side of her breast wanted to stay glued to his muscled chest. She trailed her fingers across the hard curve of his pectoral muscle and went into sensory overload when his warm skin beckoned. She felt him harden against her pelvis and whimpered under her breath.

“You two need a moment?” Sam’s dry tone doused the building inferno.

“What makes you think that?” Jake’s bland look made Sam laugh. “Just helping Siree with her helmet.”