120 days... (11 page)

“But the depth of one’s devotion should not be measured by the amount they sacrifice.” He reached over and tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear.

Her stomach fluttered at his soft touch and she licked her lips and saw his eyes darken. She wasn’t going to back down. “To work at what you love is never a sacrifice.”

His face was no longer teasing, but serious. His brow furrowed and he frowned. “To love without the passion of living is no life.”

She thought her heart was going to pound out of her chest. “The passion we bring to our lives is what we make of it,” she whispered.

“There should always be room for more, more of everything, but especially passion.” His voice shook with emotion.

“I . . . I think I have enough passion in my life.” An image of the two of them, wrapped in each other’s arms, kissing passionately, flew through her brain.

“Do you?” He leaned in closer to where there was only a few inches separating them, his voice so soft she had to strain to hear it. “Samantha . . . I’ve watched you. You’re like an exotic flower that only blooms once every hundred years.” He traced her jaw with a fingertip. “You wait and wait for the petals to open, and when they do, you revel in her beauty, letting her sweet scent envelop you, and wait for the richness of her colors to blind you. You, Samantha, are on the verge of blooming. Are you going to hide away, or are you going to embrace it?”

Her skin tightened as her dizzy brain tried to figure out where he was coming from. “I . . . I don’t understand.”

“I’ve never met anyone like you.” He picked up her hand, laced his fingers through hers and looked down at them together. “Since I came here, I’ve been slowly waking up. You’ve made me wake up. See things I haven’t wanted to see in a long time. Made me take a good, long, hard look at myself. For too many years I’d lost track of who I am. Just like you, I’d buried myself in work, but now it’s time to start living. I’m saying maybe we should do this together.”

She was trying to hide the fact that she was shaking. He was getting too close, making her feel things she’d never thought possible, and she wanted it to stop. Wiggling her fingers, she tried to free her hand from his. “I’m happy for you, Ethan. Really, this is great. Live your life.”

“Why don’t you live?” he asked roughly.

“What do you mean?” She became still and frowned. “Of course I live. Every damn day.”

“No, I think you exist.” His voice turned hard. “You take care of everyone else but yourself. You won’t let anyone get close to you. Oh, sure, everyone loves you and will do anything you ask, but you only ask for the resort or the guests. You never ask for yourself. What does Samantha want?”

They sat there in silence, eyes locked, neither one of them able to break contact.

“Tell me.” He growled and grabbed her upper arms. “Tell me what you want.”

“I don’t–”

“Stop!” He hauled her up and across his lap, crushing his velvety soft lips to hers. It had been too long since a man had kissed her like there was no tomorrow.

She wanted to fight him. She didn’t want this. He was making her feel too much. Since he’d first walked into her office, she’d known there was something different about him; she’d been drawn to him, even if she hadn’t admitted it to herself. She always seemed to be looking for him. He’d tended to her, like the delicate flower he’d talked about until she was ready to blossom for only him, and there was no stopping it. Instinctively, she grabbed onto his shoulders, her fingers digging in as she tried to figure out if she wanted to pull away or melt into his kiss, knowing there really was no decision to be made.

When his tongue teased her lips, she couldn’t hold out any longer and her lips parted on a sigh. He wasted no time deepening the kiss, his arm snaking around her waist to pull her closer to him. Their bodies pressed together, they forgot where they were until the sound of applause filled the afternoon.

Scooting off his lap, Sam would have tipped over if he hadn’t held on to her. Not looking at him, she squirmed out of his grip and quickly stood up, brushing the dirt off her butt before looking up into the happy faces of her guests, still clapping at the two of them. She didn’t think she’d ever been more mortified in her life. Every single guest, including the actors in the play, had seen her lose herself to Ethan, in public.

Fighting the urge to dunk her head in the cooler, she decided to get everyone ready to leave. “Okay, everyone, show’s over. Let’s pack it up and head back.”

“We’re still stopping for ice cream, right?” Patty smirked at her.

“Yes . . . yes, of course.” She had forgotten about the ice cream.

“Excellent. I wouldn’t want you to be the only one who got a sweet treat today.” Patty laughed, turned and walked back to the stage.

Sam bent down and picked up her things without looking at Ethan, trying to hide how much he affected her, and how embarrassed she was. “I’ll meet you at the vans.” She needed some distance to figure out what she was going to do. There was no denying the fact that she was attracted to him, but she still wasn’t 100 percent sure he didn’t have an alternative motive for being at her resort.

“Wait–”

“We’ll talk later. Make sure everyone is ready, please.” She walked away before he could say anything else. She didn’t know what had gotten into her. The guests had completely slipped her mind, and they were the ones who needed her, not her traitorous body, which was still humming from the feel of his against hers. She kept telling herself this over and over with each step.

Ethan shook his head and chuckled to himself when Sam pulled into the first property he’d ever bought. They stopped in front of the ice-cream parlor, which was one of the original stores that were a part of the small strip mall he had turned around for a nice profit.

He wasn’t surprised when she was the first one through the door ensuring the employees would know she was paying for everyone, all the while still keeping an eye on her guests and making sure no one was left behind. He made sure he was the last one in the ice-cream parlor, hoping he’d be able to talk to her, as soon as possible. He was going to make sure she wasn’t wriggling off the hook. She’d melted into him so sweetly and he wanted another taste of her.

When she only glanced at him briefly out of the corner of her eye, he knew getting her to open up again wasn’t going to be easy. A grin spread across his face when she ordered a vanilla cone. Leaning down, he whispered in her ear. “Ahhh, it would seem I was right. Vanilla is your favorite.” He didn’t move when her head whipped around and her eyes locked with his.

Sam didn’t say anything to him. All she did was narrow her eyes before she spoke up. “Excuse me, can I change that to raspberry?”

“Sure thing, miss.”

“That doesn’t count,” he said.

“Sure it does. I only ordered vanilla because that’s the thought you put into my head. If I hadn’t been distracted, I would have looked at their selection and chosen something else.” She tipped her chin up, daring him to challenge her.

Grinning down at her, he couldn’t help but ask, “And why were you distracted?”

Sam raised an eyebrow at him. “Well, let’s see . . .” She started ticking items off on her fingers. “I run a guest resort for the terminally ill. We’ve been in the city for hours, away from said resort, and now everyone wanted to stop for ice cream. I need to make sure we are back at a specified time since some of the guests need to take medication. I need to make sure everyone is settled in and everything is set up for tomorrow. Then once that is done, I need to go over the financial statements for last month. Then maybe I can curl up and read for fifteen minutes before I have to go bed. And that, Mr. McGregor, is if I haven’t forgotten anything or if there isn’t a new emergency waiting for me when we get back.”

“You did forget one thing,” he baited her.

“Really, and what is that?” She crossed her arms across her chest and moved away from him, resting against the counter.

Following her retreat, he leaned in and rested a hand on the counter next to her hip. “The kiss we shared.”

“Oh, that.” She waved her hand to the side.

“Yes,
that
, Ms. Truman.” He slowly moved in closer, his voice getting quieter with each word, not breaking eye contact. “That completely amazing, ‘touched your soul’ kiss we shared in the park.” He closed his eyes and breathed in her scent as he nuzzled her neck. “The kiss I can’t get out of my head.” He sighed against the curve of her shoulder. “The kiss I can’t wait to repeat.”

She shivered. He didn’t pull away as he waited for her next move.

“I can’t . . .” she spoke so quietly he had to strain to hear her, even though her lips were only an inch from his ear.

“Yes, we can.” He tried to put all the conviction he had behind those three little words. There was something about her that pulled at him. Made him want to be the man he was meant to be before his parents were killed and everything changed. “Don’t shut me out. Let me be there for you.”

When her head tipped toward his, he hoped his words and actions were getting through to her. He may not know what was going to happen, where he was going to end up, but at that moment, he wanted to be with her, to help her. He didn’t want to believe she was scamming people, but he was also going to make sure if she was, she’d never see what was coming and he’d take her down.

“I can’t deal with this right now.” Her soft voice shook in his ear.

“Ma’am?” A young voice called from across the counter. “Your ice cream . . .”

“Yes, sorry.”

As soon as she pulled away from him, he felt the loss of her. He knew it was time to retreat and reevaluate his plan. The odds of her running a scam were so low, and the odds of him being attracted to her were sky-high. When she walked over to the cash register, he turned and walked back out to the vehicles to make sure everything was ready as soon as they were all finished with their treats.

For a man who had spent so many years alone, not worrying about anyone else, he was going out of his way to make sure others were happy. He climbed up in the van’s driver’s seat and sat there in complete silence. Typically, the vans were filled with talk and laughter, everyone making the most of what little time they had left. The quiet was so different. With no chatter to take his mind off everything, he didn’t like how his thoughts started racing about Evan, the resort, and what he wanted for his future. That was something he hadn’t considered in years. His plan had always been to make as much money as possible and never get involved with anyone. It seemed everything was changing. He still checked his email every day, but he wasn’t tracking the trends anymore, or actively pursuing any developments. Granted, he couldn’t spend all the money he had, even if he tried, but that didn’t make the thrill of the chase any less.

His breath hitched. Could that be it? Samantha was so different from any other woman he’d been around. Maybe something as simple as the fact that she wasn’t falling at his feet to be his girlfriend was what was making her so attractive. Maybe after he had her, all these feelings he was having would go away.
 

With that thought in mind, he had to decide if he was going to continue on the track he was on, or if he was going to step back and let things stand.

Day 18

Ethan–

Tonight was campfire night. We all sat around and told stories that meant something to us. I told the story about the time our parents took us camping, or tried to anyway. After one night, we ended up in a room at the closest motel. Mom said she wasn’t made to sleep on the ground with the bugs. Remember how from then on, every time we stayed at a motel, we called it camping?

Evan