Kaylee’s First Crush (2 page)

Guess I’ll
have to get a room at a hotel
, she thought, joining
the rest of the people making their way to the exit.

An hour later,
she stood just outside the terminal doors, shivering and frustrated. There were
no rooms available anywhere. She’d called every hotel in the city and they were
all booked solid. The airport was shutting down behind her. She had nowhere to
go. She didn’t even have winter boots on! She’d just come from sunny California
where she’d finished up her last semester of school and all her stuff was
packed onto a storage pod on its way to New York. She’d managed to cram in an
MBA with her work for a bachelor’s degree in marketing with only a few extra
semesters, but her degrees sure as hell wouldn’t help her now. Neither would
her thin sweater. She hadn’t been expecting this.
Stupid
winter weather.

“Well, damn,”
she said aloud. The wind snatched at her voice. “Maybe I can catch a cab to a
diner? I’m sure I can nurse a coffee for a long time.” It was worth a try,
especially since she didn’t have any other options. She waved at a lone taxi
driving slowly past the doors, only to stare, utterly dismayed as it ignored
her and sped up. She looked through the snow flying in her eyes, trying to see
if there
were
any more coming. She couldn’t see
anything but more snow.

“Kaylee?”

She frowned.
I’m
hearing voices now? I must be colder than I thought
, she mused, staring
down at her shoes. Her feet were freezing and the snow had wet her slacks to
the knee.

“Kaylee
Paulson?” a man’s voice penetrated her reverie. “Is that you?”

With a snap of
her head, Kaylee looked up. And up.
And up some more until
warm brown eyes met hers.
What the—? Am I hallucinating?
she
wondered. In front of her stood a man who looked exactly
like the Mr. Valtree of her high-school crush: six foot tall, dark-haired,
warm-brown eyes, and broad-shouldered, just like she remembered. It was strange
that she recalled him so damnably well, enough to imagine him when she was
having her very first bout of hypothermia. She frowned, opened her mouth, and
then closed it again. Instead of speaking, she reached under her sweater and
pinched herself.
Hard.
Ow
.

“What are you
doing?” he asked, clearly amused.

“Um,” she
said,
when he didn’t seem to be disappearing.

“You
are
Kaylee, right?” he asked again,
untucking his scarf from the neck of his black wool coat. It looked warm.

“Mr. Valtree?”
she finally managed to ask, half-stupefied, half-disbelieving.

The man who
looked exactly like her high school crush nodded.

Impossible
, she thought. “I’m definitely hallucinating,” she said out loud.
Her head felt fuzzy.

He shifted
closer. “How long have you been out here?” he asked, putting a hand on her
cheek. His palm was shockingly warm.

She blinked
snow off her eyelids. “Mr. Valtree?”

He nodded.
“Trust me, you’re not hallucinating.”

“I think I’ve
been out here for way too long,” she muttered.

“I think you
have too,” he said, and then, weirdly, he took off his coat.

She stared at
him, even as the snow fell on his designer suit, ruining the fabric. What was
he doing? Hell, scratch that. What was
she
doing? She needed to call a
taxi and get herself somewhere warm. She fumbled with her purse, trying to
extract her cell phone. When he dropped his coat over her shoulders, she
gasped, finally stunned out of her cold-induced shock.

“Mr. Valtree?
What are you doing here?” she asked, shivering violently as the body-heat
trapped in his coat penetrated the fog she’d fallen into. “Oh my God, that
feels so good.” She clutched the wool closer and looked around. “I was trying
to get a taxi.”

“I think
they’ve all left,” he said, squinting against the snow. He turned to her. “I’ll
give you a ride to your hotel.”

She tried not
to stare at him and failed. He looked just as gorgeous as he had back in high
school, if not more so. He was still tall, still muscular, and still really
nice. His eyes had a few more lines around them and there was a trace of silver
at his temples, but those were the only changes she could see.
Well, that
and the million dollar cufflinks he’s wearing
, she thought, eyeing the
platinum studs at his wrists.
I don’t remember him being particularly
wealthy, although there were those rumors about his family… And he has the
Valtree name.

She shook her
head, dismissing her speculations, even as her eyes roamed over him. “You don’t
have to do that, Mr. Valtree.” She attempted a smile, but another shiver
wracked her body just as she looked up again.

His brown eyes
looked down into hers in concern. “I think I do.”

She pursed her
lips, suddenly irked. “I’m not seventeen anymore, Mr. Valtree. I can take care
of myself,” she said, just as a dark limo pulled up to the curb. She watched as
at the driver got out and waved to her old teacher. “It was nice seeing you,
though,” she added, not wanting to be entirely rude. She wondered what he was
doing in Chicago.

He shot her an
amused glance, then leaned down and picked up her overnight bag. “It’s nice to
see you too. You must be done with college by now,” he said as if he hadn’t
just shoved her bag into the car.

“What are you
doing? That’s my bag…” she trailed off as he shut the trunk.

“Come on,” he
said, taking her elbow.

“Mr. Valtree—”

“Hugo,” he
interrupted even as he towed her to the curb.

“What?” she
asked, slipping on a patch of
ice.

He caught her
before she could go down. “My name is Hugo.”

She blinked.
“Mr. Valtree, I need that bag.”

“You
need
to get somewhere warm.” He smiled
and helped her into the car.

She nearly
swallowed her tongue as the sheer beauty of the man hit her all over again,
just as she sat down on the soft leather seat of the limo. Five years and he
still had the power to turn her into a babbling idiot.

“Where is your
hotel?” he asked, climbing in after her and closing the door.

She licked her
lips, trying to get her brain to start working. “Um, I don’t have one.”

He frowned at
her.

She stared at
him.
Jesus. He’s just as handsome when he’s frowning. I forgot about that,
she thought, surreptitiously pinching herself again.
Yup.
Awake and cognizant, though the warmth of the car was making
her feel drowsy.
At least her shivers had stopped. She sank down into
the seat. His coat smelled really, really good. He’d definitely invested in
some kind of insanely expensive aftershave. She blushed, feeling weird sitting
her, wearing the coat of her high school teacher. The teacher she’d mooned over
so often she still dreamed about him. This evening had definitely taken an odd
turn. And how the hell could he afford a limo like this? The last time she’d
checked, English teachers didn’t make that much money.
Certainly
not enough for a chauffeured car.

“I’ll take you
to my hotel. We’ll find you a room there,” he said decisively, rapping on the
front seat divider. The vehicle began to move.

Kaylee was
going to protest, but then she looked outside again. If anything, it had begun
to snow even worse. She sighed and forced herself to sit up straight. The least
she could do was act like a grown-up. “Thank you, Mr. Valtree.”

He sighed
exasperatedly. “My name is Hugo. I thought I told you that.”

She felt
herself flush. “I can’t call you Hugo. You were always Mr. Valtree,” she said,
uncomfortable. “The girls’ favorite teacher,” she added impulsively. Inside she
wanted to smack herself upside the head.
You sound like a twelve-year-old!

He laughed.
“You’re not in high school anymore, are you?”

She shook her
head, lips pressed together so nothing else stupid could come out of her mouth.

“Well, neither
am I,” he added. “Not for years. Every time you call me Mr. Valtree, it reminds
me of my father.” A dark expression passed over his face, so fast Kaylee
wondered if she’d imagined it. “My name is Hugo.”

She cleared her
throat. “Mr. Valtree—”

He glared at
her.

“Hugo,” she
tried, forcing her lips to move around the sounds of his first name. “Thank you
for the ride.”

“That wasn’t so
hard, now, was it? It’s not a difficult name to say.” Hugo grinned. “And you’re
welcome. For the ride,” he added when she looked at him blankly.

Kaylee was
still reeling from the sheer force of his grin. She cleared her throat again,
hoping she wasn’t getting sick. “My flight was cancelled.”

He nodded.
“Mine too. The weather took a nasty turn. Where were you headed?”

Now’s your chance to act like an intelligent person
, she told herself. “New York. I have a job waiting for me in the
city.
Marketing.”

His eyebrows
lifted. “That’s where I work now. I like the city, but sometimes I still miss
teaching.”

She glanced
around the car. There was a large “V” inscribed in the back of the seat.
Suddenly, all the little clues that had been knocking on her skull coalesced
into an impossible realization. “Wait,” she muttered. “Valtree…” she trailed
off.

Hugo was
nodding.
“Just so.”

She swallowed,
hard. “Valtree Enterprises is huge.”

“Yes.” He
didn’t elaborate. He didn’t have to.

“I don’t
understand,” she said, trying to put the pieces together. “You taught high
school English?”

He ran a hand
through his hair, ruffling it. “My father was pretty angry with me for doing
that.”

Kaylee traced a
finger down the butter-soft leather of her seat. “Your father worked in the
company?”

He aimed a
sardonic look her way. “He owned the company.” He looked away, the lights from
the street illuminating the stark expression on his face. “And then he died.”

Kaylee stopped
breathing. She knew what that meant. She’d heard the news when the head of
Valtree Enterprises died three years ago, but she’d been way too busy with
school to read about it or watch the news. She’d never seen a picture of Herman
Valtree’s son, as impossible as that seemed, and now her lack of knowledge had
come out of nowhere to bite her in the ass. She blinked, trying to wrap her
brain around the information.

Her high school
crush, her favorite English teacher, Mr. Hugo Valtree, was the richest man on
three continents.

Chapter Two

Hugo looked at
the woman sitting across from him. Her wavy brown hair was windblown and her
cheeks were slightly chapped from the cold, but in all honesty, none of that mattered.
She was stunning. The hint of prettiness he’d seen peeking out of her girlish
face five years ago had blossomed into a rare beauty.

She’d always
been lovely, though he was certain she hadn’t thought so when she’d been in his
high school English class. The thick glasses she’d sported were gone and so
were her ill-fitting clothes. Instead, she wore fashionable dress slacks with a
soft sweater, just the sort of thing to make her look attractive without being
overdone. Her baby fat had mutated into a gorgeous, curvy body, just the kind
he liked. And he could tell that her sense of humor had survived the rigors of
college intact. But what struck him most was the sparkle of intelligence
lurking in her gaze every time she turned her whiskey-colored eyes on him.

“I’m sorry
about your father,” she said quietly.

The look of
compassion she sent his way warmed him unexpectedly, mostly because he didn’t
expect it. Many other people had said the same words. They’d been polite,
pointless and impossible to escape, but he could tell Kaylee meant it with a
depth of sincerity that surprised him. He felt something he rarely did these
days: uncomfortable.
Itchy.
It was like he desperately
needed fresh air while at the same time he wanted nothing more than to sit next
to her and absorb her warmth.

“Thank you,” he
eventually said, hoping she would understand why he didn’t elaborate.

She nodded
easily and looked away. He studied her profile. Her full lips were still pale
from standing outside in the bad weather. Abruptly, he shifted from his seat to
hers, slipping an arm around her shoulders. His finger brushed her cheek. It
was cold.

She froze, eyes
widening. Clearly he’d startled her.

“You looked
cold,” he explained, enjoying the way her curves fit against his body.

She nodded, not
saying anything.

“We’re almost
there,” he added as the limo slowed down. He hoped he hadn’t frightened her.