Instant Temptation (3 page)

“I know.”

“I’m not Sam.”

A tightening of his jaw was his only reaction. “I know that, too.” He was quiet a minute, then shook his head. “You’re right, you’ll do great.”

That brought her some unexpected surprise. Her dad had run a small holistic vitamin store before he’d lost it in the current craptastic economy. Her mom was an artist and a chef who preferred to float from one job to the next. Skye worked the cash register at the Wishful grocery store while sometimes attending classes at a junior college when it suited her or if she had a “hot” professor. Collectively, the Stephens family didn’t tend toward ambitiousness, and as a result, none of them understood Harley’s yearning for more.

So it was ironic as hell that the single most frustrating, annoying, maddening person she knew would actually be the only one in her life supporting her. She wanted to thank him for that, but more than anything, she wanted him to leave before she asked him to take off his clothes and then hers.

Clueless, he sat down at her kitchen table and carefully shifted aside her camera to gesture to the maps. “Show me your plan.”

TJ was the brains behind all the creating, organizing, planning, and plotting of the trips at Wilder. He was good at it—in large part thanks to his ability to be incredibly intuitive and doggedly aggressive, not to mention he was a master planner and a survival expert.

He wouldn’t approve of her plan to wing it.

“I’ve got it handled, TJ,” she said. “Besides, I’m really busy at the moment, so…”

He eyed the ice cream still in her hands and raised one brow. How busy can you be, came his silent question.

Dammit. “Maybe I have a date.”

“Do you?”

When she sighed, he simply crooked a finger at her in the universal come-here gesture.

And just like that, her feet overtook her brain and took her straight to him.

CHAPTER 2

TJ kept his eyes on Harley’s maps and notes as she moved reluctantly closer. She was dressed from a shift at the garage, but the cute dirt streak across her forehead and baggy coveralls didn’t impair his imagination any.

She was still hot.

“I didn’t realize you were going in by yourself,” he said.

“It’s a long story.”

“Does it involve a sharp blow to your head?”

She sighed. “It’s not that dangerous, TJ.”

“Harley, any lone trip into any part of the Sierras is dangerous. Most especially Desolation Wilderness. Where are you going in?”

She didn’t sit, he noted, but instead remained at his side. “West entrance.”

In terms of sheer acreage, Desolation wasn’t all that large, but it was isolated, remote, and contained over a hundred glacier lakes, making it a haven for wildlife. No hunting was allowed, and even hiking in there required a permit. The west entrance was the closest access but not the easiest, which didn’t matter because once she was in, there was little that was easy about the hike she’d be making. “What else are you doing in there besides checking on the surveillance cameras?”

“Looking in on the known dens.”

“You’ve never gone into the field before.”

“No. But like I said, two of the cameras are down and not feeding data at all. I’m the only staff here right now. It wouldn’t look good to the guys in Colorado if I can’t get the data in, much less process it.”

He considered what she’d said, and all she wasn’t saying. Such as the fact that he’d noticed the empty spot where her TV used to be, and the pile of bills next to the maps. He could feel her desperation, and it killed him. “You could ask for help.”

“I could. But whoever they’d send is competing for the same job as me.”

“Competing.”

“Yes, competing. Like when you and your brothers race like a bunch of idiots down The Face on your dirt bikes to see who can kill themselves—er, get to the bottom first.”

He slid his gaze up to hers in time to catch her mouth twitch and didn’t bother to hide his smile. “Those are controlled test trips to ensure we can make the run safely with a client.”

“Uh huh.”

He kicked out a chair for her and waited until she sat. She thought this trip was no big deal but he disagreed. Vehemently. He’d seen too many causal hikers and campers get into trouble on far less rugged terrain. He and Stone were members of the local Search and Rescue team, and they’d rescued more people than he cared to remember. And there’d been Sam, the one he’d not been able to rescue at all. “When was the last time you were in Desolation?”

She hesitated and he sighed. “Tell me.”

“Years,” she admitted.

“Shit, Harley.”

“But with the maps and the GPS, I can’t really go wrong.”

He could think of a hundred things that could go wrong. Hell, he’d probably seen every possible one of them.

“Look,” she said, sounding irritated. “I realize that those loaded silences of yours probably yield you all the information you could want from a woman, mostly because one look from you and they probably melt, but they don’t work on me.”

He felt the smile curve his mouth. “You think I melt women?”

“It’s September,” she said, ignoring that. “You and I both know there’s no one even out there this time of year except the occasional wild animal. I’m prepared. It’s perfectly safe.”

“Not alone it isn’t.”

“So I’ll scratch you off my short list of supporters.”

He caught her wrist as she surged to her feet. “Harley—”

“I want this Colorado job,” she said quietly, giving nothing away in her expression. “And…”

And she needed the money from it. That was plain as day. He no longer lived hand to mouth but he’d been there, and it sucked. “We’re hiring,” he said. “I wasn’t bullshitting about that.” Wilder Adventures was overwhelmed and overloaded, and they’d been trying to hire for weeks. It wasn’t easy to find qualified people. “You’d be perfect for the guided hikes we offer, and with your photography skills and education, we could even tailor some of them toward wildlife education, stuff like that.”

“If I finish this research project, I’ll have a job.”

“In Colorado.”

“Yeah.”

“You really want to leave here?”

She pulled her wrist from his grip and went to the sink, looking out the window. TJ knew her dad had lost his store, that her mom had a hard time keeping a job, that her sister hadn’t gotten a scholarship, and as the only one working, they needed her, depended on her. Standing, he came up behind her.

Out the window in front of them, for as far as the eye could see, lay the glorious Sierra mountain peaks, blanketed in vibrant fall colors. The lack of concrete was soothing. No sidewalks, no other buildings, no traffic. Nothing but nature. It’d rained earlier, leaving everything fresh and clean and sharp.

“I never get tired of the view,” she murmured, reading his mind.

“Me either. Annie framed that shot you took of Granite Flats. She’s hanging it in the lodge reception room. It’s an amazing shot, Harley.”

“Thanks.”

Taking her hand, accepting the little frisson of awareness that zinged through his body, he tugged her back to the table. “Show me your route.”

“So you know where to find my body?”

He shot her a level look, and she flashed him a smile. He loved her smile, it was wide and warm and rare, and he found himself smiling back helplessly. “Take someone with you.”

“Who? You?”

“Why not?”

“Don’t you have another big trip coming up?”

“I do. A four-week trip across the Canadian Divide in about ten days. But I have time for this. All you have to do is ask.”

She was silent, either too proud to ask, or hel , maybe she really didn’t want his help. He ran his thumb over the pulse point at the base of her wrist and felt it leap. “I’ve spent a lot of time being baffled by your prickliness with me, but not, I don’t think, enough to wonder why. Until now.” He met her gaze.

“Why, Harley?”

“I’m prickly with everyone.”

Maybe. But beneath his fingers her pulse had picked up speed. Behind that irritation she wore like a coat, he did affect her, maybe every bit as much as she affected him.

“I’ll ask someone,” she said quietly.

“But not me. You don’t want it to be me.”

“No.”

His lips curved. “Another lie,” he murmured. “You’re racking them up. Your nose is going to start growing.”

She pushed free of him and paced the length of the kitchen, which meant she got about five feet before turning around and smacking right into the hard wall of TJ’s chest. He stood there, filling the kitchen with his larger-than-life presence, making the room seem even smaller than it was.

“Want me to tell you what I think?” he asked.

“Are you going to agree with me about the trip?”

“No.”

“Then no.”

He smiled, laugh lines fanning out from his sharp green eyes. “Still stubborn.”

“And you’re still…” She couldn’t think of an insult. With an annoyed huff, she moved toward the front door and opened it for him. “Thanks for coming. We’ll have to do it again sometime. Buh-bye now.”

TJ smiled, reached over her head, and shut the door. “Let’s do it again now.”

She thunked her head against the wood. She felt him lightly run his fingers down her spine, which caused a sensuous shiver, but when he spoke, the amusement was gone from his voice, replaced by a gut-wrenching gentleness. “Harley, why didn’t you tell me you needed money?

Oh, God. “I—”

The phone rang, saving her pride, and she leapt for it, then hesitated, standing there in front of the answering machine.

At the third ring, TJ raised a brow. “You going to get that?”

“I’m trying to decide.”

The machine clicked on and Harley’s voice invited the caller to do their thing at the beep, and then her landlord’s voice filled the small apartment.

“Harley Stephens, you’re avoiding me.”

Crap. Harley hit the volume button, but not in time to avoid her landlord’s next line.

“You are ten days late on rent, missy. I need—”

Harley smacked the volume again and again, until the voice could no longer be heard.

Gaping silence.

Her back was still to TJ, so she closed her eyes and wished for a nice big hole to vanish into. “Don’t say it.” Without meeting his gaze, she tried to move around him, but once again his hands came up to hold her in place. She could snap at him or shove him, but the truth was, she liked his touch.

Too much.

Which told her just how bad off she was. She real y needed some one-on-one naked time with a guy. Preferably someone who didn’t make her think too much, didn’t have the potential to obliterate her heart, and who wouldn’t expect anything from her.

Nolan.

“Harley,” TJ said softly, interrupting her thoughts, something more in his voice than she wanted to hear.

“Look, as fun as this has been—”

“Harley.” He paused, and she heard him take a deep breath before continuing. “If you couldn’t tell me, then why not Annie, or Stone, or Cam? You know how much they care about you.”

Her throat felt tight, far too tight to talk. “It’s temporary.”

He pulled out his wallet and emptied all of his cash onto the counter. “Not temporary.”

“I don’t need—”

“Consider it an advance. We need an assist on upcoming trips. There’s three this weekend. Take your pick; a biking trip, a kayaking trip, or guiding a group of hikers up Eagle Falls to jig for halibut and cast for salmon. Your choice. Hell, for that matter, get your feet wet on one of those, and then come with me on my next long trek.”

“Those treks take you at least a month.” A month of thirty long nights. Given her entirely inappropriate and extremely annoying habit of yearning and burning for him, God only knew what would happen.

Reading her mind, he let out a wicked smile that made her nipples harden. Firmly, she put one finger on the money and pushed it back across the counter at him.

“You don’t think you can control yourself,” he said, sounding amused again.

She gritted her teeth. “I have enough jobs.”

“Yes, but this one pays good.” His gaze touched hers, oddly tender and gentle, and it just about did her in.

“I’ll think about it.” Then, because she couldn’t seem to forget her manners, she added a soft but genuine “thank you.” She busied herself flipping through the maps. “Hey, where’s the top of the northeast region, just beyond Sioux Hill?”

“It’s there.”

“No, it’s not.”

TJ reached around her to fan out the maps himself. “Shit, I must have left it on Stone’s desk. Sorry.” He took her hand in his. “Let’s go get it now.”

“I can get it later.”

“Sure. But if there’s a God, Annie’s lasagna will be done by the time we get there.”

Besides being his aunt, Annie was the chef at Wilder Adventures. Her lasagna was legendary, the best lasagna in the history of all lasagna. Just thinking about it had Harley’s mouth watering.

“Five-cheese,” TJ murmured as if recounting a long-lost lover, “and three-meat lasagna. A restaurantsized tray of it.”

Oh, God. She let out a small involuntary moan.

His eyes dilated. “There’ll be homemade bread, too. French loaf. Crusty on the outside, soft and gooey on the inside.”

“I’m not hungry,” she said weakly.

Her stomach made a liar of her by rumbling loudly.

TJ’s lips twitched, but he was wise enough to hold the smile back. “If you don’t come with me, I’ll inhale the entire loaf myself.” He rubbed his flat belly. “And possibly all the lasagna, too.”

She thought about the questionable cottage cheese in her refrigerator. “Well, if you need saving from yourself…I guess I wouldn’t want you to get any more…you know.”

“No, I don’t.”

“Extra around the middle.”

He arched a brow. “Extra around the middle?”

She poked his rock-solid abs. “Don’t worry. It happens to everyone.”

He lifted his shirt and bent his head to look at himself.

His jeans were low riding, revealing lean hips and a set of abs etched in sinewy ridges. Heat slashed through her and she began to sweat in places she hadn’t even realized had sweat glands.

Not good.

She tried to picture Nolan in her head. Sweet, kind, adorable Nolan. She couldn’t do it. She told herself not to panic. It was only because she hadn’t seen Nolan without a shirt.