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EXCERPT
CHAPTER ONE
"This is your idea of a vacation?" Noah Paxton asked
the question with a practiced level of calm he did not actually
feel. By the way Alexa Stuart - Lexy to him - jumped up and out
of her pool lounge chair, he guessed the fake tone did not impress
her either.
Dark sunglasses hid her eyes, but her dropped jaw suggested
he caught her off guard. "Noah?"
She remembered his name. That was something. "Miss me?"
She settled back in her seat and smoothed out the magazine
she just crumpled in her fists. "No."
"I’m going to take that as a compliment."
She flipped her sunglasses to the top of her head and squinted
up at him with intense green eyes. "What are you doing here?"
Funny but the woman did not look at all surprised to see him.
Probably had something to do with the fact she ruined their relationship,
screwed with his career and then ran. She had to know he would
track her down eventually.
"I could ask you the same question," he said.
"You already know the answer to that one. I'm on vacation."
"Uh-huh." That was all he could think to say while
trying to ignore the size of her tiny pink bikini. The thing
seemed to shrink the longer he stared at it, but maybe that was
wishful thinking.
With the burning southern Utah heat bouncing around and searing
through his long-sleeve shirt, he understood her less-is-more
theory of dressing. Still, there were other resort patrons hanging
in the area. As far as Noah could tell, they all had eyes.
He scanned the pool deck to make sure none of those eyes belonged
to men and none were staring at Lexy’s incredible shrinking
bikini. Only a few other people braved the beating sun on the
pool deck. Most of them sat up to their necks in the water. All
but one was female.
The male-female ratio qualified as the only positive Noah could
find about the high adventure hiking spa Lexy chose as her temporary
playground. Not that he knew what the hell a high adventure hiking
spa even was. He read the description online three times before
jumping on a plane to retrieve Lexy. Once he saw the price of
the joint, he seriously considered changing careers from security
analyst to spa owner.
He wondered how the folks who ran the place convinced otherwise
competent people to shell out a couple grand a week to stay at
a no-frills location in the middle of nowhere. The place in question
consisted of a few single and two-story stucco buildings painted
almost the same color as the towering red rocks ringing them.
Deep in a valley and about two hours from Las Vegas, the spa
felt more like an isolated boot camp than an expensive resort.
Clean with well-kept grounds but no extras. A bit too much of
a throwback to his military days for Noah’s comfort.
"How did you pick this joint?" he asked.
"What’s wrong with it?"
"Aren't we touchy?"
"Let's just say I'm waiting for you to tell me whatever
it is you came the whole way here to say."
He ignored that and started with the most obvious problem with
her choice of bathing location. "This place is forty miles
from the nearest anything. Didn’t see a restaurant or store
anywhere close."
He tolerated the desert as much as the next guy, but why not
enjoy it after a little gambling while looking down from a luxury
room high above the Las Vegas Strip.
"That’s why people stay here," she said.
"To starve?"
"For the seclusion. Red Valley Fitness is known for its
intense exercise and nutrition packages."
"You sound like a walking advertisement." Not a surprise
since she was a marketing genius, but still.
She let out a little sigh. "No one asked you to come here."
Which explained why anger continued to spill through his veins
at a rate that threatened to crack his spine. "I couldn’t
resist."
"But you can leave." |
