Lana gaped as she and Aaron came face-to-face with Mark. Shit. What was he doing here? She’d hoped he would spend one more night in San Francisco, but here he was and the man sitting with him was probably his new boss—as well as Aaron’s.
“Friend of yours?” Aaron asked lightly, his eyes twinkling with mirth as he undoubtedly guessed who this was.
“Um, yes, this is Mark. Garrison. Mark, this is Aaron Ferrar.”
“Nice to meet you.” Mark held out his hand and shook Aaron’s.
“Likewise. I’ll get the table, hon,” Aaron said, walking around them. “Come on over when you’re ready.”
“I’ll be right there,” Lana called after him.
“I was worried,” Mark said when Aaron was gone. “You didn’t answer my calls and I was concerned you might not get on a flight.”
“Sorry.” She dipped her head. “I booked something early this morning and just took off. Aaron and I started talking shop as soon as I got here and I didn’t even think to call you.”
“I get it.” He met her eyes. “I’m just glad you’re okay.”
“Thanks.” She bit her lip. “Well, um, I have to go… Take care.”
“You too.”
She felt his eyes on her as she hurried after Aaron, grateful she didn’t trip, fall or knock something over on the way.
“So that’s Mark.” Aaron’s face was full of humor.
“Don’t,” she snapped under her breath, scowling.
“Sorry.” He held up his hands in mock surrender. “He looked pretty pissed when he saw me. Does he know I’m a client?”
“Yeah, but he probably didn’t know how good-looking you are.” She regretted the words the moment they slipped out, and she winced. “Jesus. Maybe I should just abandon ship now. Call Kate, tell her I can’t do this, and go back to New York.”
He laughed, a robust sound that filled the room. “Honey, you’re not the first woman to tell me I’m good-looking, and frankly, it’s nice to hear it from someone who’s not after my bank account.”
“How do you know I’m not?” she shot back, grateful for his deflection.
“The way you looked at Mark, there’s no one else alive for you right now, no matter how much is in the bank.”
“I barely know him,” she protested.
“I knew I loved Joyce the first time I saw her.”
“I don’t have any answers when it comes to love,” she said softly, “but Mark and I are worlds apart geographically, emotionally, and probably physically too. I’m taller than him and—”
“Not all men mind a taller woman.”
“Would you date a woman taller than you?”
“I’m six-four, so I’ve never met one,” he admitted, “but if she was special? Hell yeah.”
Lana dared to glance over at Mark. He chose that moment to look up and their gazes locked before he turned away, his face devoid of emotion. Well, that pretty much answered any lingering questions she had. If only this visual rejection didn’t hurt just as much as last night’s sexual rejection.
Mark was still annoyed the next day as he and Gage drove around Anchorage and he got the lay of the land. He was going to have to chauffeur him to some of the events, so he wanted to get a feel for the city. It was small as far as cities went, but it was sprawled out over a lot of territory and he thought the landscape was beautiful. If he hadn’t seen Lana with her new client last night, he might have been enjoying himself.
Instead, thinking about her had him all tied up in knots and he didn’t understand it. He’d bungled things at the hotel, but she’d snuck away the following morning and wouldn’t answer his calls. Running into each other at the restaurant hadn’t been any better and he was frustrated. He just wanted to talk to her; it shouldn’t be this hard to either get together or forget about her. At least, it had never been this hard with other women.
“You should go see her,” Gage said quietly.
“What?” Mark frowned at him.
“You’ve been distracted ever since you saw her last night. She’s staying up at Aaron’s place and it’s not far from where I live.”
Mark paused. “How’d you know where she was staying?”
“I make it my business to know as much as I can about my players and what they’re doing. Especially the ones who’ve been a pain in my ass lately.”
“Good to know, but I’m not interested in chasing a woman who doesn’t want to be caught.”
“You might want to give it another chance before you make that decision.”
“She’s been slipping through my fingers one way or another for two years. At this point, it might be time to give up. She seemed almost annoyed that she ran into me.”
“Well, after she ran away from you in San Francisco, she’s probably embarrassed.”
“She’s embarrassed a lot. Too much. I don’t know what to do with her.”
“Well, it’s your call. But you should invite her tomorrow.”
“Invite her? To what?”
“To join the group of us going up to a local ski lodge. Dave Price and his wife Renata; Sergei Petrov and his girlfriend Dani, who just got back from the Olympics; and a few guys from the team. We could invite Lana and Aaron, make a day of it. Be good for you to breathe some Alaska mountain air, too.”
“I’m down. Haven’t skied in a while, but it should come back to me.”
“Just like riding a bike.”
Mark grinned. “Let’s hope.”
Lana was quiet on the drive up to the ski lodge. She’d had zero interest in spending a day skiing but Aaron made it seem like it wasn’t optional, so here she was, wearing more clothes than she’d ever imagined possible, freezing to death while trying to listen to a cute young ski instructor explain how to glide down a snow-covered mountain on what amounted to two flat sticks.
“Come on,” Renata Price teased her. “It’s not that hard.”
“You’ve never seen me trip over an invisible bump on the rug or knock my drink into an unsuspecting diner’s lap.”
Renata laughed, her eyes twinkling with amusement. “No one here is grading you on being graceful—we’re just going to have fun.”
“It’d be more fun up in the lodge with a warm drink,” Lana muttered, trying to listen as the ski instructor demonstrated how to get up from a fall. Like she’d stick her butt up in the air that way in front of Mark. Not hardly.
She listened as well as she could but mostly tuned everything out. Mark and the other guys were all standing off to the side, watching and yelling encouragement. None of them needed a lesson, but they were enjoying being the girls’ cheering section. Not Dani Cloutier, though. She’d just come to Anchorage after winning a gold medal in hockey at the Olympics, and had only joined the lesson for the fun of it. Renata didn’t seem to be much of a skier, but she was laughing at herself every time she fell. Of course, as pretty as she was, who cared if she could ski?
“Are you that miserable?” Mark’s soft voice against her neck made Lana jump and she glanced at him with a self-conscious shrug.
“I’m not athletic, so things like this make me feel even more clumsy than usual.”
He frowned. “This is supposed to be fun. No one cares if you can ski.”
“I care,” she huffed out a breath. “Apparently, I’m not good at anything but PR and book-related things. It’s annoying.”
The look he gave her was tender, almost sultry. “I bet you’re good at lots of other things, beautiful.”
She shook her head. “Not even sexual innuendo is going to make me feel better about this.”
“You want to go inside?”
“Of course I do, but how can I leave without looking like a spoiled brat?” She glanced over to where Dani and Renata were laughing and flirting with the instructor. “Why don’t you go ski so there’s one less person for me to make a fool of myself in front of?”
Mark sighed, a strange look in his eyes. He didn’t say anything, though, and merely tucked a stray lock of hair under her cap. “Okay, babe. If that helps you through this, I’m out.” He turned to Gage. “You comin’?”
Gage raised his eyebrows. “Uh, sure. Come on, boys.”
“I have to stay here.” Aaron waved them off. “My doctor says no skiing until the hand is fully healed, but I can hang out on the bunny slope with the ladies.”
The women smiled and made room for him to join them in the lesson, so he snapped on his skis and lined up between Renata and Dani.
“What’s next, boss?” he asked the instructor.
“We’re going to sidestep up the slope about ten feet,” he responded. “And then glide down. Everyone ready?”
Lana took a breath and followed suit, grateful for the strength in her legs, if nothing else, because this was a lot of work.
“Okay, everyone, turn forward and just let yourself slowly glide down,” the instructor called out.
Lana gripped the ski poles in her hands tightly, biting her lower lip as she watched the others slide across the snow gracefully, laughing and calling out to each other.
“Come on, you got this.” Mark appeared out of nowhere and she jumped again before glaring at him.
“Would you stop sneaking up on me?”
“Sorry.”
“I thought you were going to ski with the other guys?”
“I was, but you looked so unhappy when I glanced back, I decided to stay with you. This way, if you start to fall, I’ll catch you before you hit the ground. I see how much you don’t want to be embarrassed.”
For some reason, the sweet sincerity in his eyes nearly made her tear up and she swallowed. She wanted to thank him but didn’t trust her voice, so she focused on what she had to do instead. She closed her eyes and turned to face forward. As she started to move, she felt him next to her, her eyes flying open as they picked up speed. It was easier than she’d expected and she was gliding just like the others. It was no more than twenty feet or so until friction and the flat terrain at the bottom brought her to a gentle stop. Then it was over and she was still standing, right next to the other women, who were cheering.
“See? Easy-peasy.” Mark winked, squeezed her arm, and headed off towards the lift, where the other guys were waiting for him.
“He’s smitten,” Renata giggled, nudging Lana.
“Oh, he’s just being nice.”
“Oh, heck no!” Dani chortled. “Nice is Aaron pretending he’s happy hanging here with us girls instead of skiing with the guys… Mark has a totally different look.”
“I agree,” Aaron nodded, “although in my case, there’s no pretending going on here. One guy and…” He counted off. “Three beautiful women. Nope. No pretending at all.”
“Let’s do it again!” The instructor called out. “We’ll go up just a little higher and I’ll show you how to stop…”
This time, Lana paid more attention and grinned at the others as they started sidestepping up the hill again. No matter how hard she tried not to, she liked Mark more than ever, and for some silly reason that made her happy.