Anita Bunkley - Suite Embrace

“And you’ve got a lot to learn about me,” she fumed under her breath, climbing inside. She glanced into the rearview mirror and saw him standing in the middle of the road, holding the box, a huge grin on his face. Furious, Skylar started the engine, jammed her foot down hard on the accelerator and sped off down the service road.

“Wow!” was all Mark could say as he watched Skylar’s red Jeep disappear around a curve. Hefting the heavy box, he went back inside and set the liquor on the black granite bar in his small, but well-appointed kitchen. Still rattled from the unexpected encounter, he pulled a glass from the cabinet and a bottle of schnapps from the box.

“May as well sample this,” he murmured, adding ice to the crystal tumbler. After opening the liquor, he poured himself a generous amount, added a thin slice of lemon and then wandered back into the great room to sit down.

The first thing he noticed was the blanket that he had used to cover Skylar. It was still on the floor where she had tossed it. He bent over and picked it up, then sank back against the pillows on the sofa, inhaling her scent.

“Too gorgeous to be a concierge,” he mused, staring into the fire. “And what a woman.” He could still see her warm, tea-colored skin, silky, black twists that bounced against her cheeks, intriguing, black eyes that had clearly assessed him in a gently provocative manner. She was petite, but well-toned. And she had great legs, he had felt every curve himself. She was small, but definitely not fragile. This was a woman with grit and guts, no trace of a diva attitude. He had to get closer to her!

Concentrating on this brief, but stimulating encounter, Mark tried to analyze his reaction to Skylar, certain he had never felt this way before. His body hummed with a kind of anticipation that made his palms wet, his throat tight and brought a strange sensation to the pit of his stomach. What was going on?

Mark let his head fall back against the sofa as he savored the Linie Aquavit, his thoughts riveted on Skylar. At one time in his life, a working woman like Skylar Webster would never have turned his head. With one foot planted in the African-American world of his father and the other in the Euro-rich world of his mother, Mark had always felt uncertain about where he belonged.

When Mark was eleven, his parents divorced, and his mother took him to Norway to live. His mother’s motivation, other than to remain far away from his father, had been to push her son into a career as a professional skier. She became his agent, his trainer and manager and his best friend, setting the direction for the rest of his life. Mark had always regretted that she had deliberately kept him isolated from links to his paternal heritage, but there had been little he could do about it, and his mother always got what she wanted.

For years, Mark’s world had revolved around a stream of globe-trotting, glitzy, super-rich people—and women who had begged to occupy his time and his bed. He’d never loved any of them, but they had been fun to party with. He had had his choice of gorgeous women around the world, and he had wasted a great deal of money and time on them.

However, now that his fast-paced professional career was over and he had severed professional ties with his mother, things were different. He was back in the United States, where he planned to live permanently, and he knew exactly what he wanted to do. He wanted to settle down with a grounded African-American woman who was not afraid to work hard and whose world did not revolve around money, society events and outrageous status symbols. He wanted to start a family with an intelligent, beautiful woman who would appreciate him for who he was now, not for who he used to be. He wondered if Skylar Webster might be the woman he was looking for. There was only one way to find out—put her to the test.

The best features of Skylar’s new office, a cozy space only a few steps from the registration desk, were the two tall windows that faced an inner courtyard where a huge fire pit, a hot tub with an outdoor movie projector and a deck provided the guests an unparalleled view of Aspen Mountain.

Cupping her mug of hot chocolate with both hands, Skylar leaned over her desk and rounded her shoulders, stretching out her back. She had made it through her first full day of work without any major incidents, mishaps or encounters with dissatisfied guests, and her mountain sickness had eased. Between fielding calls for general information and making spa and massage reservations, she had provided directions to the various activity areas of the resort and chartered a limousine to take Goldie Lamar and her companions to the Silver Hills Theater.

At least her job kept her busy and kept her mind off of Lewis, except when she saw couples in love sitting by the fire or having fun on the ice or the slopes. The sight made her feel empty and sad, and she sometimes wondered if perhaps she’d broken off too quickly with Lewis. Should she have tried harder to work things out? Would it have been possible? The turmoil of that failed relationship still simmered in her heart.

Did Lewis cheat on me before the accident? Did he leave me for another woman because I can’t have children? Had he really expected to benefit from my financial windfall? Did he ever really love me? The unanswered questions went round and round in her mind whenever she allowed herself to drift back in time.

The good thing was that she was definitely feeling much better than when she arrived back at her room last night, nauseous, half-frozen and irritated as hell at Mark Jorgen. Thank God she had not seen or spoken to him all day.

“I’m getting rave reviews from my guests,” Deena remarked as she entered her sister’s office and settled into the chair across from Skylar. “I think you passed the first hurdle when you managed to get Goldie Lamar’s mother-in-law those tickets to Silver Hills Theater for tonight.”

“If all of my requests should be so easy,” Skylar replied, grinning over at her sister. “Your decision to buy a full page ad in the theater’s next promotional booklet sealed the deal. Thanks.”

“Glad we could work it out and it’ll be good publicity for us, too,” Deena replied.

“Hey, have you heard from Jerome? How’s his dad doing?” Skylar wanted to know, hoping things were not too rough for her brother-in-law, whom she liked very much, even though they were not particularly close. With Skylar living in Tampa and Jerome and Deena in Colorado, the three simply hadn’t made the effort to visit over the years, and now it was too bad that Jerome had to be away during Skylar’s first extended stay in the mountains.

The cheerful expression that had been on Deena’s face when she entered shifted into one of concern. The worry in her eyes told Skylar that things were not going well. “I just spoke to Jerome,” Deena said. “His dad is not bouncing back as he and the doctors had hoped. Seems the cancer was much more advanced than the doctors had thought and the surgery took its toll. He’ll be in the hospital quite a while longer than the two days he had been told he’d have to spend there, and he’ll need at least a month at home recuperating while undergoing chemotherapy.”

“Gee, I’m really sorry to hear that. Think you need to be with Jerome?”

“No, not right now…maybe later…after the reunion is over. Not much I can do now but wait, and I can do that right here. Jerome seems to be holding up okay.”

“Well, you know best.”

Deena nodded, and then said, changing the subject, “Kathy told me you drove all the way over to Crested Village last night by yourself to get the liquor for Mark. I would have gone with you, Skylar. Why didn’t you ask?”