BoldLust (2 page)

It was only her second day in Ketchikan and Kate was out for
another walk—and almost to
his
shop again. The little white building sat
close to the docks, but its plain exterior was deceiving. The man inside was
anything but plain.

She wasn’t going to go in, she had no reason to, but it
tempted her for reasons she couldn’t explain.

The man inside intrigued her but she had no right to follow
up on curiosity. She was a taken woman. She also had no need to shop for tools
or lumber, so no grounds to go inside.

A brown piece of cardboard with the words
Help Wanted
in big black letters was perched in the window today. Her heart started to
pitter nervously. Now this was a good reason to enter.

Kate could use a job to keep busy. She could probably read
every book in Emma’s house in two days, and there was no library in the town. From
the look of the chaos inside, the man could definitely use some help.

Kate put her hand on the doorknob, but then hesitated. Was
this really a good idea after the feelings he had brought out in her the last
time? Going into his place of business probably wouldn’t hurt anything. She was
a woman of virtue, and she trusted herself not to do anything inappropriate. Didn’t
she?

Kate could at least see what the job was, and he might not
have the same effect on her now. She might have just been nervous about being brand-new
to town the last time she set foot in this house. Nervousness about Sean
leaving her might have been the cause of the strange sensations that plagued
her yesterday.

Kate opened the door and walked in. He was sitting at the
same tiny wooden table as the last time she was here. The only thing that had
changed was the piles of tools and papers spread all over the house were deeper
and more chaotic. If that was possible.

“Hello.” He looked up and smiled at her.

Kate sucked in a deep breath. She was fine. This was fine.

“I was wondering what kind of help you were looking for?” Her
voice squeaked out uncomfortably.

He didn’t seem to notice her discomfort, or ignored it as he
continued to smile up at her. “I need someone to help me organize this place
and deal with customers. I have another project that I’m working on that’s
taking a lot of my attention and I seem to be getting behind on things. Are you
interested?” He clasped his fingers together and rested his hands on the table,
a move that showed confidence and ease. Two things she wished she felt right
now.

“I am.” Kate was good at organizing and good with people.

His blue eyes studied her, contemplating, making the
butterflies in her stomach start doing backflips.

“Then you have the job,” he said suddenly. “When can you
start?” The man’s smile didn’t put her at ease like he probably intended. In
fact, it had the opposite effect. Every muscle in her body tensed.

“Whenever you need me.” She didn’t have anything better to
do and needed something to keep herself busy, but the way her heart was
fluttering told her she shouldn’t take this job.

The man was just too tempting. He definitely hadn’t gotten
ugly since the last time she saw him. It wasn’t appropriate for an unmarried
woman to work in such close quarters with an unmarried man, not that she knew
for sure whether he was married or not.

Alaska didn’t seem to follow the same rules as the rest of
the world. People here followed the rules that worked for them and ignored the
rest. She could do that too while she was here. It might be the only way to
save her sanity.

“Be here at eight tomorrow morning?” He said the words as a
question, giving her the chance to back out, the chance to come to her senses.

“Okay.” Kate agreed too easily and walked to the door. She
didn’t ask him how much he would pay, but that wasn’t really important to her. What
was
important was coming up with a plan to fight the attraction that
surged between her legs every time she saw this man.

She was a woman who held strong to her morals and values,
and that wasn’t going to change because of a man. Not even the blond-haired
Adonis who lived and worked here.

Kate stopped at the door, considered again telling him that
she couldn’t work for him.

“What is your name?” he asked.

“My name?” They hadn’t even had a proper introduction. “I’m
Kate, Kate Baker.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Kate. I’m Carter Williams.”

“I’ll see you tomorrow morning, Mr. Williams.” Calling him
by his last name seemed less personal. She had to keep things from getting
personal.

Kate walked out the door and up the hill.

She could do this job sufficiently. It was obvious that
Carter needed help, and she could use the distraction. Having her own source of
money wouldn’t hurt either. She was completely dependent on Sean bringing back
gold to provide the money for their passage back home. He’d told her not to
worry when they spent most of the money they had on renting her room and buying
his supplies to get through the summer.

Sean had assured her that there was no doubt he would be
back with buckets of gold, but Kate wasn’t as optimistic about the gold, and
she’d heard stories from Emma already. She’d been looking for years and still
hadn’t found any of the promised treasure.

Emma’s story was just enough to make Kate worry. Taking this
job was the right thing for her to do. Just in case Sean failed. She needed to
have a backup plan.

* * * * *

The next morning Kate stood in front of a pile containing
every piece of clothing she’d brought with her to Alaska. It was a modest pile.
She hadn’t packed much, or anything very fancy, but everything she had was
lying in a heap on her bed. Picking a dress to wear shouldn’t be this hard a
decision. Her clothing choice for today shouldn’t matter, but it did.

She tossed all her nicer dresses to the side, no reason to
look her best today. In fact, it would be better if she didn’t.

This was a good one, a simple grey dress, not revealing at
all, even kind of frumpy. It was her least favorite dress. Perfect for the
signal she needed to send, only she wasn’t sure if she needed to send that
signal to Carter or herself.

Kate slipped into the dress and coiled her hair into a tight
knot at the base of her neck, then she walked out of the house determinedly. There
was no reason she should be cooped up in Emma’s house alone for the entire
summer with nothing to do. Kate forged down the boardwalk. When she got to his
door, she paused and then knocked softly.

“Come in,” Carter’s voice echoed from somewhere close.

Kate pushed the door open to find him making coffee on the
stove.

“You don’t have to knock when you get here in the mornings. I
get up early and will have the door unlocked. You just need to come in and flip
the sign in the window to Open.” He had this stoic presence about him that made
her want to do anything he asked without question.

“Sure.” She didn’t feel comfortable just walking into a man’s
house, but it was also the location of the business, and he was the one making
the rules.

“I want to use this area for display.” He motioned to the
living room area that was covered with hatchets and ropes and tarps stacked
haphazardly. The rest of the space in the living room was taken up by a table
and a bunch of crates, some of them empty and some full.

“And I would like the extra room upstairs to be my work
area. I’ll be moving all this paperwork up there while you work down here.”

“Okay.” Simple, one-word responses seemed to be all Kate
could come up with in his presence. It wasn’t like her. She was normally
chatty.

“I have several things that I need to get done this morning
so I’ll stay out of the way. I just want you to make it so this place doesn’t
look so…”

“Chaotic?” she offered, and then blushed when he smiled
sheepishly at her.

“Yeah. It is bad.” He looked around. “That’s why I need you.
I need organization, need space to work, I need a place for people to come and
get the things they need without me having to stop what I’m doing. I’m already
behind in my work, so unless you have any questions…” He turned and loaded his
arms with papers, blueprints, and a pencil before he walked toward the stairs.

“What do you want me to do if a customer comes in?” Kate
asked in her best attempt to be professional, but for some reason her heart was
pittering at a rapid speed, making focusing on anything else difficult.

“Just sell them what they need. If it’s something
complicated or something you can’t find, come and get me.” He stood at the
bottom of the stairs looking at her intently.

“I can handle that.” If only she could be as sure of her
ability to work with Carter and not get emotionally involved.

“Great. I’ll come and check on you in a couple hours.”

“Okay.” She was going to be left alone to her work. Good. It
would reduce her emotional conflict. If he worked upstairs and she was
downstairs all the time, she didn’t have to worry about there being that
strange tension between them.

Kate picked up a thick, white length of rope, wrapped the loose
end around the rest and started her task of organizing the place.

Three hours later, the house looked much better, and Kate
had been able to take care of the one customer who came in for a hammer and a
pickax. She could hear Carter’s footsteps coming down the stairs and hoped he
would be pleased with her work.

“It looks great in here.” He looked around the room
appreciatively and then stopped when his focus got back to her. “You are a miracle
worker.”

“Thank you.” She melted under the intensity of his eyes and
had to look away. The way he was making her feel wasn’t appropriate.

“Do you know how to cook?” he asked.

“Cook?” She was adequate as a cook, learned from her mother,
but why did he care about that? “Yes, I can cook.”

“I’m horrible in the kitchen and was wondering if you could
take on making lunch for us as one of your duties? I don’t want to have to take
the time to go out and find it or struggle with making something edible every day.”

“Sure, I’ll cook lunch,” she agreed quickly.

“Great.” He smiled and her knees went weak. “The icebox and
cupboards are full of food. I stocked up yesterday when the ships were in.”

“Is there anything in particular you want me to make?” she
asked. Hopefully it would be something she was capable of cooking.

“Whatever you want is fine with me. I’m not particular.”

“Okay. I’ll look through the food and get something ready.” It
was sensible of him to ask her to cook lunch, it just felt a little strange. Almost
like she was doing the job of a wife. Even worse was the fact that she really
liked it. She was a decent cook and wanted to show off her skills to impress
him.

“Bring lunch upstairs when it’s ready, and turn the sign to Closed
for our break in a couple hours from now.”

“All right.” Nervousness lodged deep in her gut. Working for
this man was one thing but eating with him, in an upstairs room, seemed a
little too intimate, on the verge of being inappropriate. But it might only be
that way if she let it. She
would
make it through this day.

Kate came in the door carrying a tray full of food that had
been tormenting his nose with its deliciousness for the past hour. He dropped
his pencil onto the table and jumped up to help her with it. Not that she
needed any help. She was a very capable woman. Smart, funny and from the smell
of things, a very good cook.

Carter should probably stay away from her, run and hide now
while his heart was pretty much intact. She was taken by another man, and he
had secrets too dark for a woman as innocent as Kate.

“You can call me to come down and carry the tray up when it’s
heavy like this,” he offered as he moved his papers quickly off the table so
she could set the heavy tray down.

“It’s not a problem. I’ve got it.” She did have a little
piss and vinegar in her, but he liked that, and it wasn’t anything he couldn’t
handle.

“It smells delicious.” He grinned and looked over the food. “Your
cooking has been tormenting me.” Almost as much as her beauty had from the
moment he’d laid eyes on her.

Damn if he didn’t want to tie her up and make her his from
that first moment he saw her. She would be perfect, a natural at submitting to
him, but Carter couldn’t corrupt her. No matter how badly his cock wanted to.

He didn’t even know for sure why he wanted her so damn bad.
But he did. She had a curvy, petite figure that he definitely found attractive,
and the blonde curls that bounced around her face were cute. But there was
something else, something that stirred deep inside him when those eyes looked
up at him and sparked with intelligence and curiosity.

She was sweet and smart and that was exactly why he should
stay away from the woman.

Once she felt the way his loving could make her feel, she’d
be ruined for any other man, or she’d run the other way and never be able to
look at him the same again. Either way, it wouldn’t end well.

“It’s just soup made with fish and tomatoes and some potatoes
and onions.” She smiled and his heart took a nosedive. Shit, this was going to
be hard.

“If it tastes half as good as it smells, I’ll be happy.”
Carter worked at keeping the conversation light and easy and on the topic of
the food as he set the bowls and spoons in each of their spots and put the tray
onto the floor.

What he really wanted to taste was her, wanted to lick
between her legs until she screamed his name, begged for release. Shit. He
shook his head, trying to shake out the inappropriate thoughts. He couldn’t
have Kate. And he sure as hell shouldn’t be thinking about her like he was. She
was his employee, nothing more.

“I think you’ll be happy with it.” She said the words
simply, but there was nothing simple about the way he felt. Everything about it
was complex, but he was a strong man and wouldn’t do anything inappropriate for
the circumstances.

Sometimes he was too damn strong for his own good. Carter
was pretty sure he could convince Kate to be his. The attraction in her eyes
was obvious, and he felt it in her touch. Carter could fuck her and get it out
of his system, but there was no way it would be that easy. Not with a girl like
Kate.

Here he was in the same position he just left, falling for a
woman he couldn’t have. He had given up his pirating ways, started a legitimate
business with the money from his last, but he would always be without the
proper connections to be a part of the elite society. Damn if he had any
interest in their ass-smooching ways anyhow.

Kate obviously came from a wealthy family. He questioned
what she was doing here working for him and why her fiancé left her alone in
this town, but he had enough of his own problems to worry about. He had to run
this business and was working on his next, the start-up of a mill in this town.
There would be a lot of people looking for work soon, when their money ran out
and the gold didn’t come, and he would be there to help them. It was also his
chance at a legitimate career, a life where he could keep a woman like Kate and
live a normal existence. He wouldn’t take his eye off the goal.

Alaska was different, wild, unwilling to bend to the rules
of more polite societies, and the perfect place for him to make a new start.
But Kate probably wouldn’t last long in a place like this.

“I’m sure I will like it.” His hand brushed against hers as
he reached for a napkin and a spark shot through him causing his cock to go
half hard. Fuck. It was going to be a long damn summer.

“I hope so.” Kate smiled and could feel herself blushing.

The soup did taste good. She had tested it out before she
brought it up. She didn’t want to bring him anything that wasn’t perfect,
didn’t want to disappoint Carter. It shouldn’t matter that much, but he was her
boss.

Now if she could just convince herself that it was the only
reason, that she didn’t have some hidden desire to impress the man.

“How do you like living in Ketchikan, Alaska, Kate?” he
asked. It seemed like an innocent question, just simple conversation, but it
felt like something else, like he was studying her.

“It’s okay.” She didn’t want to tell him the truth, tell him
that she hated it here, wished that Sean had never talked her into this
adventure and that this job was the only good thing about this town so far and
her ticket out.

“I hope you learn to love it here.” He said the words that
let her know he somehow knew what she was thinking, what she was feeling.

And why did she like the fact that he understood her so well
without her having to explain anything to him?

“Yeah, I hope so too.” It would be a long summer if she
didn’t. “What brought you to Ketchikan, Carter?” Kate asked partly to move the
conversation from her and partly because she was curious about the man. His
burly body made him fit in here with the prospectors because he was rugged. But
he wasn’t here to search for gold like everyone else. He had started a
business, was making money the hard way when everyone else was looking for the
easy way out.

Not that anyone here looked like they really had it easy.
The prospectors were dirty and down when they came back. No one in this town
had a stress-free life.

“I was looking for a new start in a new town.” He bent his
head forward and took a sip of soup, and she sensed he wasn’t comfortable with
the topic. “Thought I’d try something different, start up a business.”

She didn’t really want to tell her pathetic story either.

“Do you like it here?” she asked. It was better to talk
about him than her.

“I do. The scenery is amazing.” The way he stared at her as
he said the words made her think he wasn’t talking about the mountains, and it
had a potent effect on her body.

She shouldn’t be feeling this way, shouldn’t be enjoying the
way he talked to her or the way he looked at her, shouldn’t be enjoying the
connection she had with this man so much.

It wasn’t appropriate, at least it didn’t feel appropriate.
But was that solely because he was a good-looking man? Could she have this same
relationship with a woman or an ugly man and not have any guilt? Probably.

They hadn’t done anything inappropriate, just had
interesting conversation and got along well. She still was and would stay loyal
to Sean because that was the type of woman she was. The inappropriateness of
the situation was all in her head, not real.

Kate forced herself to relax, forced herself to just enjoy
having a conversation of interest. Carter was a good man and she shouldn’t feel
guilty about it. They could have a connection, could have a friendship, and it
wouldn’t be wrong.

But it sure as hell didn’t feel right either, and she just
hoped the strange feelings would end soon.