Rockies Retreat: Destination: Desire, Book 5 (7 page)

His thrusts grew rougher, and then a shudder rippled through him. He drove deep one last time and froze. A long, low moan escaped him as he sank down on top of her. She held him close, both of them gasping. Her heart thudding against her ribs, and sweat glued their bodies together.

After a minute, he shifted so they were on their sides facing each other, and she could breathe easier, but he was still plastered against her from chest to thigh and their legs tangled. The rush of endorphins had left her a little giddy, and she couldn’t have wiped the grin off her face if she tried. Her body felt soft and languid and just a little bruised from where his hands had gripped her.

Totally worth it.

Sucking in air, she said, “Just so you know?”

“Yeah?” His voice with still a little hoarse, his breath rushing in and out.

She tapped the cleft in his chin. “You have excellent throw down, Graves. Even without the etchings.”

And that was the first time she got to see him double up with laughter, almost falling off the sofa. There was really nothing like making a quiet man laugh his ass off. It felt almost as good as the sex.

Which was really saying something.

Chapter Five

“Which cabin are we looking for?” Violet asked as she and Ruth trailed behind Neil.

“6C,” he answered. It was Sunday morning, and he’d been told his mentee had arrived the night before but he hadn’t run into her yet. Time to be proactive, since the program officially kicked off tomorrow. All participants were supposed to have shown up by now, and there was an official meet-and-mingle party for everyone tonight. Laurel was going as his date, and Violet had decided she’d rather hang out with Ruth than a bunch of adults. Gloria wanted nothing to do with a party, so she’d volunteered to have Violet over for the night.

Of course, Neil and Vi had hosted Ruth the night before. Two girls under his tiny cabin roof had put the kibosh on any writing and any sexy times with Laurel, but the painter had come over anyway, shown off her skills with the brush by doing some fancy stuff with nail polish, and Neil had been in charge of securing popcorn from the lodge. Luckily, there was a vending machine with bags of Orville Redenbacher’s and a microwave in the dining room, because there was no way in hell he was pissing off Gloria by raiding her kitchen. He valued his skin too much. The woman had a real fondness for knives, after all.

His daughter caught up with him. “How do you even know your apprentice is home, Dad?”

He slung an arm around her shoulder. “There’s only one way to find out.”

“I bet she’s home.” Ruth kicked a rock, and it skipped down the dirt path. “She wasn’t in the lodge.”

The roads around The Enclave were arranged like spokes on a wheel, with the lodge as the hub. One road led to town, and the other three were lined with cabins. All the As were on one road, Bs on another, Cs on the last. Grassy meadows and mature trees filled the gaps in between. The scent of pine hung in the warm air, so different from LA’s perpetual layer of smog.

When Neil and his daughter had passed the main lodge on the way to the C row, Ruth had come jogging out to join them. She really did go everywhere at a run, but Vi appeared to have a devoted new friend, which pleased him. Violet had had to leave all her friends behind in Maine when she’d moved in with him, and she hadn’t yet made any close connections with the kids in southern California. It was excellent to see her bonding with someone in her age group.

“I hope this mentee woman is chill,” Vi commented. “Or your summer will suck.”

“I’m sure I’ll get along with her.” They approached the correct cabin, and he was about to knock when the sound of voices made him walk over to look around the far side of the building. A woman sat in a folding chair with two toddlers playing in the grass at her feet.

“Mateo, give your sister back her Legos. Those aren’t yours.” She heaved an exasperated sigh. “Jina, honey, don’t put that in your mouth. We don’t eat rocks.”

The teeny girl shoved the rocks to one side of her mouth, making her look like a lopsided chipmunk. “Why?”

Without missing a beat, the mother replied, “They’re bad for your teeth.”

Neil didn’t quite manage to suppress his amused snort at that answer. He remembered when Violet’s response to anything was
why
. Actually, he wasn’t sure his daughter had ever grown out of that phase. She questioned everything. Not a bad trait for an adult, but it made him want to strangle the teen now and then.

Little Jina spat out a black, chunky blob of muddy pebbles.

The woman looked up when he snorted. She brought a hand up to shield her eyes from the bright sunlight, squinting to see him. The sun was behind him, so he doubted she got a clear look at him, but he stepped out from behind the cabin.

Violet and Ruth seemed to have vanished for the moment. A quick backward glance showed them following a fleeing lizard.

“Hello. Sorry to intrude. I was just flashing back to my daughter’s toddler years.” He moved forward to shake the woman’s hand. Unless he missed his guess, this was his new apprentice.

She gave his fingers a quick squeeze, then used her T-shirt to wipe the dirt from her daughter’s chin. “My twin terrors have just hit the terrible twos. I’m not sure the hubby and I will survive them turning three.”

He laughed. “It is a truly special time in child development.”

“Special,” she agreed, making air quotes.

“Exactly.”

“I’m Helen Cho. And you’re Neil Graves. Let’s try this again.” She stood, brushed off her cropped pants, and offered him a firm handshake. “I’ll be your mentee for the summer.”

“So it seems.” He grinned. “I liked the sample pages The Enclave sent to me.”

“Oh…oh.” She fanned her face. “You’re gonna make me blush. Or cry.”

“There’s no crying in this mentoring relationship. That’s my only real rule.” It wasn’t as if they could hug it out like he did with Violet, so he was really hoping for no tears. Time for a subject switch. “I understand your husband is here for the program as well. What does he do?”

“I see what you did there.” Helen wagged a finger at him. “My husband is Pedro Diaz—”

That name rang a bell. “The sculptor?”

“That’s the one.” Pride suffused her voice. “He’s doing some amazing things modernizing the low-reliefs that were part of some ancient Mesoamerican cultures.”

Neil had no idea what that might mean, but the director of
Dead and Gone
had owned several of Diaz’s pieces. “I like his work.”

“Me too. He’s the laidback, serene one in the family.” She grinned. “Whereas I want to bring some of the Korean horror film motifs into my first novel. Which is why I jumped at the chance to have the king of thrillers mentor me.”

“I hope I live up to the hype.” Neil rubbed the back of his neck.

“You will.” She waited a beat. “Or I’ll sic the Cho-Diaz twins on you.”

He arched an eyebrow. “A terrifying prospect, I’m sure.”

“I have eyes in the back of my head, Mateo.” She twisted at the waist to give her son A Look. “Stop that.”

The kid froze, his hand outstretched toward his sister’s Legos. He yanked away and studiously focused on zooming his toy truck across the grass.

Violet and her partner in crime popped up at his elbow. His daughter held up her hand. “Check out the cool rock we found, Dad. I’m taking it back to LA as a souvenir.”

“Whatever makes you happy, honey.” He shrugged. Of all the things she could want as a souvenir, that was probably the least expensive.

Vi looked his mentee over. “So, you’re my dad’s victim for this trip?”

“I’m creepily excited by that prospect.” Helen rocked back on her heels, her expression gleeful.

Nodding sagely, the teen replied, “Well, horror writers are creepy.”

Neil raised his eyes heavenward while Helen chortled.

Looking from the woman to her children, Violet offered, “Let me know if you ever need babysitting. I come cheap.”

“My twins might kill you—you’d be outnumbered.”

“I can help,” Ruth said. “That evens things up.”

“Sure.” Vi patted her friend’s shoulder. “We’ll split the cash.”

Helen’s gaze met his and her brow rose in question. He shrugged. “I’m okay with it, but you’ll need to check with Ruth’s grandmother before you split anything.”

“I’ll ask her,” Ruth promised. “But she’ll say yes. I babysit my neighbor’s kids at home all the time. She can’t take them with her when she goes to yoga.”

“You guys can practice now while Helen and I chat.” Neil waved them toward the toddlers. “We need to sort out how we want to get this mentorship started.”

He already had a hunch he was going to like Helen. She was clearly a bit warped, which made her one of his favorite kinds of people. The more he listened to what she wanted to write, the more he was sure this was going to be a good experience. He wished for the millionth time that he didn’t have one book in edits, another not finished but overdue to his publisher, and the script due at the end of the program. One less thing on his plate might make this mentorship a lot more fun, but he had a feeling between grumpy Gloria, running Ruth, horror Helen and lovely Laurel, he and Vi were going to have a summer they’d never forget.

Okay, that was way too much alliteration, even for a writer. He wasn’t a poet, for God’s sake.

“I’ve never shopped in a general store before. Is it like a Walmart?” Violet positioned herself between Laurel and Neil as they headed toward the lodge. They were supposed to be meeting Mimi to drive into town for some shopping.

“I’m not sure,” Neil answered. “If they have a little bit of everything, maybe it’s a like a mini Wally World?”

“Maybe. We’ll find out soon, huh?” Vi turned to walk backward in front of Laurel. “Guess what? We met Dad’s mentee right after breakfast. She’s nice. Ruth and I are going to babysit her twins for her. They’re two years old. Kinda evil and really cute.”

“Sounds about right for that age. My nephew is two as well. He’ll be three in August.” A little pang hit her. How could he be almost three already? It was just yesterday he’d been born. Pulling herself back to the present, she glanced around. “Where is Ruth, by the way? I pretty much assumed she’d be coming with us. I thought you two had been surgically attached at the hip.”

“Hardly.” Vi rolled her eyes. “She left for church with her grandma a few minutes ago.”

“Ah. My family isn’t very religious.” They worshipped status more than anything else. Laurel could count on one hand the number of times she’d been to church with a friend’s family. It just wasn’t part of her life experience, but maybe she should tag along one Sunday to meet Gloria’s prayer mafia. Because…prayer mafia.

“We’re not religious either.” Violet flapped a hand to indicate Neil and herself. “I think Mom’s parents were, but I never met them.”

“You did, you just don’t remember.” Neil slid his hands into the back pockets on his cargo shorts. “Their boat capsized when you were…maybe eighteen months old or so.”

“Mom didn’t talk about them much. Like, at all.” She faced forward and matched her father’s stride.

Something dark flashed through his gaze, and his jaw flexed before he spoke. “She didn’t have the greatest relationship with them. They only visited twice right after you were born and we never saw them again.”

“Wow.” Vi looked surprised and disheartened. “That sucks.”

Laurel couldn’t agree with her more. Even her own mother managed to be a better grandparent. Hell, her dad had seen Nicky more often than that.

“What about your parents?” Laurel queried. Maybe they were better at parenting and grandparenting.

“They were awesome.” A sad smile curved his lips. “Cancer got them both, unfortunately. Dad died about ten years ago—testicular cancer. Mom passed four years ago. Lung cancer. She smoked like a chimney from the time she was fifteen until the day she died. Tried to quit a million times, but it just never stuck.”

“Dad donates tons of money to cancer charities and cancer research.” Violet pressed herself to his side and he gave her a one-armed hug.

“That’s a great way to honor them.” Laurel wanted to hug him too, but she’d refrained from public displays of affection in the days they’d been sleeping together. Maybe that was something they needed to talk about. Were they just secret lovers or were they having some kind of summer romance? The difference was mostly in how they acted in front of others. She hadn’t thought the distinction was important, but in the tiny community of this artist retreat, it made a huge difference.

The big blue van owned by The Enclave was parked in its usual space beside the lodge. They were cutting across the grass toward the vehicle when Mimi stepped out of the building to meet them.

“Laurel. Do you have a moment?” The perpetually perky woman looked distressed, wringing her hands.

A twinge of anxiety hit Laurel. Something was wrong, but what? A hundred possibilities ran through her mind, each worse than the next. Her brother was injured, her nephew had had an accident. She flicked a glance at Neil and Violet. “Why don’t you guys go ahead? I’ll catch up.”

“The van is unlocked.” Mimi’s smile was a mere shadow of its normal self. “We’ll join you in a sec.”

“KK, I get the front seat.” Violet dodged around her dad. He followed more slowly, concern in his gaze when his eyes met Laurel’s. She appreciated the sentiment, but the longer he lingered the longer her wait was until Mimi spit out whatever she was holding back.

“What’s up?” Laurel pulled the end of her ponytail over her shoulder, fiddling with it nervously.

“The artist you’re paired with is delayed.” More hand wringing, and Mimi started to pace in a tight circle. “A volcano erupted near where he’s vacationing in Asia and they have to wait for the sky to clear before they can fly out, but with all the other people trying to get out too, who knows when he’ll be here? It could be a couple of days or a week—we just don’t know.”

“The important part is he’s safe and unharmed, right?” Laurel soothed, more than a little thrilled that it was nothing more serious than this. “As long as he still intends to participate in the program, then I don’t mind a delay. I’ll just work on some of my own pieces in the meantime.”

Relief flooded Mimi’s expression. “You’re not upset?”

“Being a successful artist doesn’t make me an entitled drama queen.”

She sighed, her shoulders relaxing. “Even the not-yet-successful ones have flipped out on me for less.”

“Well, I can be a bigger asshat next time if it makes you feel more comfortable.” Laurel couldn’t help making the offer, just to watch the horror cross the other woman’s face. Yes, she was a little evil—she could admit it.

“No, no. That’s all right.” Mimi held out her hands as it to fend off the very idea. “I usually love my job except when I have to deliver bad news.”

“Was anyone hurt in the eruption? Because that would be the real bad news.” Perspective was a good thing. Art really didn’t mean much if you were too dead to care.

“Not that anyone’s reported. It was a pretty remote mountain. It’s just messing up local air travel.”

“Okay, then. I’m sure it’ll all be fine. Don’t stress.” Laurel reached over and squeezed Mimi’s wrist. “Let me know if you get any other updates on my apprentice. Now, let’s go shopping.”

“Excellent!” Mimi bounced toward the van, chipperness restored.