A Bride for the Black Sheep Brother

Eleven


It about killed Cooper to stay away from Provo the week before the exhibition. It killed him to be in Denver when his dream was taking place at Beck’s Lodge. At least that’s what he repeatedly told himself was causing the pain.

His biggest challenge as CEO of Flight+Risk had been learning to delegate. His temptation had always been to do everything himself. Sure, it was hard to keep his ass in Denver where he needed to be. The four times he hopped in the car and made it halfway to the airport before turning around and driving back home were proof of that. But it had nothing to do with Portia and everything to do with the fact that he was a very hands-on CEO.

He limited their contact to emails and to the occasional telephone conversation. Still, most of the phone calls—like the one he was on now—happened late at night, after they’d both had dinner and their schedules were clear.

If he wanted to push his luck, he could say something licentious. He pictured her blushing. She had the kind of pale skin that blushed beautifully and often. And when she blushed, it tinted not just her cheeks, but her neck and chest too. The thought of all her delicate skin flushed pink with titillation was almost more than he could bear.

“Well, okay then,” she said in the cheerful tone she always used as she was transitioning from work talk to anything more personal. “I think that’s about it.”

“Okay, I’ll—”

“No, wait. That’s not it. I just remembered. I got an email from Drew Davis yesterday and then he called today to confirm. He said a couple of his friends are going to come up tomorrow to build the slope for the exhibition. They’ll be—”

“Wait a second.” Cooper sat up in bed. “Did he say a couple of his friends or The Friends?”

“I don’t know. Why?”

“Because The Friends are a very specific group of guys. They’re five of the best snowboarders in the world. They all came up through the competitive ranks about the same time and that’s how they got their nickname.”

“And Drew is one of them?”

“No, he and I are both about ten years older. Which is why it never occurred to me...”

“Wait, didn’t you invite the snowboarders?”

“Most of them, sure. But Drew said he’d invite some guys he knew and I let him handle it.” And he’d been too distracted by Portia to follow up and ask whom Drew had invited. It was the first time in his life he’d let work slide to be with a woman. “Damn it, I guess it’s too late to do anything about it now.”

“You sound stressed out about this. You said these guys are good, right?”

“They’re some of the best,” he admitted grudgingly.

“If they’re coming to help build the slope or whatever and they’re going to board in the competition, that seems like a good thing to me. Won’t that just impress everyone?”

“Yeah. Sure.”

“Then what’s the problem?”

The problem was all of The Friends—one or two in particular—were total players.

“There’s no problem,” Cooper finally said aloud, but only because he couldn’t think of anything else to say without sounding like a jealous ass. “Just, you know, watch yourself, okay?”


“Watch myself? What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Just be careful. Some of these guys have reputations as womanizers.”

“You have a reputation as a womanizer,” she pointed out.

“Which I’ve told you is largely exaggerated.”

“Then I’m sure theirs is, too.”

Yeah. Well, he was not at all sure about that. In fact, he’d bet money that Stevey Travor was going to show up, take one look at Portia and dial the charm up to eleven. Not that she’d fall for it. At least, not right away. Not while she was still with Cooper.

But they’d both agreed that their relationship would end after the exhibition. And he’d worked damn hard to convince her that no-pressure, commitment-free sex was the way to go. Had he inadvertently primed her for the likes of Stevey Travor?

“Just don’t listen to anything they say, okay? And don’t spend too much time alone with any of them.”

She chuckled dismissively. “I think I can handle it. Besides, it’s not like I’m going to be with them. I have things to do. The floor guys will be there tomorrow putting down the final layer of wax. Drew promised me that he was going to oversee everything and that I didn’t even have to leave the lodge.”

“Drew said that?” Ah, great. This just kept getting better and better. “Drew is coming with them?”

“Yeah. Didn’t I say that?”

“No, I must have missed it.” However, he didn’t miss the implied intimacy of her words. Just how friendly had she gotten with Drew over the course of the past month, when he’d been stuck here twiddling his thumbs in Denver?

“Are you worried they won’t do a decent job?”

“No,” he muttered tightly. “They’re the best. I’m sure they’ll do a great job. I’m thrilled they’re all chipping in.”

He ended the call a few minutes later—before he could make any more of a fool of himself—assuring her he was thrilled with her progress.

And he was. Of course he was. Just like he was thrilled that The Friends had gotten involved. They were some of the hottest snowboarders around. He knew all of them personally and two of them had endorsement deals with Flight+Risk. Their involvement would draw a lot of media attention, as would Drew’s. He was glad he had business associates who agreed with his visions enough that they were willing to jump in and help.

He just wished that Portia hadn’t sounded so damn starstruck the times she’d talked about Drew Davis. He also wished that freakin’ Stevey Travor wasn’t coming. Because the guy was notorious. And even though she would never admit it, she was vulnerable to that kind of charm.

Stevey was a scoundrel looking for nothing more than a willing woman. Cooper knew damn well that was exactly the kind of guy who could talk his way into her bed. She’d fallen for it with him, hadn’t she?

As beautiful as she was, she’d somehow never learned the power of her own beauty—probably because Dalton was such a class A idiot. Her innocence—combined with her romanticized view of relationships—made her particularly vulnerable to the charms of a guy like Stevey. Or Drew for that matter.

And now that he thought about it, hadn’t Drew just finalized his third divorce?

Damn.

There was no way he was leaving her alone up there on his mountain with those two.

* * *

Portia hadn’t really believed Cooper had anything to be suspicious about when it came to The Friends. First off, she was so busy that she doubted she’d even see them, at least not until they were finished with whatever snow-related job they were doing—which she didn’t really understand, despite Drew’s attempts to describe it. She had been working twelve-hour days getting the hotel ready for the exhibition and the party the night before. In what little spare time she had, she’d been furthering the search for Ginger. Despite Cooper’s doubts, she was still convinced that Ginger was the missing heiress. The information the P.I. had turned up only confirmed her conviction. And Cooper’s protests had only strengthened her resolve.

She’d been in contact with Dalton and Laney about the matter and had even called Griffin. They had been intrigued enough by her theory that they had shared the information they’d discovered about Hollister’s indiscretion all those years ago. But as eager as Portia was to delve into that mystery, she was still determined to pull off an exhibition worthy of Cooper’s ambition, even if she was starting to have doubts about the project.

Of course that was before a pair of passenger vans pulled up in front of the lodge just before lunch. She’d been overseeing the work on the floors, which needed to be waxed a second time and buffed at least twice before anyone walked on them, when she heard the noise. She hurried out the front door only to stop short on the deep wraparound porch.

Each of the vans pulled a trailer with four snowmobiles. The doors swung open and out poured a dozen guys. Or maybe it was fewer—they were all so big. And rowdy. It was hard to tell how many there were exactly.

Drew was the only one she recognized, because she’d seen footage of him when he’d talked at the UN about climate change. Plus, he’d competed in the Olympics on the American team with Cooper, so she’d actually seen him board. Like Cooper, he was all lean muscle, though if she had to guess, she’d say he was an inch or so shorter than Cooper. He wore his hair long and scruffy. Though he was handsome, he lacked the intensity that made Cooper so irresistible.

When Drew spotted her, he bounded up the stairs and gave her a big bear hug like they were old friends, even though they’d only spoken on the phone a handful of times.

“Portia! Great to finally meet you!”

“Um, yeah,” she squeaked, even though he’d squeezed all the air out of her lungs. “Nice to meet you—” he gave her another bone-crunching squeeze as effective as a trip to the chiropractor “—too.”

As he released her, he laughed like she’d said something funny. “Come on. I’ll introduce you to The Friends. They can’t wait to meet you.”

She surveyed the group of guys at the bottom of the stairs. Some of them were already unloading the snowmobiles, others were unpacking massive bags from inside the vans. While they worked, they jostled and pushed one another like a litter of rambunctious puppies.

Drew called them each over to meet her, as if she could possibly remember their names, when they all looked so much alike—young and handsome, with ruddy, wind-roughened cheeks. Most of them immediately went back to work. A couple hung nearby and seemed to be waiting to talk to Drew about something.

When he introduced Wiley, the cameraman, and Jude, the director, she looked back and forth from the men to Drew.

“Cameraman and director?” she asked. “Aren’t they snowboarders, too?”

“Only amateurs,” one of the younger guys who hadn’t gone back to work interjected. His name was something with an S. Scotty maybe? No, Stevey.

“So they’re here to...”

“Film the project,” Drew said simply. “They’ve been wanting some footage of what it takes to build a jump. So they’ll film us for the next two days. And then they’ll film the exhibition, too.”

“You know Drew here is going to be movie star, right?” Stevey had edged closer to her and bumped his shoulder against hers playfully.

Drew looked embarrassed. “Hardly a movie star. They’re making a documentary about Save Our Snow.”


“That’s fantastic!” she said. “You know I’ve been following the work you’ve done with—”

“You’re going to come up and watch us work, right?” Stevey interrupted her.

She nearly smiled when she looked at him. If the other guys were like puppies, Stevey was like an Australian shepherd. He’d started tugging at her heel the second her attention strayed from him.

“I really can’t,” she said truthfully. “I’ve got too much to do.”

“You have to come! If you’ve never seen a jump being formed before, now’s your chance. You’re gonna love it. I promise.”

He might as well have started waving and shouting, “Look at me! Look at me!”

She glanced at Drew for support. “I really—”

“If you’re busy, you don’t have to stay the whole time. I’ll bring you back down the mountain myself.”

She looked up at the lodge and then at the vans. It was true that until the floor guys finished inside, there wasn’t a whole lot she could do here. “How exactly do we get up there?”

“We’ll take the snowmobiles up. Scout out a location and then get started.”

“The snowmobiles?” she asked doubtfully.

This was a hiccup she hadn’t considered. It had never occurred to her that they would need snowmobiles to get up the mountain for the exhibition. There were over thirty confirmed guests and technically, the event was open to the public. That had gotten them some good press coverage in the local papers.

Frowning, she looked from the snowmobiles to the guys.

“You’re coming, right?” Stevey asked again.

“Oh, sure.” She nodded mindlessly. It would give her a chance to talk to Drew about this transportation problem. She certainly hadn’t come this far to give up now. After all, she hadn’t let the debacle with Cooper slow her down. Why would a little thing like snow stop her?