“Victoria!” he said with a wide smile, trying to sound pleasantly surprised to see her after all this time. “I had no idea you were living out here now.”
“Miss Sullivan,” she corrected.
Wade nodded. “Of course. Could you please drop the gun? I’m unarmed.”
“You won’t be when the cops come.” Her words were as icy cold as the snow, but eventually the gun disengaged and dropped to her side.
She pushed past him to the front door of the Airstream, pulling it open and climbing the stairs. “What do you want, Mr. Mitchell?”
As she hung at the top of the steps, looking back at him, Wade realized he needed to change his tactic, and fast. His original plan had been to tell the owner that he wanted the property for one of his development projects. If he told her that, she’d refuse him just to ruin his plans.
He’d have to appeal to a different side of her. That is, if he could explain himself before she started shooting.
“Miss Sullivan, I’d like to buy back this property from you.”
Tori hung on the steps, the rage slowly uncoiling in her belly. This man was determined to ruin everything she held dear. He had taken away her reputation and very nearly her career. His turning on her suddenly had also damaged her ability to trust men. Out of the blue, he’d accused her of terrible things and tossed her out. She’d lost her first real apartment after he fired her.
And now that she was trying to settle down and establish herself again, he wanted to destroy her plans for her dream home. She just knew it. Her jaw set firmly, she made her decision before he even asked the question. If he were on fire, she wouldn’t bother to spit on him.
“It’s not for sale.” She slipped inside and let the door slam behind her.
She was pulling off her coat, about to toss it onto the foldout bed, when she heard the door of the trailer open behind her. Tori spun on her heel and found the bastard standing in her tiny kitchen. He’d slipped out of his winter coat and tugged off his hat as he entered. He stood there now in a pair of dress pants and a plaid button-down shirt. The hunter-green of the top made his own green eyes seem even darker and more intriguing than she remembered. Because of the stocking cap he’d worn, his short, dark brown hair was messier than she’d ever seen it.
Without his slick suits and perfect hair, he looked nothing like the real-estate giant who had ruled over his company from the top floor. But he still had a commanding presence. She’d forgotten how tall he was: at least six foot two, with a powerful build. The large man seemed to take up all the space in her trailer, which had always had the perfect amount of room for her. It was as though he’d sucked up all the air, making her oddly warm and her camper uncomfortably small.
And she hated that about him.
Without hesitating, she picked up her shotgun again. Truthfully, it was loaded with shells full of recycled rubber pellets. She carried it with her to the compost bin in case she needed to scare off any foraging critters. She’d caught a black bear in the bin last week. The rubber pellets would send animals scurrying without seriously hurting them. Hopefully it would do the same with Wade Mitchell.
“Do you mind stepping back outside? I spent a lot of money to renovate this trailer and I’m not going to ruin it by shooting you in here.”
Wade had only a momentary flash of alarm in his eyes before he smiled at her in a way that made her cheeks flush and her knees weaken. She remembered feeling that way whenever he would walk down the hallway past her cubicle and greet her with “good morning.” She’d been fresh out of college and in awe of the two young mavericks with their up-and-coming real-estate development company. Alex Stanton was the golden playboy, but she was instantly drawn to the darker, more serious Wade. Then and now, his wide grin and strong, aristocratic features usually got him his way.
If she wasn’t careful, she might fall prey to them again. She knew better than to trust a guy like him.
“Miss Sullivan, can we please talk about this without you constantly threatening to shoot me?”
“There’s nothing to talk about.” Tori kept the gun in one hand while she pulled off her hat and scarf with the other. She was burning up, and it had nothing to do with her new propane heating system. It was Wade and her overheated and long-ignored libido. She hated that the man who’d betrayed and fired her could still send her pulse racing after all this time. “And it’s rude to come inside uninvited, so you deserve to be shot.”
“I apologize,” he said, laying his coat across the bench seat of her dining table. “But it is imperative that I discuss this with you today.”
Oh, she was sure it was. No doubt he had bought the forty-acre property beside her and wanted her additional ten to add to whatever ridiculous project he was developing out here. There might be an army of backhoes and land movers over the horizon just waiting for her to sign off so they could start their work. But she wasn’t giving up this land. This purchase had been years in the making. Her genealogy research had been what lured her up here, but from the first time she’d set foot in the area, she knew this was where she wanted to build her home.
Finding out the Edens were selling some property had been the chance of a lifetime. The lot was perfect. It sloped down, slightly, but would allow her to design a stilted, multistory home that had a living room with a wide vista of windows overlooking the valley below. Being surrounded by two hundred acres of tree farm on two sides guaranteed she wouldn’t have a strip mall out her back door anytime soon.
She had a couple months in between projects to start designing and building her house. It was the perfect opportunity just when she had the time and money to jump on it. And he couldn’t have it.
“I know that you’re used to getting your way, Mr. Mitchell, but I’m afraid it isn’t going to happen this time.”
On cue, her electric teapot began to chirp on the counter and spit out steam. She’d turned it on before she’d stepped out to put some trash in her compost bin, and now it was ready for her to extend some unintended hospitality. When she turned to look at Wade again, he had seated himself at her dining-table booth, a look of smug expectation in his eyes.
With a sigh, she set down the shotgun. It was hard to make tea when you were holding a heavy, loaded firearm.
“May I ask how much you paid for the land?”
“You may not, although I’m sure it’s public record somewhere if you take the time to have one of the corporate minions you haven’t fired look for it.” She pulled out two teacups from her bamboo plywood cabinet above the sink. She shook her loose leaf tea into two infusers, put them in the cups and poured the hot water over them.
“My guess would be about a hundred and twenty-five thousand. There’re no utilities run out here yet.”
Tori refused to look at him. Of course the real estate guy could nail the price within a few thousand dollars. “What’s your point?”
“My point is that I’ll offer you double what you paid for it.”
At that, Tori fumbled the jar of organic honey and sent it crashing to the Marmoleum floor. Fortunately, it didn’t shatter. She quickly crouched down to grab it, but he had reached out for it as well and beat her to it. He held out the jar to her. Tori looked down at him, only inches away, and felt a familiar and unwelcome tingle deep in her belly. When she took the jar from his hand, her fingers brushed his and the tingle turned into a surge right to her core.
Jerking upright as though she’d been burned by his touch, she quickly recovered and removed the infusers, then added a dollop of the honey to each cup. She plunked his tea down in front of him and took a seat on the opposite side of the table.
“That’s ridiculous.” She said the words knowing she meant both her reaction to him and his offer for her land.