“All right, we’ll do it your way. If that means you’ll be learning to climb, then I guess that’s what you’ll do.” She gave him a challenging smile. “You might even discover you like it. It’s an extremely exciting sport.”
Ben just nodded. “Then I guess we had better get started. You’re students are waiting.”
Autumn studied him a moment more. Not for the first time, it occurred to her what a handsome man Ben McKenzie was. Solid jaw, nicely formed lips, straight nose and dark brown eyes that seemed to take in more than you meant for them to see. He was tall and bronzed and extremely fit. She didn’t like the little curl of heat that slid into her stomach when he looked at her the way he was now.
Autumn steeled herself. She had seen the kind of women Ben McKenzie dated. Delores Delgato was on the cover of this month’s Vogue magazine. Autumn wasn’t anywhere close to their league, and that was just fine with her. She was a failure where men were concerned. She wasn’t about to be taken in by a guy like Ben.
Ben watched Autumn at work. As soon as they had entered the climbing gym, her entire concentration fixed on the students who had come to her to learn.
“Before we begin, we have a new student. This is Ben McKenzie. You might recognize the name, since he’s in the sporting goods business and the owner of this building.”
Several people nodded.
Ben followed her gaze toward the women in the group. “Ben, meet Courtney Roland and Winnie Caruthers.” A tall rangy blonde and an attractive brunette with muscular arms and legs. “This is Ian Camden and Bruce Lansky.” Ian blond, early twenties; Bruce dark-haired and at least fifteen years older. “And these two guys are Matt Gould and NedWheaton.” Matt was tall with shaggy brown hair. Ned was a lanky, good-looking black man with a shaved head and small silver earrings.
“Good to meet you,” Ben said to the group.
“All right, let’s get to work,” said Autumn.
He could see she took her job seriously as she led her students over to one of the tables and began to go through the gear spread out on the top.
“We’ve been talking about equipment in general. As you can see, I use mostly Black Diamond. It happens to be my personal favorite, but there are other companies that make good products as well.” She flicked a glance his way. “Maybe Ben can give us his opinion.”
“We don’t sell anything in our stores that isn’t top of the line and our staff is knowledgeable and helpful. I know we sell Black Diamond, so it must be good. Since I’m new to the sport, for the present I’ll defer to Autumn on the subject.”
For an instant Autumn’s green eyes moved over his face and he felt a tug of awareness low in his groin. She looked back down at the equipment. “What you see here are the basics: harness, carabiners, camalots, wired hexes, stoppers, a helmet, a chalk bag and a couple of different types of belay devices.”
The group gathered round as she went over each of the different items. She held up a bundle of rope. “This line is static—no give. It’s used for jugging up or rappelling down a mountain.” She held up another bundle. “This is a seventy-meter bundle of climbing rope. It’s a light, strong, dynamic line with low impact force—designed so that if you fall, there’s enough give to help your body absorb the shock when you hit the end.” She gave them a few moments to examine the items and answered a couple of questions.
“You’ve all got climbing slippers,” she said. “Go ahead and put them on. And if you have your own harness, put that on. If not, we’ve got some here for you to use.”
The group suited up. Autumn was wearing trim-fitting khaki shorts with oversize pockets and a sleeveless, orange, scoop-neck top that said I LEAD, YOU FOLLOW. Since Ben had anticipated needing them, he had picked up a pair of leather-topped, rubber-soled climbing shoes at his downtown store. He sat down on a bench to put them on, making a mental note to follow Autumn’s suggestions for the rest of the gear he would need.
He had told her the truth. He had been seriously thinking of giving the sport a try and this presented the perfect opportunity.
Far more important, this gave him some time. He wasn’t ready to involve himself in what was surely a wild-goose chase that could cause more misery for him and his family. Then again, as crazy as the whole thing sounded, after the lengths she had gone to, he wasn’t prepared to discount the slim possibility that Autumn Sommers might actually have some sort of bizarre psychic connection to his daughter and there was a chance Molly was still alive.
He had to ferret out the truth about Autumn and the only way to do that was to spend some time with her.
He looked down at the gear on the table. He would check with the guys in the climbing department but he had a feeling Autumn knew as much about choosing the right gear as they did. Maybe more.
“I’ll go first,” she said. “That way you can watch the way I take the wall.” She looked over at Ned. “You’ve handled a line before, Ned. How about working the rope for me?”
“No problem.” There was a length of rope looped over a bar at the top of the wall. Ned, apparently the most experienced student in the group, ran one end of the line through the belay device on his harness while Autumn tied a double figure-eight into hers, securing the rope to the belt around her waist.
“When I come down, it’ll be your turn,” she said to the group. Her gaze ran over the cluster of students until she came to him. “I think today we’ll start with Ben.”
Autumn’s eyes locked with his and Ben almost smiled. She was testing him. He could see it in those tilted cat-eyes. She didn’t like the ground rules he had set, but she had no choice except to go along with them. He took a look at the wall. It was forty feet high. Some walls went to eighty.
The floor in front was protected by a thick foam-rubber vinyl-covered mat but it wouldn’t be enough to prevent injury if the climber took a fall from the top. Autumn coated her small hands with the dry, white, resin-like climber’s chalk and headed for the wall.
Autumn’s sure hands and small feet searched and found the tiny niches and crevices in the holds as she made her way up the wall with skill and a fluid grace.
Ben found himself watching with fascination the movement of the muscles in her arms and legs and the way her buttocks tightened under her shorts as she moved higher and higher up the wall. Her waist was small, her breasts nicely rounded. His groin clenched almost painfully and he muttered a curse.
The last thing he needed was any sort of physical attraction to Autumn Sommers. He had no idea who she really was or if any of what she had told him was real.
He fixed his concentration on Autumn who had reached the top of the wall and was now smoothly riding the rope Ned held back down to the bottom. She was good. That much was clear. She made the sport look easy and he knew damned well it wasn’t.
Once she returned to solid ground, she centered those green eyes directly on him. “Your turn, Ben.”
Eight
Class was finally over. Thinking that everyone had left the gym, Autumn began to bag her gear, concentrating on stowing everything properly.
“I enjoyed your class today.”
She looked over her shoulder to find Ben McKenzie just a few feet away. “I didn’t realize you were still here. I thought you’d be anxious to get back to work.”
“I am. I wanted to ask if you were busy tonight.”
Autumn eyed him warily. “Not really.” Not unless watching an old movie on Turner Classics was busy. “Why?”
“I told you before—I need time to get to know you. I’ll come by your place after I leave the office…say six-thirty?