Natural Blond Instincts

and immediately added another.

He held out a hand, which she took. And latched on. Feet braced on the side of the pool, she tugged as hard as she could.

The splash he made after he flew over her head and hit the water was quite satisfactory.

When he broke the surface, he shook his head and stared at her, shocked. “You pulled me in.”

She smiled. “Your glasses are crooked.” She moved to haul herself out, meaning to do so gracefully, with dignity, so as to fully savor having the last word.

But her clothes weighed a ton. She’d lost one heel, and she couldn’t hike her leg up in her tight skirt. “Um… Wes?”

He swam to the edge, with a fine stroke she couldn’t help but notice, and shot daggers at her. “What?”

“Could you give me another hand?”

“Hell, no.”

She shivered again-not quite a fake one this time-and he rolled his eyes. “Oh, fine.”

In the next breath, he’d hauled her toward him, and since he could stand, he slipped one large hand around her waist, another other under her legs. His fingers curled just beneath her breast, his strong, warm forearm banding around her upper thighs.

For one all too brief second, she was plastered against his hard chest before he lifted her up and out, unceremoniously depositing her in a growing puddle on the edge of the pool.

At the feet of five gaping employees, all trying not to be amused by this situation. Nice of them to show up, too. Someone tossed her a towel.

“Thanks,” she said, pulling her clinging clothes away from her body in vain. Giving up, she worked on her hair. “Thanks so much for coming now, instead of say five minutes ago, when two little girls could have drowned.”

With the grace and dignity she’d wanted for herself, Wes hoisted himself out of the pool beside her, surging to his feet in one easy, strong motion that made her want to grind her teeth.

Only a moment ago she’d had a flashing thought that all those lean muscles of his were a bit sexy. They weren’t sexy, they were maddening as hell.

“Your skirt…” he said a little oddly.

Looking down at the material which had plastered itself to her body, rendering her porno material, she tugged at it again. “I hope you’re all of age,” she said to the employees still standing there, and they laughed a little nervously.

She sighed. “Okay, we’re fine now, so you can all go back to work. Assuming one of you stays out here to watch the pool.” She glanced at Wes, unable to get past the fact she’d done an extremely childish and reactionary thing by pulling him into the water.

He hadn’t yelled at her. He’d even helped her out of the water when she could have very well swum to the shallow end and gotten out herself.

Why had he done that?

She looked him over. He was every bit as drenched as she, and probably just as cold. His glasses had drops of water on them, making her wonder if he could even see her clearly.

Even more unsettling, for all his talk of wanting this job for himself, he’d been, if not exactly kind, at least honest. “Thank you.”

He looked confused again and a little wary. “For what?”

“Sticking with me. For working with me, even though I know you must resent the hell out of it.”

He pulled off his glasses and shrugged those amazing shoulders, so perfectly delineated in his wet shirt. “I just want the hotel to be a success,” he finally said. Shoving his fingers through his hair, he sent more water flying. And then seemed to realize she was hanging on his every word. “I’d like to hear you want the same thing.”

“As opposed to taking this job for the glory?” She gestured to herself, a soggy wreck. “Because from where I’m sitting, Wes, there isn’t much glory.” When he just looked at her, she relented. “I want the hotel to be a success. Of course I do. I’d just like to be a part of that success. Even have something to do with it.”

“As much as any of us are, you will be.”

She almost felt that odd lump of emotion return to her throat, because for a minute there, wet and chilled, he did seem kind.

“You have mascara running down your face,” he said. “It’s everywhere.”

Okay, not so kind. But definitely honest.

WES SPENT the day dealing with paperwork, phone calls and a handful of other things while doing his damnedest to avoid Kenna.

A few days ago that avoidance would have been directly tied into his aggravation at having to share his damn job, the one he’d wanted all for himself.

Now, he had to admit that it wasn’t all about the job. He needed some space to get over the pool incident, where he’d learned a couple of things. One, Kenna had a body full of lush curves meant to bring a grown man to his knees.

He was a grown man.

And his knees were willing to take his weight.

And yet it was the second thing he’d learned that really stuck with him. For all her tough-girl, bring-it-on attitude, Kenna had a softer side, and he had to say, for just a moment there, when he’d had her in his arms, helping her out of the pool, it’d brought out the Tarzan in him.

Luckily he’d come to his senses and regrouped.

He planned on regrouping for a while longer, and was happily at it when Mr. Mallory called him.

“I hear the union meeting went well the other day. What’s up for this week?”

Wes flipped open the calendar his assistant had left for him and talked business for a while before the question that he had hoped to avoid like the plague came.

“How’s she doing?”

No one had to tell Wes which she. “She’s…doing.”

“Good. I had no doubt that once I convinced her to give up her wild ways, she could be a good Mallory.”

For the first time Wes wondered at the pressures of being a “good” Mallory, and how that pressure would feel on the shoulders of someone like Kenna, who was clearly her own woman, with her own thoughts and ways.

As opposed to his own family, who had no expectations for him other than to be happy. And to have enough to eat.

“No problems, then?” Mr. Mallory asked.

Short of Kenna burning the place down, Wes had no intentions of being the man to complain to his boss about his daughter. “Did you expect problems?”

The older man sighed. “Look, I’ll be honest. I wanted to give Kenna this chance, I needed to give her this chance. But…well, I know what I’m asking of you. Don’t get me wrong, I believe in her, but I know she has some odd ideas, and can be a bit…shall we say strong-willed?”

Wes thought of Kenna and her concerns about the locals not getting good rates, being bothered that the restaurants didn’t have specials, irritated as hell over the employee contract negotiations… Then he thought about her dripping wet, hair in her face, makeup in her eyes, sheer, lacy clothes shrink-wrapped to every inch of her incredible body.

No, Wes doubted Mallory knew what he was asking. “Everything is fine.”

“Well…that’s good. Carry on, then, Roth.”

Carry on.

Sure. No problem. No problem at all.

TWO DAYS LATER, Wes still hadn’t had to deal with Kenna other than on occasional business issues. They’d divided things up and only ran into each other at meetings, where she seemed to be managing just fine.

As for himself, he was swamped. Between the ongoing renovation issues, keeping everything under control while having guests in the hotel at the same time, the accounting quarterlies and the myriad other problems associated with running a new hotel, he felt challenged enough.