the horizon? Not that he was complaining about being on a lakeshore in the middle of nowhere with a beautiful woman, but it had to be almost one in the morning. If today was anything like yesterday, some sleep would probably be a good idea. “O’Connor, you’re a terrible loser. You know that, right?”
She bit her lip. “It may have been mentioned once or twice in my life.” She wrinkled her nose at him. “I prefer to think of it as strong-minded.”
Victor had kissed a lot of women in his life. Many he couldn’t even remember. But he had never wanted to kiss anyone quite like he wanted to kiss this strong-minded fierce woman with halo hair.
“Victor.” There was something in the way she said his name that made him think the attraction wasn’t entirely one-sided.
Victor cleared his throat and shifted sideways. “Nothing wrong with being strong-minded.” His back hurt from a day of canoeing and portaging, and he envied how comfortable Lacey looked lying on the ground. But joining her would be a bad idea. The worst idea.
He had spent too much of his life acting on base instinct and already carried too many regrets. The last thing he needed was to add more.
As if reading his thoughts, Lacey pushed herself up. She pulled the gun and magazine out of her pocket, placed them on the ground beside her, and pulled her knees into her chest, wrapping her arms around them.
“Are you really going for a senior role?” Lacey tucked some hair behind her ears but didn’t look at him.
And maybe he was wrong. Maybe Lacey didn’t feel a darn thing except the need to scope out her competition.
He had might as well tell her the truth. Part of it, anyway. At least that way she wouldn’t think he was some entitled tosspot with an over-inflated sense of his own abilities. “I know it sounds delusional. And it probably is. But I want to land a new client—a pharmaceutical company with a promising new multiple sclerosis drug. They’re obviously reluctant with everything that’s happened at Wyndham.” He omitted anything about his mother. Lacey already knew more about the night Anita died than he’d told his own family.
He should probably resent that she’d been holding things back when she’d answered her question. But rehab had forced him to do enough hard work on himself to be able to recognize the difference between people holding back because they thought it gave them power over others, and those holding back to protect themselves. Even in the darkness he could pick up the pain behind Lacey’s eyes which put her firmly in the latter camp.
“And what do they have to do with being senior management?”
He started, realizing he’d gotten caught in his thoughts and lost track of what he was saying. “The last thing they need is to be tainted by scandal when they’re trying to get a new drug through the regulatory hoops. But the CFO is Oxford alumni, so they’ve said they’ll let me have a shot at pitching for the business if I come through the merger as senior management. What about you?” He tacked the question on before Lacey could ask any more.
Lacey shrugged. “I’ve been at Langham for ten years. I’ve built the book publicity team up from nothing to one of the best in the business. I’ve earned it.” She didn’t need to say any more. He’d seen her office. Seen the evidence that made her case.
The unspoken hung between them. She deserved it. He didn’t. But there were seven seats at the executive table. Even with her in one, that still left six.
Lacey wasn’t his competition. Everyone else was.
CHAPTER TWELVE
“So …” Jen dropped down to her haunches with a smirk. “Where were you last night?”
Lacey looked up from tying one of the tents into a canoe and blew a kinked strand of hair out of her face. Three days without her straightening conditioner and her usual sleek locks were well on the way to crazy-frizz town. Just getting it into a braid when she’d woken up had been a battle akin to wrestling a small hairy animal. “I couldn’t sleep, so I went out to stretch my legs.”
The stones under Jen’s feet crunched as she wrapped a bandana around her dark curls. “That must have been some stretch. I was awake for over an hour.”
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to worry you.” Jen had been snoring like a baby rhino when Lacey finally crawled back into the