Normally, she indulged in the homemade biscuits that were lighter than air and melted in the mouth, though she wasn’t a regular breakfast eater. This morning, the biscuits could have been chalk, which she chewed mechanically and washed down with lightly creamed coffee. The aroma of freshly grilled bacon and scrambled eggs wasn’t at all appetizing. It was as if overnight her whole world had gone sour. It was Erik Gudjonsen’s fault, and she resented him for it. She had resigned from her job to escape the unsolicited attention of a man with an inflated ego. She now thought David Ross an amateur compared with the videographer.
Only in the secret parts of her mind would she admit how his kiss had affected her. It had been quick, almost playful, but effective. When she felt the tip of his tongue against her lip2, a spear of pleasure had penetrated her breasts and pierced downward to her very center, leaving a wound like a hollow emptiness.
* * *
Kathleen admitted now, as she covertly watched him from beneath the screen of her black lashes, that she had played right into his hands. Everything she had done since meeting him had been a defensive reaction to his masculine forcefulness. Obviously it amused him to goad her.
Resolving not to let him provoke her, Kathleen made plans for the coming day. She was a capable, independent woman, and by the end of this day, he’d know it. As for her attitude toward him, she would treat him with cool politeness, professionalism, and meet his insinuating bantering with condescending tolerance.
Determinedly, she stood up, checked her wristwatch and then imperiously blew the whistle around her neck. “All of you in Group Four, meet outside on the steps. Pronto.” She was proud of the strong confidence in her voice, and carried her head high when she returned her tray to the large service window leading into the kitchen.
As she sailed out the door and strode toward her group, Erik turned to face her. He stood ramrod-straight and saluted briskly, making all the children laugh.
“Reporting for duty, Sergeant.”
Swallowing her vituperative comeback, she said graciously, “Have you got everything you need?”
“Yes, I’m ready,” he said solemnly.
That’s what you think, Kathleen thought to herself. “All right,” she said aloud. “Let’s go.”
She had a full schedule of exhausting activities. Hoping to put Mr. Gudjonsen in his place, she was disgruntled to find that he did everything well, indeed excelled in everything. He took to the steep, rocky trail up the mountain like a goat, and all the while carrying his camera on his shoulder, ready to use it at an instant’s notice. How could he do that? she asked herself in exasperation when they had reached the turnaround point of their nature hike. She collapsed on a grassy area to rest.
Meanwhile, Erik was taping the children as they uncapped their canteens and took great gulps of water, emptied gravel out of their sneakers or ventured off into the woods seeking new discoveries.
Kathleen’s eyes were closed as she leaned against a tree trunk. They flew open when she felt Erik’s large body plop down beside her.
“Whew!” He expelled his breath in a long sigh as he blotted his forehead with a handkerchief. “How do you do this every day?”
“You’re tired?” she asked with a trace of incredulity.
“Sure. Aren’t you? If I did this kind of thing all the time, I’d be dead within a week.”
He smiled and she answered with a soft laugh. Was that one small point on her side of the scoreboard?
After they had returned to the compound and eaten a hasty lunch, they traipsed to the archery grounds for target practice. The children pressed Erik to try his hand with the bow. His aim was far better than Kathleen’s, and the children clustered around him in awe as he repeatedly zinged the arrows into the heart of the targets. Then his ever-present camera was slung back onto his shoulder and he taped the children’s efforts as Kathleen coached them.
By the middle of the afternoon, she had put down some of her bitterness and afforded Erik a grudging respect. He never forgot his job. The camera was like an extension of his arm and he guarded it constantly. But his rapport with the children surprised her. He was patient, answered their multitudinous questions, joked, teased, admonished and placated with equal aptitude.
When she blew the whistle for swimming, they shouted excitedly and dashed for the river. As she ran to keep up with them, Kathleen glanced over her shoulder to see Erik walking back toward the compound. She shrugged off her faint disappointment and followed the campers to the river.
She had worn a bikini, though a conservative one, under her shorts and T-shirt. She stripped these off unselfconsciously and ventured out into the swift current. It didn’t take long for the children to include her in their horseplay, and soon she was struggling to keep her head above the water as they tried to dunk her.
Finally, laughing and shrieking, they heeded her pleas for mercy and released her. She came up out of the water, pushing the clinging hair off her face.
That was when she saw Erik standing on the shore, stripped down to swimming trunks but with his camera up to his eye and aimed directly at her. She hesitated, then smiled tentatively before turning away to commission the kids not to get too rambunctious.
She walked up the shoal and wrung the water out of her hair. “I thought you had called it quits for today,” she said unevenly, wishing he would look somewhere else besides at her body in the cinnamon-colored bikini.
He had secured his recorder and camera up on a high, dry, flat rock under a shade tree. The breath caught in her throat at the sight of his physique without the camouflage of clothing. The crinkly carpet of blond hair that matted his chest tapered to a silky line that disappeared into the low waistband of his blue trunks. His legs were muscular and tanned that same dark color as the rest of him and sprinkled with blond hair that showed up in sharp contrast.
“I had to get another tape and put on a swimsuit.”
“Are you going in?” she asked.
“Yes. I can’t resist. I nearly melted up there.” He indicated the steep hill that they had taken on their nature hike.
She sat on the bank while he went in the water. He played rough with the boys, more gently with the girls, but none were deprived of his attention. Even Jaimie, who had followed Erik around all day like a worshipful puppy, was included.