Tangled Vines: An Australian Rural Romance (3 page)

Kyle didn’t have a leg to stand on if he tried to get her to leave the property. She would make it difficult for him if he tried.

The first time Jordan had wandered through the main house, she’d been shocked something so beautiful on the outside could be so impersonal on the inside. A beautiful renovation had been completed on the house to give it a modern yet rustic feel. Only all the changes were cosmetic. No heart or soul existed within the walls. The house looked like no one ever lived there. No artwork of any sort adorned the walls. No family pictures. Nothing to suggest the home was loved by anyone.

Now she knew why. The man who lived here was dark and uninviting. Not in looks, though. In looks he smoldered like hot ashes. Then his personality doused those hot ashes quickly before they had a chance to ignite and chase away the darkness.

Pushing thoughts of Kyle Davis and his bare chest out of her mind, she headed for her room to get her contract. A stipulation like leaving the property for a period of time would’ve stuck in her mind. She knew it wasn’t in there. Jordan couldn’t wait to prove him wrong.

• • •

The bunches of pea-sized grapes looked healthy. Jordan twisted the trellis wire, happy with the direction the vine shoots were growing. She made a quick note on her clipboard with the date and size of the grapes. She moved to the next row to complete the process all over again.

“What are you doing?”

She stilled and took a deep breath before turning to face the man standing a few feet away who hadn’t been very far from her thoughts.

Pasting a smile on her face, she looked up from underneath the brim of her hat. “Looks like you got up on the wrong side of the bed … again.”

Where had that come from?

While reading through her contract, Jordan had decided to approach Kyle with a pleasant demeanor. She held all the cards, and there would be no point in making him angry.

Jordan had left her contract on the kitchen table for him to see. At least she hoped he’d see it. Once Kyle read it, he’d have no choice but to let her stay. Unless he wanted to go to court for an unfair dismissal lawsuit, they would be spending the next few weeks together.

She planned to use the time to convince Kyle to let her experiment with his grapes. Maybe even clear some land and plant more vines.

Would he be interested in financing something like that? He had a well-known reputation for taking risks in business.

As Kyle walked a little closer to her, the totally female part of her, the part she’d attempted to bury after Don’s betrayal, flared to life. The sun glistened off the dark strands of his damp hair. His t-shirt hugged his upper body. The brightly colored board shorts hung low on his hips. He looked more surfer dude than businessman. She hoped he was heading to the beach so he could leave her in peace.

“Jordan, what are you doing?”

“Did you read my contract?”

Once again his arms crossed over his chest, his t-shirt stretching over his biceps. “Yes, I did. Now that I’ve answered your question, can you answer mine?”

Jordan wanted to find out how he felt about it. Find out if he realized he couldn’t fire her. Find out that he knew he had no choice but to let her stay. Instead, she held out her clipboard for him to see.

“I’m measuring the size of the grapes. I’m also making sure the direction they are growing is correct so they’re receiving the maximum amount of sunlight possible. Then there is a column to check for any sign of mildew, which can severely affect their growth.”

Kyle took the clipboard from her and looked at her notations. She bit her lip to stop herself from laughing out loud when his brow furrowed as he tried to understand what she’d written. He flicked the page over before handing it back to her.

“Can I ask why you’re going to all this trouble for table grapes? I didn’t think table grapes could be used as wine.”

Jordan rolled her eyes. Now she knew why the vines had been allowed to grow without anything but basic maintenance over the last few years. All those harvests wasted. Kyle had no idea what was on his property.

“These are not table grapes. They’re Sauvignon Blanc grapes.”

“Right, whatever. Are you finished? We have to talk.”

A sigh rippled through her, like a soft breeze caressing the leaves of the grape vines. “Give me another five minutes to finish this task. I’ll meet you up at the house.”

He gave her a curt nod before turning around and making his way back up to the house. A feeling of dread washed over Jordan. No matter what her contract said, she had a feeling trying to convince Kyle to let her stay was not going to be easy.

Jordan had no plans to walk away from the challenge though. Not this time. She would win this battle.

Pacing around the kitchen, Kyle picked up Jordan’s employment contract again. He hoped on the fourth read through he’d find something, anything, listed within its contents to say she had to vacate his premises for part of the month of December and half of January. Except there was nothing. Not a damn paragraph. Not a sentence. Not even a punctuation mark he could argue. Nothing.

To make matters worse, his cell phone remained ominously quiet. He’d called Shey the moment after he’d first read Jordan’s contract. Only his call had gone to voicemail, so he’d had to leave a message. He had a sneaky suspicion it was going to be a while before his questions were answered.

He slammed the document back on the table, picked up his bottle of beer, and took a long swallow. He never usually drank beer before lunch, but today he needed it. Just one was all he’d have. Give him a good pale ale over a wine any day. Nothing would ever convince him that wine was a good drink. He’d steered clear of the stuff ever since that night so long ago. A night he’d rather forget. A night that marked the end of everything he’d ever known.

How ironic that he’d purchased a piece of land with grape vines on it. A reminder of what they represented: life and death.

He spun around when the back door opened. Jordan walked in, oblivious to him watching her. Otherwise he doubted she would’ve pulled her t-shirt out of her pants and flapped it around, giving him a glimpse of her lightly tanned, smooth belly. His groin hardened as the vision of her naked, water dripping down her body while she thrust the shower curtain back, filled his mind again.

He didn’t need the complication of Jordan in his life. It had been a while since he’d had any sort of relationship with a woman. Somehow he had a feeling Jordan wasn’t a casual relationship type of girl.

He cleared his throat. Her head whipped up and a flush of red bloomed her cheeks.

“It’s hot out. Isn’t it?” he asked trying, unsuccessfully, to keep the mirth out of his voice. At her raised eyebrow he couldn’t help but laugh. “Can I get you a beer?”

Her nose wrinkled and he had the urge to brush out the fine lines. “Uh, no thanks.”

“Oh, so it’s like that, is it?” Teasing her hadn’t even entered his mind when he’d walked back into the house.

“Like what? Beer is not my favorite drink,” she stated as she moved closer toward him. His eyes trailed to where her t-shirt still hung over the waistband of her cargo pants. Kyle curled his fingers to stop from lifting the fabric to touch her.

Kyle snorted. “Let me guess what your favorite is? Wine?”

Jordan brushed past him, reaching up to get a glass from the cupboard above the sink, then heading to the refrigerator. “Yes, I like wine. But it’s not my favorite.” She filled up her glass from the bottle of cold water and held it up to him. “This is my preferred drink. Especially seeing as it’s not quite midday yet.”

Kyle shook his head and took another swig of his beer. He inclined his head to the table. “Sit.”

“Pardon?”

“I said sit.”

“Ahh, I don’t think so.”

Kyle braced himself when Jordan’s green eyes flicked between the glass in her hand and him. If she did throw the water over him, it wasn’t anything less than he deserved. Not after the way he’d spoken to her. “Jordan, I’m sorry, that was rude of me. Will you please have a seat so we can talk?”

“That’s better.” She sat down and loosely clasped her fingers together around her glass. “You said you’d read my contract.”

He sat opposite her. He kind of wished they were having this discussion in his office, where he had control over his environment. It wasn’t the same in the kitchen of his house. He’d spent too many hours gazing out the windows with memories he couldn’t shake keeping him company. “Yes, I did.”

“So you know there’s nothing in my contract saying I need to vacate the property.”

Kyle reached out and dragged her contract closer to him, his fingers drumming a rhythm out as he thought about what to say next.

“You’re correct. Under the terms of the contract, as it stands, I can’t expect you to leave my personal property. However,” he paused and looked into her eyes, “I’m appealing to your sense of rightness. Will you consider leaving the house for the next few weeks?

• • •

Jordan knew the question he asked wasn’t an easy one. He struck her as a man who never asked for things for himself. He struck her as a man who never asked for things outside of his office.

So why it was so important for him to be alone? And why was she being so difficult about it, anyway? Would it be so hard to move out of the house and leave him alone? Nah, it would be more of an inconvenience, and with more people coming down to Margaret River for the holidays, she didn’t want to get stuck in a hotel with everyone wanting to party all night. Not when she had to start at the crack of dawn every day.

“Are you expecting someone else to come and stay with you?”

“No. I like my solitude.”

Jordan had an inkling there was more to his desire for solitude. However, she knew nothing she said would get him to tell her the real reason for his need to be alone.

“I’ve told you it’s going to be virtually impossible for me to get a hotel room at this late notice. Even if there is one available, it’s going to cost way more than I’m willing to pay.”

“I’ve already said I’ll pay for your hotel room. No matter what it costs.”

“What about the vines?”

Kyle shrugged his shoulders. “What about them?”

Jordan sighed. “It’s important that I keep an eye on them. I have to make sure the growth continues. The soil around the base of the vines needs to remain weed free. Most important, I have to make sure they remain disease free. Come January I’ll have to start measuring the Baume levels in the grapes. I really can’t leave the vines now.”

“Look, Jordan. I don’t care about the grapes. I don’t want to grow them. I don’t want to produce wine. Never have. I’m a stockbroker, not a winemaker. I bought this property so I’d have a place where I could be away from everything and everyone.”

Jordan saw her dreams crashing down around her ears. The grapes were at a vital stage of their development. She couldn’t just throw away all the work she’d done on the vines the past few months. There had to be something they could come up with. A solution that would work for both of them.

“Look, Kyle. I really can’t be too far away from the vines. I have to monitor them. I know you don’t care about them, but I do. I’ve worked hard to get them back to the condition that they’re in now.”

“I can see that, but I didn’t ask you to do it. As far as I’m concerned, the vines are something I got stuck with when I purchased the property. I’m considering pulling them out, replacing them with a pool and pool house.”

Jordan reached out and laid her hands over his, ignoring the flash of fire working its way up her arm and across her shoulders. In her mind she could see the tractor ripping out the precious vines from the ground. “Please, Kyle, you can’t do that. Those vines have been in the ground for years. They’re mature vines. The type that produce the best quality grapes for award-winning wines.”

“But I’m not into making wine, Jordan. I told you that.”

She sat back in her chair, defeat crawling over her. All her dreams and hopes to regain her place in the winemaking world disintegrated with every word he spoke.

She’d never begged for anything in her life. She didn’t want to start now. But she’d worked too hard to let this crop of grapes go to waste. “I’ve put so much work into the vines. Let me stay here, get the grapes ready to harvest. Then, after they’ve been picked, you can do whatever you want with the vines. Just a few more months. That’s all I ask. Please.”

She held her breath, watching Kyle for any sign her words had penetrated the hard case he wore around himself. She could see why he was successful in the world of stockbroking. He had to have nerves of steel to take risks with other people’s money. This house and the nice, sexy sports car she’d spied in the garage were testament to his abilities.

No emotion showed on his face. Had she expected there to be? Had she expected a softening of his gaze when she’d begged in front of him?

“Fine.”

The air whooshed out of her. “What?”

“Fine, you can attend to the vines, but you’re not staying here.”

Any elation she felt died very quickly at his last proclamation. “How am I supposed to look after them if I’m not staying here? Look,”—desperation made her say something she promised herself she never would—“I’ll cook every meal for you. I’ll clean up and stay in my room every night. You won’t even know I’m here. Please, Kyle. I need to stay here.”

Jordan wondered if she’d pushed him too far when his chair scraped loudly across the tile and he started to pace around the kitchen, the beer bottle precariously held between his index finger and middle finger. She had visions of it shattering to the floor.

“I have never met a more stubborn person than you, Jordan Hastings. Why aren’t you working at some other winery? Why aren’t you bothering other people instead of bothering me?”

She didn’t want to answer that question. Kyle didn’t need to know about her past. About how she’d let love—well, what she thought was love—cloud her better judgment.

No more. No man would stop her from achieving her dreams. That was why she was fighting Kyle so much to stay.