Hold Me Close

Chapter 1 Ivy Nash waited in the sleek waiting room at Off the Grid Engineering and nervously fiddled with her cluster of silver bracelets. She’d gotten the email inviting her for an interview a full two weeks after her application. Whoever wrote it didn’t get points for warm and friendly because it had been short and to the point, simply asking if she could attend an interview at a single time. It was now another week later, and she was waiting anxiously to get this over with. She tried to recall the last time she’d actually attended an interview and thought it must’ve been when she waited tables at a local pizza place in college. After that, she’d done one work-study program after another to pay for her education before accepting a faculty position in the same university where she completed her doctorate. She was entirely out of her element here. She wasn’t one to try to sell herself. She preferred to show what she could do, but she didn’t think that was how interviews worked. Off the Grid was nearly the opposite of the stuffy academic environment she’d left behind. Its owner, Owen Manning, was renowned in the engineering field. He’d been a shooting star in academia before he abruptly resigned his position on the faculty at United Technology and started his own company. He was dedicated to engineering eco-friendly, sustainable energy production and was constantly in the news pushing his latest innovation. He didn’t seem to do anything by the book and had recently relocated his entire firm to Alaska over a year ago. It was pure luck for Ivy that Off the Grid happened to be in Diamond Creek, Alaska where her brother lived. Rumor had it, Owen loved to ski. Diamond Creek was home to Last Frontier Lodge, a renowned world-class ski lodge where her brother Cam Nash worked. At the moment, it was hard to believe she was in Diamond Creek, a charming tourist town. Off the Grid was situated on the far side of town as high into the mountains as Last Frontier Lodge was. It was a state of the art facility with a sleek, modern feel and massive walls of windows. The spectacular beauty of the area was on vivid display with views of the mountains, Kachemak Bay and glaciers every which way she turned. The waiting room was painted in cool shades of violet and blue with black leather chairs for seating. Ivy took another shaky breath, trying to quell the tension inside. She knew she was qualified for this job. She’d never doubted her intelligence and ability to work hard, but it wasn’t her nature to boast. She needed this job and she really, really wanted it. All she wanted was a job where she could dig into the projects she loved and help design better technology for the world. There weren’t many of those around, so she was crossing her fingers she could pull this interview off. On the heels of another deep breath, a door to one side of the waiting room opened and Owen Manning stepped through. Her belly somersaulted and heat suffused her. She’d seen him in enough media interviews to know exactly who he was. She’d known he was handsome, but she’d been entirely unprepared to meet him in person. He had jet-black hair that curled at the edge of his collar and dark blue eyes. His features were strong and chiseled, and he was tall, his presence taking over the room the moment he stepped into it. “Ivy Nash?” Owen asked. She nodded quickly. A long moment passed while she tried to beat back her body’s powerful reaction to Owen. Owen arched a brow, at which point she realized she was still seated. She jumped up quickly. “I’m Ivy.” She took a few steps across the room and held her hand out. Owen reached out and clasped her hand, giving it a quick, firm shake. “Owen Manning,” he said, his tone brusque. His touch was like a shock to her system. His hand engulfed hers, warm and strong, and heat surged through her. She took a breath and forced herself to look up at him. Out of all of her worries about navigating this interview, she hadn’t considered what to do if her body went haywire like this. His eyes flicked to hers, something she couldn’t identify flashing in the depths of his gaze. He slowly released her hand and turned smoothly to hold the door open. He gestured for her to pass through, so she did, her pulse beating wildly with each step. Once she stepped past him, she paused in the hallway while he closed the door. The hall was all glass on the side facing the mountains. She forced herself to focus on a mountain peak in the distance, trying to slow her pulse and calm her rapid, shallow breathing. Owen stepped past her. “Follow me,” he said, his words clipped. She immediately began following him. His stride was long, so while he appeared to stroll down the hall, she felt like she was almost running. His shoulders stretched against the fabric of the navy jersey shirt he wore. She hadn’t expected a business here to include people dressed in suits, but she also hadn’t expected it to be quite so casual. Owen looked as if he’d stepped out of the pages of an outdoor magazine. Aside from his casual shirt, he wore a pair of faded jeans that outlined his muscled legs and a pair of well-worn leather boots. The hall had a few doors along the way, all closed. When they reached the end of the hall, he opened the single door there and gestured for her to step through. She’d managed to get her pulse somewhat under control on the walk here, but the moment she had to pass by him, feeling the heat emanating from his body, it went wild again. She stepped into what must be his office. It was situated on the corner of the building with two walls of windows floor to ceiling offering a near-panoramic view of the area with the mountains to one side and Kachemak Bay glittering under the sun to another. There was no desk in here, but a large table with drafting paper, two laptops and a computer tablet scattered across its surface. The table was in the corner opposite the windows. In the windowed corner was a small round table with several comfortable chairs encircling it. Owen gestured to that area. “Have a seat.” Ivy thanked the universe she had manners because she moved on autopilot to the chairs and sat down, clutching the folder that held her resume and several summaries of projects she’d worked on so far. Owen sat down across from her and leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. His expression was like a stone wall, giving nothing away. “You need to know I tend to make decisions quickly. I asked you to come to this interview because I’ve already made my decision. Your graduate and doctoral work was almost exclusively focused on what we do here. Your academic references are outstanding, and rumor has it you’re easy to work with. Considering that engineers can be prone to arrogance and aren’t the most social creatures, you score high for that. My only question for you is this: why are you leaving the academic world?” Ivy stared at Owen, taken aback by his brusque tone and so startled by his words that she was silent for a long moment. He’d done a remarkable job of getting her mind off of thinking all kinds of thoughts about his body by asking the one question she hoped no one would ask in this new job search of hers. Though she’d mentally prepared herself for this question, she couldn’t lie, but she also didn’t want to discuss what actually happened in her last position. She hewed as close to the truth as possible. “All I want is to work in research and development. I’d hoped academia would offer me what I wanted, but I found the environment not what I was hoping for. I have, of course, heard about Off the Grid and the work you’re doing. When I saw this position, I decided to try to make the leap. The fact that I have family here also made it an easy choice.” Once her words, which she had practiced in her head many times, came out, she breathed a sigh of relief. Everything she’d said was true. She simply hadn’t elaborated on the details about the ‘environment’ she’d been forced to deal with. She hoped what she said would satisfy Owen. She wished she could read him better, but when she looked back into his eyes, all she saw was blue. Not a flicker of a reaction to her, or anything she’d said. He’d just told her he planned to hire her. She should be excited, but instead she wanted to flee the building, run from this wild attraction she couldn’t seem to corral while he sat across from her—so calm, cool and collected, she was surprised she didn’t feel a chill in the air. * * * Owen watched Ivy Nash while she spoke, doing his damnedest to keep his eyes on her face and away from her breasts. She wore some kind of silky cream-colored blouse. It wasn’t tight, but the slip and slide of the silk as she gestured with her hands offered glimpses of the shadowed valley between her generous breasts. He couldn’t say he’d had any expectations about what Ivy would look like, but he definitely hadn’t expected to take one look at her and have his brain fuzz out. Pure habit got him through the motions of introductions and down the hall to his office. It was true he tended to be blunt and to the point, but he was in rare form right now because he could barely focus. Ivy’s name had blipped on his radar before she’d ever applied for the position here. As he’d just told her, her work as she made her way up the ladder of graduate school and onto her doctorate had mostly been on engineering self-sustaining energy. She’d done some engineering work for NASA on ways to lengthen battery life for various instruments used in rockets. He’d read a few of her papers and been intrigued. She was clearly bright, focused and cared about her work. Yet, he’d had no clue how she looked. Her amber hair fell in loose waves around her shoulders. Her eyes, like warm cognac, were wide and tilted up at the corners. And her mouth, holy hell her mouth. Her lips were full and perfectly bow shaped. She had a dimple on one side of her mouth, which made him want to lean over and kiss it. Her rectangular black glasses served to add a dash of illicit naughtiness—only because they made her look like his sexiest librarian fantasy come to life. He had to force his attention to the moment. She’d just answered his only question. He distantly heard her explanation over the static in his brain, but he didn’t have it in him to ask her again. He knew from her academic work that he wanted to hire her, so he would. This ‘interview’ was nothing more than a formality. His brain grasped onto the fact that she mentioned she had family here. “You say you have family here?” he asked, figuring he needed to say something to look halfway polite. Ivy looked relieved with his question, which piqued his curiosity. “My brother moved up here about a year ago. He runs the ski instruction program over at Last Frontier Lodge.” Owen’s brain clicked into gear. “Ah, Cam Nash is your brother?” Ivy nodded, a wide smile gracing her face and bringing out her tempting dimple. He kept his attention on her face, which should have been less distracting than her breasts, but he was finding it didn’t really matter where he looked when it came to her—need galloped through him heedless of his mental attempts to corral it. Focus, focus, focus. He chanted silently and tried to keep the conversation on track. “One of the reasons I moved Off the Grid here was because I wanted to be able to engineer technology that could withstand harsh weather. The other was because I love to ski. Your brother’s reputation precedes him. You ski?” “Oh yeah. Not quite like Cam. I’m definitely slower, but I love it. Diamond Creek’s a pretty amazing place for your company. How’d you find it?” “I visited Alaska a few times when I was in college and fell in love with it. When I first started Off the Grid, I went with what was convenient. At the time, that was Boston because I was at United Tech. When we started doing well enough to need more space, I decided I wanted to be where I wanted to be. I flew out here to ski two years ago and figured it’d be hard to find a better place. Simple as that.” She nodded and fiddled with several silver bracelets on her wrist. “Well, Diamond Creek is certainly beautiful, and you just might have the best view around up here.” He chuckled. “We do have a great view, but it’s easily as good in other areas around town.” When she nodded politely again, it occurred to him he hadn’t officially told her he planned to hire her. For a flash, he wondered if maybe he should reconsider. He hadn’t figured this wild, pounding attraction to her into the equation. His body was nearly humming from the electric shock of l**t she elicited. With his body having a mind of its own, he was thrown off kilter and he didn’t like it. He wasn’t one to be swayed by the messy vagaries of l**t—too complicated and confusing. He mentally shook himself. It would pass. It would have to. He needed another researcher, and she met every mark he’d set and then some. “So, back to you. As far as I’m concerned, the job’s yours. You can start whenever you’re ready. Do you have any questions about the pay and benefits?” Those stunning cognac eyes of hers widened slightly and her breath drew in sharply. His body tightened, and he forced himself to take a slow breath. “Oh. That’s it?” “That’s it. I’m familiar with your work, so I know you’ll be a great asset. If you need some time to think about it…” She shook her head, the tousled waves of her hair swinging softly. “No, no. I’d love to work here. I don’t mean to sound silly, but I’ve only had one position since I finished my doctorate. Should I talk to someone in human resources if I have questions about the benefits or anything like that?” He felt a disconcerting sense of warmth and protectiveness toward her. She was so open, so not calculating, so not so many things he had quickly tired of in academia – the constant ego battles and jousting for leverage. He looked over at her, catching her eyes and instantly locking into them. Electricity arced between them, so hot and fast, he could almost feel the heat in the air around them. “HR here is Joan. She came with the company from Boston and has since decided she lived in Alaska in another life and finally found her home.” He stood. “Come on. I’ll take you down to meet her.” He needed to do something other than stare at Ivy, so introducing her to Joan would give him something to do. Not much later, he stood by the entrance and watched Ivy walk to her car, her hips swaying with each step. He wondered if he’d just lost his mind.