“I wouldn't care either. I love splashing in the river when it gets hot in the summer, but it must be sweet to have a pool.”
This time, Royal's grin held a flash of heat. “You're welcome to swim anytime. Just for curiosity's sake… Are you a bikini kind of girl?”
I grinned back, knowing my own eyes held that same flash of heat. I couldn't help it. His question made me think about wearing a bikini for Royal. And straight from there, my brain conjured a vision of Royal in board shorts, wet from the water. That hard body and all that smooth skin. I felt the flush hit my cheeks. Too long without sex was turning me into a perv. Then again, if there were ever a man worth perving over, he was definitely Royal.
“So?”
His raised eyebrow was so hot my imagination ditched the board shorts and wallowed in the thought of Royal naked. Naked and wet. Wait, what had he asked? “Um, if it was just the two of us? Maybe a bikini. If anyone else is around, definitely a one piece.”
“I'll ban them all from the pool if it gets me you in a bikini.” Distracted by thoughts of what Royal and I could do mostly naked, I didn't notice as the gardens transitioned from a formal parterre design into rolling flower beds that welcomed the approaching forest.
In fact, as I paid more attention, I realized that the forest had well overgrown its original boundaries, small saplings and waist-high weeds taking over what I imagined were once gorgeously abundant flower beds.
The path left the gardens and crossed through a stretch of overgrown grass and weeds, the gravel we walked on thinner and spotty as if it hadn't been refreshed or raked in a long time. Before I knew it, we were in the woods. Here the path was narrower with even less gravel but still clear enough to follow.
The woods enveloped us, leaves rustling in the wind, insects chattering. Now and then a branch would break, signaling the presence of a squirrel or maybe a deer. “Do you hike much?” I asked. “Right now, I'm thinking about how long it's been for me. J.T. and I used to hike all the time, but then work got in the way. I can't remember the last time we hit a trail.”
Royal reached to take my elbow as I scrambled over a fallen log. “Same here. I pretty much grew up rambling around these woods. Even after I started at The Inn, I hiked the trails there at least once a week, but lately, it seems like I spend all my time behind a desk.”
“I'm glad I love my job,” I said, “but sometimes I think I like it too much.”
“Exactly. Do you want to go for a hike the next time we both have a day off?”
“I'd love to.”
Royal took my hand, tugging me closer so that we walked the narrow trail side by side. “What else do you like to do when you aren't working? “
“Oh, not much, really. Watch movies, I like to read. Go out with a friend if we can get our schedules to match up. And—” My shoulder hitched in a sheepish half-shrug. “I like to mess around in the kitchen. Trying new recipes, flavor combinations. Just playing, I guess. It's more fun when I'm not working. Less pressure. I love baking for work, don't get me wrong, but sometimes it's fun to do it for me. Just to see what's going to happen.”
“I bet you get your best recipes that way.”
“You'd be right. Sometimes what I come up with is inedible, but that's the fun of experimenting. I can't wait until we can add tables at Sweetheart and I can start playing with a lunch menu. I—”
I was going to say something else, but I have no idea what. All words were swept from my mind as we stepped into the clearing surrounding the watchtower.
Now I understood why they called it a watchtower. Set on a thrust of granite that lifted most of the clearing a good fifteen feet above the path, the entire building looked as if it had grown organically from the mountain itself. The watchtower was only one room in size, maybe twenty feet by twenty feet, but it was tall. Really tall.
We climbed steps carved into the granite, wide and deep enough to have withstood well over a century of use. Not that they'd been used recently. Weeds had taken root in every available crack and fissure, leaving the surface slippery.
Royal took my elbow. “Didn't realize the steps would be this bad. I don't want you to slip.”
“I'm good,” I assured him, but I liked that he was there, just in case. The grass was damp and my borrowed sneakers weren't the best fit.