Chapter Three


	“Jules! Come in, come in.  Table for two?”  said a man in a dark suit who greeted
them as they walked into a restaurant a few minutes later.  Hayley looked at the two men. 
Did everyone in town know Jules Landon, she wondered.  The man finished shaking
hands  and patting  Jules on the shoulder, and reached  for Hayley’s  coat while Jules
removed his own for the first time since she had met him.  He was wearing a denim shirt 
and darker denim jeans.  He was tall and lean, but at the same time very muscular, she
observed.  His black hair was just long enough to curl forward along his neck, just below
his earlobe.  His arms looked strong, and his hands — well, she had already had an
encounter with those hands. They were large, and strong, yet they had held hers with a
softness that had surprised her. 
	“Hayley?”
	His deep voice penetrated her thoughts, and she blushed, realizing he’d been
talking to her and she had been in a world of her own.  “I’m sorry,” she apologized,
ignoring the hand that he held out in her direction, and stepping forward.  Instead of
taking her hand, he rested his just under her elbow, and guided her through the restaurant
to the table their host had chosen for them.  The man held the chair for her, but Hayley
got the impression that Jules would have done the same if their host had not been there. 
He’d been a complete gentleman ever since she’d met him at the airport, and she would
never be able to thank him enough for the warm clothes he had bought for her.  The
thought brought her mind back to the shopping, and she looked across the table at her
new boss, deep concern registering on her face. 
	“I must thank you again for all the things you bought for me.  I meant what I said;
I do intend to pay you back as soon as I can.”
	He looked at her, holding her gaze and saying nothing for a long time.  At last he
turned away and picked up the menu. “There is no need,” he said, in a tone that clearly
told her the topic was being dismissed.  “What would you like to eat?  You never
answered me, but I’m sure you must be hungry.”
	“Yes, quite,” she finally agreed. “I didn’t have time to eat this morning in
Vancouver. I grabbed a muffin at the airport coffee shop. Come to think of it, I haven’t
eaten since the sandwich they gave us on the plane between San Francisco and
Vancouver. Before that, was lunch yesterday.”
	He looked up sharply and stared at her. “Good God!” he exclaimed. "And here
I've been dragging you all over town shopping for clothes for the last three hours.  Why
didn't you say something?"
	She shrugged.  "Well, I have to admit, I was freezing, and — " she looked at him
sheepishly across the table.  "I guess I didn't know if I should mention anything. You
seemed to have your mind set, and I didn't want to interfere."
	He continued to stare at her, then his expression changed to a look of annoyance.
"In other words, you were scared to interrupt me."
	"Well — " Hayley blushed, not knowing what to say, and he cursed under his
breath. 
	"Miss Belton," he said in exasperation.  " Believe me, you are not the first person
who's been afraid to tell me I'd done something wrong, or forgotten to do something at
all.  I think we need to start over on a new footing.  If this working relationship is going
to work at all, you will need to be open with me at all times.  In return, I will need to be
more considerate of your needs. This is an entirely new environment for you, and I acted
unfairly.  I should have expected that you might not have the proper clothes, knowing
where you were coming from.  However, I should have known you would be hungry.  I
did not prioritize very well."   He raked his hand through his thick black hair, and Hayley
realized that the annoyance in his voice had not been directed at her, but rather, at
himself.  
	"Well, I don't know," she said, with a shrug and a soft smile.  "Not freezing is
pretty high up on my list of priorities. I think I'd even place it above eating.  My toes were
already starting to get a little cold before we got to Sidney’s."  Although she had tried to
learn a little about the place she was headed before leaving home, no amount of reading
about the Yukon could have prepared her for how cold it actually was, although she
imagined the locals probably didn’t feel it the same as she did.  She was a long way from
home, where, basking on the shadow of the Mexican border, she had seldom even needed
a sweater, and then only in the evenings.  She really was in a whole new world.
	He looked at her, and the warmth of her smile softened his hardened expression,
bringing a smile to his own lips.  "Alright, I'll agree we needed to see Sidney right away,
but maybe I was too bull-headed over the rest of the shopping?  You probably have quite
adequate clothes in your luggage that could have done you for a week or two.”
	He noticed her wrinkle up her nose, a look of doubt on her face, and sighed.
“Well, there was always tomorrow.  I didn’t have to go dragging you around the stores
right away, when you were so hungry."  He lifted an apologetic glance in her direction. 
"You really haven't eaten since lunchtime yesterday?"
	"Sandwich on the plane, muffin in Vancouver," she reminded him, counting the
items off on her fingers.   
	He shook his head and opened his menu.  "Well then let's see what we can do
about that, shall we.  And please, promise me you won't ever be scared to tell me
something again?"
	"I will do my best, Mr. Landon."
	He nodded. "Good. Then we'll start there.  I'll call you Hayley, if you'll please call
me Jules."
	"Alright.  Jules," she said, straightening her shoulders and folding her hands on
the   table.  "I am awfully hungry!"
	He lifted his eyes to hers, and opened his mouth to speak, then saw the laughter in
her eyes, and smiled back at her, then waved to the waitress. 
	"Paula, can you bring us a basket of bread while we're deciding please?  And
bring the lady a hot drink — " he glanced at Hayley.  "Coffee or tea?"
	"Tea please."
	He nodded.  "Tea, please, Paula. And coffee for me, thank you."
	They studied the menu while Paula went to get the bread and drinks, and by the
time she returned they had decided on their order.  When the waitress left them again,
Hayley reached for a piece of bread and sat back in her chair.
	"There is one thing that I would really like to know, Jules," she said, and he raised
his brows in question. 
	"What's that?"
	"Do you know everyone in this city?"
	He leaned back in his chair and laughed openly.  It was the first time Hayley had
seen more than just a smile on his face since she'd arrived, and even smiles seemed
rationed. The difference the laughter made in his face was incredible.  Where she had
found him handsome before, he was now tremendously attractive, and she found herself
holding her breath to regain her composure. 
	"I know a lot of people, Hayley. I just happen to have taken you to the places
where the people that I know are.  I'm sure if we went for a walk on the street, we would
meet lots of people who don't have a clue who I am."
	Hayley raised an eyebrow and  looked at him like she didn't believe a word of it. 
"I'm not so sure about that," she said, shaking her head, but holding back laughter of her
own. "Everywhere we looked we'd probably hear people saying 'Look, there's Jules
Landon!'. Even little children, I bet."
	"You flatter me," he said, lifting the cup of coffee Paula had brought him, but just
then a couple walked past their table and the man stopped to shake Jules' hand, calling
him by name, and asking how he was doing.  Jules glanced sideways at Hayley, who met
his glance with raised brows and a look that clearly challenged him to prove her wrong,
while sipping silently on her tea.
	Hayley hardly remembered her meal afterwards, other than knowing it was good. 
She had known she was hungry, but hadn't realized just how hungry until the first bite of
food touched her taste buds.  After that, she simply ate and ate, while Jules sat back in his
chair and watched her with a touch of amusement.  For a tiny girl, she sure packed away
the food, he thought.
	"What?" Hayley asked once, looking up from her plate with her fork half lifted,
and finding him sitting there watching her.  He hadn’t said anything to catch her
attention, but she had sensed his eyes on her.
	"I was just wondering if I could afford to hire you after all.  You might be too
expensive to feed," he said, then laughed at the shocked expression that fleeted across her
face.  "For God's sake, I'm teasing, Little One!  I do that once in a while," he assured her.
"Now, eat! Lord knows I made you starve long enough."  
	There was something about the way the words Little One rolled off his tongue,
almost like an endearment,  that made Hayley blush and focus her eyes on her plate
instead of looking at him.  She continued to eat, until the last of the food was cleaned off
her plate.  "I hadn't realized how hungry I really was," she told him, somewhat
apologetically.  "I don't normally eat like this, I promise!"
	"I'm quite certain you don't," he said, his eyes trailing over her body, taking in her
slim, shapely frame and  bringing a blush to her face.  She certainly did not suffer from
over eating, he thought, there was hardly anything to her.  If he had been going to say any
more, however,  he was interrupted by Paula, checking to see if they needed anything
else.  
	"I believe we're finished, Paula, thank you. That is if the lady has had enough to
eat?"  He looked at Hayley with a raised brow, and she quickly assured him that she
could not eat another bite. He turned a smile towards Paula once again.  "Then that
settles it.  We are indeed  finished, Paula."
	"Here's your bill then, Jules," Paula said before hustling away, and Hayley flushed
slightly.
	"Oh dear!" she sighed.
	"What's the matter?" Jules asked her.
	"It's just — well, I've cost you a great deal of money today, and I haven't even
started work yet!  I mean, the plane ticket, the hotel room, the clothes, and now this. 
How will you possibly afford to pay me after all this!"
	"Pay you?  Did you think I intended to pay you?"
	Hayley sat looking at him in shock.  It wasn't until he broke out in a grin that she
realized that he was teasing her again, and lowered her lashes in embarrassment for
having taken him seriously.
	"You take me much too seriously, Hayley Belton," he told her.  "I'm not an ogre,
and I don't bite.  My staff all think I'm quite amicable to work for, and I hope you will
too. And as far as the money I've spent on you today, don't give it a second thought.  I
assure you, I can afford it."  With that, he pushed his chair away from the table and stood
up, his long strides taking him away from her faster than she could get out of her chair.  If
there was one thing she had learned about Jules Landon over the few hours since she had
arrived, it was that when he considered a topic closed, that was all there was to it. 
	She caught up with him just as he finished paying the bill.   He turned to retrieve
her coat and help her put it on before getting his own.  She watched as he pulled his
zipper up high and flipped his hood up over his head, and decided he knew the weather
better than she did, so she followed his lead.  Next thing she knew they were stepping out
into a bitter cold, but it touched only her face, and threatened only her legs through her
jeans.  She was thankful for every one of Sidney's wares, but silently wished she was
already wearing the long johns they had picked up earlier as well.  Suddenly that act of
buying her underwear seemed much less intimate than she had thought at the store. It was
merely survival. Even the truck was cold inside.
	"You'll welcome a warm bed tonight, I imagine," Jules said, as he pulled the truck
away from the restaurant. 
	Hayley thought back to the sleep deprived night she had spent in the hotel in
Vancouver.  The moment he mentioned sleep she felt incredibly tired.  "I certainly will,"
she agreed. "I didn't get much sleep last night."
	He glanced her way quickly.  "Why not? Was there something wrong with the
hotel room?"
	"Oh no, nothing like that!" she assured him. "I was just nervous about coming up
here, so far away from home, and — well, I was alone.  I mean, I was lonely."  Her voice
trailed off and she turned to look out the window, watching the lights of the
snow-covered city as they drove through its streets. 
	"You miss your mother," Jules said.  It was a statement, not a question, spoken in
a straight-forward, yet soft tone, almost as if he not only felt the emotion, but understood
it.  Hayley nodded. 
	"Yes, I miss her.  I suppose it was silly of me, not to sleep just because I was
alone in a hotel room, though. I mean, I'd planned to leave home and go to college years
ago.  If Mother hadn't taken ill, I would have been out of the house and living on my own
long before this.  I am twenty-three you know."
	He eyed her closely while sitting at an intersection, the glow of the streetlight
washing across her face.  "Yes," he said, but she sensed there was more that he didn't say. 
Then he put the truck in motion again, and neither of them said anything for quite some
time. 
	"Where are we sleeping tonight, Jules?" she asked, finally, when she realized that
they appeared to have left the commercial area of the city. 
	"My apartment," he said, without turning to look at her. 
	"Your what?" she asked, wide eyed.
	"My apartment," he repeated, and as if on cue, he turned the truck into a parking
lot, shut it off, and climbed out.  He fished for something in the back, then reappeared at
the front of the vehicle and attached an electrical cord to it, plugging it into the wall of
the building. 
	"You plug the truck in?" she asked, in amazement, and he smiled at her.  Once
again, an indication that she was out of her element.
	"Yes, Little One.  I plug it in so it will start in the morning.  It can go down to
minus forty over-night, or colder."
	"So you mentioned before," she said, with a shiver.  He was pulling her luggage
out of the back of the SUV, and handed her the shopping bags from their spree, then she
found herself following him once again, struggling to keep up. She still wasn't used to
walking fast in her boots, and his strides covered twice as much ground as hers.  She was
thankful that she no longer had just her running shoes on, but she was even more thankful
once they were inside the building.
	The apartment he took her to was nothing fancy.  Just a place for him to lay his
head when he needed to, when he was in town on business, he told her.  It was furnished
with only the essentials, and Hayley noticed, with relief, that there were two bedrooms,
and two beds.
	"I won't be long for bed," she said, as she followed him into the smaller of the two
rooms, where he set down her luggage. He straightened, and looked at her, his eyes
traveling the full height of her body just as he had done at the airport, and she blushed,
and fidgeted with a strand of her long black hair.	
	"Don't feel we have to entertain each other," he said at last, no hint of the teasing
tone  that had been in his voice at the restaurant. "You can go to bed as soon as you like. 
In the morning we'll fly out to the lodge."
	She felt a little uncomfortable again, like she had when she had first seen this
towering man standing in front of her in the airport. From the tone of his voice, she could
only assume that he had tired of her company and wanted to be rid of her for a while. 
Maybe he was wishing they were back at the lodge already?  Maybe there was some
woman he would have been visiting tonight if he weren't there with her? After all, the
man would turn heads anywhere he went, she was certain there had to be a woman — or
women even.  Why, she could even fall   under his spell, if she let her guard down.  When
he looked at her with those dark, roaming eyes, she had to remind herself that this was
her boss!  But then, when he withdrew behind that stern exterior he chose, it was much
easier to remember.  Perhaps it would be best after all, if she just stayed in the bedroom
and went to bed. She was sure she would feel less confused in the morning. 
	"Well, in that case, I think I'll take you up on that suggestion, and go to bed early,"
she said, picking up one of her cases and setting it on a chair as she spoke. "It's been a
very long two days travelling, and the past few months haven't been that great either. I
could use a good night sleep."  He watched as she opened her case, and extracted a
hairbrush, toothbrush, and toothpaste, then clutched an article of clothing in her hands.
	"The bathroom is right across the hall," he said, and she smiled awkwardly and
nodded. Then he nodded too, and turned to leave the room. 
	"Jules," she said, her voice calling him back, and he stopped to look back at her
over his shoulder.  "Thank you for everything you've done for me today," she said, with a
weak smile.
	He hesitated, looking at her again, then nodded curtly.  "Don't mention it," he said
as he turned towards the door again.  "Good night, Hayley," he said pausing for a moment
in the doorway, then he was gone.