by Addison Fox
Simon folded his menu and turned toward her. “So, Keira. You mentioned on the phone you’ve got a new proposal. I’d like to hear it.”
Reaching for the slim folder she’d packed before leaving her office, Keira debated briefly as she pulled out the two printed copies. Ignore Nathan and draw even more attention to their situation. Or give him her copy of the proposal and present from memory, showcasing how well she knew her material.
Acting on impulse, she handed both men copies and dove in. Within moments, she knew the move had been the correct one. Rather than focusing on the pages, she walked Simon through her vision for a new application, one that expanded on the beauty app and was sure to give his company a competitive advantage within weeks.
An hour later, she watched as Simon’s broad-shouldered form wove its way through the dining room, a signed letter of intent now sitting in her tote.
“Well played, Ms. McBride.”
The glow of a successful business lunch evaporated as if doused with a sudden rain shower. “Excuse me?”
“You had him from the word go. I’m impressed. And the presentation from memory was inspired. You had him completely captivated and eating out of the palm of your hand. That’s no mean feat with Baldwin.”
She wasn’t sure why the words chafed at her, but something in his tone did, as if her idea didn’t stand on its own merit but had to be sold by her looks. “I didn’t have him, Nathan. I presented him with a good business opportunity.”
“One he enjoyed taking advantage of. You were magnificent.”
The warm pleasure that had filled her stomach earlier twisted into something far more dark as she worked to decipher his meaning. “What are you implying, exactly?”
“You just sold Simon Baldwin, a notoriously hard sell, a project in an hour. The man’s ridiculously careful in his decision-making and doesn’t jump on anything, which has been a successful strategy for him, but it doesn’t change the fact it’s his MO. Yet here you are, selling him a million-dollar deal in the amount of time it takes to eat a salad and a piece of salmon. So I’m telling you, well played.”
It was silly of her to get upset. She was a saleswoman, first and foremost, in charge of a company full of salespeople. She looked for that special spark in her employees, someone who could passionately sell a proposal. No matter how good an idea, delivery made a big impression.
So why couldn’t she shake the implied insult of his words? Or the sudden throat-tightening anger at being patted on the head?
“Are you suggesting if I weren’t wearing makeup and showing off my legs, he wouldn’t have gone for the deal?”
“No, I’m not.” Confusion at the turn in the conversation imprinted itself in a small line between his brows. “But you have to admit it didn’t hurt. You’re a beautiful woman, Keira. You’re also smart and incredibly savvy. He’d have been a fool not to notice.”
Sly tendrils of pleasure unfurled within her at the compliment, and she ruthlessly stamped on it. She would not let him get the upper hand. “Yet again, Mr. Cooper, I can’t fathom why you seem to equate what I look like with my success.”
“It’s Nathan.” Whatever light had been in his eyes was gone as he threw his napkin down and reached for the bill. “And I fail to understand why you can’t accept who you are is as much of a business advantage as your mind and your ideas and your family history. It’s all a package, Keira. Why the hell are you so insulted by it?”
Something sparked to life inside of her, catching fire in her belly with the ember of forgotten memories. Her father had been that dismissive. That indifferent.
“Do whatever you want, Keira. If you and Camryn and Mayson want to play at running the company, be my guest. I’m done wasting my time with it. I should have let your grandfather get rid of it years ago.”
“It’s your tone I’m insulted by. As if I’m some object to be petted.”
“Is that really it, princess?” The light of battle set his shoulders in a hard line as he leaned forward. “Because I think it’s something else. I think it bothers you that I see you as a desirable woman. And you know what I think bothers you even more?”
He let the question hang there, and damn her if she didn’t respond. “Oh, please enlighten me.”
“I think it bothers the hell out of you that you see me as a man.”
Refusing to acknowledge the taunt, Keira reached for the bill, her trembling movements quick enough he couldn’t react and snatch it away from her. She picked up his credit card and tossed it to him as she slammed her own inside the bill’s sleeve.
“What are you doing?”
“It was my business lunch. It’s my company. It’s my expense.”
He sat back, the light of battle still a harsh aura around his powerful frame. Everything about him spoke of power. Control. Influence. His designer custom-fitted suit. His five-hundred-dollar haircut. His black and gold credit card. But even without those things, Keira knew it wouldn’t have mattered.
It was him.
Power dripped off him in the same way a lion owned the jungle or a lightning storm owned the sky.
“Truth hurts, doesn’t it?”
“I don’t run from the truth, nor do I run from competition. You can sit here and think whatever you’d like. About me, about my company, about how I’m going to approach this negotiation with you. You won’t win.”
The slash of his mouth shifted and spread until a wicked smile crested those lush, sinful lips. “You, or your company?”
“Both.”
“I do love a good fight. It makes winning that much sweeter. To that end, what are you doing Friday?”
She shook her head as she reached for the credit card statement their waiter had laid beside her. “Have you developed a sudden case of deafness, Nathan?”
“Not in the least. I want to see you again. Friday’s only a few days away. I’d like to get plans solidified.”
“We won’t be seeing each other again.” Keira slammed her wallet into her purse and stood, barely catching herself before pushing the chair back in a heated rush.
“You can’t deny there’s an attraction between us.” His voice was quiet but she didn’t miss a single word, despite the din of the restaurant.
And there it was. The one piece she’d attempted to delude herself into thinking would go away. “No, I won’t deny it. I also won’t act on something that can hurt everything I’ve worked for.”
“So just like that you won’t give me a chance? Won’t give us a chance?”
Temptation beckoned and for the first time in her life she had a sense of what must have gone down in the Garden of Eden. Nothing was rational about her attraction to Nathan, but the wisps of need that curled in her belly didn’t seem to care.
“I can’t.”
“Can’t or won’t?”
“It’s a moot point as I’m out of town this weekend.”
“Where are you going?”
Where Keira thought the logic of being out of town would be a deterrent, the interest that leapt into his eyes had doubt inching along her spine. “That dying little magazine of ours you were so quick to dismiss? Home and Family? It’s our annual food and wine festival in Las Vegas. I’ve got plans.”
Nathan extended a hand and settled his palm across her lower back as they walked through the restaurant. His voice was low when he leaned in and whispered in her ear. “Perfect. I’ve needed to see to some business interests in Vegas. I’ll see you at the festival.”
Chapter Four
Nathan knew money could buy a lot of things, but he couldn’t hold back the undiluted admiration at what Keira and her staff had created in the large hotel conference center, deep in the heart of the Las Vegas strip.
The convention space had been transformed into a food-lovers’ paradise, complete with elaborate stations for a number of celebrity chefs, long rows of wine-tasting stations, and what had to be eight million twinkle lights woven into a tapestry of color along the entire length of the hal
l.
A small army of staff moved in an oddly chaotic ballet, directing workers to where they needed to place electrical strips, propane tanks, and racks of wineglasses. In the middle of it all stood Keira. A thin headset sat on her head and she marched around the room in a pair of heels that would fell a lesser woman at thirty paces.
She was incredible, and a small ache settled in the pit of his stomach as he stood off to the side and watched her. Where had this come from?
She hadn’t been far from his thoughts for the last forty-eight hours and Nathan still hadn’t figured out how he could possibly have missed a woman he barely knew. Or why he couldn’t stop thinking about her.
A loud commotion pulled him from his thoughts when a waiter carrying too many stacks of wineglasses stumbled over a taped-down electrical wire. Whatever softer emotions had him gazing at Keira fled as he leaped into action. Nathan pushed forward to keep the man from falling onto Keira, while loud shouts echoed in the cavernous space around them.
Crushing her to him, Nathan dragged her several paces, his arms full of surprised woman. Her hands pressed against his chest and her lips formed a surprised O as she stared up at him.
“What?”
His arms stayed tight around her as he fought to calm his raging heartbeat. “Are you okay?”
“Me? What? I’m fine.” She struggled against him, her slender form sending his blood pressure soaring even higher as the length of her body brushed against his before she scrambled out of his arms.
“You could have broken an ankle in those shoes. Are you sure you’re okay?” He took a few steps toward her, closing the distance she created and reaching for her hand even as his inane words echoed in his head.
He’d spent his adult life admiring women who wore sexy heels and now he was worried she’d break a leg? Shaking it off, he couldn’t ignore the subtle grimace that lined her lips. Her expression held more anger and embarrassment than pain. “If that’s the worst we deal with today, I’ll consider myself lucky.”
As she smoothed down her multicolored silk blouse in a nervous gesture, he couldn’t hold back a small smile. “But are you okay?”
“Yes, I really am fine.” Keira pulled her gaze from the hotel staff who’d quickly come over to help with the broken glasses. “Running about two hours behind schedule, but fine.”
“You’ve got an army of workers in here. It’ll all get done.”
“That’s what my catering manager told me.” With one final look around, she turned to him. “What are you doing here?”
“I told you I wanted to see you this weekend.”
Nathan could have sworn he saw a quick spark of something deep in those luscious brown eyes before she firmly shut it down. “And I told you I’ve got work to do.”
“Well then, why don’t you show me around as you do all that work you so urgently need to get back to? Especially now that we’ve averted today’s disaster.”
Her eyes narrowed as she stared back at him and Nathan felt the battle of wills arc through the air between them as Keira decided her next move. “Fine. The sooner I show you around, the sooner I can get rid of you.”
“That’s what you think.”
He was surprised to realize he meant every word.
…
Keira fought down the urge to respond as she turned on her heel and started for the section of the room labeled California Reds. She hated the petulant tone that tinged her words and hated even more the way he could make her feel so off her game. As someone who prided herself on her sense of control, comportment, and decorum, this constant unease was troubling. The small voice that sounded remarkably like her sisters’ rose up at that moment to be heard over the din of confusion roiling through her mind.
Maybe a little time spent out of control is just what you need.
She ran her hands over her blouse once more to brush away non-existent wrinkles and moved her thoughts firmly to the voices echoing through her headset instead. Sadly, even that was a disappointment, seeing as how everything was moving smoothly toward the finish line.
Damn, where was an emergency when she needed one?
On a soft sigh, she turned back toward Nathan, cursing the butterflies in her stomach. Did the man have to be so compelling? His liquid blue eyes and broad shoulders were set off to perfection by his work-casual outfit of a button-down white shirt open at the throat, charcoal slacks, and a beautiful pair of Italian loafers.
“Let’s start in wines.”
He nodded and followed, his gaze alert as it roved over the various stations in progress. Forcing a polite blandness into her tone, she began the same practiced speech she’d give the reporters in another few hours.
“The show is in its twenty-seventh year. It started as a destination to showcase all our food advertisers in Home and Family magazine and quickly took on a life all its own.”
“How many attendees?”
“We’ll have more than thirty thousand. When my dad was running it we were lucky to hit a few thousand, although to hear my sister tell it, no more than about twenty people bothered to show up.”
A small smile creased his lips at her small aside, but Keira didn’t miss the clear note of respect in his next words. “That’s impressive.”
She heard the respect in his tone and was startled, turning toward him as they came upon the set of booths that was their destination. “Thank you.”
“Are all the participants advertisers?”
“We’d like them to be, but some simply take advantage of the show. We have a series of marketing packages, so I’d still consider them advertisers, even if they’re not in the pages of the magazine. We’ve also converted several to our online properties, with that number increasing each year.”
“Clever.”
“It’s business. Once they see the power of the Home and Family audience in person, they realize how hard it is to ignore.”
“You’re a force to be reckoned with.”
The compliment flowed over her and Keira stopped to look at him. Really look at him. Beyond the movie-star eyes and the athletic frame and the expensive shoes.
Was this all part of his game? Make her feel that her work had meaning before going in for the kill?
She wanted to believe there was a cold, unfeeling man underneath that very warm-looking surface so she could protect herself. But even as she kept putting up a brick wall of skepticism, she couldn’t shake the idea that he was sincere. Add on the heady feelings invoked by that mysterious blue gaze, one that made her think of quiet corners and private moments, and she knew she was in trouble.
With every ounce of self-possession she could muster, Keira forced herself back to her mental script as they reached the first booth. “This is the start of the wine stations. We begin with the California reds and move on from there.”
“Why the reds?”
“It’s our largest base of participants, for starters.”
“All who have pretty easy access to the show,” he said as he looked at one of the tasting areas.
“Absolutely. Vegas is an easy trip for them. Plus, people are probably least intimidated by the more familiar wines here and it kicks this section off with a bang.”
“Smart.”
Keira couldn’t hold back the smile. “Practical. We get them happy here and move them to the European wines. By the time they hit Bordeaux, we’ve got them hooked.”
Nathan turned from the booth he was inspecting and gave her a broad smile. “I’ll amend that to smart and devious.”
The smile was infectious and she couldn’t hold her own back. “I like to think of it as good business sense.”
“Oh, it’s definitely that.” He took another look around, turning in a slow circle. “This is far more than I ever expected. Truth be told, I’d heard this event wasn’t all that well done.”
Keira fought to keep her voice level, the lingering reputation of the festival something she and her sisters had fought for the better part of a decade. “And wh
en did you hear that?”
“It floats around.”
On a soft sigh, she nodded, unable to fully blame him for a reputation carved by the hands of another. “That it does. It’s the single biggest thing my sales staff has to fight to get someone new on board. Do you know how many free passes we’ve given away to this event to change people’s minds? I can’t understand why the reputation dogs us like it does after so many successful years.”
“How did the rumor start in the first place?”
While she had little interest in traveling down memory lane, she also refused to let gossip and innuendo win this round. “My father paid little attention to the event. Thought it was beneath his notice.”
“Conferences are big money.”
“Yes, well, growing up with money, he’s had surprisingly little interest in understanding how it’s actually made. He falls more squarely in the camp of ‘I’ll spend it on myself.’”
“So why bring back something that had fallen so far?”
“This was the first project Cam, Mayson, and I took on.”
“For the company?”
“Yep. About eight years ago we made him an offer he couldn’t refuse. If we turned a profit two years in a row, he’d give us Home and Family to run. All of it. The magazine, the website, everything.”
“Since the three of you seem rather unstoppable, I’d wager you turned a profit in one.”
Keira couldn’t hold back the grin. “Damn straight.”
“So that’s why you still take part at such a deep level of detail.”
“Right again. The company’s my legacy, but this festival matters to me on a personal level.”
Nathan spread a hand to indicate the path in front of them. “Come on. I’d like to see the rest of it.”
…
The happy laughter and noise of the crowd surrounded him as Nathan walked the same path he’d taken earlier with Keira. True to Keira’s word, the conversations he overheard throughout the wine area reinforced the decision to put the California reds first. Several happy tourists toted tastings in plastic cups from one booth to the next while others lingered over standing tables with full glasses.