Direct action. No more talking and a lot more walking.
He was going to show Saskia Elwood that he meant business and she could trust him to deliver on his promises in the only way he knew how, up front and personal.
All he had to do was find some way of persuading her to leave her cosy little nest and jump on the morning flight back to France.
Persuading women to agree to his every whim was usually not a problem for him. Shame that Saskia was not the type of woman he normally met. He liked girls who could stand up for themselves and make their own way. Running a private meeting venue on your own was not a trivial thing. He admired her for that.
But, from what he had seen today, there was something she wanted. Something that he could give her. Something she might find too irresistible to turn down.
‘It’s good to see a girl enjoying her food,’ he quipped as Saskia liberally tossed cheese and black pepper over the generous portion of pasta that she had piled into her bowl.
Her hand froze, then relaxed as he chuckled quietly under his breath and loaded his bowl with twice her portion.
‘Guilty as charged. I love my food and drink. Always have.’
‘Well, here is a thought. How you would like to travel to France with me tomorrow? It shouldn’t take more than three or four days to visit each of the vineyards, but I guarantee that you will be back here for Monday morning.’
‘France? Why would I want to go to France with you?’
Rick waggled his eyebrows a couple of times up and down and then grinned when she groaned and turned back to her food with a shake of her head.
‘I fell into that one.’ She waved. ‘Please. Carry on.’
‘Apart from the pleasure of your delightful company, I thought that you might be persuaded to buy wine from me if you met some of the producers in person.’
‘Ah. Emotional blackmail. Once I meet the growers you know that I will not be able to say no to them. Now that is a low trick.’
He paused and took a sip of wine before looking up at Saskia. He knew all about emotional blackmail. His parents were experts.
‘Not at all. Creating my own business means that I have the freedom to create my own list of premium customers. Customers like you.’
Her head came slowly up and she continued chewing for a moment before replying, ‘Me? I don’t think so.’
‘But I do. I want you to be part of that first wave of special buyers in London, Saskia. No. More than that. I need you to support my launch. In return, I am offering you an amazing discount on the wine and I will promote Elwood House along the way. That is special.’
‘Why do you want to sell to a one-woman operation like me?’ she replied with a short cough of disbelief. ‘Why not focus on the big five-star hotels where you can be guaranteed large orders?’
Rick swallowed down his pasta and waved the fingers of one hand towards her chest. ‘Because of who your family are, of course. I want the Elwood name to be attached to my store. It’s as simple as that.’
She stared at him in shocked silence as though she could hardly believe what she had heard. So he continued to twirl his linguini and talk at the same time. ‘My parents sign contracts with bulk producers over slick boardroom tables without even visiting the vineyard. I cannot work like that. No. I refuse to work like that.’
Risk shook his head. ‘I deal with people one to one. When they sign a contract they are signing it with me, not some faceless organisation who will drop them at the first sign of trouble. I am the person who commits to making their dream come true and in return they make the best wine that they are capable of. And that is something very special. Something you can be part of.’
He scanned the table for a second then pounced on the bowl of Parmesan, deliberately ignoring the fact that Saskia was glaring at him with a look that could freeze ice.
He brushed his hands off and pushed the bowl across the table to her abandoned dinner. ‘More Parmesan? No? It is quite simple really. I meant what I said earlier. You want to serve the best. And I believe that I have the best. Come to France with me tomorrow and I’ll show you why I’m sticking my neck out. No glossy brochures, no fancy advertising agencies. Just a hands-on demonstration of the quality RB Wines is going to become world famous for. That way we both win!’
Saskia slid back in her chair and folded her arms. ‘So let me get this straight. You want me to buy wine from you so that you can use the Elwood name as some sort of seal of approval for your producers. You don’t need me at all. You just need the name to bring some credibility to a risky business venture. Isn’t that more like the truth?’
‘Oh, I want a lot more than that,’ he replied as he lowered his wine glass. ‘I want to buy credibility and respectability with a huge dollop of tradition and heritage on the side.’
His fingers traced out a sign in the air between them. ‘RB Wines. Suppliers to Elwood House, London. It would give me just the kudos to bring customers in the door, and, once inside the shop, we can create the most tantalising selection of prestige wines in the city. Which you get to see first. The best for the best.’
‘We can create the selection of wines? I’m not sure I believe that. Not when the mighty Richard Burgess ego is part of the decision making process. It’s almost as if you want to become the new Elwood Brothers but all on your own.’
He paused then slowly nodded his head. ‘Yes, I suppose I do.’ A strange look crossed Rick’s face and he chuckled at the back of his throat. ‘Now that is one hell of a crazy thought. Yeah. Actually that is amazing. Thank you.’
‘In fact, you have a brother, don’t you?’
He looked up at her as though he had temporarily forgotten that she was there.
‘Not any longer. But that doesn’t matter. RB Wines is going to be spectacular.’
She unfolded her arms and leant forward and stared at him in the eyes. He didn’t even blink or look away.
‘This is a vanity project, Richard Burgess. And I’m not interested in pandering to your ego by selling out my family name. Not for any money.’
‘Selling out your name? Oh no, that’s not what I’m offering. I haven’t got to the good bit yet.’
‘Oh, there’s a good bit? Well, please carry on. This should be most entertaining.’
He put down his fork and bent from the waist so that their noses were almost touching. ‘I don’t want to buy your name, Saskia. I’m offering you the chance to take the inside track on the best new producers in Europe and, as a bonus, my company will commit to using Elwood House for the next two years. Now that’s what I call a partnership made in heaven.’
* * *
Of all the arrogance!
Saskia glared at Rick and decided that she must be hearing things.
Otherwise, this casually dressed hotshot had just demanded that she drop everything and take off to France with him for a few days. With the promise of a long-term meeting contract—if she agreed to buy and, more importantly to her, serve his wine to her clients, who expected her to give them the best.
RB Wines would be sitting on her shelves next to a handful of growers who had been supplying the Elwood family for decades and, in the case of some chateaux, for over a century.
As if flashing his money around would open the doors to the cellars. Hah!
She had grown up surrounded by people who thought that arrogance and bravado could get them where they wanted to go. Charming, attractive people like her father, who believed that they could do what they liked and tell people what to do and get away with it.
Her father was not so different from Rick.
Handsome, tall, dark, with wonderful eyes and a smile that could disarm a woman the minute she laid eyes on him and persuade even the hardest businessmen into handing over their money and investing in commercial property in cities all over the world.
And they had.
Shame that her father thought that using other people’s money to pay for his high risk building projects was a perfectly acce
ptable thing to do. He was arrogant enough to believe that he couldn’t fail and his plans for office buildings designed by cutting-edge architects had become risky and riskier. Blame the property market, he used to say, not me. Just wait until the economy picks up. Companies will be desperate to use my office space and everyone will get a great return on their money.
It had come as quite a shock when the courts disagreed.
Saskia remembered only too clearly what it was like for her mother on the day he’d been arrested for embezzlement and fraud. She’d believed in him, trusted him and had faith in all his excuses and rational explanations for why they were losing money day after day.
They had both loved him so badly that the truth was hard to accept. He was a fool. An arrogant and delusional man who thought that money could buy him status and class and power. That was why he’d married her mother. Chantal Elwood was the only daughter of one of the famous Elwood brothers, the most respected wine merchant in Britain. And the oldest. The Elwood family had given him access to clients he would never have otherwise met.
Little wonder that they’d trusted Hugo Mortimer when he came to them with an idea for a thirty-storey office block in a mid-west American city. Trust me, he’d said. These buildings are going to be safe havens for your money in the current financial climate. And they had trusted him.
And he had abused the power and influence and robbed them and cheated them.
She yearned to tell Rick exactly what he could do with his proposal but she couldn’t.
‘A partnership made in heaven?’ She gulped. ‘Well, your idea of heaven is apparently a lot different from mine. What are you thinking?’
She put down her fork and looked around the dining room. ‘You don’t know anything about me apart from what you have picked up through a few Internet searches.’
‘That can be changed. And yes, I do know you.’
‘Really? You might think you do. Well, I certainly do not know you.’
‘Then come to France with me tomorrow and find out for yourself.’
‘Thank you, but I have a business to run. What makes you think that I can just take off when I please? Life is not like that.’
‘It can be. Let’s decide this here and now.’
He grabbed a paper napkin and scribbled something on it and slid it across the table in front of her.
‘This is the consultancy fee for your expenses. If, for some crazy reason, you still feel the same way at the end of the week, then Angie will set up the bookings at Elwood House regardless. But if you do decide to buy from me? We will be in the right place at the right time to create something amazing.’
Saskia glared at him for a second and then glanced down at the napkin. And then picked it up and blinked at it in disbelief at a number with lots of zeroes on the end of it.
‘You can’t be serious,’ she gasped.
‘You said yourself. Your time is valuable. One week of your time. Seven days. I have a generous marketing budget and every time you serve RB Wines to your prestigious guests at Elwood House you are promoting my company. Your excellent taste. My producers. Take a risk, Saskia. You have nothing to lose. Tempted?’
And, almost casually, he picked up his fork and went back to his pasta.
While she had suddenly lost her appetite.
Unbelievable!
Her gaze landed on the delicious bottle of hugely expensive Italian red wine she was enjoying and she took a long sip to cool her dry throat, taking the time to savour every drop.
Of course she was tempted!
She was running on credit and the nest egg Aunt Margot had left was not going to last much longer. She needed to make Elwood House work. She needed the bookings and she needed them now.
What was she going to do? Ruin her credibility and family reputation for the sake of a few bottles of dodgy wine? Her fingers stilled.
The very last thing she wanted was to get involved with yet another conman who could talk the talk but not deliver the goods and, most importantly, keep his side of the bargain when it came to the push.
Her fingers pressed hard into her forehead as she tried to process everything that Rick had said. And failed.
Oh he was good.
Okay, her father had been a city boy born and bred. Perhaps the similarity ended there. But one thing was abundantly clear. Rick Burgess was every bit the same type of hustler, with the power to make every single woman, and even those not so single, swoon with one look.
Been there. Done that. Still trying to put out the flames.
She was still human, and a girl, but that didn’t change a thing.
There was no way she could take this man, who she had only met a few hours earlier, and introduce him as a serious wine merchant to her guests.
How could she even think about putting them through what they had suffered at the hands of her father? He had been credible and his clients adored him.
Hugo Mortimer the man was a delight, the life and soul of any party. Charismatic and charming.
Hugo Mortimer the property developer was a disaster who had destroyed her life and certainly ruined the lives of more than one family around the world who’d trusted their savings to his ridiculous arrogance and high risk schemes.
She just couldn’t do it. She couldn’t take the risk. Not where Elwood House was concerned.
‘I’m not going to France with you, Rick. Don’t take it personally. I decided years ago that I wanted to stay independent. That way, there are no compromises or surprises. And I certainly don’t want to take orders from someone else once I sign a contract.’
‘I understand that.’ His smile widened to the point where she thought that she might fall into it and be swallowed up. ‘But then I didn’t expect you to run Elwood House on your own. The hotel owners I know are notoriously male, egotistical and stubborn. Or at least... That record stood until today. You opened my eyes to what I have been missing.’
His gaze wrapped around her shoulders and neck and slowly, slowly made its way up her face and into her hair, until she had to fight not to squirm under the heat so she frowned at him instead. ‘On the other hand, maybe the stubborn bit still applies.’
She leant forwards across the table until her nose was only inches from his.
‘I would hate to thwart your expectations. You might never recover from the shock.’
‘I think I can handle anything you throw at me,’ he replied, his upper lip twitching.
‘Really?’ Saskia picked up her glass of excellent Italian red and swirled it under her nose before taking a long sip. ‘Then come up with a proposal that doesn’t involve me selling out my reputation for excellence.’
‘Okay. Final offer. If you don’t like the wine I offer you then you don’t have to buy it. And I still pay your consultancy fee and use Elwood House. Is that any better?’
Saskia tilted her glass until the last drop touched her lips. ‘Move your company office into Elwood House. Long-term contract.’
‘Done.’
‘I can’t guarantee that I will buy anything from you. You know that, don’t you?’
‘Of course. Buy hey, with what I am going to show you, how could you possibly resist? And can I order the Prosecco now?’
She inhaled slowly and then gave a small sharp nod.
And instantly regretted it because he immediately leapt out of his chair, pulled her to her feet by grabbing both shoulders and kissed her hard on the lips. Then he dropped her back down like a sack and rubbed the palms of his hands together.
‘Brilliant. What time can you be ready in the morning?’
FIVE
Must-Do list
Be sure to pack the spare chargers for phone, camera and notebook computer.
Deliberately leave behind the list of chat-up lines that Kate emailed. Way too dangerous and some of them would crash the car.
Remember your CDs—just in case Rick is a fan of heavy metal.
Stay focused, stay frosty. No getting sidetracked by the love
ly view etc. I have a fine view right here in London, thank you.
Try not to worry about the house more than every few minutes. Amber and Kate have things under control. EEP.
‘No, Kate. No more gloves. Seriously. I do not need eight pairs of gloves for a week in the French countryside, so please take at least some of them out of my case,’ Saskia protested.
‘Spoilsport,’ Kate hissed and held up a plum-coloured satin slip. ‘Amber? What do you think of the seduction power of this one?’
‘Not bad, actually,’ Amber laughed and sidled over to Saskia, who was sitting on the bed with her head in her hands.
‘Why did I ask you two to help me pack?’ Saskia whimpered as Amber gave her a shove. ‘I keep telling you. It’s a business trip to three vineyards in France—that’s all. The Champagne region. Then the Alps and north to Alsace. I am talking muddy fields and icy-cold cellars, not salons fit for satin.’
‘A business trip. Yes.’ Kate nodded wisely. ‘Of course it is.’ Then rolled her eyes. ‘One week on the road and all alone with the hunk of the year. Believe me, that boy will see you in your lingerie one way or another before the week is out. And you might as well get used to the idea, even if you don’t plan to show him your knickers.’
Saskia clutched the edges of her practical thick towelling bath robe tighter across her chest. ‘Katherine Lovat!’
Then she sniffed and peered into her suitcase and gave a small shoulder shrug. ‘Good thing I only have huge cotton granny pants. They should work as instant boy repellent in case he gets any ideas.’
‘That may not be entirely true.’ Amber smiled and pulled out a bag from under the bed with the name of an exclusive lingerie shop on the side. ‘Kate and I decided that we were being extremely selfish going shopping for fripperies today while you worked, so we splashed out on a little something to brighten your top drawer. I hope you like it.’
‘Of course we would have bought a lot more if we had known that you were being wooed by Rick the Reckless, but hey, this should keep him interested and no, you are not allowed to open up your present until the occasion calls for it.’
Blame It on the Champagne Page 6