The Price of Seduction

by Nina Blake

  That hadn’t stopped his father from dying of a heart attack ten years ago. He’d only been fifty-five. Too young. Conrad still missed him.

  That was when Conrad had taken over Eden Enterprises. He hadn’t planned on taking over the company but didn’t think that was much to complain about in the scheme of things. He’d been young and it’d been an enormous challenge, luckily one he was up to.

  And here he was at yet another charity dinner. At least he’d enjoyed chatting to Jimmy, not to mention which Bree had some spark about her. Of a sort. Maybe that was why the room had so much flair tonight. He wondered if he should tell her she’d done a good job. Who knows? He might even be able to use someone with her skills.

  Conrad excused himself, stood from the table and looked for her. He had to stand back as an Elvis impersonator strode across the middle of the room and onto the stage. It took all of about ten seconds until he had the audience in the palm of his hand.

  Within a minute, the dance floor was filled and the guests in their black tie and evening gowns were rock and roll dancing. Conrad had been to many charity events but he’d never seen these people let their hair down. This had to be the cleverest public relations coup he had ever witnessed.

  Winding his way through the crowd, he had to congratulate Bree on a job well done. The praise would be well deserved after all.

  Nearing her, he waited a moment while she spoke to the master of ceremonies by the side of the stage. Now that the bulk of her work for the evening was over, she appeared relaxed, leaning against a speaker with a champagne glass in her hand. He hadn’t seen her drinking earlier.

  He’d only seen her ordering people around and giving instructions but now he saw a different woman. It’s true he’d already noticed her womanly curves but then it was hard to miss such a stunning figure. Yet, despite that, he hadn’t considered her particularly attractive, hadn’t seen through the professional veneer to the woman beneath.

  She tossed her head back and laughed, her smile reaching her blue eyes, her pale skin glowing. She gave the MC her full attention and he was clearly entranced. She was like a magnet pulling him into her field of attention, holding him with her gaze, pulling him in with invisible forces. Except her appeal was far from invisible.

  What man wouldn’t be captivated by such intelligent beauty? How could he have missed it earlier?

  There’d been many women in Conrad’s life. Women who wore only Versace and Collette Dinnigan, women who were constantly in the social pages and even a couple who’d graced the covers of magazines.

  Yet those women hadn’t done much except look beautiful. As if that was their full-time profession. There was a lot more to Bree than that.

  He stepped closer and as she glanced his way, the sparkle left her eyes, her expression becoming more distanced. This wasn’t going to be as easy as he’d thought.

  The MC excused himself, leaving the two of them together. Conrad asked Bree for a business card which she retrieved from her beaded purse and handed to him.

  He gave her one of his winning smiles. “Tonight has been full of surprises, hasn’t it?”

  “My job would be a lot easier with a few less surprises,” she said.

  “But you dealt with them so beautifully. You made it look easy.”

  “You have no idea how much work goes into making things look so easy.” Her eyes looked tired but there was the hint of a laugh in her voice.

  “Actually, I do,” he said. “You never know when I might need someone like you.”

  “Then you’d best speak to my boss, Olivia Kelly, not me.” Bree looked around as though she had other tasks with which to get on.

  “You’ve done an excellent job. I’ve been to lots of these gala events and most of them are a little on the boring side.”

  She frowned. It would’ve looked unbecoming on anyone else.

  “Don’t forget there’s a very good reason we’re here,” she said. “It’s all for a good cause.”

  “I didn’t mean that this was a boring event. Quite the opposite, in fact. I think that’s largely down to you.”

  He was expecting to be thanked for the compliment. Instead she held his gaze as if she couldn’t bring herself to do it. He decided to press her a little further and see what happened.

  “You were extremely pushy about the photos earlier on,” he said.

  “Was I?” She lifted one finely arched brow. “I can be much more forceful than that when I need to. As, I’m sure, can you.”

  Very few people were this frank with him. He glimpsed a spark of fire beneath the previously cool surface.

  He smiled. “I can be many things.”

  Bree returned his smile as she stepped past him. “You must excuse me. My work isn’t over yet.”

  Clearly he hadn’t made a good impression.

  Sydney was a big city and she should be more careful rather than to assume their paths would never cross.

  She hadn’t seen the last of him.

  He’d make sure of that.

  Chapter two

  Bree stood in the doorway of her boss’s office. “What do you mean we’ve got a meeting with Conrad Savage on Wednesday?”

  Olivia Kelly, owner of Kelly Communications, was cool as always. She pushed her light brown bobbed hair behind her ears and leaned forward in her office chair. She was a mature woman, always well groomed and always direct. You knew exactly where you stood with Olivia and that wasn’t necessarily a good thing.

  “Don’t act so surprised,” she said. “You must have made a good impression on him when you met at the Indi-Art Ball.”

  Bree sat down on the edge of a chair opposite the desk. “I really didn’t spend much time with him and that was nearly a month ago. I haven’t seen or heard from him since then.”

  “You shouldn’t be so modest. You’re the one bringing in this potential new client. I expected you’d bring more business to the firm but I didn’t think it’d happen so quickly.”

  “Surely he must have his own public relations people within Eden Enterprises,” Bree said. “And probably other consultants as well. Why do you think he’s coming to us now?”

  “He’s making a new investment and perhaps he wants to inject some new blood into it.”

  “A new investment?”

  “Il Bosco.”

  Steph had mentioned it to her. Eden Enterprises was tendering for the one million acres in the north west of Australia which made up Il Bosco. Steph had written a story about it for the newspaper after her senior editor had berated her for failing to get a lead on the story from Conrad the night of the ball.

  Bree also recalled that her ex-boyfriend Trevor Daniels had a client who was interested in that property but she hadn’t seen Trevor for months and had no idea what he was up to at the moment. She was happy to keep it that way.

  “I had no idea this would mean there’d be more work coming our way from Conrad,” Bree said.

  “You should keep your ear closer to the ground, dear.” Olivia Kelly leaned back in her chair. “So you’re on first name terms with him.”

  “It doesn’t mean anything. He insisted he didn’t like that kind of formality.”

  “Don’t get me wrong, Bree. I’m pleased. It can only help ensure we win his business.”

  “So you think he’s interested in a fresh public relations perspective for his new purchase.”

  “I believe so,” Olivia said. “From what I understand, his offer for Il Bosco is in the process of being accepted but hasn’t been finalised yet.”

  “And he wants both of us to meet with him?”

  “Yes. Eden Enterprises is a successful company and we should do whatever we can to win Conrad’s business.”

  Though she hadn’t said anything inappropriate, there was something about Olivia’s tone that put Bree on edge. It was always like this with her. And if you picked her up on it, she’d simply deny she’d meant anything by her comment.

  Bree held the woman’s gaze. “I just want to make
sure you understand if he’s interested in the firm it’s for our public relations skills. He’s not interested in me.”

  Olivia looked down her nose at her employee. “If you say so.” Then she smiled. “This will be quite a coup for us, you know.”

  Forcing herself to smile, Bree tried to concentrate on the task at hand.

  This wasn’t the first time she’d felt uncomfortable with Olivia’s suggestions.

  * * *

  Bree drummed her fingers on the handbag on her lap. “I knew he’d keep us waiting,”

  She and Olivia were sitting on the black leather and chrome Barcelona chairs in the foyer of Eden Enterprises.

  “He’s a busy man, my dear,” Olivia replied. “I hope you’re going to drop the attitude before we see him.”

  “Have you ever seen me be anything less than highly professional?”

  She took to her feet to avoid Olivia’s gaze just as Conrad Savage breezed into the room. Her stomach surged with excitement and a shiver ran up her spine. It must be the stress of dealing with a potential new client.

  He was such a striking figure that Bree couldn’t help but be momentarily taken by him. His flat-fronted trousers flattered his physique, not a hard thing to do. The pants were an unusual shade of dark grey flecked with green. He wore a pale blue shirt that accentuated the breadth of his shoulders while at the same time bringing out the blue in his eyes. She’d expected to see him in a tie and business jacket but the two items were conspicuously missing.

  Bree waited as Conrad’s eyes swept down her figure and she felt him taking in every square inch of her. She wore a crimson top that was low cut but still suitable for work, especially since she had a jacket over it. His eyes slipped over her sea green skirt down to a pair of black boots, then back up to rest on her face.

  He ran one hand through his dark hair only for it to fall back into exactly in the same place. Stretching out his arm for a handshake, he greeted Bree with a smile, then strode past her and introduced himself to Olivia before she had the chance to do so.

  “I know who you are, Mr Savage,” Olivia said.

  Judging from the sultry look in the woman’s eye, she was no doubt taken with him.

  “It’s Conrad,” he replied.

  He led them to a conference room with sweeping views of Sydney Harbour and the Opera House. Bree would have expected nothing less from one of the richest men in Australia, as her boss liked to constantly remind her.

  Expecting a stark minimalist interior, Bree was surprised to find that the room was ornate, a multitude of paintings hanging on the chocolate brown walls, each artwork individually lit by rectangular picture lights.

  Her heels clicked on the American oak floors as she strode towards a painting which, although not the largest in the room, was the most striking. She hadn’t noticed Conrad walking behind her but felt his breath on her neck as he spoke.

  “It’s a remarkable piece,” he said.

  It was clear he had good taste and probably extensive knowledge of art but, then, he also had the money to buy whatever he wished.

  “Yes, it is,” she said.

  “Do you remember the elderly Aboriginal man we met at the ball?”

  Bree stared at the painting, not game to turn her head. “Of course.”

  “That’s one of his. It’s a Jimmy Simpson.”

  Turning to face him, she looked up at him with an unwavering gaze. “Shouldn’t it be in an art gallery?”

  His lips curled to a teasing smile. “Would you like me to charge you admission?”

  “No, that’s not what I meant.”

  “I know exactly what you meant.”

  What was he playing at? He ushered them to their seats, pulled Olivia’s chair out for her, then did the same for Bree.

  “May I take your jacket?” he asked.

  “Thank you.”

  Only after she agreed did she realise how exposed she’d feel without it. His fingertips brushed the back of her neck as he removed her jacket, the skin on her neck suddenly cool, a gentle shiver running up her spine.

  Something about being this close to him didn’t agree with her. Or maybe it agreed with her too much. She wasn’t sure which, though she was relieved when he moved away to hang her jacket on a rack in the corner.

  Taking his seat, he asked Olivia to tell him more about Kelly Communications and the firm’s recent work. An experienced salesperson, she outlined the virtues of the public relations firm.

  Having heard Olivia’s practiced speech many times before, Bree looked down at her outstretched hands, her fingers curling around the top corners of her business folder. She glanced up, felt Conrad’s gaze upon her, and her eyes shot back down again.

  It was the pale skin of her cleavage he was looking at. He could look. She wasn’t wearing anything too revealing.

  She lifted her gaze to meet his own. His eyes were still upon her but now they rested on her face, an enigmatic look smouldering in his eyes. Bree couldn’t make it out, couldn’t work out what he might be thinking.

  She only knew those striking blue eyes which had seemed so piercing were now radiating a warmth which sent a charge through her.

  Bree glanced across at her boss, then back at Conrad. “Please tell us about Il Bosco. To handle the communications and PR, we’ll have to know everything about it.”

  Conrad confirmed there were a couple of formalities before the sale of the hundred year lease was finalised.

  “Parts of Il Bosco are important to the Aboriginal people,” he said. “We need to make sure they have access to both their sacred sites and rock art sites. It’s part of the tender.”

  “Il Bosco is up near Broome, is it?” Bree asked.

  “It’s about a thousand kilometres away, so it depends on your idea of ‘far’.”

  “I was just thinking about what happened in Broome with the dinosaur footprints.”

  They all nodded. Broome had been the site of two sets of dinosaur footprints embedded in rock, until recently when one set was blasted out of the ground and stolen. Even the authorities hadn’t worked out how the perpetrators had managed it.

  Conrad then described the property and its remarkable landscape. Stretching over a million acres from the Indian Ocean to far inland, the landscape on the property varied from lush tropical vegetation to sandstone ranges and cliffs.

  Some minor tourist development had already taken place but Conrad planned to further develop the property so it would attract visitors from around the globe.

  “I want to build a big world class resort,” he explained. “But keep it localised in the one area to preserve the environment. We need to be respectful both to the natural resources and the Aboriginal people, their culture and their needs.”

  “Doesn’t Il Bosco already had five star accommodation?” Olivia asked.

  “Yes, but only on a very small scale which takes me to my next point. I’d like to invite you both to come to Il Bosco as my guests. There are no obligations on either side. I’d like you to look around and get a feel for the property and for that part of the world. It’s truly spectacular.”

  “We’d love to, wouldn’t we?” Olivia shot back, leaving Bree no time to respond.

  “Perfect,” Conrad replied. “The plane leaves at 10am on Friday.”

  “If you mean this Friday, I have a bit of a problem,” Olivia began. “I’m going up to Cairns for a family reunion this weekend and I’m afraid I can’t change my plans. But Bree can oblige, I’m sure.”

  Bree had no objection to taking a business trip with her boss but she couldn’t even begin to contemplate what it might be like to be alone with a man like Conrad Savage in an exotic location for a whole weekend.

  She had to come up with something and fast.

  “It’s very short notice,” she said.

  “This is Wednesday,” Conrad said. “We leave on Friday. That gives you plenty of time.”

  “I have other commitments.”

  “Olivia has something very imp
ortant to do. A family reunion is an obligation. You may well have other engagements but they can always be cancelled.”

  “I only wish it were that simple.”

  In fact, if she wanted to go with him, it would be that simple

  Conrad leaned back in his chair, gazing across at her with a sultry smile loaded with suggestion. “Where’s your spontaneous side?”

  “I don’t have one,” Bree replied dryly. “I’m not an impulsive person.”

  “You’re organised and efficient and that’s why you’re good at your job but if you don’t have a small dash of daring you won’t get this account.” Conrad glanced in Olivia’s direction.

  “We’ll discuss this later,” Olivia said. “Tomorrow, we’ll get back to you to confirm. I assure you, we will come to an amicable arrangement.”

  Conrad smiled with the confidence of a man who always got what he wanted. Still, Bree wouldn’t compromise her integrity for business or career. That simply was not an option.

  They wrapped up the meeting and as Conrad ushered Olivia out of the door ahead of them, her mobile phone rang and she excused herself, stepping into the hallway to answer it.

  Conrad stood blocking the doorway while Bree waited. She felt her nervousness increase as his eyes skimmed the length of her figure, her clothes providing no protection against his confident gaze.

  An anxious tingle shot up her spine but she refused to flinch, refused to consider the possibility she might be enjoying his obvious interest in her.

  “Bring a bikini,” he whispered.

  “I beg your pardon.”

  “You’ll need to bring a bikini at the weekend. It’s very warm up there in May.”

  Bree pursed her lips. “Maybe I don’t have a bikini.”

  He spread his hands. “If you wish to go au naturale, that’s up to you.”

  “You know very well that’s not what I meant.”

  “Of course. You said you weren’t impulsive. Then you can bring along a wetsuit but I assure you that’s not the best way to enjoy what Il Bosco has to offer.”