Hayden

All I got from my lawyers were invoices and bad news. “Fuck,” I spat as I hung up my satellite phone.

This deal had started off like clockwork and then out of nowhere the wheels had fallen off and I was stuck in the middle of the Mediterranean without an assistant or my email. I wished to God Landon had found the leak, so I could get back to London.

There was a rap at my door. “Come in,” I said. If it had been anyone other than Avery, I wouldn’t have answered but she was so dedicated, always knowing what I wanted before I did, not to mention she was fucking beautiful. She was basically kryptonite for me.

“Hey, I just brought you a coffee, but did I come at a bad time?”

I sighed as I sat back in my chair. “Thanks. On this deal, there’s never a good time.”

She winced, placing the large cup of coffee in front of me. I caught the scent of her—all sunshine and summer flowers, as though she just came from a better part of the universe than I did. “Anything I can help you with?”

“Unless you can explain to me why people decide to clam up on me and make outrageous demands then I’m not sure you can help.”

She transferred her weight onto one leg, and her hip pushed out to the side, creating a delicious curve I wanted to trace with my fingertips. “What’s happened? Someone’s stopped talking to you and has started demanding stuff? A customer?”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“I know it’s all super top secret and everything, so don’t tell me anything you shouldn’t, but sometimes just talking out loud can help shuffle stuff around in your brain and a solution appears.”

A grin tugged at the corners of my mouth. She made it sound easy and if I didn’t know better, I’d have believed her.

“I see your skepticism.” Her eyebrows darted up. “Try it.” She lifted her shoulder in a half shrug. “You never know, I might even be able to help.”

I sighed. Avery’s presence was calming and I wasn’t ready for her to leave. “I’m trying to buy a company. And it was all going according to plan and then the seller just starts making crazy requests in the legal documentation and he’s not answering his phone. And I don’t have email so I can’t email him. It’s bloody frustrating.”

“You think he’s gotten a better offer and he’s stalling?”

She was smart. That was my suspicion but if he was after the best price, he’d have put the company up for auction. “Maybe. I feel disconnected from the process out here. If I were back in London I think I’d figure it out. It’s like I have one hand tied behind my back.”

“And you can’t get back to London because you don’t want anyone to know you’re buying this company.”

I didn’t deny it—she didn’t know which company and she’d been vetted. I needed to stop being so paranoid, as Landon had said. “Something like that.”

“So you’re out of your comfort zone but that doesn’t mean you’re in a worse position. If you were in London, what would you do in this situation? I mean if it’s so secret, I guess you couldn’t just have a meeting with this guy and ask him outright what the matter is?”

I reached behind my neck, pressing my fingers into the knotted muscle. “Right.” What would I do differently if I was back in London? “Seeing people is the easiest way to figure out what they put a value on. It’s pretty easy to read people.”

“That’s for sure. Mainly. Although not always. Some people are tough to figure out. Especially those who don’t care if they’re eating oysters or fish sticks.”

I narrowed my eyes. “You trying to make a point Ms. Walker?”

She laughed in such a completely unaffected and genuine way, I couldn’t take my eyes off her. She leaned on the side of the desk and I shifted my chair around so I was pointed toward her. “Seeing people definitely makes it easier to read them, but what do you already know about this seller? Is it a corporation? A family? What?”

“A guy in his mid-sixties. He started the business nearly fifty years ago. He’s selling up and retiring.” I was probably telling her too much but I trusted her, trusted Landon to have vetted her.

“Oh wow. Fifty years. So he’s gotta find it tough to let go.”

I chuckled. “I’m not getting it for free. He’s going to retire a very rich man. He could live on one of these for the rest of his life and his kids are still never going to have to work again.”

She drew the edge of her thumbnail across the desk, dividing the space between us and I imagined her delicate wrists circled by my hands and pushed up over her head as I kissed her. “But that’s not it. If his company’s that successful, he probably could have sold a long time ago and never worked again, right?”

“Absolutely. He’s crazy to have waited until now.”

She nodded as if what I was saying completely made sense. “So that’s it then. He’s deliberately placing obstacles in the way of the sale. So he doesn’t have to let go.”

I sat forward, almost crossing the invisible line she’d created, and she lifted herself off the desk and stepped back. Was she concerned I was going to touch her? I could read women pretty well, and I was more than sure this attraction I was feeling was mutual.

“No one gets that successful without being driven by the performance of the business. Of course it’s about the money for him.”

“Is it all about the money for you?”

I took a breath. I wasn’t about to confess to Avery that it was important for me to be successful and for people to see me as such. I wasn’t about to tell her how I wanted my father to feel some sense of satisfaction from me building up a business more successful than Cannon. “I’m not sure I’m the right comparison. Most people in my business are driven by pounds and pence.” I wasn’t convinced by Avery’s theory. Greed was the guiding force in the City.

“I’m not saying that he will give his company away for free. But that money represents something for him. I bet you a hundred dollars that this is personal when you get down to it.”

“A hundred dollars, huh?” I grinned at her. I liked the way she stood behind what she was saying and didn’t back down.

I sat back in my chair. I’d heard rumors of several abandoned attempts at a sale over the years. Was it less about the cash and more about Harold not wanting to see his legacy belong to someone else?

“Yes, a hundred dollars. How would you feel if you’d built something up for fifty years and a perfect stranger was going to take it over? The people he works with are probably like family to him and then he’s got to decide what to do with all the time he normally devotes to his work.”

“It’s possible. But I’m not sure it helps. If he doesn’t want to let go, he doesn’t want to let go.”

“Really? So you just give up? I can’t imagine you made the kinda money you need to make to rent a yacht like this for eight weeks by just surrendering.”

I laughed. “You pretend you’re all sweetness and what-can-I-get-for-you but in fact, you’re actually kinda pushy. A fighter.”

She shrugged, trying to hold back a smile. “I have both sides to me. Most people don’t get to see beyond the sweet.”

For a long second we held each other’s eye, on the edge of acknowledging that she’d confessed I knew her better than most. I liked that I did. I liked her and both her sides.

She looked away first and backed toward the door. I stood and shoved my hands in my pockets.

“I think you might be on to something. I need to figure out how to get this guy comfortable with selling to me, and it’s not going to be about what’s in the legal documents.”

“Sounds like your brain rearranged. I hate to say I told you so but . . .” Her voice was higher, less conversational than before. Sweet Avery was back. “I should get back to it. Can I get you anything else?”

I shook my head, smiling at her, keeping my gaze fixed on her as she slipped out of the office. I wasn’t sure if it was because she was the only woman I’d been physically close to in weeks, but my cock was twitching, and I’d been seconds away from reaching for her. Sweet, funny, sexy and smart—Avery Walker had it all. And as much as I might not want to fuck her quickly, bent over my desk. I definitely wanted something more from her.