‘So that was payback for the flight, right?’ He leans closer to me, his breath warming my cheek. I tilt my head towards his, smiling as though butter wouldn’t melt, even when my heart is notching it up a gear and I have been fighting an urge to just stare at his pretty body since we left shore fifteen minutes ago.
‘Do you really think I’d be so petty?’
The boat takes us farther out into the Coral Sea, the snorkelling instructor up the bow with most of the other members of this small group. The resort’s branding is across the side of the boat.
‘I don’t know if it’s petty.’ His eyes flicker across my face. ‘But I was hard for twenty minutes after you left this morning. I can’t stop thinking about you.’
My heart explodes. I lift my eyes heavenward. ‘Still daytime.’
He nods with mock seriousness, extending a finger and pressing it to my wet-suited knee. ‘Eleven hours, right?’
Flames leap through me. I lean closer. ‘And c
ounting.’ I reach for his finger and lift it off my knee, placing it squarely back on his. His eyes crease at the corners with the force of his smile and I am warmed from the inside out.
‘I feel like I could have learned a lot about the island from my bed.’
I shake my head. ‘Quiet. You’re going to love this.’
‘Sightseeing?’ He raises his brows.
‘How else can you experience your investment as prospective tourists will?’
‘By you telling me about it? From reports you’ve read? Preferably naked?’
I shake my head to clear that vision from my mind.
‘And I still haven’t agreed to buy this place, Miss Llewellyn.’
Uncertainty lurches dangerously in my gut and something like storm clouds must pass over my expression because his own face becomes serious. ‘You know that’s a decision I’ll make on business merit alone, right?’
‘You mean do I think the fact we’re sleeping together will lead you to invest tens of millions of dollars?’
‘I mean it’s a business decision,’ he fires back softly.
‘And I’d never try to influence you with anything other than the common-sense appeal of this. Trust me, Jagger. I’m good at my job. I’m great at it. I have an instinctive sense of what properties are right for which investors and you’re not going to find anything better than Silver Dunes.’
A muscle jerks in his cheek. ‘I don’t know if I believe in that kind of declarative statement. But I do believe you think this is a good buy, and that you’ve made that decision from your experience and knowledge alone.’
My breath gains pace. ‘You know Karakedes Corp is technically my client,’ I say, dropping my eyes. ‘I work for them. Whether it’s you or someone else, my job is to get them the best buyer, the best price, the most favourable terms for my vendor.’
He moves infinitesimally closer. ‘Yes.’
‘So don’t think the fact that you’re all Eros the Spectacular means I’ll give you an easy deal when we sit down to negotiate.’
‘If,’ he offers as a rejoinder, and now he moves his lips to my ear, speaking right into my soul. ‘And we won’t be sitting down to negotiate, Grace. Not unless it’s you sitting on my dick, anyway.’
Heat blooms in my cheeks. I don’t move away, though. Being close to him like this, our bodies practically entwined, even when there are people around and the sun is out, is alluring and hypnotic.
‘I look forward to it, sir.’
‘Not as much as I do. I’ve been told I drive a very hard bargain...’
I want to respond with a flirtatious rejoinder but this is business, too, and what I just said a few seconds ago holds true—Karakedes is my client. ‘They won’t go lower than the asking price. I believe Bianca made that clear in her emails to you. That wasn’t a starting price for negotiations. If you’re planning to lowball them, you might as well tell me now and I’ll save us both a lot of time and energy and put a stop to this.’
‘When we’re having so much fun?’ he teases, perhaps not realising that I’ve swapped out of flirty, take-me-to-bed personal and I’m all business now.
‘Fun is beside the point.’ He straightens, his gaze intent now. ‘I’m not messing around here, Jagger. If you’re going to dick me around, tell me, because my client has a right to know. And I have a right to know, to get back to work finding someone else who’s interested in this once in a lifetime opportunity...’