Her smile broadened and puffed up her cheeks. She was adorable. And a business associate—nothing more. It was for the best. “How much?”
“How much what?”
“How much did you enjoy today?” She clasped her hands together. “Enough to seriously consider Mirraccino for your new headquarters?”
He couldn’t help but laugh at her eagerness. “How could I say no to that pleading look?”
“You mean it?”
He nodded. What he didn’t tell her was that he’d made up his mind after reviewing the financial package. “I sent the figures to my team to consider.”
“I knew you’d like
it here.”
Grayson began walking along the sidewalk of the great Mirraccino Royal University with Annabelle by his side. He didn’t say things that he didn’t mean. And he wasn’t truly impressed that often, but today he had been.
He was glad that he’d relented and decided to give Annabelle...erm... Mirraccino another try. Annabelle had arranged for a most impressive tour of the up-to-date campus. He’d talked with the professors in the computer science department. And he’d even agreed to give a spontaneous guest lecture.
To his relief, the lecture had gone well and the students had been quite receptive to his talk on his company’s cloud technology and how they’d harnessed it to make their café games relevant and constantly morphing into something bigger and better.
“Really? You were honestly impressed?” Annabelle came to a stop in front of him. Hope reflected in her eyes.
“Yes, I meant it. Why do you sound so surprised?”
“I don’t know. I’m not. It’s just—”
“You weren’t so sure about today, were you?”
She shrugged. “Not really. I wanted to believe you’d see the full potential that Mirraccino could offer you—offer your company, but yesterday you seemed to have made your mind up about everything.”
He couldn’t let her stop there. “And what have I decided about you?”
Annabelle glanced away. “That I’m spoiled and overprotected.”
“That isn’t what I think. That is what you think, but it shouldn’t be. I think you work hard for what you want. Setting up everything today couldn’t have been easy, especially when it was done at the last minute.”
Her gaze met his. “I called in every favor I had here at the school. But to be honest, when I spoke to the head of the computer science department and told him who I wanted to bring for a visit, he was more than willing to help. You have quite an amazing reputation in your field.”
“I don’t know about that, but I appreciate your kind words.”
When she gazed deep into his eyes, like she was doing now, it was so hard to remember that they were supposed to be doing business together and not picking up that kiss where they’d left off. His gaze latched on to her tempting mouth. What would she say? His gaze moved back to her eyes. Was that desire he spied glinting within them?
He didn’t know how long they stood there, staring into each other’s eyes. In that moment, there was nowhere else he needed to be—nowhere else he wanted to be. There was a special quality about Annabelle that sparked life back into him. She filled in all the cracks in his heart and made him want to face whatever life threw at him.
A motion out of the corner of his eye reminded him they weren’t alone. Today there was a female bodyguard escorting them. She was not the friendly sort—always on guard. He recalled Annabelle calling the woman Marta.
Having a bodyguard watch over them dampened his lusty thoughts. He didn’t like an audience and he preferred not to end up in one of those reports sent off to the Duke of Halencia. But that didn’t mean their outing should end just yet.
“How about we go to dinner? I’d enjoy trying one of the local restaurants.”
Surprise lit up Annabelle’s eyes, but in a blink her enthusiasm dimmed. “Um, sure.”
“What’s the matter?”
“Why does anything need to be the matter?”
“Because it was written all over your face and it was in your tone.”