by Tara Sue Me
Both her eyebrows went up and her spine went ramrod straight. “Mia Matthews, oh yes.” She stood up. “Please excuse me. I’ll be right back.”
Deciding against sitting down, I remained where I was.
She wasn’t gone long at all.
“Mr. Butler said for you to go right on in.” She pointed to the door behind her that she’d used seconds before. “He’s the last office to your right, at the end of the hall.”
“Thank you,” I said, feeling somewhat surprised that he’d agreed to see me and also very curious about exactly how many offices were behind the door. I’d assumed he only had a handful of people working for him.
The inner offices of Bachelor International were just as richly appointed as the waiting area and I saw at least five other employees before I made it to the last office on the right.
His door was slightly open and his low, “Come on in, Mia,” when I knocked, sent shivers of awareness through my body.
He stood as I entered.
Now, I’d never seen Tenor in person, I’d only seen a few old photographs of him. Mostly back when Mama and I were starting out and we’d researched our competition. I knew he was fine looking, but—damn—I didn’t expect him to be that fine looking.
His messy-yet-still-somehow-beyond-hot hair was a shade somewhere between dark brown and black, and contrasted sharply with the blue in his eyes. His bone structure looked as if he’d been sculpted by a Renaissance master, and the slight scruff at his chin gave him a disheveled appearance that only made him hotter. And his lips? God help me, I wanted those lips all over me. I felt warm all over like he’d turned the heat on and I was actually aware that it had been almost a year since I’d had a man’s lips on me.
The lip in question quirked up on one end like it knew I was thinking about it. I lifted my head a little higher and saw his knowing eyes.
Ass.
Unfortunately, my traitorous body didn’t care. It still wanted his lips.
He waved to a small sitting area to his right and moved that way to join me. I took a seat in one of the plush leather chairs and he sat down in an identical one next to me.
“I’m so sorry for your loss,” he said, all the while looking at me with those captivating eyes. “I can only imagine how tough it’s been on you. Your mom and a friend.”
“Thank you,” I said, pleasantly surprised at how nice he was and that he knew Opa was also a friend of I mine. Why had I always pictured him as a mean, cold-hearted bastard? “Opa was something special. She lived in an assisted living facility. One or both of us would take her to lunch on Wednesdays.”
Opa had always looked so forward to our lunches and said they were the highlight of her week. She didn’t have any family left. I’d combined her funeral with Mama’s. I took a deep breath, not wanting to get upset in front of him.
He tightened his hand into a fist on his knee. “There was a chance you could have also been in that car?”
I shivered. Not for the first time, realizing how close I came to being in the car with them. “Yes and if not for a client who had been running late, I would have been.”
“Jesus,” he mumbled under his breath.
“I lost my dad ten years ago, and I was an only child, so it’s just me now,” I blurted out and seconds later I all but clamped my lips shut. I was an emotional train wreck.
Or maybe it was just him.
He nodded. “I’m an only child as well, but I’m very lucky to still have my parents living.”
“Are they in Boston?” Did he know how lucky he was?
“Outside New Haven.”
“Close enough,” I said. The trip to New Haven to where we were took less than three hours.
“And yet, not too close,” he said with a sexy, devilish grin that made my heart skip a beat.
Oh, yes, yes, yes. I bet those lips felt incredible. His tongue, too.
I told myself to get a grip and to stop staring at his mouth. I wasn’t here to find out anything personal about him, to become his friend, or to learn what he did that he didn’t want his parents too close for. I most certainly wasn’t here for anything having to do with lips. I was here because he loaned my mother a ton of money. Which meant, I now owed him a quarter of a million dollars.
Shit.
That was enough to wipe the smile off my face and to stop my fantasy of seeing what type of underwear he favored. My gaze dropped to his crotch and then snapped back to his face. I straightened my shoulders. “I’m sure you know why I’m here.”
And just like that the Tenor I’d first met disappeared and was replaced by what I knew had to be the hard-ass businessman. “Yes.” He straightened his shoulders and his expression became masked. “I was planning to stop by and see you sometime later this week.”
“Looks like I beat you to it,” I said, matching my posture to his.
“That you did.” He smiled, but it wasn’t the same as the smile he’d given me before. This one looked cunning. More like what I’d imagined.
“Unfortunately,” I said. “I’m not able to pay you back at the moment for what my mother owed you.”
The fact was, after spending all weekend studying the books, I wasn’t sure if I’d ever be able to repay him. There was no way on God’s green Earth I would admit that to him, though.
This obviously didn’t come as a surprise to him as he merely nodded at my statement and of course, he already knew. Hell, he probably knew down to the last penny exactly what I had in my bank account. He was a smart businessman and I felt for certain he’d looked into Mom’s finances before loaning her the money. Odds were likely he’d looked into mine as well.
Suddenly I felt very exposed sitting next to him. Sort of the way I’d expect to feel if I stood beside him completely naked while he wore all of his clothes. I started feeling all hot and bothered. But thoughts like that were dangerous for many reasons and getting naked in front of Tenor Butler wasn’t going to happen.
I turned my head back to him, thankful that he couldn’t read minds and hoping that if my cheeks were flushed, he wouldn’t ascertain why. It was then I realized he hadn’t said anything in response to my statement about not being able to pay him back.
“I mean,” I hastened to add, “Don’t get me wrong. I will pay you back. I just don’t know when.”
“I’m not worried about the money,” he said, leaning ever so slightly toward me and I couldn’t imagine what it was like to not worry about that. “I actually want something very different from money from you.”
My head jerked up. Surely he wasn’t suggesting…. I tried to look at it subjectively, but could come up nothing other than he wanted sex as payment for the loan. Rage engulfed me and I shot to my feet. “You have some nerve to suggest that.”
He remained seated and he wrinkled his brows. “Suggest what?”
Seriously? I placed my hands on my hips. “What you were getting ready to suggest.”
“What I was getting ready to suggest?” he asked, and he truly looked confused, but then his eyes widened in understanding before narrowing in anger. “Did you think I was going tell you I would forgive the loan if I could fuck you?” he asked as if it was the most ridiculous thought ever.
I crossed my arms. “What else could you possibly mean when you said, ‘I want something different from money from you’?”
“That I meant anything other than that.” He took a deep breath and ran his fingers through his hair. Somehow the end result made him look even hotter and I hated him in the place of every man who didn’t have perfect hair. “I realize I can’t simply say you know me better because you don’t know me at all.”
I raised an eyebrow, still suspicious but feeling a little better.
“However, let me be very clear, I have never traded sexual favors for work, required sex from any of my employees, or dropped the slightest hint of impropriety. And I’m damn well not going to start now. I’ve worked too hard and too long.”
I didn’t say anything. I me
an, it wasn’t like I was going to apologize, because men pulled shit like that all the time. Of course, I may have been jaded thanks to the advertising nightmare Mama and I had dealt with.
“Will you at least sit back down?” His voice calm once more as he gestured toward the chair I’d vacated.
I sat, but sent him a sharp glance to let him know I wasn’t thrilled to be doing so and I didn’t have a problem in the world hopping back up if I thought for a second he was heading somewhere I didn’t want to go.
“Let me begin a different way,” he suggested and I nodded. “We are a large agency and I admit, we don’t have the personal touch of other agencies, including your own. In addition, we’ve received a lot of interest in our international division lately. That in and of itself isn’t a problem; we’ve been promoting it heavily and it is in our name. However, in order for it to be as successful as I think it can be, we need to revise our plan. And that’s where you come in.”
I had been totally with him up to that point, but as soon as he said that was where I came in, I got lost, yet strangely intrigued. “What do you mean?”
“I want you to come work for me.”
Tenor Butler wanted me to work for him? I tilted my head and ran his words through my head several times to really let it sink and for me to come up with a halfway intelligent thing to say in response. And as I did, I believed I understood exactly what he was saying. “You want me to close Cross My Heart.”
It wasn’t a question, so I didn’t ask it as one. I merely stated a fact.
“Yes.”
I closed my eyes, told myself to think objectively about it. That I couldn’t see it as a personal issue, but rather to address it as a business opportunity. This had nothing to do with closing what Mom and I had worked on for so many years. This had everything to do with me looking good and hard at the numbers and realizing he could destroy me with a word.
I raised an eyebrow, still curious in spite of everything. “What’s in it for me?”
He gave me a smile that indicated he’d known all along what I’d be asking. He stood and walked over to his desk, took a folder from the top and handed it to me as soon as he returned. “This is a package I created for you. It contains my offer and a few ideas on how I envision you fitting in here. Take some time and look over it. Have your attorneys look over everything.” He tapped the folder once with his finger. “Call me if you have any questions. I put my personal number on the top page.”
It was a ton of information and obviously not something he did quickly, but rather something he’d given a lot of thought. I didn’t quite know what to make of that. How long had he had his eye on me and my agency? I felt uneasy.
I had a lot of reading and thinking ahead of me, but before I could move on, I needed to let him know one thing. “I don’t believe in asking my clients multiple choice questions.”
“I’m well aware of that, Mia,” he said and the hint of playfulness in his tone made me wonder what else he knew about me.
Chapter Three
Tenor
Mia left my office and as a result, I’d be worthless the remainder of the day. That was bad, because it wasn’t even ten. However, no matter how I looked at it, I had two choices: I could stay in the office and pretend to work or I could admit defeat and leave.
I finally decided to go. I wasn’t doing anyone any good and I knew if I stayed in the office, all I’d do was be a distraction to the employees that were working. Sure, I could pretend as if I was just checking up on them, but I’d never been one to micromanage and if I started now, the majority of them would tell me to fuck off. Or at least they’d think it.
Besides, I could always work from home.
I wouldn’t, but I could.
I wouldn’t be able to concentrate and work no matter where I went today because the truth was, I’d been an asshole and a bastard to Mia. Mia and her mom, Dee, had been on my radar for a long time. They were good at what they did and, as a competitor, I’d kept an eye on them.
I never looked into their finances, but I was always surprised they never quite seemed as successful as I thought they should be. After some time, I came to the conclusion they were doing what they wanted to do and even though I’d manage the business better if it were mine, it wasn’t and I should leave them alone.
I’ll admit it, a part of me dreamed about having Mia come work for me. I wasn’t stupid, after all. Mia was damn good at what she did. She had a personal touch with her clients that I knew my company lacked. Of course, she was hot as fuck, too. Her body was a temptation of soft curves and a sharp mind. Pair that with her deep brown eyes that missed nothing and long dirty blonde hair you could hold onto as you rode her from behind?
If she ended up working for me I’d have to stop visualizing that fantasy.
It wasn’t until her mother visited me at my office one day after all the banks had turned her down for a loan that I knew any details about Cross My Heart.
I shouldn’t have made the loan. I knew as soon as I heard Dee’s pitch that it was stupid to even think about it. But think about it I did. I told her to give me twenty-four hours and I’d give her my answer.
I did enough research into both Dee’s personal and business account to know that if I lent her the money, I’d never see it back. I wasn’t one to carelessly throw money away, but the truth was, I wouldn’t miss it. Not only that, but making the loan would give me something of a connection with Mia.
I looked into Mia’s personal finances to see that she was nothing like her mother. I wasn’t sure why she let her mother run the numbers part of the business. I doubt it was because she was better at it. Odds were, Mia hated bookkeeping and letting her mom take over freed Mia to do what she liked—making matches. I could hardly blame Mia for that, because she was damn good at it. Her track record proved it, even if her business account did not.
And yet, one thing still bothered me. Why did Dee need so much money? A quarter of a million was more than what they brought in annually. And it was much more than what they needed to run the business. Curious, I ended up digging a little more and wound up knowing all of Dee Matthew’s dirty little secrets.
Over the years she had managed to accumulate a lot of debt. And like many people do, she ended up borrowing money to pay back prior loans. After years, it snowballed and she started using business funds for her personal use, but she was good at covering her tracks. I had the impression Mia knew nothing.
In my opinion, what Dee had done was underhanded and dirty. You didn’t do things like that and not tell your business parter, much less your own flesh and blood. After Dee’s death, I'd feared I’d have to be the one to tell her about the loan. I put off going to see Mia for as long as I could, but eventually it became time for me to suck it up and do it.
I had planned on visiting Mia later in the week, stopping by her office unannounced, but she beat me to it. Her drive was impressive, especially considering how determined she’d had to have been to show up at my office so early.
Yes, I liked Mia a lot and finally talking to her face-to-face only served to further show why. She was more than the matchmaker behind her business, she was also brave and strong. Just talking together for the short amount of time we had was enough for me to see she didn’t let anyone push her around.
Although I was still a bit upset her first assumption had been that I would attempt to use the loan to sleep with her. I’d worked hard to have a stellar business reputation. One unmarred and without hints of impropriety. I would have thought my reputation to proceed me, but apparently that was only the case with negative ones.
Even so, the fact remained I wanted her at Bachelor International and I’d do damn near anything to make it happen.
Chapter Four
Mia
“I need help, Wren,” I told her that day at lunch. “Because I’m seriously thinking about taking him up on his offer.”
“Of course you are,” she said, and I rolled my eyes. “I mean it,” she conti
nued, like she didn’t know I was mentally flipping her the bird. Trust me. She knew. “You’re thinking about it because it’s the sensible thing to do, and you’re always sensible.”
“AKA boring.”
“There’s nothing boring at looking over all your options before making a decision. That’s just smart.”
I nodded toward the folder Tenor gave me before I left his office. I’d only had a chance to flip through the pages. “I wish his proposal wasn’t as good as I think it’s going to be.”
“What an odd thing to wish for.” Wren shook her head. “Why would you want it to be worse?”
“Because then I could file him away forever in the asshole box and leave him there permanently. It’ll be so much harder to do that when I get a chance to read this in detail and realize it’s not that cut and dry.”
“Little in life is.” She thumped my shoulder. “Besides, the world needs fewer assholes, not more.”
“I’m fine with fewer assholes, I just like it better when he’s one of them.” But as soon as I said it, I remembered how hot he was and how genuine he sounded about having me on his team, and I wondered if I really wanted him to be an asshole.
“It makes it easier for you, doesn’t it?” she asked with a tilt of her head. “When everyone acts the way you think they should based on the box you have them in?”
“I don’t know. You make it sound bad.” And it made me feel bad.
“You don’t like surprises.”
I snorted. She got that part right at least. I hated it when things didn’t work out the way I had them planned. Or, in the case of Tenor, when people didn’t act like I thought they should. It was nicer and things ran better when everything and everyone behaved the way they were supposed to in my mind.
“Which means Tenor should act like an asshole because that’s what you’ve labeled him as,” she said and it sounded grossly unfair even to me.
