by Anna DePalo
She’d have to find another place to live and work. There was no way she could afford a ten percent rent increase—not with things the way they were.
She’d never have admitted this to Sawyer when she’d encountered him last week at the fashion party in TriBeCa, but these days she was hanging by a thread—one that was becoming very frayed very fast, ever since she’d left her salaried position two years ago at a top jewelry design firm to strike out on her own.
Rats.
She was desperate—and Sawyer’s words reverberated through her mind. I’m in a position to help you move your jewelry business to the next level.
No, she wouldn’t let herself go there.
And with any luck, Sawyer didn’t have a clue as to just how dire her current financial situation was. He hadn’t seemed as if he did. In fact, his words to her that night indicated he thought she was looking to expand her business, not merely survive.
She hoped her appearance had also served to throw him off the scent. She’d dressed to project an image of success. She’d worn expensive earrings of her own design to the fashion party—as much for advertising as for anything else, though the earrings were worth much more than the typical Pink Teddy piece of semiprecious jewelry.
Yes, she dreamed of expanding her business and having her name added to the roster of top celebrity jewelry designers. But she’d also had to start small, given her financing, or rather lack thereof. And now she was nearly broke.
People assumed she had money—or at least connections—as the daughter of a millionaire Scottish viscount. In fact, she was entitled to be addressed as the Honourable Tamara Kincaid and not much else. After her parents’ divorce when she was seven, she’d gone to reside in the United States with her mother, who had been able to maintain a respectable, but not settled, lifestyle. Instead, thanks to child-support payments, Tamara had been entrusted to the care of a series of babysitters, schools and summer camps while her peripatetic mother had continued to travel and move them within the United States.
Her mother resided in Houston now with husband number three, the owner of a trio of car dealerships, having finally achieved a measure of stability.
Tamara sighed. Partly because of the physical distance, she and her mother weren’t very close, but a fringe benefit was that her mother didn’t interfere much in her life.
Of course, she could hardly claim the same benefit with respect to her father, who owned an apartment in New York City.
But unlike her mother, she’d thumbed her nose at her father’s money. Because the strings attached had been more than she’d been able to accept. As she’d grown older, her father had made his opinions known, and her artsy tendencies, her penchant for the bohemian and her taste for the unconventional had not gone over well.
Her father’s attempts to meddle had, of course, reached their zenith in his crazy plan to marry her off to Sawyer.
Really, that scheme was beyond ridiculous.
Sure, her parents’ marriage had been an ill-advised union between an American and a British aristocrat—a still-naive girl from Houston on the one hand, and the young and ambitious heir to a viscountcy on the other. But her starry-eyed mother, who’d imagined herself in love, had been thrilled by the prospect of residing in a British manor house.
In contrast, Tamara prided herself on being a worldly-wise New Yorker. And much as she hated to admit it, she had her father’s skeptical nature. She’d inherited her mother’s coloring and features, but that’s where similarities ended.
She liked her life just fine. She was bohemian with an edge.
A marriage between her and Sawyer Langsford was laughable. They barely spoke the same language, though she had been known to read his paper, The New York Intelligencer, and occasionally watch the Mercury News channel.
To Sawyer’s credit, Tamara acknowledged, his media outlets didn’t stoop to petty sensationalism. And she had to admit he’d built an international media empire from the two British radio stations and the regional newspaper he’d inherited from his father. At thirty-eight, he’d stuffed a lifetime’s worth of career accomplishments into a mere fifteen years or so.
At twenty-eight, she was a decade behind Sawyer in experience and worlds away in outlook. Yes, she wanted her design business to float instead of sinking into the great abyss, and yes, she dreamed of becoming successful. But she didn’t aspire to the same lofty heights of empire building that her father and Sawyer did.
She’d effectively been abandoned twice by her father—once, in a transatlantic divorce, and then again by Viscount Kincaid’s devotion to his media company. She couldn’t—wouldn’t—risk acquiring a husband who was from the same mold.
It would be beyond foolhardy, notwithstanding the kiss the other night.
Still, the kiss had repeatedly sneaked into her thoughts over the past few days. Sawyer had made her toes curl. And embarrassingly, she’d clearly responded to him.
But she knew why Sawyer had kissed her. He’d been trying to convince her to agree to a marriage of convenience.
If Sawyer thought she was a pushover for his seduction techniques, however, he had another thing coming. So she’d had a brief and primitive response to his air of raw power and sexuality. She was still well past the age of gullibility—of being swayed by a momentary attraction into a relationship with someone who was so very wrong for her.
In contrast, she and Tom were alike. They enjoyed prowling SoHo at night, appreciated the city, and were both artistic. They were friends, first and foremost.
They weren’t two people from very different backgrounds united by lust. In other words, to her relief, they were definitely not her parents.
As if on cue, her cell phone rang, and it was Tom.
“You’ll never guess what’s fallen in my lap,” Tom said.
“Okay, I give up. What?” she replied.
“I’m flying out to L.A. to meet with a big music producer. He heard one of our demos and is interested in signing the band.”
“Tom, that’s wonderful!” Tamara exclaimed. “I didn’t even know you were in touch with a producer out in L.A.”
Tom laughed. “I wasn’t. The guy got his hands on the demo from a friend of a friend.”
“See, networking works.”
Tom gave an exaggerated sigh. “Here’s the thing, babe. I’ll be gone. Physically, existentially and in every other way.”
She picked up on his meaning.
“What?” she said with mock offense. “You’ll no longer be available to be my standby date?”
It was easy for her to adopt a lighthearted tone, she realized. Tom had never been more than a casual, occasional date for her—a reliable escort when she had to attend one social function or another. He was nothing more, despite their Tom-and-Tam epithet, and that was the reason she could be happy for him without rancor.
“Afraid not,” Tom responded now. “Will you ever forgive me?”
“If I don’t, you could always write a song about it,” she teased.
Tom laughed. “You’re a pal, Tam.”
Tom’s words summed up their relationship, Tamara acknowledged. It had always been easy and casual. Such a contrast, she thought darkly, from her fraught interactions with—
No, she wouldn’t go there.
“It was a lucky break running into your friend the Earl of Melton.”
Tamara started guiltily. “He’s not my friend.”
“Well, friend or acquaintance—”
“And what do you mean it was a lucky break?” she asked, even as she was touched by a feeling of foreboding.
“Well, this music producer has a friend who socializes with the earl. Seems the earl had heard my music—”
She’d just bet Sawyer was a fan of Zero Sum.
“—and had talked it up to a friend of his, who passed along the recommendation to his music industry connection.”
Tamara felt a wave of heat wash up her face. He didn’t…He wouldn’t…
And yet,
it was all too convenient.
When she found Sawyer, she was going to let him have it, and then some.
For Tom’s sake, however, she forced herself to sound cheerful. There was no reason to rain on Tom’s parade by imparting her suspicions about how his lucky break was more than mere luck.
Besides, from Tom’s perspective, it didn’t matter how his intro to a top music producer had come about. The bottom line was that he was getting his chance to hit it big.
“I owe this all to you, Tam,” Tom said gratefully. “I don’t need to tell you how tough things have been in the music industry lately, so getting someone to take a chance on Zero Sum is a big deal.”
If only Tom knew exactly what he owed to her, Tamara thought.
“I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you,” Tamara said. “Blow them away.”
“Thanks, babe. You’re the best.”
When she ended her call with Tom, she set down the phone and stared at it unseeingly, her brows knitting as she contemplated Sawyer’s skullduggery.
She’d barely begun to get herself worked up over Sawyer’s fiendishness, however, when the intercom sounded.
After she pressed the intercom button by the front door, she jumped as she heard Sawyer’s voice.
She took a deep breath. Apparently her confrontation with Sawyer would occur sooner than she’d expected.
“Come on up,” she said with a semblance of serenity, and buzzed him in.
Four
Trust Tamara to name her company something ridiculous and suggestive like Pink Teddy Designs, Sawyer thought as he rode the elevator up to the third floor.
The name had been emblazoned next to the buzzer for Tamara’s apartment in a cast-iron warehouse building that had long ago been converted into lofts. Located along one of SoHo’s narrow side streets, the sidewalk in front of Tamara’s building had nevertheless been almost as crowded with pedestrians and street vendors peddling everything from paintings to T-shirts as SoHo’s main commercial strips, Broadway and Prince and Spring Streets.
It looked as if Tamara had rented one of the cheaper apartments she could find in one of Manhattan’s priciest boho neighborhoods. Factories and warehouses had long since given way to high-end retailers such as Prada, Marc Jacobs and Chanel, though some artists who had bought their lofts when they were cheap still held on.
Of course, Sawyer thought, the businessman in him could appreciate that Tamara’s choice of location made sense. Any business had a certain image to project, and location was part of it. But it seemed as if Tamara had cut corners where she could, starting with choosing a side street and a lower floor, closer to street noises.
He stepped out of the elevator and found Tamara’s apartment. But just as he was about to hit the bell, the door opened.
As a first impression, Tamara made quite an impact. In two seconds flat, he registered a short V-neck purple dress, black peep-toe sandals with bows and an opal pendant nestled on the pillow of her cleavage.
His body hummed to life.
“What are you doing here?” Tamara asked, her voice cool and clipped, though her eyes flashed fire.
He twisted his lips sardonically. “That makes twice. Is that the way you greet all your clients?”
“Only the ones who aren’t welcome.” Then belying her words, she stepped aside. “What do you mean by client?”
Sawyer walked into the boxy but airy loft. “I want to have a piece of jewelry designed, if you’ll recall.”
Tamara’s face registered disbelief before her eyes flashed fire again. “You can’t be serious.”
“That makes twice again. I seem to have a knack for eliciting the same reactions from you.” Then he added, in answer to her question, “In fact, I am serious, and I thought you’d be happy about the offer of business.”
He watched as she clamped her mouth shut. Splendid. He’d stopped her adamancy with a tantalizing lure—a reminder of what he had to offer, and what she stood to lose.
Sawyer scanned the loft. It looked like what his prior investigation had revealed: an apartment that also served as an office and business headquarters.
Near the back, he could see a partition that appeared to section off a sleeping area. To his right, near the entry door, there was a kitchen with light wood cabinets and black appliances. In front of him, the space was dominated by a comfy work area—a deep-red velour couch and armchair, a few potted plants and a large glass-topped table cluttered with what looked, at a glance, like the tools of the jewelry-making trade. A workbench stood off to one side.
The entire space was marked by a high ceiling and accentuated by large, inverted-U-shaped windows that let in plenty of natural light—a precious commodity in Manhattan’s pricey real estate market.
Hearing a click as Tamara shut the door behind him, he walked with deliberate casualness to a nearby waist-high glass display case.
He let his eyes scan the bracelets, necklaces and earrings on display, all made from some type of green gemstone.
“It’s green agate, in case you’re wondering,” Tamara said crisply as she stopped beside him.
He looked up from the case, and she regarded him challengingly, almost defensively.
“I was reading your stare,” she explained.
“You have a unique style.”
“Thank you, I think.”
His lips quirked up. “You’re welcome.”
She looked pointedly at his custom-made business suit, as if making a silent judgment about the contrast in their two styles.
Perhaps she was also wondering why he’d bothered to fit a visit with her into his busy work schedule.
He wasn’t about to accommodate her unspoken question, however. Because the truth was, though it was late Wednesday afternoon and the middle of his workweek, he’d cleared his schedule in order to come downtown and find her. And if Tamara knew the importance he’d attached to his visit, she’d clam up and retreat. Or more likely, it would raise her hackles again.
“What sort of commission do you have in mind?” she asked finally, saving him from a response.
He figured it was too much to hope she’d had an abrupt change of heart about creating jewelry for him. More likely, her curiosity was simply piqued. But he’d work with that for now.
“A coordinated set,” he said blandly. “Earrings and a necklace.”
“Of course,” she responded with a corresponding lack of inflection. “Do you prefer a particular type of stone?”
He looked into her eyes. “Emeralds.”
“A popular choice—” she gave him a saccharine smile “—but I can’t help you. I focus on bridge jewelry made with semiprecious stones—”
“Designing fine jewelry with precious stones can’t be much different,” he countered.
Tamara hesitated before conceding grudgingly, “No, it’s not.”
“Great, then there’s no problem,” he responded smoothly. “Which stones do you like?”
She frowned. “I don’t see how that enters—”
“You’re a professional designer,” he diverted. “I’d like to know what you think. What stones do you prefer, assuming money isn’t an issue?”
She clenched her jaw. “Emeralds. Dark-toned ones.”
He gave a satisfied smile. “Then we’re in agreement. Make them big, and surrounded by diamonds.”
She pursed her lips. “Has it ever occurred to you that I simply might not like a commission from you?”
“Never.” He flashed a smile. “You’re in business to sell jewelry, and I’m here prepared to spend six figures.”
With an oblique reference, he cast another lure for her. He was a seasoned player at the negotiation table and now he brought his skills to bear.
She looked exasperated. “You are decisive.”
“Yes, I am.” He hid his satisfaction in the chink in her armor. “Aren’t most of your clients?”
“I don’t usually do custom orders,” she responded. “It’s not how I operate. The people w
ho buy my jewelry appreciate something offbeat.”
He grinned. “Not your usual high-society bling bling.”
At her nod, he added, “Then I hope you can…accommodate me.”
It was sexual banter, but he was careful to keep his expression innocent. Nevertheless, she regarded him with suspicious displeasure for a moment.
“No request is too unusual,” she replied finally.
“What a relief.”
She raised her eyebrows. “I’ll need a deposit, and you’ll have to give me time to contact my suppliers and find the right stones. Fat emeralds are not among my usual orders.”
Touché. Still, he was happy to have her think of him as gaudy and tasteless as long as it got him one step closer to his goal. “Naturally, I understand. I hope I’m not putting you out.”
“Not any more than the unexpected appearance of a persistent would-be client,” she shot back.
The shadow of a smile touched his lips. Tamara certainly knew how to give as good as she got. What a waste she would have been on Tom. Sawyer was not the least bit repentant about his ruthless maneuvering.
Rather than respond directly to her jab, he turned the conversation in the direction he wanted it to go. “I thought you’d be happy about an expensive order.” He glanced around at their surroundings. “I understand you could use some help.”
Now that he had her on the hook, he could afford to drive his point home.
Tamara hesitated. “What makes you think so?”
“I have my sources.”
She scowled suddenly. “Have you been talking to my father?” She held up a hand, as if to stop him. “No, wait. Don’t bother answering that question.”
“For the record, it was through my own digging. But what I didn’t find out on my own, your friend Tom was happy to volunteer.”
She ignored the reference to Tom and braced one hand on her hip, her eyes narrowing. “You had me investigated?”
He let his lips quirk up on one side. “I like to know who I’m doing business with. Avoids nasty surprises.”
