Michelle Conder – Russian's Ruthless Demand (страница 8)

‘That bar will pay for itself in time.’

Lukas held her hostile gaze and wondered if she wouldn’t tell him to go to hell. He probably would if their positions were reversed.

‘Come on, Eleanore,’ he encouraged softly, ‘come work for me. Harrington’s name isn’t worth that much any more.’

He could see immediately that he’d made a tactical error in reminding her of how he had inadvertently slurred her hotel chain once before.

‘It is so worth something.’ She practically vibrated out of her chair. ‘It took my father years to establish a line of boutique hotels that are respected all over the world. Why do you think the Chatsfields want us so badly? We’re a powerhouse and you should be thanking me for wanting to put our name on your hotel.’

Maybe he should and he wondered what it would feel like to have someone loyal to him as she obviously was to her family. What it would feel like to have all that passion wrapped tightly around him.

‘And might I remind you,’ she continued haughtily, ‘that it was you who sought me out and told me you wanted my help. Well, it comes at a price. And I’ve just given it to you.’ She stood up and his first thought was that she was magnificent in her wounded pride. His second was that he was sorry he’d somehow caused that and he was shocked by the realisation. Since when did he care about wounding an opponent’s pride?

But Eleanore wasn’t an opponent, was she? She was…He frowned. As much as he hated to admit it she was someone he needed. Oh, he was sure, given time, that he could find someone else who could pull off his ice hotel but time was something he had precious little of and she had made all the right suggestions so far. He shook his head. ‘I’ll take you on as a consultant, but not a partner.’

She muttered something under her breath—something he doubted was complimentary—before striding to his side and flipping his laptop around to face them both. ‘Which one of these preliminary ideas did you like the most?’ She sat down, stroking the mouse key and scrolling through the images until she came to a picture of the reception area. ‘You know with very little effort we could turn these vaulted cathedral ceilings into glass domes that made them look like they touched the sky. But maybe you prefer the idea about the themed guest rooms. Off the top of my head my favourite would be the captain’s quarters of an old-fashioned pirate ship with carved atlases and a four-poster bed. You might like a room with a Japanese infusion—ice futon and a tropical fish tank in the ceiling.’

‘You can put a tropical fish tank in the ceiling?’

She straightened away from him, breathing hard, her eyes chips of green fire. ‘I can do anything.’

Right now Lukas didn’t doubt it.

And it wasn’t often that he had been surprised in his life—well, in his adult life. Or impressed.

He turned his head and caught a whiff of apples. If she turned her head toward him they would be inches apart and he had a sudden and very primitive urge to taste her.

As if sensing his thoughts she went still and then shifted very subtly away from him. Harnessing a driving need to follow he clamped down on his unusually wayward libido and forced himself to relax back against the sofa. ‘Actually, I quite like the sound of that pirate’s cabin.’

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