Page 14 of Mistletoe Mistake
Holly entered the office through the already-unlocked door, and held the door open for us to follow. “You could have rung us for an appointment,” she pointed out. “I'm sure you have better things to be doing with your time.”
“This is important. We'll wait until someone's available.” I looked around curiously as we followed her into a pleasant, open-plan working area, with a few desks, some meeting tables, and a small waiting area by a receptionist's desk. The whole space had been optimized, making it appear larger than it actually was, and I suspected they must have designed it themselves.
“Hols? Is that you?” Gemma's voice rang out from one of the open office doors along the back wall. “I wanted to go over some strategy before we hear from Cole or Jackson, so we can make sure to...”
She trailed off as she appeared in the doorway and saw Jackson and I standing there, while I took a moment to appreciate her white blouse and black pencil skirt and heels, her red hair pulled back in a French twist, the picture of professionalism. She looked so put together, but I couldn't help imagining how easily I could make her come undone.
Catching her off guard gave me a great deal of satisfaction, and I couldn’t help smirking as I nodded at her in greeting. “I'm afraid it's too late for that, but I'm quite good at strategy. Maybe we can work something out together.”
~Gemma~
With a great deal of effort, I forced myself not to react to Cole's statement or to show my surprise at seeing him standing in our office before we were even open for the day. That proved a challenge, mostly because I could barely concentrate on anything other than how good he looked. The suit he wore, another different suit, had obviously been tailored just for him, just like the others. Every inch highlighted his body, showing off the long, lean lines of his frame, making him look powerful and in control, and his dark eyes and the hint of a smile on his lips betrayed his satisfaction at having caught me off guard this morning.
After seeing him at the hotel opening on Saturday, I went home and tried to put him out of my mind. Yet, for some reason, I kept thinking about Vanessa, the woman who attended the party with him. The woman he had paid to be there, and who had almost certainly gone back to his hotel with him that evening. I couldn't help imagining what it would be like to be in her shoes, what it would be like to be with Cole if he had paid me to be with him. If I had no choice but to do whatever he told me to.
I had no idea where these fantasies had come from. Those kinds of thoughts had never crossed my mind before, but now, faced with his commanding presence in my office this morning, they immediately jumped back to the front of my mind again. Swallowing hard, I forced myself to remember where we were and what he had come here for.
“Mr Stamer.” I greeted him formally and turned to Jackson, who at least had the decency to look a little apologetic for the early intrusion. “Mr Hanmer. I don't believe you have an appointment.”
“Not yet,” Cole replied with that same smug half-smile still on his lips. “That's why we're here.”
“Well, I'm afraid we're very busy...” I started to say, crossing my arms and leaning against the door frame, trying to look just as casual and in control as he did.
However, I hadn't even got the sentence out before he cut me off, his dark eyes looking between Holly and me. “It's the first morning back after the opening of the Mayfair Mews, so I'm guessing you have at least half an hour set aside to discuss how it went and review the criteria you’ll use to determine which projects to take on from the dozens of offers that are bound to come your way.”
I pursed my lips, refusing to admit that he’d just accurately outlined my entire plan.
“If you give that half hour to us instead, I'm sure we can convince you that your next projects should be for Stamer Hotels. That will save you and your staff a lot of time in the long run.”
“I assume you've had other firms put in tenders for your new hotel?” I asked, trying to maintain some control over the situation. “We'd be happy to do the same if you provide us with the brief.”
“I don't think you understand me, Ms Sudlow. I'm not asking you to bid on one hotel. I'd like to sign an exclusive contract with you to handle all of our design needs in the UK and across Europe.”
None of us could miss Holly’s gasp from the other side of the room, and my stomach fluttered in both excitement and disbelief. What he had just suggested was practically unheard of, especially for a firm as new as ours. How could he possibly be talking about that kind of arrangement based on seeing one hotel lobby?
“You haven't even seen our portfolio,” I heard myself mumbling, though I hadn't even really meant to say the words out loud.
Jackson stepped in, putting his hands in his pocket sheepishly. “Actually, we've seen everything you've done, including the projects both of you were involved in prior to this firm. We've even seen some of Ms Chapman's university projects.”
This time, I couldn’t hide my surprise. How had they managed all of that? None of that was easily available to the general public, though I did notice that he only said they'd seenHolly'suni projects and not mine, which must mean they hadn't figured out my legal name yet.
“There's not much I can't do with the time and inclination, Ms Sudlow.” Cole's dark eyes seemed to be even more piercing than usual as he put the ball firmly back in my court.
With each word, it became more obvious there wouldn’t be an easy way to put them off and, truth be told, after that build up, I wanted to hear their proposal. Based on the amount of research they’d already done, they were obviously taking it seriously. Surely, I could handle being in the same room with Cole for half an hour without losing all my self-restraint.
“Let's dispense with the titles, shall we?” I uncrossed my arms and stepped clear of the door to my office to let them in. “Call me Gemma. You've got thirty minutes, so let's hear what you've got to say.”
Half an hour later, I called out to my assistant, Denise, to take Cole and Jackson back out to the waiting area and get them some tea. As soon as the door closed behind them, Holly turned to me, her eyes wide as saucers.
“Holy fuck.”
Although I wouldn’t have put it in quite those terms, I felt just the same. Cole hadn't been joking: they already had a contract drawn up, offering us a three-year deal to work on their European projects, with an option to extend at the end of it if both parties agreed. The amount they were offering exceeded what we would earn by taking on individual projects, and would save us the time required to procure those assignments.
We would be crazy to turn it down, wouldn't we? And yet, as I bit my lip and flipped through the pages of the contract that they'd left behind for us to look over, I hesitated anyway.
“What's wrong?” Holly often knew me better than I knew myself, and she could see straight away that my enthusiasm didn’t match hers.
“It wouldn't leave us time to do very much else,” I pointed out, still trying to put my finger on the exact reason for my reluctance. “If this was a year or two ago, when we were completely new, then I'd jump at it. But right now, we have the chance to branch out a bit and I'm not sure that signing on with one company like this is the best thing for us creatively.”
