Page 11 of Mistletoe Mistake
“I'm confident we can convince them to work with us,” Jackson replied, giving me another charming smile. He really was quite handsome, in a completely different way than Cole, but he didn’t make my pulse race the way Cole did.
And speaking of Cole... a wicked thought crossed my mind, and before I could stop myself, I turned to him with the most innocent expression I could muster. “So, you're saying that people usually find your offers impressive?"
~Cole~
Jackson tried not to laugh as Gemma posed her question, all faux innocence and sweetness. He knew exactly what she meant by it, and so did I.
What was she doing here? She still hadn't told us her full name or why she had come to this party. Jackson said she must not have been an escort after all, but I still couldn’t be certain. At a party like this, looking as polished and put together as she did, she could easily be a high-end girl on the arm of someone like Morelli. Or maybe she worked with one of my competitors? Was the whole thing a set-up to try to get close to me? My mind raced furiously as I tried to figure it all out.
Suddenly, in a flash, it came back to me: Anchor Design had been the name on the door of the party she’d been at. She must be here with someone from the design firm. After all, she just said she knew them quite well, and since she had been willing to go to my room with me, it seemed more likely that she wouldn’t be in a relationship. She must be a working girl after all. Fuck, I really hoped so.
And now, she had just mocked the offer I made her, though I still didn't understand what was wrong with it. I'd paid less than that for Vanessa and she would not only attend this party with me but join me for an hour back at the hotel afterwards.
Vanessa was beautiful, no question, but looking at her next to Gemma, I couldn't help thinking I'd rather take Gemma back to the hotel with me that evening. Something about the sparkle in her eyes and her rather unusual mix of confidence and submissiveness appealed to me more than I could explain. But if my calculations were correct, I should still have a chance. If I could find out who she was here with, I would find out what they were paying her and I would better it. Somehow, I could still turn this to my advantage.
So when she asked if people generally found my offers impressive, I leaned closer to her, keeping my voice low enough that even the others in our small group couldn’t hear it. “I promise you, Gemma: when there’s something I really want, I get it.”
Her lips twitched as she looked back at me, her eyes sparkling in an amused challenge. “I guess we'll just have to see about that.”
Before we could go any further, the squeal of a microphone echoed through the room and everyone turned to find the source of the noise. Alberto Morelli stood on the staircase, a few steps up so everyone could see him, beaming as he addressed the crowd.
“Thank you all for coming to the reopening of the Mayfair Mews Inn.”
He launched into the usual spiel about the importance of his hotel, and I couldn't stop my mind from wandering as he continued speaking. Gemma still stood in front of me but she had turned around to listen to Alberto, giving me a view of her back. The dress she wore was obviously a lot more tasteful than the one she'd had on the night before, but it still showed off her figure beautifully, and I had an almost overwhelming urge to gather her hair to one side and kiss my way down her neck. I desperately wanted to hear her whimper again the same way she had under the mistletoe. Fuck, I wanted her badly. I honestly couldn't remember the last time I'd been this attracted to someone.
When Alberto started talking about Anchor Design, I forced myself to concentrate back on his words. This could be important. I needed to find out who the people were that I would need to win over to get this firm to work with me.
“I'm sure you can all agree that there is nowhere else like this in London,” Alberto gloated with a smug smile on his face. “I am delighted to introduce you all to the women behind Anchor, the creative team in charge of this stunning transformation: Ms Holly Chapman and Ms Gemma Sudlow.”
Wait...whatdid he just say?
Gemma turned back to me and gave me a wink. “That's my cue. Would you hold this for me?”
Before I could even register what just happened, she handed her martini to me. I took it out of reflex more than through any conscious decision, watching in disbelief as she and Holly made their way through the crowd to join Alberto on the stairs.
Fuck. Jackson had it right: I had, in fact, completely misjudged her. Rather than being here with someone from the design firm, she worked for them. Not just worked for them; by the looks of it, she must be one of the main designers.
My instincts rarely let me down that badly. How had I read her so completely wrong?
As I tried to make sense of it all, Gemma and Holly took turns speaking about the inspiration for the designs. They were both well spoken and charming, their passion for the project evident in the way they talked about it. Looking around the room, I could see several of our other competitors listening carefully, some of them whispering to each other. Obviously, we wouldn’t be the only ones interested in hiring them.
When they had finished, I turned back to Jackson who grinned at me in delight, not even trying to hide his amusement. “You should have seen your face when they called their names,” he crowed. “Tough break, Cole. You really think they're going to want to work with you now?”
I’d suffered a setback, I had to admit, but I wasn't giving up just yet. “You should know better than to underestimate me,” I reminded him. “Everyone's got a price. There's something she wants; I just have to figure out what it is and give it to her.”
~Gemma~
After Signor Morelli finished speaking, he invited everyone to the restaurant for dinner. Holly and I had barely taken two steps before being swarmed by other guests wanting to compliment us on our work and talk to us about their future projects.
As I chatted with them all, I did my best to remain calm and not let my excitement show. So far, this had all turned out exactly as we’d hoped it would.
Well,almostexactly. I still couldn't quite believe that Cole had turned up here or that he was... well, who he was. Even though I promised myself I wouldn’t look for him, I could swear that his eyes were on me from across the room.
After what happened the night before, I shouldn’t want anything to do with him, but my body disagreed. I couldn’t stop thinking about him, and more specifically, what it would be like to be with him.
Now that I knew who he was, what happened between us made even less sense to me. Why had he assumed I wanted to be paid? I hadn't mentioned anything about money at all; he brought it up all on his own. Surely, a man so attractiveandrich would be used to women wanting to be with him without expecting to be compensated for it.
Complicating matters even further was the business side of things. Jackson said they were here about a hotel and that they wanted to speak to Anchor about designing it, which meant they wanted to talk to me. That would be an amazing opportunity for us. As much as I had enjoyed the refurb on this hotel, designing from scratch and having complete freedom to create something from nothing appealed to me even more. From everything I’d ever heard about Stamer Hotels, I didn’t imagine we’d have to worry about scaling back our designs either.
