“I believe most conversations go more smoothly when held over a good meal and enjoying fine wine.”
She brought her hand to her temple and shook her head like she couldn’t believe what an ass I was. I laughed.
“This is funny to you?” she asked, exasperated.
“You’re funny. You have exactly the opposite reactions of what I’m used to. Generally when I offer to take a woman out to dinner she’s pleased.”
“Then go bother one of them!”
“Do you feel bothered?” I smiled down at her, loving how agitated I made her. I remembered last night, right before she kissed me like I was her dream hero in a classic romance. “I’m out of here” she’d declared, then clung to me like she never wanted to let go.
Her resistance didn’t dampen my enthusiasm. It raised the stakes, made me know the final conquest would taste that much sweeter. And she had tasted so very sweet last night, sighing in my arms.
I reached out with the intention of brushing her hair back over her shoulder in a casual caress. I hated not touching her. So close yet no contact, talk about a missed opportunity.
But she took a step back and raised up her finger, angry-teacher style. “Hey! We have business we need to discuss. A problem that needs to be resolved.”
“OK.” I held my hands up, avowing my innocence. Until later, at least.
“Don’t make me start talking about lichen again,” she warned me. “I’ll do it.”
“No lichen!” I pleaded. “But, seriously, Caroline, I think we can work something out with your store. I don’t know all the details about it yet, but maybe we can look at our site plans or discuss an alternate location for your shop.” She had no idea how rare this kind of offer was coming from me, the king of bulldozing through any and all problems. Show a crack of weakness and you came apart at the seams, that had been my father’s motto. You give an inch at one building site, then all the rest of them wanted a yard.
But I was my own man, making my own decisions. I’d been doing things in ruthless Kavanaugh style the entire three years since I’d inherited the business, my father’s way or the highway. But with Caroline? It seemed worth trying to figure out an alternate solution.
“Really?” Caroline looked at me, suspicious. Perhaps my reputation had preceded me.
“Come have dinner with me and tell me what you want. You won’t ever have a chance to get what you want if you don’t ask for it.”
She considered it for a moment, looking out the window. Then she looked back up. “You’re not just messing with me? Because if you waste my time and then tomorrow morning I wake up and my store is bulldozed to the ground—”
“Caroline, I’m not an asshole.”
She arched an eyebrow, clearly not 100-percent believing me. And, you know what, she was sort of right, which brought a smile to my face yet again. This woman was all kinds of refreshing.
“Most of the time,” I amended. She still looked at me. “All right,” I tried again, “I’m trying not to be an asshole right now. You’ve told me our plans involve tearing down your store. I’m open to discussing different approaches.”
“OK,” she agreed and I have to admit, I felt thrilled. “Just dinner,” she cautioned, gathering up her belongings and putting them into a backpack. A backpack! Even in high school the girls I’d known hadn’t used backpacks. At the elite boarding school I’d attended, the girls had all kept their books in their dorm rooms and ducked back between classes so they’d never have to lug around anything too bulky.
Caroline slung her backpack over her shoulder and folded her arms across her chest, still eyeing me, cautious. “So you want me to tell you what I want?”
“I do,” I confirmed.
“Even if it’s moving the entire parking area for your resort?”
I shrugged. “If that’s what you want. But you never get anywhere in life if you don’t think big. Why not take this as an opportunity to dream? Is your shop ideal right now? Perfect location? State-of-the art equipment?”
She burst out with a laugh-snort which she then tried to turn into a politer cough. But I understood her reaction.
“Then why not envision a better store? Change doesn’t always have to be bad.”
She looked at me as if I’d sprouted two heads. “Are you sure you should be giving me this advice? What if I told you I wanted my bakery in a spaceship and I wanted you to build it for me?”
She had a point. And I certainly couldn’t remember a single time when I’d given advice like this to anyone standing in my way. But she wasn’t standing in my way, not really. I could make this problem disappear with a pen and a checkbook. The thing was, I didn’t want her to disappear.
“Let’s see what you come up with.” I couldn’t resist bringing my hand to the small of her back as we walked out of the room. Technically I was helping her navigate the way through the treacherous maze of conference room chairs, but really it was the magnetic pull I felt to touch her. My hand belonged at the small of her back. Did she feel it, too?
“OK.” She smiled up at me with more levity in her eyes than I’d seen before. I’d made her happy. It was almost disconcerting how happy that made me. “What time tonight?”
“I’ll pick you up at four. What’s your address?”
“Four?” She laughed a little. “Are you taking me to get the early bird special?”
“I have my reasons.”
She shrugged and gave me her contact info, which I entered into my phone. Digits acquired. I walked her to her car, a dented little Honda Accord that looked like it had rusted clean through on one corner. She must have noted my critical gaze, because she mumbled, “It still runs fine.”
I nodded. “Think about whether you want some delivery vans, too.”
She cracked up. “You like causing trouble, don’t you?”
“When it comes to you, Caroline, yes.”
“Everyone calls me Carrie.” She shook her head.
“Yes, I know, Caroline. And one more thing.” I looked her in the eye. “Wear a dress tonight.”
“Why?”
“I’m taking you somewhere special.”
“You don’t have to take me somewhere special. We’re discussing business.”
“Stop fighting,” I told her, smiling as I said it. “And wear whatever you want.” Leaning down, I whispered in her ear, “But I’d love to see you in a dress. At least until I take it off.”
I chuckled as I walked away, hearing her murmur “arrogant” before she got into her car and slammed the door. But it wasn’t what she said that I was thinking about. It was her slight intake of breath when I leaned in close, the scent of her so alluring and sweet, and the fact that I was about to get a whole night with her.
CHAPTER 6
Caroline
“Wait, what?” Shelly, my assistant at Tasty Bakes turned to me in surprise.
“I’m leaving early today. Can you close up?” She still just looked at me, her mouth slightly open. “I have something I need to take care of.”
I avoided her eyes. I didn’t want to elaborate. Shelly was the type of lively, fun, social person who made the hours fly by with her stories, news and gossip. Exactly the person I did not want to know I had a hot date tonight with Colton Kavanaugh.
Not that it was a date, exactly. He made it feel like a date, but then again he made everything feel like a date. Even the way he looked at me across that conference room, as if he was on the verge of ordering everyone out so he could spread me across the table and plunge into me, deep. I’d been squirming in my seat. And not because I didn’t like it. I just knew I needed to get through those damn slides and getting all flushed and wet wouldn’t help it. I’d gotten flushed and wet anyway.
“OK, I’ll close up,” Shelly finally answered. “But, are you OK? Did someone die?”