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Maybe hehaddone his homework. Because he was making the very proposal that the previous four candidates had rejected outright. She stepped back from her desk and fully faced him. Only to once again be hit by the veritable force field of his presence.
Had he moved closer?
Because the air was redolent with the scent of sandalwood and spice and warm skin, a curious combination that made her want to take a breath. Averydeep breath.
‘How much oversight?’
‘The algorithm will be mine outright and you will not interfere with its day-to-day usage, but I’ll allow you a review once every year for the first five years.’
‘Just once? A lot can happen in a year, Mr Valente.’
‘What I’m offering is more than you received from your other prospective buyers.’
True. And it’d been a concession she was reluctantly willing to negotiate down, as long as she verified beforehand that she was handing her precious property into the right hands. But now he’d opened the prospect of more oversight, it was hard to discard it. Her breath snagged in her midriff when he stepped closer. ‘Since I didn’t get what I wanted, they too left empty-handed.’
A deep gleam lit his eyes, turning the grey alive and mercurial. ‘I’m confident we can both walk away from this with exactly what we want.’
About to respond, she paused when he glanced at his watch.
‘Do you have some other pressing matter to attend to?’ she snapped, then immediately regretted it. Display of heated emotion was unlike her. Was it because she’d been ready to call this day a loss before this man walked, uninvited, into her office? And now that she’d let herself be intrigued, he was backing away? Was it a tactic?
She met his gaze when he raised his. Again, he studied her for far longer than Genie suspected was polite. She knew because she’d wondered that about herself on a few occasions.
‘As a matter of fact, I do,’ he responded, his gravel-rough voice causing an unwelcome sensation inside her. ‘But I will return this evening. You’ll have dinner with me so we can finalise this deal. I’ll pick you up at eight.’
The hollow sense of loss when he’d said he was leaving now clashed with the irritating assumption that she would welcome him back or that she would be free to have dinner with him. ‘You’re getting ahead of yourself, sir. My time is quite regimented, and it doesn’t include—’
‘You’d rather go back to the drawing board and attract unsuitable buyers to waste your time than spend a few hours acknowledging that I was the best buyer to start off with?’
His argument was irritatingly logical. But the thought of spending more time with him, with his intuitive eyes fixed on her, made her...unsettled. ‘We can have a discussion without the dinner.’ Quick. Clinical.Safe.
He looked around him, his gaze tracking every sterile surface and impersonal ornament before returning to her. ‘I’ve followed your career. I know there must be a specific reason you wish to let go of your work now. You have a few hours’ grace to decide whether you want to sell or not. I suggest you get your people to do their due diligence before this evening. As for the timing, I have dinner reservations I’d rather not go to waste. Unless you have an aversion to eating?’
‘I don’t,’ she snapped. ‘But I’m picky about whom I eat with.’
‘Then I hope you’ll make an exception for a future business acquaintance.’ With that he strode towards the door. ‘You don’t need to leave your cave for longer than three hours,’ he mused, the faintest stench of mockery on his face.
Genie was working up a comeback searing enough to make Dr Douglas turn in his grave when Severino Valente paused.
‘And, Miss Merchant?’
She contented herself in raising a caustic eyebrow.
His gaze lingered on her face, dropping to her mouth before rising. ‘I meant what I said. I will walk away with what I want. I always do. Nothing else will suffice.’
Genie absently noted that the quivering in her belly had spread all over her body as she watched him saunter through her office door and disappear from view.
She took his advice and pulled up his name the moment she’d changed back into her favourite lounging attire. Although it stuck in her craw the whole time she munched on a carrot while her fingers flew over the keyboard of her beloved supercomputer.
She’d built the first one from scratch when she was eleven and gifted herself the joy of reincarnating one every birthday since she turned sixteen.
While another computer performed a deeper dive, she speed-read through his life.
He was a multibillionaire.Of course.
He’d started his venture capitalist outfit at a young age although not as young as she’d been when she’d been forced to survive on her own. But young enough to raise a few eyebrows. Every sign pointed to a superior intellect. One that other notable corporate figures called on for guidance; one that earned him several industry accolades and invitations to keynote positions in conferences where he gave...engrossing speeches.
Genie told herself it was part of her due diligence when she clicked on one of those speeches, only to switch off minutes later when that peculiar tingling sensation returned at the sound of his voice. For whatever reason, Severino Valente’s voice caused a distinct reaction in her.
