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“You need to come with a warning label!” she shot back.
His smile was rather wolfish. “Isn’t that what I’m proposing?” he asked. “Make the world safe for other women. Take me off the market.”
“I’m a jewelry designer, not a lion tamer.”
“You could be both,” he said, his voice smooth as honey.
She cursed herself for finding his sexual banter seductive. Wasn’t she an educated, independent woman of the twenty-first century?
Sawyer, on the other hand, was a throwback to feudal lords—and thanks to his ancestors, he had a real, present-day title to match.
Well, he’d have to look for his countess elsewhere. She didn’t know where—though she supposed a fashion event with plenty of beautiful, pedigreed women tottering around in four-inch heels wasn’t a half-bad bet—but she knew she wasn’t in the running.
“In any case,” Sawyer said, breaking into her thoughts, “I’m not proposing what your father has in mind.”
“Oh?” she asked with false smoothness. “Then what are you proposing?”
“Your father wants a dynastic marriage. Real but—”
“Loveless,” she finished for him before he could spell it out for her.
He nodded. “It’s been done for generations.”
“This is the twenty-first century.”
Of course, it was centuries of ruthless breeding that had produced Sawyer Langsford—a man’s man, a captain of industry, a guy who seemed capable of impregnating a woman just by looking at her.
“I’m suggesting a short-term arrangement for our mutual benefit,” Sawyer stated.
“A short-term marriage of convenience?” she asked incredulously.
“Right.”
“Well, I know what you would get out of the arrangement,” she shot back.
“Do you?” he said smoothly.
She ignored the subtext of sexual suggestion. “You’d get control of Kincaid News. But what in the world would be the incentive for me?”
“You’d be doing the right thing for your family,” he said, unperturbed. “The majority of your father’s media business is in the United Kingdom, while most of my company is in the United States. With corporate synergies, both our companies can continue to prosper. Your father needs a successor for the family firm, and I know the media business.”
He added with a quirk of the lips, “Your father would stop trying to interfere in your life. He’d be forever in your debt.”
She frowned. “Only because I’d be married to you!”
The price was too high.
“We’d seem to be married for a short while,” Sawyer allowed. “But we’d both know the truth.”
She felt an unexpected twinge, and then despite herself, she asked, “What about divorce? What happens to the companies then?”
“Once the companies have merged, I’m betting there’ll be no turning back. Your father will have his money, and he’ll be forced to concede the efficacy of the deal.”
“How convenient for you,” she responded. “You get your hands on Kincaid holdings without the long-term baggage of a Kincaid bride.”
Sawyer’s lips quirked again, and this time, she itched to wipe the smile off his face.
“I wouldn’t call you a piece of baggage,” he said.
“I’m not marrying you.”
“There’d be additional benefits for you.”
“Those being what?” she retorted.
“I’m in a position to help you move your jewelry business to the next level,” he said. “In a way your father hasn’t been.”
Her spine stiffened. “There are too many strings attached,” she said warily. “Anyway, what do you know about my design business?”
“I know Kincaid has refused to become an investor.”
Tamara relaxed. It was apparent Sawyer’s only clue about her business had come through her father.
She conceded that Sawyer’s persistence was a valuable business trait. But she wasn’t going to base her married life on a business deal—especially one where she had little to gain and all of her hard-won independence to lose.
“No thanks,” she retorted. “I’ve got the situation well in hand.”
“There you are!”
At the sound of a familiar voice, Tamara turned around and discovered Tom making his way toward them along the line of draped curtains, one champagne flute in each hand.
How had Tom thought to look for her here? Still, she was grateful for the rescue.
“Sorry, babe,” Tom said. “I was intercepted by someone I knew. He was a guy who used to play some of the same gigs as Zero Sum.”
Tom was the quintessential yet-to-make-it-big rocker. He was slightly unkempt, his brown hair curling at the neck of a black T-shirt and matching jacket. He and his band, Zero Sum, hadn’t given up on looking for their big break.
Tom had been her occasional date for the past year, whenever he was in town. But right now, Tamara couldn’t help contrasting him to Sawyer, who stood about half a head taller, and a world of difference away in smoothness.
Tamara considered herself tall—or at least, not short—at five-seven, but Sawyer had a considerable height advantage on her.
“Tom, you know his lordship, the Earl of Melton, don’t you?” she asked, using Sawyer’s title in order to strive for some emotional distance between them.
Sawyer’s look said he saw right through her ploy.
She ignored him. “My lord, may I present Tom Vance?”
She watched as Sawyer and Tom shook hands and took each other’s measure.
“Melton as in Melton Media?” Tom asked.
“One and the same,” Sawyer replied.
Tom’s face brightened. “Pleasure to meet you, ah—”
“My lord,” Tamara supplied, trying not to roll her eyes.
“My lord,” Tom repeated, and then shot a grateful look at her. “Thanks, Tam.”
“Tam?” Sawyer queried sardonically. “Like Tom and Tam?”
“You’ve got it.” Tom grinned, happy as a puppy.
Tamara could see the wheels turning in Tom’s head. To Tom, meeting Sawyer was like hitting the networking jackpot. Sawyer’s media outlets presented limitless opportunities. Free publicity! Advertising! Name recognition! In short, the kind of opportunity that Tamara’s father refused to provide to Zero Sum.
