Probably thinks sleeping with me would be doing me some kind of favor. What a jerk.
Shehadliked him, though. That was kind of the problem. She had found him genuinely engaging—fun to talk to, a good dancer, a lively presence at a party full of people who were kind of dull. In a room full of app developers, he had at least been something different, and that was refreshing. And yet, shehad allowed herself to spend too much time talking to a single person, to the point where he had believed it might actually be plausible that she would consider coming home with him. It was more an indictment of the way she was spending her time than anything else, she decided. She had come here for a reason, and that reason had nothing to do with meeting cute guys.
All right, back to business.
Putting Elijah out of her mind, she scanned the room, looking for the next person she needed to talk to. Though she’d had a variety of conversations with these people, she hadn’t found anyone she thought would be able to help her. And yet there had to be someone. Someone here either wanted to invest in SilkSoft, or they would know somebody else who would. It was just a matter of finding the right person, having the right conversation. And she hadn’t done it yet, and it wouldn’t happen standing here by the wall.
Get back in there—and this time, don’t waste time talking to any men about anything other than business, no matter how cute they are.
She set her sights on a man in a tan suit standing on the far side of the room with a glass of wine in his hand. He wore wire-rimmed glasses, and something about that suggested seriousness to Stephanie. Maybe he would hear what she was saying.
She never found out.
Before she was able to reach him, she was stopped by a man stepping in front of her. At first, all she registered was the form of him, tall and broad and in her way. Then she looked up to see who had waylaid her—and gasped.
Oliver Norcross.
Her heart dropped. He would no doubt realize that she wasn’t supposed to be here at all, and it was anyone’s guess what he would do about it. Maybe he would order her out. Maybe he would tell someone. Maybe he would simply figure out what she was doing here and laugh at her for it, which would honestly be just as bad. She would be humiliated. The mere thought of it made her want to turn and run, but he was already right in front of her and there was no saving herself from embarrassment now. She had to face the music.
“Can I talk to you for a minute?” he asked her.
She wondered what would happen if she tried to tell him no. “Sure,” she said awkwardly, taking a step back. Their proximity was uncomfortable.
He pointed to a door in the back of the room. “Maybe we could step out for a minute? I’d like to do this privately.”
Oh, he had definitely realized that she wasn’t supposed to be here. He was about to read her the riot act. She swallowed hard. “Lead the way.”
He walked past her without looking back. Once more, she was tempted to take advantage of his momentary inattention and flee, but she would only make herself look worse if she did that. Instead, she followed him out of the ballroom and into a quiet hallway.
“Stephanie Vincent,” he said. “You’re more of a go-getter than I gave you credit for. You weren’t on the guest list tonight, were you?”
She refused to hang her head. “I’m sure there are a lot of people like me who weren’t on this list,” she said. “People who can’t seem to break into the business world, no matter how hard we try, because there’s just something missing in our approach. Because we can’t seem to crack the code on how to impress the people who have gone before us and paved the way. Because we don’t seem to know the right thing to say when we’re lucky enough to be in meetings with people who might be able to help us advance.”
“All right, all right,” Oliver said, raising his eyebrows. “Shameless, aren’t you?”
“I don’t think shame is going to do me any favors,” she said. “I admit I snuck in here without an invitation. But no, I’m not going to stand here and pretend that I feel badly about that, or that I wouldn’t do it again.”
“Well, I’ll be honest with you,” he said. “I respect it. There’s a little more to you than I realized when we first met.”
Stephanie was confused. Was he impressed with her for sneaking in? That wasn’t what she had expected, and she didn’t know what to say. She said nothing at all, waiting for him to make the next move.
And he did. “I saw you with my son.”
“Oh.” She frowned. “We just met over dinner and he asked me to dance. There was nothing else to that. I don’t know that I’ll ever speak to him again.”
“Well, that’s what I wanted to talk to you about,” Oliver said. “I wanted to ask you if you would be willing to spend a little more time with him.”
“I… don’t know if that’s such a good idea.” Could she tell him absolutely not? “We didn’t really get along that well.”
“Oh, I know that,” he chuckled. “I saw what happened. I couldn’t hear everything that was being said, but—well, let me guess. He tried to get you to come back to his place with him.”
Now she did look away.
“And you refused him,” Oliver finished. “Which is the part that interests me most, Ms. Vincent. Do you know how rare it is to see anyone tell my son no? I was impressed by it. And… I’m going to ask you to reconsider.”
She couldn’t possibly be hearing this correctly. “You’re asking me to go home with your son?” Was she supposed to sleep with him? There was no way Oliver Norcross had the audacity to ask her for that… did he?
Men like this do make a habit of asking for what they want… and they usually get it.
