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Something Lukas had said before reformed in her mind—about her family appreciating her loyalty—made her pause. She wasn’t sure that Isabelle appreciated it as much as she took it for granted but an idea was taking shape.
If Lukas agreed to hire her as a consultant for his project and would form a partnership with Harrington’s, then Isabelle would be forced to sit up and take notice of her achievements. And she had no doubt, given Lukas’s passion for the project, his budget would be huge.
Would Isabelle go for the idea?
Eleanore chewed on her lower lip. She might dislike Lukas Kuznetskov, but as he had said to her, business was business, and she was pretty sure Isabelle would see it the same way. And the opportunities were obvious.
This would be Harrington’s first hotel in Eastern Europe. A foot in the door to another market with zero capital outlay up front. It was like a gift, but a conditional one, because it came with Lukas Kuznetskov attached.
Could she work with a man she found so incredibly attractive and resist him? Eleanore scoffed at her reflection. Well, of course she could.
CHAPTER THREE
‘A PARTNERSHIP?’
Lukas felt his eyebrows climb his forehead. Was the woman crazy? He’d never had a partner in his life. Not that he didn’t admire her chutzpah in putting the idea to him.
She had guts, and he admired that in a person. ‘And you think I’m an opportunist?’ he quipped.
‘I didn’t say that.’
He smiled at her quick back step. ‘First I get the brush-off tune and now I get the suck-up tune. I can’t wait to see what comes next. Will it be the seduction tune?’ Not that he wanted that...
‘Listen, Mr Kuznetskov.’ She planted her hands on her slender hips. ‘I haven’t changed my tune at all. I said you were self-important and obnoxious and comments like that only confirm my view.’
He studied her in her crumpled dress and face free of make-up, her hair pulled back neatly once again. She had the most translucent skin he had ever seen and his fingers itched to trace over her face to see if it was as soft as it appeared. He wondered if she had any idea that standing before him all riled and cranky made him want to channel all that pent-up energy into another activity. One that involved her naked on the carpeted floor and him buried deeply between her soft thighs. All the blood in his body surged south at the idea and it took some effort to force it to return to his brain.
With time running out what he needed to do right now was get Eleanore Harrington’s expertise and knowledge to complete his ice hotel, not be thinking about how her breasts would feel in the palms of his hands.
‘I don’t do partners.’ But he did do money and in accordance with that he named a figure to procure her services that even a pampered heiress would find difficult to refuse.
She blinked her pretty eyes at him a couple of times and he wondered if he’d just found the golden key to securing her cooperation.
‘I take it that’s the fee you’re offering me to take on the most impossible job on the planet?’
Lukas told himself to forget about whether her eyes were more green or more gold. ‘If it was that impossible,’ he quipped, ‘you wouldn’t have suggested being a partner in it.’
She smiled. ‘Touché, Mr Kuznetskov, but I do think it’s impossible. Well...’ She bit into her plump bottom lip. ‘Almost impossible. But I don’t want your money. I want Harrington’s name above the front door.’
He paused. Had he really just heard her right? ‘No way.’
She shrugged as if that was that. ‘Then I’m not interested.’
‘You forget,’ he said, relaxing his posture, ‘there are other contenders out there.’
‘I haven’t forgotten that,’ she returned coolly, ‘but I know you’re desperate and you won’t find anyone else as good as me.’
She held one hand behind her back and he wondered if she didn’t have her fingers crossed. Regardless, she was right about how desperate he was.
‘Touché yourself, Eleanore.’
She smiled like a woman who held all the aces. And with her haughty nose raised in the air at him and her curvy little body, maybe she did. How he had ever thought her marginally pretty was beyond him. She was so much more than that in the flesh. Warm, sparkling and...feisty. An alluring combination of intellect and innocence he found strangely appealing. Not that any of that meant he’d give in to her request. She was about to find out that a willingness to compromise was not one of his stronger traits. ‘Why do you want Harrington’s name on the door?’
