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“Thank you so much for meeting me, Mr Newman.”
“Please, call me Noris.”
“Noris,” she nodded. “I understand your time is limited.”
“Regrettably, yes,” he grinned, his eyes dropping to her bright red lips. Carrie Beauchamp was not at all what he’d expected. Her stuffy English accent and formality over the phone had definitely not prepared him for the veritable bombshell he discovered in the hotel bar. Her hair was short and sexily dishevelled, her eyes framed by thick black lashes. He drew his attention to the folder, already pretty sure he wanted to sign onto whatever she was hawking.
“Let me give you the Cliff’s Notes presentation, then.” She launched into her rehearsed spiel, absolutely certain she had him eating out of the palm of her hands. Only a few minutes into the well-practiced speech, she felt his attention drift to a point above her shoulder.
“Noris?” She asked, leaning forward, so that her shirt dipped to reveal a hint of cleavage.
“Gael,” Noris stood, extending a hand confidently.
Carrie cursed inwardly and looked over her shoulder. Gael’s eyes were loaded with dark emotion as he glared down at her.
“I thought our meeting was in the restaurant at nine,” The American queried.
“Indeed.”
Noris looked from Carrie to Gael. Only an idiot would miss the spark of angry heat that was travelling from one to the other.
Noris needed Gael Vivas’s business. There was no way he was going to get in the middle of whatever was going on between the Spanish tycoon and the sex-kitten Carrie Beauchamp. His father would absolutely murder him if they lost Gael Vivas on Noris’s watch. The thought made his skin pale.
“And how do you two know each other?” Gael asked, his eyes drifting insolently to Carrie’s lace bra, the details of which were visible beneath the fine silk of her shirt. Was she on a date with the American man? Possessive heat, white hot and furious, tore through Gael. Another completely unfamiliar emotion.
Noris was desperate to avoid the Spaniard’s temper. “We just met,” he promised quickly.
“I see.” He didn’t. Noris’s panic inched higher and higher. “Shall I see you in the restaurant at nine?”
“No,” Gael’s eyes didn’t leave Car
rie’s face. “I’m prepared to finalise the details over email. Let’s cancel.”
“Cancel?” It was the main reason Noris had come to London. “Oh. Are you sure?”
Carrie’s expression was one of extreme frustration. She had a top degree in economics and had gained an excellent reputation in only two years. The Times had run a piece on her only three months earlier, calling her a young Richard Branson, with better hair. And yet this uniquely male pissing contest was the kind of thing that made her want to scream. “Gael, Noris and I are in the middle of something. Would you excuse us please?”
Gael’s look of amusement angered her even further. But one glance at the American and Carrie understood what was funny. Noris was all but backing away from the table. He could not have made it any plainer that he wished to be elsewhere.
“I’m sorry, Carrie,” Noris shook his head. “I’ll have my father be in touch once he’s recovered. He’s done the research on your offering; he’ll be better placed to make a decision.”
She watched him disappear, and sighed fatalistically. “Someone who needs your business more than mine, I guess?” She asked, without meeting Gael’s eyes.
He sat his broad frame into the seat opposite her, and scanned her appearance thoughtfully. “Talk to me instead.”
“No, thank you very much.” She reached over to take the paperwork back, but Gael put his hands on it, holding it firm on his side of the table.
“Tell me about your offering.”
“No. I’m in no mood to waste time, Gael. That meeting took me months to set up. And it was going brilliantly until you came along.”
“I have no doubt,” he muttered, lowering his gaze pointedly to her bright red lips, then back to her brilliant blue eyes. “Have dinner with me.”
“No,” she retorted.
To her chagrin, he lifted the pages, and began to flick through them, indolently reading the press release and detailed financials that had been intended for Mr Newman.
“Are you interested?” She asked with an annoyed roll of her eyes.
