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"Dad? What do you mean by that?" If he’s not going to tell me, I’ll ask someone who will.
"LimTech has been known to close its offer window without much notice. It's some sort of power play. Sometimes he'll give you an hour to send in any offer. You have to be prepared. He thinks it gets people to send in big offers and fast. This time he did it only two days into the offer window being open. As far as I know, only Chen Group was prepared."
“They planned it that way. Gathering hype for the sale,” Kylian adds, sounding no more impressed than my dad is about it all.
"You didn't get a chance to put in an offer?" I ask Kylian. His shoulders square as he answers. "No. I didn't get a notification that he was closing the window. I was... busy."
“When was it?”
He flicks his eyes up to look at me, and then away.
“On Sunday.”
Me.
He was busy with me.
Guilt streaks through my body.
Was it those phone calls and text messages he ignored?
I should've made him answer them. I should've grabbed the phone, pushed it into his hand, and forced him to read the message.
"I'm sorry."
"It's okay. Overpriced little chip. There will be others," he says. "Another day, another chip, right, sir?" he says and raises his glass to my dad who responds in kind.
"You talking about the Heracles chip deal? I hear Chen Group and LimTech did it on purpose."
Kylian doesn't say anything, just takes smother sip from his drink. The conversation is bothering him and there's nothing that I can do to help him.
"Anyone up for tea? It's getting a little cool out here,” I jump up, watching his discomfort hurting me.
Nathan looks at me like I’m crazy. "Keeks, it's like 75 degrees with 70% humidity. Do you have ice water dripping through your veins?" I ignore him and run over to the pool house. It has tinted window panes so that you can look out into the garden, but unless it’s dark, people outside can’t see inside.
The drinks bar is fully stocked with cold drinks, but I have to rummage in the cupboard to find the kettle.
"I have some tea you might like to try," Kylian says, joining me, holding up a small pouch. "It's a concoction of white jasmine, green tea and orange peel."
"Oh, hey, that's sounds great." I reach out to grab it but as soon as my fingers close around it, he pulls it back and I fall against him.
"Careful, angel..." he whispers against my ear and sends a shiver all through my body.
"I'm kind of sick of people saying that to me today," I growl as I steady myself and snatch the tea bag out of his hands.
"Who else said that to you?" he leans casually against the bench, back towards the garden where my family sits.
"It doesn’t matter. You should go back out there; you don't want them to see us here."
He watches for a moment, and even though I’m facing away from him, I can feel his eyes on me. "We're just talking, Kiki."
"Yeah, well, apparently Nathan doesn’t even want us to do that." I fill the kettle with water, then turn it on.
"Ah, so it was Nathan. What happened? Did he tell you I was a filthy manwhore and you should be careful in case I ravage you one day when we're supposed to be working?" The light hearted tone of his voice doesn’t hide that he wonders if I believe what Nathan said.
"Something like that."
"He's just jealous. I mean, I fully intend on ravaging you, but the other thing, I haven't been that for a long time. He's just holding onto an old image of me. And being protective of you."
