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Plus, he’s so damned handsome I could cry.
Now that it’s just the two of us, I don’t have Walter to distract me from really looking at Beau. He has faint auburn streaks in his mocha brown hair, styled so casually that I can’t tell if that’s just how it lays or if he spent twenty minutes on it this morning. Whichever it is, it works for him. He has the prominent jawline of a male model, square and even. And lips I want to suck on for days—
Get your mind out of the gutter, Elsie. Resort, talk about the resort.
“...and here I was thinking the steakhouse—"
“I would have thought a steakhouse would be tootraditionalto end up onyourdesign,” Beau teases.
Getting teased in that baritone voice has more of an effect on me than I’d like to admit. Something about his contrarian nature—why the hell does that do it for me? He’s arrogant. He’s an asshole.So, stop thinking about what his skin tastes like.I smile. “I can concede to your traditionalist tastes now and then.”
He laughs. “How generous of you.”
“I try. As I was saying—"
“Do you think a steakhouse is too traditional for my resort?”
Is he actually asking my opinion, or is he toying with me? “Not for your resort, no.”
He sits back with that smirk, that damnable smirk. The one that says he’s having fun at my expense. “Not formyresort?”
“Caught that, did you?”
He chuckles. “Oh, I heard it in your voice. You think I’m too traditional, don’t you?”
“I think that for your resort to succeed, you will need to expand your horizons to include some unexpected items. Otherwise, it’s like I said—no one will come to Somerset Harbor for what they can get anywhere else. If you want a steakhouse, then make it spectacular.” I swipe across my tablet to show him my idea. “You’ll have to—"
“Burn the place down?”
I laugh. “A cooking fire pit in the middle of the restaurant will set your steakhouse apart from anything in Manhattan.”
“Because of safety codes! How can that even work?”
“Glad you asked.” I explain the details and get that high again when I see him following along, interested and focused. He likes what he’s hearing and what I’m showing him, and if I could get that look on his face while being naked in front of him—
Stop. The resort is the topic. Not your libido.
“That all sounds incredible, but I think it’s dangerous.”
“I told you. The safety—"
“Not the safety aspect, Elsie. The guest aspect. I’m not sure they are going to want something so outlandish. It’ll scare the old folks off—"
“And are they the guests you’re courting?”
He looks perturbed. He caught the challenge in my voice, even though I’d tried to ask the question innocently enough. “I am courtingeveryguest. The resort will be family-friendly, and that includes the grandparents. We don’t need them to be put off by some extreme fire hazard in the restaurant, not to mention the smoke—"
“Beau. If you’re not into it, that’s fine. I can come up with some other options. I thought you came to Klein and Associates for innovation, but you aren’t ready for everything we can give you. You want to make little old ladies comfortable and so you’ll give them the mundane things they have enjoyed for the past eighty years. I understand.”
He is silent for a moment, before he lets out a solitary, sharp laugh. “Bravo. Was that a dig for thesufficientcomment I threw at you?”
I smirk and say the first thing that comes to mind. “If the shoe fits...”
He laughs harder this time, and I’m glad to see he’s not completely offended. “I’ll let that slide for now. Condescension suits you.”
“I’ve lived in Manhattan long enough to pick up a few things.”
“Where are you from originally? I noticed a hint of an accent earlier—Southern?”
