Attraction (Love & War, Part I) (6 page)

“
Please call me Nicole. And I'm very well thank you, and
delighted to meet you too,” she replied in her best professional
tone of voice.

“
Right,
Nicole
...let's get
ourselves acquainted at my table.” He shepherded her across the
room to the meeting table, his hand on her elbow. A blue file lay
unopened upon it. He pulled out a chair and gestured for her to sit
and then took the seat opposite.

A moment later
Yasmin appeared with a tray containing a flask of coffee and
proceeded to pour them both a cup.

Yasmin left
the room and Nicole busied herself adding some milk, stirring it
briefly. She sipped at her drink gratefully, trying to calm her
raging nerves.

She forced
herself into gear and got the ball rolling with her initial
introduction. As she looked up, she found herself staring into his
eyes. She was very good at keeping eye contact normally, but his
were difficult to hold and more than intimidating, as if something
dark and menacing lay beyond, and he was about to unleash it on
her. His expression was blank, giving absolutely nothing away. She
imagined he'd make a great poker player.

“
So, Mr Gates,” she began with forced confidence, “you are
interested in acquiring Fabliss de Paris, the Paris based, real
estate procurement corporation. How far have you progressed with
that?”

“
Not far, I proposed an initial discussion and submitted my
interest last night at 6pm. My staff are just beginning work on
it.”

“
I see. And you require my expertise in European and French
contractual law, linguistics and translation.”

“
That is correct.” He stared at her. She stared back equally
hard.

“
What would you like to discuss today.”

“
Before we begin our discussion, I have some questions for
you.”

“
Fire away.”

He looked
down, breaking their unblinking stare for a moment, opened the file
and pushed a piece of paper across the table towards her.

“
Number four. Translate and provide the answer,
please?”

She read it
quickly, translating from French to English. It related to minimum
and maximum completions. It was a very crudely written question,
with French grammatical errors. As if someone had typed it into
Google translate.

“
Minimum time limitation is zero days. Maximum is usually
twelve months although a clause can be written in the contract to
supersede that.” She wondered if he knew what the answer to this
was himself, or if he was evaluating her response in some
way.

“
And six, the answer if you please.”

“
The original source of French Law?” she said out loud, a
touch amused at being tested, as if she were a schoolgirl.
“Napoleonic code, although most has been rewritten. There's not
much of it left any more. These are very simple basic law
questions, Mr Gates, what is the point of this?”

“
Basics are so often forgotten or ignored, and I like to keep
things as simple and basic as possible.”

“
Perhaps I can ask you something?”

“
Go ahead.”

“
Why France?”

“
Why not?” He sat back, regarding her thoughtfully.

“
That's not an answer, that's another question.” She smiled
wryly.

“
There's no specific interest in France. I had alerts set up
for buying opportunities in all the main European countries. This
one happened to appear first.”

“
What is your precise interest in Fabliss?”

“
It has a large portfolio of development land in inner
Paris.”

“
Have you established the building rights of the land?
Limitations and types of buildings which may be developed? Or are
you simply thinking of keeping the land as an investment per
se?”

“
Nothing is ascertained yet. Any planning restrictions can be
established tomorrow on our fact finding mission, perhaps you can
assist with that?”

“
I'm not a property guru. I deal in company contractual law.
But I'll help in any way I can, of course.”

“
My real estate expert has limited knowledge of French land
laws. The two of you can discuss this between you.”

“
I'm willing to discuss anything, and advise you, if I have
knowledge of it and it's in the scope of my remit.”

His eyes left
her face for a moment as he looked down at his open file. He
flicked through a few pages, removing one and pushing it towards
her.

“
There's something for you to be getting on with later. It's a
brief summary of the whole Fabliss group hierarchy. The present
owner, Robert Charron, has several other companies you many wish to
examine at your leisure, purely for background, and the names are
listed for you.”

She scanned
the sheet quickly, absorbing the names.

“
This is most useful, thank you.” She'd already done some leg
work on Robert Charron but every little helped.

They resumed
their staring game once more.

“
Are you busy this evening?” he suddenly asked.

She wasn't
expecting a question of this nature, and it threw her for a
loop.

“
Pardon me?” she asked, unsure if she'd actually heard that
correctly. It sounded like he was asking her on a date.

“
Do you have an engagement this evening?” he
repeated.

“
Yes I do, actually,” she managed to reply, rather
overwhelmed. She didn't want to mention who it was with. She
suddenly felt very awkward.

“
What time is it?”

“
Eight.”

“
And where d'you live?”

“
Docklands,” she revealed, stunned by his personal cross
examination.

“
That should allow us ample time. I'll collect you at 5.30
from your office and have you home by 7.30.”

I don't think
I can actually believe I've been asked out twice on the same day.
And by Ashton Gates and his aide.

“
Can I refuse your kind offer?” she asked,
tentatively.

“
Why would you?” He frowned slightly.

“
I have a few things to do if I'm going to Paris tomorrow. I
don't want to rush around. I like to be organised.”

“
You can prepare in the morning, before I collect
you.”

“
I'm supposed to be in the office tomorrow morning, working.
I've a managerial meeting between nine and ten.”

“
Tell your boss you can't make that meeting, or perhaps you'd
rather my PA call him and explain the situation.”

She was
getting a little annoyed with him. She gathered her wits and spoke
her mind, as tactfully as she could.

“
Excuse me for a moment, Mr Gates. I'm not a member of your
staff to control. I make my own arrangements,” she stated firmly
but politely.

He broke into a wide grin at her outspoken reply. Her
breathing picked up at the sight of his perfect teeth, breaking
through like a string of glowing pearls.
Her eyes zoned in on his mouth.

Calm down
girl, cool it...

“
I can be very controlling. But for your information, you're
not being subjected to much of it at this moment.”

She raised her
eyebrows. She was surprised by his admission, although he didn't
seem to be apologising for his behaviour much, if at all.

“
So what's the reason for tonight's pressing engagement, and
where do you want to go?” she asked in her usual forthright
manner.

“
It's purely personal interest and we're going to have dinner
together at an Italian restaurant, unless you have another
preference?”

“
You're taking me on a dinner date?”

“
That's the plan.”

“
Can I ask why?”

“
I find you intriguing and beautiful.”

No, this can't
be real...can it?

She pinched
her leg hard, under the table and it hurt like hell.

Pain like that
means real...

“
Really?” she said as calmly as she could, trying to keep her
expression as serious as his.

“
Mmm, very beautiful, in fact,” his penetrating gaze bored
deeply into her head.

He pushed his
file to one side and leaned forward, his forearms resting on the
table, as he examined her closely. She was feeling incredibly
uncomfortable under such obvious and intense scrutiny but she
managed to maintain her poise and stared back. His eyes wandered
slowly all around her face as if he was imagining touching or
licking it. His tongue ran over his lower lip subtly. She was
hypnotised by his sensual gaze, entranced by the flick of his
eyelashes. Heat began to rise alarmingly fast within her.

After a few,
but seemingly endless seconds of his silent erotic appraisal, she
had to stop him. She'd had enough of his blatant sexual
harassment.

“
Would you please finish this unwelcome evaluation,” she
requested in a cool tone of voice, glaring at him.

“
Beauty like yours takes a long time to appreciate, I'll have
some more later,” he replied calmly, unruffled by her look and
reprimand.

She couldn't
stop a small laugh escaping. She couldn't believe Ashton Gates was
appreciating her beauty, so openly and thoroughly, within ten
minutes of her arrival in his office. Actually, on second thoughts
she could believe it only too well. After all she knew about him,
this was probably something he did every day. Of course she wasn't
stupid enough to believe he was really interested in her, other
than superficially.

“
You've forgotten to say how impressed you are with my
intelligence, that'll definitely win me over,” she added with a
straight face.

“
Your IQ isn't the reason I want more of your company this
evening.” His eyes held hers and she exhaled a long slow quiet
breath.

Jesus
Christ...come on Nicole, get a handle on this.

She decided to
play along with him, but to approach it all in a semi-business-like
manner. He was a major client of her company and she couldn't
afford to offend or upset him.

“
I guess I can fit you in my busy schedule, if you can fit me
in yours,” she conceded. “I'd be delighted to accompany you to
dinner, Mr Gates. I hope it will further our understanding of each
other,” she offered sweetly.

“
I'm all for that, and call me Ashton,” he replied with a sexy
sweep of his eyes up and down her body.

“
Thank you, Ashton, for the generous invitation.” She smiled
openly at him and received a beautiful blaster in return. He really
had the most amazing, gorgeous smile, to complete the amazing
gorgeous face. And when he smiled everything lit up and his eyes
glowed.

He was one of
those men. Damned irresistible. In every sense, and every part of
him, no doubt.

Her stomach
contracted tightly, closely followed by all her other female parts.
She wondered what would happen if he really went for it, and pushed
her buttons hard. She didn't rate her chances of survival very
highly.

This wasn't
her usual modus operandi, thinking and feeling things like this
about her clients. But then she'd never had a client like him
before. One who looked like he did and who came onto her. But to be
honest and fair, it wasn't just his looks and behaviour, she'd been
more than a little excited before she'd even met him.

Or maybe that
was down to meeting the luscious Adrian?

He'd turned
her tap on like nothing else.

Oh God
no...Adrian...

She pushed the
complications of her date with Ashton and his aide out of her mind.
She'd deal with that later.

He returned to
his original upright position and his face closed down again, his
professional mask descending.

“
Right, let's move on. I want your opinion of the initial sale
offer I received by courier this morning. Let's run through it
together,” he removed a large A4 envelope from the file inner
pocket and extracted a thin, bound document. “Can you join me this
side of the table and pick up a highlighter pen from my desk on the
way, please.”

She rose and
did as he requested.

This was work.
She was in her comfort zone. Hopefully she could ignore him sitting
so close to her, although she doubted it.

In the event,
her inner professionalism rose to the occasion. She swept through
the documented sixteen pages of French contractual terms,
highlighting quite a few points of interest, and explaining to him
what they were, and why she had a query. She was focused and fast
and soon she was finished. She turned to face him with a satisfied
smile on her face.

He was staring
at her intently. His eyes boring into her head with a look that was
indecent. Her discomfort returned, acutely. He was less that a foot
away and she was so aware of him. Heat rose up through her body,
arriving at her face and her chest heaved. Her composure was
wrecked, she was suddenly completely flustered.

“
Well that's that then, it wasn't all that bad, was it?” she
babbled, not sure where to look. “Are we done?”

She raised her gaze and forced herself to look at him,
desperately trying to calm down.

“
You tell me?” he replied quietly and calmly, rubbing his
finger over his lip.