Blame It on the Champagne (5 page)

Life was not for hanging around waiting for other people to
give him permission.

And he had absolutely no intention of changing that philosophy
any time soon, even if that meant cutting corners a little when it came to
making his store a triumph of innovation and excitement.

Direct action. No more talking and a lot more walking.

He was going to show Saskia Elwood that he meant business and
she could trust him to deliver on his promises in the only way he knew how, up
front and personal.

All he had to do was find some way of persuading her to leave
her cosy little nest and jump on the morning flight back to France.

Persuading women to agree to his every whim was usually not a
problem for him. Shame that Saskia was not the type of woman he normally met. He
liked girls who could stand up for themselves and make their own way. Running a
private meeting venue on your own was not a trivial thing. He admired her for
that.

But, from what he had seen today, there was something she
wanted. Something that he could give her. Something she might find too
irresistible to turn down.

‘It's good to see a girl enjoying her food,' he quipped as
Saskia liberally tossed cheese and black pepper over the generous portion of
pasta that she had piled into her bowl.

Her hand froze, then relaxed as he chuckled quietly under his
breath and loaded his bowl with twice her portion.

‘Guilty as charged. I love my food and drink. Always have.'

‘Well, here is a thought. How you would like to travel to
France with me tomorrow? It shouldn't take more than three or four days to visit
each of the vineyards, but I guarantee that you will be back here for Monday
morning.'

‘France? Why would I want to go to France with you?'

Rick waggled his eyebrows a couple of times up and down and
then grinned when she groaned and turned back to her food with a shake of her
head.

‘I fell into that one.' She waved. ‘Please. Carry on.'

‘Apart from the pleasure of your delightful company, I thought
that you might be persuaded to buy wine from me if you met some of the producers
in person.'

‘Ah. Emotional blackmail. Once I meet the growers you know that
I will not be able to say no to them. Now that is a low trick.'

He paused and took a sip of wine before looking up at Saskia.
He knew all about emotional blackmail. His parents were experts.

‘Not at all. Creating my own business means that I have the
freedom to create my own list of premium customers. Customers like you.'

Her head came slowly up and she continued chewing for a moment
before replying, ‘Me? I don't think so.'

‘But I do. I want you to be part of that first wave of special
buyers in London, Saskia. No. More than that. I need you to support my launch.
In return, I am offering you an amazing discount on the wine and I will promote
Elwood House along the way. That is special.'

‘Why do you want to sell to a one-woman operation like me?' she
replied with a short cough of disbelief. ‘Why not focus on the big five-star
hotels where you can be guaranteed large orders?'

Rick swallowed down his pasta and waved the fingers of one hand
towards her chest. ‘Because of who your family are, of course. I want the Elwood
name to be attached to my store. It's as simple as that.'

She stared at him in shocked silence as though she could hardly
believe what she had heard. So he continued to twirl his linguini and talk at
the same time. ‘My parents sign contracts with bulk producers over slick
boardroom tables without even visiting the vineyard. I cannot work like that.
No. I refuse to work like that.'

Risk shook his head. ‘I deal with people one to one. When they
sign a contract they are signing it with me, not some faceless organisation who
will drop them at the first sign of trouble. I am the person who commits to
making their dream come true and in return they make the best wine that they are
capable of. And that is something very special. Something you can be part
of.'

He scanned the table for a second then pounced on the bowl of
Parmesan, deliberately ignoring the fact that Saskia was glaring at him with a
look that could freeze ice.

He brushed his hands off and pushed the bowl across the table
to her abandoned dinner. ‘More Parmesan? No? It is quite simple really. I meant
what I said earlier. You want to serve the best. And I believe that I have the
best. Come to France with me tomorrow and I'll show you why I'm sticking my neck
out. No glossy brochures, no fancy advertising agencies. Just a hands-on
demonstration of the quality RB Wines is going to become world famous for. That
way we both win!'

Saskia slid back in her chair and folded her arms. ‘So let me
get this straight. You want me to buy wine from you so that you can use the
Elwood name as some sort of seal of approval for your producers. You don't need
me at all. You just need the name to bring some credibility to a risky business
venture. Isn't that more like the truth?'

‘Oh, I want a lot more than that,' he replied as he lowered his
wine glass. ‘I want to buy credibility and respectability with a huge dollop of
tradition and heritage on the side.'

His fingers traced out a sign in the air between them. ‘RB
Wines. Suppliers to Elwood House, London. It would give me just the kudos to
bring customers in the door, and, once inside the shop, we can create the most
tantalising selection of prestige wines in the city. Which you get to see first.
The best for the best.'

‘
We
can create the selection of
wines? I'm not sure I believe that. Not when the mighty Richard Burgess ego is
part of the decision making process. It's almost as if you want to become the
new Elwood Brothers but all on your own.'

He paused then slowly nodded his head. ‘Yes, I suppose I do.' A
strange look crossed Rick's face and he chuckled at the back of his throat. ‘Now
that is one hell of a crazy thought. Yeah. Actually that is amazing. Thank
you.'

‘In fact, you have a brother, don't you?'

He looked up at her as though he had temporarily forgotten that
she was there.

‘Not any longer. But that doesn't matter. RB Wines is going to
be spectacular.'

She unfolded her arms and leant forward and stared at him in
the eyes. He didn't even blink or look away.

‘This is a vanity project, Richard Burgess. And I'm not
interested in pandering to your ego by selling out my family name. Not for any
money.'

‘Selling out your name? Oh no, that's not what I'm offering. I
haven't got to the good bit yet.'

‘Oh, there's a good bit? Well, please carry on. This should be
most entertaining.'

He put down his fork and bent from the waist so that their
noses were almost touching. ‘I don't want to buy your name, Saskia. I'm offering
you the chance to take the inside track on the best new producers in Europe and,
as a bonus, my company will commit to using Elwood House for the next two years.
Now that's what I call a partnership made in heaven.'

* * *

Of all the arrogance!

Saskia glared at Rick and decided that she must be hearing
things.

Otherwise, this casually dressed hotshot had just demanded that
she drop everything and take off to France with him for a few days. With the
promise of a long-term meeting contract—if she agreed to buy and, more
importantly to her, serve his wine to her clients, who expected her to give them
the best.

RB Wines would be sitting on her shelves next to a handful of
growers who had been supplying the Elwood family for decades and, in the case of
some chateaux, for over a century.

As if flashing his money around would open the doors to the
cellars. Hah!

She had grown up surrounded by people who thought that
arrogance and bravado could get them where they wanted to go. Charming,
attractive people like her father, who believed that they could do what they
liked and tell people what to do and get away with it.

Her father was not so different from Rick.

Handsome, tall, dark, with wonderful eyes and a smile that
could disarm a woman the minute she laid eyes on him and persuade even the
hardest businessmen into handing over their money and investing in commercial
property in cities all over the world.

And they had.

Shame that her father thought that using other people's money
to pay for his high risk building projects was a perfectly acceptable thing to
do. He was arrogant enough to believe that he couldn't fail and his plans for
office buildings designed by cutting-edge architects had become risky and
riskier.
Blame the property market,
he used to say,
not me. Just wait until the economy picks up. Companies
will be desperate to use my office space and everyone will get a great
return on their money.

It had come as quite a shock when the courts disagreed.

Saskia remembered only too clearly what it was like for her
mother on the day he'd been arrested for embezzlement and fraud. She'd believed
in him, trusted him and had faith in all his excuses and rational explanations
for why they were losing money day after day.

They had both loved him so badly that the truth was hard to
accept. He was a fool. An arrogant and delusional man who thought that money
could buy him status and class and power. That was why he'd married her mother.
Chantal Elwood was the only daughter of one of the famous Elwood brothers, the
most respected wine merchant in Britain. And the oldest. The Elwood family had
given him access to clients he would never have otherwise met.

Little wonder that they'd trusted Hugo Mortimer when he came to
them with an idea for a thirty-storey office block in a mid-west American city.
Trust me,
he'd said.
These
buildings are going to be safe havens for your money in the current
financial climate.
And they had trusted him.

And he had abused the power and influence and robbed them and
cheated them.

She yearned to tell Rick exactly what he could do with his
proposal but she couldn't.

‘A partnership made in heaven?' She gulped. ‘Well, your idea of
heaven is apparently a lot different from mine. What are you thinking?'

She put down her fork and looked around the dining room. ‘You
don't know anything about me apart from what you have picked up through a few
Internet searches.'

‘That can be changed. And yes, I do know you.'

‘Really? You might think you do. Well, I certainly do not know
you.'

‘Then come to France with me tomorrow and find out for
yourself.'

‘Thank you, but I have a business to run. What makes you think
that I can just take off when I please? Life is not like that.'

‘It can be. Let's decide this here and now.'

He grabbed a paper napkin and scribbled something on it and
slid it across the table in front of her.

‘This is the consultancy fee for your expenses. If, for some
crazy reason, you still feel the same way at the end of the week, then Angie
will set up the bookings at Elwood House regardless. But if you do decide to buy
from me? We will be in the right place at the right time to create something
amazing.'

Saskia glared at him for a second and then glanced down at the
napkin. And then picked it up and blinked at it in disbelief at a number with
lots of zeroes on the end of it.

‘You can't be serious,' she gasped.

‘You said yourself. Your time is valuable. One week of your
time. Seven days. I have a generous marketing budget and every time you serve RB
Wines to your prestigious guests at Elwood House you are promoting my company.
Your excellent taste. My producers. Take a risk, Saskia. You have nothing to
lose. Tempted?'

And, almost casually, he picked up his fork and went back to
his pasta.

While she had suddenly lost her appetite.

Unbelievable!

Her gaze landed on the delicious bottle of hugely expensive
Italian red wine she was enjoying and she took a long sip to cool her dry
throat, taking the time to savour every drop.

Of course she was tempted!

She was running on credit and the nest egg Aunt Margot had left
was not going to last much longer. She needed to make Elwood House work. She
needed the bookings and she needed them now.

What was she going to do? Ruin her credibility and family
reputation for the sake of a few bottles of dodgy wine? Her fingers stilled.

The very last thing she wanted was to get involved with yet
another conman who could talk the talk but not deliver the goods and, most
importantly, keep his side of the bargain when it came to the push.

Her fingers pressed hard into her forehead as she tried to
process everything that Rick had said. And failed.

Oh he was good.

Okay, her father had been a city boy born and bred. Perhaps the
similarity ended there. But one thing was abundantly clear. Rick Burgess was
every bit the same type of hustler, with the power to make every single woman,
and even those not so single, swoon with one look.

Been there. Done that. Still trying to put out the flames.

She was still human, and a girl, but that didn't change a
thing.

There was no way she could take this man, who she had only met
a few hours earlier, and introduce him as a serious wine merchant to her
guests.

How could she even think about putting them through what they
had suffered at the hands of her father? He had been credible and his clients
adored him.

Hugo Mortimer the man was a delight, the life and soul of any
party. Charismatic and charming.

Hugo Mortimer the property developer was a disaster who had
destroyed her life and certainly ruined the lives of more than one family around
the world who'd trusted their savings to his ridiculous arrogance and high risk
schemes.