Page 3 of Thrown

“Tobuythe place?” Rhys repeated after a long silence. “To buy Hawthorne Hall?”

“Yes,” Dad answered.

“Do people actually go around purchasing ancient estates?” Nate asked, as flabbergasted as the rest of the family.

“Why would anyone want to do that?” Nally asked. “Everyone I went to school with whose family owns an estate like this has to scramble to keep the place afloat.”

Nally didn’t like to admit it too loudly, but he’d gone to Eton. He hated thinking he was that posh, but he definitely knew what he was talking about when it came to other crusty, old, titled families.

Dad cleared his throat, which instantly focused everyone on him again.

“We’ve received an offer to purchase the estate in its entirety from Willoughby Entertainment Group,” he said.

Another silence followed. Robbie didn’t know what that meant, but instinct told him it wasn’t good.

“Oh my God,” Nally said a few seconds later. He’d already pulled out his mobile and searched for Willoughby Entertainment Group. “They’re the company that owns Splashton Park and a bunch of other amusement parks across the UK and Ireland.”

That tiny bit of information sent gasps rolling down the table.

“Does Willoughby Entertainment Group want to purchase Hawthorne House and turn it into atheme park?” Robbie asked, horrified.

“Alton Towers was built on the site of a former ancestral estate,” Rebecca pointed out, her eyes wide and her voice tight and disbelieving.

“It’s my understanding that Willoughby Entertainment wants to give Alton Towers a run for their money here in thesouth,” Dad said, more serious than Robbie had ever seen him. “Their initial offer is for just over two hundred million pounds.”

Rhys had gotten up to make another tea and dropped his spoon at the figure. Rebecca gripped the table like she’d gone dizzy. The rest of them had similar reactions of extreme shock.

“You aren’t planning on accepting the offer, are you?” Robbie asked, his voice hoarse and thin.

“You know I don’t want to,” Dad said. “Hawthorne House and the Hawthorne Community Arts Center means more to me, to all of us, than all the money in the world. It’s important to the community. It has a long history, one that should not end here.”

“But,” Robbie said, sensing there was definitely a but.

Dad rubbed a hand over his face and pulled it down his beard. “But we’re walking a tight line financially right now,” he said. “Keeping things together has been a challenge in the best of times. Accepting the money, which you would all share in, even you, Nate, and starting over isn’t something we should discount out of hand.”

“Hawthorne House has been in the family since the sixteen hundreds,” Nally argued. “Our roots are here. Our identity is here.”

Robbie smiled despite the tension of the moment. Leave it to the baby of the family to be the one most interested in tradition and history. Then again, hehadattended Eton.

“We can’t make a decision like this without everyone in the family present,” Rebecca pointed out. “Mum is in Africa, Rafe is in America until August, and Ryan is doing Fashion Week in Milan. And that’s not even taking the cousins into account.”

“We can’t make any decisions without consulting the entire family,” Robbie agreed.

“Of course, of course,” Dad said, raising his hands as they all started to get restless. “I didn’t call you all here this morning to make a decision. I called you here to explain the problem, and tointroduce the solution I hope I might have found. Mr. Tillman?” he called out, looking toward the door.

All of them turned to the door in time to see a smartly dressed man who looked to be in his mid-twenties stride into the room, carrying a briefcase.

Robbie sucked in a breath. The aura that the man, Mr. Tillman, brought into the room with him was as powerful as a blast of air conditioning in a heat wave. There was something about him that arrested Robbie right away. Maybe it was the way his suit fit his slightly short frame so perfectly. Maybe it was the man’s dark, sleek good looks. Or maybe it was the spiked hair and lip ring set slightly off-center on his lower lip that threw the image of a conservative businessman completely out the window.

It wasn’t any of those things, Robbie realized as Mr. Tillman walked around the table to take the seat across from him, on his father’s left-hand side. It was the ferocity in the young man’s startlingly blue eyes that had the hair on the back of Robbie’s neck standing up. Mr. Tillman was angry and bullish, and he’d only just entered the room.

“This it Mr. Toby Tillman,” Dad introduced the incongruous man. “He works for Johnson, Johnson, and Inez. He’s an efficiency expert and an assessor.”

“What kind of assessor?” Robbie asked, narrowing his eyes slightly at the man in suspicion.

Mr. Tillman’s eyes widened a fraction before narrowing as he’s met Robbie’s. “A business assessor,” he answered in a working-class accent. “I’m here to tell you all the things you’re doing wrong so you can keep this rotting relic afloat.”

Robbie drew in a breath, his skin prickling and his heart pounding. And, ironically, his cock filling. The reaction was ridiculous, because despite how sexy Mr. Toby Tillman was withhis conservative suit, spiked hair, and lip ring, Robbie instantly hated him.

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