Page 93 of Tempting as Sin
It was hard to focus, but she did. “What?”
“You need a two-bedroom house,” he said, obviously choosing his words with care. “And you need it fast. I’m guessing here, but that’s never cheap, especially when you haven’t planned for that kind of spend.”
“I see this offer coming,” she said, “and thank you, but no.”
He sighed. “Lily—if you like, it can be nothing but a loan. I got twenty million forUnderworld Rising, and I’m not Antonio.”
“I know you’re not.” She pulled her hair back and tried to focus. So many emotions. She was still back there with Bailey, but right now, she needed to be here. Time to focus on her plan, and on Rafe, because he mattered, too. Everything else was just noise. “It’s not a good precedent, though. It’s not a good start for us, and it’s not a good place for me to go. That’s why I have another plan.”
Rafe had a nickname. Not one anybody ever called him, but he’d heard about it.The Drama-Free Zone.He was calm, he was professional, and he was deliberate.
You know. Boring.
He hadn’t felt like any of that back there. He’d wanted to grab Bailey and make a break for it. He had a little girl with shut-down body language and angry red scrapes over half her body, a wounded woman whose black eye wasn’t nearly well enough hidden by the makeup, and no right to take care of either one of them.
Do what it takes,he told himself.Do what comes next.He let Lily have her silence the rest of the way back to Sinful, and, at her direction, parked on the shady side of the street on Tamarack, a couple blocks from her shop. He ignored the four blokes in two cars who were finding their own parking spaces, opened the windows for Chuck, and told him, “If they try to get in, bite.” Which made Lily laugh.
After that, he ignored the blokes again as he and Lily crossed the street and headed over to a nondescript door at one side of the ski and bike shop. He paused, though, when he’d pulled the door open, turned around, and told his followers, “Private property. Don’t try it.”
They could stand here and film, but if they could get anything from a blank door, he’d be surprised.
Up a set of carpeted stairs, and Lily was pausing outside another door, this one proclaiming it to be Suite 100, home of Hunter Development. She took off her sunglasses and asked him, “How bad is my eye? How obvious?”
“Obvious,” he said.
“Oh. Well, too bad,” she said, and went inside.
He followed her. He was the moral support, he guessed. He’d be that.
Lily stopped at a reception desk, and the woman behind it looked up and said, “Lily. Hi. I didn’t know you were coming in today.” Her eyes slid over to Rafe, and it was clear that she’d seen the latest news, because she didn’t ask Lily about her face.
“I didn’t know it myself,” Lily said. “Is Brett around? I wouldn’t barge in, but it’s urgent.”
“Let me check,” the woman said. A little excited, but businesslike once more. Rafe liked Montana.
Two minutes later, he was shaking hands with a good-looking bloke whose hair was mink-dark and expensively smooth, and whose dark trousers and white shirt hadn’t come off a rack. He could have been a producer, he could have been a high-end realtor, or he could be a developer. Which he was.
If Lily were selling her house, Rafe didn’t care what she said, he was stepping in and making his case.
How far are we going here, mate?he asked himself, following both of them to an office overlooking historic-charming false-front wooden shops and hanging flower baskets, then taking a seat in a leather visitor’s chair. He answered himself, too.As far as it takes.
At some point, you had to throw your hat into the ring. If this was that point, it was. The realization brought a certain reckless elation with it, like catching that monster wave, popping up on your board, and going for it. Daring all. The wipeout, the shark, or the thrill. Whatever came.
For now, he listened as Brett Hunter told Lily, “I heard about your face. I’m sorry. You and your sister could be forgiven for deciding that Sinful was hazardous to your health. Except, of course,” he went on when she would have said something, “that you love it.”
Another man would have looked at Rafe. Hunter didn’t. He focused on Lily.Smoothwas hardly even the word.Courteouswasn’t, either.Interestedmight do it, though.
Yeah. Definitely. Hunter’s interest in Lily stood out to Rafe like it was written on a sign. And, he’d swear, Hunter could feel his own pushback, twice as hard and darker, too, none of it any weaker for being unexpressed.
Lily said, “I’m not here to sell you my land. I’m here to offer it as collateral. I want to borrow some money from you, and I want it today. Tomorrow at the latest. If you can’t give it to me, I have two other sources. Also available tomorrow.”
Hunter leaned back in his chair. “Interesting. How much are we talking about?”
“Thirty thousand dollars,” Lily said, as smoothly as if she hadn’t sweated coming up with that amount, which Rafe would bet she had. “Against what you’re leasing from me. A lease I can always cancel in the future, by the way.” She said it with a smile, but again, not really. “I know how sharp you are.”
“Uh-huh,” Hunter said. “Term?”
“Five years,” she said. “No penalty for early repayment, because I’d be hoping to pay it back sooner. But I want five years.”
