Page 98 of Sexy as Sin
It wasn’t even five o’clock in the morning, but Willow wasn’t sleeping, and she wasn’t surfing. First, because it was finally Tuesday, and Brett had arrived. Dave had delivered him an hour earlier from the airport, had declined the offer to come inside, and was returning for both of them in half an hour, “after I get a coffee. Mad hours you keep, mate.” And second, because she was about to go up in a hot-air balloon, and they’d be departing before dawn, when the breeze was lowest.
It had been Brett’s idea. “Actually,” he’d said last week, when she’d phoned him in triumph, barely able to make it half a kilometer before she’d had to stop the van to do it, “it was my marketing VP’s idea. She said that the aerial view from a balloon would be the perfect sales tool for the U.S. market, and as usual, she’s right. You’ll be able to get an idea of what’s it like to drive along that ridge and look out over the hills and valleys, and how peaceful it feels. Like the Napa valley without all the people and cars.”
“And, of course,” Willow said, “there’s the sea. Which is why I’m going up and not you, though I wouldn’t say no anyway, especially as it’s my day off. Which reallyisa day off, because I actually worked the last three days. At last.”
“I prefer to think that it’s because you’re prettier than I am,” he said. “And that your face is so much more animated. You can use the footage yourself, too. We’ll double-dip. You can put it on the website, assuming you stay. But to be clear—I’m sharing it with you, not with Nourish.”
He didn’t offer any other reasons, but she knew the answer anyway. To take her mind off things and give her a treat, as if he hadn’t done enough of that already. “That’d be brilliant,” she said, “but I’ll only share it if Amanda lets medothe website. Which she may, though I could need a bit of coaching help for how to present it. She was subdued today. Hardly the Queen Bee at all.”
“We’ll send you up with a cameraman,” Brett said, “but you should take a couple others with you, if you can scrounge them up on a weekday. There’s room for six, so figure four of you max, not counting the pilot and the cameraman. A very good-looking guy, preferably. Get some pointing and laughing going on. A person looks like an idiot pointing and laughing by themselves.”
“Jamie,” Willow said gloomily. “He’s the best-looking bloke I know, other than you and Rafe. Rafe’s not here, and you don’t want to go. All my other mates will be working, anyway, or not interested in getting up at five. I’ll ask him and Crystal. They’re both pretty, and if I use it for Nourish, the faces will be familiar to the clients, which is good. But I amnotpaying them to do it.”
“Good idea,” Brett said. “It costs three hundred fifty per person. Drop that casually into the mix.”
“I’m going to abandon my independence,” she said, “and ask you how to sell it to him. Just this once. Azra’s scared of heights.”
“You sell it like this. ‘I’m supposed to get a couple people to go with me to be filmed. It’s three hundred fifty dollars per person, normally, but Brett’s saying that if I want to take somebody up, he’ll subsidize it. I think I can get him to pay the whole freight. If I do, can you think of anybody who’d like to go? It does have to be good-looking people, because it’ll be all over his sales materials. Or... you and Crystal wouldn’t like to, would you?’ If that guy likes looking in the mirror half as much as I think he does, he’ll fall all over himself for the chance. He’ll put it on his modeling résumé.”
She was laughing. “He does not have a modeling résumé.”
“You think not? I suspect otherwise. Make a bonding moment of it, though. Easier to casually ask, later on, if they happened to see Amanda carrying a bag of mushrooms.”
Now, Brett was here, having a cup of tea at the kitchen table with her and Azra, and Willow had to restrain herself from holding onto his arm with both hands. And possibly sitting on his lap. How could you be this glad to see somebody? Itwaslike being sixteen, like champagne fizz in your blood and your whole body tingling. It was falling in love for the first time, or the best time.
Maybe even the last time.
Brett was telling Azra, “I have a plan for you, if you’re ready to hear it. A way out of your visa problem, though I can’t fix the family problem.”
“If you have any ideas,” Azra said, “I’d love to hear them. I’m down to ten days. I think you may have helped with the family problem, though. I shouldn’t tell you that my mum’s objections faded a bit after she met you and Willow in the lounge and saw you with your butler, not to mention that box from Harry Winston, because it’ll make her seem shallow. She doesn’tjustwant a rich man for me. He should be kind, too.” The skin around her eyes crinkled in a completely satisfying way as she laughed. Azra had an awesome laugh.
“And generous,” Willow put in. “Don’t forget generous. Also Egyptian.”
Azra waved a hand and laughed some more. “Easy-peasy. Know any single Egyptian multi-millionaires?” she asked Brett.
“Not so far,” he said with a smile, “but I’ll keep a look out, shall I?”
“Do,” Azra said. “Just in case.”
“If you haven’t solved that problem,” Willow asked him, “which one have you?”
“Her in-between stay, until her work visa comes through.” He told Azra, “New Zealand, Thailand, Nelson—that’s in Canada, and it’ll be winter—or Washington state, on the coast. None of those should be a problem with a British passport, and there’s a place available in any of them for you. Your choice.”
Azra said, “Seriously? How?”
Brett’s smile was so warm. “Seriously. Because I own them, and they’re sitting empty now. I’d have offered before, but... you could say I wanted to be more sure of Willow first. Not just throwing my weight around, as we diamond-buyers tend to do.”
“My mum won’t like it being your house.” Azra laughed again, sounding giddy with relief. “Though maybe we shouldn’t put that to the test. Wow. That was worth waking up early for. Are you sure?”
“I’m sure,” Brett said. “I won’t be using any of those places during the next few months, so you won’t be putting me out. If you need help getting yourself there, let me know. In either case, I’ll have somebody meet you at the airport and get things set up for you. That’s not always easy in a new country. Just tell me which, and when. We’ll put a three-month max stay on it, how does that sound?”
“Brett,” Willow said. “How many houses do you have?”
“Seven,” he said. “At the moment. Plus the rental here. Most are condos, though. Easier maintenance.”
“And they’re all appreciating.”
“That’s the idea. Also, different economies. Diversification is always wise.”
