Page 90 of Brooke
Marcello pounded his chest for emphasis before continuing. “But to exclude such clients would hurt my pocketbook. And fashion labels require success to continue every year. Brooke knows this all too well. Now, tell me,chérie,what is all this talk of your expansion? Marcello is surprised!”
And deeply curious, if the gleam in his black eyes was any indication. “Marcello, you know more than anyone how much I adore fabric, materials, and design.”
“It is true.” He laid his hand lightly on Axel’s arm as if he was sharing a secret. “I remember my spring collection three years ago. I’d created a dress with a robin’s egg blue taffeta skirt with an embroidered net top done in hummingbirds and flowers—from a dream I’d had. Do you remember what you said, Brooke?”
They both pressed their hands to their hearts. “I didn’t simply say it. I wrote it. When I touched the fabric and traced the flowers, I swore I could hear the hummingbirds flappingtheir wings and buzzing around the flowers.” Suddenly she remembered another detail. “After that, hummingbirds became all the rage in interior design in everything from towels to bed linens.”
“For a time, yes!” Marcello sighed audibly, balancing his flute in his hand. “Handbags and scarves too even. Those are the moments you live for, breathe for. Are they not, Axel?”
Herelskedesimply nodded, the barest bit of his perfectly sculpted mouth turning up.
Aware he would not receive an answer, Marcello turned to her. “Tell Marcello more, Brooke.”
She shared a smile with Axel before meeting Marcello’s intent gaze. “Good fortune has shone on me. I am learning at the maestro’s feet, you might say. I have this urge to spread my wings a little and expand into interior design beyond writing articles about the crossover with fashion?—”
“You will flap your wings like a hummingbird.” He made the impression by quickly ruffling his arms, not spilling a drop of champagne, an oddly graceful move that captured the attention of several people in the room.
Including Giulia Mariani, standing in the far corner beside another nasty fashion gossip, God help them. Surely they were watching her and Axel.
Marcello touched her arm to bring her attention back to him. “You would be good at this, Brooke. Marcello believes it. When the maestro here believes you are ready, come and tell poor Marcello. He so wants his country home decorated with greatness before he dies. Perhaps Brooke will have to please Marcello if the great Axel Erikson is too busy.”
They shared a little laugh along with a conspiratorial smile, knowing he was laying it on thick. Axel again said nothing, only watching the exchange with his usual open expression.
“Well, it is a pleasure to have you here, Monsieur Erikson.” Marcello tapped his finger to his mouth before nodding. “I do hope we will see you around more in Paris with our dear Brooke.”
She shot her friend a pointed look, to which he only laughed trilly and sauntered off in his rose silk slippers. “Damn, I was hoping he wouldn’t suspect we’re a couple. Shall we grab a drink?”
“Why be concerned?” Axel asked as they walked to the bar.
“I’d like to keep our relationship under wraps a little longer so we can both pave our professional trails without talk of agreements between the sheets. Giulia is here, after all, and so are a million other people I know.”
Axel put his hand on her arm, his brows knitting. “I had been meaning to ask you. Why did you not tell your roommates before?”
She hadn’t brought it up, and honestly, she’d been glad Axel hadn’t either. “Before, I was a little concerned about their reaction to you sending me flowers—a story for another time. Since our connection was new, I wanted to give it more time to develop, and also to make sure everyone felt comfortable around you since you were working on the house. So they could share their honest impressions and all.”
He was frowning at her now. “I do not believe you are ashamed of me, but if I were to have that trigger, Brooke, I believe we might have an issue.”
Spotting another up-and-coming fashion designer coming toward her, Brooke steered Axel toward the balcony doors. Once they were out on the terrace, she gazed up at him as the terrace lights threw shadows over his face. “Why would I be ashamed of you? You’re wonderful.”
“As are you,” he said, his deep voice, a virtual caress.
She shivered a little. “Axel, I’m a businesswoman, in one of the most cutthroat industries in the world, and my reputation matters to me. I do not want anyone thinking you are workingwith me, teaching me, because we have a romantic relationship. I have heard that kind of talk and seen its effect on careers, women’s especially, and I don’t want that to happen to me.”
The scorching intensity of his glacier blue glance pinned her in place. “So we are to wait to share our commitment to the broader world? Brooke, this I do not like. Also, if you brought me here tonight to have Marcello agree with you about me needing retail space, I must share that does not please me as well.”
Defensiveness had her drawing herself more upright as she looked up into his now tense face. “First, I brought you here so you could make connections to help your expansion. Someone like Marcello could be helpful. As you heard from his lips, he has no interest in personally designing for the home. But he is a savvy businessman and he loves interior design, as you heard, yours especially, which I did not know. Dean would call that kismet.”
More silence from Axel, and emanating as it was toward her, it did not please her.
“He also has a well-known brand with prime retail space,” she continued when he stayed quiet, “and is always looking to serve his luxury customers’ needs and desires. If you create a line and sell it in his stores, that could be something that would work for both of you. I’m only trying to help, Axel, per our bargain.”
“I wish you would not call it a bargain, Brooke,” he said with a rare bit of impatience, tension touching his high cheekbones. “That makes it sound tawdry to me.”
“Also,” she said, getting worked up herself, “I did not know he was going to agree with me about retail space, but I won’t lie and say hearing that didn’t make me dance on the inside.”
“Because he affirmed your own impression.” Axel walked off to the terrace’s edge, his large frame a dark shape amidstthe view of Paris twinkling in the background. “On that, again, we disagree.”
She bit her lip to keep from lashing back at his personal comment about her need to be right. Dammit, she was, and he was too stubborn to admit it. Her heels clacked on the stone terrace as she reached him. “Don’t you want me to make introductions for you? I thought that was why you’d agreed to work with us. With me.”
