Page 2 of The Charmer's Gambit
He eyed me over the rim of his glass. “Oh, I’m well aware of what you require, Miss Dawson.”
I snagged the crystal stem from the counter and took a healthy sip of wine. It felt like heaven against my throat and helped calm some of my nerves. “You’re not going to leave, are you?”
“Not until we’re done,” he confirmed. “As I said, I take my job seriously.”
“I bet you do,” I muttered, rolling my eyes as I snuggled into the oversized chair beside the couch with my laptop and wine. If he was hell-bent on finishing this contract tonight, then I’d stay up as late as he wanted, so long as it meant he’d leave sooner.
“You know, Mershano Vineyards is in the market for a corporate attorney to help with some international acquisitions. It’d be a big job, I think, and would require overseeing a legal team.”
“That’s nice,” I replied as I pulled up the legal document Garrett sent over an hour ago to review the edits I requested earlier this afternoon.
“Someone with your skill set might be a good fit,” he continued.
“You’d need someone with a lot more experience than my four years, Mister Mershano.” My experience qualified me to join the team, maybe, but not lead it.
“I think that’s for me to decide,” he murmured. “And I think you’d be a good fit, darlin’. We should work together.”
I couldn’t help the laugh that bubbled out of me. “Yeah, that’s not going to happen. Ever.”
He cocked his head to the side and rubbed a thumb over his bottom lip as he considered me in a manner that sent a shiver down my spine.Oh, that look is trouble...
Challenge oozed from him, thickening the air around us. “Hmm, we’ll see, Miss Dawson, won’t we?”
1
The Business Proposal
“Didn’t we just do this?” I asked, studying all the boxes in my guest room. All of them were marked “Sarah Summers,” just like last time.
“Yep.” Sarah made a popping sound on thepand flashed me a brilliant smile. “But we don’t have to carry them this time.”
“Thank God for that.” Moving my best friend in last month had been a bit of a nightmare. We lugged everything from the third floor of her building to the ninth floor of mine. A truck helped us out for part of the journey, but everything else was a generous balance between the stairs and elevator. “I love you, but I never want to do that again.”
She scrunched up her nose. “Yeah, that sucked.”
The wince that followed wasn’t so much a result of the move as the reason behind it. My best friend had lost everything after her idiot twin sister, Abby, auditioned for a reality show under Sarah’s name as a prank. Instead of suing her idiotic sister for fraud, she chose to go on the show and then struck up a ridiculous contract with the show’s “prince.” Their agreement didn’t go according to plan, but somehow they workedeverything out in the end, despite a few misconceptions along the way.
Still . . . “I’ll kick his ass if he screws this up again.”
“Duly noted, Miss Dawson.” The murmur came from Evan Mershano, also known as “The Prince of New Orleans.” He had his shoulder braced against the doorjamb, his dark eyes on Sarah. The adoration in his gaze placated me a little.
“Rachel,” I corrected. Only my clients called meMiss Dawson.
He grinned. “Rachel.”
We met last week for the first time in person, and his love for my best friend showed in every move he made. The fact that he supported her career raised him a peg in my book, and he didn’t seem to be a scoundrel. Still, he had money—a lot of it—and in my experience, powerful men like that could not be trusted. To be unsupportive would be an insult to Sarah’s intelligence, so I kept my mouth shut and silently vowed to be here if she needed me.
“Right, I think that’s everything.” Sarah wiped her hands on her jeans after taping the last box, and Evan added it to the growing pile. His fitted white T-shirt stretched over his biceps as he moved, hinting at what lay beneath his clothes. Yeah, I could admit, he was a fine specimen of a man. My girl had chosen well. The curl of her full lips said she agreed.
“Does that mean it’s time for La Rosas?” That was the payment I requested for helping today.
“Oh yeah.” Sarah loved the cute little Italian place more than I did. “Did we decide on getting takeout, or are we eating there?”
“Don’t look at me,” Evan replied. “You know I’m always up for a challenge, Miss Summers.”
“You just want to get caught, Mister Mershano,” she accused, grinning. The reality show they starred in two months agowas about to air, which meant they couldn’t be seen in public together.
He shrugged. “It would make things easier.”
