Page 40 of How To Tempt The Off-Limits Billionaire

She slapped her dusty hands together and sat down on the ancient leather chair in front of the desk. Somebody had to do it and she was here and might as well make herself useful.

And keeping busy helped the hours go faster...

The truth was, she couldn’t wait for Muzi to come home.Home. Ro turned the word over in her head and realized that his house did feel like home, in a way that Digby’s barn conversion or even her apartment back home didn’t. It shouldn’t as it was filled with Muzi’s possessions and she didn’t have anything of her own to make it feel familiar but...

It was his favorite place and she wanted to be anywhere he was. God, she missed him. Missed seeing that half smile, hearing his deep voice, feeling safe when she fell asleep on his broad shoulder.

Wherever he was, was where she wanted to be.

She had a life back home and, if she wasn’t mistaken, her lease was up for renewal. Christmas was a few weeks away and she needed to make plans to go back to LA, to be with her parents. The auction for her parents’ art and collectibles would be held in the first week of January and Carrick Murphy wanted her to do a visual inspection of what she was selling, to make sure she would have no regrets later. Her teacher colleagues and college friends were demanding to know when she’d be back home... Ro cursed under her breath, feeling like the real world was intruding and that her time in this magical valley was running out. But she had so much unfinished business here.

But, really, was that true? She could hire people to sort out this house, she could talk to her lawyers about the estate via emails and phone calls, she could do electronic signatures from anywhere in the world.

No, the reason she was hanging around in Franschhoek was because Muzi was here—well, here on weekends. And she was using clearing out St. Urban as an excuse to hang around, to be with him.

Pathetic? Maybe.

Ro heard footsteps on the wooden floor outside the study and then heard an imperious voice calling her name.

Ro instantly recognized Mimi’s voice and looked down at her dirt-streaked pale yellow shirt and grubby jeans. She looked, as she did most days, like she’d been rolling around in the dust.

Ro pushed back her chair and saw Mimi standing in the doorway to the library. She wore a tangerine-colored suit over a white T-shirt and funky, fashionable trainers on her feet. Designer glasses covered her eyes and she wore a gold necklace as thick as Ro’s thumb.

“Dear God, child, what do you look like?” Mimi demanded, stepping into the room.

Ro greeted her before telling her that she dressed like this most days. “Not that I’m not happy to see you but why are you here?”

Mimi folded her arms across her chest. “I came to invite you to join me and a couple of friends for lunch.”

Ro looked down at her dirty clothes and grimaced. “Sorry, I’m going to have to pass. Not only am I dirty, but I’m expecting the antique furniture expert to drop by soon.”

“Pity,” Mimi replied, walking into the room and heading for one of the long windows. The view outside was amazing, with rows of vines and the mountain looming over the farm.

“What is going to happen to St. Urban? Do you know?” Mimi demanded, turning back to face her. “I heard that Muzi signed an agreement to lease the land, and the vines, but what do you think the owner is going to do with the property?”

Was Mimi putting an emphasis on the word “owner” or was that just her imagination? Was she questioning whether she was who she said she was, an employee of the trust? Or was Ro’s paranoia running away with her?

Ro wiped her dusty hand on the seat of her pants. “Muzi has expressed interest in buying the land so the owner is thinking of subdividing the property and selling the house. It’s what he’s done with all the other properties.” Had she said too much? Was she supposed to know that much?

“He?” Mimi raised an eyebrow.

Oh, yeah, she definitely suspected something.

Mimi sent her a penetrating look. “What do you think the owner should do with this property?”

Ro joined her at the window. She shouldn’t answer but she would. After all, she’d given this topic a lot of thought. “I would tell him to turn this house into an exclusive, very upmarket boutique hotel. It has over ten bedrooms, more if you converted some of the outbuildings. The place is furnished with exquisite antiques, amazing art and it’s a throwback to the early 1920s.”

“Carry on,” Mimi instructed her.

“I’d... I’d suggest to him that he renovate the cellars and set up a tasting room and, if he was feeling brave, establish a restaurant on the property. Something ridiculously upmarket and expensive.”

In her mind’s eye, Ro could see the house restored, its windows gleaming, its furniture polished and the art displayed proudly. She could see guests reading in this library, sitting under the wonderfully old oak trees, sleeping in enormous beds covered with white linen, eating in a fabulous new restaurant.

It was so real she could smell the newly cut grass, the blooming roses, beeswax polish intermingled with the expensive perfume of the female guests.

Mimi took her time answering. “It’s not a bad idea,” Mimi eventually answered.

But was it a good one? Ro wanted to ask her—she had been, after all, a powerhouse businesswoman—but Mimi asked her another question before she could. “What’s my grandson up to today?”

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