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She smiled at me, setting her coffee down. “I don’t know.”
“Er—I hadn’t expected that one.”
“Have I been doing it just to make a point? Maybe I was hoping you’d tell me. So… you tell me.”
I should have just told her. Yes, you’re actually looking to buy. Not that directly, but should have told her what she needed to hear, tell her that her excitement and passion was genuine, that these things clearly made her happy for her own sake, and that she was showing a lot of independence and that she wasn’t living her life through his eyes. Set her thoughts back on the right track.
But maybe that was me being the right person because that was all I knew.
“I don’t know either,” I said, my voice small, just a breath. My heart raced, and I felt like I was cresting the top of a hill on a rollercoaster, looking at a drop. “I said then that you were because I wanted to… put the idea in your head. That you wanted to buy.”
She went wide-eyed. “And… now you’re telling me that?”
“I don’t want to just sell to you. I guess I just… want to make sure you find what you want.”
I watched as she softened, slowly, something I didn’t know how to describe on her face, before she reached across the table and she took my hand, squeezing it. The gentle intimacy of it—so much more than just a physical connection, it sent my heart racing, something I’d never felt before in my stomach.
She smiled, sweetly.
“You’re quite good at your job,” she laughed, finally. “I’d probably buy anything you put in front of me right now. What was it you said to me yesterday while you were sweet-talking me? That preternatural charm of yours?”
I laughed, and then I heard myself speak. “Day after tomorrow. Let’s go off script. There’s a property I want to see if you like.”
“That sounds like it’s exactly the script.”
“This one is… what was it, twelve million? Something like that? Only one way to find out if the sixty million is what you actually want.”
I was gambling with Queen Pearl’s—and my—entire future.
But the way Cameron smiled made it all worth it.
Chapter 13
I pushed out of the elevator and gave a cursory nod to where the receptionist was on the phone, and I started down the hall with long strides in the direction of María’s office. Ruth caught me there at the corner, pushing off from the wall and walking with me.
“There you are. What happened to you yesterday?”
“Field work. Scouting out other properties I think we might be able to sell Cameron on.” I gave her a sidelong smile, just self-effacing enough to be disarming, while keeping my stride up enough to signal I wasn’t here to hang and chat.
It was pretty impressive as a show, all in all, given how much I wanted to blush and pull into myself at the thought of what happened yesterday.
Ruth sighed. “You didn’t talk to Schafer.”
I frowned, turning the corner and stopping in front of María’s office, and I shot Ruth a look. “It slipped my mind,” I said, which was actually the truth, even if it was also a convenient excuse. “I told you I’m not leaving.”
She shook her head, brow furrowed. “Don’t say I didn’t try to help you. You don’t see anything strange about this? You getting a headliner event?”
“That’s a bad thing?”
“Why you and not María? At the same time you’re on the make-or-break case? And this whole thing with Miguel?” She put her hands up. “It stinks.”
I rubbed my forehead, checking my phone. Two minutes until María said to meet. Shame the woman was always exactly on time, or I’d just walk into the office to get away from this conversation. “There’s no grand conspiracy. Just Miguel being a rat and María trying to keep the company alive. She has a lot on her plate.”
“You have a lot on your plate.”
“I’ll talk to Schafer, okay?”
She folded her arms. “Not anymore, you won’t. I interviewed for it yesterday.”
