Bidding on Her Boss(10)

She sighed, understanding how he felt. "You're not the only one feeling the chemistry. But I don't want to act on it, either."

Without looking up, he reached across the towel and intertwined their  hands. The slide of his skin against her fingers made her breath hitch.  Holding his hand was such a poor substitute for what she really wanted,  but it would have to be enough.

* * *

Dylan refused to look down at where his fingers were wrapped around  Faith's. If he acknowledged it, he'd have to break the contact.

What were they doing at the beach, anyway? She'd been clear from the  start that she'd bought the time with him to help her career. Since this  was their second date, he should be doing something for her career now.

Reaching a decision, he released her hand and jumped to his feet. "Come on. There's somewhere I want to take you."

She looked up at him warily. "Where?"

Her meaning hit him-he'd said he wanted to kiss her and then held her  hand. It was natural she would think that next he might push the  boundaries further. "It's job-related, I promise."

He held out his hand again, but this time it was to help her up. She  took it and he pulled her up to stand in front of him. She was so close  he could feel her body heat. She smelled of flowers, which was no  surprise given that she'd been handling them all day, but also of  strawberries. His gaze dropped to her lips, which had a slick of red  gloss coating them. She was wearing strawberry lip gloss. His pulse  spiked, imagining the flavor when he kissed her.

Abruptly she released his hand and stepped back. "You said we were going somewhere job-related?"

He picked up the towel and shook it with more force than was necessary  before answering. "I want you to see the Hawke's Blooms flower farm."

Her eyes lit with the same passion she'd shown when she talked about her future. "I'd love that!"

As they walked back to the car, then drove out of LA to San Juan  Capistrano, where the farm was located, she peppered him with questions  about the farm's capacity and stock.

"Have you always had it out here?" she asked once they drew close.

He nodded. "We moved here when I was a kid. My parents had been  farmers, so when they came out to California, they tried their hand at  growing flowers. They wanted something that would give their three sons  opportunities and thought this was the way to do it."

"From your success, I'd say they were right." Her voice held no trace  of flattery. It was an honest observation, and it had more weight for  it.

"Yeah," he said, allowing satisfaction about the business he'd built  with his family to fill his chest. He owed his parents more than he  could ever repay. Not that they wanted anything other than to see their  sons happy and thriving, but he'd find a way to show them how grateful  he was one day.                       
       
           



       

"So, whose idea was it to sell the flowers as well as grow them?" Faith asked.

"We had a roadside stall when we started." He smiled at the memory.  "Dad would sell to the flower markets, but every weekend, Adam and I  would go with Mom and sell whatever we had left."

"What about your other brother?"

He chuckled. "Liam prefers plants to people, so he'd stay home with  Dad. And it's a good thing he did-it was Liam's breakthroughs with new  flowers that put us on the map."

"I was really impressed with his Midnight Lily. The customers have been loving it."

"It's a great flower," Dylan said, feeling a surge of pride. The new  blue lily had been launched a couple of months earlier and had been  selling like crazy ever since.

She lifted one foot up, rested it on the seat and wrapped an arm around  her knee. "So you and your other brother were stuck selling by the  roadside?"

"There were three of us there, but the sales came down to our mom and  me. Adam always saw himself in a more...managerial role." Adam had set  himself up behind the stall in what Dylan and his mother had called  "Adam's office."

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw her cock her head to the side. "How much management does a roadside stall need?"

"Even though I teased him about trying to get out of work, he probably  worked harder than any of us. He made posters and put them on stakes by  the road, experimented with price points and kept a chart of the sales  so he could work out what to stock. During the week, he was always doing  something to our stall, too. Either painting it a different color to  see if that attracted more people, or constructing new benches for the  flower buckets from wood he salvaged."

"Sounds like quite the entrepreneur." There was a smile in her voice.

"He is," Dylan said with no small measure of affection. "That's why  Liam and I let Adam run the overall company. Liam's happier with his  plants, anyway."

"And you?" Her voice grew soft. "What do you prefer?"

He shrugged one shoulder. "I'm more of a people person. I like the buzz  of retail. The colors of it. I like talking to staff and  customers-interacting."

"I can see that about you," she said, her tone pensive.

"When we opened our first store, my mother and I staffed it." They'd  been amazing times, full of energy and excitement. "Liam and Dad were  back home growing the plants and drawing scientific charts of plant  breeding, and Adam was in his room, making spreadsheets and plans. My  job was more fun."

"To you. But I'll bet to them, your job sounded like hell."

He grinned. "Actually, yes. Being in a room full of people has been  known to make them both yearn for their charts and spreadsheets."

He pulled into the drive to Liam's place and went through security. It  had been tightened now that Liam was engaged to a princess, and Dylan  was glad for the little girls' sakes.

"This looks more like a private residence," Faith said warily.

"Liam still lives on-site. It's the same house we grew up in, actually,  though he's had so much work done to it, you'd never know."

"But there was a specific farm entrance before this driveway," she said, pointing.

"If I came all the way out here and didn't tell him, he'd kill me.  Well," he amended as he thought about what he'd said, "he probably  wouldn't notice, but his fiancée definitely would kill me. We'll only be  there a minute or two-just passing through."

"Hang on-" she put her hands on the dashboard as if she could slow their approach "-you're taking me to meet his fiancée?"

"If that's okay with you," Dylan said, glancing over at her. He hadn't  thought she might be uncomfortable-Faith always seemed as if she was  ready for any adventure life threw at her.

Her mouth opened and closed again before she replied. "She's a princess!"

"As it turns out, yes." He wanted to smile at the awe in her voice, but  he restrained himself. He'd known Jenna before he'd found out she was a  princess, so he hadn't had a chance to be overwhelmed by her royal  status. However, he understood that this was probably an intimidating  situation for Faith to be thrown into with no warning. He had confidence  that she'd cope-he couldn't imagine anything overwhelming Faith for  long.                       
       
           



       

Her expression was still uncertain as he pulled up in front of the  house. But he wasn't driving out here without at least saying hello to  little Bonnie and Meg.

He walked around to open her door. "Are you coming?"

"Are there protocols about what I should say?" she asked as she climbed out.

He shrugged one shoulder casually. "I'd go with complimenting their daughters and being particularly nice to me."

"You?"

"What can I say? The princess is fond of me."

She narrowed her eyes at him as she realized he was teasing, but she'd  lost the slightly awed look, which was what he'd been aiming for.

Jenna met them at the door, twelve-month-old Meg on her hip. "Dylan,"  she said in her lilting Scandinavian accent, "what a nice surprise."

He kissed her cheek, took Meg from her and held her up in the air until  he elicited a giggle, and then kissed her cheek as well. "I'm not here  long. We're on our way down to see Liam and stopped by to say hello  first."

"Liam's in his office, working on his latest project. In the meantime,"  she said, taking Meg back, "why don't you introduce me to your friend?"

"Jenna, this is Faith. She's a florist at our Santa Monica store." He  didn't need to emphasize the point. Jenna knew as well as any of them  that he couldn't get involved with one of their florists. "Faith, this  is my future sister-in-law, Jenna."