She slid into the back seat of the car and the beginnings of excitement and anxiousness began to tangle her nerves just a little. She watched the city move past her, and the closer they got to their destination, the faster her heart felt like it was beating. She took some long, deep breaths as the car pulled into the driveway of the biggest mansion she had ever seen in her life.
The driver helped her out of the back seat, and as she stood up and looked around, she was left speechless by what her eyes took in. She was standing in a rounded driveway that had at its center a beautifully manicured garden of hedges and roses surrounding a large marble fountain.
Before her was the edifice of a billionaire. It was the home of Phillip Cross and his son Jonathon. There was a massive double door at the top of a semicircular marble staircase that led up from the driveway.
There were wide Grecian columns all along the front of the home and their style made her think of the White House. The front of the home was filled with windows, and the second floor had a large balcony the width of the house, that overlooked the frontal grounds. She took a deep breath and walked up the steps to the front door. It was opened almost before she rang the bell, and standing before her was an older woman with a wide smile who welcomed her in.
Just as she was about to ask the woman where Jonathon was, he came striding in from a hallway that led off somewhere. He was dressed in a suit, and though the jacket only barely disguised his muscled physique, his button up shirt did little to hide the form of solid wall that was his chest. Naomi caught her breath as she glanced at him and then looked up into his eyes.
He seemed to be staring at her, almost looking straight into her as he walked toward her. When he reached her, he gently laid a hand on her shoulder and smiled at her, doing his best not to show her any of the effect she had on him. The sight of her crystal blue eyes had nearly arrested his heart when he saw her, and the vision of the curves of her form made his heart skip a few beats. Familiar heat crept through him and his groin tightened as her scent enveloped him.
She looked up at him and as their eyes met, she felt as if nothing else around her was moving or even there, as if the whole world had stopped. She blinked and drew in a breath and tried to give him a smile as she struggled to appear as though nothing was unusual with her.
He smiled back at her casually and led her outside to the garden and courtyard where the other guests were milling around, talking and visiting as they ate and drank. She felt his hand touch her lower back and with nothing more than a few fingers against the material and her body, he guided her through small groups of people toward an older man who was standing with Phillip.
The light touch of his fingers on her back drew warmth up through her belly and she did her level best to maintain her breathing and walk with a steady step. She wanted to stop walking and turn to him so she could wrap her arms around him and feel his arms around her, but that was nothing more than a daydream, and before she could stop herself from thinking further about it, they reached the two men.
Phillip smiled at her and reached for her hand to welcome her.
"Hello Naomi!" he said pleasantly. He turned to the man beside him. "Vincent, this is Naomi Bradshaw, she is Jonathon's assistant. Naomi, I'd like you to meet Vincent Grayson. He is a business partner of mine, and my oldest and dearest friend." Phillip nodded.
Vincent shook her hand and gave her a nod. He was tall and thin with wide cheekbones and dark eyes that time had sunk back into their sockets. His lips were thin and his eyebrows were bushy and wiry.
"It's nice to meet you, Miss Bradshaw." He said with a voice as thin as his body was.
She wondered if he really meant it as she let go of his bony hand and disinterested grip.
"Likewise," she said in a soft voice.
Jonathon looked at both of the men and gave them a nod. "Well, we had better get started on our guests! Gentlemen." He gave another nod and then turned himself and Naomi around and she felt his hand on her back as he walked them away.
"You don't want to talk with them?" she asked in surprise. It had been the shortest meeting she could remember in a long while.
Jonathon tipped his head a little. "It was a formality. We have people to talk with."
His close proximity to her was distracting her, and she knew that if she was going to get any work done at all, she was going to have to do it without standing right next to him and definitely without his hand on her back or her arm.
Sighing, she looked up at him again and smiled a little. "I saw Janine Turner over there when we first came in. I need to talk with her about a few things, so I'll go do that, and you can find Anthony Bryan, if he's here."
He realized that she was serious about doing the business that needed to be done, and he was pleased to hear it, although he was disappointed that she didn't want to be at his side for all of it. He nodded and as she walked away, his eyes stayed on her and he allowed himself a moment to watch her as she walked away from him, her graceful movements and feminine curves at the center of his focus. A soft moan escaped him and when it did, it startled him and he blinked and turned away from her to see if he could find Anthony.
In every minute that passed from the moment they parted, she watched him from the corner of her eye, even as she talked with others, she was hyper aware of where he went as they moved around the party. It felt as though there was some invisible magnetic connection between them that tethered them together and nothing could touch it. It seemed as though the bond held the same strength no matter how near or far they were from one another.
When he was close enough to her, she listened to his voice as he spoke, and she realized at one point that he was doing exactly the same thing. They never spoke to other people at the same time, but she saw him turn his head slightly so that he could hear her, and she saw that his eyes followed her the way that hers followed him. She noticed after a while that he never turned his back on her, and would only face just far enough away from her that he could still see her.
She wondered at his actions, curious as to why he was keeping such a close eye and ear on her, and then she realized that it was perhaps the business function and he wanted to make sure that everything was going as well as it should be with her as she spoke with their business partners. She had finished speaking with a couple of people and bid them a good day when she heard a gentle voice at her shoulder and she turned to see Shane, Anthony's assistant, at her shoulder.
Guilt gripped at her stomach. He smiled at her and leaned in to hug her shoulders and she touched his elbow as he did; not really hugging him back, but not ignoring his greeting. Memories of the night at the hotel came rushing into her mind and she sighed slightly.
They had met in the restaurant for dinner, but it had been immediately after her awkward moment with Jonathon in the doorway of her room, and she hadn't wanted to see Shane at all after that. He had tried to talk with her and flirt with her all during dinner, but she was distant; her mind on nothing but Jonathon, and she had left him immediately following dinner, not wanting to spend any more time with him than she had to.
She had bid him an early goodnight and gone up to her room. They hadn't spoken since, and she had forgotten that he would probably be at the party as well.
"Naomi! You look stunning. How are you doing?" he asked with a wide smile as he let her go from his half hug, while still standing right beside her.
She smiled and nodded. "I'm good, thank you. How are you?" She wanted to turn and walk away, but she knew that of all the people at the party that day, he was one of the two people that she probably needed to talk with the most. She and Jonathon were still trying to get Anthony to close on their business deal, and Anthony hadn't said yes yet.
Shane, being Anthony's assistant, had some minor pull in the issue; not as a decision maker, but as an influencer. She could not afford to walk away from him.
He shrugged. "I'm good. I wish we'd had more time together at the hotel … " his voice drifted off and his eyes and his hand lifted to the dark curls of her hair that were pinned up at the back of her head. He ran his fingers over them lightly until he reached her shoulder, where his hand stopped and he gave her shoulder a gentle squeeze.
She felt her whole body tense. "If we'd had more time at the hotel, perhaps we could have gotten more work done. It's a really important business deal that we are working on with Anthony." She smiled and he stopped short and nodded slightly.
Leaning in a little closer, he lowered his voice. "I was thinking more along the lines of just you and I working on a few things, and none of them have to do with the business deal."