Savannah stared at him wide eyed. “Why?” she asked. “Why would you want to do that. I remember what you said to me that day when we broke up. I remember everything vividly. You made it clear that you didn’t want anything to do with me. You said you never wanted to see me again, which was one of the reasons why I was surprised when you came to the diner and then offered this me a job.”
“I know what I said” Matt said, interrupting her. “But I was the one who came to look for you, regardless of what I said”
Savannah was silent. She paced the room for a while. That didn’t make much sense to her either. She never understood why he came to find her. “So what exactly are you doing?” she asked finally. “Is this some kind of sick game you are playing to hurt me?”
“I don’t wish to explain anything to you right now,” Matt said,”And I’m not trying to hurt you. I won’t get anything out of that. The point right now is that you need me to give you this job, and if you really want it, all you have to do is go on this trip with me. You will be getting paid as it will be counted as part of your work time. Besides, I need someone to handle some of the work for me. There’s an investor who will threatening to withdraw his funding, and I need all the help I can get. I’m the boss, so you don’t get to ask any questions. I get to ask them, and my question right now is, are you willing to take this job or not?”
His eyes locked on hers with the lethal accuracy of a deadly weapon and the breath left her body and every thought was sucked from her mind. For a wildly unsettling moment she couldn’t think straight. She couldn’t even remember what she was doing here in the first place. Her body felt strangely lethargic and warmth as thick as treacle spread slowly through her limbs. She should have listened to Vicky this morning, but she was here already.
“Savannah?” The hard bite of his deep, masculine voice was sufficient to wake her from her thoughts and she gave a little start, desperately hoping that he hadn’t noticed her embarrassing reaction.
So much for being cool and businesslike, she thought. And so much for her plan not to look at him. But she couldn’t blame herself, this meeting with him had taken a whole different turn. His physical presence and his film-star looks demanded attention.
Matt watched her. He knew he could handle talking to that investor on his own. But he saw an opportunity… An opportunity to spend time with her again and he was taking it. Which was crazy, considering her betrayal and how much she had hurt him. He should listen to Dash and let this woman go, but he couldn’t. He wasn’t going to tell her that was the reason why he wanted her to come with him though.
As Savannah stood there gaping, a lot of thoughts went through her head. She wanted the job, but this was ridiculous…. And kind of of exciting too. She had to admit that. It was a struggle to remind herself that this man was ruthless and cold-hearted. The way he had treated her in the past was enough proof of that. For her, that wasn’t a winning combination of character traits.
Looking into his deep-set, cynical eyes, she decided that there was something about his cool scrutiny that made him more menacing and intimidating than all the jungle predators put together and she knew that agreeing to this was a terrible idea.
But even as she knew that she was going to regret this, she made that bad decision anyway.
“Fine” she said in a voice that didn’t sound like hers. She could understand that, because she knew this decision wasn’t one she would make if she was in her right senses.
Forcing her legs to move, she walked towards him, her bag in one hand, the other seeking the reassurance of the head rest of one of the chairs.
Even without the benefit of billions of dollars, Matt Bradford would have attracted women. His dark hair was swept back from a face that was as hard as it was handsome. The golden sheen of his bronzed skin was wildly attractive and the soft fabric of his casual shirt clung to shoulders that were wide and powerful.
She was still damn attracted to him. Which was another reason why she shouldn’t do this, but she didn’t want to think right now.
She watched for his reaction to her arrival but he revealed nothing.
His mouth didn’t shift into a smile and his eyes, so dark and brooding, showed no sign of welcome or relief that she was accepting his crazy proposal. It seemed that he was as unfriendly as he was handsome and the way he was looking at her made her want to sprint back to the door and run home.
If she hadn’t known better she would have thought she’d upset him in some way but she knew that wasn’t possible. How could she possibly have upset him? This idea was all his.
Their bad break up had been all his fault. He obviously didn’t like her anymore which made his offer all the more weird. But she wasn’t going to think about that. She was just going to go with the flow. What did she have to loose? She had already lost everything.
And it didn’t matter, she told herself firmly.
She didn’t need him to like her. She just needed to get this job. Maybe get a little experience, save a little, and then she would quit.
Keeping that in mind, she took the last few steps until she was standing directly in front of him. “I will go with you then, Matt” she said.
Tess woke up feeling cranky and out of sorts the day they were scheduled to tour Pompeii. This was the fifth day since Dash had… She didn’t know what to call what he had done. That was definitely not a proposal, but it had been almost a week and he had not made another appearance.