Total pages in book: 89
Estimated words: 83699 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 418(@200wpm)___ 335(@250wpm)___ 279(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83699 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 418(@200wpm)___ 335(@250wpm)___ 279(@300wpm)
He smiled. “Are you calling me the best?”
Over a sip of champagne, he watched her face flush and her chest rise with a deep breath.
For all the months they’d been together so long ago—almost a year—he had been the best for her. And she had been the best for him. He wondered if he could make her see that he was still the best, and for far more than catering.
But he let her off the hook. For now. “I admire how much you care for your residents. And not just as CEO of a billion-dollar company.”
She wasn’t just beautiful, confident, and smart. Ava Harrington had a heart of gold.
Even as she said, “Thank you. I appreciate your saying that,” he saw how the compliments touched her in the warmth on her cheeks, the sparkle in those caramel eyes, her quickened breath.
He told himself she was fighting their innate attraction. Something that hadn’t died in fifteen years.
Oh yes, he knew her signs. The slightly dilated pupils. The way she bit her lip for just a moment. The way her fingers laced so she couldn’t reach out to touch him.
She burned. The way she’d always burned for him.
The way they still burned for each other.
Or maybe that was just wishful thinking.
“Right from the beginning,” he said, “that’s why you went into healthcare management for seniors. You wanted to open your own facilities because you hated the apathetic, uncaring way in which older people were often treated.”
She let out a long breath. “Did I ever say that?”
“Maybe you didn’t. But I knew. I saw.” He saw her. He saw her dreams. Yes, he traveled a lot, and they always came together with a bang, tearing off their clothes, sometimes never even making it to the bed. Loving each other for hours until they fell into an exhausted sleep.
But that didn’t mean he didn’t see her.
If her parents hadn’t died, if she’d gone on to get her business degree, she might never have found her true path. Because her negligent parents had left their family of five in terrible debt, she’d gotten a job as an aide at the eldercare facility where his grandmother resided. Ava had loved the old people she cared for. She’d always had time to offer kind words, to listen to the same stories she’d heard over and over. She never scolded his grandmother for repeating herself. She just nodded, smiled, and if his grandmother forgot the end of the story, Ava seamlessly finished it for her. Ava was that way with all the residents, speaking gently even to the ones who couldn’t understand her anymore. She bathed them with gentle kindness, smoothed lotion into their dry skin, brushed their brittle hair. He’d even seen her use a curling iron on a woman who hated the flatness of her gray hair.
Ava had climbed mountains for the people she took care of.
Her billion-dollar business was really all about her big heart.
“You know, I wouldn’t do this for just anyone. But I admire everything you’ve done for your people. I admire how you feel about them. That’s why I said yes to helping you.”
* * *
His words wrapped around her as if he’d folded her into his arms.
If her parents had ever spoken like this, if Ransom had spoken like this all those years ago, what might have happened?
Oh God. She’d just hired the devil. A silver-tongued devil who knew exactly what to say.
Her devil.
Stunned by his empathy and his admiration, all she could say was, “Thank you.”
Then, afraid he’d melt everything inside her just like he’d done every time he touched her, she got down to business as if that could ward off the emotions warring inside her. “So let’s talk about what I really need.”
His mouth curved slightly, as if he was thinking about all her physical needs he’d satisfied so perfectly when they were together. That knowing smile made her rush on. “I don’t use the same caterer for all my facilities. I like to choose someone local because I feel we get better menus more specific to the local area.” She huffed out a breath. “Except in this case.”
“I can manage the five in the Bay Area.”
“I’m hoping you can bring some of the flair to the menus that I’m sure you have on your cooking show.” She couldn’t help smiling. “I saw your face on the side of a bus yesterday. Advertising your show.”
That handsome face affected her again. Though older, he was still stunning. The silver in his hair only added to his magnetism.
But she needed to stop thinking about how attractive he was, how his shirt outlined his muscles, how the faded jeans fit him so well. How his hands would feel on her skin.
If she wasn’t careful, she’d start drooling. Just like she had in his office.