Page 11 of A Billionaire for Christmas
‘I mean, probably. It’sprobablya great view. Through thatgreatwindow that you have. It’s… it’s a great size. For viewing through.’ Her words petered out as she anxiously smoothed down her hair, aware that she was hardly going to win any literary prizes any time soon.
He seemed to take that as a sign to point out the obvious. ‘Oddly, I always find the view is better during daylight hours.’ His eyes crinkled slightly. ‘What with you being a member here, I’d have thought you were familiar with it. You are anactualmember here, aren’t you?’
She made what could only be described as a yipping sound.Must lying be quite so stressful?Her corset suddenly felt too tight. She tried pulling it up, managing only to jiggle her breasts at him, causing him to politely look away. She pulled his jacket around her. She had just yipped at him like an injured chihuahua. She had no idea what was going through his mind, other than he must be starting to have deep and undeniably justified reservations about her being in his room. Common sense was poking at her brain. If she was going to be trapped here with this Greek god for the next couple of hours, she may as well try and complete the most difficult of all the bucket list challenges while she waited.
When she didn’t answer, Levi walked over to the coffee table, where an ice bucket with champagne and several crystal flutes stood. ‘Drink?’
‘Please.’ She watched him expertly open the champagne, deftly pour two glasses and hand her one. He then proceeded to knock his back and repour it. She wondered if she was making him nervous.
‘These look amazing.’ Molly pointed to the platter of her creations that he’d placed next to the ice bucket.
‘You mentioned that you’re a chef. How is your knowledge of fusion gastronomy?’ Levi seemed grateful to grasp at any conversational bone thrown his way.
‘Uh-huh. I cook. I create things. I bake. I invent new recipes. In the company that I own. That I run. By myself.’
Please shut up and answer the question.
Levi leaned over and popped one of her canapés in his mouth. ‘Help yourself. They’re quite nice.’
Molly felt a pang of pride as his eyes widened with appreciation, but ideally, like any chef worth their salt, she always hoped for far better thanquite nice. The man might be drop-dead gorgeous, but he clearly had something wrong with his tastebuds. It was almost a relief to realise he might not be so incredibly perfect after all.
‘As you’re a chef, I’d value your opinion. These little things have been causing quite a stir.’ He swooped another one up, inspected it for less than a nanosecond and threw it down his throat. It scarcely had time to touch the sides.
Little things?Obviously, he had no inkling of how to correctly ingest molecular gastronomy or the effort that went into each and every single creation. Did he think the delicate compositions, the viscosity, the chemical reactions were a happy accident? Thrown randomly together by some lazy butt-crack of a chef?
Molly blew out a deep breath. This was very much an opportunity for her to come clean and admit she had made them herself. She could teach him a thing or two about culinary appreciation, but she took one look at his stubbled jawline and thick eyelashes and decided against it. Surely men this attractive shouldn’t be expected to keep abreast of everything, she reasoned. ‘Are you in the catering business yourself?’
She watched as he picked up a remote control and increased the flames in the stone fireplace. They roared to life, instantly restoring the romantic vibe. ‘Not exactly, no, but I’d usually consider acquiring any company that draws people in with a novelty like these have. They’re supposed to be aphrodisiacs. Very clever. They’ve gone viral around Val D’Amore. This place is full of randy sods who will pay extortionate amounts for anything that gets them laid.’
What?
Molly needed a second to think. Apart from wrongly calling her life’s work anoveltyand pacing up and down like he was in a lecture theatre, did he just say he might want to buy her company?
5
WARNING: HOT MESS INCOMING
‘Is that what you do? Buy up small businesses?’ Molly asked, trying to keep her voice calm. An actual billionaire was interested in buying her company. How could that even be possible? Yes, she’d been slaving away in the resort’s main hotel kitchen for weeks. Yes, she’d had orders up to the eyeballs, day and night, with hotel guests ringing up to request party platters and bottles of fizz as though she was doing Deliveroo. But surely that wasn’t enough.
Levi shrugged. ‘Sometimes. Although I hear the company responsible for these tasty bites is a local restaurant, which is unusual.’
Tasty bites?
‘Better still, my sources tell me that the restaurant owner is currently working in the main hotel kitchen herself, which is even more dubious. Makes me wonder if the business is in trouble if she’s taking on more work to keep financially afloat. She’ll be getting a basic wage while they charge a fortune for something that she’s making. She clearly has no idea how to run a business. Nowthat’sa good time to buy someone out. Anyway.’ He leaned over once more and threw a couple more canapés down his throat. ‘Tell me more about you.’
Stunned silence.
He had basically called her an idiot.
Molly was flabbergasted at the rudeness.
He obviously had no idea it was her, but still. Molly did not care for his rather disturbingly accurate depiction of the financial ruin her culinary business was currently teetering on the brink of. The business that wouldn’t even belong to her if she didn’t get that bucket list done.
She took a deep calming breath. She would play along. She took off his jacket, folding it carefully. ‘What’s unusual about a restaurant owner taking on outside contracts? Lots of restaurants do it. Perhaps her coworker signed an agreement without her knowing about it?’
Levi shrugged. ‘Doubt it.’
‘Or maybe she just felt like getting out from behind her desk and getting her hands dirty for a change? Connecting with real people. Finding out what they want. Discreetly checking out the competition perhaps.’
