Page 22 of The Marriage Bid
“Gosh. What did you think I looked like?”
“Not a supermodel. You’re what do they say…sexy.”
I jerked back.
“Respectfully,” he added.
“Right…” I chuckled. Antonio was a flirty man, especially over the phone, though I was sure it was harmless.
We entered the small building. It was a well-organized showroom with leather strips lined around the walls. Beyond it was an open door that led to a messy-looking office. Antonio went to close the door of the office. “You must have been surprised by our request for you to come in person, but you have to know that when we’re doing business with a first-time client, we prefer for them to see the material in person. Especially when the order is as large as yours.”
“I understand.”
He smiled and clapped his hands once. “Fantastico!”
I spent half the day at the factory. After I chose the leather fabric and stress texture I preferred, he took me to an even bigger showroom so I could see the already made furniture and how it was made. He proudly described his work while I took pictures with my phone that I sent to Malaya. Antonio was in the middle of explaining how they made the leather appear stressed as he brushed his hand on a tan leather couch when he paused, straightened to his full height, and brightened.
“Mr. Hawthorne!”
I peered over my shoulder to see Tyler striding into the showroom, his assistant and another Italian-looking man in overalls trailing behind him. I swallowed a groan. The mischievous glint in his eye was not comforting. He probably came here to taunt me. Or worse, sabotage my efforts.
Antonio tapped my shoulder, his gaze on Tyler as he passed me by on his way to the billionaire. “Mr. Hawthorne! What brings you here?”
I turned to see Tyler assume his signature casual stance of hands in pockets, slightly leaning back. “Wanted to see if my interior designer is not making a mess of things,” he said, his fiery gaze squarely focused on me.
“Ah! She works for you! No wonder she chose the best.”
“Workswith,” I interjected. “I am a business partner, Antonio. I don’t work for him.”
Antonio chuckled and closed the distance back to me. “That’s even better. Does that mean you’re not beholden to him?” He wiggled his eyebrows.
“Not in any other way than to put these sofas in his hotels. Among other things.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Tyler’s jaw tick.
Tyler came to stand beside me. His hand slipped around my waist. My stomach wobbled at the sudden and unexpected embrace. “My wife likes to play games, Antonio. But rest assured, she’s mine in business and out.”
Chapter 13
Tyler
“What the fuck, Tyler!” Saffron’s sexy behind swayed side to side as she marched ahead of me in black stilettos and a tight pink skirt and white silk blouse that would have been appropriate in any business setting but wholly inappropriate at a factory. She stopped at the gate, shook her head in exasperation, and took a phone out of her cream purse.
“You don’t need to call an Uber. I have a car.” I gestured to my Bentley, parked a couple of yards away from where we were standing. The afternoon sun was high up and hot; you could see a layer of heat haze shimmering above the car. There was no way she was going to wait for a car to take her back to the city in this weather.
“You spent all our marriage wanting nothing to do with me, and suddenly you tell some guy we’re married because… what? You hate to see me succeed?”
That wasn’t the issue at all. When I saw how she was with Antonio, how comfortable, smiling, and casual he was with her. She’d never smiled at me like that. And it wasn’t one of her billboard smiles. It was the genuine kind she’d only shone a few times before. Some primal urge to rip that man away from her came over me. To claim her and show him she was mine. An urge I did not understand even now.
“Were you flirting with him?”
“Why would that—are you insane!”
I had no answer to that. “Please get in the car; my driver and my assistant, Matt, are waiting. They’re watching us right now, wondering what’s going on. You’re not going to wait here for an hour. Not in this heat. Not in these stilettos.”
She glanced at the Bentley and then at me. Frowning, she said, “What are you doing here?”
I came here because I went out of my way to check up on her. Saffron was on my mind ever since I learned she had a business trip to the same town at the same time as mine. It was kismet, so I invited her along on my jet. When Lindy, the logistics supervisor, told me she had booked a hotel room on the same floor as Matt, I gave her the instruction to put Saffron on the same floor as me. I thought that was because she was at a higher level than assistant, just like my CFO, but now I was not sure.
