Page 23 of One Snowy Seduction
“Hey, you still with me?” Her voice and the elbow she’d pushed into his side to emphasize the question brought him back to the present.
“Yeah, I’m right here,” he said pulling her closer to snuggle against him. “Right where I want to be in this chilly ass weather, wrapped in a blanket we both know isn’t fighting off the cold.”
She giggled. “The fire is helping.”
“No, it’s not,” he told her. “But it looks nice against the snowy mountain backdrop.” It was actually perfect.
The three-course meal the chef had served them, the champagne they’d drunk and now this, the best setting for the question he had to ask.
“This has been a wonderful vacation,” she said, her tone a little wistful.
“I agree,” he replied. “I haven’t gone away on a vacation in a few years. Business trips, yes, but not a trip where I’ve done nothing but chill and enjoy myself.”
“That’s what I’d planned to do when I thought I was coming up here alone. But you know what?” she looked over to him. “I’m not at all upset that they got our reservations mixed up. I even deleted that very lengthy complaint email that I was going to send first thing on Monday morning.”
He laughed. “Why Monday morning? You wanted to wait until the new year to complain?”
“No, I wanted to be safely out of here before I complained. I didn’t want them to tell the car service to drive me up the mountain and leave my ass there.”
They both laughed.
“I’m glad you were here,” he said. “You know I never really subscribed to that “everything happens for a reason” philosophy but I do think you and I were meant to be up here together at this moment.”
“Yeah, I’ve been thinking that too. Like no matter how much I said the last thing I needed was another guy in my life, bam! Here you go. The first guy I ever—”
Their gazes held for a few seconds after she paused. “The first guy you ever what?
She cleared her throat and shifted a little so that her legs were still tossed over his beneath the blanket, but she’d eased the upper half of her body back a little as if she needed to do so to get a better look at him. “You’re the first guy I ever trusted. The first guy I poured all my life’s troubles out to. The first guy I really believed cared about me.”
“I did care about you, Tee,” he said and with his free hand, he found hers and laced their fingers together. “I loved you then.” This was the first time he’d said this to anyone. “I loved you more than I think I knew at the time.”
She shook her head. “We were just friends. We cared about and loved each other as friends.”
“Yeah, that’s true. I think that’s what we believed back then too.”
Silence fell as she looked down at their joined hands.
“I’d like you to come work for Titan.” That wasn’t the way he’d wanted to ask her. He’d planned this whole speech about how talented she was and how they both knew she’d been wasting her time working as an IT rep. Then he would go into all the benefits of working for his company—top grade pay, health and dental, pension, profit sharing, the works. “Work for Titan and move to London with me.”
He definitely hadn’t meant to say that last part, at least not like that. She could really work from anywhere in the world. It wasn’t necessary for her to be in London at his headquarters. There were plenty of contractual techs that lived elsewhere and he knew how much her family meant to her, even when they were getting on her nerves. But, yes, he wanted her with him.
“What? You’re offering me a job?” She eased her had from his.
“Yes,” he said and then shook his head. “I’m not doing this right.” He huffed. “Look, you could take Titan into a whole other arena. Right now, we’re specializing in apps and other mobile functions, but you could take us into gaming. You could spearhead an entire department of developers and you wouldn’t have to pitch your ideas to other companies, Titan could produce and sell them.”
“Wait a minute,” she said. She pushed the blanket from her and stood. Wearing black leggings and a thin powder blue sweater that hugged her breasts, he felt himself again admiring everything about her. From her sexy body to her brilliant mind and tenacious spirit.
Shaking her head, she asked, “What are you saying?”
“I’m asking you to come work for me, for us to work together the way we always talked about doing someday.” He stood too, ditching the blanket.
“In London? You want me to move to London?”
He couldn’t tell how she was feeling, her face was full of shock, her eyes unreadable. “I want you to follow your passion, to do the job you’ve always dreamed of doing. And yeah,” he said taking a step toward her. “I want you to do that in London. With me.”
“This isn’t a Hallmark movie; I can’t just pick up and move to another country just because you and I had a great week of sex!”
Okay, he hadn’t expected that. “Is that all we had, Tee?” Now he recognized the look on her face. It was that same confused and anxious look she’d had nine years ago. “You said everything happens for a reason. Well, what’s the reason this all happened? Why did you win that auction? Hell, why did I decide to donate this trip, to that particular auction? And why did my assistant send me here of all the places in the world?”
