Ms. St. Sebastian, the more my insurance company is going to question why. A delay reporting the loss could void the coverage.”
“Give me another twenty-four hours, Mr. Hunter. Please.”
She hated to beg. He heard it in her voice, saw it in the way her hands were knotted together now, the knuckles white.
“All right, Ms. St. Sebastian. Twenty-four hours. If your sister hasn’t returned the medallion by then, however, I...”
“She will. I’m sure she will.”
“And if she doesn’t?”
She drew in another breath: longer, shakier. “I’ll pay you the appraised value.”
“How?”
Her chin came up. Her jaws went tight. “It will take some time,” she admitted. “We’ll have to work out a payment schedule.”
Dev didn’t like himself much at the moment. If he didn’t have a multibillion-dollar deal hanging fire, he’d call this farce off right now. Setting aside the crystal tumbler, he leaned forward.
“Let’s cut to the chase here, Ms. St. Sebastian. I had my people run an in-depth background check on your featherheaded sister. On you, too. I know you’ve bailed Gina out of one mess after another. I know you’re currently providing your grandmother’s sole support. I also know you barely make enough to cover her medical co-pays, let alone reimburse me for a near-priceless artifact.”
Every vestige of color had drained from her face, but pride sparked in those mesmerizing eyes. Before she could tell him where to go and how to get there, Dev sprang the trap.
“I have an alternate proposal, Ms. St. Sebastian.”
Her brows snapped together. “What kind of a proposal?”
“I need a fiancée.”
For the second time in as many days Dev saw her composure crumble. Her jaw dropping, she treated him to a disbelieving stare.
“Excuse me?”
“I need a fiancée,” he repeated. “I was considering Gina for the position. I axed that idea after thirty minutes in her company. Becoming engaged to your sister,” he drawled, “is not for the faint of heart.”
He might have stunned her with his proposition. That didn’t prevent her from leaping to the defense. Dev suspected it came as natural to her as breathing.
“My sister, Mr. Hunter, is warm and generous and openhearted and...”
“Gone to ground.” He drove the point home with the same swift lethality he brought to the negotiating table. “You, on the other hand, are available. And you owe me.”
“I owe you?”
“You and that magazine you work for.” Despite his best efforts to keep his irritation contained, it leaked into his voice. “Do you have any idea how many women have accosted me since that damned article came out? I can’t even grab a meatball sub at my favorite deli without some female writing her number on a napkin and trying to stuff it into my pants pocket.”
Her shock faded. Derision replaced it. She sat back in her chair with her lips pooched in false sympathy.
“Ooh. You poor, poor sex object.”
“You may think it’s funny,” he growled. “I don’t. Not with a multibillion-dollar deal hanging in the balance.”
That wiped the smirk off her face. “Putting you on our Ten Sexiest Singles list has impacted your business? How?”
Enlightenment dawned in almost the next breath. The smirk returned. “Oh! Wait! I’ve got it. You have so many women throwing themselves at you that you can’t concentrate.”
“You’re partially correct. But it’s not a matter of not being able to concentrate. It’s more that I don’t want to jeopardize the deal by telling the wife of the man I’m negotiating with to keep her hands to herself.”
“So instead of confronting the woman, you want to hide behind a fiancée.”
The disdain was cool and well-bred, but it was there. Dev was feeling the sting when he caught a flutter of movement from the corner of one eye. A second later the flutter evolved into a tall, sleek redhead being shown to an empty table a little way from theirs. She caught Dev’s glance, arched a penciled brow and came to a full stop beside their table.
“I know you.” She tilted her head and put a finger to her chin. “Remind me. Where have we met?”
“We haven’t,” Dev replied, courteous outside, bracing inside.
“Are you sure? I never forget a face. Or,” she added as her lips curved in a slow, feline smile, “a truly excellent butt.”
The grimace that crossed Hunter’s face gave Sarah a jolt of fierce satisfaction. Let him squirm, she thought gleefully. Let him writhe like a specimen under a microscope. He deserved the embarrassment.
Except...
He didn’t. Not really. Beguile had put him under the microscope. Beguile had also run a locker-room photo with the face angled away from the camera just enough to keep them from getting sued. And as much as Sarah hated to admit it, the man had shown a remarkable degree of restraint by not reporting his missing artifact to the police immediately.
Still, she didn’t want to come to his rescue. She really didn’t. It was an innate and very grudging sense of fair play that compelled her to mimic her grandmother in one of Charlotte’s more imperial moods.
“I beg your pardon,” she said with icy hauteur. “I believe my fiancé has already stated he doesn’t know you. Now, if you don’t mind, we would like to continue our conversation.”
The woman’s cheeks flushed almost the same color as her hair. “Yes, of course. Sorry for interrupting.”
She hurried to her table, leaving Hunter staring after her while Sarah took an unhurried sip from her water goblet.
“That’s it.” He turned back to her, amusement slashing across his face. “That’s exactly what I want from you.”
Whoa! Sarah gripped the goblet’s stem and tried to blunt the impact of the grin aimed in her direction. Devon Hunter all cold and intimidating she could handle. Devon Hunter with crinkly squint lines at the corners of those killer blue eyes and his mouth tipped into a rakish smile was something else again.
The smile made him look so different. That, and the more casual attire he wore tonight. He was in a suit again, but he’d dispensed with a tie and his pale blue shirt was open at the neck. This late in the evening, a five-o’clock shadow darkened his cheeks and chin, giving him the sophisticated bad-boy look so many of Beguile’s male models tried for but could never quite pull off.
The research Sarah had done on the man put him in a different light, too. She’d had to dig hard for details. Hunter was notorious about protecting his privacy, which was why Beguile had been forced to go with a fluff piece instead of the in-depth interview Alexis had wanted.
