ball?’ he queried. ‘With waltzing and so on?’
Was his voice deeper than usual? Cecilia glanced at his face but couldn’t read his expression.
‘There will be waltzes and other simpler dance tunes. I want people at all levels of dancing ability to be able to participate,’ she murmured, and then had to clear her throat and strive for a stronger tone. ‘I hope to create a night to remember.’
His gaze met hers and, for one breathless moment, electricity seemed to charge the air between them.
‘I’m sure you’ll achieve that.’
Oh, Linc, do you feel this too?
‘I hope you’ll be there.’ The words came unthinkingly, and the warmth that had started at the back of her neck now rushed into her cheeks.
Had she not learned the last time?
She rushed on. ‘What I mean is, it would look good to have the owner here. For business. But I understand you may be busy. It’s not an expectation.’
Cecilia had asked the question with business in mind. She had!
‘I’ll have to consider—’ He broke off as his cell phone started to ring.
Yet not before Cecilia sensed the hesitation in him.
So there. That answered her unspoken question.
Of course he wouldn’t want to involve himself in a masked ball. She had never asked him to do anything like that before. Why should she start now?
Mortification threatened, because she did not want him to see her request as an overture. It didn’t matter what she might or might not have felt towards him since his arrival to undertake this review of the business.
Her request had been about business, and she needed Linc to know that.
Cecilia ignored the little voice that suggested it had been a little bit about the man himself, as well...
A moment later he’d responded briefly to the caller. He turned to Cecilia. ‘I’m sorry. That was the call I’ve been waiting on. I need to go.’
‘You’re fine. Go do what you need to do.’ Cecilia waved him away as though she had some claim to granting him permission or not. ‘And don’t worry about my invitation. I understand if you can’t make it or don’t want to attend. It was a marketing-related thought. That’s all.’
Another thought encroached. What if he did attend the masked ball and arrived with some beautiful woman on his arm?
Not her business—and she wouldn’t care one way or the other!
Linc gave a quick nod and strode off.
Cecilia did not watch his departure until he was out of sight, nor did she stand there daydreaming, incapable of remembering what she should do next even though she’d just given herself a stern internal talking-to.
She merely took a moment to gather herself for her next job. Yes. That was what she did.
And that job needed to be a last-minute check of the maze before the flower-show committee arrived.
Cecilia forced her attention to her work. And it was as she inspected the perfect flowerbeds that Cecilia admitted to herself that she really did hope Linc would attend the masked ball.
But only for business purposes.
* * *
‘You can go ahead and sell off two of the three apartment complexes as whole lots to those investors. It’s a good time to do it, and you know the profit margin I’ll be looking for.’
Linc gave his agreement over his cell phone to his property broker as he strode from his car to the entrance of Cecilia’s plant nursery the following morning.
‘The third is to be offered as individual units under the first home-buyer arrangement we have with our partner real estate firms.’
‘You know that plan is neither time efficient nor as cost-effective as the investor option.’ His broker’s voice held the tone of an oft-repeated lament.
Linc treated the warning to the same response he gave it every time. ‘Nevertheless, you know where I stand on this.’
‘There are times when you’re going to give back, whether it reduces your profit margin or not. Yeah, I know. I’m proof of that myself.’ The other man gave a wry laugh and yielded the point. ‘You gave me a great chance when you employed me, and I haven’t looked back since.’
‘You can fill the time while you’re waiting for those units to sell by property shopping for me in Queensland,’ Linc offered. ‘How does that sound? I’ve been wanting to buy into that state for a while.’
He gave his broker—suddenly a much happier man—his instructions, ended the call and set out to find Cecilia.
‘She’s in the office.’ Jemmie, Cecilia’s second-in-command, told him as Linc strode across the courtyard.
‘Thanks.’
As Linc headed for the office, he acknowledged silently that he really wanted to see Cecilia. He should want to see her again to prove to himself that this recent and inexplicable sharpening of his interest in her had disappeared as quickly as it had made its presence felt.
Odd that he should feel a lift in his spirits as he approached the door of the plant-nursery office, if that was the case.
The office door stood open. As Linc drew closer, observing Cecilia’s concentration and hearing the sound of her voice as she spoke into the phone, he silently acknowledged that she looked beautiful sitting there and that seeing her gave him a warm, happy feeling.
He could live with that without ever doing a thing about it. In a short span of time he’d be out of here and back to his regular world, anyway.
Out of the way of temptation?
‘Linc. Hi.’ She glanced up after ending her call and offered a welcoming smile.
For a moment Cecilia looked equally happy to see him. Happy and...interested? Linc couldn’t take his gaze from hers. And blue eyes stared back at him—before she seemed to realise how long their glances had held.
She dropped her gaze. ‘I wasn’t sure if you’d be here today.’
He stepped over the threshold and let his gaze linger on her face, enjoying the lovely lines, the sweep of her lashes against her cheeks.
‘The business with my property guy didn’t take long.’ Linc gave himself full points for sounding so close to normal. ‘I wound it up a few minutes ago on the phone, actually.’
He brushed aside his travelling all over Sydney to inspect his property holdings as though it had barely impinged. Right now it didn’t seem to matter. All he could focus on was Cecilia.
What the heck was going on with him?
‘Besides,
