Making her Smile - EPUB Read online

  Stepping through the door, he watched the delicate beauty walk around his office, amazed by the innate elegance in her movements. He was fascinated. What was it about this woman? From the first moment he’d met her, Viktor knew that he’d acted out of character. He always crushed the competition. With this woman…she fascinated him!

  As he watched, she smoothed her hands down over her slender hips and he almost growled with the desire to do that himself.

  How the hell could she look so elegant in a dress that was two sizes too big for her fine boned figure? Her hair looked…soft, even though it was pinned up in what might have been an elegant twist, but soft, wisps of dark curls escaped, gently framing her lovely features. Her beauty wasn’t tied up in superficial accoutrements. Her elegance and self-confidence was just who she was.

  That sense of self was what made her so…alluring. Enticing.

  Beautiful.

  Pulling himself out of his contemplation of her figure, he closed the door to his office and walked purposefully towards his desk. “Ms. Ferrant. I thought we’d concluded our business during our last conversation,” he commented conversationally. His hand silently invited her to sit in one of the leather chairs in front of his desk. “To what do I owe this visit today, then?”

  As he came around to sit in the big, leather chair, Viktor was once again shocked by the beauty of her eyes. Those lashes! Long, dark, and thick, those lashes framed eyes that belonged to a cat, he thought. A mischievous, adorable, sexy cat. And those lips! Damn, his body was contemplating what she might taste like, feeling those lips against his mouth as she kissed him back.

  She blinked at him and all thoughts of sexy cats and purring kittens vanished. There was a defiance there that immediately captured his attention. Gone was the confident woman who had basically told him to go to hell last month when he’d offered to buy her house and farmland. At this moment, she looked like she was about to burst into tears and all of his previously non-existent protective instincts kicked into high gear.

  Those shockingly blue eyes glared at him and he wanted to laugh. Such anger! And in so beautiful a woman.

  “I was wondering if the offer to buy my family’s land and house was still available,” she explained stiffly.

  Viktor watched with a fascination that bordered on fury as she licked her lips. Was she doing that on purpose? Was she trying to sexually torment him?

  Women had tried their little tricks on him before, never succeeding. If he was interested, he would allow a woman to lure him into her arms. If he wasn’t interested, he would walk away.

  So why was this woman’s seemingly unconscious gesture making his body harden with a desire that almost doubled him over with need?

  Perhaps it was that unconscious defiance tied to the sexual come-on. He wasn’t sure, but it was powerful.

  The trembling of her fingers as she smoothed her skirt down over her knees was his first clue that she wasn’t doing this to him on purpose. Every gesture, every covert glance through those thick lashes was…genuine? Impossible!

  So, why was she pushing the hemline of her skirt down? If she were trying to play him, she’d be sliding that hemline higher, to give him a glimpse of what was being offered.

  “So…?” she prompted.

  Viktor looked at the nervous beauty sitting so primly on the other side of his desk. He’d done his research on this woman. She ran one of the best plant nurseries in the area. Her plants were healthier than anyone else’s and she had a larger, more diversified stock. But as much as the woman knew about plants and growing things, she knew nothing about business. She was in debt up to her pretty, blue eyes, underpriced her products, and had no ongoing collections efforts, which allowed her customers to walk all over her.

  A month ago, he’d told himself he was collecting information in order to put her out of business. He needed her land in order to start a development project in that area. As his research team pulled more and more information together on this woman, the only hindrance left to the bigger picture of developing the land, he’d thought of about twenty different ways to pressure her into selling him her land.

  But he hadn’t implemented any of them.

  And now she was sitting here, looking shockingly beautiful and still defiant, yet ready to sell him the land he needed, without any effort on his part.

  “No,” he told her, unaware of the intensity of his look as his mind worked through his next move.

  When her eyes dropped, he could have sworn that he saw the glint of a tear. Damn it, tears had never bothered him before. Why did the glisten of her eyes make him want to lift her up into his arms and tell her that he’d make everything okay?

  “I see,” she was saying. Her fingers were trembling in earnest now as she picked up her purse. Holding that ragged accessory against her stomach, he suspected that she was having trouble absorbing his answer and his gut churned with acid. “I’m so sorry to have wasted your time.”

  He saw her prepare to leave and everything inside of him wanted her to stay. He didn’t examine his motives too closely as he quickly made up his mind. “But I’ll save your business.”

  Coming Soon!

  The new series, Friends Forever, starts on December 25, 2017 and I’ll get back to my normal monthly release schedule going forward, but I hope to have some other novellas during 2018 – and possibly another series like this one.

  A Difficult Man to Love

  Hayden’s Story

  Book 1 in Friends Forever Series

  December 25, 2017

  (Click HERE for Details)

  

  Spanish Passions

  (Pssst…This is one of the secret baby stories you ladies have been asking me for!)

  Natalie’s Story

  Book 2 in Friends Forever Series

  January 12, 2018

  (Click HERE for Details)

  

  The Russian’s Proposal

  Katia’s Story

  Book 3 in Friends Forever Series

  February 14, 2018 (Yeah – on Valentine’s Day!)

  (Click HERE for Details)

  

  The Sheik’s Redemption

  (Oooh! We love the sheik stories! And this one has a bit of a mystery to it!)

  Arianna’s Story

  Book 4 in Friends Forever Series

  March 16, 2018

  (Click HERE for Details)