A Beauty For The Billionaire. Elizabeth Bevarly

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      He waited for the splash of heat that had always rocked his midsection whenever he saw her, and for the hitch of breath that had always gotten caught in his chest. But neither materialized. He guessed he’d outgrown reactions like that.

      “I imagine you’ve already heard most of the highlights about how I’ve been,” she said as she drew nearer. “My divorce was the talk of the town until you showed up.” She smiled again, but there was only good humor and maybe a little nostalgia in the gesture. “I should actually probably thank you for that.”

      “You’re welcome,” he said, smiling back.

      It really was good to see her. She really did look great. So what if his heart wasn’t pumping like the V-8 in a Challenger Hellcat, the way he would have thought it would be. People grew up. Hormones settled down.

      With one last look at Hogan she turned her attention to Chloe.

      “I want you to come back to work for me,” she said, straight to the point. “I can pay you three percent more than Hogan offered you.”

      Hogan looked at Chloe. She still seemed shell-shocked from whatever the hell had happened between them in the gallery. She glanced at Hogan, then back at Anabel, but said nothing.

      Cagey, he thought. She was probably thinking if Anabel was offering three percent, she could get more from Hogan. Fine. Whatever it took to keep Chloe on, Hogan would pay it. Especially if it meant Anabel might come around again.

      “I’ll raise your salary five percent,” he told her.

      Anabel looked at him, her lips parted in surprise. Or something. Then she looked back at Chloe. “I can go six percent,” she said coolly. “And you can have the entire month of August off, with pay.”

      Again, Chloe looked at Hogan, then back at Anabel. Again, she remained silent.

      “Eight percent,” Hogan countered.

      Now Anabel narrowed her eyes at him in a way he remembered well. It was her I’ll-get-what-I-want-or-else look. She always wore it right before he agreed to spring for tickets for whatever band happened to be her favorite at the time, or whatever restaurant was her favorite, or whatever whatever was her favorite. Then again, she’d always thanked him with hours and hours of hot I-love-you-so-much sex. Well, okay, maybe not hours and hours. He hadn’t been the most controlled lover back in the day. But it had for sure been hot.

      Anabel didn’t up her salary offer this time, but she told Chloe, “And I’ll give you the suite of rooms that face the park.”

      Chloe opened her mouth to reply, but Hogan stopped her with another counteroffer. “I’ll raise your pay ten percent,” he said. He didn’t add anything about a better room or more time off. Not just because she already had a damned suitable room and more time off than the average person could ever hope to have, but because something told him money was way more important to Chloe than anything else.

      What she needed the money for, Hogan couldn’t imagine. But it was her salary that had been the most important part of her contract, her salary that lured her from one employer to another. Chloe Merlin wanted money. Lots of it.

      For a third time she looked at Hogan, then at Anabel. “I’m sorry, Anabel,” she said. “Unless you can offer to pay me more than Mr....” She threw another glance Hogan’s way, this one looking even more edgy than the others. Then she turned so that her entire body was facing Anabel. “Unless you can offer me more than...that...I’m afraid I’ll have to remain here.”

      There was a brief expectant pause, and when Anabel only shook her head, Chloe made her way to the doorway. “I’ll draw up a rider for my contract and have it for you this evening,” she said to Hogan as she started back up the stairs.

      And then she was gone, without saying goodbye to either of them.

      “She is such an odd duck,” Anabel said when Chloe was safely out of earshot.

      There was nothing derogatory in her tone, just a matter-of-factness that had been there even when they were teenagers. She wasn’t condemning Chloe, just stating the truth. His chef was pretty unique.

      “But worth every penny,” she added with a sigh. She smiled again. “More pennies than I can afford to pay her. Obviously, she’s working for someone who’s out of my league.”

      Hogan shook his head. “Other way around, Anabel. You were always out of my league. You said so yourself. More than once, if I remember.”

      She winced at the comment, even though he hadn’t meant it maliciously. He’d learned to be matter-of-fact from her. “I was a dumb kid when we dated, Hogan,” she told him. “I was so full of myself back then. I said a lot of things I shouldn’t have.”

      “Nah,” he told her. “You never said anything I wasn’t thinking myself. You were right. We came from two different worlds.”

      “Even so, that didn’t give me the right to be such an elitist. My parents just taught me their philosophy well. It took me years to figure out I was wrong.”

      Now there was a loaded statement. Wrong about what? Wrong about the prejudice her parents taught her? Wrong about some of the comments she’d made? Wrong about their social circles never mixing? Wrong about leaving him for the senator’s son?

      Probably better not to ask for clarification. Not yet anyway. He and Anabel had rushed headlong into their relationship when they were kids. The first time they’d had sex was within days of meeting, and they’d almost never met without having sex. He’d sometimes wondered if maybe they’d gone slower, things would have worked out differently. This time he wasn’t going to hurry it. This time he wanted to do it right.

      “So how have you been?” she asked him. “How are your folks? I still think about your mom’s Toll House cookies from time to time.”

      “My folks are gone,” he told her. “Mom passed five years ago. Dad went two years later. Cancer. Both of them.”

      She looked stricken by the news. She lifted a hand to his shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze. “Oh, Hogan, I am so sorry. I had no idea.”

      He covered her hand with his. “You couldn’t have known. And thanks.”

      For a moment neither of them said anything, then Anabel dropped her hand. She crossed her arms over her midsection and looked at the door. Hogan told himself to ask her something about herself, but he didn’t want to bring up her divorce, even if she didn’t seem to be any the worse for wear from it. Her folks, he figured, were probably the same as always. Maybe a little more likely to invite him into their home than they were fifteen years ago, but then again, maybe not.

      But for the life of him, he couldn’t think of a single thing to say.

      “I should probably get going,” she said. “I have a thing tonight. My aunt and uncle are in town. We’re meeting at the Rainbow Room.” She expelled a sound that was a mixture of affection and irritation. “They always want to meet at the Rainbow Room. Which is great, but really, I wish they’d expand their repertoire a bit. Try Per Se or Morimoto sometime. Or Le Turtle. I love that place.”

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