The Billionaire Bid. Leigh Michaels

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ I don’t.”

      “Then please don’t waste my time lecturing me about why I should preserve the Tyler-Royale building. Obviously you didn’t hear the entire press conference or you’d know better than to try.”

      “I don’t intend to do anything of the sort.” She crossed her legs just so, put her elbow on the arm of the couch, propped her chin against her hand, and smiled. “I’m here this morning to give you the chance to be a hero.”

      Dez looked at her in disbelief. She was going to offer him a chance to be a hero? The woman had lost her mind. If she ever had one to begin with. “Ms. Haskell—” he began.

      “Oh, call me Gina—please. I don’t blame you for being upset last night,” she went on with a sympathetic tone that was so palpably false that it made the air feel sticky.

      “Upset?” he snorted. “I don’t get upset.”

      “Really? Then why did you call me up and yell at me?”

      Dez was honestly taken aback. “I didn’t yell at you.”

      “Oh? I suppose that’s what you call calmly expressing an opinion?”

      “It sure as hell is. I wasn’t yelling. I admit I was annoyed at the way that pack of jackals twisted my words, especially when I thought you might have fanned the flames, but—”

      She nodded. “That’s what I said. You were…” It was obvious that she saw the expression on his face, for she broke off abruptly. “The news reports made you sound like King Kong, stomping around the city knocking down every building in sight. Of course you were put out by such unfair reporting.”

      “Lady, if I got upset every time a bunch of reporters took after me, I’d be living on antacids.” He threw himself down on the opposite end of the couch from her. “Now what’s this about you making me a hero?”

      “It won’t be my doing, really. I’m just here to show you the way.”

      She shifted around to face him, and her skirt slid up an inch, showing off a silky, slim knee. The maneuver didn’t look practiced, but that only demonstrated how smooth an operator she was. “You’ve got about two minutes before I throw you out,” Dez warned.

      “Very well.” With an unhurried air, she consulted her wristwatch, then settled herself more comfortably on the couch. “The media seems to have decided that you’re public enemy number one. And you must admit that you’ve played right into their hands. Really—after all these years, and after all the projects you’ve been involved in, you’ve never yet found yourself owning a building that was worth saving?” She shook her head in apparent disbelief.

      “Only this one.”

      She looked around the room. “And it’s starting to get some age on it. Be careful, or one of these days you’ll find yourself preserving a historic structure in spite of yourself.”

      “There’s nothing historic about this building, and I’ll keep it for exactly as long as it suits my purpose. Look, sweetheart, if you think I’m going to let the opinions of a few reporters keep me awake nights, you’re wrong. They’ll forget about saving the Tyler-Royale store just as soon as another story catches their interest. This will pass—it always does.”

      She kept smiling. “Sure about that, are you?”

      The fact that her voice was practically dripping honey didn’t lessen the threat that lay underneath the words. The antacids were starting to sound like a good idea after all.

      “But why make it hard on yourself?” she went on. “You already own eight square blocks of downtown Lakemont. Or maybe it’s even more than that—those were just the properties I found listed in a quick search at the county assessor’s office this morning.”

      He had to hand it to her; she’d done her homework.

      “To a tycoon, what’s one block more or less?” she went on. “The media have adopted the Tyler-Royale building as their darling. If you save it, you’ll be—”

      “Lakemont’s own superhero,” he mused. “If you asked me, I’d say you’ve been reading too many comic books. Just for the sake of argument, exactly what kind of plan do you have in mind for saving the building? I suppose you want me to just hand it over to you?”

      “Well, not to me personally, of course. But just think how marvelous you’d look if you gave it to the Kerrigan County Historical Society.”

      “Well, if all the goodwill in the world was resting on it, I couldn’t do that. Remember? I don’t own the building. I suppose I could give you the option to buy it, if I happened to be in the mood to donate something that cost me a couple of hundred thousand dollars, but what good would that do? You told me a few minutes ago you don’t have any money. An option to buy is worthless if you don’t have the cash to exercise it.”

      “I’m sure you could help me encourage your friend the CEO to donate the building. It’s not as if he wouldn’t be getting anything out of the deal, after all—”

      “Now you’re onto something,” Dez pointed out. “He’d still have my two hundred grand, so he’d be happy. You’d have the building, so you’d be happy. And I’d be left holding the bag. Unfortunately for your argument, that doesn’t make me look heroic. It makes me look stupid.”

      “Generous,” she corrected gently. “Of course, you’d also be getting a nice tax deduction.”

      He couldn’t help but be impressed. There weren’t many people who could be on the receiving end as he demolished their line of reasoning and still keep smiling like that. He wasn’t sure if it was naiveté or chutzpah she was displaying, but she hadn’t wilted, and that was saying something.

      “And,” she went on smoothly, “you really shouldn’t underestimate the value of improving your reputation.”

      “By all means, I won’t underestimate it. Doing something like that would land me on the hit list of every fund-raiser and con artist in this corner of the state. You know, it would serve you right if I did hand over the option and convince Ross to sell you the building for a dollar or two. Have you actually looked at that store?”

      For the first time, uncertainty flickered in her face, though she tried to mask it quickly. “Not lately,” she admitted.

      “Well, you are in for a treat.” He jumped up and pulled open the office door. “Sarah, if anybody comes looking for me, just tell them that I took Ms. Haskell for a walk.”

      It was only a few blocks from Dez’s office to the Tyler-Royale store, and his long legs ate up the distance. “Taking me for a run is more like it,” Gina said, sounding breathless.

      He looked disparagingly down at the strappy sandals she wore. “If you’d choose some sensible shoes, you wouldn’t have so much trouble keeping up.”

      “And if you weren’t so tall…” She stopped dead on the sidewalk in front of the main doors, looking up, and a large woman who was carrying a stack of boxes and half a dozen loaded shopping bags almost mowed her down.

      Dez pulled her out of the line of traffic just in time and followed her gaze as she surveyed the front facade СКАЧАТЬ