LITMIR.BIZ

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to hit the point home as far as she could. So she lied. ‘Besides which, you’re simply not my type.’

      Jacob blinked, his luscious eyelashes sweeping across his beautiful chiselled cheeks. ‘And those other poor saps during the week. Did they have the same advance warning I did?’

      Holly shrank back from the bitterness in Jacob’s tone and she knew she was doing the right thing, cutting off all further contact before it was too late. Before he made such a deep impression on her she could not simply theorise it away.

      ‘Goodbye, Jacob.’

      Holly walked away, feeling Jacob’s slighted stare burning into her as she crossed the room. She latched onto the owner of the gallery and he kept her sequestered in his bawdy, noisy group until long after Jacob had grabbed his coat and left.

      CHAPTER NINE

      MONDAY morning Holly’s intercom buzzed.

      ‘Call on line three, Ms Denison.’ The receptionist’s fuzzy voice came through the speakerphone on her desk.

      Holly looked apologetically at Lydia, who was standing on a chair in the middle of her office, her outstretched arms draped in several large swatches of fabric. ‘Do you mind hanging in there for a minute? I’ll be quick.’

      Lydia strained dramatically under the weight. ‘Get it, Holly, I’m just fine up here.’

      Holly grabbed the phone and swung back in her springy leather chair. ‘Holly Denison.’

      ‘Holly. It’s Jacob.’

      Holly shot forward on her chair, her feet now both firmly planted on the ground. He needn’t have introduced himself. That rich, masculine voice with its gentle American twang set her nerves on edge from its very first syllable.

      Lydia raised her eyebrows and mouthed, ‘Who is it?’

      Holly shook her head, before pressing the phone firmly to her ear. After Friday night Holly had spent a restless weekend convincing herself turning him down was for the best.

      But three little words were enough to have her doubting herself again. And if he was calling to ask her to dinner again, she did not know if she would have the strength to refuse.

      ‘Yes, Jacob?’

      ‘I have a party to organise and I want to employ your professional services for the event.’

      She scribbled, Lincoln Holdings—party onto her notepad.

      Lydia could see the notebook clearly from her elevated position and her jaw dropped. Holly waved a frantic hand at her mouthing for her to dump the fabric swatches over the back of the chair and disappear.

      Lydia mouthed, ‘Good luck,’ before she tiptoed out.

      So he had not called to renew his dinner offer. Holly was glad he was not there in person to see her blush. He had obviously taken her at her word on that count. But that was what she wanted. Wasn’t it?

      Then it hit her what he had requested. Jacob Lincoln was offering Cloud Nine a gig. But she knew his idea of a party was very different from her own. She shuddered at the thought of having to search the local bars and pubs for a venue and putting up posters advertising a wet T-shirt contest with a free keg of beer being the first prize.

      ‘I am flattered that you thought of Cloud Nine for the event, Jacob, but I’m not sure we provide the sort of parties that would suit your tastes.’

      Jacob surprised Holly by laughing loudly on the other end of the line. ‘Relax, Holly. I’m not after nude mud wrestlers. Besides, this is not for the company. It’s a private affair. My sister Ana wants an engagement party. Something much more along the lines of what you created for the big marquee would be appropriate.’

      This sounded much more up her professional alley but Holly knew that the theme of the party was not what was really worrying her.

      ‘Well, I am extremely busy at the moment but I could pass you on to another of our wonderful event managers who specializes in exactly these sort of—’

      ‘Look, Holly—’ his voice seemed to lose all patience ‘—this is just the beginning of what I am proposing here. If I like what you do with this gig, I will be offering you the entire Lincoln Holdings event management account.’

      Holly blinked. Slowly. If she had had the strength, she would have pinched herself.

      ‘The entire Lincoln Holdings account?’ she repeated.

      ‘Yes. We have been able to handle the workload internally until now but the company is leaping ahead internationally and the job is getting too big.’

      Holly desperately tried to rein in her imagination, which was running riot with wild ideas.

      ‘What’s the catch?’ she asked, hoping there was a great big one so she would have a sane reason to refuse.

      ‘The catch is I don’t want anyone else in charge of my account. I want you.’

      Be careful what you wish for, Holly, for you just might get it. Those words echoed through her head as she sat in stunned silence.

      He was offering her an account that her firm, amongst dozens of others, had been wooing without success for years. There was no way she could seriously convince herself or anyone else that she should turn this opportunity down. She had to do this party and it had to be perfect.

      She sighed aloud. ‘All right. I’ll do it.’

      ‘Don’t sound so eager, please.’ He laughed.

      ‘I am, don’t get me wrong. This is a huge opportunity. Though I can’t help but wonder why.’

      ‘Why not?’ Jacob asked.

      ‘Well, you’ve seen my work. And we both know I don’t have the same tastes as you.’ And we all but had a fight the other night. And I had thought I might not ever hear that divine voice of yours again.

      Jacob laughed again and Holly grimaced, aware that she was fast finding the sound addictive.

      ‘You really know how to sell yourself, don’t you? I’m beginning to change my mind about the whole deal.’

      Holly could not help but laugh as well. ‘Look, I will happily take on your sister’s engagement party and don’t get me wrong, I will knock your socks off, it will be that fabulous. But I have a counter proposal.’

      ‘Okay, let’s hear it.’

      She took a deep breath and went for it. ‘I will deal with your sister alone for this party and when you give me the Lincoln Holdings account, which I am sure you will, I will deal with your promotions division, and not with you.’

      ‘Well, now, that was more like it,’ Jacob said, ‘I was not sure that you had that self-protective spirit in you.’

      His voice had reached her a little softer and definitely sexier, which was not what Holly had been hoping to bring out in him. She had merely been establishing professional boundaries. Not something she had previously thought sexy, but with Jacob involved …

      ‘Thank you, I think,’ she said, her own voice huskily mirroring his own. She cleared her throat. ‘If you could pass on your sister’s number we can get started right away.’

      Jacob gave her Ana’s contact details. ‘And whatever Ana wants, Ana gets. The result of my being away so long. I am trying to buy back her affection.’

      Holly knew from the warmth of his voice that this statement could not be farther from the truth. And again she wondered what sort of woman could secure such staunch and palpable affection from this man.

      ‘So long as I don’t have to help Ana choose between bronze and pewter candleholders. I’ve been there and done that and it wasn’t pretty.’

      ‘Pewter,’ Holly answered without pause

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