Page 16 of The Charmer
“You’re willing to compensate me…how generous.”
If her strange, high-pitched fake voice and the clenched hands twisting the cuffs of her crushed velvet shorts weren’t a dead giveaway of what she thought of his offer, her sarcasm clued him in.
“The point I’m trying to make is, this place is your business, so your time is just as valuable as everyone else’s and I want to recognise that.”
Better, much better, and by the softening of her ramrod straight posture, she thought so too.
“I don’t want your money.”
“But you’ll still listen to my pitch?”
He held his breath, wishing this bohemian beauty didn’t hold his future in the palm of her paint-stained hand. She had to listen to his pitch and she had to go for it. He couldn’t contemplate any other outcome.
Forging ahead with plans for his own company after a lengthy legal battle to escape the contract would drive an irreversible wedge between him and his father, when he was hoping some much needed time apart might actually make his dad’s heart grow fonder.
Yeah, and Santa would be asking him to renovate and develop the North Pole any day now.
But he had to try. He loved his dad too much to give up on him.
To Cooper’s surprise,Ariel’s face cleared. Her brow smoothed, her lips tilted up at the corners, and her green eyes sparkled with excitement.
Uh-oh. This couldn’t be good.
He’d seen that same look when she’d all but pushed him into her studio the first night and told him to get his gear off.
“I won’t accept your money but how about we do a fair trade for time?”
“Sounds feasible,” he said, not liking her smug smirk.
He liked the tense, uncertain Ariel a lot more than her cheeky counterpart who made him want to drop his business ideals at the door and get creative with this sprite-like woman in a variety of imaginative ways.
“What did you have in mind?”
To his surprise, Ariel slid off her stool and walked around the counter between them to place a finger under his chin and tilt his head this way and that. Before he could compute her touching him, she lowered her hand and stepped back, continuing to study him like a prized masterpiece.
“This is perfect.” She clapped her hands and smiled at him, the type of mega smile that could melt a guy’s hardened heart if he wasn’t careful. “You pose for me until I finish the portrait and I’ll listen to your boring proposal. How’s that for fair trade? A few hours modelling for a few hours of hearing you ramble about a business proposition I have zero interest in?”
Cooper stared at her, unwillingly admiring her glowing eyes, her wide confident smile. He bit back his first gut response of ‘no way,’ knowing that a smart businessman would take every opportunity that came his way and turn it into something big.
In this case, it may be the only chance he got. She’d let him in the door, she’d heard him out, and she’d agreed to listen to his plans for this place.
Posing almost naked, albeit on a hard stool for a few hours, would be nothing if he pulled this deal off.
“You’ve got a deal.”
He held out his hand, managing a genuine smile when she placed her tiny hand in his despite the jolt physical contact brought. By the slight widening of her eyes, she felt it too but pulled away before he could analyse it further.
Not that he wanted to. She wasn’t his type. He preferred cool, aloof women who were happy with the occasional date and had no expectations.
A warm, vibrant, creative woman like Ariel would be nothing but trouble for a level-headed guy like him and he’d make sure he concentrated on business around her.
He didn’t have room in his life for anything else.
Chapter Twelve
Twisting Cooper’s proposal to suit her ends had come to Ariel in a flash of brilliance and the way she saw it, she’d come out on top. She’d get to finish the portrait and collect the much needed money for it, and in exchange, she’d spend a few boring hours listening to him prattle on about his plans for her gallery, plans that would never see the light of day when she refused him.
Easy.