The St. Regis. A hotel ten blocks from here. This idiot had just handed me the keys to the castle.
“Fine,” I said smoothly. “Let him have his face-to-face. Just tell him we’re interested and that we can make it happen. Today. No hold-ups or stalling. If he’s willing to match my pace, that is.”
I ended the call and leaned back in my chair. My brothers would’ve taken the polite route. Waited, made counters offers, and played nice.
Not me.
One of the good things about being the baby of this family was that I got away with shit. I’d learned early on that rules were merely suggestions when your last name was Westwood.
I was going to get what I wanted, which, in this case, was a forty-percent commission on a billion-dollar buyout—my first week in the office.
Not bad. Not bad at all.Even if I have to say so myself.
I straightened my tie, already planning my next move. If the heir wanted a face-to-face, he was going to get one.
I couldn’t wait to see the look on his face when he realized he was sitting across from a Westwood.
CHAPTER 2
AURELIA
You’re mine.
I smiled prettily at the man across the table from me in a private room at a swanky restaurant. He was a little scrawny, his hair falling into his eyes and his shirt wrinkled like he’d rolled straight out of bed and into this crisis.
“I just, uh, I don’t know,” he stuttered, dabbing at his sweaty brow with an embroidered handkerchief. The embroidery was fraying though, letting me know how old and used up even his handkerchief was.
His lawyers, thin, wiry men with glasses sharper than their spines, kept bending their heads closer to him, probably whispering advice I doubted he’d take. I didn’t even know why he’d brought them along. He either didn’t listen to them, or they were useless at their jobs. We wouldn’t have been here otherwise.
“That’s so totally understandable. You did the right thing today, meeting with me. I know how difficult this is, but I’m here to help.”
I leaned in just slightly, widening my smile and deliberately softening my eyes. Looking at him like I was the only person in the room who didn’t see him as a disappointment. Pretendinglike I wasn’t here to strip him of what little dignity he had left in exchange for his signature on a dotted line.
And it was working.
His gaze held mine like I was the flame and he was the moth. A pathetic, broke little moth clinging to the last vestiges of his family’s former fortune, but this was the part I’d been born for.
Being pretty. Unnaturally gifted in the art of persuasion. When I wanted it to happen, people were inclined to say yes to me before I’d even asked the question.
My family had always known how to use that gift to their advantage. Van Alen & Associates had practically built their reputation on it, but this? This was different.
“Fifty million dollars.” The number rolled off my tongue like honey, and I paused to let it sink into the very molecules of air surrounding us.
The heir blinked, his mouth falling open. I could practically see the moment his pride collapsed, giving way to desperation and perhaps offering a flash of the greed that had gotten him into this position to begin with.
Hope surged through me. If I closed this deal today, convincing this heir to hand over their billion-dollar portfolio to me instead of any of the other sharks circling him, I’d finally have the leverage to break free. To stop working under the Van Alen name. To stop dancing to their tune and start my own acquisitions firm.
My own name. My empire. My rules.
I tilted my head and lowered my voice until it was softer and a lot more coaxing, making it sound like I was a dear friend. I meant every word I said. “I know how overwhelming this must be, but I promise that if you decide go with me, you’ll be protected. Safe. No one else will offer you that.”
His Adam’s apple bobbed and I bit back a victorious smile. This deal was as good as mine.
He swallowed hard, then opened his mouth to say yes. I knew it was coming, but I waited with bated breath for it to happen anyway.
Then the door to our private room swung open. The sound of it banging against the wall cracked through the air like a whip, and every head turned to face one of the last people I would have expected to barge into my meeting today.
You’ve got to be kidding me.
