Home for Christmas by Stephanie Wilson Read Free Book Online Page B

press be thrilled with
that information?” she replied smugly.
    “Savannah …”
    “Miss Wentworth, if you please.”
    He smiled, despite her anger. “Miss
Wentworth?” She had the grace to blush. “And we’re in what year?” he
questioned.
    “I don’t like the sound of my name
on your lips,” she said and when a devilish smile lit his blue, blue eyes, she
blushed again. “And what might you like on my lips?”
    “Stop it.”
    “You’re right. That was very
unprofessional,” he answered with chagrin.
    “Yes it was. That was
inappropriate.”
    “I agree it was … but I couldn’t
help myself. Could you just … listen ? We only have a few minutes before
those women come back and I really want this to come from me.”
    Austin took the next several
minutes to explain his company to her. She listened silently even though she’d
read about it in detail a couple of years before when it first garnered the
public’s attention, learning about its history and proposed future. He
explained their forthcoming IPO offering, detailed the several millions of
dollars they planned to spend in marketing and his personal attempt to attract
more investors.   
    Savannah couldn’t help but admire
his business astuteness. The more she listened, carefully, the more her
irritation with him mellowed. Caught up in his enthusiastic description of his
business made her temporarily forget how keenly aware of her own loss she had
become. She’d been equally as passionate, equally as enthusiastic, but
ultimately with very different results. She loved his dedication and
appreciated the easy praise he gave to his management team and their efforts to
build a strong company.
    “Thank you, Austin,” she finally
said. “I appreciate your time in explaining your business, and I’m impressed
with what I hear. But truly, my background is in retail, I’m not sure what I
can do for you. As you know, we no longer have any assets. While your company
may have been one I would have invested in the past, I’m afraid that is
impossible now.”
    “I understand. I’m not asking for
an investment, what I want to propose is a little different than what you’re
thinking. Courtney came to me with this idea,” and as Savannah became guarded
again, Austin carefully chose his next words. “I need someone to help me
attract investors in a very specialized way.”
    “Attract investors?” she replied
after a few seconds, her interest piqued.
    “Yes. The whole reason I purchased
your house, for a nice price I might add,” to which she smiled, knowing full
well the incredible profit she’d made on the house had helped close the books
and pay the remaining business debt. It had been vitally important to Savannah
to do so.
    “Isn’t attracting investors what
you’re hiring Courtney to do?” she questioned.
    “In a way. But I need to do
something a bit more personal for some of the larger investors, some of which
live here in Seattle. As you know, they’re usually more traditional in their
approach to life, they like to get to know someone on a personal level before investing
in their company, or so I’ve been told by Courtney. This has been her idea from
the beginning … to attract old money.”
    Savannah nodded, it sounded exactly
like her. They were both members of that illustrious group. She could see
Courtney’s mental wheels turning.
    “Thus, the purchase of your house,”
he concluded.
    “Did Courtney suggest you buy my house?” she questioned uneasily.
    “No. Her recommendation was to find
an older, historic home to either buy or lease. My agent found yours. In fact,
I hadn’t even seen the house, in person, until Halloween night. It’s why I was
in the neighborhood to begin with.”
    “You bought the house sight
unseen?” she asked with shock.
    “Well, I haven’t been in town much
lately …”
    “But it’s going to remain a home,
right?”
    “Of course it’s a home, it isn’t
zoned for anything else.”
    “Zoned? Why