CEO's Marriage Seduction / His Style of Seduction: CEO's Marriage Seduction / His Style of Seduction

She leaned back against the cushions of her couch and set her coffee cup down on the end table. She was still in her pajamas, having allowed herself the luxury of sleeping in after having worked at the Hardings’ party.

Beth laughed. “Well that was quick work. Last week, he got rid of your fiancé and this week he proposes to you himself!”

“In a sense.”

She’d filled in Beth about Carter’s deceit and Griffin’s role in bringing it to her attention. She’d left out the kiss with Griffin at her apartment because, she told herself, she’d chalked it up as an aberration.

But there was no way to chalk up a proposal as an anomaly or a figment of her imagination—though she’d tried last night. If she’d been successful, she’d have been able to dismiss the strange temptations she was feeling.

And when Beth had phoned this morning to discuss how the party had gone, she couldn’t help but tell her friend about the real entertainment last night.

“I’ll say this for him,” Beth said. “He’s slow out of the gate, but he sure knows how to make up for lost time. He’s known you, what? Ten years?”

“Has it been that long?” she responded.

“So what are you going to do?” Beth asked.

“Are you kidding? Nothing! In case it’s escaped your notice, I’ve spent the last decade detesting Griffin Slater.”

“There’s a fine line between love and hate.”

Didn’t she know it. The past few days had brought that home to her. She’d thought she loved Carter, only to discover she hadn’t known him at all. And she’d thought she detested Griffin, only to discover, well…

But she didn’t want to go there with Beth. “Anyway, I don’t need him. This is the twenty-first century. I have options. Except, of course, he very considerately pointed out to me that, by taking him up on his proposal, I wouldn’t get just a sperm donor, but an involved father.”

“He’s got a point there.”

“Thanks a lot.”

“I’m just saying. I’ve got three kids, and believe me, there are days when I’d like to clone myself.”

“Hmm.”

A buzz sounded, indicating there was an incoming call on her cell phone. She removed the phone from her ear to check the screen, and recognized the number as Griffin’s. Over the years, they’d been in perfunctory phone contact about Tremont REH board business, so she wasn’t surprised he had her number.

Speaking into the phone again, she said to Beth, “You won’t believe this, but it’s Griffin on the other line. Can I talk to you later?”

“Of course! Let me know how it goes. I’ll be dying to know if he drops any other shocks on you. Oliver is so boring!”

When she’d ended the call with Beth, and switched over to the other call, she said unnecessarily, “Hello?”

“It’s Griffin.”

“I suppose you’re calling to recant your moment of insanity last night,” she said, affecting a bored tone, even though she was experiencing the exhilaration of a sky dive. “Well, no need to bother—”

“Actually,” he interrupted dryly, “I’m calling to hire you for a party.”

She sighed. “I feel compelled to point out that, as your spouse, you’d get my services for free. So, I’m confused—have you decided to hedge your bets?”

He laughed. “Okay, you’re on to me. My diabolic plan is to force you, one way or another, to provide me with a free party whenever I want.”

“I’ve got news for you,” she shot back. “It would hardly be a party.”

He chuckled. “I think I could handle you.”

A wave of heat sizzled through her.

“I really am calling to hire you,” he insisted. “I’ve been thinking of throwing a cocktail party for some business associates a week from Friday.”

“Oh.”

“Are you available?”

“I need to check my calendar.” She already knew she was free.

“I was planning to go with the caterer I usually use, nothing fancy, but after seeing you in action last night, I wanted to hire Occasions by Designs.”

“I don’t come cheap.”

“Do you really want my answer to that?”

“You are persistent.”

“My middle name. And how can you resist the opportunity to prove to me how good you are?” he said, his voice low and smooth as silk.

Damn him, he knew how to get to her.

Aloud, she said crisply, “We’ll have to discuss what you want, and I’ll have to send you my standard contract.”

“Excellent.”

When she ended her call with Griffin, she immediately thought that she was going to regret agreeing to this assignment.

Before she could dwell on her anxiety, however, her phone rang again, playing “That’s What Friends Are For.”

She flicked the cell open. “Hello, Beth.”

“Well?” her friend asked. “How did it go? I decided calling was better than dying to find out.”

“He wants to hire me.”

“Rent-a-wife?”

“No, another stunner. He wants me to arrange a party for him. I can’t tell anymore if he’s lusting after me or Occasions by Design.”

“Well, I give him points for originality. It’s better than lusting for the Tremont REH millions.”

Actually, Griffin was keeping her so off balance, Eva thought, that she wasn’t sure what he was really after.