Red Wine and Her Sexy Ex

‘I’m not afraid of hard work or putting in the hours. Show me what needs to be done, and I’ll do it. And I’ve already told you, I can do jeans and boots and a sunhat, if I have to.’

And doubtless hers would all be designer.

‘I don’t have Harry’s knowledge or experience, so of course I’m not going to be able to fill his shoes,’ she said. ‘But I learn fast, and if I don’t know something I’ll ask—I won’t just muddle through and hope for the best.’

‘Perhaps I should also tell you that Harry was a sleeping partner in the business,’ Xavier mused.

Her face shuttered. ‘So you’re not going to give me a chance.’

‘That isn’t what I said. Allegra, he was almost eighty. I was hardly going to make him work the same hours that I do. And he was happy to let me run the vineyard my way.’

‘So what are you saying? That I can stay, but I get no input in anything?’ She shook her head. ‘No deal.’

‘I wasn’t offering you a deal. I’m telling you the way it is. Sure, I asked Harry for advice on some things—but I can’t do that with you because, as you just said yourself, you don’t have his knowledge or his experience.’

‘And I also told you that I have other skills. Useful skills. If you give me the information I asked for, I’ll work up some proposals. I can bring other things to the vineyard. Added value.’

Xavier took a deep breath. ‘The information you’re asking for is commercially sensitive.’

‘And, as your business partner, I have no intention of letting that information out of my sight—because if it affects the business, it affects me.’

She really wasn’t going to give up. He stared at her for a moment, weighing her up: could he trust her, this time round?

Harry had obviously trusted her, or he would’ve left instructions to handle his estate differently.

This was a huge, huge risk. But Harry had never steered him wrong before; and Marc had argued in her favour, too, in their phone call the previous day. And Guy had actually left his precious lab for a few minutes to bring her over to the office. Harry, Marc and Guy were the three people Xavier trusted most, and they didn’t seem to share his wariness of Allegra. So perhaps his best friend and his brother could see things more clearly, their judgement of her not clouded by emotion and the ghosts of the past. Maybe he should let them guide him, here.

Or maybe he was just making excuses to himself, looking for reasons why he should let her back into his life. Because, damn it to hell, he’d missed her, and seeing her again made him realise what a huge hole she’d left in his life. A hole he’d told himself was filled perfectly adequately by work, and now he knew for certain that he’d been lying to himself all along.

‘What’s it going to be, Xav?’ she asked softly.

Knowing that he was probably making a huge mistake, he nodded. ‘I’ll print out the papers for you now. Read through them, call me if you have questions, and we’ll see what you come up with.’

‘Thank you.’ She paused. ‘You won’t regret this.’

He’d reserve judgement on that until he’d seen her in action. ‘It’s two months until harvest. Let’s use it as a trial. If we can work together, then fine. If we can’t, then you sell your half of the vineyard to me. Deal?’

‘So you’re expecting me to prove myself to you?’ Her eyes widened. ‘Even though I own half the vineyard?’

‘I’m saying that I don’t know if we can work with each other,’ Xavier said. ‘Look, if you took a job somewhere, you’d have a trial period to see if you and the new company suited each other. This is no different.’

‘And if it doesn’t work out, I’m the one who has to walk away? I’m the one who loses?’

‘My roots are here,’ he said simply. ‘Would you rip me from them?’

She was silent for a long, long time. And then she stood up and held out her hand. ‘Two months, and then we’ll discuss our options. Including the possibility of me selling to you, but also including the possibility of dissolving the partnership and me keeping my part of the vineyard.’

Xavier wasn’t sure whether he wanted to shake her for being obstinate, or admire her backbone. In the end, he stood up, too, and took her hand.

And the feel of her skin against his took him straight back to the days when he’d driven her to all the beauty spots in the region, and they’d wandered round, hand in hand, admiring the views. Days when the summer seemed endless, the sky was always blue, and the only time he’d stopped smiling was when his mouth was busy exploring Allegra’s body.

It would be so, so easy to walk round the table, draw her back into his arms and kiss her until they were both dizzy. And it would be so, so stupid. If they were going to have a chance of making this business work, she needed to be off limits.

He went through the motions of a formal handshake, then released her hand. ‘We should perhaps drink to that.’

‘I can’t. I’m driving.’

‘And I’m working in the fields this afternoon. So let’s improvise.’ He raised his cup of coffee. ‘To Les Trois Closes.’

She clinked her cup against his. ‘Les Trois Closes. And an equal partnership.’

Chapter Three

ALLEGRA spent the rest of Saturday afternoon looking through the papers Xavier had printed off for her, checking things on the Internet and making notes. He’d given her his mobile number, but not his email address, and she could hardly text him a report—not if she wanted to include charts or drawings.

She sent him a quick text. Off to London tomorrow. Back Tues, maybe Weds. Will email report, but need address. AB

It was late evening before he replied—very briefly and to the point. Xavier had clearly turned into a man who didn’t waste words; she made a mental note to keep her report extremely brief, with information in the papers behind it to support her arguments.

And she was going to be seriously busy for the next few days, sorting out loose ends in London as well as coming up with some ideas to convince Xavier that she could give something back to the vineyard.

She smiled wryly. So much for telling him that she had nothing to prove. They both knew that she did. To herself as well as to him.

‘Sorry, Guy. I’m just not hungry.’ Xavier eyed the slightly dried-up cassoulet and pushed his plate away.

‘If you’d come back from the fields when I called your cellphone the first time, it might’ve been edible,’ Guy pointed out.

‘Sorry.’

‘So what is it? A problem with the vines?’

‘No.’

‘Your biggest customer’s just gone under, owing you a huge amount of money?’

Xavier shook his head impatiently. ‘No. Everything’s fine.’

‘When you work yourself into exhaustion and you’ve still got shadows under your eyes because you can’t sleep, everything’s not fine.’ Guy folded his arms and regarded his brother sternly. ‘I’m not a child any more, Xav. You don’t have to protect me, the way you and Papa did when we had two bad harvests on the trot and the bank wouldn’t extend the vineyard’s credit.’

When life as he knew it had imploded. ‘I know. I’m sorry. I’m not trying to baby you.’

‘If it’s money, maybe I can help. The perfume house is doing OK right now. I can lend you enough to get you out of a hole—just as you helped me out a couple of years back.’

When Guy’s ex-wife had cleaned him out and he’d almost had to sell his share of the perfume house. Xavier gave him a weary smile. ‘Thanks, mon frère. It’s good of you to offer. But there’s no need. The vineyard’s on an even keel financially, and I’m being careful about credit—even with my oldest customers.’

‘Then it’s Allie.’

Yeah. He couldn’t think straight now she was back. ‘Of course not. I’m fine,’ he lied.