The Ashtons: Paige, Grant & Trace: The Highest Bidder / Savour the Seduction / Name Your Price

The woman’s ebony eyes danced with mirth, and a confident, secret smile played on her lips.

Keep your friends close and your enemies closer. Twenty-two years under the tutelage of Spencer Ashton had at least taught her that much.

“Hello,” Paige said, turning from the sink. “Do you work here?”

The woman paused on her way into a stall, noticing Paige for the first time. “Yes, I do. I’m Tessa Carpenter. I work in Marketing. And you?”

“I’m Paige Ashton,” she said, holding out her hand. “I have a meeting here this morning.”

Tessa raised a striking, sculpted brow, as though no one could actually have a meeting at Symphonics that she didn’t know about. “With…?”

“Matt Camberlane.”

That got her attention. The dark eyes widened and dropped in a quick review. “I just left his office,” she announced, then smiled as she stepped toward a stall door. “I think that put him in a better mood than he was in the morning.”

“Oh?” Paige turned to the mirror and unsnapped her handbag. “That’s funny. He was in a great mood all weekend.”

The door froze as Tessa looked at her. “Really.”

Paige dabbed on some shiny lip gloss. “Really.”

“Where did you see him this weekend?”

“A fund-raiser. Dinner. A picnic.” Paige watched Tessa pale ever so slightly. “In fact, we’re having lunch this afternoon.”

“It’s only ten o’clock.” Tessa said slowly. “You’re kind of early for a lunch meeting.”

Paige checked her lips in the mirror. “Yes. I am.” Then she snapped her bag closed and headed toward the door, feeling wickedly elated.

Tessa Carpenter and her endless legs were not going to get her down. She had a mission, a goal. She had no idea how, but she was going to march right into that office and let that electricity zing between them again. She wanted that thrill, that delicious, addictive sensation that wound through her when he kissed her, touched her, liquified her whole being. She wanted it and she intended to get it.

With a determined push, she yanked open the door and walked right into Matt Camberlane.

“Paige?” Matt had to blink to be sure he wasn’t just conjuring her up as he left the mens’ room.

She lifted her face toward him and gave him a bright smile. “I’m a few minutes early.”

“Early?”

“For our meeting.” She lifted her briefcase an inch. “You’re going to love these ideas.”

He deserved this. He deserved to squirm in front of her. He should have explained things to her, not let her run off making all sorts of wrong assumptions. And then he didn’t call her—unless you count a lousy voice mail message with a mumbled excuse about delays in the product launch. Hell, yeah. He deserved to suffer.

Only, he wasn’t suffering. Because looking at those innocent eyes, standing in the enclosed hallway close enough to almost drop a kiss on her caramel-colored hair was not suffering. In fact, it was a lot closer to heaven than hell.

Indicating the executive suites with one hand, he said, “My office is this way, Paige.”

Even though he wanted to touch her so badly he literally ached, he fought the urge to place a hand on her back as they walked together. He wouldn’t touch her. He would not lay a single finger on her body.

Eleanor looked up from her desk and her jaw slackened.

“Hold my calls, please,” he instructed her, not taking the time to respond to the surprised look on his assistant’s face.

Paige seemed to know exactly where to go, entering his office ahead of him.

“Have a seat.” He pulled out one of the guest chairs in front of his desk, somehow not wanting her to sit on the sofa where Tessa Carpenter had just licked her chops over him. Paige wasn’t a slink-on-the-leather kind of girl. She was a sit-in-the-straight-back-chair kind of girl.

Wasn’t she?

As she sat, the hem of her peachy sweater dress rose just enough to make him question that thought. The silky thigh the move revealed collided with the image of Paige sliding out of her clothes the previous day. His whole lower half threatened to jump up and betray his thoughts. Good God, was he incapable of having a conversation with this woman without getting aroused?

He closed the door and tapped the wall switch that automatically lowered the sound system.

“Don’t turn off Frank on my account,” she said. “I’ve been humming ‘Under My Skin’ for two days.”

His reaction to that was definitely above the waist. “You have?”

She turned in the chair to face him. “Just thinking about the VoiceBox launch party makes me hum some great songs.”

Well, that explained it. She hadn’t received the fax or his message. And even after the way they left things on Sunday afternoon, she showed up for a meeting, all professional and ready to work.

Sitting across from her in the other chair, he took a deep breath. There’d be no hasty, feeble explanations of a product delay now. He had to tell her the truth.

“Paige—”

Before he could speak, she began to spread papers on his desk. “Here’s the room layout I worked out.”

“Paige, wait.”

“No,” she shook her head and held up one finger. “You wait. Wait until you see the idea I had for the centerpieces.”

He opened his mouth to stop her again, but his gaze fell on the picture of a gray felt hat—Sinatra’s trademark—tipped over the corner of a laptop screen. He couldn’t help smiling. “Now would you look at that?”

“Oh, that’s just something I worked up off the Internet,” she assured him. “There’ll be a laptop on each table with a different theme that instantly brings to mind the musician. Lips for Mick Jagger, oversize glasses for Elton John.”

Unable to resist, he lifted another page and scanned it.

“You did a lot of work yesterday,” he said slowly. “I’m impressed.”

She didn’t respond for a moment as the flush deepened in her cheeks. “I didn’t want to just sit around and think.”

About what a jerk he was, no doubt. “Paige.” He put his hand over hers, loving the slender, smooth feel of it. There went the vow not to touch her. “I canceled the contract and this meeting.”

“I know.”

She knew? He just stared at her.

“I got your fax and your message. But I really wanted you to see these ideas, so I decided to bend the rules and muscle my way into your office.” She gave him a saucy grin. “Pretty good muscling, huh?”