A Vow Of Seduction: Hot Night in the Hamptons / Seduced Before Sunrise

Delilah gave him a warm smile. “Pleased to meet you. I have to admit, you’re different than I thought. I thought I’d get the hard partier, but you look good.”

He shifted on his feet. “In that case I’m happy to disappoint.”

She and Willow took seats across from him. “So, why don’t you tell us what you’re looking for? Your manager called in a favor and I’m happy to help, but I want to know in your own words what you think you need.”

“At this point I’m looking to restart my career, but more on the production development side. I’m not opposed to acting again, but I really want to set myself apart from my father. And to distance myself from that pissed-off kid who was drunk all the time and slept with too many starlets.” The years of fifteen to twenty were pretty much a blur.

Delilah nodded. “Why, though? From what I understand you were smart with your money. It could’ve gone in the opposite direction, given how hard you were going. Why do you want to open yourself back up to that kind of scrutiny?”

It was a good question. “Because I love to create. And I have a story that won’t leave me alone. I just need the financial backing to get it made. And given my history, no one’s exactly lining up to give me money. I can fund some of it myself, but I know I’ll need more money than that.”

She nodded. “You’re right. You will need more money. So why don’t you tell us about your script?”

For the next thirty minutes he walked them through his plan, his cast and the story. They were receptive and thought his idea was good. Delilah leaned forward, placing her elbows on her knees, and folded her hands. “Okay, talking to you, I see that you mean this. I rarely sign on entertainment clients anymore. Been burned too many times by people who wanted paparazzi placements as opposed to legitimate media. I think we can work together, but I have a specific set of rules.”

“Okay, I can work with rules.”

“You need to be above reproach when it comes to women. I suggest steering clear of any potential land mines for a while. No sneaking out to starlets’ rooms at night. No going back with some random at a concert or anything like that. Squeaky-clean until you get the funding you need. No perception of impropriety. You had one hell of a rep. We need to make you into a new man. One who is all about the work.”

He nodded. “I can do that. Whatever it takes. I don’t want anything to get in my way. Whether you choose to help me or not.”

She smiled and sat back. “Now that’s the kind of client I’m looking for.” There was a buzz from the front of the office that signaled someone was there. And when the door to the conference lounge opened, Gabe knew he was about to break every promise he’d just made.

Delilah smiled. “Hey, Elina. You’re just in time to meet our latest client. This is Gabe Alexander, and we’ll be working with him for the next several months.”

Gabe slid his gaze to Elina and held his breath. Her wide-eyed stare told him everything he needed to know. She’d never intended to see him again.

Chapter 7 (#ulink_4b137d00-b1af-5d77-a6c0-5adb6833e3e6)

How was this her life? Most people never saw their random hookups again. Not Elina. Her hookup was sitting there, in a meeting with her boss. And of course she was supposed to smile and nod at him. Which she barely managed.

As soon as the meeting was over, Elina tried to book it out of the office. “I’m just going to make a quick coffee run. Anyone need anything?”

Willow called out, “I’ll take my usual from the coffee cart off Porter.”

Delilah called, “The same.”

She didn’t really expect Gabe to have a coffee order. She also didn’t expect that he would come with her. “I’ll just go and help carry it all back. Plus, the least I can do is buy you guys coffee.”

Shit. She moved faster. It didn’t matter that she was trying to avoid him; he caught up to her quickly enough. “You don’t have to follow me. Why don’t you just go back to the office and I’ll bring you whatever you need.”

Gabe kept his voice low as she stormed onto the downtown streets. “You are what I need right now, or at least, an answer. Did you know you abandoned me?”

“I didn’t abandon you. I had to catch the jitney back to the city.” Mostly true.

“Are you serious right now?” He glared at her.

Okay, that was a flimsy excuse. But it was all she had at the moment. There was no way she was telling him she ran because she couldn’t handle the connection she’d felt. “Look, these things happen.”

He sputtered. “These things happen? Not to me they don’t.”

“What are you doing here?” she spat. “In case you didn’t know, when you hook up with someone, they’re not supposed to turn up the next day. That’s like a rule or something. Or it should be.”

“Maybe you should stop having random nights out with random dudes.”

“Don’t do that.”

“Do what?” Exasperated, he threw his hands up.

She stiffened her spine, turning back and marching towards Delilah’s favorite coffee cart. “Look, what happened, happened. The best we can do is to pretend it didn’t. We’re gonna go back and act like we don’t know each other, because we don’t when you think about it.”

He blinked at her. “That’s what you seriously want?”

“Maybe you don’t know Delilah, but she has a full-disclosure policy and she doesn’t mess around with it. From what I just heard in there, you need her. If she finds out that we slept together, she’ll drop you, given your reputation.”

“What will she do to you?”

Elina didn’t want to think about that. “Well, then I can just kiss the career I worked so hard for goodbye. You need your film and I need my job. So we don’t know each other.”

He pulled her into an alley by the coffee cart. “You can do that? Pretend? That Saturday night never happened?”

She tilted her chin up. “Yeah, and given your rep, I know you can.”

His brows snapped down. And then before she knew it, his lips were on hers. Harsh and firm and demanding. His tongue delved into her mouth and demanded she respond. Traitor that her body was, she melted as if today was a continuation of Saturday night and Sunday morning. She knew that when it came to him, she was weak. She wouldn’t be able to stop.

Gabe pulled back. “Still want to pretend we don’t know each other?”

Elina scowled and pushed his broad shoulders back. “Yes. As far as you and I are concerned, we’ve never met.” Now all she needed was to tell her body that.

Chapter 8 (#ulink_0a4881d2-dac8-5638-a515-87044c631ae1)

After a week of working with Gabe, Elina was ready to lose her mind. Normally clients didn’t post up in the office, but given the urgency to get him in some festivals, he had camped out.

Plus, he had this whole thing about proving his commitment. Willow and Delilah seemed impressed; she, however...was not.

Every time she turned around, he was there. She said his name more times in a day than she said her own. Over the last week, she called all the studio reps in Delilah’s contacts to set up meetings with him. She sent out scripts. She got him coffee. She worked with managers to determine cast availability. Next on her list for tomorrow was to call the film festivals to create some buzz around his project. The closest ones coming were Montreal, Toronto and Sundance.

Sundance was so competitive these days it would be difficult to get into that one, but Montreal and Toronto were good bets.

Long after Delilah and Willow left for the night, she finally snapped her laptop shut only to discover that Gabe was still in the meeting lounge on a call with the West Coast. Damn it, she couldn’t leave without him. She had to close up. She ended up lurking around for another thirty minutes before he was done.

He looked up with an apologetic smile. “Hey, sorry about that. Delilah said I should go ahead and finish the calls here.”

She bit her tongue. “No, it’s fine. Let’s go and I’ll lock up.”

They’d managed to pretend they didn’t know each other well enough. She didn’t think Willow or Delilah had any suspicions. But as the firm’s investigator, Willow had her ways of finding things out, so they needed to be extra careful around her.

They walked out of the building, and Gabe shoved his hands in his jeans and rocked onto his heels while she secured the front door. “So, how do you think we did this week?”