Sophie Pembroke - A Proposal Worth Millions

Sadie rolled her eyes. Some woman—or her husband—had really done a number on him in an Azure Hotel, hadn’t she? Funny that Adem or Neal had never told her that story, when they’d shared so many others.

Was that why he couldn’t see it? The romance of this place? This old building was more than just its stones and its view. It was the heart of the place.

‘Time for the rest of our tour, then. But I want you to remember—this is all business.’ Sure, he’d said it himself the night before, but it couldn’t hurt to hammer the point home. ‘I want you to treat me and the Azure like you would any other business proposition. We’re here to impress you, our client. So, what do you want to see first?’

‘I’m the client, huh? My wish is your command. Sounds good.’ Giving her a lopsided smile, Dylan stared around him, obviously thinking. ‘Let’s start with the bedrooms.’

‘The suites? Or the luxury doubles?’ Which would be best? He’d already seen the best suite in the place—he was staying in it. So maybe the doubles...

‘The uninhabitable ones,’ Dylan said, cutting short any hopes of impressing him that morning. Sadie silently cursed her loose tongue over dinner. It had to be the fault of the wine.

‘Right this way,’ she said, her smile fading the moment she turned away to press the ‘Call Lift’ button.

* * *

The bedrooms were worse than she remembered. A lot worse.

‘Lot of work needed here,’ Dylan said, winning the prize for understatement of the year. Sadie sighed as she took in the broken tiles, missing bed, ripped wallpaper and strange black marks on the carpetless floor.

‘Yes,’ she agreed. ‘And a lot of money to do it.’ If there were anything guaranteed to send Dylan running...and she’d brought him straight there. Why had she even given him the choice?

But Dylan just shrugged and smiled. ‘But I’ve seen worse. Okay. Now let’s see the ones you’ve done up.’

Sadie wanted to ask what sort of hotels he’d been staying in, to have seen worse, but instead she decided to grab the life belt with both hands and swim for the shore. ‘Luxury doubles coming up,’ she said, with a smile that made her face ache.

At least she knew they had carpets.

* * *

By the time they were done viewing the hotel, Sadie was exhausted from excessive smiling and from scraping around in her brain for the answers to Dylan’s incredibly detailed questions. At least she could never complain that he wasn’t taking this business proposal seriously. For all his tourist clothes, he’d been professional to the hilt, asking questions she’d never even imagined she’d need to know the answers to.

Back in the lobby, she looked over her scribbled list of things to look up for him. It was up to two pages already, and he’d only been there less than a day.

‘I’d better get back to the office and type up my notes from this morning,’ she said. ‘I should have answers for you by this evening...’

‘Oh, I’m not done with my tour yet, Mrs Sullivan.’ He flashed a smile. ‘I want to see the town next.’ He looked her up and down, and Sadie resisted the urge to hide behind her clipboard. ‘Why don’t you go and get changed into something more suitable for sightseeing?’

Something more suitable... What had happened to this being all business? What was he imagining—a Hawaiian shirt and a bumbag? But she had said he was in charge, so she bit her tongue. Hard. ‘Give me ten minutes.’

He nodded, but since he was already frowning at the screen of his phone she wasn’t sure he noticed her leave.

As she dashed up to her room she ran through the morning again in her head. Dylan had seemed somewhat underwhelmed by the hotel as a whole, with far more questions than praise, but Kuşadasi was bound to impress. The local economy and the blossoming tourist trade was what made the Azure a safe bet. She just had to make sure he saw that.

Dylan was so like Adem, in so many ways, she thought as she slipped into a light sundress. Adem had always worked on gut instinct, trusting his feelings to lead him to the right decisions. And instinct mattered to Dylan too—so that was what she needed to win over.

Hadn’t he made it clear his business specialised in short-term, in-and-out projects? All she needed to do was hold his attention long enough to get him to invest. Then the Azure would take off, she’d be able to pay him back or buy him out in no time, and it would be back to just her and Finn again.

Grabbing her sunglasses and bag, Sadie took a deep breath and headed down to wow Dylan Jacobs. Whether he liked it or not.

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