I hated to brush him off with a simple “out of the question”, since I wanted the other accounts, so I chose my words carefully. “Tell you what, send me some details and I’ll…consider them.”
Spencer watched me and rubbed his chin. Not buying a word of it. “Excellent. I’d love your opinion as well, Ms.—Isabel.”
“Sure I can take a look and give Scott my thoughts.” She smiled politely.
The waiter approached me. “Mr. Weston, there is a phone call for you at reception.”
I blinked. “Do you know who it is?” No one but Donovan and Ron knew I was here this weekend. And both had my mobile number.
“I don’t, sir,” he answered simply.
“I’ll be right back,” I muttered to Isabel.
ELLE
I sipped my water nervously. Spencer Friedman was a good-looking man, but somewhat frightening. And he wouldn’t stop staring at me.
“So, how did you and Scott meet?”
“At an event.”
He nodded once. “Donovan’s party, right?”
“Yes. That’s right.”
He twirled his glass and I felt the room get hotter. Especially each time the man looked up and pinned me with his gaze.
“Amazing, that party, eh?”
My eyes shot up. “You were there?”
“Of course. That’s where Scott and I connected. I remember seeing you there, too.”
Hot. Very very hot. “Oh?”
He nodded again and leaned in, whispering. “Except when I saw you, you were sneaking back into the venue through the back door. Poor thing, I thought you were lost,” he paused. “I waited for you… thinking you forgot your purse or something… planned to offer you a ride back. Until you came out of the kitchen, looking like one of the servers.”
I blinked.
Holy shit. “You were the drunk I escorted out of the building.”
His grin was wide. “I wasn’t that drunk. Listen, Scott isn’t going to be long unfortunately, Craig can’t B.S. him for long on the phone call he just got. But tell you what. I’ll keep your little secret, if you convince Scott to take on those two accounts.”
“What?”
“It’s a good deal. He’ll turn millions in a year. Goes against his morals, but a gold-digger like yourself shouldn’t care. Tell him you’ll look into it yourself—keep certain ugly details to yourself and get him to sign.” His voice was razor sharp with those last four words. Spencer leaned back. “In return, he’ll get all the other accounts too. The ones he wants. The reason I know he’s here. Oh…and you can keep your man.”
“Mr. Friedman, I’m sorry you went through all this trouble. I won’t be helping you.” He didn’t need to hear about my plan to tell Scott the truth after the Ballard event in two weeks.
“That’s unfortunate.”
But I did know that he needed Scott to sign more than I needed to keep my secret for two more weeks. Just until I got this one event done.
I glanced back to make sure Scott wasn’t near before I leaned in, my voice low. “If I were you, I would reconsider. If there’s anything Scott hates more than liars, it’s blackmail. You won’t just lose his funding on those two accounts, but on all the others. If you’re smart, you’ll forget what you saw and accept his business.”
Not that I wanted Scott anywhere near this sleazeball, but even I knew you don’t always have to like everyone you work with, As long as it gets you where you need to be.
“I underestimated you. It’s too bad I didn’t meet you first at that party. But still, it’s simple, Isabel, tell him you’ve checked it out and it looks good and I promise, you’ll both be happy. I’ll cut you a slice of the profits. Scott never has to know.”
