The Seduction Game

“Loving your enthusiasm, but I doubt it. We haven’t had any walk-in customers since the bakery closed. God, I miss their banana bread.”

“We still have our regulars. They’ll keep coming. They don’t care that we’re now located in the middle of a shit storm and that the air is thick with dust and there’s nowhere to even buy a bottle of water…” Meg dropped the blind like it had scalded her and scooted back, stepping on Kate’s foot in the process. “Oh, crap, you don’t think…”

“Holy hell, Meg. That hurt! You have steel toe caps on, you know.”

“Sorry, but I just realized…you don’t think it’s him?”

“Him who?”

“The Borg king.”

The butterflies disappeared and a nasty panic hit Kate square in the chest—her muscles tightened and her belly clenched. She opened her mouth to deny the possibility that the Adonis across the way could possibly be Will Thornton, but then closed it a second later. She peeked back out of the blinds instead and eyed the figure who was now speaking into his cell phone. He looked…impatient…aggressive…all male. Her heart stuttered and she swallowed unsteadily. “It can’t be. It wouldn’t be,” she said. “The man’s like a millionaire or something. He’d be surrounded by minions.”

Meg twitched the blind again. “Speaking of minions…”

The man, who may or may not have been Will Thornton, dropped his cell phone into his pocket and gestured impatiently at the two burly workers now approaching him. He spoke a couple of words Kate and Meg couldn’t hear before disappearing into what was once Mr. Kawoski’s shop, followed by the workers. Where they’d come from, Kate didn’t know, but there they were. Maybe he snapped his fingers and they just appeared, ready and willing to do his bidding?

Just like Will Thornton would.

“It’s gotta be him,” Meg said, echoing her thoughts. “We knew he’d come sooner or later and now here he is, and he’s bound to come over. He practically has to. He needs this building and you’ve ignored the last lot of his letters, not to mention you told Chris to go suck it. What other option is there but to come see you in person?”

Kate shook her head. The idea of having to speak to Will Thornton made her want to scream. The idea of having to speak to a Will Thornton who was as immensely attractive as the man across the way made her want to hide. She had an image of him in her head, based purely on what she thought he should look like—old and hawk-faced, and whenever Kate had imagined a showdown with him it was that image she had confronted. Only now? Kate inhaled sharply. How the hell could she deal with a Will Thornton who made butterflies take up residence in her belly, purely on his looks?

“He could come in here any moment,” Meg added.

“He can’t,” Kate said, her voice slightly more frantic than she would have liked. “I already told Chris-the-sleaze my answer. He can’t.”

Meg snorted. “Of course he can, and he’s probably going to. We, and by we, I mean you, can’t ignore the situation forever. He’s not going to give up. K.I.T. sits right in the middle of the whole development. He’s gonna keep hassling you until you agree to sell. You are aware of this, right?”

Kate stepped away from the window and, to give herself a moment to think, she adjusted one of the USB kits hanging from the shelving system next to the window. It was dusty, which meant the rest of the stock probably was, too, which meant she’d have to clean, again.

“Katie?” Meg prompted.

The infrared keyboard and mouse combos were also coated in a fine powder, as were the adaptors. Kate rubbed at the dust, realized it wasn’t going to come off, and dropped her hand.

The dust all over the stock, the empty shops, the tilting signs, the quiet sidewalks… How could she not be aware of what was happening? Will Thornton was everywhere. Will Thornton was the cause of all her problems. But…he couldn’t be the immensely hot man across the way, could he? It just wasn’t possible.

“I’m aware of it,” she finally said.

“Welllll,” Meg drew the word out and hiked a thumb in the direction of Mr. Kawoski’s. “Don’t you think, just in case that guy is Will Thornton, that we should talk about it?”

“No.” Kate sighed. “I do not. Not at all. In fact, I am going to pretend you didn’t even call me over. I’m going back to work. I have more interesting things to be doing than watching Captain Fantastic over there poking around in the rubble.”

“But what if it is him?”

“If it is Thornton,” Kate said. “Which I’m not convinced of at all, he has my answer. He’s had it a gazillion times. As far as he’s concerned, it is written on my forehead in caps.”

“Katie—”

“I’m serious, Meg,” she said, her voice rising ever so slightly. “He can offer me the moon. It won’t make any difference. This is my building, my business, my home. I built it from scratch and I’m not going to hand it over to some guy who thinks he can simply snap his fingers…and voilà.”

She cast the window one last glance before hurrying back over to the den, her own little piece of heaven. It held her desk, her three desktop computers, her laptop, her tablets, and all the paraphernalia she needed to do her work. It was her favorite place in the whole world, and no one was going to take it from her, certainly not Will Thornton.

Will Thornton. Damn it, why did the prospect of it being him make her feel so jittery? Why was the panic making her heart pound so hard? Kate rubbed her clammy palms on her jeans, answerless questions buzzing through her brain.

“We should have hacked into his company files,” Meg grumbled. “There would have been a picture of him and then we’d know if that hottie is him.” She paused. “I know I’ve said it before but there should have been at least one pic on Google. He’s superrich. Rich people love having their photo taken.”

“And super shy, apparently,” Kate said. “Which confirms my guess that Fast and Furious over there is not Will Thornton. And we don’t hack into people’s private files.”

Meg moved the blinds back into place, gave the window one last long look, and then made her way back to the counter. She pulled her bar stool up against it and sat down, elbows resting between the till on one side and her Mac on the other. “No hacking,” she said with a smirk. “Got it. Now…what if he comes in here?”

“Then tell him to get lost,” Kate said, even as a horrifying image of the man from across the street sauntering into her shop filled her mind. Worse, her own likely reaction quickly followed. Awkwardness central.

“To get lost?” Meg asked. “Really?”

“Uh-huh. Preferably at the event horizon of a black hole.”

“You think that’ll work?”

“Eventually.”

“You seriously think you can wait him out?”

The disbelief in her voice stung. Because really, Meg should have had a little more faith. But then Kate remembered how quickly all the other businesses had sold their buildings. How they’d all taken the money and run.

You’re the last one standing.

“I know I can,” she said some minutes later, with far more conviction than she actually felt. “It’s just a waiting game now.”