Tempting Aquisitions Read Online Free

made a show of settling her napkin on her lap, but he didn’t miss the slight trembling of her fingers. “It’s a crowd I’ve known for years. They make it easy.”
    “That doesn’t mean it is easy.” When she didn’t reply, he leaned in closer to whisper in her ear. “If you don’t smile, the press vultures in the room are going to make this far harder when the dinner’s over.”
    Her eyes widened even as her lush mouth firmed into a prim straight line. “You’re one to talk. You were quite chummy with those so-called vultures this morning.”
    “I use the press to my own ends, nothing more.”
    “Clearly that end is the ruin of my company.”
    Nathan shrugged, more because he knew the action would bait her further than from any sense of entitlement. “It’s a highly lucrative investment. I can offer your board significant expansion and a growth plan for the next decade. I’ve already indicated the same to your major shareholders.”
    She folded her arms, but the action did nothing to cool his interest, as the motion accentuated her breasts. “ I have a multi-year growth plan and am well into the execution of it.”
    The scent of honeysuckle drifted from her, no doubt a reaction to the rising heat of her body. A broad smile cracked his face at the knowledge he was getting to her. Leaning in even farther, his voice nothing but a light murmur against her ear, he whispered, “I bet mine’s better.”
    …
    Keira didn’t know when she’d ever been so frustrated, with a situation or with herself. She kept her hands firmly clenched in her lap as she fought a more urgent problem—the heat flowing through her body in long, languorous waves.
    How dare he say those things to her! And how dare her traitorous body react like this.
    Damn, but the man had a lethal charm that ought to be illegal. And he was also canny enough to know they were in a setting where she wouldn’t fully react to his taunting comments for fear of embarrassing herself. Especially because it would mean making a scene between two tables full of people. How had he managed to get the seat right next to hers? The thought only added to the irony of the moment. Here she was, her body tingling in anticipation of something she had no business wanting while she pasted on a smile for the assembled looky-loos who were convinced her business was in trouble.
    Unfortunately, they were right. It was.
    If she’d had any doubts about that earlier, they’d evaporated in full. Nathan Cooper was very, very dangerous. And his sights were set on her.
    No , she amended to herself, they’re set on McBride Media . She was just collateral damage.
    “I think you’d be surprised, Mr. Cooper. I know my company better than anyone. It’s my legacy, and I’ll be damned if I give it up without a fight.”
    The grin she’d dubbed “cocky” only that morning flashed as heat coalesced in his blue eyes, turning them a dark shade of indigo in the muted light of the ballroom. “There’s nothing like a good fight, Ms. McBride. And getting your opponent right where you want them? Well, there’s nothing more satisfying than that.”
    Keira didn’t even attempt a response as she rose to walk to the stage and close out the evening’s event. And if her legs wobbled slightly as she walked to the podium, well, that was no one’s business but hers.
    Fifteen minutes later, she was forced to admit a disheartening truth. While dinner had dragged on interminably, she wished it had lasted a whole lot longer. During the meal, she could hide behind the guise of acting as the evening’s hostess. Now, at the post-event cocktail and dessert hour, she was the head of McBride Media. The press circled around like sharks scenting blood.
    “Come on, Keira. Surely you can give me something. I was more than generous with my coverage of your new site launch last spring.”
    She glanced over the rim of her wineglass at the eager face of Ted Simmons, business reporter for one of the