Chapter 4

      Cole walked briskly through the streets leading back to the Espresso building.

       Bring it!

      The taunt echoed through his head, leaving him unable to determine if the vapor emitted by his body was generated by his breath colliding with the cold or the steam venting from his ears.

      Not only did the stubborn woman dismiss his perfectly reasonable argument. She’d tossed an extremely generous offer back in his face.

       Who turns their nose up at that kind of money?

      “Sage Matthews, that’s who,” Cole grumbled aloud, oblivious to passersby making a wide berth around the man talking to himself.

      Images of big hair, shiny black boots and tempting red-slicked lips bombarded him as he yanked open the lobby door of the Espresso building.

      The once-modern concrete-and-steel structure, built by his late uncle, had been a tremendous source of pride to his mother when it was erected thirty years ago. Now the eleven-story building stood half-empty, dwarfed by dozens of gleaming new towers dominating the Nashville skyline.

      Cole sighed. Though they’d worked through most of their differences, the building continued to be a sticking point in his and Victor’s relationship. Cole and his sisters had agreed selling it was their best option, but his stepfather wouldn’t hear of it.

      They could have easily outvoted him months ago. However, Cole thought the older man needed more time to accept the inevitable.

      It was just as well, he thought. Right now he needed to focus on convincing the infuriatingly sexy Sage Matthews to give him what he wanted.

       Her company.

      Acknowledging both the security guard and reception desk with a nod, he strode across the lobby’s marble floor to the elevators. Fortunately, two of the three elevators in the older building were working today.

      This should have been a chip shot, he thought, as the elevator whisked him up to the executive floor. He’d expected to be talking with his lawyers by now, instructing them to prepare the paperwork sealing the deal. Only there was no deal.

      And nothing had gone as he’d expected.

      The elevator chimed and the doors opened on the eleventh floor. Cole pushed open the door to the outer office of the executive suite. He was relieved to see Victor’s door closed. Cole wasn’t looking forward to filling his stepfather in on the details of the disastrous meeting.

       Or your totally unprofessional behavior.

      Cole shook his head. He’d actually asked her out on a date. It was unlike him to be so impulsive or stupid.

      Then again, he’d never felt so in sync with a woman. Sage Matthews had been right about one thing, when it came to their personalities and mannerisms, it was indeed like looking in the mirror.

      “Is that frown tattooed on your face or do you wear it just for me?” The gravelly ex-smoker’s voice of the secretary he shared with his stepfather broke into his thoughts.

      Cole groaned inwardly, pausing at the large desk in the office bridging his and Victor’s offices.

      The way his day had been going today, it figured Loretta Walker would be faithfully manning her station instead of taking a long lunch when the boss was away like the secretaries and administrative assistants he’d had in the past. Cole fixed the silver-haired sexagenarian with a glare that would have sent any other Espresso employee fleeing to the opposite side of the building.

      The woman didn’t so much as flinch.

      “This is my special face just for you,” he said. “I laugh like the Tickle Me Elmo doll for everyone else.”

      “Lucky me. I get to spend my workdays looking at that sour mug.” She handed him a few opened envelopes from the stack of the day’s mail. “These require your attention. I’ll handle the rest.”

      “You’re welcome to retire anytime,” Cole said as he sifted through them.

      “No can do,” Loretta said. “I’ve got a granddaughter to get through medical school, remember?”

      “Then how about a paid vacation, somewhere far, far away?”

      “Vacation?” Loretta threw her head back and laughed, the raspy sound filling the office that had been her domain for nearly three decades. “I can barely take a bathroom break without everything around here falling apart. Face it, I’m both indispensable and irreplaceable.”

      Despite his bluster, Cole couldn’t refute it. Loretta was also smart, paid attention to detail and took no crap whatsoever from him, or the members of his family that bore the name Gray, including the late Selina Sinclair Gray.

      As a kid, he’d once asked his mother why she let an employee get away with the kind of backtalk she’d never tolerate from her children or anyone else.

      She’d told him Loretta was more than just a secretary. She explained Loretta kept the office operating with clockwork precision, which gave her the freedom to focus on running Espresso.

      “More importantly, Loretta calls it like she sees it, and possesses the courage to speak her mind regardless of the consequences,” his mother had said. “Everybody should have someone like her in their life.”

      At the time, Cole had believed his mother the wisest person he’d ever known. All her big decisions had been good ones, right up until her last one, which still confounded him.

      He forced back the hard feelings that had separated him from his family for years. His thoughts drifted back to the woman he’d met this afternoon.

      Sage Matthews hadn’t had a problem speaking her mind, either.

      Their short meeting had taken him through a gamut of emotions. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d been so intrigued, irritated or challenged, and he had to admit, totally turned on.

      “Is that a tic or did you actually just crack a smile?”

      “Tic,” Cole answered automatically, “brought on by a certain exasperating secretary.” Although, he knew a smile brought on by the recent memory of a certain woman in red had indeed touched his lips.

      Loretta grunted. “If you’re all done twitching, mind telling me what time you want your lawyers