The Tycoon's Tender Triumph Page 0,34

are you doing?” she whispered harshly as he dragged her down the hallway towards the front door.

“Get our coats,” he snapped to one of the servants who instantly snapped to attention to retrieve the requested items.

“Why are you being so rude?” she demanded, pulling her arm out of his grasp.

“Why are you flirting with everyone around you?” he growled back, glaring down at her.

Chloe’s mouth fell open for a short moment before she snapped it closed. “I wasn’t flirting with anyone!”

“Except for the two men sitting next to you and the guy across the table. Why don’t they count?”

Chloe was stunned. “You thought I was flirting with them? I was just having a conversation. What’s wrong with that? I did exactly what you told me to do and ask them about how they started their businesses! I didn’t learn a whole lot but it was amusing and interesting and I resent you implying I was doing anything inappropriate.”

Sam took the coat the servant was carrying and wrapped it around Chloe’s shoulders before taking her hand and dragging her out the door. Thankfully, the car was already waiting with the valet standing at the passenger side, obviously having been alerted of a departing guest by the very efficient staff.

Once they were inside the car, Sam turned to Chloe. “From now on, you take advice only from me, understand?”

She couldn’t believe he was being so ridiculous. “That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.”

“And furthermore, when a man is giving out serious advice, he doesn’t look down your dress when you’re head is turned away!” With that parting shot, he turned the key in the ignition and revved the engine, speeding away from the house as Chloe scrambled to latch her seatbelt.

In the stony silence that followed his command, Chloe considered what he’d said. Could the other two men have been looking down her dress? She’d thought she’d caught one of them doing so but he’d had such an innocent look on his face, she had felt silly for even thinking it. And they were both very nice gentlemen. Or was she being naïve?

“Were they really looking down my dress?” she whispered, feeling humiliated and duped by men she thought were being kind and considerate.

“Yes!”

She considered that emphatic response and knew there was no reason for him to lie. Looking down at her hands, she thought about the evening. The men had been so kind and considerate but looking back, she was probably duped. “I guess you’re right,” she said softly and looked out the side window, turning her face away from him.

Sam was quiet for a long moment, trying to figure out what she was thinking. She’d gone from defensive and angry to…sad? It was hard to think of Chloe as sad. She was too vital and too energized. He’d never seen her this way. Never even thought of her in this way. She never let him get away with anything, was always in his face and challenging him. It was one of the things that really turned him on about her. But this…he wasn’t sure what to do when she was like this.

“Maybe they were genuinely trying to help,” he said, backing off his original jealous statement. He knew they weren’t, but he wanted to give her something that would bring back the fight in her.

Chloe sniffed. “No they weren’t. You were right. They were just…jerks who were amusing themselves with me.”

Sam definitely didn’t like that comment. “Chloe, I can guarantee that they might have been thinking something about you, but it definitely wasn’t amusement.”

“But they didn’t take my business comments seriously, did they?”

Sam sighed. She had a point. “No. They probably didn’t. And it’s my fault.”

That got her attention back to him. “Why in the world would you say something like that?”

Sam concentrated on turning onto the highway for a moment, stalling. He didn’t want to hurt her feelings, but he had suspected something like this might happen. He had to be honest with her. “Because you won’t let me invest in your business. Hell, you won’t even tell me what you’re planning to do, much less invest in it.”

“What does that have to do with anything? I would have thought that would mean more to investors. It shows that I want to do this the right way and not rely on family friends.”

Sam shook his head. “First of all, I’m not a family friend.”

“Of course you are. You are my father’s closest friend.”

“That’s right, and your father is my