Rosie shook her head. She didn’t want to get her hopes up. “I haven’t interviewed yet. I don’t know how many firms Tate is meeting with.”
Chen chuckled. “There are no other firms. Elle said you’re the best and Tate trusts her. He wouldn’t waste his valuable time if he didn’t agree. You’re part of OrbitAll now, Rosie.”
She exhaled, butterflies launching in her belly. She didn’t know Chen that well, regardless of what she knew of him. She wanted to believe she could land a client like Tate Geier with nothing more than Elle’s word and one electrifying handshake, but she wouldn’t celebrate until she had a contract in her inbox.
“Come on, I’ll take you to Elle’s office. I’m sure Tate is dying to learn more.” He snickered to himself.
Rosie nodded. “Can I snap a few pictures of the interior for inspiration purposes only?” The patterns on the wall coverings would be a good design element for the hotel’s interior. If they won the job, her team could borrow cues from the spaceplane to create continuity of experience.
“Of course.”
Minutes later, they were at the open door of Elle’s second-floor office.
“This is where I leave you, lovely Rosie.” He dropped his voice conspiratorially. “Don’t think I’ve forgotten that you owe me some dirt on your friend in there.” He tipped his chin at the conference table where Tate and Elle sat waiting for them.
“Depends what you’re going to do with the information,” Rosie replied. She was mostly kidding, but not entirely.
“Tease her without mercy, of course.”
Rosie smiled at his honest answer. “I’ll think about it. Nice to meet you, Chen.”
“You too, Rosie.” He waved as he walked away.
She took a seat at the table next to her best friend. Nerves stormed through her with hurricane force as Tate’s expectant gaze met hers. His casual posture and open-necked dress shirt said, Relax, Rosie, but how could she? She’d never been so aware of her own body or the proximity of someone else’s.
“How was the tour with Chen?” Elle asked. She snipped out his name, which Rosie found strange. She definitely needed to find out what was going on between those two.
“Incredible.” She looked right at Tate, though doing so felt like leaping off a cliff. “Your mission is so important. Offering spots for a trip to space doesn’t meet a basic human need, but it meets a basic human desire.”
His eyebrow quirked. “Which desire is that?”
“Desire for understanding. Abode wants to help you deliver that mission.”
“I see. Desire for understanding,” he repeated. His eyes raked her face as if searching for his own understanding.
Warm pleasure crept up her neck from Tate’s soft scrutiny.
Elle leaned closer. “Let’s see what you’ve brought, my gorgeous unicorn of a friend.”
Clearing her throat, she handed Tate the packet Anne had made. “My firm’s qualifications for hotel work.”
She took the tablet out of her bag and launched Colton’s video walk-through of their nicest apartment project. She narrated as they watched and answered all their questions in ways she hoped didn’t show her utter distraction. When Tate leaned closer, she caught a whiff of his masculine scent, which sent her eyelids briefly fluttering closed. They talked programming needs, timeline, permitting, number of rooms. Then Elle derailed them entirely.
“Where do you stay?” she asked Tate.
The oddly timed question didn’t seem to faze him. “We have a house in the hills, about thirty minutes away.”
We.
When they both looked at her, Rosie realized she’d said the word aloud. Crap. Her heart jumped erratically as heat swept across the surface of her skin. She fumbled with the iPad so they wouldn’t notice. “I, uh, have another video to show you.”
“The Geier family,” she heard Tate say. She couldn’t look at him. “My cousin, Quinn, lives there with me. The villa is part of the estate. You would probably appreciate it. The house was designed by Le Corbusier.”
Her eyes shot up. “It was not!” Le Corbusier was one of her architectural idols. He had pioneered bold geometric form and efficient open spaces.
“It’s a replica of the Villa Savoye,” Tate continued, a small, pleased-looking smile on his lips.
Of course it was. The building she’d spent a whole semester modeling in architecture school. Because her day could not get any more dreamlike.
“You can see the place anytime you want.”
Okay, so maybe her day could get dreamier. But accepting that invitation would require guts she didn’t think she possessed. Tate’s voice broke through her sprinting thoughts. He wanted to get Abode under contract. She couldn’t believe her luck. She told him she had more to show him.
His smile was brighter than the sun. Genuine. Safe. “No need. I trust you.”
If only she could trust so easily. But with Tate, she was tempted. So tempted. On so many levels.
6
Slipping out of Elle’s office, away from Rosie, was like fighting gravity.
Before today, before Rosie, Tate had always imagined a long life mostly alone. Focusing on his legacy, he’d serve the people who served him. He had never wondered if he could have more.
Now? Now, he wondered. And wanted. He ached to strip Rosie bare in every sense of the word, starting with her soul and ending with her body and starting over again.
But why her? Why now?
His phone vibrated in his pocket and he yanked it out to see who needed him. “Here we go,” he muttered. It would be the middle of the night in Paris, so his mother must be elsewhere.
“Mère, bonjour.”
“I heard from Mattias this morning that we may soon become hoteliers. Is that true, Tatum?”
Straight down to business, as always. There wasn’t room in her life for anything else.
Tate fought a sigh. He’d had to tell his brother, OrbitAll’s CEO in name if not action, about the hotel. The board and the family were next on the list, but he wanted an architect under contract first. A cost estimate in hand. The LLC established. No one had tried to help him when Matt handed him the reins and wandered farther south. It irked him when they pretended to care what happened at OrbitAll.
“We are designing a hotel, yes. I hired the architect today.”
“Are you able to move forward with a hotel project amid distractions of trawling the globe for new staff?”
“Everyone’s been hired. We’re fully operational right now.”
“But still not making money. I shudder to think what damage a hotel will do to our earnings this year.”
OrbitAll had rarely been in the black in the decade they’d been operating. They relied mostly on investors and infusions of cash from Geier Group, though Tate had made handsome profits each time he sold their old technology. He was confident they’d be immediately profitable once they could sell spots on Stratos.
“We have to provide lodging. A hotel will be an expected part of the experience. I plan to run lean on the design. Don’t worry, I won’t replicate the Ritz in the middle of the desert.”
She sniffed. “I’m glad to hear some frugality for once. Don’t let this hotel venture detract from your main priority of getting OrbitAll profitable. I’ll check in again soon.”