Only You by Francis Ray

couldn’t get out of his mind stood in front of him, a notebook clasped under her arm, with the most beautiful smile he’d ever seen. Then it was gone, and he knew he had to talk fast.
    “A car is waiting downstairs to take me to the airport.”
    After a moment’s hesitation, a moment when he was almost afraid to breathe, she stepped on, bringing with her an intoxicating sent of jasmine and oranges. The door closed. He only had moments, seconds.
    He nodded toward the notebook. “Does that mean you’re staying?”
    She finally looked at him. “I wouldn’t want to miss the opportunity to see you smile.”
    He didn’t know what to say. She touched him in places he’d thought long dead. The door opened on 1 before he could find the words. She started to step off. He jabbed the “door close” button. She angled her head at him as the elevator doors shut.
    “Is it all right if I kiss you good-bye?”
    “If you do it right.”
    The corners of his mouth curved slightly upward. Was there ever another woman like her? “Only you.” He pulled her into his arms. “I’ll do my best.”
    His lips found hers. His body sighed, then sizzled with remembered heat. The shape, the feel, of her mouth on his, her body straining against him, was pleasure unceasing.
    Knowing the elevator doors might open any second, he reluctantly set her away from him. Almost immediately the doors slid apart. Taking her arm, he stepped off, then released her. “I’ll be back on Friday. Win, lose, draw. This isn’t the end.”
    Sierra watched Blade stride across the lobby. She knew she wore a wide grin on her face and didn’t care. She’d gotten the kiss she wanted. She’d get that smile as well.
    She’d been right to stay. If things went as planned, she’d be here longer than a week. Clutching the notebook tighter, she headed for her room, sparing only a longing glance at Blade’s limo pulling away.
    Once in her room, she began the long, laborious process of contacting old clients, delicately asking for leads. Hours later, she was still hard at it when her headset rang.
    “Sierra Grayson.”
    “Working hard, I’ll bet,” came the cheerful voice.
    Sierra smiled on hearing her cousin Dominique Falcon-Masters’s voice. “You know it. Daniel is coming tomorrow to look at the estates.”
    “Great. He’s always welcome at our home, but I’d love for him to have a residence here. In the meantime, I’m at the Belo Mansion, not far from you. When I mentioned your coup in San Francisco and that you were one of the brokers for Navarone Place, several ladies wanted to meet you. So dress to impress, bring lots of business cards, and get over here as quickly as possible.”
    “I’m on my way. Thanks.” Sierra quickly changed into a black Dior suit with bag and shoes to match, then rushed downstairs to grab a cab. Once she was there, her eyes actually gleamed on seeing the two hundred–plus well-heeled women in attendance.
    Thanks to Dominique, not only had the story of the San Francisco auction circulated, but who her famous sisters-in-law were as well. Since Sierra was well acquainted with “who you knew was often more important than what you knew,” she played the game. It only took one woman, the wife of the president of a bank, to ask to see the property for others to request the same thing.
    Sierra grinned at Dominique, and her cousin grinned back as they both passed out business cards. Women, bless their hearts, loved to gossip, and many of them loved even more being able to say they had met a famous person. Money was one thing, fame quite another.
    Sierra’s chance of winning had just gotten even better.
     
     
    H ands on his hips, Blade surveyed the bulldozer cutting through the rich earth of the Maya peninsula to build a canal that would link the lagoon estates on the Navarone Riviera Maya properties. When completed, there would be roughly twenty miles of freshwater canals to take the place of streets. Each property would sit