She was glad to see Victor appear with the menus. “May I order for you?” she asked Kam politely. She saw his flashing glance and knew she’d made another misstep.
“Which do you think? That I don’t know how to place an order myself, or that I can’t read?”
“Neither, of course. I was thinking of what you insinuated earlier about tiny servings. I promise you, I won’t order two bites and a sprinkle on a plate. Emile Savaur knows how to feed a hungry Frenchman. He and Richard are often hungry Frenchmen themselves, after all.”
She took his silence and slight shrug as agreement and ordered them both the steak au poivre.
“So Ian sent you to make me feel more comfortable for this experiment of his?” he asked once Victor had walked away, his low, vibrating voice amplifying the tickling sensation on her bare neck. Again, she experienced that warm, heavy feeling in her lower belly and sex.
She blinked. What was wrong with her? This whole experience was bizarre. It was his similarity to Ian that was setting her off-balance. She’d trained herself long ago to remain cool and professional with Ian Noble . . . even if in her deepest, secret self, her feelings for Ian were far from aloof. Only she herself knew that particular truth, however, although a couple friends seemed to have guessed at it, much to her discomfort. She struggled to focus her errant thoughts. She would have defended herself better if she’d known how potentially volatile this situation would be.
“Is that what you call it? An experiment?” she asked crisply.
“I could come up with a more accurate description, but I’m not sure you’d like it.”
She laughed softly, glancing around when Victor set a glass of claret on the bar in front of her, along with some ice water. She thanked Victor and took a sip of wine, glancing sideways at Kam as she set down her glass. “I hope you don’t mind Ian suggesting that we meet. Work together.”
His gaze dropped slowly over her face, neck, and lower. “Now that I see you, I’m having less of a problem with the idea.”
She chuckled and shook her head, trying to shake off the spell again. Flirtation, she was used to. But who would have thought the alleged “wild” man’s subtle sexual advances would be so appealing? The way Francesca and Ian had described Kam, she’d thought he’d be some kind of social misfit. True, he was raw and primal, but he was hardly illiterate.
And those eyes packed a precise, powerful sexual wallop.
Of course there had never been any doubt that Kam was a genius. What he’d pulled off in that makeshift, underground lab in northern France was nothing short of revolutionary. The question at hand was whether Kam would do middling well with his brilliant invention or create an empire. Ian believed he had the potential to do the latter. Ian’s concern was that Kam would alienate every potential opportunity for capital and expansion on his climb up the ladder.
“Ian explained to me that you were doubtful about the idea of selling your biofeedback timepiece to the luxury watch industry. He thought I might be of some help in . . .”
“Making this whole ridiculous thing more palatable?” he murmured when she hesitated. She’d been trying to carefully choose her words. The truth was, Ian had taken her into his confidence, explaining that he hoped Lin could alleviate his brother’s doubts about the advisability of selling his revolutionary medical timepiece to the high-end watch industry. Kam had already sold his patent to one of the pharmaceutical giants for millions of dollars, his contract calling for an exclusivity clause that prevented him from selling to other pharmaceutical companies. But there was no prohibition from selling to unrelated industries. Ian thought that one of the sophisticated, groundbreaking mechanisms Kam had invented—a biofeedback timepiece that could do everything from tell time to send warnings for an impending heart attack to signaling to a woman when she was ovulating— would also be a smash hit in the luxury watch business. Lin happened to agree. The problem was, Kam’s attitude was condescending about the industry.
To say the least.
Pair Kam’s scorn about cutting a deal with one of the luxury watch companies with his rough manners, and it was a recipe for a business disaster. Thus the reason Ian had called in Lin to smooth over Kam’s jagged edges and present him in the best light possible to the interested buyers gathering in Chicago for a series of business dinners, presentations, and meetings.
Problem was, according to Ian, Kam would likely be insulted if he knew Ian had sent Lin to polish up a man who had once been considered an intimidating, homeless vagrant.
“Why do you find the idea of selling your invention to a high-end watch company ridiculous?” she asked.
“Look at me. I’m not interested in that world. I don’t cater to fashion or rich bastards,” he responded, holding her stare. “It’s a waste. At least in my dealings with the pharmaceutical companies, I shared the commonality of science. Medicine.”
She considered him somberly before she responded.
“Yes. I understand you hold degrees in both biology and engineering from Imperial College, and that you received an esteemed scholarship to medical school there, as well. I can understand how the world of luxury fashion might seem beneath your scholarly interests, but—”
She paused when he gave a bark of harsh laughter. “I’m no academic, either. I never finished my residency. I’m not being highbrow by saying I don’t want to work with the fashion industry.” He took a swig of his beer and set the glass back on the counter with a thud. “I just think the whole business is a waste of time, no pun intended. No offense intended, either,” he tagged on sheepishly with a flashing glance in her direction.
“None taken,” Lin replied evenly. “Of course you have to feel comfortable with such a large business venture. I think you might be underestimating the business savvy and brilliance of some of the leaders of these companies. Watchmaking is an ancient art that has also been a forerunner in miraculous advances in technology.”
“There isn’t a damn thing those suits can teach me about watchmaking.”
She absorbed his disdainful yet supremely confident manner. From what she’d learned from Ian, he wasn’t bluffing. When it came to both mechanical devices and the biological rhythms of the human body, Kam Reardon was a veritable Da Vinci.
“This could be a very lucrative venture for you,” she reasoned.
He gave her a gleaming sideways glance, his eyes going warm as they wandered over her face. “How lucrative?”
“Twenty, possibly a hundred times more than the deal you cut with the pharmaceutical company for your device. Ian believes your invention deserves all the acknowledgments it can get. He wants you to have as much security as possible.”
Kam rolled his eyes and exhaled with a hiss. “He’s known we’re related for less than a year and already he’s pulling a big brother act on me.”
Lin smiled. “I hadn’t realized he was the elder of the two of you.”
“By a year and a half. Lucien is the oldest of us all. Six weeks ahead of Ian,” Kam said, referring to a third half brother, Lucien Lenault. She noticed him studying her face with a narrow-eyed gaze. Instinctively, she knew he wondered if Ian had told her about the background of their common heritage.
“Ian has explained to me about Trevor Gaines being his, Lucien’s, and your biological father,” she said without flinching.
“Did he also tell you that dear daddy was a fucked-up son of a bitch?” he asked with harsh flippancy before he took a swallow of beer.
“He told me,” she replied simply.
His tense expression relaxed somewhat when she offered no false platitudes in regard to the unthinkable crimes of the man who had created him.
“I haven’t got much use for all the money I received from the pharmaceutical deal,” he said, turning the subject. “What am I supposed to do with a hundred times that amount?”
