and Colby turned their furious glares from each other to Edward Stewart as he reentered the room. His smile faded when he saw their angry looks. “Have we encountered some sort of problem?”
“That's not the tip of it,” Sterling replied heatedly, placing both hands on his hips. “She's trying to drag her brother into this! The contract is suppose to be between the two of us. No one else! I thought you made sure she understood that, Edward.”
Colby's anger was boiling and topped the scale with Sterling's stone-faced expression. “How can I not drag James into this? After all, he owns the company.”
“What company?” both men asked simultaneously, completely baffled.
Now it was Colby's time to be confused. “Wingate Cosmetics.”
The two men looked at each other uneasily. And Colby didn't miss the questioning gaze that passed between them. Then Edward Stewart spoke softly. “Ms. Wingate, just why are you here?”
Colby's eyes narrowed. “You should know that, Mr. Stewart, since you're the one who sent for me. Your office called me a few days ago and said you were ready to discuss the proposal with me.”
“And just what proposal do you think you're here to discuss?” Sterling asked in a somewhat menacing voice. A flicker of a frown appeared on his face. His expression was still dark and angry.
Colby's eyes flashed irritation. “The one I sent to you in care of Mr. Stewart asking for your endorsement of Wingate Cosmetics' new cologne for men, which has already been named Awesome.”
Edward Stewart cleared his throat. “Then you're not here because of the ad?”
Colby stared at both men blankly. “What ad?”
Sterling answered. “The one that ran anonymously in various newspapers in selected cities around the country.”
She eyed him with a bemused expression. “I have no idea what you're talking about.”
Sterling weighed her answer with a critical squint. “Evidently you don't,” he said with agitated calmness. “It appears that a mistake has been made, a very big mistake. Somehow your name got mixed up with the numerous women who answered the ad.”
He released a disgusted whoosh of air, shaking his head in total disbelief, wondering how such a thing could happen. “Of all the women who responded to the ad, you were the one who impressed me the most. But the funny thing about it is that you really hadn't responded at all. Yet, you were the one I chose.”
Colby lifted an arched brow. “I was the one you chose? What on earth for?”
Neither man answered.
Colby looked from one to the other, flashing them a dark look. “Have the two of you suddenly gone deaf? I asked what was I chosen for?”
A few moments later Sterling Hamilton broke the uncomfortable silence when he answered her question in a clear distinct voice. His eyes, indecipherable as water, met Colby's directly.
“You were chosen to have my baby.”
Chapter 2
Colby was stunned into silence by Sterling Hamilton's statement. When she gazed into his face, he returned her stare with bland indifference. Mr. Stewart, however, seemed to have gone a little pale.
“Now wait just a minute,” Colby said, raising her chin and keeping her expression stern. “I asked a simple question. The very least you gentlemen can do is not play games with me and give me a straight answer.”
She watched as Sterling sat down on the edge of the desk facing her. Her eyes involuntarily shifted from his face to where his slacks stretched tight across his thighs. She was so caught up in her close study of him that she was startled when he spoke.
“We did give you a straight answer. You were chosen to have my baby. That's the reason you're here and not for some cologne endorsement I most certainly won't be giving.”
A wave of anger surged through Colby. She glared at him. “You can't be serious about a baby!”
Sterling met her glare. “I am serious.”
Colby stiffened. If she didn't know better, she would think her reaction to this entire escapade amused him. “Then I suggest you do what most people do—fall in love, get married and make one!”
She could tell her suggestion hit a sore spot with him. She watched as his eyes radiated bits of stone.
“I plan on getting married and making one, but I have no intentions of falling in love,” he snapped. “Of that you can be sure.”
Colby shook her head and walked over to the window. It afforded her a breathtaking view of the city below. She turned back around and glanced at Edward Stewart. “Is what he wants to do legal?”
Edward Stewart cleared his throat before answering. “Yes, it's legal as long as the two parties involved agree.”
Colby was aghast. “What woman in her right mind would go along with such a thing?”
“Evidently quite a few, Ms. Wingate,” Edward Stewart continued. “We received over a hundred responses.”
Colby still was not convinced. “Did you tell them exactly what they would be doing?”
“We told them enough without exposing Sterling's identity. However, it wouldn't have mattered if we'd wanted them to have a baby by Godzilla, the thought of a million dollars would make most people do anything.”
“A million dollars!”
“Yes, with an extra half-million dollars as a bonus in the end.”
Colby stared at the two men. This couldn't actually be happening. She'd come all the way from Virginia to discuss a cologne endorsement, and they were only interested in paying someone to have a baby.
“This will be strictly a business deal between me and the woman,” Sterling spoke. “No love, no romance, and no ‘till death do us part.' When the child is six weeks old, we will end the marriage in a no-contest divorce with me getting full custody of the child.”
“And the child's mother?”
Sterling continued to meet her glare. “She can go on her merry little way. I'm sure my one and a half million dollars will make it a lot easier and sweeter for her to do so.”
Colby was appalled by his callous statement. Surely no man could be so heartless about the notion of separating a child from its mother. “Well, I wish you much success in your repulsive endeavor, Mr. Hamilton. Now if you gentlemen will excuse me, I've wasted enough of your time already.”
Giving both men one last glare, she turned around and, without so much as a glance back, walked out of the office.
A few hours later, Colby was relaxing in a pool of bubbles in the huge bathtub in her suite at the Beverly Hills Hotel. She had been more than surprised when she'd arrived the day before to discover reservations had been made for her here. The beautiful hotel was a California landmark known to be frequented by numerous movie stars. She had noted quite a few when she had checked in. In fact, she had been speechless when Nicolas Cage had gotten on the elevator with her that very morning.
She'd let out a low whistle when she had entered her suite. It was exquisite. The room had been done in soft colors of peach and cream. The carpet felt like mink and the furnishings made hers back home seem obsolete with the Victorian velvet-covered sofa and chairs, marble-top tables and a four-poster king-size bed. Never had she stayed in a place so elegant. The sight of it had almost taken her breath away. However, it was the oversized bathroom that definitely made a statement. The tub was shaped in the style of a huge clam with fixtures in the shape of seashells. And it was big enough to fit at least four people comfortably.
“Ahhh,” she moaned as she lay against the back of the tub. What a way to relieve the tension and unpleasantries of her