“Do you have any suggestions?” He handed his brother his iPad and Apple pencil.
Logan looked down at the blank screen and smiled. About ten minutes later, Logan had drawn a woman’s face made up with colors that highlighted the ebony brown skin he’d created. Bright blues, deep purples, and a nude lip that shined like a diamond. There was just one problem: Erik and his lab staff hadn’t created any makeup that would fit the beauty of the drawing.
“Do you know how long this would take to create?” Erik asked.
Logan shrugged. “That’s your job, but this is what I’ll sign off on.” Saving the image, he texted it to Olivia. “And I’m thinking this should be the logo. We can do it in all skin tones, with the palette of each product.”
“That is a good idea,” Ingrid said with a yawn. “Not only would the public love the colors, but now people could have a little piece of LJ’s art.”
“Wearable Art by LJ!” Erik exclaimed. “That’s the name of the line.”
Logan faked a yawn. “That’s boring and expected. This name and these products should pop.”
“I’ll put marketing on it in the morning. Provided they don’t jump ship.”
Ingrid glanced at her watch. “It is morning, Erik. It’s one in the morning and we still don’t have much to combat the bad news that’s going to be dropping in a few hours.”
“Olivia would be a great help right about now,” Logan suggested as he leaned back in his chair.
“Fine,” Erik lamented. “See if she’ll come down here and help us with this.”
Logan rose to his feet and headed out into the hallway. Once Ingrid and Erik were alone, she turned to him with a wide smile on her face.
“Can I say that it’s good to see you and Logan working together. I never understood why Simon didn’t want his artist son a part of the company.”
“Obviously my father is an idiot.”
She placed her hand on top of his. “Don’t judge him too harshly.”
“The court of public opinion will do that for us. Why are you defending him?” Erik narrowed his eyes at her.
“When your father hired me, I had a public relations internship under my belt and a bunch of ideas no one wanted to listen to.”
“And you were cheap labor. Ingrid, please don’t tell me you’re involved in this or . . .”
She snatched her hand away from his. “No! I love this company as much as you do. You’re right, I was cheap labor, but your dad helped me grow into the professional I am today. And, as you know, I’m well compensated for it.”
“Yes. I just processed a raise for the entire department and I appreciate you being on call for me when I need you.”
Ingrid leaned forward and smiled at him. “If you ever need anything more, you got my number.”
“As tempting as that sounds, we’d better keep this relationship strictly business.”
Ingrid leaned back in her seat. “I didn’t . . . It’s late and I was out of line. Sorry about that.”
“No harm, no foul.” Erik rose to his feet and headed for the door. “We’d better call it a night. The real work starts tomorrow.”
“But I thought Logan’s brand manager was coming to meet with us. I really want to have something to say about his line after the news about Simon breaks.”
As if he heard his name, Logan walked into the room. “Liv isn’t going to make it. She’s a little drunk right now. But she said we’re welcome to come by the house and go over a few things.”
“I’m going home,” Ingrid said. “If you need me for anything, Erik, my phone will be on. Right beside my bed.” As she sauntered out of the conference room, Logan turned to his brother.
“What did I miss while I was on the phone?”
Erik shook his head. “Nothing. Are you sure meeting with a drunk Liv is going to be helpful at all?”
“Maybe. But if nothing else, you can take all of the scotch out of the house. I told that woman she needs to stick to wine and champagne.”
* * *
Sylvie polished off the last slice of cold pizza and realized she and Olivia were way too old to drink and eat pizza this time of night. She knew that she was going to have heartburn and a bitching hangover. How was she going to focus on her work at Jordan Industries and ignore her want for Erik?
“You ate all of the pizza, huh?” Olivia asked as she handed Sylvia a laundry basket. “For your towels.”
Sylvia gathered the soiled towels and stuffed them in the basket. Then she headed to the laundry room with Olivia on her heels. “I need to go home.”
“Absolutely not. That wouldn’t be safe. You can sleep it off and then get back to work. Logan’s on his way home and we have some work to do.” She shook her head. “If he’s going to do this thing, then we got to make sure it’s going to be done right.”
“Hmm, maybe I can get that painting after all.”
Olivia pointed toward the bathroom. “Go take a shower and go to bed.”
Sylvie laughed. “That’s the best idea you’ve had all night.”
“Excuse you! You’re the one who said pour some adult beverages. Don’t blame me.”
Shrugging, Sylvie headed toward the guest bathroom at the end of the hallway. “Here’s hoping that you have some of my favorite French soap in there.”
“Nope, just some Ivory.” Olivia’s laugh alerted Sylvie to the fact that her friend was lying. When she entered the bathroom, she saw her favorite rose-scented soap on the counter.
Sylvie loved hot showers and this one was needed. The water beat down on her and she felt her mind clearing. Her focus on work was coming back. But that also meant thoughts of Erik flooded her mind. That kiss—the one that drove her to drink scotch.
And this is why I don’t like brown liquor. Sylvie lathered herself with the fragrant soap and tried to pretend she didn’t have a problem. But she did. She liked kissing Erik. She wanted to do it again, and that was the problem.
After rinsing and lathering again, Sylvie inadvertently wet her hair. She screamed as the water dripped into her eyes. Shutting the water off, she hopped out of the shower and realized she hadn’t grabbed a towel from the hall linen closet. Despite the fact that Olivia was going to kill her for dripping all over the floor, Sylvie had to dry off before the water went all the way cold.
“Well, damn.”
Okay, Sylvie was hearing things again because there was no way she heard Erik’s voice again. Blinking the dripping water away, she thought she was seeing things because there he was—five o’clock shadow and all. And. She. Was. Naked.
“E-Erik?”
“Had no idea that you were here and so wet.” He opened the linen closet and handed her a towel. At this point, Sylvie didn’t care about her wet hair, she just needed to cover her wet body and get out of Erik’s presence.
“Umm, why are you here?”
“God’s plan, I guess.”
She wrapped the towel around her body and shook her head, flinging droplets of water across his chest. “Excuse me.”
“Sylvie, it’s not as if I haven’t seen it all before. And it’s just as amazing as I remembered.”
“Go to hell,” she hissed as she dashed into the bathroom. Slamming the door, Sylvie willed her heart to beat normally. She dried her body and her hair. Just as she was about to leave the bathroom, there was a knock at the door.
“Go away!”
“Sylvie, I actually have to use the bathroom,” Erik said.
“Not my problem. And there is another bathroom upstairs.”
“But I’m here now.”
She opened the door and glared at him. “Have at it.” Sylvie rushed out of the bathroom and tried not to think of how she would deal with this later. Right now, she just needed to go to sleep.
* * *
Erik didn’t have to use the bathroom as much as he thought he did. Seeing Sylvie naked and dripping had been an unexpected treat. He was going to slap Logan for not warning him that temptation was in his house.
>
He left the bathroom, quietly wondering where Sylvie went, then headed back into the living room. Though he knew Logan and Olivia were the most PDA couple he knew, walking in on them being all kissy face when they had business to take care of annoyed him. Well, if he was honest, he was annoyed because he wasn’t holding Sylvie. There was something about seeing her standing there bare. Wet. Sexy. And shy. Where was the woman who’d wished him a funky good time in red lipstick?
“So, this is how y’all get work done?” Erik said.
Olivia and Logan broke their embrace and looked up at him. “Personally,” Olivia began, “this doesn’t make good sense for the LJ brand. I know that your family is all about the cosmetics business and being down for the cause of black women feeling beautiful, but . . .”
“Babe, we’re going to do this,” Logan said.
Olivia sighed and rolled her eyes. “I do like the potential packaging. But I think you need to make the name of this line about the women who will wear the makeup. Something like the Yvonne line was.”
“That was my father’s attempt at an apology to my mother,” Erik said. “It had nothing to do with—”
“While that may be true, the consumer doesn’t know that, and I don’t know too many women who didn’t love that lipstick.”
“So we’re supposed to lean on nostalgia?”
Olivia snapped her fingers. “Yes! That’s what you should do: classic beauty.”
Logan nodded. “Take it back old-school, with a new take on skin care and that red lipstick.”
Erik tugged at his ear. Red lipstick was going to be the death of him. Without even thinking, he looked down the hall, expecting to see Sylvie. He was a little disappointed when he didn’t.
“I’ll run it by marketing and get Ingrid and her crew to launch a campaign. First order of business will be to bring that fire-red lipstick back.”
“Good. Now can y’all stop this business talk so that I can go to sleep?” Olivia said through a yawn.
“You guys about to remodel?” Erik asked as he started for the door.
“No,” Logan said. “We’re barely here and . . . Oh, you must have run into Sylvia.”
“How? She was in the shower . . . Y’all are horrible!”
Erik held up his hand. “Calm down. She needed a towel and I was heading for the bathroom. Totally accidental.”
Olivia shook her head and rose to her feet. “Sylvie is my friend and you need to respect her for the boss that she is.”
“I totally respect her. Every inch of her.” Erik looked over Olivia’s shoulder and locked eyes with Sylvie. It was a sin for a woman to look that good in a tank top and a pair of boxer shorts.
“Y’all talking about me?” She walked into the room and crossed over to Erik. “Can we talk outside really quickly?”
“Sure.” They headed out to the porch and Erik reminded himself that this was just a talk and he needed to keep his hands to himself.
A beat passed and Sylvie bit her bottom lip. “Erik, we have to address the elephant in the room.”
“Sylvie.”
She placed her hand on his chest, then dropped it as if she’d been burnt. “Erik, this project is important to me and I want to do a good job. I need to know that we can work together without things getting in the way.”
“Define things.” Erik folded his arms across his chest. Secretly, it was good to see her squirm a bit. As she bounced from left to right, Erik watched her breasts jiggle. Feeling like a lecher, he turned his eyes up to her face.
God, why did she have to be so beautiful? Her pecan-brown skin was flawless. She had the kind of skin that would put him out of business.
“We had sex and it was good. But we didn’t know that things were going to turn out this way. I don’t want you to judge me based on one night.”
Erik nodded and placed his hand on Sylvie’s shoulder. “Both of us are grown-ups. And I need you right now.”
She furrowed her eyebrows. “You need me?”
“Listen, any positive publicity for the company right now is vital. People love a good makeover, and from the little I’ve seen of your work, this is going to be a good one. As a matter of fact, I’m going to get with my PR department and see if we can do some kind of tie-in with the rebranding of the company and your work.”
Sylvie smiled and clasped her hands together. “That would be awesome. I think you should reconsider the CEO portrait, you know, since you’re rebranding and everything.”
Erik shook his head and dropped his hand from her silky shoulder. “Not a chance. See you in a couple of hours.” He started down the steps, then looked back at her. “Good night, Sylvie.”
“’Night, Erik.”
Chapter 6
Sylvie didn’t sleep at all after Erik left. It was something about the way he said he needed her that sparked something inside her. Of course he was talking business. He didn’t need anything else. The man had everything.
She spent more time than she wanted to admit following his exploits on Google. The man loved models. Erik was also the man behind the makeup. She enjoyed reading a story about his work in the Jordan Industries lab. Her favorite quote from the article was, “I want to make every woman in the world feel beautiful.”
Somehow, she believed that was his mission. By the time the sun came up, Sylvie was beyond tired, but thankfully, she didn’t have a hangover.
Olivia, on the other hand, was suffering. The sound of her friend throwing up in the bathroom made Sylvie feel bad. She headed for the kitchen to make Olivia some tea, but Logan had beaten her to it.
“I made two cups because I thought both of y’all were going to be sick this morning,” he said as he held a teacup out to Sylvie.
“I’m pretty sure we’re done with scotch forever. Logan, why didn’t you . . . Never mind.”
He sighed and walked over to the one-cup coffeemaker to brew a mug. “You have questions about my family, right?”
“It’s none of my business. But you could’ve been large a long time ago if people knew you were one of those Jordans.”
Logan shook his head. “Sometimes I wish I wasn’t one of those Jordans. But don’t listen to me. I see you and my brother have this spark between y’all.”
Sylvie laughed nervously. “That’s just creative energy.”
“If you say so. Word to the wise, Erik doesn’t let much get to him. You got to him.”
Sylvie was about to reply when a disheveled Olivia walked into the kitchen. “Sylvia, get out of my house. You did this to me.”
Logan walked over to Liv and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. “Don’t blame her, you know you’re a lightweight.” Ushering her to a seat at the breakfast bar, Logan pushed her cup of tea over to her.
Sylvia looked at her watch. “I do have to go.”
“Ugh, so do I,” Logan said. “I bet if I turn the TV on I’ll see more of my father today than I’ve seen in years.”
Olivia patted the back of her man’s hand. “It’s okay, babe.”
Sylvia felt as if she was in the middle of something intimate and wanted to leave without killing the vibe. When Logan and Liv looked up at her, she waved and eased out of the kitchen. Now, she was curious. What was really happening at Jordan Industries? The business side of Sylvie now regretted spending the night looking at pictures of Erik and not getting information about the company.
* * *
Erik was on his third cup of coffee and he still didn’t feel awake yet. Despite all that talk of being an adult and not holding New Year’s Eve against Sylvie, he’d spent his three hours of sleep haunted by her wet, naked body. In his dream he’d taken her against the wall while the Purple Rain soundtrack played in the background. She’d wrapped those thighs around his waist and just as he was about to explode—his alarm went off. Talk about anticlimactic. But he needed to stop thinking about sex with Sylvie and take a more active role in the renovations.
He was about to look up color swatches on the Internet when Ingrid
burst into his office.
“The news is breaking,” she panted. “Simon was arrested again. This time there were cameras there.”
“They arrested him at the hospital? That’s some cold shit.”
“No, he was released yesterday. This happened at your parents’ house. Now would be a good time to release a statement,” Ingrid said. “But you look tired.”
“Didn’t get a lot of sleep last night.”
“I can tell.” Ingrid reached into her pocket and handed him a concealer stick.
He shot her a questioning look. “What am I supposed to do with this?”
“Hide the circles underneath your eyes. Come on, you create makeup, you should know how to use it.”
“I don’t need to know how to use it, because I’m not putting that on my face. Doesn’t it make sense that I look a little out of sorts? My father was arrested and now I have to clean up his mess.”
“You still want to present an air of confidence to the consumers and the board. Is Logan going to join you?”
Erik chuckled. “And you’re worrying about how I look?”
“But he’s an artist, people expect that. You are supposed to be the face of the company. Put the concealer on!”
Erik took the stick from her hand and grinned. “You will speak nothing of this.”
“You’re going to need a mirror.” She exited the office and Erik shook his head. His sleepless night should’ve been because of the company’s turmoil, but it had more to do with the woman he’d just seen walk down the hall. Sylvie filled out a pair of jeans like nobody’s business. And he’d seen her dressed in her finest and in her birthday suit. Rising to his feet, he called her name.
Sylvie knew she wasn’t hearing things this time because she looked Erik in the eye as he approached her. Was he really looking like a hearty snack this early in the morning?
“’Morning. I was going to grab some coffee before getting back to your office. But . . . Why do you have concealer in your hand?”
“Because I’m about to be on TV and my . . .”
“There you are.” The woman with the silky voice and long legs looked as if she was happy to see Erik, until she caught a glimpse of Sylvie. “Who are you?”
Tempted at Midnight Page 6
