by Winters, KB
It took a lot of strength, but I kept my face neutral and released my fists. I picked up the folder and flipped open the cover. The pictures inside were of the new fragrance line.
The images were bad. The lighting, or something, was off and it made the bottles look a completely different color than they were in person.
I resisted the urge to yell.
“Are these from Spotlight?” I asked.
“Yes. What the fuck is going on over there?” Parker started pacing in front of my desk. “It’s been a nightmare ever since that Rita woman took over the design department.”
I nodded in agreement. My father had been contracted with Spotlight, an upscale ad agency, for over a decade. When I’d taken over the company, I’d assessed their past work and decided to continue the contracts. However, a lot had changed since then, and the quality had been slipping downhill at a rather startling pace.
“I’ll handle this,” I said. I shuffled the images together and enclosed them back in the folder. “How is everything else?”
“A disaster.”
“Great.” My teeth were clenched. Parker wasn’t one to exaggerate. If he said it was a disaster, then he meant it was a disaster.
“I’ll catch up with you when I get back,” I said. Parker took his leave and stalked out of my office.
“Kimberly,” I called out as I shut down my email inbox.
She poked her head into my office, not daring to step into the room, for whatever reason.
“I’m going to Spotlight. The Plush ads are all fucked up.” I consulted my watch, silently calculating the time I would need to handle this. “I need you to reschedule my three o’clock and block out four o’clock for a meeting with Parker.”
She nodded. “Got it.”
“Thank you.” I offered her a strained smile and then swept past her as I left the office.
Thanks to the ridiculous downtown LA traffic, it took me nearly half an hour to get over to Spotlight. By the time I reached the main reception desk, I was radiating anger.
“Mr. Brighton,” the receptionist said as I approached the marble-topped desk. Her face looked like she had just seen a ghost.
“I need to speak with Rita, immediately.”
She opened her mouth as if to object, but quickly closed it and dialed an extension on her phone.
I stared at her as she repeated my demand to whoever was on the other end of the line.
“Brittany will be down to escort you shortly,” she said, hanging up the phone. She offered me a polite smile.
“Thank you.” I pushed away from the counter and waited.
I was about to go to the elevators and ride up without an escort, when Brittany popped into view. She rushed across the parquet floor, her sky-high heels clacking frantically. My eyes drifted down her, watching as her perky tits bounced with her exertion.
“Cooper,” she greeted, plastering a fake smile on her pretty face. “How nice to see you.”
“Brittany,” I replied, giving her my best false smile as well.
Brittany had been at Spotlight for a while. I’d gotten to know her over the years and at one point, we had been romantically involved—if hot, sweaty office sex was considered romantic. It had been some time since our last…encounter…and I couldn’t tell if it was my seething anger or some other disconnect, but I found myself uninterested in her at the moment.
“I need to speak to Rita,” I told her, pushing my mind off our prior entanglements.
“So I’ve heard. You have the entire fifth floor in an uprising.”
I couldn’t hold back a small twitch of a smile, as I pictured the chaos following my arrival. Brighton Enterprises was likely the biggest account at Spotlight. We spent millions with them each year and, as such, commanded a red carpet, all access experience. Which usually required more than a five minute notice, to prepare.
Brittany started back towards the elevators and I followed. My eyes noticed her ass looked nice and perky in her pencil skirt, and I was trying to figure out why I wasn’t able to fully enjoy the visual, when my mind ping-ponged back to the girl I had seen at the coffee shop. I hadn’t been able to get her out of my mind for the past week and since then, all other women seemed to morph to her. I’d easily held to my no-sex rule because no one else had even tempted me since I’d seen the jet black-haired goddess.
Not even Brittany, who I happened to know was always up for a quickie up against a wall.
I shook my head, forcing myself back to the matter at hand.
Brittany led me through the maze of the cubicles and ushered me into Rita’s office where the battle began…
Twenty-minutes later, I left Spotlight with Rita’s promise that she would personally oversee another set of images and get them to me by the end of the business day. Rita had been nothing but apologetic and friendly. She agreed with me on all points and nodded along like a fucking bobble-head the entire time.
The perks of being a high-profile client. I sighed as I left the building.
My entire body was tensed up. I’d gone to Spotlight to try and release some of my aggression, but it seemed to have had the opposite effect. I was more amped than when I’d left my office. I needed an outlet…and there was only one thing I knew that would do the trick.
I strode down the street, mentally remapping my steps from my walk around this part of the city the past Saturday. I cursed myself for not being more observant. I’d been so busy eye-fucking the girl at the coffee shop that I hadn’t managed to locate the name of it. So, everything was by feel and intuition. I circled two blocks before I finally spotted it.
I hurried to cross the street but then hesitated at the door. I peered through the glass and I saw her…
Fuck…
My cock ached just looking at her. She was even more beautiful than I’d remembered. Her hair was piled up in a bun so that her neck was exposed. I desperately wanted to run my tongue down her neck, licking and exploring every inch. Her eyes were wide and had more make-up than they had Saturday morning. She looked even more enticing…if that was even possible.
She turned and I ducked out of sight, not wanting her to see me. It was bad enough I’d been caught staring at her once before. I had to be more careful. I couldn’t make it easy for her to write me off as some weirdo window peeper, whenever I finally found my balls and went to actually talk to her.
I glanced back and saw her whole face light up.
My heart stopped, wondering who she was looking at.
God, I wanted her to look like that when she looked at me.
She embraced a man who had just entered from the other side of the shop. I couldn’t see his face at first, but he was dressed in a nice-looking suit. He hugged the girl and I felt my guts twisting inside me.
She had a boyfriend…
I might not have much of a moral compass anymore, but even I wasn’t going to stoop as low to poach someone else’s woman.
I watched the two of them talking and my heart sank further. He crossed to a table and pulled out a laptop. He popped it open and turned the screen for her to see. She took the keyboard and started furiously typing. Her eyebrows wrinkled as she stared at the screen and an overwhelming rush of affection hit me like a hammer. I wanted to smooth my fingers over her brow and up into her hair until she was putty in my hands, relaxed, and at ease.
Preferably, she would also be naked.
I shoved the fantasy out of my head and continued to watch. People were passing me on the street but I didn’t budge.
She had finished whatever she was doing on the laptop and pushed it back to the man. He smiled and I caught a good look at his face.
Wait a second…
I knew him. I’d just seen him at Spotlight.
It was Bryce…something…Bryce Sherman.
Rita had introduced us when he popped into our meeting to ask her a question.
I smiled to myself, a plan quickly formulating in my mind. I noted the coffee shop name, The Bean, before giving
the girl one more long, lingering look as she flitted away to another table. I tore myself away and went back to my car.
I raced back to Brighton Enterprises and paced around my office, my thoughts brewing.
I waited another thirty minutes and then called Kimberly into my office. She stepped in, tentatively.
“Kimberly, can you get me a Bryce Sherman on the phone? He’s an exec at Spotlight.”
“Sure thing,” she said. She left and went back to her desk and moments later, the line on my phone was blinking and I knew she had tracked him down.
I picked up the receiver, my heart racing.
“Hello, Bryce, this is Cooper Brighton,” I said.
“Um, hello, Mr. Brighton,” he stuttered.
“Listen, I saw you at The Bean earlier today and…” my voice trailed off. There was no way around it; my next question was going to sound odd, no matter how I phrased it. “Can you tell me who the girl is that was with you? I think she works there. Black hair, fair skin…”
Gorgeous ass, perfect tits, and full lips…I finished her description to myself, recalling her best features.
“Oh, you mean Allie?”
Allie? Yes…I turned the name over in my head, matching it with my visual of her.
It was perfect.
“Well, actually, Allison. Yeah, she’s a barista at The Bean.”
“Is that how you know her?” I asked, not bothering to apologize for my invasive questioning.
“Yeah, I go there just about every day. She’s been helping me with my glitched-out computer. She’s a bit of a computer genius. I don’t know what the hell she’s doing working in that coffee shop. She’s smart as a whip—” Bryce seemed to realize he was rambling and stopped short. “Do you know her?”
“A computer whiz, huh?”
“Yeah. My computer got a virus a few weeks ago and I just mentioned it to her and she said she could fix it for me.”
“Is she single?” I asked.
Bryce hesitated. I knew he would cave and answer me, so I stayed silent, letting him talk himself into it. I was the client that kept his company afloat. He wouldn’t refuse me such idle information.
“Yeah, she just got out a really bad situation. A real asshole did her in.”
A flicker of white-hot anger curled up in the pit of my stomach. If it was even possible, I wanted her even more.
“Thank you, Bryce. You’ve been very helpful.”
“Umm…sure. Anytime, Mr. Brighton.”
I nodded and clicked off the call.
Allison…she didn’t know it yet, but I was going to find a way to make her mine.
The End
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Acknowledgements
First of all, I’d like to thank all my readers. Without you, my books wouldn’t need to exist. I truly appreciate each and every one of you.
Thanks to all of my beta readers, street team, ARC readers and Facebook fans. You girls are the best!
And a special thanks to my PA, Shannon Hunt. Without you, girl, I’d be a hot mess! Thank you!
And a very special thanks to my editor, Cindy, thank you for making my words make sense.
About The Author
KB Winters is the author of the brand new Romance Series, Plush. She has an addiction to caffeine and hard-bodied alpha males. The men in her books are very sexy, protective and sometimes bossy, her ladies are…well…bossier!
Living in sunny Southern California, this hopeless romantic writes every chance she gets!
You can connect with KB on Facebook and Twitter!
