Abandoning my drink, I leaned in close so that my lips brushed her ear. Her skin was hot and smelled like honeysuckle nectar and orange blossoms. “You’ll be begging me to let you come tonight. Now, whether we make it to a hotel is entirely dependent on how you behave.”
My hand dropped to her thigh, and I felt a little shiver go through her. I was right; she liked the chase—and, even more, the capture. The flush on her cheeks spread down her neck, betraying her arousal. The dress she was wearing was held up by thin straps. Between them and her plunging neckline, the view of her tits was fairly spectacular.
I slid my hand up her thigh and under her dress, and my fingers traced the seam of her panties. I took my time, moving slowly along what felt like a simple lace trim, watching her face through hooded eyes as her breathing grew shaky. She leaned in closer, her breath on my lips … and then, her phone buzzed.
Flustered, she jerked away from me and answered the call before I could blink. “Ronny, what’s wrong?” she asked, her tone exasperated.
I felt my jealousy flair. I was seconds away from getting what I wanted, and she was ignoring me to take a phone call from another man.
Annoyed, I sat back and picked up my drink, downing half in one go. I didn’t consider myself territorial, but I hated being interrupted when I was with a woman, no matter the circumstances.
Audrey seemed to have forgotten about me as she retrieved her purse and got to her feet, still listening to whomever this “Ronny” person was. When she stood, I instinctively reached out to place a hand on her waist to keep her there and bring her attention back to me.
Her eyes slid to meet mine. “Okay, I’ll be there in ten minutes,” she said into the phone. “Bye.”
She hung up and stared at me awkwardly. “I’m sorry. I, uh—I have to go.”
“Shame,” I murmured, watching her mouth. “We were just getting to the good stuff.”
Audrey swore under her breath and stepped away, breaking all contact. “It was nice meeting you, Caleb. I really wish I could stay.”
She sounded genuinely sorry, and I knew that if we ended up in bed together tonight, the resulting fireworks would be nothing short of spectacular. I stood, realizing that, at six-feet-tall, I towered over her even though she was wearing heels.
“That can be arranged.” I looped my arm around her waist and brought her body flush against mine. I could feel the heat of her all the way down our bodies, and I was fairly certain she could feel how hard she had gotten me. “In fact, I insist.”
Audrey arched against me, rising up on her tiptoes to draw her face closer to mine. “Maybe another time.”
And then, with a dexterity I hadn’t anticipated, she ducked out of my arms and disappeared into the crowd.
2
Audrey
I had a restless night’s sleep, and it was all his fault.
I’d gone to the bar to be alone after work, to have a glass of wine to unwind—not to flirt. But, when he’d slid up beside me with those dark chocolate eyes, my body was ready before he had even opened his mouth. He had been commanding—which normally wasn’t my thing—but somehow, he made it work, and it had certainly worked for me. The low timbre of his voice had sent my lady bits into a frenzy.
Do it! Do it! Do it! They had urged.
When he’d said his name was Caleb, I knew he was lying. He looked so familiar, but the name hadn’t jogged my memory. I prided myself on being good with faces—you had to be in my line of work—and I had no doubt that I’d remember where I’d seen him given the right name. I’d figured, if he didn’t want to share his real name, then I wasn’t about to push him. It wasn’t as if I’d ever see him again, and the unspoken rule of one-night stands precluded sharing too many personal details.
I hadn’t been looking for sex when I’d walked into that bar. And, when he’d approached me, I hadn’t even wanted to make friendly conversation with him. But he had made me want him—nothing but him—with just a few words.
And then, Ronny had to call with a crisis like he always did, and any hope of getting naked with a hot stranger had flown out the window.
It would have been great. Not just because he had said it would be (and I believed him since his mere hand on my thigh had set my body on fire) but because it had been so long since I’d had a fling. After this little spark on the dry kindling, my libido had risen from the dead with a triumphant roar.
Fucking Ronny, I thought bitterly.
I loved my cousin, but he had the worst timing imaginable.
My alarm went off, and, with a groan, I dragged myself out of bed. Not even masturbating to the thought of Caleb had helped the ache from last night. I wanted him. I wanted the strange man with the deep voice and confident smile.
Needless to say, I chose to set my shower on the cold side that morning. Once I cooled off, I pushed myself through the rest of my morning routine.
I loved my job, but it had been so long since I’d done something new that I could feel myself getting restless. Before I went to work for Ronny, I had traveled all over the country with nothing but a backpack and a naïve sense of optimism, taking selfies in front of the weirdest landmarks I could find, and making friends along the way. It had been the most exhilarating experience of my life, and it had been full of sunshine and good exercise and wonder-filled days. If Ronny hadn’t insisted that he needed my help, I probably never would have stopped.
It wasn’t that I didn’t like working for Pace Marketing. On the contrary, I loved the people, and I loved learning everything I could about the world of advertising. But, as an administrative assistant, I’d mastered my job after six months and could do it in my sleep. If it had been any other job, I would have moved on already. However, Ronny was family, and I decided to stick around for as long as he needed me, because those were the values my parents had instilled in me as a child. And Ronny, well … he appreciated me, in his own way.
I walked into work with my usual peppy attitude and two boxes of donuts from The Sweet Shop, one of my favorite spots in the city. They were a little overpriced, but no one else served elderberry donuts with basil frosting or blackcurrant-jam-filled chocolate crullers. I felt particularly generous that morning—hence the two boxes of donuts—and it was worth it to see the excitement on my coworkers’ faces when I walked around handing them out. Feeling a little better, I took my seat and waited for the inevitable.
Sure enough, about two minutes later, Ronny came barreling out of his office, looking frazzled. Not that that was anything new. He always looked that way—like a fire alarm had woken him up in the middle of the night, and he’d gotten caught in a freak windstorm on his way out the door. Everything about him was always a little rumpled and askew and very, very anxious.
“Audrey! There you are,” he exclaimed, coming to a stop by my desk. “Can you come into my office, please?”
“Yeah, sure,” I mumbled, licking the last vestiges of Irish cream filling off my fingertips. I knew Ronny well enough to know that even though he believed whatever was going on qualified as an emergency, it probably didn’t.
Preparing myself for his insecurities, I gathered my notepad and pen, as well as a donut for him, and followed Ronny into his office. As soon as he closed the door, he launched into a tirade.
“This is bad. This is really bad,” he babbled. “I don’t know what to do, and you’re my cousin, so I know you’ll be honest with me …”
“Ronny,” I said as I dropped my supplies in one of the nearby chairs and set the donut on his desk. I put my hands on his shoulders and looked him square in the eye. “Calm your tits. You know I can’t understand you when you ramble.”
It shut him up for a moment as I knew it would. If I caught him near the beginning of one of his spirals, I could usually cut him off at the pass.
“Now, take a deep breath,” I told him. “And then slowly let it out.”
Ronny did as I instructed, and I saw his shoulders relax as he exhaled.
I smiled. “Goo
d. Now, from the top. What the hell are you talking about?”
This time, when Ronny spoke, it was slower, and I could understand him. “We lost Matrix Publishing to Patterson,” he moaned.
That came as no surprise. Jonas Rift had dodged and neglected to return our calls recently, and I’d had a sneaking suspicion he’d moved on to our competitor, after Matrix’s last book shot to the top of the bestseller list. It was a pattern I recognized, and I had warned Ronny about it the previous night as I watched him pace his apartment. I had sipped a glass of one of the shitty dry table reds he favored, laying it out for him, while he wore a hole in the Persian rug in his living room.
If Pace wasn’t willing to go out on a limb for our bigger clients and funnel a little extra money into wining and dining them or investing in bigger and better ad strategies, we would continue to lose them. In the age of do-it-yourself social media marketing, only the advertising agencies that were willing to try new things and go the extra mile would make it—agencies like Patterson.
“We knew this was going to happen,” I reminded him. “We prepared for the possibility they would walk. We offered them everything we could, and that’s all we could do. It’s not the end of the world.”
“I know, I know. It just feels like it. It’s as if the damned walls are closing in, Aud. I don’t know what to do with myself some days.”
There were times I wondered why Ronny hadn’t gone into acting. He certainly had a flair for the dramatic. “That’s just your anxiety talking. We’ve lost clients before, and we’ve always bounced back. It’s part of the business.”
We’d gone over this before. Many times. I felt as if I was doing a scene from a play rather than having a candid conversation. I knew the blocking; I knew my lines; I knew Ronny would demand to be center stage, while he bemoaned his fate and threatened to leave the business altogether. Ronny didn’t see me as a confidante, but rather as a two-bit player in the drama of his life—his never-ending one-act of persecution and victimization.
“Thanks,” Ronny said. “But that’s not why I’m worked up. I mean, that’s not the only reason.”
This was not part of the script. I dropped some of my defensive body language and unfolded my arms. “Everything okay?”
Ronny took a deep breath. “Well, it’s just … I was going to mention it, but …”
“Come on, Ronny.”
He took a shuddering breath. “Aaron and Devon Patterson are on their way here for a meeting.”
I blinked. I hadn’t met the Patterson brothers, but I had heard enough about them to understand why my cousin had worked himself up into such a frenzy, this time. Aaron Patterson had started his company right out of college on a shoestring budget and, within five years, it had become one of the top marketing firms in the city. Word had it he was an up-all-night, work-around-the-clock kind of guy. He had a reputation for womanizing, but he never got involved in anything messy enough to distract him from his one true love: his company. He was just erratic enough to be dangerous, just focused enough to be a real threat. Ever since Patterson had started gaining traction, Ronny had been doing everything in his power to keep our client base from leaving us for them—at a declining rate of success.
As far as I was aware, the meeting they had called—I assumed the Pattersons had called it, since Ronny was too angry at the idea of Aaron Patterson—would be the first time the Patterson brothers and Ronny had spoken directly. It didn’t sit well with me, but I knew I had to be strong for Ronny’s sake. At least they were meeting us here, on our turf.
“It’ll be fine,” I assured him. “You’ll meet with them, listen to what they have to say, and go from there. You can’t freak yourself out. If they see you’re nervous, it’ll only give them more power.”
Ronny looked at me with pleading eyes. “I need you to go into the meeting with me. Not just because you’re my assistant, but because I always feel stronger with you there.”
“Ronny-cakes,” I said, using my childhood nickname for him. It was mostly to tease him into fighting back, to coming to his senses, but there was affection in it, too. “You were doing just fine before I came along. I know you can handle this.”
“You’re right, I’m sorry,” he said. “I can do this. I can meet with them.”
“Of course you can,” I encouraged. “Now, let’s sit down and talk this out, you and me and some delicious, deep-fried carbs.”
He gave me a smile and picked up the powdered raspberry jelly donut I had left on his desk because I made it a habit of knowing his favorites.
Once he had settled himself behind his desk, I perched on one of the chairs across from him and picked up my abandoned notepad. “Did they say what they wanted to talk about?”
Unnaturally composed, Ronny shook his head. “No, but I think I have an idea. Considering the number of clients we keep losing to them, it wouldn’t surprise me if they walked in here with an offer. They might think we’re floundering and are open to being bought out.”
I hated to admit it, but there had been blood in the water surrounding Pace lately. The papers didn’t seem to have a lot of faith in us existing as an independent entity for more than a few more years, and potential parent companies had already started to circle.
“What do you plan to do if that happens?”
Ronny thought for a moment, drumming his fingers on the desk. “I don’t want to sell.” He sighed. “I love this place. It’s my dream.”
“Then there’s your answer,” I told him.
“It’s not that simple,” Ronny said. “Give me a client, and I can talk to them, no problem. But this Aaron Patterson … he’s something else.”
“What about his brother?”
“Devon?” Ronny shrugged. “I haven’t heard anything bad about him. He sort of keeps to himself. Then again, I would too if my brother was like that.”
“What is it about this Patterson guy that has you so freaked? I know he’s successful, but you’ve dealt with competitors before. What’s different?”
Ronny sighed again and ran a hand through his hair. “He’s the most intimidating man I’ve ever met,” he admitted. “I was only in the same circle of people, with him at a press event, for three minutes. But it’s a silent intimidation, you know? He’ll sit there, sizing you up, and you think he’s not paying attention to the conversation, but then, when he does talk, you’re hit with this flood of knowledge and insight.” He paused for a moment. “Not to mention, he’s super attractive, and that makes it harder to talk to him.”
I chuckled. Ronny was a sweet guy and a romantic at heart, but he had never quite gotten a handle on talking to cute boys—not in high school, and not now. I patted his hand reassuringly, but I hoped Patterson’s legendary good looks wouldn’t make my cousin even more tongue-tied than he was on a good day.
“You’ll do just fine,” I assured him. “Don’t let him bully you. I don’t care how hot he is. Listen to what he has to say. If he makes an offer, decline politely and show him the door. It’s as simple as that.”
“You obviously haven’t met Patterson before.”
I didn’t care to. Aaron Patterson sounded like one of those rich business types who love to flash their money around and intimidate businesses smaller than their own. I had met plenty of men like him in my travels, men born into money who spent their lives in the certainty that it would open any door they cared to knock on. He might scare Ronny, but he didn’t scare me.
“What time is the meeting?” I asked.
Ronny checked his watch. “In about forty-five minutes.”
“Well, you sit in here and prepare yourself,” I told him. “I’ll make sure no one disturbs you and that they have their shit together before the Pattersons show up. Sound good?”
“We need to get the conference room ready …”
“No, meet here, in your office,” I suggested. “Seeing you behind the desk will remind them that this is your company and your office. You call the shots here.”
Ronny smiled. “What would I do without you?”
I returned his smile as I got to my feet. “We’re family,” I said. “You don’t have to worry about that.”
Once I closed his door behind me, I let my cheerful disposition fade slightly. Ronny was already so worried—if he found out I had concerns, it would only make things worse. This company was his life, and I hated seeing how something that once gave him joy now stressed him out. I could now see why his former assistant had quit and gone running for the hills. As good a businessman as Ronny was, he tended to let his insecurities get the best of him. I had known him my whole life, and I still wanted to strangle him from time to time.
For the next half hour, I did another lap around the office, letting people know we had an important meeting soon and that Ronny was not to be disturbed. Thankfully, they seemed to understand the gravity of what was going on and listened to me without question. After all, my role as an administrative assistant existed mostly in name only—I generally picked up other tasks around the office that needed tending to and delegating or managing when needed. My status as Ronny’s cousin helped my clout, as well. The usual chit-chat around the office quieted down as people focused on their work.
I had just sat back down at my desk when my phone rang.
“They’re here,” our receptionist, Caroline, hissed. Her voice whistled through the little gap in her teeth, and I imagined her wearing that frosted lip gloss she had refused to give up, even after the fashion tyranny of the early 2000s ended. “And, girrrrrrl, Aaron Patterson is just as hot as everyone says he is.”
“Thanks, Care,” I said. “Keep your pants on. You’re a professional.”
“A bitch can daydream, Aud.”
Chuckling, I hung up the phone and adjusted my pencil skirt and blouse, making sure I looked presentable. I had no sooner slipped my black blazer on than the elevator door opened. My eyes slid toward the sound as two men stepped out, and my stomach dropped.
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