Читать книгу Temporary To Tempted - Jessica Lemmon - Страница 12

Four

The projector was positioned, her laptop open and the PowerPoint presentation cued up.

Andy tidied the bound sales plans—one for her and one for Gage. She’d arranged herself at the head of the conference table and placed the report to her left elbow at the corner. She found it easier to coordinate a plan when they weren’t facing each other from opposing sides.

Sometimes these meetings went smoothly, with the managers or CEOs who’d hired her easing into the adjustment as they learned that Andy Payne was the female currently introducing herself. Other times, they reacted angrily and accused her of pulling a fast one on them. Mostly it was the former.

They’d hired her for her expertise, and that was what she reminded them of when she arrived. She’d only had three men ever react poorly and had only ever lost one job because of it. The sexist bastard. No matter, her contract was ironclad and nonrefundable. She’d bought a weekend spa retreat with the money that particular time and had no qualms about enjoying her paid leave.

She sat on the edge of the padded chair and turned her head in time to see a man rapidly approaching the conference room. She recognized the scruffy jaw, the slight curl to the longish hair on top of his head...and the answering recognition in his caramel-brown eyes.

She stood slowly, feeling her jaw drop to the floor as he shut the conference room door behind him and looked down his nose at her. Although she wasn’t that much shorter than him.

“You’re Andy Payne,” he said flatly.

Her mouth still agape, she managed a stunned nod. Warmth seeped from her cami, over her décolletage and up her neck. No doubt she was turning a stunning shade of pink while he watched her.

And he did watch her. Carefully. And unhappily.

As quickly as she could move, she slapped the lid closed on her laptop and yanked the cord free from the wall. “I’m—uh,” she said as she hastily stacked the reports. “I have to...um...”

She yanked her bag off the chair but the strap caught, scattering the pages in her dossier on Monarch to the floor along with several pens, her cell phone charger and a tube of lipstick.

This was going well.

She crouched to the floor to sweep the contents of the bag back into it. “You must be Gage.”

“In the flesh.” He knelt next to her and picked up one of her pens that had fallen to the floor.

“I didn’t know you were you when I approached you on Friday or I never would’ve done it,” she said as she gathered her things. A lock of hair swept over her eye and she blew a puff of air from her lips to move it.

“You don’t say.” His eyebrows flinched slightly, but some of the anger simmered away, his expression almost bemused as his eyes roamed over her face.

He was stupidly attractive. Even more so in a suit. Even with a coffee stain on his shirt that looked fresh. That attraction was all the more reason why she couldn’t stay another moment. She’d never be able to look him in the eye again after she’d... God...offered to pay him to be her date.

“I’ll refund your money for the consultation contract.” She snatched the pen from his hand and stood. He stood with her and the view of the rest of him was finer than it had appeared on Friday night. His muscular chest pressed the confines of his shirt, a dark blue tie in place and knotted just so. His slacks were navy as well, and a brown leather belt bisected his waist. His shoes matched—expensive and shiny.

“First you want to hire me, now you want to give me a refund. You offer to pay me an awful lot.”

She blanched.

“And the hell you will.” He folded his arms over his impressive chest. His unsmiling mouth pursed. “I hired you to do a job. You’re not running out on me just because you—”

“Don’t say it.” Her eyes sank closed and she palmed one burning-hot cheek. Was it possible to die of humiliation? “I know what I did and I apologize.” She reopened her eyes and turned them up to his. “Please tell me you didn’t tell anyone about it?”

“I told my friend Reid. He works here. You’ll meet him later.”

“You told someone?” Her voice was edging along hysterical and she forced herself to calm down. “You could’ve kept that to yourself.”

“Is that a joke? A gorgeous woman approaches me in a bar and I decide to stay one drink longer to get to know her and then she offers to pay me two grand for my companionship? It’s a hell of a story, Andy.”

He thought she was...gorgeous? And he’d wanted to get to know her?

It was far and wide two of the most flattering compliments she’d heard in a while.

“I didn’t know you were the Andy Payne when I told him. I thought you’d tracked me down at work, and that you were going to... I don’t know, try and reconvince me.”

That was fair.

Why would he assume she was here for any other reason? She’d been on a mission to achieve her goal on Friday and had—incorrectly—assumed that when she ran from that bar, mentally vowing never to return, she wouldn’t see Gage again.

She hadn’t asked him his name, either.

“I wasn’t myself that night. I was angry about my date not working out and then I noticed you—” She snapped her mouth closed before she accidentally said too much, and then rerouted the conversation. “This is no fault of yours. I’ll go directly to my office from here and refund your money immediately.” She added the laptop and reports to her bag and pulled it over her shoulder.

“No deal.” He stepped in front of the door and blocked her path.

“Step aside, Mr. Fleming.”

“Not going to happen, Ms. Payne.” His nostrils flared as he pulled in a breath. “I hired you. You agreed to do a job. I know you’re the best—I did my research. You’ve been cited as an asset by hundreds of companies, and I’m not letting you go because you made a mistake and now you’re uncomfortable. We have a contract. I was told your fee was nonrefundable.”

That was true. Normally. “I’ll make an exception.”

A warm, gentle palm landed on her upper arm. His voice was equally gentle when he said, “I don’t want an exception. I want you to stay and double or triple our numbers like you promised. This is important.”

His words were sincere. And a good reminder that she prided herself on her work ethic. She never let clients down. She worked tirelessly for them because their businesses mattered. Employees had families to care for, and when she made their companies more money, the companies in turn lined the pockets of those hardworking men and women. What she did wasn’t about fattening up greedy CEOs. She did this work for the people. All of them.

And right now Gage looked like someone who needed her help.

“Did you find a date for the wedding yet?” he asked.

She blinked, stunned by the change of topic.

“I’ll go,” he said. “You stay here for the time you promised and I’ll go with you to Ohio to your sister’s wedding.”

“But—”

“I suspect you’ll insist, so I’ll let you take care of the room and flight, but you can keep the two grand.” He dipped his chin in a show of sincerity. “Okay?”

As much as she hated to admit it, his offer was really, really tempting. She had to face reality, and the reality was that she was no closer to finding a date for Gwen’s wedding than she was to sprouting wings and flying there on her own steam.

A bigger part of her was tempted simply because of Gage. He was attractive, and had found her attractive, and she wouldn’t mind spending more time getting to know him. Of all the dates she’d set up in an attempt to find a companion for Gwen’s wedding, Gage, from his warm brown eyes to his shiny leather shoes, was the only one who’d made her heart flutter. Dr. Christopher certainly hadn’t wanted to get to know her better. He hadn’t even had the decency to turn the money down.

Even so, she found herself answering, “I couldn’t ask you to do that.”

“Too bad. You already did, on Friday night. Now I’m accepting.” He lifted her bag off her shoulder, his fingers leaving behind an imprint of heat she couldn’t ignore. He set the bag on the conference room table, pulling her laptop out and extracting the reports, one of which had an ugly crease on the otherwise pristine cover.

What a metaphor for Andy herself right now. She’d come in here neat and poised and now felt more than a little bent.

He opened the laptop screen and took the wrinkled report and sat in his seat. She again considered refusing his offer. Her pride told her to bolt and never look back.

There was only one problem. She needed him.

Almost as much as he needed her.