Total pages in book: 105
Estimated words: 102781 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 514(@200wpm)___ 411(@250wpm)___ 343(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 102781 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 514(@200wpm)___ 411(@250wpm)___ 343(@300wpm)
And to tell her I thought she was beautiful.
And smart.
And funny.
And…
That I’d wanted to fuck her wearing a cowboy hat and heels since the first time she stomped her sexy little ass into my office and pushed back.
Fuck.
I spent the next few minutes taking some relaxing breaths that didn’t work, and then hit Call Back on Annalise’s missed call. I needed to apologize before I dealt with Fanny.
She answered on the first ring. “How are you feeling this lovely morning?”
I groaned. “Like I got run over by a steamroller and the bastard refused to back up and finish the job.”
She laughed. “Well, I’m glad you’re okay. I was starting to get worried. I figured you wouldn’t be much in the mood for your morning run, but nine o’clock is like mid-day for you.”
“Yeah.” I rubbed my free hand over my face. “Listen. I’m sorry about last night.”
“It’s okay. No biggie. I booty-called you last week. You’re entitled to a free drunk dial or two.”
I half smiled. “Thanks. Can you do me a favor and let Jonas know I’ll be in late? Say I’m working from home this morning to finish up the Star presentation or something.”
“Sure. Of course.”
“Thanks.”
After I hung up, I listened to the voicemail from Fanny. Not surprisingly, she wasn’t half as understanding as Annalise seemed to be. But I needed to get my ass-kicking over with. So I hit Call Back on her name next, hoping maybe she wouldn’t answer.
No such luck.
Fanny bawled me out for a solid five minutes without taking a breath.
“You want to apologize to someone, apologize to Lucas.”
I shut my eyes. “I woke him?”
“You sure did. And apparently the little sneak was listening. He wanted to know what you’d done wrong that you were apologizing for.”
Fuck. “What did you tell him?”
“I told him to go back to bed and we’d talk about it after school today.”
“You can’t, Fanny. That can’t come from you. He needs to hear it from me.”
“Then I guess you’ll be having a conversation with him real soon.”
I raked my fingers through my hair. “He’s too young. It’ll hurt him too much.”
“Should have thought about that eight years ago, shouldn’t you? Maybe you would’ve paid a little more attention.”
“Fanny…”
“I’ll let him know you’ll be having a talk with him when you see him next weekend.”
“But—”
She interrupted again. “And if you don’t, I will.”
Click.
Chapter 40
* * *
Bennett
“Good luck.”
Annalise had her hands full, so I opened the conference room door.
“Thanks.” She set her presentation materials down on the long table. “Even though I’m sure you don’t really mean it.”
I smiled a genuine smile for the first time in days. I actually did mean it, even though I wished I didn’t. Shit would be a hell of a lot easier if I didn’t want to see her succeed.
I’d just finished my final presentation to Star, and their team had taken a break while I cleaned up my stuff and Annalise set up for her turn.
“How did it go?” she asked.
I’d hit it out of the park, but I didn’t want to rattle her. Instead of gloating like my normal obnoxious self would, I shrugged. “Okay, I guess.”
She squinted at me. “Just okay?”
I looked at the clock. “They’re not coming back for another twenty minutes. You want to do a dry run on me?”
“You mean show you my concepts?”
“Sure.” I shrugged. “My turn’s over. I can’t steal any of your ideas, even if I wanted to.”
Annalise chewed on her bottom lip. “Sure. Why not? I’m not usually so nervous, but for some reason, this one is freaking me out a little.”
She set up her boards and walked me through her presentation. I looked on, mesmerized by how she started out with such visible nerves, yet managed to plow through to deliver a kick-ass presentation. My gut told me her concepts weren’t going to go over as well as mine had, but I wanted to boost her ego, not shred it, so I complimented her.
“Nice job. Your colors brought in a familiarity from their parent company, yet you created an entirely new identity for Star.”
She stood a little taller. So I kept going.
“And I like the tagline. The play on the words is smart, too.”
“Thank you.” Annalise started to look suspicious, so I scaled back the flattery to something more my usual style.
“Your ass also looks phenomenal in that skirt.”
She rolled her eyes, but I caught the little grin she tried to hide. I’d done my job here. Her shaky confidence had been firmed.
Jonas walked into the conference room. “You all ready, Annalise?”
She looked over at me, and then to Jonas, with a smile. “Sure am.”
On the way out of the conference room, I leaned over to whisper some parting thoughts to my nemesis. “How about a little wager? I win, you’ll bend over my desk later. You win, you’ll get on your knees under mine.”