But-once again-Teresa didn"t even let her finish. "What we show Reid and Matt today has to be flawless. You and I both know how important this presentation is."
"We do?"
"Oh, Jane..." Teresa clucked patronizingly. "Forester+Blake has lost three major accounts in the past six months. They"re looking for excuses to lay people off."
"Okay, th-then-" Jane drew in a shaky breath "-that"s all the more reason to show Reid and Matt my new idea. It"s much bet-"
"No. And that"s my final word."
Before she could protest further, the door to the conference room swung open. Reid stood in the open doorway, turned in profile as he spoke to someone out in the hall.
He always dressed impeccably. Today he wore a slate-gray suit, a pale green oxford shirt that set off his eyes, and one of his cartoon ties. Marvin the Martian today, which was who he always wore for pitch meetings. He had one hand tucked into the pocket of his pants with his jacket caught behind his arm. Very GQ. Very unconsciously masculine.
She felt a shiver of antic.i.p.ation cross her skin that she knew had nothing to do with the way he dressed. It wasn"t his wealth or his position of power that got to her. It wasn"t even those piercing green eyes of his.
The thing about Reid Forester that made her ache was the sense of barely restrained energy. Every time he walked into a room, she felt as if the room"s center of gravity shifted. As if the sheer intensity of his personality pulled her inexorably towards him.
Then he turned to face her, meeting her gaze across the conference table. In an instant, the debate with Teresa, all her resentment about Teresa"s dismissal of her ideas, and her fears about job security simply vanished. She felt nothing but that magnetic tug.
Jane tightened her grip on the chair, a half-hearted attempt to maintain her balance as the world tilted beneath her feet.
Reid nodded, smiling in greeting-that little half-smile of his, which always seemed both confident and wry. Desire wound its way through her stomach, making her blood pound and her breath come in ragged bursts. Just as if she were reliving the kiss she"d merely imagined.
She had only to close her eyes to feel his hands on her arms, pulling her to him. To feel his mouth pressed to hers. To feel his kiss, hot and needy. A little rough. A little desperate. A little...
...completely in her head!
Snap out of it, she mentally ordered.
But it was too late. Everyone in the room was staring at her expectantly.
Someone must have asked her a question, but she had no idea what it was. Once again, she"d been lost in her own little world. Spinning outrageous fantasies about her boss, completely unaware of what was going on around her.
Humiliation burned in her cheeks, almost-but not quite-knocking down the arousal that still gripped her body. She opened her mouth to speak. A hundred responses raced through her mind, but when she opened her mouth to say something-anything!-all that came out was a nervous squeak.
Great. Now, he undoubtedly thought she was just deranged. Brilliant.
Teresa, who was well acquainted with the effects of the stutter, gestured for everyone to sit with a sophisticated tinkle of laughter-that didn"t sound at all deranged-then murmured, "Shall we just get started, then?"
Even though she"d seen Teresa do it a thousand times before, Jane still found Teresa"s ability to command attention awe-inspiring.
Shoulders back, chin up, and confident smile firmly in place, Teresa effortlessly smoothed things over. She stepped forward, hand extended to Matt.
Following Teresa"s lead, Jane shook his hand as well, but her own smile felt stiff and icy on her face, like a damp towel left to harden in the freezer.
Before she backed out of range, Reid stepped forward, also, his hand extended. She swallowed hard, hoping he wouldn"t notice that her hand trembled as she slipped it into his.
"Nice to see you again, Jane."
Her gaze darted up to his face. He smiled at her and winked, undoubtedly trying to put her at ease. His attentions had the opposite effect.
His hand felt warm and strong around hers. She was intensely aware of the calluses on his palm-probably from the rock climbing he was rumored to do on the weekends. As he released her hand she felt his gold Texas A&M cla.s.s ring brush against her fingers.
For an instant, the feel of his ring sent a shiver of alarm through her. Just how detailed had her drawings been? She"d sketched out her ideas so quickly, she couldn"t remember any exact details. But she definitely remembered sketching an A&M ring.
She brushed aside her concerns. What did it really matter if Reid"s ring was in the drawings? Bits and pieces of Reid had been showing up in her drawings for years. No one had ever noticed them.
"We"re looking forward to seeing what you"ve come up with," Matt was saying when Jane forced her attention back to the meeting. "I talked to the people at Butler just this morning and a.s.sured them you"re our most creative team."
Teresa smiled smugly. "Of course we are."
Matt rocked back in his chair with a laugh. "They just don"t want to see another pitch about grape juice."
Teresa didn"t even blanch. Without even an instant of hesitation, she snapped the laptop closed and reached for Jane"s portfolio. "I"ve got just what they"re looking for."
Jane watched, amazed, as Teresa seamlessly switched pitches. Should she be happy her idea had a shot, or irritated by Teresa"s heavy-handedness? Did it matter? In the end, she did what she always did when Teresa gave presentations. She sat in silence, just glad she didn"t have to do the talking.
A few minutes into the pitch, she hazarded a glance in Matt"s direction. He was smiling and nodding his head, pleased with the ad idea, just as she"d known he would be. When she looked at Reid, however, her heart leapt into her throat. He"d leaned back in his chair, his elbow resting on the back of the empty chair beside him, his forefinger absently rubbing the stubble along his jaw. His posture was somehow both relaxed and coiled with energy.
She probably would have spent the rest of the meeting gazing at him if Audrey hadn"t knocked on the door while Teresa was presenting the final drawing.
Audrey handed Teresa a phone message, then scurried away. Instantly, Jane knew something must be terribly wrong. Audrey wouldn"t have interrupted the meeting otherwise.
As Teresa skimmed the note her face went white. She folded it neatly in half, no doubt trying to appear calm as she stood on legs that seemed to tremble.
For the first time since Jane had known her, Teresa"s professional facade seemed to slip as she excused herself from the meeting and accepted Matt"s rea.s.surances that they could continue without her.
Almost as an afterthought, she turned to Jane. "You can finish up here?"
"Of course." She nodded, but Teresa was gone.
Jane turned back to Matt and Reid to find them watching her expectantly.
The two most important men in the company were waiting for her to finish the presentation. Were waiting for her to talk.
Okay. She could do this.
Just finish the presentation, she ordered herself. Don"t think about Reid and Matt sitting there. Don"t even look at them. Just concentrate on the picture.
"As y-y-y-" But the words clogged in her throat like trees caught in a logjam.
Just a few short sentences. Just wrap it up. You can do this.
This time, when she opened her mouth, not even one word pa.s.sed her lips. The logs caught, piling one upon another.
Just say the words, d.a.m.n it. Just speak.
But whatever words she might have spoken finally splintered under the pressure. And suddenly the voice she heard in her head wasn"t her own, but her mother"s. You"re gaping like a fish. If you can"t speak, close your mouth.
Jane snapped her mouth shut as failure closed like a fist around her heart.
She tore her gaze away from her drawing to find Matt had rounded the conference table. He placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Don"t worry. I think we"ve seen enough to approve the ad. It"s good work."
Reid nodded, but didn"t meet her gaze. "Excellent work."
Humiliation burned through her as she watched them leave. That was what she hated the most. The pity.
Don"t be so hard on yourself. They liked the idea. Her idea. The team at Butler would love it, too. She just knew they would.
Eager to share the good news-and to make sure Teresa was okay-Jane left the conference room and went in search of her team leader. She found Teresa in the women"s restroom carefully wiping away a mascara trail with a dampened paper towel.
Jane immediately rushed to her side. "What"s wrong?"
"It"s Noah. The school nurse called. She thinks it"s appendicitis." Even her obvious embarra.s.sment at being caught crying at work couldn"t hide her underlying fear. "Look at me. I"m a mess. She a.s.sured me it"s probably not that big a deal, but she still wants me to take him straight to the doctor. He"ll probably be fine. It"s just-"
It"s just that Noah was Teresa"s only child. And since her divorce three years ago, any time Noah got sick, the burden of caring for him rested solely on Teresa"s shoulders.
"You don"t have to explain," Jane rea.s.sured her.
"Thanks." Teresa drew in a shaky breath. "I"m on my way right now. Walk out with me and you can tell me how it went. They loved it, right?"
"I m-made a fool of myself, but they loved it." Unsure how to treat a crying Teresa, Jane ran her hand up and down Teresa"s arm to comfort her. "What about you? Will you be okay?"
"I"ll be better once I"ve seen him. Appendicitis just seems so scary. If he has to have it removed it"ll be his first surgery. And I"ll have to miss work. So before I go pick him up, I"ll have to clear the time with Audrey and talk to Matt to see if he can do the Butler presentation."
Jane made the decision in an instant and the words were out of her mouth before she could give it more thought. "I"ll talk to Matt about the presentation. Just let Audrey know you"ll be out and head for Noah"s school."
She didn"t even stutter once when she said it, but she held her breath waiting for Teresa"s response.
Teresa"s face lit up. "Thanks, Jane. You"re a doll."
As she watched Teresa rush for the door Jane told herself she hadn"t lied. Not really. She would talk to Matt. She just wouldn"t ask him to do the presentation for her.
She was going to do the presentation herself. She was tired of standing in the background. Tired of letting Teresa get all the credit for her good ideas. Most of all, she was tired of letting her stutter control her life.
CHAPTER TWO.
"HERE"S that file you asked for." Audrey, Reid"s a.s.sistant, handed him a manila folder. "Will you need anything else before I go, sir?"
She stood on the other side of his desk, her hands folded primly in front of her.
"No, thank you, Audrey. You can go." He had to force himself to say it without smiling. Audrey took her job very seriously. And-despite her piercings and the tattoo of a phoenix scrawled up the back of her neck-seemed to have learned all her administrative-a.s.sistant skills from watching movies dating back to the early sixties.
She was always efficient, always un.o.btrusive and always offered to make his coffee, which he let her do since he"d hired her straight out of one of the espres...o...b..rs downtown.
"One more thing, Audrey."
Audrey was almost out the door when he stopped her. "Yes, sir?"
"Am I scary?"
Her eyebrows shot up. "Excuse me?"
"Do I scare people?"
"I..." Audrey bit down on her lip, gnawing on it for a moment before saying, "I"m not sure I understand the question."
"Today in a meeting I noticed that one of my employees seems afraid of me." He didn"t mention Jane by name. Audrey, for all her virtues at the coffee machine, liked to gossip.
"Do you want me to talk to the employee"s supervisor?"
"No. No, that"s not what I meant. Never mind. Forget it."
This time, he let Audrey leave. Alone in his office, he stared unseeing at the financial reports his CFO had foisted off on him that morning. Barely aware he was doing it, he tapped his fingers against the papers strewn over his desk. He leaned back in his chair, absently rubbing his jaw with his other hand as he stared into s.p.a.ce.
He thought about what he knew of Jane. Long brown hair that looked surprisingly silky. Brown eyes that were a little too large for her heart-shaped face, and pale skin that looked as if it had rarely been touched by the sun and never by makeup. She usually wore unflattering, sack-like dresses, which didn"t even hint at what her body might be like underneath. For all appearances, she was twenty-seven going on eighty-seven.
But appearances-he knew-could be deceiving. He"d bet almost anything the s.e.xy concept for the new Butler ad had come straight out of her nondescript little head.
In the six years she"d been with Forester+Blake, he"d seen it time and again. The ideas from her team were always stylish, s.e.xy and original. And they came from Jane. Teresa succeeded through hard work, charm, and sheer dogged persistence. Not creativity.
Jane, on the other hand, was bright, innovative, and had a wicked sense of humor. Of course, he knew all of this secondhand, through other employees and through the copy she wrote. Around him, she was pallid, often mute, and generally terrified. He honestly couldn"t remember if she"d ever even spoken to him.
Before he could give Jane any more thought, Matt rapped on the door frame and stuck his head in. "Working late again?"
"When am I not?"
Matt chuckled. "You work too hard."
"What"s that supposed to mean?"
Matt had been his father"s protege. Portly, with graying hair and a full beard, to Reid, Matt had always seemed like a kindly elf. But the Papa Smurf-like exterior hid a keen intellect. "Go home. Get some rest. Relax a little bit."
"Relax? How am I supposed to relax with this hanging over my head?" He held up the financial report he"d been reading.
Matt shrugged. "So, money is tight. It"s been tight before. It"ll be tight again. It"s the nature of the business."
"Come on, Matt. This isn"t just the normal fluctuation that comes with a rough economy and you know it. If we don"t get a new account-a big account-soon, we"ll have to lay people off. Lots of people."
Matt"s normal good humor faded a bit, but he didn"t deny it. "Maybe we will. It happens sometimes."
He knew Matt was right. In the ad business, layoffs happened. If you lost a big account and didn"t get another, suddenly half your employees had nothing to work on. But in the years he"d been running Forester+Blake, he"d managed to avoid them. So far.