Hot in Here (15 page)

Shaking his head, he tossed the picture onto the passenger seat of his Jag. He couldn’t stop staring at the

image of him and Jenna together.

“What the fuck do you want?” he asked himself.

It took a long while before he could bring himself to admit the truth. But it finally arrived, in a

headache-inspiring moment.

What he wanted was Jenna, all of her. The soft, vulnerable friend Jenna, who always brought out the

tender side of him, and the sex bomb, who could wring an orgasm out of him like no other woman ever

had. Was it possible to have them both? Or was the friend gone forever, replaced by this woman who

was willing to share her body and nothing else?

There was only one way to find out. They were going to have to go back. To those days when he’d had

so much fun with Jenna. When life had been a pleasure. Not a headache.

Putting the gearshift in drive, he pulled out of his parking spot and out of the garage. It was dark, the stars

obstructed by heavy clouds. He smiled, remembering how the stars had looked from the hayloft. When

he and Jenna had lain there for hours, just staring up at the sky, talking about their dreams. He wanted

those days back.

Nine

The Italian language had never been Jenna’s forte. If only she had her Italian phrase finder and dictionary

handy.

Yeah, like that was going to help her. The way Gabriella Giancomo was rolling through her tirade, Jenna

would never be able to keep up. She heard a bunch of rolled r’s, could almost imagine the fashion

designer’s hand flinging around her head as her voice reached a shattering crescendo.

Jenna picked out the wordsincasinato ,merda andstronzo before Gabriella could take a breath.

Screwed-up, shit and jerk. Well, that made things easy. Gabriella was screaming about the terrible ad

concept James had done.

Another string of strong words, followed by the sound of a hand slapping against wood, thundered

through the speaker phone as James slid a piece of paper across the desk.

I think that’s Italian for I’ll get you and your little dog, too!

Jenna shot him a warning glare, but smiled, too. Wasn’t that the truth? Gabby was going to ruin Jenna

and her company if they didn’t do something.

“Parli piu lentamente, per favore, Gabriella,”Jenna said in terrible Italian.

“I will not speak slower!” came the hissed reply. “I am mad,arrabiato-a !”

“I understand, Gabriella. I’m angry as well.”

That seemed to calm the wind in her sails. “I thought you would be good designer for this line. You’re a

woman. You understand. But you send a stupid man who thought it was good to put a nightgown over a

chair and call it a masterpiece.”

Jenna grimaced as she recalled the proofs of the ads and cross promo concept. There was no denying

that James had missed the mark—by a football field.

“I want beautiful, full women to wear my clothes. That is what the line is all about, no? There is no other

couture house doing lingerie and beautiful clothes for real women. It is all my idea. And it is good idea.

The world thinks these women don’t want to feel beautiful and sexy? That they don’t have dreams of

having somebello uomo love them? Desire them? And this shitty presentation tells me you could not find

one beautiful, full woman in the whole world and a sexy man who wants to be with her in a picture.”

“You’re absolutely right. Part of the reason I jumped at the opportunity to market Duchess Lingerie was

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the chance to work up something beautiful for the women out there over a size fourteen.”

“So why you no work on this ad campaign yourself?” Gabriella shot back.

That was the hardest question of all. Probably because she’d been devoting her brainpower to Bryce’s

dilemma. She’d come up with his plan and not the one for the Duchess account. And now Bryce wasn’t

even going to do any of the things she thought he should, and Global Marketing was going to lose a huge

account. An account that Jenna sorely wanted to have. Lingerie and pretty things were near and dear to

her heart. And while she was a size fourteen and could normally find those pretty things in regular

department stores, her sister couldn’t. Even though she loved lingerie and sexy stuff just as much as Jenna

did.

Jenna had seen the marketing campaign as a chance to break down the walls of stereotyped beauty.

She’d had a million ideas floating around in her head to get women breaking down the door of their local

Duchess retail outlet just to buy themselves a pair of pretty panties to wear beneath their jeans.

In her heart, she knew this line, if marketed right, could be so successful and rewarding.

“Gabriella, I swear to you, if you would give me one more chance, I will make this ad campaign into

something magical. One more chance.”

“One more,” Gabby said. “And I want sexy men.”

“Done.Bello uomos , I promise.” Jenna shot James a relieved expression. “What are you doing on

Monday? I’d like to come to Milan and show you a few things I’m thinking of for the marketing

campaign.”

“Come Saturday,” she ordered. “I leave for Greece on Monday—for vacation.”

Shit, that was tomorrow. Jenna checked the clock. It was eleven a.m. Plenty of time to run like mad

around the city preparing for a hare-brained trip to Italy the next morning.

“Well? You come?”

“Of course, tomorrow is great. I’ll book a flight right now. Just let me get the details from you.”

When she was done writing everything down, Jenna shut off the button for the speaker phone and

collapsed against the chair. “Well, at least we still have the account. I don’t know how much money

we’re going to make since this last-minute airfare to Italy is going to bite into profits big-time.”

“You did what needed to be done, Jenna. And I accept the blame. I should have consulted you first

about my ideas. I just don’t get the female psyche when clothing size is involved.”

“Most men don’t. That’s why I blame myself for passing this job on to you. I shouldn’t have. I know

what women are looking for. I have a sister who is plus-sized. She’s beautiful and so sexy, but shopping

with her makes me want to cry. It’s difficult but not impossible to find trendy clothes. But pretty lingerie?

Thatis impossible. She always leaves those stores feeling ugly and bad about herself.”

“Well, you’ll get the job done, Jenna. And you know what? I know it’s going to be the best campaign

we’ve ever done. Your heart’s in it, and that’s what is going to make it such a huge success. From now

on, I’m sticking with things I know, and women’s lingerie isn’t one of them.”

“Don’t beat yourself up over this one, James. You brought in that neat little company that makes Italian

leather shoes. It was a nice profit for the company, and one account I wouldn’t have landed without your

savvy.”

James stood up and stretched. “Thanks, Jenna. I felt like a real ass when I screwed up. I’ll get the flight

and hotel logistics worked out. I’ll leave the hunky male model to you.”

“Geez, thanks. That’s so good of you. Because you know, I can find one of those anywhere.”

They both laughed, then sobered. Together they said, “Rachel.”

“Oh God,” Jenna groaned. “We’re beginning to think alike.”

“Scary, huh? Maybe it’s time we relooked at that idea of me becoming a partner. I got the money, Jenna.

And I’d love to be a partner with you.”

Jenna thought of the loan she was waiting to hear about. Any day she should know about the extra cash

for her parents. She didn’t want James getting embroiled in that. Plus, she liked running her own business,

being her own boss, making Global Marketing a success on her own.

James was watching her, an expectant expression on his face, so Jenna said, “Maybe when I get back

from Italy.”

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“Okay,” he said. “I’ll send Rachel in and get your flight organized.”

Jenna barely had time to assimilate everything she had to do before going to Milan the next day when

Rachel breezed through her office door.

“You wanted me?”

“I did. What’s the name of that supermodel from Rome who’s so hot these days—the one with the pouty

lips and the six-pack like granite?”

“Eduardo.” Rachel replied. “I think he’s with the Palissier Agency. Why?”

“I need a stud to pose for an ad, and I’d prefer that he be Italian.”

“To please Diva Giancomo?”

“Something like that. Plus, I think women kind of gravitate to the dark, swarthy type of guy. I want this

campaign to be all about fantasy, but not so out there that it’s beyond the realm of the possible. I want

the chemistry between the two models to be palpable. And I think Italian guys go for the more buxom,

curvy type.”

“He’d be perfect.”

“Great. You think you can set something up for me? It’s such short notice, but I was thinking maybe

something tomorrow or early Sunday.”

“I’ll try.”

“You might want to remind him that the account is Duchess Lingerie, and the designer is the daughter of

Italy’s very own Carlo Giancomo. A good job with this could mean work for him with one of the most

influential couture fashion houses.”

“Oooh, a little bribery. Love it. I’ll get right on it.”

Jenna was just picking up the phone to call her sister when Rachel stopped at the door and looked over

her shoulder. “Hey, speaking of hot men, how goes it with your sexy chef?”

Jenna groaned. She’d done remarkably well not thinking about Bryce all morning. Of course, when you

had an irate client screaming obscenities in Italian at you, you tended to forget a lot of things, including

your own name. But now that she was reminded of Bryce, she started to feel sick to her stomach. Last

night had been such a bad scene. Over and over, she had tried to search for clues, to see if there was any

hidden meaning or any nuances of feeling she could decipher in his angry words.

Thanks for the fuck.Those words curdled her blood. He’d said it as though he were spitting out poison.

She’d felt the puncture of them go straight to her heart.

“Well, we seem to be having lots of sex,” she finally said.

“Hey, you go, girl! Good for you. It’s fun, isn’t it, just having sex and not worrying about anything other

than getting off?”

“Uh, yeah, it’s great.”

“So, is he panting after you?”

“Not really. He was pissed that I made him leave last night.”

“Oooh, did you really? That was a good move, Jenna. He’ll be snapping you up tonight and chaining you

to the bed. Good work. See, I told you this was what you needed to do. You’ve got him ensnared. He’ll

be coming around tonight again for more.”

Rachel shot her a wink and closed the door, leaving Jenna alone. No, he wasn’t panting afterher . Just

the sex.I’ll know who to call the next time I want to get laid.

That pretty much said it all.

The intercom buzzed, and Jenna’s secretary thankfully interrupted her black thoughts. “Your sister is on

the line, Miss McCabe. Are you taking calls?”

“Thanks. Send her through, Jessica.”

The phone rang and Jenna picked it up on the first ring. “Sarah?”

“Hey, big sister.”

That always made Jenna smile. Jenna was barely even a year older than Sarah. A fact they both liked to

tease their mother about.

“So, what’s new? Got a shiny princess cut on your finger yet?”

Jenna snorted and leaned back in her office chair. Kicking off her heels, she put her feet on top of her

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desk and wiggled her sore toes. “Right.”

“What, are you holding out for a bigger rock?”

“Hardly. We’re not quite there yet, Sarah.”

“No? Where exactly are you, Jen?”

“Still at the ‘no strings hot sex’ stage of my new plan.”

“What new plan?”

“I’ve decided that what Bryce needs is what he’s been dishing out to all the women in his life—just sex

and nothing else.”

“Do you really think that’s wise? I mean, you don’t want him to get the wrong impression about what

you’re really looking for.”

“I know what I’m doing, Sarah.”

“What’s happened to change your plans?”

“Nothing. I just think it’s a better way to manage Bryce. I’m going to make myself unattainable, and he’s

going to chase me.”

“And then what?”

“He’s going to become obsessed, of course. God, Sarah, aren’t you listening to me?”

“I’m trying to follow your reasoning, but personally, I think it’s going to lead to disaster. You don’t want

him obsessed with the notion of getting it on with you. You want him passionate aboutyou —the person

you are.”

“He will in time, but sex is the way to snag his attention in the beginning.”

There was long a pause before Sarah said, “I think this is the most dim-witted idea you’ve ever had.”

Jenna felt her eyes bug out. Sarah was always her champion. They were more than sisters—they were

friends. How could her sister not understand that Jenna had been reduced to this because of Bryce’s

skittishness about relationships?

“You wanna know what else I think?”

Jenna closed her eyes. “Not really, but I know that won’t matter to you.”

“Nope. It won’t. What I think is, you’re not giving Bryce a real chance. I think you’re afraid of failure, so