Red Hot Rose Boxed Set (14 page)

He was testing me, and I was totally ready for it.
 
I smiled confidently before putting on my game-face.
 
“Anything having to do with hurting children or animals.
 
There’s no coming back from that for you, especially in time to save this campaign.”

He nodded.
 
“I agree.
 
Luckily, that’s not an issue for me.
 
Remember, I’ve kissed babies from Okeechobee to Key West.”

“Tallahassee
to Key West, not Okeechobee.”

He smiled.
 
“How could I forget?”

I shrugged.
 
“So many babies, so little time…”

He tipped his head back and laughed heartily.
 
I jumped a little in my seat, totally unprepared for his sudden happiness.

“Ahhh, you make me laugh, you know that?”
 
He was no longer laughing, but his eyes were still sparkling.

I smiled back.
 
“I’m glad.
 
A life without laughter isn’t living.
 
That’s one reason why I have the roommate I have.
 
She’s hilarious.
 
Without her, I’m sure I’d just be a stick in the mud everywhere I went.”

“What’s her name?”

“Jessica.
 
Jessica MacIntosh.
 
Her parents are big fans of yours, by the way.”

“MacIntosh … MacIntosh … Brian MacIntosh?
 
Of MacIntosh Steel?”

I nodded.
 
“Yep.
 
That’s my roomie’s dad.”

“Is this the girl you’d stay with in New York?”

“Yes.
 
How’d you know?”

“I know they have a big presence in that state, so I just guessed.
 
And it sounds like you two are close.”

“We are.”
 
I thought about her dress that I was wearing, but no way was I going to tell him it was hers, or that she’d encouraged me to totally go for him and his job offer.

“What does she think about you working for me?” he asked.

It freaked me out that he was practically reading my mind.
 
“She doesn’t know about it.”
 
I bit my lip, only feeling a little guilty that I wasn’t being entirely truthful.

“You’re lying,” he deadpanned.

“No, I’m not,” I lied again.

“Whenever you lie, you bite your lip.
 
It’s a dead giveaway.”

I sighed.
 
“Fine.
 
She thinks I should take the job.
 
But she doesn’t know you at all.”

He raised an eyebrow. “And you do?”

My face flamed red again.
 
“I know parts of you.”

He leaned in closer to me, his voice dropping into a lower range.
 
“And what do you think of those parts?”

My heart rate picked up, and I tried to control my breathing.
 
“I think they’re … nice.”

“Big enough for you?” he asked, raising a brow, reaching under the table and putting his hand in my lap, drawing small circles in my palm with this thumb.

I nodded, not trusting myself to speak.

“The parts of you I’ve gotten to know are perfect,” he said.

“Small enough for you?” I whispered, emboldened by the champagne, shocking myself with my own words.

He clenched his jaw tight before answering me in dangerously low tones.
 
“Tighter than tight.”
 
He squeezed my hand.
 
“I want to bury my hard dick in there right now.”

I gasped, totally not expecting him to say that.
 
The juices began to flow between my legs and a tingle started there that I knew wasn’t going to go away until it was satisfied.
 
Even after Alexander leaned back in his chair and pulled his hand from mine, I knew that this whole dinner was just a prelude to another mind-blowing orgasm.
 
At least, that’s what I was hoping it was now.
 
There was no point in fooling myself.
 
I wanted his hard rod inside me again, sliding in and out, bringing the waves of pleasure crashing over me again.

The waiter clearing his throat beside me made me jump once more, snapping me out of my sex fantasy as sharply as if he’d poured the ice from the champagne bucket over my head.
 
I put my hand over my heart to try and calm it as he placed a delicious-looking salad in front of me.

“Bon appetit,” said Alexander, taking his fork in hand and looking down at his salad.
 
If it hadn’t been for the small quirk at the corner of his mouth, I would have thought this mind-spinning distraction was all me alone.

“You are evil,” I whispered-shouted at him, taking my fork and stabbing some greens.
 
“You can’t say that kind of stuff in a restaurant.”

“Seems I can,” he said, shoving a forkful of a spiky lettuce into his mouth, crunching away at it.
 
Even the way he chewed was sexy, the way it made his strong jaw bulge out, the oil from the dressing leaving a shiny streak on his full lower lip.

“Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.”
 
I tossed the lettuce around carelessly with my fork.
 
“How am I supposed to eat now?”

He put his fork down and reached over to lay his hand over mine on the table.
 
“I’m sorry.
 
I do want you to enjoy this meal and relax.
 
I’ll stop teasing you.
 
For now, anyway.”
 
He winked, withdrawing his hand.

I sighed heavily, my heart slowly coming under control again, the heat leaving my face and other regions.
 
“Good.
 
Because I seem to be on some sort of hair-trigger right now.
 
It’s not going to take much to send me over the edge.”

“You don’t sound very happy about that,” he said, using his knife to cut a piece of toast with melted cheese on it.

“I’m not.
 
It’s embarrassing.”

His fork froze halfway to his mouth.
 
“Embarrassing?
 
Why?”
 
He sounded angry.

“Because.
 
I feel like a total ho-bag.
 
Loose.
 
Easy.
 
Gah
, I don’t even know what I’m saying.”
 
I put my fork down and tangled my fingers in my napkin.
 
The champagne was making me stupid.

He put his uneaten bite of food down on the side of is plate slowly, his expression softening.
 
“You’re not a bad person because you enjoy sex, Rose.
 
On the contrary … you’re fun to be around, interesting to talk to, and yes, great in bed.”

I couldn’t help but smile at that.
 
“How would you know?
 
You’ve never had me in bed.”

He laughed.
 
“Oh, but I plan to.”

I picked up my utensils to eat my salad.
 
“Don’t count any chickens until their hatched.
 
I’m not that easy.”

“Don’t I know it,” said Alexander, doubling up his cheesy bread bite and putting the whole thing in his mouth at once.

We ate in companionable silence, enjoying not only the fresh greens and delicate dressing but also the creamy goat cheese on garlicky toast points that I learned were the ‘chevre chaud’ part of our salad.

Once the plates were cleared away, Alexander got all business-like on me again.
 
“So, tell me … what would you do with my campaign if you were in charge of it?”

“How much longer do you have before the election?”

“Two months.”

“That’s not a lot of time.”

“No, it’s not.”

I sighed heavily, thinking seriously for the first time what I’d do with a dying campaign in its last days.
 
“What kind of budget do you have?”

“A few million, give or take.”

I swallowed hard, considering what it would be like, working with that kind of money for real.

“Do you have an email mailing list?”

He frowned.
 
“Yes.”

“What are you doing with it now?”

“Nothing really.
 
Sending out a monthly update.”

I shook my head.
 
“That’s your first mistake … not taking advantage of the assets and resources you already have.”
 
I sat up straighter, feeling like there might be a glimmer of hope here.
 
Maybe there were other things they hadn’t done that could turn the tide.

“What about grassroots organizations?
 
Street teams?
 
What do you have there?”

He shook his head slowly.
 
“Not much, to be honest.
 
I always thought not doing something with those things was a mistake too.”

“It is.
 
Why did you wait so long to do anything about it if you knew things weren’t working?”

His nostrils flared before he seemed to collect himself and answer.
 
“A fair question - one I wish I could answer better.
 
But to be honest, I was so busy just following someone else’s plan, someone who allegedly knew what he was doing, that I didn’t think too hard about it.
 
Especially when all the people around me kept nodding their heads and smiling, telling me everything was great.”

“But the polls … the numbers …”

He closed his eyes and first nodded, then shook his head.
 
“I know.”
 
He opened his eyes back up and fixed me with a penetrating gaze.
 
“I need someone to get in there and shake things up … take the bull by the horns and bring it to its knees.
 
Bring some new life to the whole thing.
 
Will you do that for me?”

I shook my head.
 
“I can’t.
 
I have … school.”
 
It sounded totally lame, even to my own ears, but it wasn’t entirely a lie.
 
I did have classes, but the main reason I was saying no wasn’t school - it was
him
.
 
But he didn’t need to know that.

“I can work around your schedule.
 
I’ll talk to the school administrators, to your professors … whatever I need to do.”

“You’ll do no such thing,” I said a little loudly, worried about him coming into my life and bulldozing right through it.

“Fine, I won’t.
 
But I’ll accommodate you however you need me to.
 
All of my team will.”

I shook my head incredulously at him.
 
“Why on earth would you do that?
 
For me?”

“Because, I just have this feeling in my gut that you’re exactly what I … what my campaign needs.
 
Someone young, vibrant, intelligent, current with the latest techniques and tools.
 
And I never ignore my gut.
 
It’s what’s gotten me this far in life.”
 
He reached out and took my hand in his large, warm one.
 
“Come on, Rose, say you’ll do it.”

Hearing him say my name and feeling him touch my skin at the same time was almost like a drug.
 
I mentally shook off its effects so I could stay strong, pulling my hand back.
 
“No.
 
It’s not going to work.”

“I will pay you one hundred thousand dollars for three months of work and write you a reference letter and make a phone call that will get you a job at the Hanley Dickens PR Agency in New York City.”

My jaw dropped open and didn’t seem to want to work anymore.
 
I moved it from side to side a little, on the brink of having to use my hand to push it back closed when it finally started moving of its own accord again.

“I’m sorry,” I said, frowning.
 
“I think this champagne has been drugged or something.”

“No, it hasn’t, and you
know
it hasn’t.
 
You heard what I said.
 
I’m dead serious.
 
Take the offer, Rose.
 
You won’t get another one like it.”

“I might get another one,” I said, a little offended, although I don’t know why.
 
He was right.

“Are you worth it?
 
Yes.
 
I believe so.
 
But how many people are going to give you this kind of chance?
 
Take a risk with someone so inexperienced, so unknown in the world of business?”

“Which begs the question … why are you?” I asked, jutting my jaw out a little, challenging him to admit it was all about the sex.

“I’ve already said why.”

“No sex,” I said, the words flying out of my mouth before I could really think them through.

“Come again?” he said.

“I said, if I take this job, there will be no sex involved.
 
It would be strictly business.”
 
I was feeling stronger and more confident already.
 
This opportunity
was
a once in a lifetime thing, something I probably shouldn’t pass up.
 
I’d be stupid to.
 
But I couldn’t shake the feeling that it would never have been given to me without the back-office sexy time we’d shared at that party, and the against-the-door-sex we’d had since.
 
I had to know that I’d be working with a team who would respect me for my brains, not my ass.

“If that’s the way you want it.”
 
He shrugged, as if it were no big deal.

I nodded firmly.
 
“It is.”

“Starting when?”

“What do you mean?”
 
I was confused.

“Well, does the no-sex clause in our agreement start now or on your first day at work - tomorrow?”