The Boss's Proposal (12 page)

“Come on, I have my ways of getting into this place. No, I couldn't see exactly what they were doing but from the sound of things and the way she was moving up against the glass, they were having a pretty good time.”

Horror filtered through her. They'd been seen. They'd been seen, not just together but…but…

It made sense now, the looks she'd been getting all morning. She'd assumed it was because she was tired but it hadn't been that at all. She knew, God, she knew, just how fast the office grapevine worked. And
after a dozen years of being smart, she'd put herself at its mercy once again.

Of course, she'd had help.

She wanted to get miles away from Dylan. Miles away from any reminder of what had happened. Miles away from the person who had instigated it. It didn't matter that she'd been a willing participant. In that moment, she wanted to be as far away from him as possible.

“You've got to hand it to the guy, he's here for, what, less than three weeks and he makes off with the hottest merchandise in the store?” Eli's voice continued. “I'd like to know his secret.”

There was probably more, but Max couldn't hear it through the roaring in her ears. Her stomach churned as she walked away. She wanted to drop to her knees. She wanted to throw something. She wanted to run as far and as fast as she could. Instead, she just felt vaguely nauseous.

How had she let it happen? How had she let it happen all over again? Some mistakes, apparently, were worth repeating or maybe it was just that she couldn't learn.

She took pride in never doing anything that would make her sorry. And suddenly, for the second time in her life, she had. Suddenly, her private life had become public fodder. Again. She was no longer Max McBain, architect, she was the hot babe who had done it in the office. Or who had been done.

How long before Hal heard? she wondered
miserably. How long before her status at the firm was compromised for good?

Or had it happened already?

She ducked into her office to get her things and headed for the lobby. Dylan walked up behind her, whistling. He took a closer look at her and frowned. “Are you okay? You look a little pale.”

If she was pale, it was because of him. A surge of anger ran through her. This wasn't the place for the discussion they needed to have, but they needed to have a discussion, and soon. “Just lack of sleep,” she said. “I'll be fine.”

 

The waiting was endless, Max thought as she stood next to Dylan and Jason outside the hospital conference room. She paced, but not out of nerves over the presentation. She paced because it was the only way to keep from screaming.

“Don't worry, we'll be fine,” Dylan said.

But they wouldn't be fine. As soon as she could manage it, there would be no “they” at all, and the sooner it was done, the better.

The doors opened and a quartet of men in suits filed out. The team from New York, she realized. An assistant beckoned to them. Dylan nodded to Jason. “Let's go.”

Dylan pulled open the second door to the conference room and Jason walked in carrying the model. When he put it on the table, there was a little stir.

“Haven't seen one of these in a while,” Fischer grinned. “It's kind of nice, though.”

“The computer renderings never look like the real thing,” Avery Sherwin agreed. “We spent all kinds of time going over computer models for our new head quarters and I was still surprised at the way it came out when it was actually built. This is better.”

Dylan had been right, the model gave them their wow factor. The committee connected over it, walking around it, touching, talking about it. When Dylan finally stood up at the front of the room, looking heartbreakingly polished, he had their full attention.

“Good afternoon, and thank you for inviting BRS to submit a proposal on this project. As a local company, we think we have a unique perspective to offer on health care design in Portland. The proposal book lets contain full details on our team and our partners. But really, gentlemen, let's get to what's important here—a building that will serve your patient community in the most modern, effective and innovative way possible.

“Let me draw your attention to some of the unique features in the floor plan….”

She listened to him talk about the balcony gardens, the family suites, saw the committee nodding as he explained to them why it was the right approach. It had all been worth it, she thought. No matter the personal cost of working on the project, it had been
worth it to have a chance to bring these innovations to the patients of Portland General.

If only their gain hadn't meant her loss.

 

“I thought that went well,” Dylan said as the three of them walked out into the open air. Their one-hour presentation window had been stretched to nearly two, driven in part by an extended question and answer session.

“They asked to keep the model,” Jason said. “I figure that's got to be a good sign.”

“We'll know in a couple of weeks,” Max said. You did your best and you waited to find out. It was kind of how life went.

Except sometimes you just got blown out of the water.

They crossed into the parking lot. “Okay, guys, this is where I peel off,” said Jason. “I'll see you back at the office for the debriefing.”

Max stayed quiet while they walked to the car and got inside. Dylan turned on the engine. “I'm glad that's over.” He backed out of the parking spot.

“I can imagine.” Her voice was cool. “You're done with the proposal and you can head on back to Dubai.”

“This is about that phone call I got last night?”

“You mean the one with the prince yanking your chain?”

He moved his jaw. “Just because he's demanding that I be there doesn't mean that I jump.”

“You were only here as an emergency fill-in,” she said. “It's no secret that you have another life. There's no reason why you shouldn't go back to it.”

“Just because I'm going back to Dubai doesn't mean that I leave everything here behind.” He pulled out of the medical center grounds and onto the street. “What's going on with us isn't just a passing thing. I have no intention of letting it go. So if you're concerned because of what you heard on the phone call last night, don't be. You and I are going to keep going. No matter what it takes, we'll figure out a way.”

“No, Dylan,” she said tightly, “I don't think we will.”

“What?” He stopped at the light and looked over at her. “What's going on, Max? You haven't looked right all day.”

“Gosh, thank you very much.”

“Tell me what happened.”

“I'll tell you what happened,” she snapped. “Guess what I heard this morning when I was going to get coffee? It was Eli, talking to a buddy. It seems he forgot one of the files he was supposed to take home last night so he came back and guess what he saw?”

“Oh hell.”

“Yes, oh hell,” she mimicked. “It was all over the office. I don't know how you missed it. I overheard people talking about at least twice more. Just like I told you at least twice more last night to please stop. But no, you were really in a mood. Even though we had so damn much work there was no way we were
going to get it all done, you still had to take a break.

You just wouldn't listen.” Her voice rose.

“Look, I'm sorry it happened. I know it's embarrassing, but we'll live it down, we'll survive.”

“
We'll
live it down?” she repeated. “Do you think you're the one they were making jokes about in the office today? Do you think you're the one they were staring at? I wondered why Eli was asking me if I was tired this morning and winking at me. And then I found out why.”

“I'm sorry.”

“Why are you sorry? You should be happy. Your rep has gone way up. The guys I overheard were very impressed that in less than three weeks you—”

“This isn't about the guys in the office,” he interrupted, “this is about you and me.”

“There is no you and me,” she flared. “There never was. You were in town, we were working together, we fooled around a few times. Period. You go back to Dubai next week for your prince, so even if it wasn't already over it would be then. And trust me, buddy, it's over.”

“Because I didn't stop?”

“Because you wouldn't listen when I asked.”

“As I recall, you stopped asking pretty early on in the proceedings,” he said.

She looked at him as though she'd been struck.

Dylan let out a breath. “Look, I didn't mean that to come out the way it did, but I still don't understand
why you're so upset. It's going to blow over. It doesn't matter.”

“It sure as hell matters to me,” she shot back. “I don't get to escape to Dubai. I have to keep living with this, day after day.” She shook her head blindly. “I can't believe I did this again. I cannot believe that I was so stupid.”

He pulled the car over to the side of the road and turned to face her.

“Why are you stopping? We're two blocks away from the office.”

“Because we are going to talk about this,” he snapped. “What did he do to you? The guy in Chicago you told me about, there's more to the story. What happened?” She reached for the door handle and he caught her shoulders and held her in place. “You are not going to walk away from this, at least not without an explanation. You owe me that much.”

“I don't owe you anything at all,” she retorted.

“But you're dying to talk about it, aren't you? Go ahead, tell me. Tell me why you want to wipe me out right now.”

Her throat tightened. “You want to know what happened? Fine. It began a few weeks after I started at the Chicago Design Group. Even though I was an intern, I had so much experience that within a couple of weeks, I was working with their entry-level architects. I figured that was why Elliott Seymour came by to talk to me.”

“Elliott Seymour?”

“He was a partner.”

Dylan let out a breath. “Yeah. I know him.” The tone of his voice told her all she needed to know about his opinion of Seymour.

“He said he had a special side project that he wanted to work on with me in the evenings. I couldn't believe it. Here was this internationally known architect and he wanted to work with me. I thought that he was interested in my mind.” She gave a bitter laugh. “God, I was more naive than I had any right to be. It started out with takeout at the office, then dinners. When he touched me at first, it almost seemed accidental. But it turned into more.”

Of course it had, Dylan thought.

“He said he and his wife were separated, that they'd filed for divorce. When he took me to his condo, there wasn't a trace of her. And we slept together.” She stared down at her hands. “It lasted for a couple of weeks. He kept telling me that I was special and that as soon as his divorce was final, we'd go public.”

Max swallowed. “And then the company had their annual picnic. I don't know what I was expecting, it wasn't like he'd given me any reason to think he was going to announce us to anyone, but still…” She'd hoped. She'd bought a new dress she couldn't afford, spent hours getting ready. “I walked in and saw him standing there with this very beautiful, sophisticated woman. Who happened to be his wife.”

“Oh, Christ,” Dylan breathed.

“There wasn't any separation or pending divorce, just a wife staying with family in Europe for the summer. A wife and two sons. That was the worst part.” She shook her head. “I felt dirty, just…sordid. I'd always sworn I would never have an affair with a married man. And here I'd done it.”

“Not of your own choice,” he said.

“It didn't matter. It happened.” She let out a long breath. “The second worst part was the whispering. Someone had seen us one night, so they were all waiting for me to show up at the picnic, watching to see how I'd react. Especially the entry-level employees, who thought that Elliott was the reason I'd been on the fast track.” She remembered the greasy nausea even now.

“I learned a lot about people that day, Dylan,” she whispered, her voice barely audible. “All kinds of people. The liars, the users, the Teflon people and the ones who like to feed on other people's misery.”

“They were watching?”

“Some of them were making bets,” she said aridly. “Apparently this was a yearly habit for him. I'd won the intern sweepstakes for that summer but his wife had come home early. Most years, the interns never even knew.”

She'd managed, just barely, to hold it together through the introductions, stood long enough to have a cocktail. And walked calmly and casually inside to the bathroom and threw up. She'd left as soon as she could manage.

“It all fell apart pretty quickly after that,” she said. “His wife figured out what had gone on. I got called in to HR. Officially, they were downsizing me because of budget cuts but everyone knew the real story.” And however irrational it was, she couldn't escape the fear it would happen again.

“It wasn't your fault.”

“Of course it was. I thought I was way too smart to be taken in and I fell for one of the oldest lines in the book. So I figured I'd never let it happen again. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me.” She laughed bitterly. “It's shame on me, because I walked right into it again.”

Dylan shook his head. “The hell you did. This is a totally different situation.”

“Is it? I report to you on this job. Do you have any idea what people are going to think about me sleeping with the boss's son? Do you think anybody's going to believe I've earned the spot I'm in now?”

“Anybody who's been around this firm for five minutes knows you have. Max, I know this is hard, but it doesn't have to matter. It doesn't have to change things with us.”