Wicked Heat (6 page)

Asshats indeed. After losing her biggest client, she’d been counting on new accounts
coming on board. Without them, AW Advertising wouldn’t just be struggling to stay
in business. It’d be on the verge of bankruptcy.

Shit.

“Which ones?”

Zoe continued. “Does it matter? The fools went with boring establishment rather than
new and innovative. Stupid old boys’ club.”

Allegra knew the type. Stuffy, pompous pricks. Fake, backslapping air-kissers, all
of them—the kind of people her parents hung out with.

“So set up that meeting with Kaluna pronto.” Zoe shifted the phone so Allegra could
see the spreadsheets on the PC in the background. “Because by my calculations, if
you don’t land that campaign, we’re in deep doggy doo.”

That’s when the enormity of the situation detonated.

AW Advertising had been in trouble when she’d made this trip to score an appointment
with Kai Kaluna. Now, her company was beyond trouble. She had to land this deal. It
was imperative.

In the next few days, she’d be making the pitch of her life. And losing wasn’t an
option.

Damn.

Taking her silence for agreement, Zoe continued. “I’ve spent the last sixty minutes
preparing a portfolio on Kaluna. I could e-mail you the main stuff but it’s probably
too short a time frame to courier the rest.”

In a second, Allegra made the kind of lightning-fast decision that had won her pitches
in the past. “Jump on the next flight out here. Bring everything. Pack my power suit.
And yours. Because we’re doing this as a team.”

Zoe gaped. “But you’re the marketing whiz. You do the presentations—”

“Not anymore.” Allegra brought the phone closer to her face and spoke extra clearly.
“You’re just as much the brains behind this company as I am. You refused a partnership
initially. I’m not taking no for an answer this time.”

“But I don’t want—”

“Irrelevant what you want. AW will go under if we don’t land this account, and you’ve
done more research on it than I have.” Allegra waved her hand high. “My head’s up
here at the moment after all the wedding crap and I need you.”

“This is crazy—”

“No, it’s not. You scored equal top grades with me in that marketing degree at college.
Time you stopped hiding behind whatever is making you refuse to step up to save AW
for us both to continue as CEOs. Got it?”

Allegra had never seen Zoe anything but über-confident, so to see a wobbly smile made
her feel a tad guilty for being tyrannical.

“Do I get a raise?”

Allegra snorted. “Babe, unless we score this account, you’ll be lucky to get enough
of a severance package to buy Thai takeout to commiserate.”

“Okay, I’ll get on it and see you first thing in the morning.”

“And I’ll get up to speed once you e-mail me what you’ve got so far.”

Zoe saluted. “See you then.”

Unable to stave off a nasty foreboding, Allegra wrapped her towel tighter and fired
up her iPad, ready to do some serious work.

Not only did she have to organize a meeting with Kai Kaluna on short notice, she had
to fine-tune her concept. The ideas she’d brainstormed during what should’ve been
her wedding night had been simple: focus on the island’s strengths. Sun, surf, sand.
Glamorous models. Perfect families. High-end clientele.

It had been the best she could come up with on short notice, but with a little fleshing
out and embellishing, she knew she had the flair to land the lucrative campaign.

Winning this campaign wouldn’t be easy; she had no illusions about that. Kai Kaluna
would’ve handpicked a select few agencies to hear pitches from. Which made her quest
to land a meeting first, then a chance to pitch, and win, all the harder.

She’d do it, though. After the latest batch of bad news, she had no choice.

Losing AW Advertising wasn’t an option.

…

Jett had called in a lot of favors to get a meeting with Kai Kaluna.

It was the reason he’d visited LA, to personally call on guys in the hotel business
he’d done work for in the past. Guys only too happy to help him out once they’d learned
the extent of Reeve’s deceit and what that meant for Jett’s business.

In the advertising world, loyalty and dollars were king. If he produced stellar marketing
ideas and the client raked in the big bucks, those clients kept knocking on his door.

Sadly, no one would be knocking on the door of his hip Bondi office any longer. Thanks
to Reeve, the conniving bastard.

There weren’t too many people in this world Jett could rely on. He’d thought Reeve
Lingford was one of them. They’d been best mates at the posh private school they’d
attended in Sydney’s inner suburbs, and had bonded over a love of Aussie-rules football,
cricket, pranks, and a mutual disregard for their overbearing fathers.

Jett’s mom had died when he was a toddler; Reeve’s had divorced his dad and moved
to South America. Resulting in both of them being raised by wealthy, iron-fisted fathers
who expected their sons to be model, upstanding citizens who carried on the family
name with honor and decency.

Yeah, his dad actually said that. Not that Jett took much notice of what top Sydney
barrister Clive Halcott said once he’d learned the truth: that as long as Jett did
things Clive’s way, he was in the good books. Otherwise, forget it.

He couldn’t wait to hear what dear old dad had to say about his company’s failure.
Or more precisely, his failure in completely missing the signs of Reeve’s betrayal.
His lack of character judgment would be one of the many faults Clive would undoubtedly
highlight.

“Sorry to keep you waiting, Mr. Halcott.” Kai Kaluna strode into his office, a second-story
suite overlooking the expansive lagoon pool wending its way through the palms. “Conference
call went overtime.”

“No need to apologize.” Jett held out his hand and Kai shook it firmly. “You’re a
busy man.”

“Who’s about to get busier if the number of advertising firms battering down my door
for a chance to pitch for the resorts’ campaign increases.” Kai sat behind his glass-topped
desk and waved to an empty seat opposite. “But that’s why you’re here, isn’t it?”

Jett nodded. “Your former Palm Bay manager, Duke Abernathy, referred me.” He tapped
on his iPad screen and brought up a presentation. “This is the layout I did for Duke’s
Malibu apartment project and when he heard you were after a new advertising campaign
for the resorts, he thought I should give you a call.”

Jett held his breath as Kai tilted his head, studying the iPad. Duke had come through
for him big-time. Campaigns like this didn’t become available every day, and the fact
Kai was ditching his old-school New York advertising firm in favor of someone new
was a massive business opportunity too big to pass up.

He’d pondered the wisdom of leaving Sydney for LA a week ago, wondering if friends
and colleagues would see it as running away. But he’d had no choice. Jett needed new
blood to start afresh.

Hopefully, he was looking at it, as Kai Kaluna scrutinized the quick mock-ups he’d
done.

After what seemed an eternity, but in reality could’ve only been a few minutes, Kai
nodded, pensive. “I value Duke’s opinion, and by the quality of your work, Mr. Halcott,
I’m indebted to him for referring you.”

“Thanks.” Jett mentally punched the air. “Call me Jett.”

Kai stabbed a finger at the electronic diary on his desk. “Jett, I’ll be honest with
you. I have two other advertising agencies flying in tomorrow to pitch. If you can
come up with something for me by Friday, I’ll hear your pitch then and make a final
decision by Saturday.”

Some of Jett’s elation at being given a shot deflated. He had three days to come up
with the pitch of a lifetime. Or bust.

If he screwed this up, he could say good-bye to resurrecting his career in this business
any time soon. Kai Kaluna was the big time. Landing him as a client would ensure other
clients would follow, and maybe some of those from the past would consider re-signing,
too.

“Not a problem. Friday’s fine for me.”

“Good.” Kai tapped at the keyboard in front of a giant PC screen before turning it
to face Jett. “Let’s stick to an ad campaign for the Palm Bay resort for now, but
ultimately, if you’re the man for the job, you’ll be coordinating advertising for
all my resorts across the globe.”

Jett stared at the snapshots of Kai’s various resorts around the world and tried not
to salivate. He’d nail this campaign if it killed him.

“Thanks for the opportunity, sir, I appreciate it.” He stood and shook Kai’s hand
again.

“I’m Kai around here.” The older guy, who Jett pegged to be in his midfifties, winced.
“‘Sir’ reminds me of my dad, and that’s one memory I’d rather not have.”

Jett resisted the urge to blurt, “Know the feeling.”

“And just so you know, there’ll be an unlimited budget for this ad campaign. High
six figures for a start, but whatever it takes to get Kaluna Resorts on the map, I’m
happy to do it.”

Jett nodded and hoped the dollar signs didn’t show in his eyes like those crazy cartoons
he watched as a kid. “I’ll keep that in mind when I come up with a concept.”

Unlimited budget…high six figures…
As Jett exited Kai’s office and headed for his room, those words pinged around his
brain.

He had to secure this deal. He had to. Failure wasn’t an option.

First task on the agenda was to check his Google bookmarks, stuff he’d already researched
on the resorts before coming here. Then brainstorm. That free-for-all with pen and
paper that had served him well, when he’d devised major campaigns for a rugby club,
a tennis tournament, and a department store chain.

He’d dealt with big clients before and hadn’t blinked. But as he rounded the eastern
corner of the resort and spied Allegra stretched out on a sun lounge, wearing a tiny
crimson string bikini and a dog-ugly straw hat while studying her iPad, he knew this
campaign would be different.

Because he’d never had this kind of distraction before.

She lay down her iPad, wriggled on her towel, adjusted her hat, and rolled over, the
slivers of sun peeping through the palms caressing her pert ass.

His cock immediately hardened.

Yep, Allegra was one serious distraction he couldn’t afford.

Like that would stop him.

Chapter Four

A shadow blocked the sun momentarily and raised a slight chill on Allegra’s skin.

“I hope you’ve applied sunscreen.”

The chill turned into a shiver of delight at the sound of Jett’s deep voice, and she
turned onto her side, propping on an elbow.

“Why? You volunteering?”

“Babe, if it means getting my hands all over you, abso-friggin-lutely.” He squatted
next to her sun lounge and ran his hand over the curve of her butt. “Though I won’t
be held responsible if my fingers accidentally snag the strings holding this thing
together and it comes undone.”

Heat zinged her bits at the thought. “Maybe you should offer your services in the
privacy of the honeymoon suite?” She lowered her voice. “It has a private plunge pool.”

His delicious mouth eased into a wicked smile that snatched her breath. “We’re talking
about my sunscreen application services, right?” His palm slid off her butt and onto
her thigh, skimming her leg all the way down to her toes. “Because I’m also available
to service you in other ways, plunge or otherwise…”

She gasped as he leaned down to place a hot, openmouthed kiss in the small of her
back.

“Don’t you have work to do?”

“Don’t remind me.” He sat on the lounger and rested his hand on her hip like it was
the most natural thing in the world, oblivious to her haywire hormones from his simple
touch. “Apparently I have a few days to come up with a whiz-bang campaign to score
the biggest client I’ve ever had, or my career is down the crapper.”

An uneasy feeling insinuated its way into her hormone haze. “Tell me more about your
work.”

“You want to be bored?”

“It interests me.” She wriggled into a sitting position and hugged her knees to her
chest, hoping her intuition was way off. Because the moment he’d said
campaign
and
biggest client ever
, Allegra had an awful sinking feeling she knew who Jett was referring to. And that
would make him the enemy. “Considering we skipped the getting-to-know-each-other thing
and jumped straight into bed, I’d like to hear a bit more about you.”

“You sure?” He dropped a kiss onto her knee and damn if the skin there wasn’t as responsive
to his touch as the rest of her body. “Because I’m going to have limited downtime
the next few days and I’d rather spend it doing more of that jumping into bed than
talking business.”

She would, too, but if his big client happened to be Kai Kaluna…damn, they were one
major conflict of interest waiting to happen.

“Trade you.” She held up her hand, fingers spread. “Five minutes of talk for thirty
minutes in bed.”

“Who needs a bed?” He nuzzled the tender skin beneath her ear and her head fell back
as she reveled in his constant urge to touch her.

She wanted his hands and mouth all over her, but that wouldn’t foster the information
she needed before they took this thing between them further.

She gently swatted him away. “Start talking, mister.”

He slipped an arm around her waist and held her close. “At the risk of boring you
to tears, here’s the abbreviated version. I’m in advertising. Had a great business
in Sydney co-run by my oldest buddy from high school. He scammed cash, made some foolish
investments, lost the lot, and absconded to some Caribbean hideaway to avoid criminal
prosecution and me busting his ass. So in order to regain respect of clients, not
have my career ruined completely, and start a new company from scratch, I need to
win the ad campaign for this island’s resort. It’s the only thing that will save me.”

Allegra’s earlier unease blossomed into full-blown dread.

Jett was pitching to Kai Kaluna, the same client she had to land to save AW Advertising.
The same client he needed to save his career.

Shit.

“That’s awful, what your best friend did.”

“Tell me about it.” He shook his head. “I still can’t believe he screwed me over.
Reeve was the math brain at school so it seemed natural for him to deal with our financials.
I checked the spreadsheets at regular intervals, kept abreast of our business.”

His audible devastation made her want to hug him tight.

“Want to know the pathetic part? I constantly wonder if I was too pumped up on success,
that I missed any inconsistencies.”

Allegra rubbed his back in small circles, comforting. “He sounds like a conniving
con man who thought nothing of robbing his best friend blind. Nothing you could’ve
done would stop scum like that.”

His rueful smile warmed her heart. “The cops said the same. Reeve had spent years
siphoning off funds, doctoring the books, and ensuring he covered his tracks so not
even our accountant had a clue.” He swore. “What pisses me off the most is how we
celebrated every new client, toasting our success, when Reeve must’ve been laughing
at my gullibility.”

“He sounds like a real piece of work. And an asshole.”

He chuckled. “Yeah, though in Oz we say arsehole.”

“Sounds cruder somehow.”

“Exactly. Fitting for an arsehole like Reeve.” His smile faded. “So now you know why
I have to win this campaign. My entire career depends on it.”

Fuckity-fuck.

Allegra had no choice but to go all out to win the pitch campaign for Kaluna Resorts.
And that meant beating Jett.

If she won, he lost his career.

If he won, she lost hers.

Talk about a lose-lose situation.

Not to the mention the tiny salient fact that she hadn’t told him what she did for
a living, and if she blurted it now it would look like she’d withheld the truth because
she’d been up to no good. He’d think she’d been spying on him or trying to get inside
info or some such thing.

“You have no other options?”

He shook his head. “That’s why I was in LA, putting out feelers among old contacts.
One of them came through for me with an early tip-off about the Kaluna project so
here I am. ” He tapped his temple. “Have a killer concept right here, ready to go.
Going for the glamour angle. Hot babes. Cute kids. Happy families. Aimed at all spectrums
of the wealthy market.”

Allegra’s stomach somersaulted and landed with a sickening thud.

Jett had just verbalized her concept in a nutshell.

No freaking way.

Not only were they pitching for the same campaign, they were using the same idea.
Disastrous. Unless…

The guilt at not telling him the truth about why she was on the island niggled at
her. What if she could help him? Not to ease her guilt as much as do something for
a guy who’d been nothing but lovely to her. Something to give him a fighting chance
at resurrecting his career.

She could change her pitch.

Come at it from a different angle. Scrap her initial ideas and come up with something
completely new. Leaving Jett with a clear shot at winning the campaign squarely and
fairly, without Kai Kaluna having to make comparisons between two similar campaigns.

She wouldn’t take it easy on him—that wasn’t what this was about. She’d be fighting
just as hard to win but this way, if he ever found out the truth, God forbid, he couldn’t
accuse her of stealing his idea or committing professional sabotage.

Just the thought of him thinking of her that way made her break into a cold sweat.

She wanted to tell him. Had to tell him they were competitors for this campaign. But
the expression on Jett’s face stopped her.

She’d seen him cocky and confident and charming. She’d seen his eyes glazed in passion
and fiery in foreplay. But she hadn’t seen him look so…vulnerable. And that one glimpse
of defenselessness made her reevaluate the wisdom of telling him anything.

Guys didn’t take too kindly to being helped. They saw it as interfering at best, emasculating
at worst. She’d seen it firsthand in the corporate world too many times, her good
intentions misread by guys with massive egos and pea-sized brains.

While Jett seemed more evolved than some of the Neanderthals she’d worked with, how
well did she really know him? She didn’t. She should be thinking professionally now,
should be doing her usual self-talk along the lines of “you owe him nothing, he’ll
be out of your life in a few days, this is business and has nothing to do with your
fling.”

Sadly, her voice of reason sounded callous and cold. Because Jett wasn’t a stranger,
no matter how many times she tried to couch it in those terms. She knew his body intimately,
from the jagged scar high on his right thigh from a surfing accident, to the line
of freckles shaped like a crooked arrow to his heart underneath his left armpit.

She could’ve dismissed theirs as a physical bond, if only he hadn’t told her about
his partner fleecing him, his self-doubts, his background…

Yeah, she could lend a helping hand without him knowing and he’d be none the wiser.

If she lost the pitch to him or someone else, he wouldn’t know they’d been rivals
and they could part on friendly terms, maybe even keep in touch. If she won the pitch…well,
she’d tell him then, before they returned to their respective countries. It would
be easier having him mad at her with an ocean between them than on the same island.
On the island where they could use each other for decompressing and de-stressing.

“So basically you need to land this deal or…?”

“I’m finished.” He frowned. “Landing Kaluna will reinstate my reputation in a cutthroat
industry and be a huge incentive for other clients to take a chance on my new company.”
He swiped a hand over his face but it did little to erase the tension. “With the added
bonus of proving to my dad I’m not a lousy waste of space.”

Wow, and she thought she had it bad with her folks.

“Does it help if I say at least he acknowledges you exist?”

He studied her with interest. “So your folks wouldn’t win any Parents of the Year
awards either, huh?”

“My folks are the most narcissistic people on the planet.” Allegra clasped his hand,
hoping to convey how much she understood of his situation. “Beverly Hills socialites
who assumed their positions rather than earning them. Dad serves on the boards of
various companies, Mom does the charity circle. I was a mistake they shipped off to
boarding school as soon as I could walk.”

“Ouch.” He squeezed her hand in return. “In my case, boarding school was to teach
me discipline, manners, and a well-rounded education leading into law.”

“Ah…so that’s why your dad’s not keen on advertising.”

He nodded. “That waste-of-space comment was his response the day I opened the agency.”

“Harsh.”

“Yep.”

She glimpsed the depth of his pain before he deliberately blinked, eradicating it,
as she wished she could hold him tight. “What do your folks think of your aborted
wedding?”

“They think I’m nuts for not marrying some pompous ass the Third and spending my days
shopping on Rodeo and my nights at movie premieres.”

He searched her face, before continuing. “You almost did have that life. Is that why
you were getting hitched to that old fart?”

“How do you know about Flint—”

“Google.” He managed to look sheepish, apologetic and cute at the same time. “I wanted
to see what kind of an idiot would let a woman like you slip away.”

Secretly thrilled by his comment, she pretended to preen. “And what kind of woman
is that?”

“Intelligent. Witty. Beautiful.” His fingertip traced the curve of her cheek. “If
I can see that in the space of twenty-four hours, the guy must be a total dickhead
to dump you.”

“It’s not his fault.”

Jett stiffened at her instant defense of Flint.

“Sometimes you tumble into a situation without having the guts to stop it. Momentum
keeps it going and it builds into something monumental and then it’s too late to avoid
it.” She scanned his face for any clue he understood her convoluted explanation, relieved
to see a spark of acknowledgement in his jade eyes. “I actually admire Flint for pulling
the pin on our wedding before it was too late, for acknowledging we were making a
mistake.”

“The bastard cheated on you,” he blurted, immediately clamping his lips into a thin,
unimpressed line.

Not many people knew the truth about her breakup with Flint—her folks and Zoe being
the exceptions—yet she found herself wanting to tell Jett. Out of loyalty to Flint
for taking the fall? Maybe. Or perhaps there was something about the way Jet had opened
up to her about his dad, his upbringing, that strengthened their connection.

“Flint didn’t cheat on me.” She shook her head. “Press he orchestrated to take the
fall.” Her fingertips skated across his chest. “And I can’t believe we’re wasting
time talking about your job and my ex when we could be…you know.”

“I
don’t
know.” His lips eased into a wicked smile. “You’ll have to tell me.”

“Fine.” She cupped her hand to his ear and pressed her lips close, whispering exactly
what she’d like them to be doing right now rather than talking.

Jett managed a terse, “Let’s go,” and she didn’t have to be asked twice.

Time to see if the oxygen deprivation at thirty thousand feet had contributed to her
mind-blowing orgasms with Jett, or if the guy was just as talented with both feet
on the ground.

As for the persistent guilt dogging her, she’d need to suck it up. Keeping the truth
from Jett shouldn’t affect what they had. They were consenting adults indulging in
a passionate fling. She desperately wanted to explore the sexual side he’d awakened.
It would do her good, having something pleasurable to focus on while she slaved her
ass off devising a killer pitch.

Did she feel a tad heartless? Hell yeah. But Jett was a hot guy she’d known for a
few days and AW Advertising was her life. She’d do anything to save her business.
Hell, she’d almost married Flint because of what that would’ve brought to the table.

She had no choice. Keep her pitch a secret. Win the campaign. And hope she didn’t
lose the guy in the process.