A Baby for the Boss (4 page)

Jenny paused, waited and was rewarded when Dave said, “Keep going.”

“Okay.” Tapping one finger on a storyboard of “The Wild Hunt,” she said, “Here, in the timeline of the story, Finn finds a sword in a cave at the base of the cliffs. The gamer has to collect twelve rune clues to free the sword.”

“Yeah...”

“Well, I was thinking, what if we laid down fifteen rune clues? Twelve to free the sword and allow the gamer to take Finn into combat with the wizard.
But
, if he finds all fifteen, then he unlocks the Wise Woman. She could help Finn defeat the forest demons and—”

“Be a love interest that maybe we could carry over into the sequel,” Dave finished for her, studying the sketches of the witch. “That’s excellent, Jenny. It adds another layer and rewards the gamer for collecting all of the runes.” Nodding to himself, he added, “Game rules say twelve unlocks the sword, fifteen unlocks magic.” He laughed to himself again and kept nodding. “Yeah, that’d be great. We make three of the runes really difficult to find so that players have to work for it if they want the extra. Most will just go for twelve and the sword, but the hard-core gamer will want to go for the magic. I like it.” He lifted his gaze to Jenny’s and added, “You should take this to the Ryans. Get their okay. They’ll love it.”

“Um...” she said, pleasure sliding away at the thought of talking to the Ryan brothers together. Sean would be okay. He was nice, reasonable and he liked her. Mike on the other hand... “Why don’t you do it? You’re the head of my department.”

He looked surprised. “It’s your idea, Jenny, and it’s a great one.”

“Yeah, but—”

“Don’t be dumb,” he said and dropped the sketches onto her desk. “Sean’s in Mike’s office. You can pitch it to both of them at the same time. The sooner you get this to them the better. Programmers will need more time to set up the extra layers.”

“I know, but—”

Dave chuckled a little. “Since when are you shy? Come on, take your idea to the bosses, impress the hell out of ’em.”

Still shaking his head, he wandered off to check on a couple of the other artists. Jenny watched him go, then dropped her gaze to the Wise Woman sketches. It
was
a good idea, damn it. And if she and Mike weren’t...she didn’t know what they were exactly, but if they weren’t in such a weird space, she’d have no trouble at all taking her ideas to the Ryan brothers. They were always open to the employees coming to them with suggestions.

She was the head artist now, so she shouldn’t be wary of facing her bosses. This was her job, and hadn’t she made a point out of telling Mike that nothing was going to stop her from doing her job?

Nodding to herself, she gathered up her sketches and headed out of the office.

* * *

Mike and Sean were going over the figures sent by the collectibles company. “The licensing fee is good, but did you take a look at their latest batch of figurines based on that kids’ movie?”

“Yeah,” Sean said with a wince. “I admit, they’re not great.”

Mike snorted. “‘Not great’ covers a lot of territory. This can be narrowed down to crappy.”

“Okay, yeah.” Sean tossed the pictures back on his brother’s desk. “If they couldn’t get the talking frog and the Princess Knight right...”

“Exactly,” Mike agreed. “Those are easy. What’ll they do to our banshees, warlocks and Irish warriors?” Shaking his head, he continued, “Brady and I both went along with this idea of yours, Sean. But if this is what the collectibles are going to look like, I don’t know if it’s a good thing.”

“True.” Sean crossed his legs, propping one ankle on his knee. “There are other companies we could try.”

“Is it worth it?”

“I think so,” Sean countered. “If we get into the collectibles market, it’s going to push our name recognition even higher and affect game sales. We could pull in gamers who haven’t tried us yet.”

Mike frowned and tapped his fingertips against the desk. It was hard to keep his mind on business. Even now, while his brother continued to talk about his plan, Mike’s mind drifted to the woman working on the floor above him.

Three days since his night with Jenny and he’d hardly been able to shake thoughts of her for five minutes at a stretch. He’d convinced himself that spending the night with her had been a wise choice. A way to not only ease the ache for her but a chance to push away the memories of that one night in Phoenix.

Well, that had worked, but now it was memories of a night in Long Beach that tormented him. Rather than getting her out of his mind, that night had only entrenched her there.

“Are you listening to me?” Sean demanded.

“What?” Mike scowled and shot his brother a hard look. “Yeah. Sure.”

“Uh-huh.” Sean smirked at him. “What did I just say?”

“Collectibles. Gamers. Blah, blah. Pretty much what you’ve been saying for months.”

“Right. So what’s going on with you?”

“Nothing,” Mike said, picking up a pen and twirling it idly between his fingers. “I’m busy.”

“Yeah,” Sean said, “me, too. So what’s going on?”

“Who’re you all of a sudden?” Mike asked. “Mom?”

“Hah. If I was Mom I’d get an answer to my question.”

True. Peggy Ryan was tough and had a way of getting her family to confess all. Which, Mike reminded himself, wasn’t always a good thing. She’d once pried truths out of her husband that had changed the way Mike felt about his father forever. It was the day that Mike learned how much damage liars and cheats could do.

And that thought steeled his spine and firmed his resolve to get past whatever it was he was feeling for Jenny. Liars had no place in his life and damned if he’d forget that.

As if his thoughts had conjured her, a perfunctory knock on the open door announced her presence. Mike looked at her, his gaze locking with hers, and he felt a fast jolt of awareness tangled up with a bone-deep need that just never seemed to drain away. “What is it?”

She blinked at the brusque tone, then deliberately looked away from him to Sean. “I had an idea I wanted to run past you. For ‘The Wild Hunt.’”

Sean glanced at Mike, then shrugged and said, “Sure, Jenny. Come on in.”

He waved her into a chair and she sat, still avoiding looking at Mike directly. “I was talking with Dave, showed him a few sketches, and he said I should bring it to you guys.”

Mike watched her lips move, heard her voice, but couldn’t concentrate on what she was saying as she explained her idea for a new character to drop into “The Wild Hunt.” Instead, his brain insisted on dredging up images from the other night. How the hell could he focus on work with rich, sexual memories flooding his brain and torturing his body?

“Those are great,” Sean was saying. He leaned close to Jenny to look at the sketch she held and a flash of irritation shook Mike in response.

Why the hell did Sean have to practically drape himself over Jenny’s shoulder to get a look at her sketch pad?

“Let me see,” he said abruptly, breaking up what looked to him like a too-cozy scene.

Sean passed the drawings over and said, “I think she’s onto something. I like the idea of a powerful woman coming to the aid of the beleaguered hero.” He grinned. “Might get more female players out of it, too.”

Nodding, Mike scanned the drawings and once again was forced to admit just how talented Jenny Marshall really was. The sketches weren’t complete, more of a bare-bones idea for a new character, but even at that stage, he could see the beauty that would pop through when it was finished. The witch was tall, powerful, magical, a perfect addition to the game cast.

He slanted a look at Jenny and found her watching him, waiting for whatever he was going to say. And in her eyes, he saw resignation, as if she was expecting him to shoot down her ideas. Well, hell, he might have some issues with her, but he wasn’t an idiot.

“This is good work.”

“Wow, high praise,” Sean muttered and earned a quick, grateful grin from Jenny.

Mike ignored a new flash of irritation and kept talking. “I’ll keep the high praise for when I see the fleshed-out ideas. But for now, I agree. It’s a good addition to the game.”

A slow, pleased smile curved Jenny’s mouth and everything in Mike warmed, softened. The effect this woman had on him was dangerous. And it didn’t seem to be dissipating any.

“Thank you,” she said simply. Her eyes shone with a deeper gratitude that only Mike was aware of. It made him feel like a damn bully to know that she had fully expected him to shoot down her ideas just because they were hers.

He handed the sketches back and turned to his brother. “What do you think? Can we come up with a new story line and get it to the writers by the weekend?”

“Probably,” Sean said, then shrugged. “But what’s the rush?”

Mike slanted a look at Jenny. “Because Jenny and I are headed to Laughlin to check out the new hotel. We’re leaving on Monday. Be gone a couple days.”

She shifted a little uneasily in her chair and Mike caught the motion. He could only hope Sean hadn’t. Sometimes, Mike’s little brother saw too damn much.

“Well, then,” Sean said and stood up. “I’ll talk to the writers, get them to amend the script. Meanwhile,” he added, “if you could finish out those sketches, that’d be great, Jenny.”

“I can have them to you in an hour,” she said, rising and heading to the door.

“Great. You want to start on the storyboard changes now, Sean?”

“Should we call Brady before making a final decision?”

Mike thought about it, then scrubbed one hand across the back of his neck. “No. We’ll tell him about it at our next conference call, but he’ll be on board.”

“Okay.” Sean headed out. “I’ll get the stuff together.”

“Be right there,” Mike called after him. When they were alone, he stood up and asked, “Leaving Monday work for you?”

“Oh,” Jenny said, giving a quick look over her shoulder as if to make sure the hallway behind her was empty. “So you
are
going to ask me? I thought you were just handing out a royal decree.”

Mike grimaced and stuffed his hands into his pants pockets. “We talked about going to the hotel.”

“Yeah, but you didn’t give me a specific date,” she countered. “And I was supposed to have dinner with my uncle on Monday.”

Everything in Mike fisted at the reminder of Hank Snyder, her uncle and the owner of Snyder Arts.

“You don’t have to make that face,” she told him. “You might not like my uncle,” Jenny added, “but I love him. He’s my family.”

“That’s the problem, isn’t it?”

“For you, yes.”

A couple of people walked down the hall, their voices raised in argument.

“Zombies have to die when you cut their heads off.”

“In real life, not in the gaming world, hello?”

“We have to at least try to be realistic, don’t we?”

“You want realism, then our zombies have to eat brains, not just bite people...”

Their voices faded as they went into the break room and shut the door after them. A moment later, Jenny chuckled. “Zombies in real life.” She looked up at Mike, the smile still curving her mouth. “We have weird lives.”

All he could see was that smile and after a second or two, he returned it. “Yeah, I guess we do. So. Monday?”

“I’ll be ready,” she said, all trace of amusement disappearing. “Should I meet you here?”

He shook his head. “I’ll pick you up at nine. We’ll take the company jet to Vegas.”

“Okay.” She took a breath, blew it out. “Now, I’d better go see about finishing the images of my Wise Woman.”

Mike crossed the room and propped one shoulder against the doorjamb. Watching her go, he wondered if, when all this was done, seeing her walk away from him would be his clearest memory.

Four

“I
’ll only be gone overnight, Uncle Hank.”

“With
him
,” Hank Snyder muttered under his breath.

Jenny sighed and let her head fall back. It was Monday morning; Mike would be here in a few minutes and she still had to finish packing. But as her uncle went on a long-winded rant, she realized having to listen to this was her own fault.

She never should have confessed to her uncle what Mike had accused her of a year ago. But in her defense, she had really been upset, and Hank had dropped by her apartment just when she was in the middle of a good rant. So instead of shutting up, she’d spewed everything at the feet of the man who’d raised her.

Naturally, his first instinct had been to go to Celtic Knot and punch Mike Ryan in the mouth. Thankfully, she’d talked him down from that. But he hadn’t forgiven and he hadn’t forgotten. In fact, Hank had tried to talk her out of going to work for the Ryan brothers on the principle that she should simply stay the hell away from Mike altogether. But Jenny had refused, then and now, to let Mike Ryan’s presence dictate how she ran her life and career.

“He is my boss,” she finally said.

“Doesn’t have to be,” Hank told her, and Jenny’s hand fisted around her phone. “You could come to work for me. You know that.”

Snyder Arts was a small company with an excellent arts program. The program itself simplified digital and graphic arts design and implementation. They sold retail and to companies looking to refine their own graphic art departments. Which is why Hank had tried to make a deal with Celtic Knot in the first place. He’d thought—and
rightly
, Jenny acknowledged—that his program would streamline the gaming company’s art and design division.

And since Jenny now knew
both
companies well, she understood that if Mike weren’t so hardheaded, even he would have to admit that her uncle’s program would make the work easier for his own artists. But Mike being Mike, he would never let himself see that. Especially since he believed that Hank had tried to use Jenny to worm a contract out of Mike.

She sighed and leaned against the bathroom door. “I do know that, Uncle Hank. And I appreciate it. Really. But I’m not interested in R & D or in sales and marketing. I’m an artist and I’m good at what I do.”

“You’re the best, honey,” he said on a belabored sigh. “I just don’t like you being upset is all. And I really don’t like you having to deal with a man who thinks so little of you.”

“It doesn’t matter what Mike thinks of me personally,” she said, though in her head she was chanting,
Liar, liar, pants on fire.
“I like my job. And this trip to Laughlin will be fast and all business. I want to scope out the hotel in person so I can start planning the murals.”

“Never could argue with you once you had your mind set on something, could I?”

Jenny smiled. “Nope.”

“Fine, fine. You just be careful and you let me know when you’re home safe.”

“I will.” Then Jenny listened as her uncle talked about what was happening at Snyder Arts. His R & D department was coming up with some interesting things. Jenny knew how important his company was to him. Until she had come into his life and he had taken over as her guardian, that company had been his entire world.

But the main point in all this was Hank didn’t need a deal with Celtic Knot to make Snyder Arts profitable. Their bottom line was very comfortable. Okay, not billionaire comfy, but still. It was laughable that Hank would have needed her to coax Mike into some kind of deal even if it hadn’t been insulting on the face of it. Snyder Arts didn’t need Celtic Knot and Mike had to know that, in some part of himself. He was just so down-to-the-marrow suspicious and hard, he’d never admit it.

While Hank talked, she smiled to herself and quickly packed away her hair products and makeup, zipping them into a small purple bag. She walked into the bedroom, tucked the bag into her suitcase and sat on the edge of the bed.

Now she was packed and ready to go. Well, as ready as she could be. Two days alone with Mike would be either a misery or wonderful—and that would turn into misery later. The man wanted her, that was plain enough. But he didn’t want to want her and she had no idea how to get past that. Or even if she should try.

Jenny had spent a lifetime knowing that she wasn’t wanted. Heck, her own parents had walked away from her and never looked back. She was twelve when they decided they didn’t really want the burden of a child and were bored with being parents. They’d dropped her off with Hank, her mother’s older brother.

Hank was a widower who had buried himself in his company at his wife’s death. Barely home back then, he’d had to shift his entire life around to accommodate Jenny. And she’d known it. She’d tried to be as invisible as possible so that he, too, wouldn’t decide to walk away.

Even as a kid, Jenny had known that Hank didn’t really
want
her. Taking her in had simply been the right thing to do. But Hank had always been kind and supportive, and she was still grateful to him for so much.

“You’re not listening,” Hank said with a short laugh.

Caught, she said, “I’m sorry, Uncle Hank. My mind wandered.”

“That’s fine. I know you’re getting ready to leave.”

True. Mike would be arriving any minute. Well, there went the knots in her stomach, tightening viciously enough that it was hard to breathe.

“I’ll just remind you to be careful.”

“I will, promise.” Jenny glanced out the window, saw Mike’s car pulling up and said, “I’ve really gotta go.”

Her uncle hung up, still muttering direly. Jenny tucked her phone into her pocket, zipped her suitcase closed and told herself to relax. Not that she was listening, but she had to try. Outside, Mike stepped out of his car, looked at her apartment and for just a second, Jenny felt as if he were looking directly into her eyes. That was stupid of course, but it didn’t change the zip of heat that raced through her.

This was probably a mistake. Two days. Alone. With Mike Ryan.

No way this was going to end well.

* * *

Traveling with a gazillionaire was eye-opening.

Even at the small airport in Long Beach, people practically snapped to attention for Mike Ryan. Baggage handlers hurried to stow the overnight bags they both carried, then the pilot stepped out onto the stairway to welcome them aboard personally.

Once they’d boarded the private jet, Jenny curled up in a buttery-soft leather seat and sipped at the fresh coffee served by a friendly attendant. Mike concentrated on work, staring so hard at the screen of his tablet, Jenny was almost surprised he didn’t burn a hole through it. But left to herself, she watched the clouds and enjoyed the all-too-short flight.

In less than an hour, they were landing in Las Vegas. There again, people scrambled to make Mike’s life easier, smoother. A rental car was waiting for them and after forty minutes on a nearly empty highway flanked on either side by wide sweeps of desert, they were in Laughlin, Nevada.

Laughlin was sort of the more casual, fun, younger sister of Las Vegas. There were plenty of casino hotels, but there was also the Colorado River. In the summer, the town was booming with water-skiers and boaters and everyone looking for a good time on the water. Then the hot desert nights featured riverside dining or visits to the casinos where top-name acts performed on glittery stages.

Jenny had been there before, though the last time had been five years ago for a bachelorette party. Remembering, she smiled. That party was the reason she’d had condoms in her bedside drawer a week ago when Mike had shown up at her apartment. As a party favor, the condoms had seemed silly at the time, but now, Jenny could appreciate the gesture because without them, she wouldn’t have had that spectacular night.

The town had grown a lot in five years. There were new casinos springing up everywhere along with housing developments and shopping centers just out of sight of the big hotels.

In late January, the weather was cool and the river ran high and fast. Jenny stood on the shore and looked upstream toward the heart of the city where big hotels lined the Riverwalk—a wooden boardwalk that stretched the length of hotel row. At night, she knew, there were old-fashioned streetlights sending out a golden glow along the walk. There were restaurants and bars, where a couple could sit and talk and look out over the water.

The Ryans had made a good choice in building their hotel here. All in all, Jenny told herself, if she had a choice, she would come to Laughlin instead of Vegas. It was smaller, friendlier and offered a variety of things to do.

She shrugged deeper into her navy blue jacket as a hard, cold wind carrying the sharp tang of sage blew in off the desert. There were clouds on the horizon promising a storm, but for the moment, the sky was a bright blue and all around her, trees dipped and swayed in the wind. Jenny walked out onto the boat dock and watched as the river churned and sloshed below her.

“It’s a good spot.”

She turned her head into the wind to look back at the shore. Mike was headed her way, hands tucked into the pockets of his black leather jacket.

Nodding, Jenny shifted her gaze to the river again. “I was just thinking that. There are so many trees on the grounds, you could almost forget you’re in the desert.”

“Yeah, now,” he said, a chuckle in his voice as he came closer. “Wait until summer.”

She smiled. Temperatures in the desert regularly topped out at one hundred twenty and more during the summer. But as the locals liked to say,
It’s a dry heat.
“Agreed. But you can go in the river to cool off.”

“Or the hotel pool,” he said as he joined her at the edge of the dock.

“True.”

Upstream, there were flat-bottom boats, owned by the hotels, taking tourists for river rides. The windows and gold trim on the hotels winked brightly in the sunlight. But here, standing in the shadows of the nest of trees edging the river, it was as if they were alone.

“I wonder why the previous owners couldn’t make the hotel work,” she mused aloud. “It’s a great spot. Wonderful views, plenty of trees, a gorgeous pool—”

“No gambling.”

She looked at him. “What?”

“The hotel.” Mike squinted into the sun. “The old owner didn’t approve of gambling so the hotel didn’t offer it.” He shrugged. “A hotel with no casino in a gambling town isn’t going to survive. Plus, he didn’t have smoking rooms, either.”

“That’s important?”

“Again, a gambling town. People come here looking to relax, throw a little money down a rat hole...” He looked at her. “They’re not interested in being snubbed because they smoke. Or if they can’t find a slot machine anywhere on the premises.”

“Good points.” He was always thinking and she shouldn’t have been surprised to know that he’d done his homework on the previous owner’s failures and come to his own conclusions. Mike Ryan always had a plan. “So, you’ll have gambling?”

He gave her a fast grin. “Not a regular casino, no. But we’ll have some custom-made slot machines if people are interested. Based on the game, of course.”

“Of course.” She smiled and looked up at him. He was so tall, so broad shouldered. His dark hair ruffled in the wind and his blue eyes were narrowed on the distant view, as if he was staring off into a future that lay waiting for him to conquer it.

Oh, she really had to stop.

“Still,” Mike said, grabbing her attention again, “the River Haunt isn’t going to be your standard hotel. It’s being designed to appeal to gamers—not gamblers.”

“Gamblers like games, too.”

“Yeah,” Mike said. “But they’re more interested in risking their money for the chance of a big reward. A gamer wants to beat his time, beat the game.” He turned and looked back up the rise to the hotel that now belonged to Celtic Knot. “The people who come here are going to be looking for the experience. The opportunity to pretend they’re a part of the game they love. Gambling doesn’t have anything to do with that.”

“But you’ll have a few slot machines just in case.”

He winked at her. “Doesn’t hurt to cover all bases.”

Pleasure rushed through Jenny at that friendly wink. She liked this. They were talking. About important things, and he hadn’t taken a single shot at her yet. No insults, no disapproval. Maybe it was being away from their everyday routine, but whatever the reason, she was enjoying it. And maybe, she thought, these two days with Mike wouldn’t be as hard as she’d thought they would be.

“I’m guessing you’ll have smoking rooms, too, then,” she said with a smile.

“Absolutely,” he said. “I’m not going to cut anyone out of coming to the hotel.” He shook his hair back when the wind tossed it across his forehead. “It’s ridiculous for any business owner to discriminate against possible customers.”

“Agreed,” she said. Half turning, she looked back at the hotel sitting at the top of a low rise.

It was old, but sturdy. Paint that had once been a deep brick red had faded in the sun until it looked almost pink. The building sprawled across the property but Jenny knew that compared to the rich new hotels farther downriver this place was small. Only a hundred and fifty rooms, the soon-to-be River Haunt hotel would be exclusive and that would appeal to the gamers who would flock here.

There was a wide porch that swept along the front of the building, and floor-to-ceiling windows provided a great view of the river and the purple smudge of mountains in the distance. The now pink paint was peeling and the plain boxlike structure wasn’t exactly appealing, but she knew that Mike would be changing it all up. The rehab wouldn’t go fast, but she could imagine it all as it would be in a few months.

Like the setting of the “River Haunt” game, the main building would be made to look like a weathered, deserted cabin. A cabin where ghouls, ghosts, zombies and other assorted supernatural beings assembled and tormented the gamers who fought to defeat Donn, Lord of the Dead.

The guests at the River Haunt hotel would be treated to rooms and suites decked out with top-of-the-line gaming systems, flat-screen TVs and enough gaming tokens and symbols to make them feel as though they were a part of their favorite game. The latest Celtic Knot hotel was going to be huge.