Trust in Advertising (16 page)

Lexi stepped closer to him and without thinking, wrapped her tiny arms around his neck, fumbling with the collar of his shirt. Vincent shivered as her warm fingers brushed against his neck and her soft body pressed into his while she adjusted his collar. In her hurry to get him ready, Lexi didn’t notice how overwhelmed Vincent suddenly seemed by her closeness.

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“Aha!” She wrenched his neck to the side, pulling his tie back to the front of his shirt. When Vincent stared at her in confusion, she snickered. “You need this up front now, unless you were planning on playing pony with Mr. Walden too.”

Her green eyes sparkled playfully as she smoothed the silk down his chest, quickly adjusting the knot so it was once again neat and perfect. She reached up and wiped Anna’s lipstick off his face with her thumb.

“I’m never going to live this down, am I?” His self-deprecating words broke her focus.

“Which one? Not remembering me from high school or being caught playing pony?”

“Both,” Vincent answered as she stepped back and buttoned up his jacket.

He was once again the picture of dark, masculine perfection.

“Probably not.” Lexi laughed as she handed him the address of the restaurant and a copy of the papers that needed to be signed. Just before Vincent rushed out the door, she said, “And just wait until Sean hears about this.”

He groaned and cursed slightly under his breath, then disappeared out of the office to save the day for Hunter Advertising once again.

90

∙ 8 ∙

Lexi, you know I love you, right? But this is just creepy,” Hope mumbled with a spoonful of Captain Crunch in her mouth. “I mean, who the hell are these people?”

“They’re on the hit list for the gala.”

Hope’s eyebrows shot up at the words “hit list.” “So, who gets whacked first, Mrs. Soprano?”

“You’re hilarious, Hope. Seriously, I need to know these people on sight by the end of the week, so it seemed like a good idea to … live with them for a while?”

“Wel , your apartment looks like a police station, not that I’ve ever personal y been inside one. I’m a law-abiding citizen, I swear. But you’ve got the big suspect board of possible axe murderers, and a bunch of well-dressed murderers at that.

Is that an original Valentino she’s wearing?” Hope let out a low whistle, then shoveled more cereal into her mouth.

“Francesca Marradesi? Yep, she comes from the one of the wealthiest families in Italy. They own a cosmetics company. She and her husband Paolo and his brother Dante run the corporation, and they—”

Hope put her hand firmly over Lexi’s mouth, silencing her. “It’s six o’clock in the morning Lexi, and honestly, I don’t care who the hell they are. I just like her dress. Now pass me those Rice Krispies. All of a sudden I feel like some puffed rice.”

Victoria Michaels

Lexi arrived at work at 6:45 just like she had every day. Leigh, of course, had been there for half an hour already and handed her a small pile of messages for Vincent. Continuing with the morning routine, Lexi printed out his schedule, made the changes, and got the coffee ready.

The more time Lexi spent with Vincent, the easier it was to be around him.

He still made her heart race when he smiled or glanced in her direction, but instead of seeing him as the unattainable god he’d been to her in high school, she saw him for the man he was, flaws and all.

To Vincent, there was nothing more important than his work. Everything he did was for the benefit of Hunter Advertising. He put in ridiculously long days, and Lexi received text messages and E-mails from him at all hours of the night, so she knew that even when he went home, work continued to be his priority.

But as dedicated as he was, his people skills sucked.

The day after Anna’s big reveal about them all going to high school together had been awkward. But over the next few days, they both became so immersed in planning for the gala that there simply wasn’t any time to be worried. They had too many things to get done.

In spite of the heavy workload, there was still plenty of time during the day for Lexi to watch Vincent. Even though their relationship was boss and employee, Lexi’s body couldn’t have cared less. Every time she caught him looking at her, she blushed. Every time he brushed against her, her knees buckled. And if he came up behind her when she wasn’t looking and leaned over her shoulder, her tongue stopped functioning, and she couldn’t speak coherently. And, in Lexi’s opinion, the suits he wore were just plain unfair. No woman alive could resist Vincent Drake in Prada menswear.

As he stalked past her desk that morning and grabbed his pile from the corner, he noticed Lexi studying stacks of colored index cards.

“What are those?” He cocked his head to the right to get a better look.

Lexi blushed. “They’re my flashcards. See?” She held up a yellow one with a picture of a beautiful blond woman in her mid-forties. “This is Maria Fontaine, wife of?” She waved the card in front of Vincent’s eyes to see if he could name her spouse correctly.

He thought about it for a second, and then sat down on the edge of her desk and shrugged. “Mr. Fontaine?”

“No, David Thoms of the restaurant chain. She kept her maiden name because her mother was huge part of the feminist movement, and you better 92

Trust in Advertising

remember that when talking to her or you’re going to get yourself into big trouble.

Call her by her first name, not Mrs. Thoms, or she’ll have your head on a platter.”

Lexi flipped to the next yellow card and showed it to him.

“Easy one. That’s Rebecca Shay, heiress to the Shay diamond fortune. She designs jewelry for the A-list celebrities, and she’s recently divorced. It was a messy one because of a bedroom video that made it onto the internet. She plays tennis every Monday and Wednesday at the Gables Country Club.”

“Very good. Someone has been doing his homework.”

“Give me another one from the blue stack.” Vincent smiled and took a deep, dramatic breath. Lexi rolled her eyes at him and flashed a new card. Without blinking, Vincent recited, “Julian Stone, clothing designer. Elusive and dramatic, and if we can land him it would make my day, because I know that weasel Reid is kissing his ass at lunch as we speak.” Vincent’s lips curled up in a mischievous grin. “Reid would be furious if Hunter got that account. Naturally, I want to know everything about Stone.”

“I’ll make you a more detailed fact sheet and have it to you by noon.” Lexi jotted a note to herself on a piece of paper before putting the cards away. Vincent sat there with an amused expression on his face.

“Yes?”

“So, let me get this straight, you made one of those for every person on the hit list?”

“Don’t knock it till you’ve tried it. If you’d used this technique to study in high school, you might not have needed to cheat off that
junior
in your Government class.”

Vincent ignored her jab and leaned closer. “What do the colors mean this time?” He raised his eyebrows expectantly and waited. “Come on, Miss Organized, I know they mean something.”

Lexi was surprised. This was the most relaxed she had seen him in the two-and-a-half weeks she’d worked at Hunter, and it was nice.

She sighed in resignation when he folded his arms across his chest and refused to let the subject drop. “Hair color. I figured it would be the most logical way to do it. Then if I get stuck and I see a blonde, I know to grab the yellow pack out of my purse.”

“You’re bringing them with you?” he asked incredulously.

“Are you going to remember all fifty people on sight?”

“No.”

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“And when you can’t remember, who are you going to come ask?”

His lips slowly turned up in a sheepish grin. “You, probably.”

“Exactly. Hence the reason I’ll have the cards on me at all times. This is the stuff I get paid the big bucks for, you know.” Lexi laughed.

Vincent opened his mouth to say something, but decided against it. Instead, he hopped off her desk and snatched the flashcards out of her hand. “I’m going to borrow these for a while if that’s okay.”

“Sure, whatever,” she said, trying to sound nonchalant. She focused on the computer, but watched him walk to his office out the corner of her eye, sifting through the cards as he disappeared behind his door.

Lexi spent the rest of the early morning hours researching the elusive Julian Stone. Not much was known about him. He had just graduated from the New York School of Design two years ago and happened to be in the right place at the right time. He won a New Designer contest and was able to do a small show at Fashion Week. The right people saw his work, and he immediately became the hot, new face of fashion. His clothing line was hip and edgy, mainly for the eighteen- to twenty-six-year-old demographic. Lexi gathered up every detail she could find and printed out a copy for Vincent.

“Nice job,” he told her as he quickly scanned it before running out to a meeting.

A couple hours later, the phone gave an evil sounding ring. “Put Vincent on,” Jade’s shrill voice barked.

“He’s not in his office right now.”

“Well, find him.”

“Nope, he’s not in my drawer.” Lexi slammed her desk drawer shut as hard as she could so Jade would pick up the sound on the phone.

“Listen, you little—”

“He’s not in the building, Jade.”

“He’s not picking up his cell, either. I tried already. Where the hell is he?”

Lexi bit back the response she really wanted to give and glanced over at Vincent’s schedule. “It’s Wednesday, Jade. He has meetings all morning, just like he does every Wednesday.”

“Don’t give me attitude. Just tell me when he’ll be back.”

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Trust in Advertising

“After lunch.”

“I need a time. What
time
is he going to be back?”

“Around one thirty, I think, but this afternoon they have the Max—” At that point, Jade hung up and Lexi was left listening to the dial tone. “Always a pleasure, Jade.” Lexi slammed the receiver down and was startled by a deep voice chuckling beside her.

“What does she want now?” Vincent was leaning against the wall with his hands tucked into his pockets, one eyebrow raised in question.

“To know the precise moment you step foot in the building. Should I call her?” Lexi mentally slapped herself. “I’m sorry, that was out of line. I mean, she wanted to know when you were coming back from your meeting.”

Vincent mumbled something that sounded like “great” as he walked past her desk. Before he went in his office, he looked back at Lexi. “So, how long to I have?”

Lexi’s face broke out into a wide grin. “I told her one-thirty, which means she’ll be here at one. Want me to go get you a burger for lunch early so you have time to hide the evidence?”

He winked at Lexi, making her heart race and a delicious warmth spread throughout her body. “Can you add a chocolate milkshake to that order? I had a long morning.”

Lexi stood up and grabbed her purse. “Consider it done.” She ran down the street to Frank’s and got him the usual, plus a milkshake. When she returned to the office, she walked in on a very heated conversation between Sean and Vincent. Sean was frantic, waving his hands wildly in front of Vincent’s very pissed off face.

“I swear to God, Sean, I’m going to kill you if you blow this for us.” Vincent shook his head from side to side.

“They said I could take it for a spin. I was just—”

“You were just driving a high-performance automobile that you had no business sneezing on, let alone doing a hundred miles per hour in—while talking on your cell phone!”

“But—”

“No buts, Sean. What are we supposed to do? The shoot is in three hours, and the star of that shoot is currently sitting on the curb with a giant dent in the fender.” Vincent began pacing back and forth as Lexi silently slipped behind her desk and pretended to be working.

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“I wouldn’t say giant. I hit a card table, not a stone wall.” Sean flopped into one of the chairs at Lexi’s desk. “Hey, Lexi.”

“You hit a card table?” Lexi asked, completely confused about how he might have managed that one.