Working It (17 page)

She was in it for the promotion.

“So there Drew was, only seventeen years old, and sitting in the rig of one of our delivery trucks…”

Drew tuned out the story that had the Inesco gang guffawing and making peanut gallery comments. He tried grinning, but it was an effort. Even though he'd made one of the biggest deals of his life today, the thing that would save his plant, he still couldn't quite get in the festive mood.

She finally got what she wanted: the promotion.

It wasn't as if it was a huge shock, he thought, pushing the salt and pepper shakers around on the new white tablecloth. She was a businesswoman, he was a businessman. They happened to be doing business with each other. And she'd tried to warn him that this would get messy, the intersection of business and pleasure, as it were.

It just seems convenient, damn it. She keeps me happy, I get the deal, she gets the promotion.

He shook his head as Ken hit the punch line of his
anecdote. “And Drew says, ‘Don't look at me, officer, I'm just here for the ride!' I'm not kidding!”

The Inesco guys laughed. Ken laughed. Drew forced a chuckle.

I'm just here for the ride.

“Say,” one of the men at the far end of the table said when the laughter subsided, “who was the young woman with the red hair? And why isn't she here?”

Ken looked at Drew quickly, to see if he wanted to field it. When Drew didn't say anything immediately, Ken took over. “That was Jade Morrow. She's a sales consultant and public relations expert working with Robson Steel, sort of on a short-term basis.”

Drew braced himself for the inevitable questions—how long had she been there, what did she do exactly, and even worse…was she, you know, available? She was attractive, and a lot of these guys weren't married. It was, he supposed, a reasonable question.

The real question being
…
is she available?

They'd only known each other for a matter of weeks…had only had a few encounters, if you were going to be grossly technical about it. They hadn't talked long-term commitment. Hell, they hadn't even talked about where she was staying that night. He didn't know what he had a right to.

It could've just been business. Not that it didn't mean anything to her, but the business is over, the contract is closed. Where does that leave me?

“Is she the one that pulled together the presentation, then?”

Drew blinked. That wasn't one of the questions he had mentally steeled himself for. “Uh, yes. I mean, yes, she worked on the graphics and the layout and helped us get it organized.”

Ken was frowning a little—Drew figured he didn't want to divulge just how much outside help they'd had with the presentation. But that wasn't the point here. Besides, they knew that Drew's strong point was his knowledge of the steel business, not his dog-and-pony-show skills.

“Impressive,” Armand Inesco said with a nod. “Is she a freelancer, or does she work with a firm?”

“She's with Michaels and Associates,” Drew replied, and was surprised to see the look of recognition go across the Inesco team's faces.

“That explains why your presentation was head and shoulders above any of your competitors,” Armand said, sounding impressed. “She's worked with steel companies before, then?”

“No, not to my knowledge.” Drew frowned. “Why?”

“You're going to be doing a lot of improvements over the next year,” he answered. “And you're going to want a lot more sales to give us the return on investment that we're looking for. So we were thinking of putting in a provision—you'll improve your sales team and your marketing department. That would include advertising and P.R.” He smiled gently. “We figured that you got some outside help, and when we didn't see her at the dinner, we assumed she wasn't really a Robson employee.”

Drew nodded with respect. The guy was on the ball. This wasn't about “who was the hot redhead we saw earlier,” as he'd stupidly assumed. They knew she was talented.

He was getting hung up on Jade…and he obviously was letting it blind him to business. She'd warned him that might happen, as well.

“Michaels and Associates might be a good place to start, but they focus primarily on public relations. We'd like to suggest a marketing consultant.”

Drew shrugged. “I'm sure we could…”

“In fact,” Armand said, “you might want to think about letting Inesco help you with that.”

Drew shot a quick glance at Ken. Suddenly what the guy was doing made sense. He was trying to change the deal a little…and make Robson even more a part of Inesco's house, rather than just invest money.

“We'll work out something,” Drew said with a cool smile.

It wasn't personal, Drew reminded himself as Ken launched into another story and a guy from the Inesco side responded with some humorous tales of his own. He was so fixated on the fact that Jade might've been using him to get what she wanted, that he had blinded himself to the fact that she had helped him, above and beyond the call of duty. She had tried nothing tricky or underhanded. She hadn't been looking out for number one, as it were. She had kept him in mind, what he believed in…and she had believed in him. She didn't need to do that to get her promotion. She certainly hadn't needed to sleep with him to guarantee it. In fact, sleeping with him had jeopardized what she'd wanted. It could have ruined his focus, just as she'd warned. It could have sunk her. She'd risked a lot to get close to him.

Why was he getting suspicious of her motives? And why wasn't he talking to her about it and clearing it up?

He glanced around the table. It looked like the Inesco guys were settling in for a long night of partying, right here at the restaurant—it wasn't as though a
little town like San Angelo had a strip joint or a nightclub for them to frequent. He smiled, then got up, motioning Ken to join him. Ken left them talking to each other, and accompanied Drew to an alcove that held the public telephones. “What's up, Drew?”

“How long do you think these guys are going to be going at it?”

Ken glanced back at the table. “These guys look like they're in it for the long haul. I see another couple of hours at least.”

“And you? How are you doing?”

Ken grinned. “No problem. I can handle these guys with one hand tied behind my back.”

“Great,” Drew said with relief. “I hate to do this to you, but I was wondering…do you think you could finish up with them, make sure they get into a cab okay, and take care of the bill?”

Ken's grin slipped. “Where are you going?”

“I've got some things I have to handle,” Drew said.

“The deal's done. Everything's settled but the signatures,” Ken countered. “Why don't you take a night off, just enjoy the moment?”

“It's not…” He took a deep breath. “It's not really Robson Steel related, Ken.”

Ken looked blank for a moment. Then his eyes narrowed. “Tell me this doesn't have to do with a certain tall redheaded woman who didn't come with us to dinner.”

Drew shrugged. “Let's just say it's personal, and leave it at that?”

“I can't believe this,” Ken said in a low voice. “You've just landed the biggest deal of your life. You have to stay here and do this. These are the investors.
You have to represent Robson. For Christ's sake, your sex life can wait a few damned hours!”

Drew felt anger pulse through him. “Watch it, Ken.”

“No, Drew, you watch it,” Ken answered with a flash of temper of his own. “This is important. I know you've been with this woman twenty-four-seven for the past three weeks, and I know she looks like God's gift to horny bachelors, but this is about the
plant.
” His expression was disapproving. “Think with the big head for a change, Drew.”

“When haven't I put the plant first?” Drew shot back.

“Since you first laid eyes on Jade Morrow,” Ken replied. “A few hours. Then you can patch things up with her. But you have to nail this first.”

Drew knew what he was saying made sense, even though the anger wouldn't dissipate. Ken was right—the plant came first, had to come first. Jade would understand.

He hoped.

“Okay. I'll be back at the table in a second,” Drew said.

Ken nodded. “We'll talk more later,” he warned, then headed back to the table, putting a big smile on before he got there. In so many ways, Ken was more a Robson than Drew himself. The plant, always the plant, before anything else.

Drew pulled out some change and got on a pay phone, pulling Jade's card out of his wallet. It had her cell phone number on it, but when he called, he got her voice mail. Chances were good it was either shut off or the battery was dead. He knew she had a habit of not charging it.

He decided to leave a message. “Jade…if you're still in San Angelo, or even if you're not, I want to see you as soon as possible. I'll drive to L.A. if you've already gone home. But we need to talk, and soon.” He paused, wanting to add more, but unsure of what exactly he wanted to say. “Just…call me at home. We really need to talk.”

He hung up, frustrated. There was a burst of raucous laughter from his table. The last thing he wanted to do was to sit there, swapping stories with the guys, under the watchful, crafty gaze of Armand Inesco. Or deal with Ken's forced joviality, knowing that he was blaming Drew for not staying focused.

Just another few hours,
Drew thought without enthusiasm. Then he'd get to the bottom of the Jade thing. He only hoped he'd have the chance to make things right.

 

J
ADE STRETCHED OUT
. She'd been sitting in the hallway of Drew's apartment building for the past—she glanced at her watch—four hours. She'd checked her messages when she first got there, but her phone had characteristically gone dead since then. She didn't know how long Drew was planning on being gone. He was so angry, and puzzled, when he'd put the call through.

She frowned. And what was the deal with Betsy? If she hadn't known better, she would've thought her mentor was angry with her. Or angry in general. She didn't know what was going on with that. Of course, maybe she was being paranoid. She'd come so close to getting promoted in the past, and something had always seemed to come up to stymie her progress. Maybe she was just trying to throw hurdles in her own way, she thought, grabbing her organizer out of her
backpack and opening it. Maybe she was just trying to keep things complicated. It sounded like her. She'd just scored a huge coup, and she should be happy. Why wasn't she?

She glanced at her watch again, then closed her eyes.

Because of Drew.

She'd known that sleeping with him was going to complicate things. What she hadn't counted on was falling in love with him.

She closed her eyes, leaning her head back against the wall. It was ludicrous to think that she was in love after less than a month. They'd only slept together for—what?—two weeks. Not that that was any kind of indicator of love, she supposed. But even if they'd never had sex, she would've known that what they had was special. He was everything she'd ever looked for. He was passionate, attentive. She grinned, foolishly. He was quixotic. She'd never met anyone quite like him, especially not in her line of work. He was the real thing.

She liked that reality.

“You haven't been here long, have you?”

She opened her eyes. “Drew,” she said, rising then almost toppling over as the stiffness in her muscles from sitting on the floor for so long made getting up difficult. “I was hoping you'd get here.”

“If I'd known you were waiting here,” he said, helping to steady her, “I would've tried to get here sooner. If I had been thinking, I would've given you a key.”

“You didn't know,” she said hastily, “and you were pretty upset with me when you left today.” She took a deep breath. “Which is what I wanted to talk to you about, Drew. I didn't—”

He put a finger on her lips, stopping the stream of words that was trying to tumble out. “It's okay. I understand,” he said. “Come on inside. You must be exhausted.”

“I really need to talk to you, though,” she protested when he uncovered her mouth. “I wasn't just sleeping with you to…”

“I know.” He smiled, opening the door. “Really. You don't have to talk about it.”

She huffed impatiently. “I've just detailed a whole speech in the four hours I've had to wait for you. If you think you're off the hook without hearing some of it, then you're out of your mind.”

He laughed as he walked into his apartment, shutting the door behind her and putting his keys in the bowl. “Okay. Far be it for me to deny you a well-thought-out speech.”

She paced, working the kinks out of her system, and took her jacket off, draping it on the back of his couch. Just looking at his living room brought back a flood of sensual memories. “I wasn't just sleeping with you to keep you happy. I wasn't just trying to satisfy the client, as you so artlessly put it when we first met.”

He winced. “I know better.”

“I slept with you because I…” She thought about what she was about to admit, chickened out. Tempered it. “I cared about you. I still care about you. A lot,” she added.

“I…care about you, too,” Drew said. “You really don't have to go through all of this. I understand.”

“I don't think you do,” she countered stubbornly. “You don't know what I went through. I've never slept with a client before. I like keeping my life simple, and you were anything but.”

She thought about it, getting agitated, walking around at an ever-increasing pace. “In fact, I told you that sleeping together was going to complicate things. I tried to keep it casual once we did it, but you wouldn't let me. I've done more for you than I have for anyone I've been involved with.”