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Which also happened to be his office building.
He was a little surprised he’d never noticed her before. Maybe she was new? Then again, the high-rise Ravenna building where they worked took up half a city block. There had to be hundreds—thousands?—of people coming through its doors every morning.
That, and Jake’s work schedule wasn’t exactly the standard nine-to-five. He was more of a come-in-at-ten, leave-at-four, work-from-home-at-midnight guy.
And from the looks of the sassy brunette, he’d have bet his left testicle she worked for one of the home decor or style magazines. She was too refined to be one of Stiletto’s society darlings, and too polished to be part of the outdoorsy publications. She’d had upscale domesticated written all over her understated manicure.
And it had been that same untouchable “nice girl” look that had stopped him short of asking her out. She’d been the type you take home to Mom and introduce to your boss at Christmas parties.
In other words, not the type of woman that would take kindly to a wham, bam, thank you ma’am, and by the way, I’m off to China tomorrow.
“Listen, Jake,” Cassidy said quietly, drawing Jake’s attention back to work. “Write this article with Stiletto. Nobody knows women like you do. And I’m not proud to admit this, but you and I both know that I’ve got something to prove in my early days here at Oxford. I need this win. If you beat Stiletto and readers acknowledge that we at Oxford know more about women than Stiletto knows about men … the Travel position is yours. Swear to God.”
Well …
Hell.
Jake let out a long breath as he dropped back into the chair across from his boss. The stupid story idea was still shit. It was contrived and tepid and a damned embarrassment.
But he could write it.
And he could win it.
“I want that vacant office on the south side. Starting tomorrow.”
Cassidy opened his mouth, and Jake knew why. The south offices were for execs only. But Jake kept pushing. “It’s only for a couple months, and you can kick me out if I blow the story. But if you want me to partner on this story, I’ll need an office with an actual door and a place for the Stiletto broad to sit so we can talk.”
The two men locked gazes for several seconds before Cassidy slowly extended a hand across the desk. “Thanks, Jake. You’ve got this in the bag.”
Hell yeah, he did.
Jake couldn’t claim to know much about current events. His sports knowledge was iffy at best.
But he knew dating. And he knew women.
Cassidy was right.
Jake had this one in the bag.
Chapter Four
Jake Malone liked to think of dating as a bit of a second career.
Not in the man-whore kind of way. He was just good at it.
And as far as hobbies went, it was an enjoyable one. Even the most low-key women tended to put in token extra effort on appearance before a first date, which meant the eye-candy factor was high. And being a social, talkative kind of guy, he even enjoyed the whole getting-to-know you bit. Most of the time.
Then of course there was the end of the date—that’s when things got interesting. Jake loved the challenge of it. Not just in ensuring that the women remembered him (they always did), but in trying to figure out their next move. Would they dangle a kiss with a promise of more? Would they fish for the second date? Would they ask him for a second date?
Tonight, however, he wasn’t even remotely excited about his impending date. Call him old-fashioned, but he liked choosing his women, not having them assigned to him.
He should have asked Alex Cassidy for a raise in addition to the new office. A big one.
Jake glanced at the door of the Lambs Club again before checking his watch. He was early. Not his usual MO, but he hadn’t wanted to get off on the wrong foot with this Stiletto woman. All it would take is one misstep, and she’d hang him by his proverbial balls for all the Stiletto and Oxford readers to see.
Tonight he needed to be 100 percent on his game.
Not that he was worried. Hadn’t even bothered looking for a picture of Grace Brighton. In today’s world of Google and Facebook, he could have had a mental image of her in under thirty seconds.
