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Diana raises her brow and lifts her right hand. She wants me to speak, so I try to keep it vague. “Yes. It went well. Mr. Falcon seems like he has some rather big plans.”
A little too big and outrageous if you ask me.
“I have to say, Lanie, in all my years of doing this, not once, has a client made such an outlandish request as Noel Falcon. Not only does he insist that I hire you, but he’s now requesting I send you on tour with him.”
I shake my head. I told him she would never go for his little scheme. “I explained to him there was no possibility of that happening.”
Ms. Swagger holds up a finger. “Actually, Ms. Vance, I think this is an excellent opportunity for Center Stage Marketing. Not only will you go on tour with Black Falcon and run the children’s literacy marketing account, but you’re also going to secure an exclusive right to Black Falcon, the band itself.”
Black Falcon’s marketing? That’s major. How the hell am I supposed to pull that off? Sure, I can use Noel’s desire to get in my pants to my advantage, keeping him hooked long enough to get his charity off the ground and get me a nice cushy job, but I can’t string him along forever. Noel’s not going to willingly hand over Black Falcon’s publicity campaign over to me, without something in return, and that something he wants, he isn’t getting from me. I have no intentions of sleeping with a man who is a total womanizer.
All he wants is to get back into my panties. Sex with him is probably amazing now, but a one-night stand is not worth the risk of my career...or my heart.
But I want to do this on my own merit. Diana will have no choice but to promote me once I prove I can sell anything to the masses and get Noel’s account under my belt.
I rub the back of my neck. “With all due respect, Ms. Swagger, I’m not sure he’s willing to give us the entire account.”
Diana leans forward and taps her desk. “That’s where you’re wrong, Lanie. You see, I’m a shrewd business woman. I didn’t get where I am by playing fair. Noel Falcon wants you on tour with him, and only you, at the expense of my company. He made that quite clear. So I agreed to send you, but gave him a condition of my own. At the end of his tour in two weeks, he has to hand over every possible marketing avenue of Black Falcon to us.”
This sounds an awful lot like a trade and it makes me shiver. Is Diana actually telling me, she sold me to Noel for exclusive rights to Black Falcon? This can’t be legal. I should say no. I should tell her to go to hell and walk away from the whole damn situation, but my feet won’t budge.
I can do this. “Only two weeks, correct?”
Ms. Swagger nods. “Yes, only two. That’ll fly by. All you have to do is keep Mr. Falcon happy and your job here is permanent.”
Where else will this type of opportunity fall into my lap? I’m only twenty-two years old. Most people won’t have their own accounts until they’ve been out of college a few years. If I say no, I’ll throw away my dream.
I square my shoulders. “I’ll do it.”
Diana smiles, and instead of it being friendly, it seems slightly evil. My muscles tense and I lean away from her. I don’t like the way she’s grinning at me, and the instinct to run like hell fills my entire being.
****
My cell chirps on the coffee table as Aubrey walks into the room. She rolls her eyes and smiles. “Mr. Wonderful, again? You still owe me some juicy details about your dinner date, you know.”
I roll my eyes at her. “A lady never kisses and tells. Besides you already know nothing happened. It was strictly business.”
Aubrey laughs and plops down on the couch beside me. “You, missy, are no lady. So, dish.”
I shake my head. “Nothing happened the other night. I swear.”
She folds her legs under herself and takes a huge bite of her double-brownie ice cream. “Bull. You expect me to believe Noel Falcon makes a romantic date with you and after a couple of hours together nothing happens? He’s texted you at least fifty times over the past few days, and there was no sex involved? I say bull. No man gets that sprung unless he gets a little somethin’-somethin’ if you know what I mean.”
I shrug. “Getting romantic with Noel is the last thing on my mind.” But getting naked and sweaty is the first. The aggressive nature he’s pursuing me with, pushes every hotness button in my psyche. It’s hard not to think about that when someone who looks that good continually talks about getting into my pants. But there’s no need to go into detail about how much I crave the caress of his fingers on my skin with Aubrey. My sexual fantasies aren’t really anyone’s business.
She eyes me and licks her spoon. “So he’s PG-13, huh? That’s kind of disappointing. Not much of a ‘Sex-god’ is he? I figured as much as you talked about him he’d have you out of your panties within the hour.”
“Aubrey!” I smack her leg. “I can’t believe you just called him that.”
“What? A ‘Sex-god’?” She says around her spoon. “I got the name from you. That’s how you always referred to him, but I’m thinkin’ of revoking his title after the boring business date story you just told me.”
It’s true, I kept tabs on Noel while he shot up through the ranks of stardom. The internet is a wonderful tool for discreetly checking up on people. There are always pictures of him at parties surrounded by small mobs of women—some even famous starlets who are notorious for having flings with rock stars. Noel’s been referred to as a ‘Sex-god’ by more than one article.
