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“When we parted after the tribute,” he said, nuzzling her neck, “I thought I’d lose my mind if I didn’t see you soon. But after our time together in California, I assumed I had a handle on it. How is it possible that I missed you more this time around? Being without you is going to be torture.”
She moaned, throwing her head back, allowing him easy access to... whatever he wanted. “Good thing we don’t have to worry about that for a while.”
He paused and looked up at her, confusion breaking through the inferno blazing in his blue gaze. “We don’t?”
“Uh-uh,” she said, wrapping her arms more firmly around him. “I’m going to be here for a while.”
“Define ‘a while’?”
“A month. Maybe more.”
He frowned and straightened, dislodging her hold. Cool air intruded where there had once been heat. That wasn’t the reaction she’d been expecting to her news.
She tilted her head. “What happened to losing your mind, sweet torture and all that?”
“I’m not complaining; Idowant you here as long as possible. But when we talked about your visit, you said you’d only be able to manage a week. Two, if you turned off your phone and locked it in my wine cellar.”
It was her turn to pull away. She scrambled off his lap, going over to rest her hip against his desk.
She bit her lip. “Things have changed.”
He moved to the edge of the sofa and braced his elbows on his knees, staring up at her. “Does this have anything to do with your meeting with Genesis? You sounded strange when we talked but I ascribed that to jet lag. Was there something more? Something you’re not telling me?”
How could she tell him? What would she say?
“Jay, I know you hate the spotlight, but can you please suck that shit up and help me get this contract? They want you to be a part of my official marketing campaign, which is ridiculous, since you don’t use the products and they’re not targeted to you and before this summer you’d never heard of me or Mela-Skin. But that doesn’t matter because you’re hella famous and Genesis’s new parent company wants to use you.
“I said no but I agreed that we would go out and take lots of pictures together and stay relevant and trending and even thoughneither of us are happy with this arrangement, Bennie said that meant it was a good compromise. No pressure, it’s just that if you don’t agree, it could affect everything I’ve worked for. Also, once you do this we can’t break up. Ever. Because it’ll affect my brand. Which you’re now a part of. So... what do you say?”
Mental Dani was panting by the time she was done.
Nope, that wasn’t happening.
Dani trusted Jameson. And yet... no matter how much peoplesaidthey wanted to help you, in the end, all you could count on was yourself. People might not mean to let you down and the disappointment wasn’t always intentional—she knew Nana didn’t die on purpose!—but the result, Dani having to take care of herself, was still the same.
Her team had approached Genesis with their compromise and after some back-and-forth, the beauty company had agreed it could work. But no one was signing the contract.
Not yet.
Apparently Greg Martin, the VP of Mergers and Acquisitions for Parcellum, had concerns about whether she and Jameson would honor their end of the deal. Jameson wasn’t a party to their contract; legally, he couldn’t be forced to act. So Martin had required a one-month trial period to ensure Dani followed through and to evaluate the proposal in action. If their joint public appearances continued to increase Dani’s brand awareness and sales, Parcellum would allow the investment by Genesis to go through.
She wouldn’t have to ask Jameson for help.
And he wouldn’t say no.
Or leave her because she wasn’t worth the hassle.
She cleared her throat. “They were extremely excited by the coverage I got from the royal tribute.”
“That’s wonderful,” he said, smiling. “You were worried whetherthe announcement of our relationship would derail all the work you did that week. So, it didn’t?”
“No. Actually our relationship has raised my profile.”
“The deal is going through? You got what you wanted?”
“Almost.” She was really skirting the line here. “We need to figure out one mo—”
She broke off when the phone on his desk rang. He closed his eyes. “Damn.”
