His lips curled in what someone might assume was a smile, but Naya suspected that it was more along the lines of contempt. And she didn’t like that! She refused to accept his contempt. Besides, she was going to be terminated anyway. Why not go out with a bang.
Straightening her shoulders, she stepped forward, sick of being scared and feeling like a rabbit about to be chopped in half and tossed to the wolves. “If you really want to know, that whole campaign lacked creativity. It was out of touch with both what the product could do for consumers as well as any sort of psychology that might entice potential buyers to try the product.” Oh, that felt good! “Furthermore,” she said, unaware of her green eyes flashing as she released her pent-up frustration, “the prices that Mark paid to the vendors who produced the final version of the campaign seemed outrageous to me. Especially since we have a large staff in the marketing department who could have taken on some of the tasks he was out-sourcing. So no, I didn’t like the last campaign. It lacked style, imagination and was completely overpriced.”
With that, she gave a firm nod of her head and pressed the notebook to her chest, waiting for the ax to fall. This was it, she told herself. She was going to be fired. She hadn’t kept her head down like a good soldier and now she was going to be let go. Too many times, Naya had been told by her co-workers to just keep her mouth shut, to not voice her opinions.
And now Naya, not to mention, Naya’s mother and this tiny little girl inside of her were going to suffer for her outburst.
She opened her mouth, about to try and take back her words but he pushed away from his desk. “I’m glad to hear that your instincts aren’t as bad as your manners.” He picked up another storyboard and Naya’s stomach tightened with dread when she realized that the other boards were her own ideas spread out in front of her.
“Explain this concept,” he commanded, taking the boards over to the long, polished table.
Naya followed him warily, not sure what his agenda was today. But he’d asked, and she was actually proud of this concept. Walking over to the table, she kept enough space between them that she would be able to breathe properly.
“The idea was to use suggestive clues hidden throughout the commercial.” She pointed to the first picture. “I’ve used the logo of the product here as a positive message, showing the strength of the shirt and the style, which really is superior to anything I’ve tried on the market,” she said as a side note. She glanced up at his grey eyes, then quickly away, rejecting the surprise there in his eyes. “But in addition to the positive message about the brand, I’ve included negative images of generic products, implying that all of the competition can’t stand up to our product.”
For the next half hour, he interrogated her on her ideas. She defended them, pointing out her subliminal messages, the more obvious ones, the color suggestions and why she’d chosen one color over another. He wanted to understand details that had never been asked about before and Naya was thrilled to be able to explain her background in psychology and art. Mark had never been interested in her ideas, dismissing them as the silly suggestions from a junior staff member.
Pierce might be furious with her about their one night together, or more specifically, the way she’d departed from their night together, but he was listening to her. He was interested!
After having no audience for her ideas since college, it was exhilarating to have someone listen to her now.
When she finished, silence reigned in the room. Pierce was looking at the pictures, going through all of the ideas again. Backing up, Naya needed more space. Now that she wasn’t talking, wasn’t focused on her passion for art and her ideas, she was painfully aware of Pierce, of his broad shoulders and his towering height. If she survived this day unscathed, her first stop was to head to a shoe store so she could find pumps with more of a heel on them. Battling Pierce was going to take everything in her arsenal. Being taller was only one thing that might help.
Now how does one tell an ex-lover that she was pregnant with his child? Goodness, the idea made her more than a little frazzled.
When she stepped back again, without looking at her, he reached out and grabbed her elbow, bringing her in closer. So close, she could feel the heat from his body, smell his woodsy aftershave. Oh, my, she wanted to bury her face against his neck, or maybe against his chest because it was closer, and simply inhale that smell. Everything about this man screamed alpha and yet, she remembered how gentle he could be as well, how tender, how concerned after he’d realized that she’d been a bit tender after that first time they’d made…uh, had sex.
“What?” Pierce asked, turning to look down into her green eyes. Naya’s pupils were dilated, her body leaning towards him. Almost as if… “You’re in charge,” he announced before he could do something stupid. Like lift her up and make love to her on this conference room table.
Naya blinked and he wanted to taste those soft lips. Surely his memory was wrong about how sweet she tasted. No woman could be as delicious as his mind remembered.
Her green eyes looked confused and he turned around, leaning a hip against the conference room table as he watched her figure out what was going on. She was so painfully beautiful, he thought. And completely unaware of it. He remembered that about her as well. She’d been so shy at first, but with only a few words of encouragement, she’d released all of her inhibitions, letting lose on her desires.
Crossing his arms over his chest, he watched her, fascinated. Maybe he was going about this all wrong. Perhaps he should approach this from a different angle. He wanted her. That was a given even though he hated the fact. She’d walked out on him, doing what no woman had ever done before.
And if his instincts were on target, and they always were, she wanted him as well. Perhaps he could win at this game between them and come out more satisfied.
Yes, he thought, noticing the pulse beating rapidly at the base of her very soft, very elegant neck, he could take her to his bed again. A much more satisfying plan, he thought. Get her out of his system and move on. No way would he allow a woman to mess with his head like this one had been doing for the past several weeks. Merciless. That’s what people called him.
And he would be merciless in his dealings with this woman.
“You are in charge of the next campaign,” he said again, watching her lips, her eyes and knowing that she still wasn’t grasping his intent. He walked over to his desk and picked up a file folder. “You will create a new campaign that incorporates these products. It is the line of sportswear TriTek is launching in the fall. The technology behind the material is superior to anything on the market now. So I’m jump-starting this company with these products.” He paused, watching as her head bent lower, her soft, brown hair falling delicately against the pale skin of her cheek. Was she doing that on purpose, he thought with rising fury? Was she trying to entice him with that wisp of hair, the delicate shell of her ear and the whiff of her feminine scent?
He stepped forward, breathing her in. It wasn’t even perfume, he realized. It was simply her shampoo. She was just clean and fresh, beautiful and alive. Damn, he stepped back and went behind his desk so that he wouldn’t be able to gently touch her, to find out if she still shivered when he touched her neck or ran a hand down her back.
Clenching his fists, he glared at her. “Get to work. The marketing staff, what’s left of it, has been informed of your new role. You are in charge. And you have two days to get me some new ideas.” He was going to leave it at that, but then her mossy green eyes looked up at him. He relented. But only slightly. “Be back here tomorrow at noon to show me your preliminary ideas. We’ll go over any problems you might anticipate.”
Damn, he hadn’t meant to say that! He wanted to toss the ball to her and let her either sink or swim. He’d been sinking ever since waking up that morning to find her gone, so why the hell was he offering his help?
He didn’t know, but something inside of him loosened slightly when her shoulders relaxed ever so slightly. �
��Yes, sir,” she whispered and closed the file folder. “Noon tomorrow. I’ll have something for you.”
Naya gathered the file, her notebook and pen and almost raced out of the man’s office. She was both relieved and overwhelmed by the responsibility he’d just dumped on her shoulders. She was in charge of the whole campaign? She couldn’t do this! She wasn’t prepared, trained or skilled enough to do this herself! She was just a junior member of the marketing staff!
Naya pulled the door closed before she dumped everything and raced back to the man, throwing herself into his arms and pleading with him to not give her this responsibility!
She leaned against the closed door, her mind trying to take it all in. This was crazy!
“Do you really have time to hang out here and take a nap?” a female voice snapped to her.
Naya’s eyes opened wide. She’d thought she’d been alone, but then again, why she would have assumed so was silly since she was in Pierce’s outer office. There were several people standing there as well as that older woman who had led her into Pierce’s office earlier. They were all staring at her with varying degrees of sympathy and anger. The sympathy, she understood. The anger? That didn’t make much sense.
“I’ll get out of your way,” she replied, still clutching everything to her chest as she forced her feet to carry her back to the elevator.
She’d come up here with the belief that she was going to be fired and now she was returning to her desk with a promotion? How had that happened? What alteration in the universe had collided to make this occur?
Back in the marketing department, she walked in and everyone stopped speaking. It seemed like the whole team was in the front area, watching her and waiting to see what would happen.
“I wasn’t fired,” she said, feeling silly for making that announcement. Still, no one spoke. “We have to create a new campaign,” she announced. Still, no movement. “And I need to get some ideas put together by noon tomorrow.” More silence.
Linda, one of the more senior account managers, stepped out of the crowd, her animosity almost a live thing. “Then I guess you’d better head back to your office and get things done, shouldn’t you?”
Naya couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Looking around, she realized that some people were looking like they wanted to step in and help, while others bowed their heads, not wanting to interfere. Linda was a fierce woman, highly competitive and everyone knew that she’d been maneuvering to replace Mark as the marketing director for years.
Apparently, Naya wasn’t getting any assistance from Linda and, because of Linda’s influence as well as her perceived power in the department, no one was going to step up and help. Naya got it. She was on her own.
“Right,” she sighed and tightened her arms around the file. “I’ll just go do that.”
She walked back to her office, her head bowed slightly as if she were ducking arrows. And that might not be too far from the reality. Everyone was scared of the changes thrust upon them this morning. News of the takeover and rumors of layoffs had put everyone on edge. New owners meant new ideas and, most likely, new staff. Change was always hard for people.
With a sigh, she dumped the papers onto her desk, then lifted the file folder back up. Could she actually feel Pierce’s touch through the paper? It seemed like it, but that was impossible and a ridiculous thought to boot. The man’s touch could not be conveyed through a file folder!
“Okay, get to work,” she said to herself. “You can do this!” She remembered the look in Pierce’s eyes as she took on the challenge. Did he really have confidence in her abilities or was he just setting her up for failure?
She didn’t know, but either way, she was going to give him the best damn campaign he’d ever seen.
Picking up a charcoal pencil, she opened up a fresh sheet of paper on her sketch pad. Initially, her ideas were just doodles. But as she contemplated the possibilities, an idea hit her.
Her pencil started to skim over her sketchbook, her mind racing as she tried to get the ideas down fast enough. All afternoon, she worked with her head bent low. Someone turned on a light at some point. And there was a hot cup of coffee at her elbow, set there during the afternoon. Someone was even kind enough to slip a sandwich onto her desk, although for all three gestures, she hadn’t noticed anything. No one spoke to her but, with the small kindnesses, she felt less alone, less like she was about to choke on the panic inside of her. A panic she refused to allow anyone to see. She could do this, she kept telling herself. She could be brilliant and blow Pierce away with her ideas tomorrow.
By midnight, she had a start which was pretty rough, but better than anything she’d done to date. Her progress was most likely because she hadn’t had Mark’s negativity to drag down her enthusiasm, but she liked her work.
Packing up, she drove home through the now-quiet streets and practically fell into bed that night. She slept until morning sickness woke her up the following morning.
“Oh, this is not good!” she whispered as she pulled herself back to her feet. “Not good at all!”
Naya forced herself to shower, the warm water soothing her stomach and her sore muscles. She was sore because she’d bent over her desk all day yesterday.
“No time to rest,” she thought, glancing at the clock. She grabbed a small breakfast, pulled on a different suit and started to make coffee. She’d just started to put the coffee grounds into the small coffee maker when she hesitated. She couldn’t drink coffee! That would have to go, she realized. Pregnant women couldn’t have coffee, could they?
Until she knew for sure, she wasn’t going to risk it. Stuffing the coffee back into her cabinet, she took several deep breaths.
“Okay, two days into this pregnancy thing and…” she closed her eyes. “I can do this!”
She should call Cassy and ask because Naya knew that she wouldn’t have time to head to a bookstore today and she definitely didn’t want to research anything related to pregnancy online during work hours. She didn’t know if TriTek monitored employees’ internet searches, but until she’d had a chance to tell Pierce, Naya didn’t want to take any chances. Besides, Naya suspected that her agenda would be pretty full for a while.
Looking at her phone, she saw several text messages from her friends. She’d have to call them back, but she didn’t have time right now. Ella and Cassy would understand. Still, she shot them both a message, just letting both of them know that she was okay before she grabbed her purse and headed out the door.
She didn’t realize it was just after five o’clock in the morning. Nor did she really feel very tired. By rights, she should be exhausted, having only gotten four hours of sleep last night. But there was just something about the tasks ahead of her that made her feel energized.
Naya refused to believe that her excitement had anything to do with anticipation over seeing Pierce today. Nope, he definitely wasn’t the kind, gentle man she’d thought him to be as she’d conversed with him over dinner that night. But how could she have known that he would be rude and inconsiderate? She’d had one dinner with him and then fallen into his arms for a night of lust-filled pleasure. The only communication she’d had at that point was “more” or “again”. There might have been some other words involved in those disjointed conversations, but she couldn’t remember them.
Stuffing everything into her bag, she rushed out of her tiny apartment and headed into the office, praying that she would be the only one there at this early hour. She wanted to finish up some things before she had to deal with the other team members’ snide comments.
Rushing into her office, she dumped all of her drawings on the desk, then dove into her work. She popped a few ibuprofen to deal with her lack of caffeine and the resultant headache, but every time she felt a twinge of pain in her head, she patted her stomach, telling her baby that she was going to be perfectly fine.
The phone ringing stopped her focus and she looked over at it, shocked to realize that the day was fully in progress. The h
allway was bustling with activity and Naya was amazed at the urgency with which everyone moved.
“Can’t worry about that now,” she told herself.
“Hey!” Bonnie ducked her head into Naya’s office. “I’m sorry that I didn’t offer any help yesterday.” Bonnie came fully into the office and closed the door. “I just…well, you know Linda.”
Naya did. “Yes, but I’m sorry Bonnie. I have to pull a few more details together and get this upstairs for review.”
Bonnie’s eyes glanced down at the drawings, quickly taking in the concept. “Is that what you’re suggesting?” she asked.
Naya bit her lower lip. “Is it a horrible idea?”
Bonnie came around to the other side of Naya’s desk, leaning over to look at the concept. For several long moments, Bonnie simply skimmed over the drawings. Then she smiled, nodding. “Actually, I think it’s brilliant!” she replied, laughing and standing up. “Yeah, that’s a really great concept!”
Chapter 8
Naya stared at the message, her heart hammering painfully in her chest. Yes, the meeting with Pierce was still on for noon. But no, it wasn’t happening in his office on the executive floor.
Her whole body trembled as she remembered the suite. Or more specifically, the night in his arms in that suite! He wanted to meet her there? Was this some sort of trick?
There was a hum of excitement outside of her office and Naya looked up just as Bonnie slipped into her office again.
“Hey! Have you heard?”
Naya glanced at the message, her stomach feeling particularly queasy this morning. “No. What’s going on?”
“Well, some of us were all called to a meeting earlier this morning,” she explained, not seeing the surprise on Naya’s face in her excitement. “But it wasn’t held here at the office.” Bonnie paused for dramatic effect before she continued, “We all met over at The Halston over on Tenth Avenue…” she leaned forward, “…in the penthouse suite!” She laughed and clapped her hands. “I’d never been in a penthouse before! It was even more amazing than I could have imagined!”
Pregnant with the Tycoon's Heir Page 7