The Rebound Guy

by Fiona Harper

  But, unfortunately, Kelly discovered she liked serious from him. The way his brows drew together and his focus hardened just made her pulse drum all the harder.

  Oh, help. If he kept this up she’d be toast. And she’d done so well burying Chloe’s stupid suggestion about a hot and heavy rebound fling.

  She cleared her throat. ‘Is there something wrong?’

  Jason stared at her for a minute then swivelled his laptop round to face her. The promo video they’d been working on began to play, not the first rough cut she’d already seen, but a more polished version. It ran for a couple of minutes and she watched the now familiar footage roll past, feeling Jason’s eyes on her the whole time. When it finished he just said, ‘Well?’

  Kelly frowned. ‘I think it looks great,’ she said. ‘Especially the tidied up graphics.’ It was unlike any running shoe ad she’d ever seen. Instead of concentrating on lone runners pounding along through mountainous scenery or busy city streets, it was full of fast-paced shots of all sorts of things. Interesting things, colourful things, vibrant things. The clip left her feeling energised and ready to zing along the corridor at speed. That had been Jason’s idea: to convey the swiftness of Mercury, without even showing a runner or a shoe.

  She stopped staring at the blank laptop screen and met his gaze. ‘If there’s something the matter with it, I can’t see it.’

  She didn’t get it. All week Jason had been banging on about how it had needed to be slicker, hipper...cooler. The finished product looked all of that and more.

  He turned the laptop back to face himself, fiddled with the mouse, and when he turned it round again a section of the video swooping through the skyscrapers of Manhattan began to play.

  ‘What are those graphics running underneath?’ he asked in a low tone. ‘I didn’t authorise those.’

  Kelly’s mouth opened and closed. ‘Those were the stats you wanted to include, that we were waiting for from Research and Design. When I gave your last feedback to the production company they’d just come in, so I asked the team to find a way to add them in.’

  Instead of looking pleased at her efficiency, which he’d been complimenting her on all week, Jason continued to look at her with unblinking eyes. ‘Without consulting me?’

  Kelly swallowed. He’d been very busy on an international call at the time, and she’d known he’d wanted to get the notes off to the production company as soon as possible. ‘I thought that was what you wanted.’

  Jason flipped the laptop closed and pushed it to one side before leaning back in his office chair. ‘I decided to keep the facts and figures to the brochure, just let the video represent the ethos and aspirational qualities of the product—which you would have known, if you’d taken the time to ask me.’

  Oh.

  Jason sighed. ‘I know I said I like your initiative, Kelly, but you’ve been here less than a week and you’re already starting to make executive decisions.’

  Kelly looked at her hands folded in her lap. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said, and she probably should have left it there, but somehow the truth came barrelling out of her mouth anyway. ‘To be honest, I didn’t think you’d mind. I thought you’d just...forgotten.’

  Jason’s eyebrows rose. ‘So now you’re telling me that I can’t do my job properly and that a temp who’s been here five days needs to pick up after me?’

  Okay, it sounded bad when he put it that way.

  Jason shook his head and looked away. ‘You didn’t think I’d care,’ he said wearily. ‘But why would I not care when the new product I’ve been working on for close to two years is on the line?’

  Thankfully, she managed to swallow her next response. Because you don’t seem to care about anything too deeply, she’d almost said. Because everything seems like one big game to you. Just like her boys, he only seemed to care about how edgy or flashy or cool everything was.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ she said again, but this time there was an added ring of sincerity to her tone. ‘It’s nothing to do with you, really. It’s me....’

  Okay...this was starting to sound like a bad break-up.

  ‘Sometimes I’m a little too independent,’ she added. ‘It’s just that recently I’ve had to... I’ve been used to...’

  Making it worse, Kelly. He doesn’t want to hear about your personal woes.

  She took a moment then continued. ‘I’ll contact Ace Productions right away and ask them to take it out.’

  Jason’s expression softened. ‘No. Leave it. Your instinct was good. But it’s my project and I get the final say. Just because I’m enthusiastic about my work doesn’t mean I take it lightly.’

  She nodded. She hadn’t known that about him. And now she did. Good. She let out the breath she’d been holding and her lips started to curve.

  Jason regarded Kelly with interest. All week he’d been charming and friendly to her—as charming as he could be without actually flirting—but he hadn’t had more than a nod or an affirmative phrase. And now he’d just told her off and she was smiling at him? How did that work?

  He smiled back. Not his charm-the-birds-from-the-trees smile, just an ordinary one. A weary one. It had been a long week. ‘Okay. Well, as long as that’s clear. This project is my baby. And I feel exactly the same way about it as a mother feels about her children.’

  She squinted at him slightly, as if she wasn’t quite sure it was possible to equate a running shoe with a living, breathing mini human being. ‘If you say so....’

  Jason’s smile upgraded to a grin. He didn’t know why he liked his prickly assistant’s prickles so much, but he did.

  ‘I know you’re not going to believe me, but in a creative sense it really is like seeing something born. Years ago now, I had the seed of an idea, just the inkling of a new design that might really improve a running shoe, and it’s been growing and developing ever since. The shoe is finished—it’s ready to go out into the big wide world—and I want the very best for it.’

  ‘Why?’ she said, looking back at him. The expression she wore was of open curiosity, not guarded politeness, as he’d been used to from her all week.

  ‘Why does anybody want the best for their “babies”?’

  She pressed her lips together and thought for a while. ‘Because you want them to fulfil their potential—be all they can be.’

  He nodded. ‘Exactly. And I know these shoes have the potential to be revolutionary—I just need to convince the rest of the world of that too.’

  ‘Why Dale McGrath? You said the preliminary approach you made wasn’t received with much interest. Why not just target someone else, someone who can catch your vision?’

  He put his hands behind his head and let his weight push his chair into recline so he could stare at the ceiling. Why did he want McGrath so badly? There were plenty of other sportsmen out there. Some who were showier, more charismatic. But Dale’s was the face he had seen when he’d imagined the first ad campaign and now he couldn’t shake it. ‘I don’t know why, but he just fits. Call it gut instinct.’

  With that he sat up and his chair sprung upright behind him. The clock on the opposite wall said it was close to five.

  Kelly followed his gaze and started to stand up. ‘Well, if that’s all,’ she said calmly, ‘I really should be going.’

  He planted his feet on the floor and rose too. ‘Time for a quick drink? There’s a great little place just round the corner.’

  Kelly froze. ‘I don’t think so,’ she said as she straightened and met his eyes.

  ‘Not a date,’ he added quickly. ‘Just to celebrate an intense but productive first week. Purely professional.’

  She looked at him suspiciously.

  ‘Look,’ he said, ‘half the Aspire team will be in there anyway. It’s a regular Friday-night hang-out.’

  She shook her head. ‘I’m sorr
y, I can’t.’

  ‘Can’t or won’t?’

  ‘Can’t,’ she said stiffly. All that armour plating that had melted away when he’d been telling her about Mercury was back up in full force. ‘There’s somewhere I need to be.’

  One corner of his mouth hitched up. ‘Can’t you make him wait? Just for half an hour?’

  She hugged her notepad to her chest. ‘Actually, there’s more than one and, no, they can’t wait.’

  Two? Whoa. When he’d labelled her as a wildcat he’d only got it half right.

  ‘My sons,’ she said quickly, then stared him down.

  Jason stared back. He knew what this was about. She was expecting a reaction from him. He disappointed her by not running screaming from the room. So she was a mom. Didn’t bother him any.

  Except if...

  ‘You’re married?’ They’d been in close proximity all week. Surely he’d have noticed it before now. A ring was the first thing he looked for when an attractive woman walked across his path.

  Okay, maybe not the first thing. But it was definitely in the top five.

  He hadn’t thought it was possible for her to look any more poker-like, but she surprised him yet again. ‘No, I’m not married.’

  No problem, then.

  But Kelly didn’t look as if she shared his opinion.

  She’d wanted to fudge it. He could tell it by the way her lips had moved silently before she’d said no. But she hadn’t. And she could have invented a fictional Mr Bradford and been on her way home in a flash if she’d wanted to. That was a sign, right there. One he should probably not be paying attention to, but it was a hard habit to break.

  ‘After-work drinks... Not a good idea. It’s against the no-dating-at-work policy,’ she said matter-of-factly.

  Jason frowned. ‘We don’t have a no-dating policy.’ He should know. He’d ditched it so he could start dating his former PA. They’d turned out to be such a good team. In the office... Out of the office... Especially in the bedroom. But then she’d gone and got all serious on him, talking about moving in together and hosting dinner parties. Jason shuddered. It had ended with a nuclear fight, a cold space in his bed and a vacancy at the office. That had been two months ago, and they hadn’t found anyone suitable to replace her long-term yet. In the office, of course. Out of the office Jason wasn’t looking for anything more than ‘temporary’.

  ‘You might not have a no-dating policy, but I do,’ Kelly said quite seriously.

  Jason blinked. Had he just heard her right? It took him a few moments to gather a sensible reply. ‘I said it wasn’t a date. Just socialising after work.’

  She narrowed her eyes. ‘Socialising is fine, and I’d be quite happy to go out in a group, but not tonight, and not alone with you.’ She smiled sweetly at him. ‘Have a good weekend, Mr Knight.’ And then she was gone. Out of the office and down the corridor before he could think of anything else to say.

  Jason let out a dry, self-mocking laugh. Well, that told him! He didn’t get that response very often when he asked a woman out for a drink. Far from it.

  He sat back down in his chair and rubbed his face with his hand.

  Oh, Kelly Bradford might say she didn’t want to go out with him, but all week he’d seen the way she’d looked at him when she thought he hadn’t been watching. That was why he’d issued his invitation in the first place. For a woman who told the bald, unvarnished truth about everything else, she was lying about this.

  How intriguing.

  And how very tantalising. He laughed again, but it was a lighter, more joyous noise this time.

  Love-one to Ms Bradford. But that didn’t mean she’d won the match.

  FOUR

  Jason stared at the email he’d just read a few seconds longer then closed the window down with a grunt of exasperation. What had he expected? That suddenly the world would take the rich kid playing with his daddy’s company seriously, even though he’d spent years turning it around?

  The rules in this game were stacked against him. Just because his ancestors had been successful and he’d been born into a wealthy family, he couldn’t be seen as just another businessman with a revolutionary idea to sell. He couldn’t even be applauded as a man trying to rebuild his life after a career-ending injury. No, the world had decided he, with the help of his blue-blood friends, had brought misfortune on himself and it had no sympathy for him. He’d been branded with that assessment and no one was ever going to let him forget it.

  Certainly not Dale McGrath.

  His team had sent a polite refusal: Dale, unfortunately, did not have time in his schedule to see Jason while he was in London next week. The wording had made it all seem very benign, but Jason knew the sound of a door slamming shut when he heard it.

  Oh, he could still get a good name to endorse the shoes, but it wouldn’t be the same. With the fastest man on the planet in his campaign, they could have seen Mercury go stellar. Dale McGrath was the best, and Jason wanted the best. Anything less was just second place.

  Kelly knocked on his door at that moment. He recognised her sharp, clean rap instantly and yelled for her to come in. As she approached his desk, she frowned, and then she stopped walking. ‘You heard?’ she asked nervously. ‘What did they say?’

  Jason picked up his baby basketball, took his time lining it up perfectly then sunk it through the hoop. He was getting very good at office basketball, so at least that was one thing he was excelling at.

  ‘He said no.’

  They both watched the ball speed across the carpet and roll to a stop against the wall. He didn’t go and retrieve it.

  ‘Oh, Jason! I’m so sorry. I know how hard you’ve been working on this.’

  He spun round to look at her, ambushed by the first bit of non-confrontational sincerity he’d heard from her in the month she’d been working for him, but his mouth remained a grim line. ‘Don’t sweat it,’ he said, then picked up his cellphone and fiddled with a few buttons. Which buttons he wasn’t exactly sure, because he wasn’t really paying attention. He just didn’t want to see that look of empathy or pity or whatever it was in her eyes. Better just to pretend it didn’t matter. But, unlike other times, when he’d just been able to flick a switch and flush the bad feeling away, this one hung around.

  It loomed over him like a dark cloud all day—while he listened to Kelly’s update on the ad campaign for their new range of trampolines. While he sat through meeting after meeting. By four o’clock he was ready to punch something and that was not a good state to be in.

  He knew those kinds of adrenalin rushes only led to shows of macho stupidity—a release mechanism of his—and the last time he’d let something burrow this deep he’d managed to ruin two people’s lives.

  The only way Jason knew how to stop feeling like a loser in one arena was to win in another, even if it was just a game of checkers or jacks. He wondered if Kelly knew how to play jacks, if she would mind kneeling down on the carpet and indulging him.

  Just the thought of that black skirt tightening over her butt as she leaned forward to catch the little ball, lip caught under her teeth in concentration, made his insides shiver.

  Maybe there was something better than jacks....

  Maybe it was time he and Kelly stopped denying the obvious electricity that arced between them whenever they shared a room. Winning her over could feel a lot like winning, period.

  Oh, he knew what he’d promised Julie, but desperate times called for desperate measures. He needed to let off some steam before he did something really dumb.

  But he guessed a direct play would only bomb out. She’d scurry away back into that hard shell she hid behind most of the time. As it was, he only got tiny glimpses of the softer, warmer woman underneath.

  Just as well his grandfather had taught Jason to play chess from the time h
e was old enough to hold a piece in his chubby fingers and not shove it in his mouth. He knew how to plan and project. He knew how to move and counter move. And now he was going to use all that skill on his temporary PA, until she cracked and was as unflinchingly honest about the attraction humming between them as she was about everything else.

  * * *

  At the end of that afternoon Kelly looked up from her desk and saw a trio of female Aspire employees hanging around in the corridor.

  ‘Hey, Kelly. You coming across the road to Joey’s for a bit?’

  The one who’d spoken was the junior member of staff she’d met on that fateful day in the Human Resources office. Of course, she now knew the girl’s name was Chantelle. She was about to make an excuse and head off home, but she didn’t get any further than opening her mouth.

  Chloe was looking after the boys again this evening and she’d actively encouraged Kelly to go out for an after-work drink. Especially when she’d discovered Jason had asked Kelly out at the end of her first week. Of course, this was nothing to do with Jason, but what Chloe didn’t know wouldn’t hurt her.

  She smiled back at the three women. ‘Actually, I’d really like that. Just give me two seconds.’

  Before collecting her handbag from under the desk, she rapped on the office door and stuck her head in. ‘I’m going now, Jason.’

  He was deep in some paperwork on his desk. He hardly looked up, just grunted an offhand farewell. Kelly inhaled and closed the door again. He hadn’t tried asking her out again since that first Friday, and that was good. That was what she wanted. It was just...

  Well, no woman liked to think her allure had evaporated. She sighed. Well, that was what you got for having a big mouth. She tended to blow the cobwebs out of most subjects she touched, so she shouldn’t really be surprised if Jason had found it a turn-off. Tim certainly had towards the end of their marriage.

  Okay, she thought, as she collected her belongings and headed for the lifts with the group of gossiping girls. Jason might not appreciate her bull-in-a-china-shop approach to male/female relationships, but she knew it was working just fine in their professional pairing. He’d told her it was refreshing to have someone who didn’t just parrot the word ‘yes’ at him. He didn’t always follow her suggestions, but he listened, and that was what counted. She felt part of a team working for him, not just a skivvy to be ordered around and sent to make coffee.