The Rebound Guy

by Fiona Harper

  Dale McGrath cleared his throat. ‘I think I’d like to know the answer to that question. I don’t recall seeing your name on my guest list.’

  Jason shot Kelly a warning look before turning to face their reluctant host. ‘Not strictly...’ he began.

  McGrath’s eyebrows shot up. ‘Either your name’s there or it isn’t.’

  Okay. He could turn this around. Jason had talked himself out of tighter spots in the past.

  ‘It isn’t,’ he said apologetically, hoping the truth would win him a few points. ‘But we’re staying at the hotel and I took a shot. I know I have a product that you could be excited about, and I was hoping we could set up a meeting to talk about it.’

  McGrath looked him up and down. ‘You’re Brad Knight’s brother, aren’t you?’

  Jason nodded, for once hoping his brother’s golden-boy shadow might cast a positive light on him as well. ‘Yes, I am.’

  ‘I met him a few times...’ McGrath said. ‘Solid guy.’

  Jason nodded again. That was Brad: solid, steady, worthwhile...all the things Jason wasn’t. But this man didn’t need to know that.

  Their host thought for a moment. ‘You’ve got thirty seconds.’

  ‘Now?’ While Jason normally did some of his best thinking on the fly, kissing Kelly had somehow wiped the ability to schmooze and charm away, as if the truth was a virus and she’d now infected him with it too. He was scared of what might come out of his mouth.

  McGrath shrugged and narrowed his eyes. ‘Take it or leave it.’

  Jason knew that face. This guy wasn’t joking. He wasn’t looking for an angle or making Jason sweat to pay him back for adding himself to the guest list. He knew if he tried to negotiate another meeting that McGrath wouldn’t even politely return his calls this time around.

  The adrenalin started to surge through his veins. Just like before a race. Jason let it buoy him up, welcomed it in and let it give him his edge. And then he was off and talking, just as if a starter had fired a pistol.

  ‘The Mercury running shoe is a cutting-edge innovation in the field of sports technology,’ he said. All that going over facts and figures with Kelly had really helped because, all of a sudden, it was as if he was speaking that brochure aloud. He was schmoozing with actual substance. Cool. ‘Obviously, I can’t share the exact science of it with you unless you come on board...’ He paused to give McGrath his most winning smile.

  The other man just folded his arms and shifted his weight back onto his heels.

  ‘But we believe the revolutionary sole and inner design can help shave time off—ow!’

  He turned and scowled at Kelly. She’d just elbowed him in the ribs. Why?

  He turned his attention back to McGrath. ‘Can help shave time off the—’

  She’d done it again!

  ‘Jason!’ She looked at him with desperate, pleading eyes, then looked pointedly at their host, who was losing interest fast.

  ‘What?’ he said, not as far under his breath as he’d have liked.

  ‘What are you doing?’ she mouthed back.

  Pitching his product, that was what. And he’d been doing a pretty good job until his rogue PA had butted in.

  ‘Your girlfriend’s right,’ McGrath said. ‘I’ve heard a thousand sales pitches just like that. You think you’re the first man with a “cutting edge” idea to crash one of my parties and try to sell it to me?’

  Jason swallowed. He’d been hoping he was.

  ‘I’m not interested in BS,’ he said dismissively, then turned to walk away.

  Kelly leapt forward and placed a hand softly on McGrath’s arm. Jason scowled at her. There was no way he was going to beg McGrath. If the man was dumb enough to pass him over without listening, then it would be his loss!

  ‘It’s not BS,’ she said fiercely. ‘Mercury really is unique. Jason knows his stuff. He’s unconventional, sure, but that means he’s got the goods when it comes to knowing how to create something different, something no one else has done before.’

  Jason was trying hard to hang on to his anger with Kelly. She’d managed to stamp all over his one opportunity to sell this idea to McGrath, but he couldn’t ignore the warm feeling spreading inside at her words. He might do ‘BS’, but Kelly didn’t. She meant every word of what she’d just said.

  McGrath seemed to like it too. The lines on his forehead relaxed and he gave Kelly an enquiring look. ‘Unconventional, huh?’

  ‘Yes.’ Jason straightened his spine and looked McGrath in the eye.

  No one had ever dared call him run-of-the-mill. Reckless and crazy, maybe. But that kind of thinking was what had helped him come up with Mercury in the first place. He’d made the leaps that no one else had thought could be made.

  McGrath chuckled. ‘I’d say unconventional is about right. Most people try to butter me up before they try to sell me their products. They take me out for fancy lunches, buy me stuff, flatter my wife...’

  McGrath’s wife was a supermodel and hot as they came, but Jason didn’t think that mentioning that now would help him any.

  ‘How long you been here?’ McGrath asked, looking around at the party in full swing.

  Jason opened his mouth to say Only a little while...but Kelly got in first.

  ‘An hour or two.’

  McGrath nodded and a slow smile spread across his face. ‘You want me to say nice things about your running shoes, but you’ve crashed my party, danced to my music, eaten my food and drunk my champagne?’

  ‘Pretty much,’ Kelly said. Now it was her turn to get an elbow in the ribs.

  McGrath just laughed. ‘And, from what I saw just now, you two weren’t exactly discussing running shoes on the dance floor....’

  Kelly flushed bright red.

  Jason decided that he’d rather McGrath had continued with his earlier approach—look gruff then throw them out—as he didn’t much care for the way the man was playing with them. He could see a couple of security guys near the exit keeping a close eye on them.

  ‘You Brits have a word for it...’ McGrath continued, winking at Kelly.

  ‘I think the word you’re looking for is snogging,’ he heard Kelly say beside him, grinning back at McGrath.

  If Jason could have dreamt this meeting up in a nightmare it would have been less painful. ‘Are you trying to finish me off?’

  McGrath slapped him on the shoulder. ‘Don’t mind her. At least she tells it straight. None of this sidestepping and tap-dancing. Can’t stand that.’ His expression grew more serious. ‘I don’t want slick presentations and marketing speak when I consider endorsing a product, Mr Knight. My team can deal with those details. There’s only one thing I want to know about—its heart.’

  ‘Heart?’ Jason repeated, frowning a little.

  ‘Yup. And that starts and ends with the man or woman behind it.’ He nodded at Kelly. ‘She’s got it. I just don’t know if you have.’

  Join the queue, Jason thought, but he pasted on his best look of earnest determination. ‘Let me try again.’

  McGrath grimaced. ‘I don’t give that many people a full minute.’

  ‘Oh, go on!’ Kelly said. ‘Otherwise I’ll have to snog him again.’

  His grim look crumpled into a smile and he turned back to Jason. ‘You up for it? But you start with the BS and I’ll kick you out.’

  This was it. His chance. The one he thought he’d flushed down the toilet five minutes ago. The one he’d been building towards for two years. And he wasn’t even allowed to speak his native language. Great.

  Jason looked at Kelly, at the close-lipped smile, the bubbling enthusiasm behind her eyes, the way she bobbed in her shoes to keep from letting it all out. How did she do that? How did she bounce back from all she’d been through and literally shine?

  He tho
ught of how she’d opened up to him out on the terrace, how she’d told the truth, even though she’d had to dig deep into herself, even though it had cost her so much. He turned to Dale McGrath and opened his mouth.

  ‘I know,’ he said. ‘I know what it’s like to pray in that stillness at the beginning of a race. I know how that starter’s pistol sets off a chain reaction you can’t control—adrenalin slamming through your system so hard it’s all you can do to ride the wave and harness it. I know what it’s like to want to win, to reach the finish line first so you can turn around in defiance and shout, “I am somebody, and don’t you dare forget it!” And that’s why I made Mercury shoes, McGrath, for people like you and me who want to make the world sit up and take notice. People who want to win.’

  Although the music was still throbbing and people were still dancing all around them, the world seemed to put its brakes on. Around them the room slowed and the noise vanished. All Jason could hear was the beating of his own heart. All he could see was the sceptical look on Dale McGrath’s face.

  He couldn’t quite believe he’d said all that. He looked over at Kelly and her face was aglow with excitement and pride and something else he didn’t want to label. She stepped in and kissed his cheek softly.

  That was when the world started spinning. That was when the bass beat rumbled through his ribcage once again.

  ‘Pretty words, Knight. Hope your shoes can live up to them.’ McGrath reached forward and shook his hand. ‘Call my office in the morning and we’ll set up a meeting.’

  * * *

  The Empire State Building stood silent and regal before them, its lights steady and unblinking in a cityscape full of movement and noise. Manhattan at midnight was stunning.

  It was chilly up on the top of the Rockefeller Center and Kelly pulled her wrap tighter around her shoulders. This was perfect. The only problem with standing on top of the Empire State Building was that you couldn’t actually see the Empire State Building all lit up—and that was something she’d really wanted to do. She was very grateful to Jason for whisking her into a cab after they’d left the party and bringing her here.

  It had been busy when they’d arrived, but now the crowds were thinning and heading back down to the plaza below. It was only because Jason knew people that the security guard now standing by the door just nodded and let them stay.

  She snuggled into Jason, who was standing close behind her, pointing out the different buildings and telling her a little of their history. He’d lived in this city most of his life and he knew all sorts of interesting little facts she’d never get from a guidebook.

  It had been like this since they’d run out of the Starlight Roof laughing. They’d kept in contact any way they could. Simple touches—a hand at her waist, holding on to his sleeve as they hurried for the lift, fingers intertwined in the cab on the way over. Neither of them had said anything, because neither of them had needed to. Something had changed. Deepened. They didn’t need to label it. Words wouldn’t make it more real.

  While he was still talking she turned round, keeping her body close against his, and smiled up at him. ‘We did it,’ she whispered.

  Jason stopped his commentary and looked at her. He’d been pointing in the direction of Madison Square Garden and he now dropped his arm and touched her face, stroking her cheekbone with his thumb.

  ‘Yes, we did,’ he replied just as softly. ‘For the first time I didn’t crash under my own steam and see how far “winging it” would get me. And it was all thanks to you.’

  She gave him a hangdog look. ‘I was more of a hindrance than a help, shooting my mouth off—’

  ‘No,’ he said firmly. ‘You saved it. He would have blown me off if you hadn’t stopped me.’

  Her lips curled up even further at the edges. She was so proud of him. ‘But you sealed the deal, Jason. Not me. He liked what you said.’

  She saw her words sink in and a look of amazement spread across his features. What? Had he thought it had just been luck? A fluke?

  He surprised her by picking her up and planting a firm, sweet kiss on her lips before laughing and setting her down again. ‘We did it!’ he said, shaking his head.

  Kelly thumped him on the chest with the flat of her hand. ‘That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you!’

  His expression grew more serious and he looked into her eyes. ‘We make a great team.’

  The words caused a shiver to work up from Kelly’s core and vibrate its way through her limbs. Jason pulled her tighter and hugged her against him, placing a kiss on the top of her head. She closed her eyes and thought her heart might crack in two.

  He was right. They’d worked as a team. Somehow the maverick loner had let her close enough to play with him rather than against him. And she’d played nicely, instead of making up her own rules and insisting on scoring all the goals herself.

  This was the man she’d only seen glimpses of in the previous month but had known was there. He was bolder and stronger and just plain more wonderful than she ever could have guessed. And she was falling in love with him, God help her.

  The fact she suspected no one else knew this side of him but her, not his past lovers or even his family, just made her want to weep. She wanted to lean off this balcony and shout it out for the whole city to hear. Make those sirens and car horns stop. Make them listen.

  It seemed he must have read her mind because he gave her a look that was deep and passionate and clouded with uncertainty about what was going on between them, but then he kissed her anyway. Kissed her like a man who had nothing left to lose. Like a man who’d flung himself off the cliff and was just waiting to hit the bottom.

  A discreet cough from behind them brought them back down to earth. Kelly glanced over Jason’s shoulder and gave the burly guard a sheepish smile. He winked back, even as he shivered. She patted Jason’s arm. ‘Listen, I think we’d better move round and see the rest of the view. That poor man is going to freeze to death otherwise.’

  He dropped one last scorching kiss onto her lips then took her hand and led her to look north towards the dark void of Central Park.

  She slid an arm around his waist and he lifted his arm and rested it on her shoulder. ‘Where are the Knight Corporation’s head offices?’

  His back muscles stiffened and he said nothing. A few seconds later he lifted his finger and pointed off to their left. When he spoke his voice was light and breezy, just as it had been the first day she’d met him. ‘You can’t see it from here, but it’s just the other side of the Hearst Tower.’

  ‘Jason—’

  He pulled her close, pressed an almost absent-minded kiss to her forehead then steered her in the direction of the door. ‘You’re right: it’s cold up here and it’s getting late. High time we let the guard get home.’

  * * *

  ‘You’re not going to see your family while you’re here, are you?’ she asked.

  Jason just stared through the taxi window and watched the city go by. ‘This trip was a last-minute thing,’ he said, still not turning to look at her. ‘No time to plan a big, happy reunion.’

  She reached for his arm, laid her hand on the sleeve of his jacket. Moments ago, when they’d been on top of the Rockefeller Center, touching had seemed easy and natural. Now the weave of his coat felt rough against her palm and his muscles were stiff under her touch. ‘But you’re not even going to call, are you?’

  He turned and looked at her, gave her that couldn’t-care-less expression she knew so well—and hated so much. ‘It’s no big deal, Kelly. Some families are just like that. We’re very independent.’

  ‘Dysfunctional, more like,’ she muttered, not so quietly that Jason couldn’t hear her. Her family wouldn’t win any prizes for sanity and harmony, but at least when it counted they were there for each other. ‘It’s not going to kill you, you know. Why don’t you
just call your father, see if he can meet up for a drink—or a coffee? Eight years is a long time. Don’t you think you ought to try and build a few bridges with him?’

  ‘Leave it,’ he told her in a low voice, and the rumble underneath the smooth words told her he was starting to crack. Just like he had that night outside the Tube station. But this time Kelly reckoned he could do with letting it all out. There was no way things were ever going to get better if he kept letting it all fester underneath the surface while he pretended there was nothing wrong. Sometimes the truth just needed to come out.

  ‘Why not, Jason? Tell me. Tell me what the problem is!’

  He swung round to face her. ‘Why do you think he sent me to London in the first place? There’s a convenient ocean between us to make sure he doesn’t have to bump into me that often.’ He shook his head. ‘He doesn’t want to see me, Kelly!’

  Usually, her first reaction when somebody attacked was to give as good as she got, but the hurt behind Jason’s furious expression drained away any desire to do that. She moved the hand that still rested on his arm just a little, but the cab drew up outside the Waldorf’s entrance at that moment and he sprang out of the cab and onto the sidewalk, leaving Kelly’s hand to fall onto the cracked imitation leather of the back seat. She sighed and shuffled out after him.

  She waited until they’d walked across the lobby, taken the lift to their floor and walked the short distance to their suite. Jason went to pour himself a drink from the bar in the sitting room—bourbon, by the looks of it—and then he walked over to one of the long windows fringed by heavy gold-coloured fabric and stared out through the misty sheer curtain that covered the pane.

  ‘Okay...so things between you and your father are...complicated.’

  He gave a short, harsh laugh. ‘I never picked you as having that very British talent for understatement.’

  She saw the tiny barb for what it was: a distraction technique, one she often used herself, so she decided to let it slide. ‘What about your brother? You can’t just give up on your family, Jason.’

  ‘Even if they’ve given up on me?’