by Lily Zante
She reined in the desire to answer him back and met his stare with one just as cold.
This was a major account for the Zimmerman Group and the Flight Europe ad campaign was important. This had become Michael Zimmerman’s mantra and Tanya was already sick of hearing it.
Nadine had told her that the recent introduction of the Flight ad campaign in Europe had added a further layer of complication to her role. Tanya was well aware of this.
However, no complication was bigger than the rude man who now stared at her, barely able to contain his contempt.
She needed to make the Flight campaign here a stellar success—to at least match what Nadine had created in the US. This was supposed to be easier, since Nadine had already done the work. This man, the head of marketing for Flight Europe, only had to agree minor changes yet he seemed eager to prevent the campaign from getting off the ground.
This project was vital not just for the company but for her. Tanya needed to prove that a new life abroad wasn’t just an escape for her— that a new career, a new company, new people and new challenges were what she wanted in order to start over.
But success was measured by results and she was going to need a boatload of them.
Inwardly disheartened and feeling as though this was going to be an uphill struggle all the way, Tanya gazed at the obstacle to her goals and attempted another try.
“I’m sorry you feel that way, however the issues concern you and your boss, not me, Mr. Valois. I am only the messenger. I’m just trying to do my job.” She forced a smile but he didn’t reciprocate.
This was not going to be easy.
“How about we take a look at the brochures and decide on the changes you might have in mind?” She sat forward and decided to go through the mock-ups again. But his cell phone rang and he stared at it briefly before pouncing on it. He answered it on the first ring.
He stood up abruptly without apologizing for the interruption or excusing himself and took the call there and then.
With his back turned to her he gazed out of the window, talking in his mother tongue.
Tanya sat back, she hadn’t realized how much she’d tightened her muscles during her meeting, and now she loosened up a little and felt immediately drained. Unable to understand the conversation, she felt her impatience growing inside her like a hot ball of fire waiting to explode.
She stared at his back, saw his powerful physique and the V-shape of his torso, the broad shoulders…and looked away.
It had been a while since she’d had any kind of intimacy with a man and there were moments when her imagination would wander…as it did sometimes with Luc. Not giving in to him was a test of her resolve, which was weakening as the months rolled by. Sometimes, she hungered for the touch of a man’s lips on her mouth, for the feel of a man’s finger on her skin, for a man’s conversation.
Concentrate, she told herself.
So she forced herself instead to look at the desk, and then glanced at her wrist. For the length of time she’d been here, they’d discussed pretty much zero. The campaign wasn’t off to a sprinting start at all, and she had a feeling this was what Gabriel Valois wanted.
He changed to speaking in English just as she realized that she would be late for her next conference call. And her ears perked up, because she now understood the words and also because the tone of his voice had changed. Was he talking to his girlfriend?
No, he had a child, it sounded like. A son. She hadn’t seen a ring on the man’s finger, not that she’d been looking for one. But all the same she noticed he didn’t have one.
She seemed to notice these things more ever since she’d taken her own wedding band off. Vincent now had his own life with a new partner and a young child: something she’d been unable to give him.
Something else she had failed at.
Tanya stared at the shiny mass of Gabriel Valois’ dark hair and imagined his girlfriend running her hands through it. She wondered what the woman looked like, and guessed that he was the type of man who commanded attention just by the way he stood.
He was all tall and sharp bones, with a mass of dark hair. She listened to his conversation carefully; understood that his son had been to the dentist for braces and was now being dropped off at school by his mother. She found herself wondering what his son looked like, where the family holidayed, what sort of house they lived in, what they did at weekends. He appeared more relaxed, laughing easily with his son. And Tanya wondered how old the boy was.
Vincent’s child was sixteen months old.
Stop it.
She couldn’t stay here, waiting a moment longer. Mr. Valois had refused to turn around and acknowledge her and had continued to stare out of the window the entire time. Her decision was made.
She got up and moved to the door, opening it quietly she tiptoed out of his office. Striving to keep her voice calm, to dampen the anger and resentment she felt towards that man, she spoke to his receptionist.
“Mr Valois seems busy on a phone call and I cannot wait any longer. I have a meeting I need to attend, so if you could please let him know that I had to leave. Perhaps he could call me when he is ready to meet again?”
The girl nodded and hastily scribbled down something illegible.
Tanya escaped with a huge sigh of relief.
Embracing Love is available at Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk.
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Booklist
Tainted Love Series: (A spin-off from the Perfect Match Series)
Misplaced Love
Reclaiming Love
Embracing Love
Tainted Love Boxed Set (Books 1, 2 & 3)
Perfect Match Series:
Lost In Solo (prequel)
The Proposal
Heart Sync
A Leap of Faith
Perfect Match Boxed Set (Books 1, 2 & 3)
Look out for my other contemporary romance series books:
The Billionaire’s Love Story:
The Gift, Book 1
The Gift, Book 2
The Gift, Book 3
The Gift, Boxed Set (Books 1, 2 & 3)
The Offer, Book 1
The Offer, Book 2
The Offer, Book 3
The Offer, Boxed Set (Books 1, 2 & 3)
The Vow, Book 1
The Vow, Book 2
The Vow, Book 3
The Vow, Boxed Set (Books 1, 2 & 3)
Indecent Intentions:
The Bet
Honeymoon Series:
Honeymoon For One
Honeymoon For Three
Honeymoon Blues
Honeymoon Bliss
Baby Steps
Honeymoon Series Boxed Set (Books 2, 3 & 4)
Italian Summer Series: (A spin-off from the Honeymoon Series)
It Takes Two
All That Glitters
Fool’s Gold
Roman Encounter
November Sun
New Beginnings
Italian Summer Series Boxed Set (Books 2, 3 & 4)
An Ordinary Hero
Standalone books:
Love, Inc
An Unexpected Gift
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About The Author
Lily Zante lives with her husband and three children somewhere near London, England.
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PUBLISHED BY:
Lily Zante
Reclaiming Love
Copyright © 2015 Lily Zante
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be copied, reproduced in any format, by any means, electronic or otherwise, without prior consent from the copyright owner and publisher of
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The scanning, uploading and distribution of this book through the internet or any other means without the prior written consent of the author is illegal and is punishable by law.
This is a work of fiction. All characters, names, places and events are the product of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously and do not bear any resemblance to any real person, alive or dead.