Instead, Logan held out his strong, shapely hand to me. “It’s nice to meet you, Ms. Young.”
I stared at him, the hurt of it stabbing through my chest. I searched his dark-brown eyes for understanding, but he stared back in a steady, determined way, not even flinching at how crazy I looked. For some reason, he wanted to hide our acquaintance from Melinda. A flash of pride saved me. Fine then. I shook his hand. “And you, Mr. Jennings.”
The exchange had taken longer than it should have. Could Melinda sense the tension crackling in the air? She gave us a curious glance, but she merely said, “Lovely. But we prefer to use first names in this office. It makes everything so much friendlier.”
Logan turned away from me, a precisely formed smile back on his face. “I’m afraid that what I need to do will not always be friendly. In my position, I need to keep a professional distance. It’s helps me maintain an impartial judgment.”
“Of course,” Melinda said. “I understand.”
“I’d like to begin by meeting with your whole team,” Logan said. “It’s best to make a general announcement rather than have rumors circulate and cause apprehension.”
“Absolutely,” Melinda nodded. “Tessa, can you arrange that for us?”
“Yes.” I grabbed onto the excuse to leave like a lifeline. “I’ll go email everyone and have them meet in the big conference room in thirty minutes.” I pointed to my eye and gave a wry smile. “And in the meantime, I can repair the damage to my face.”
Slipping out of the door before Melinda could call me back, I speed-walked the short distance to my office, which featured a glass wall just like Melinda’s. The design did make the building sleek and modern, but most of the time, I felt exposed and on display, like a fish in a bowl. At least the door offered some privacy, so I slumped against it for a moment to gather myself.
The universe hated me. That’s all there was to it. “Please let this be a nightmare I’m going to wake up from.”
But of course, it wasn’t, and the only thing I could do was move forward. I clenched my teeth and moved over to my desk. After taking out my other contact and putting my glasses on, it only took five minutes to send out the email. I could almost feel the collective surprise sweeping through the building as I imagined everyone reading it. No doubt the rest of my day would entail dealing with the fallout from the meeting. Oh well for getting anything done the rest of the day.
At least I could make sure no one else saw me in this embarrassing state. I bent down and opened the deep bottom drawer of my desk where I kept all my personal things, including a mirror on a wire stand. As I set it up on the side of my L-shaped desk, I was relieved to see that my eye wasn’t as red as before. For the most part, I just needed to clean up the smeared makeup and cover up my blotchy red skin. But just as I got to work with a makeup remover wipe, someone knocked on the door.
I glared at it, wishing I could just ignore whoever it was. Why couldn’t people just wait until after the meeting to start bothering me? As I turned back to the mirror and began wiping away the black streaks, they knocked again. After a few seconds of internal screaming, I called, “Come in.”
“Thanks.”
Shocked to hear Logan’s voice, I twirled around in my chair. “What do you want?”
“Glasses, huh? I like them.” He sat down in one of the chairs facing my desk. “But why do you look like you got slapped in the eye with a squid?”
I glared at him. “An unfortunate mascara incident. So, again…what do you want?”
“I thought we should talk in private.”
I blinked at him, holding back impulsive words that would only embarrass me. At last, I turned back to my mirror. “It’s fine, Logan. I know the score.”
“It’s not fine. If I’d had any idea last night that you worked here, I never would have—”
“Well, that’s your own fault, if you’ll remember. Looks like your precious confidentiality backfired, huh?” Maybe I shouldn’t have been so salty with him, but it felt good to throw that in his face.
“Yes, though there was nothing I could do about that. And even if I’d been able to share where I was consulting, I wouldn’t have.”
“Why? Were you embarrassed to admit you were consulting a lingerie company called Booms and Nibbles?” Despite the horrible situation, my lips twitched at the humor of it. Especially when a quick glance at Logan showed him shifting in his chair with ill-concealed discomfort.
“Do you blame me?”
“Nope.” My sigh turned into a chuckle. “There’s actually an adorable story about the company name. If we had more time, I’d tell you about it.”
“I’ll take a rain check on that then.”
“Sure. I guess we’ll have plenty of time to talk about it since you’ll be here a while.” My voice sounded more accusing than I intended, so I shut my mouth and pulled out a compact of pressed powder. As I worked on smoothing out my complexion, silence settled between us. It frayed my nerves, but I refused to say something just to break the awkwardness. He’d come in here. He could drive the conversation. But man, every little noise was so loud—even my breathing. Since it betrayed my agitation, the gloppy suction sound my mascara made when I opened it was oddly relieving.
“Aren’t you terrified to use that now?” he asked.
It occurred to me then that he’d been silent because he was watching me. Why did that feel so…intimate? Get a grip, girl. “Afraid or not, I have to use it. It’s one of the curses of having red hair. My lashes are so light, you can barely see them.”
“They’re long though.”
I looked at him in surprise, my hand frozen in midair with the mascara wand. “I guess you did get close enough to see that.”
“And the flecks of gold in your green eyes.” He spoke the words so softly that it sent chills up and down my arms.
“What are you doing?”
He sighed and rubbed his forehead, then stood up. He crossed over to stare out my window at the street below. “I don’t know. Not what I intended, that’s for sure. Look, Tessa—one of my jobs is to evaluate every person and position on the payroll and recommend where cuts can be made. People are going to suck up to me, be suspicious of me, and hate me. If anyone so much as suspected that I had any more interest in you than what was strictly professional, all the ugliness would be directed at you as well.”
Despite the logic and consideration in his words, the only thing my stupid brain latched onto was the hint that he felt the same attraction for me that I did for him. But I shoved that down, and realized he was right. “That’s very considerate of you.”
He blew out a deep breath. “Look, I’m used to being the enemy. But I get to fly home when I’m done and never look back. You’ll have to stay here. I don’t want you to be hurt in this process.”
It took a second for me to process his response. “I wasn’t being sarcastic. I do appreciate it. I admit, it hurt my feelings when you pretended not to know me, but I understand. It’s very thoughtful of you.”
With a quick nod, he turned back to the window. I studied his profile as he stood facing the harsh morning light. His lips were pressed tightly together—lips that I knew could be both tender and crushing. I took note of all the little nuances of his features I hadn’t seen before. He had a small, round scar the size of a pencil eraser on his cheek and fine creases at the corners of his eye. For a moment, I imagined tracing the ridge of his cheekbone with the tip of my finger, down to the hard line of his jaw. He swallowed and his jaw flexed as if he sensed my scrutiny. Then he looked back at me over his shoulder, his gaze lancing through me.
“There’s one more thing,” he said.
“I know,” I said, my voice tight. “My job is on the line too.”
Chapter Six
Since I stood at the far end of the conference room as the entire staff waited for Logan to arrive at the meeting, I had the pleasure of watching everyone’s first reaction to him. I had to admit, whether he was conscious of it or
not, the man knew how to make an entrance. He came through the door, paused for a moment to let his gaze sweep across the room, then moved to stand beside Melinda with a slow, confident stride as if the weight of thirty pairs of eyes fixed on him was no big deal.
Maybe for him it wasn’t. He certainly seemed to be in his element, and his charisma pulsed through the room, a performance—him assuming the role he needed to play. From the first moment I’d met him, I’d been all too aware of his deadly charm, but he had turned it up even more for this performance.
Unfortunately, he should have turned it down a few notches. His audience was way too…receptive.
I sucked in my cheeks to keep from laughing as every woman in the room shifted in reaction. How often had he faced a conference room with an all-female audience? Not often, I guessed—just as we rarely had a man around. All around the room, women sat up straighter, crossed their legs, rubbed their lips together and finger-combed their hair. Even the married women.
This should be fun.
After Melinda introduced him and explained why he was here, she invited Logan to speak. He smiled and spent a long moment meeting the eyes of everyone in the room. “I expect you all have a lot of questions, as well as some apprehension over the inevitable changes that will need to be made to help this company grow. I want you to know, however, that I intend to take my time to get to know all of you so that my recommendations will be fair. I look forward to learning about the culture, mission, and products of Booms and Nibbles.”
Hearing just the slightest hesitancy as he said the company’s name, I didn’t quite smother my quiet chuckle. He looked back over his shoulder at me. I pressed my lips together and looked up at the ceiling.
Logan resumed talking, but I could hear the slight annoyance in his tone. “Over the next few days, I’d like to see presentations from each department. Every manager and department head will receive more information on that shortly. Again, I look forward to working with each of you. Thank you.”
As Logan took a step back, Melinda looked around awkwardly and clapped her hands once as if to dispel the odd atmosphere. “Okay then, ladies. That’s all for now. You can all get back to what you were doing. Try not to let this interfere too much with your workday. After all, we still have a lot of lifting and supporting to do.”
That was Melinda’s favorite slogan—a play on her positive body image initiative and the function of our products. I wondered if Logan would catch onto it. From the flexing in his jaw and the slight flaring of his nostrils, he had. Watching the straight arrow boy scout wriggle in discomfort over bras, panties, shapewear, and lingerie was almost going to make up for the stress and awkwardness of having him here.
As the conference room slowly emptied, I stayed where I was, leaning against the deep windowsill with the sun hot on my shoulders and back, watching the way he interacted with the women who came to shake his hand. Oozing style and confidence, Angela stayed talking to him the longest. She even flirted lightly with him—all in a perfectly professional way, of course. I marveled at how confidently she projected her attraction to Logan. Not that I wanted Logan to know how he affected me, but someday, when I found the right guy, would I be able to go for what I wanted like she did?
What surprised me was how difficult it was to read Logan’s reaction to her. He’d been more open in our few interactions than he was now. Though he smiled and responded in a friendly way, I couldn’t detect that his interest went any further than it had for any of the other women. If we had met for the first time today, he and I would have remained firmly in the professional zone.
Less clear was how I felt about that. My emotions wouldn’t have been a knotted mess like they were now, but I also would have missed out on the single most extraordinary evening of my life. As the memory of our kiss played through my mind for the hundredth time, I forced my attention back to reality.
“Can I show you around the design studio?” Angela asked Logan. “I’d love to hear your thoughts on our spring line.”
He nodded. “I’ll be sure to set up an appointment to do that, thank you.”
“I have time now,” Angela said, with an ease I envied.
“I’m afraid I don’t, however. Don’t worry, a full review of the product line is one of my priorities for this week.”
“Ah.” Angela said. She stood there a moment longer, then took a long breath and looked over at me. “In that case, can I grab a few minutes with you, Tessa? There’s something I’d like to discuss.”
I smiled at her, not at all surprised. “Yes, but later this morning. I’ll send you a message when I’m free.”
“I’ll be waiting for it,” she said, turning and walking out like a kid forced to leave a party early.
There was really no reason I couldn’t have followed her and met with her then—in fact, I was rather looking forward to telling her how terrible the stick-on bra had performed—but I knew she just wanted to gossip. Some wayward part of me couldn’t resist hanging back to have a minute alone with Logan. It was ridiculous and completely unhealthy, but I couldn’t help myself.
As Angela’s footsteps died away, Logan turned slowly to face me. His brow lifted slightly. “Are you going to giggle every time I say Booms and Nibbles?”
I shrugged. “That depends. Are you going to keep saying it like you’re using a naughty word in front of your mother?”
His eyes narrowed, but I still caught the flash of humor in them. “I just need to say it a few more times and get used to it.”
“Probably. In the meantime though, it’s going to be thoroughly entertaining—as will watching you duck all the flirting headed your way.”
“You think your coworkers are going to flirt with me? Is that a reflection of your own inclinations?”
I felt my skin flush but tried to brazen it out with a disdainful smile. “Not anymore. I’m immune to you now. Isn’t that fortunate?”
“Are you? It must have happened in the last few seconds then.”
I shrugged and walked slowly up to him. I stopped a bare six inches away and looked up at him. “Words have power. I’ll just keep saying them to myself as often as I need to. I’m immune. I’m immune.”
He nodded thoughtfully. “And I will keep telling myself, Stop looking at her, you idiot.”
“Good plan. I approve.”
With the flicker of a smile, he reached into the inner pocket of his suit coat and pulled out a small notebook bound in brown leather with a pen tucked inside. “Can I ask you a few questions before we both go about our day?”
“Of course. What do you want to know?”
He pulled out one of the chairs at the conference table and sat down. As he opened his notebook with one hand, he moved the seat next to him for me to sit in. “Why are there only women working here?”
After hesitating over the wisdom of sitting so close to him, I gave in and sat down. “For two reasons. One, Melinda has a passion for hiring women of different body types to represent our brand.”
Logan paused with his pen hovering over a blank page. “She hires based on body type and not ability?”
I shrugged. “Ability first. At least I like to tell myself so. But if there’s a tie between candidates, she will usually choose someone to help round out the range of body types here in the office—uh, pun intended.”
“What if one of the candidates is a man? Is he just automatically discounted?”
Frowning, I drummed my fingers lightly on the table. “That is the second reason. We get very few male applicants. The few we have gotten either had no idea what product we sold and quickly bailed or were on the creepy end of the spectrum. We aren’t excluding men intentionally.”
“I see.” He made a few quick notes in his notebook.
As I watched him, I saw that he already had other notes written on the page. Was any of it about me? Had he already been making judgments and decisions? If only I weren’t so well-mannered. I would have loved to lean a little close and take a peek.
When he was done, he closed the pen in the crease of the notebook and tucked it back into his pocket. “Is there someone on staff who can work as my secretary? If not, we’ll need to get a temp in.”
I thought over the options, and Bree came to mind. She’d been Cindy’s assistant, and she was going to be a bit at loose ends until a new CEO was hired, but even though it made so much sense, I paused. One of my failings as Human Resources manager was my tendency to put too much weight on my personal feelings for someone. Bree was annoying and full of herself, but she was definitely capable.
“I have someone who can take on that role. Her name is Bree Larson. I’ll send her over to see you. Did Melinda give you an office space?”
“Yes, the one across the hall from you.”
Great. That’s just what I needed. An all-day view of Logan sitting at his desk. “Got it. If there’s nothing else, I’ll be on my way.”
With one sharp, potent look, he utterly destroyed the professional wall we’d built between us. The silence stretched out too long. At last, he asked, “You stayed back because you knew I’d want to talk to you?”
Unable to withstand his scrutiny any longer, I stood up. But I couldn’t meet his eyes as I answered. “Yes. Of course. I’d better go find Bree.”
Gathering the remnants of my dignity, I headed for the door.
“Tessa?”
His voice stopped me. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath before turning back around and forcing a bright smile. “Yes?”
“Have her set up a meeting for us at the end of the day.”
Dang it. Why’d my heart respond like he’d just asked me out on a date? “What time?”
“When does everyone go home around here?”
With a crisp chuckle, I said, “This place is empty by five-thirty every day.”
“Then set it for five-thirty.”
Our eyes met across the distance. I felt a sharp tug toward him—an impulse that made me take a step back toward him before I controlled it. He wanted to be alone with me for our meeting?
A Man Worth Shaving For: A Sweet Romantic Comedy Page 4