Campaign for Love

by Annabelle Stevens

  "True on the whole. I wanted the work, of course, since I love what I do, but administering accounts is hard work as well, and some of those clients have a, well, what shall I say, a certain reputation. I love to create, not lock horns with people."

  "Quite right. Though sometimes it's unavoidable."

  "Exactly."

  He looked at her with even more interest now. "Wow, you really are sharp."

  "I keep my ear to the ground in this industry. It helps prevent me from getting stampeded."

  He laughed at that. "Too true. So yes, I am going to agree with you. What you've done has been sheer genius from start to finish and I have to admit that I am even more impressed with your work ethic and team spirit than I was before. So as to whether Brad stays or goes, I won't blow the whistle on him as long as you don't want me to. I won't report him to management. But I will let him know he's been found out, and issue him a warning. I'll also let him know that you didn't blow the whistle on him, I did. Now, will you tell me how he did it?"

  "I can't swear to it, but I think he just walked out of the cafeteria and came right up here to see what he could find. You and Sharon and I take the same lunch hour, so everything is wide open. But once bitten, twice shy. And I kept an eye on the folders when I went to lunch. Put them in a precise place, and found out a couple of times that they had been moved. I have to say, he was very clever to start with, but the longer this has gone on, the more careless he's become."

  Then she pointed. "And perhaps you aren't aware that they just wired the building for security over the summer, according to Sharon, and have finally got all the bugs worked out of the system and switched the surveillance cameras on a month ago. I have the evidence with my own eyes for the last three dates he presented my work to the powers that be, if you really do want to get rid of him. You know him far better than I, so I leave the decision entirely up to you."

  "My, I really underestimated you, I have to say. Smart, but also cunning when you have to be. I like your style, Suzanna," said Quentin, staring at her intently.

  Suzy felt herself redden at the unexpected praise.

  Suddenly, Quentin leaned toward her and snatched the spectacles from her nose. In one motion, he held them up to his own eyes.

  "Suzanna," he said sternly. "You're a fraud. Why are you hiding behind these useless glasses?"

  Suzy covered her eyes with her hands and couldn't think of a thing to say.

  "Don't be embarrassed, Suzanna. If you want to wear glasses you don't need, I'll never tell. But if it's because of that old Dorothy Parker thing about men seldom making passes at girls who wear glasses, forget it. They've never stop me. By the way, I didn't know that there was any such anachronism as a girl who still blushes. It's most becoming."

  She grinned despite the fact that she could feel her face heating even more. "Thank you, Quentin. Some day when I know you better, I'll tell you all about it. For now, I'm tired of talking about Brad. What's done is done. Let him keep those accounts and do what he does best, and let me do what I do best. So, if you don't mind, allow me to say that I'm more than ready for that Imperial Foods account. And that is one feather I would really like to have in my cap."

  He gave her another one of his long assessing looks, then nodded. "Right you are," he replied. "Imperial Foods it is."

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  For the next hour, it was strictly business as usual. Once, Sharon called in on the intercom to ask, "Is there anything you need done before I leave, Mr. Pierce?"

  Upon hearing his, "No, thanks," she said, "Okay, then. I'm going now."

  "Goodnight, Mr. Pierce. Goodnight, Suzanna."

  Quentin and Suzy both returned her farewells.

  By the time Quentin and Suzanna had ironed out all the details of the account, it was almost six. He got to his feet and stretched, holding Suzy's glasses out to her.

  Suzanna also stood, and reached out for them. He gave a satisfied smile as he saw her slip them into her pocket.

  Quentin moved a step toward her. Taking her face in both his hands, he turned it up to his. His gaze burned into hers as he bent his head, slowly lowered his mouth to hers, and placed a gentle kiss on her petal-soft lips.

  Suzanna's response was as passionate as it was surprising, especially to her. Her mouth seemed to catch fire as her arms went around his neck.

  Quentin reacted in a way he'd never intended. His arms enveloped her and his mouth opened to take full advantage of her parted lips.

  After indulging himself for a moment, he regained control of himself and released her, stepping away, leaving Suzanna craving more.

  "God, Suzanna, I'm sorry! I never meant that to happen," he said with a shake of his head. "It's just that I was so happy with what we accomplished, and you looked so damned young and vulnerable. I wanted to make a gesture of affection, and look what I've done now."

  She laughed shakily. "If that was your intention, Quentin, I believe you succeeded beyond your wildest dreams. But you don't need to apologize. I realize it didn't mean anything. We've had a long afternoon and we're both overtired and a bit emotional."

  "Nevertheless, I am sorry. I won't forget myself again."

  She steadied herself with one hand on the back of her chair, resisting the temptation to throw herself at him for seconds. She couldn't, not when he was already telling her what a mistake he had made....

  "Please, Quentin, don't beat yourself up over it. I've already dismissed it from my mind. Besides, you're coming dangerously close to being insulting. Tell me, Quentin, would you be making such an issue of it if it had happened with some gorgeous gal like, for instance, Sharon?"

  He rubbed the back of his neck with the palm of one hand. "I honestly don't know. I've never been in the least attracted to Sharon. Besides, you're different, er, untouched, somehow."

  "Thanks, I think. Anyway, don't punish yourself. It was at least partly my fault."

  Quentin laughed. "You know, that's true? It was. It takes two to tango."

  Suzy laughed, too, the tension broken at last.

  "Thanks, Suzanna. You're some kind of gal. Anyway, now that we've cleared the air, I think that wraps it up for tonight. We're supposed to have lunch at the Four Seasons with our Imperial Food clients tomorrow. Does that interfere with any of your plans?"

  "What could interfere with business plans on a working day? Of course not. It sounds interesting."

  "Good. Now, if you're ready to go, I'll ride down in the elevator with you. The building will be almost deserted between now and eleven when the cleaning crew gets here, so at the risk of sounding too old-fashioned, I'd like to see you safely out."

  "Thank you. I'll just get my things."

  "Yes, I'll just freshen up and meet you in the foyer."

  They met a few moments later, and rode down in a companionable silence. Just before the elevator doors opened on the ground floor, Quentin turned to her and asked teasingly, "Tell me, Suzanna, where did you learn to kiss like that?"

  Suzy felt herself blush again as she looked him in the eye, grinned, and said, "Would you believe beginner's luck?"

  They laughed together in a way that wiped out the last vestiges of embarrassment.

  "I'll get you a cab."

  "Oh, there's no need--"

  "Sure there is. You've worked hard and are entitled to some perks." He held up his hand commandingly, and a taxi appeared as if by magic. He opened the door, seated her, and pressed a twenty into her hand before she could protest.

  "Where are you going--"

  "Across town, and I prefer to walk. See you tomorrow."

  He shut the door with a cheerful wave. All she could do was wave back.

  He gave her one of his by now familiar last long linger looks, his eyes never leaving her face as she replied automatically to the cheerful Islander cabbie's, "Where to, Miss?" and began to pull away from the curb.

  CHAPTER NINE

  As they went their separate ways, Suzy breathed a sigh of relief. One thing this day had
proved to Suzanna. She was definitely not frigid. If Quentin had pushed his luck, she admitted to herself as she sat in the taxi shakily reliving their kiss in her mind, she would gladly have given her all right there in the office.

  And if she had looked her old, sexy, self, she was reasonably sure she would have. Quentin was sure some man, and only her dowdy appearance seemed to have stopped him.

  Suzanna made it back to her apartment in the cab quickly and without incident. One thing was for sure, the more she saw of Quentin, the more she could tell that he was old-school and gentlemanly, but not Neanderthal. Escorting her out of the building and

  Once at home she changed into jeans and a T-shirt, selected a TV dinner to give herself a break from cooking, put it in the oven rather than the microwave to give herself some down time. Then she sat at the spinet with a sigh.

  Playing always helped ease the tensions of the day. She found herself playing some of the sentimental old love ballads, many written before even her grandparents had been born.

  While her fingers strayed automatically over the keys, Suzy replayed her first real kiss over and over in her mind, trying to picture how it might have ended if it had gone all the way to its natural conclusion.

  Of course it wasn't really love, more of a crush on the great boss she had been both blessed and cursed to work with. But Suzy was beginning to suspect that she was losing her heart to this remarkable man she had tricked into hiring her through making herself look more dowdy than a buttoned-up schoolmarm.

  Her oven alarm went off, and Suzanna got up somewhat reluctantly to eat her lonely meal. She finished the turkey and fixings unenthusiastically, then curled up on the sofa with the TV on with a pad and pencil in her hand to take notes on commercials she found worthwhile. She also watched for any done by Elder and Rubin, especially ones she might have worked on.

  The ringing phone startled her out of her note-taking. She picked it up and was delighted to hear the voice of one or the men Suzy spent a fair amount of time with, an old, dear friend who knew her aversion to being pestered and never overstepped his boundaries. They were great friends, but she had always been like a sister to him and then had managed that most rare of things these days, a truly platonic friendship.

  Although Suzy suspected that Jerry White was probably half in love with her, he had given no indication of it except that he had never gotten seriously involved with anyone else. So whatever his feelings, apparently he was willing to wait.

  Patience was not Jerry's only virtue. He was steady, loyal and understanding. He was also quite handsome in an all-American-boy way. As a successful practicing attorney, he often needed an attractive female companion to escort to various social engagements, and always chose Suzanna because she was so easy to get along with and wouldn't get any false hopes.

  "Suzy!" he said warmly after they had exchanged greetings. "It's been a while. Did you miss me?"

  "Well, I would have if I hadn't been so busy," she answered truthfully.

  "Elsa tells me you have a new job," he continued, ignoring her slight put-down. "How's it going?"

  "Great," enthused Suzanna. "I finally feel like I'm establishing a career rather than just marking time."

  "I'm happy for you. To paraphrase an old ad, a good mind is a terrible thing to waste just because it happens to be overshadowed by a gorgeous face and a magnificent body. Which reminds me, Elsa tells me you resorted to some kind of camouflage for your job interview? Don't you think you've taken a big risk tricking them like that?"

  "Not really," she fibbed, though in truth she had been thinking the same thing herself only a short time before. "I felt that if I couldn't get the job on merit alone, it wasn't worth having. This way, I feel secure in the knowledge that looks had nothing to do with it. In the past, I feel my looks were a drawback rather than an asset."

  "It's a possibility. Old myths, like beauty and brains not going together die hard, and the canard that says the bigger the bustline, the smaller the I. Q."

  "And I don't want to lose the job for the same reason, being chased around the desk or groped until I'm black and blue."

  "As a lawyer, you know what I think you should have done about that last jerk-"

  "Yes, yes, I know, Jerry, but I would have been worse off in the long run. So let's just drop it."

  "Yes, of course. Just be careful, okay? And now I'll get to what I wanted to ask you."

  "Oh?"

  "My firm's annual banquet is coming up in a couple of weeks, if you recall."

  "Oh, er, yes, this time last year, I remember," she said, kicking herself for fibbing again, when she had always prided herself on being honest with her friends.

  I was hoping you'd accompany me again. Only without the disguise, of course. I'm not into masochism. And you sure look good on a guy's arm au natural."

  "Lawdy, suh, you sweep a lady right off her feet. Who could resist an invitation like that?" she said, bristling. "And here I thought you liked me for my personality."

  "I do, sweetie. But I also have an ego big enough to take pride in walking into the room with the best looking woman in New York."

  "Flattery now, after what you just said?"

  "You know it's the truth."

  "You smooth-tongued devil."

  "That's what I keep tellin' you, Miz Sills. Ah'm a real chahmuh."

  She laughed despite herself. "Okay, you clown. I'd love to go with you. I can hardly wait to get into a glamorous outfit again. I'll pull out all the stops. What's the date, and what time will you pick me up?" She padded over to her purse to get out her Blackberry.

  After completing their arrangements, they said goodbye and hung up.

  Suzy sat wrapped in thought for a long while. For the first time ever, she thought consciously of Jerry's clean-cut if unexciting good looks.

  I've always kept Jerry at a distance, she mused, and he's always respected my wishes. He's never tried to make a pass, and even his token goodnight kisses usually land near my lips but never on them. I could have intercepted them, but I never did. Maybe I've been missing a lot.

  She examined her feelings briefly. Jerry neither disgusts nor frightens me. I don't think I'd really mind if he touched me. He deserves a lot more than I've ever been able to give him-until now. He loves me, he would be gentle with me, and he could teach me the things I need to know.

  But no sooner had the thought entered her mind than she dismissed it. She knew she couldn't use Jerry that way. Instinctively, she knew he was resigned to an unrequited love. She couldn't give him a glimpse of paradise, then slam the door in his face.

  With her new insight, Suzanna knew that she could never love Jerry except as a brother. Making love to him would seem wrong. That was one more reason for not considering Jerry as her teacher in love, now that she was starting to become curious about what it was really like between a man and a woman.

  Amazing how one taste of Quentin had left her famished for more. Just more of what was the worrying part.

  Her notes forgotten, Suzanna sat up through the eleven o'clock news, but couldn't have told anyone what she watched. Her mind had turned from Jerry to Quentin without her even being aware of it.

  When she turned off the TV at eleven-thirty, she acknowledged that everything she couldn't feel for Jerry, after years of friendship and sporadic dating, she could and did feel for Quentin Pierce after only a few days as his assistant. Within a few minutes, in fact, she admitted with a groan.

  Her mind was vaguely troubled as she went through the automatic rituals of bed-time. She had a fleeting thought about having to kiss a lot of toads before you find the handsome prince. How could she be sure she'd found her prince on the first try?

  She would certainly intercept Jerry's next goodnight kiss. She owed herself that much. That was as far as she could plan. The rest she would have to play by ear.

  She fell into a troubled sleep filled with dreams of opening herself up to a man, to a masculine man like Quentin, only to face rejection.

&nbs
p; CHAPTER TEN

  The next day Suzanna got up early to go through her wardrobe carefully for her luncheon with Quentin and their clients from Imperial Foods.

  Suzy was both looking forward to and dreading the meeting. She had come up with the idea of running a series of ads to be placed in women's magazines, especially those aimed at busy moms on the go.

  Featured would be Imperial's "Quik-Bix," their unbaked, refrigerated biscuits in a tube. Suzanna, who liked to cook, but also used lots of short-cuts, had been using the product for a number of years, but almost never the way they were meant to be used.

  She had amazed Quentin with the number and variety of ways she dressed them up into something totally remarkable. It was his guess that Imperial would be equally impressed.