by Bailey, Orla
Over my dead body. I’ll give him a fight just as soon as I can pull myself together and stop acting like some stunned little sparrow that flew head first into a plate glass window. I have a business to run. No time to give in to anxieties.
“Miss Caid?” He prefixes his words with my surname again. The way he says it, almost a whisper close against my ear, unnerves me as I’m sure it’s designed to. He’s such a dirty player. “As you’ve seen fit to grace us with your presence, perhaps you would care to enlighten us as to its meaning.” He steeples his fingers, waiting, calling my bluff.
I detect the smug anticipation of several people staring at me. I hate Jack for this but anger is good. It overcomes nerves. Given time I might have prepared a dignified and compelling speech but as Libby’s tip-off that Zee-Com was re-signing to a rival agency this afternoon, came at the very last moment, I’ve had none at all.
“Mr Keogh…” I have absolutely no idea how to begin. The absurdity of us continuing to say each other’s names back and forth strikes me as increasingly bizarre.
“… Jack, please. It’s not as if we don’t know one another.” Again I detect that tone of mild mockery in his voice.
Once, I thought we did. But did I ever really know him? I grip the sides of my seat where no-one can see my tension, trying to ignore the reminder of our shared past. But my heart thumps away, like Jack’s pathetic little slave, determinedly goading me to remember what he meant to me.
Jack was Harry’s most valued client. Not that I cared about any of that. At eighteen I was totally in thrall to a man ten years older than me. It’s car crash recollection.
“Mr Keogh.” I glare at him, distancing myself from any possibility of first name familiarity between us. I’m damned if I’ll let him reduce this to a personal attempt to patronise me. “Zee-Com has successfully had its business with my advertising agency for many years.”
“Now that’s not strictly true, Miss Caid.”
My blood stirs. People around the table seem reassured. If they were concerned I held any sway over their business dealings when I arrived, they aren’t bothered now. Jack is determined to ridicule me and provide his audience with entertainment.
I try the old confidence trick, picturing everyone naked to give myself a mental edge, but my stupid imagination fixes firmly on Jack’s body and there’s nothing demeaning about what I’m picturing beneath that expensive business suit: strong, muscular, golden-skinned and gloriously detailed right down to the dark hair on a taut belly directing my mind’s eye straight towards something I shouldn’t ever be thinking about. Especially not in a boardroom. I close my eyes for a second in case they decide to follow for real.
One embarrassed glance later and I notice Jack’s look of faint pleasure, like he might know exactly what I’ve been thinking. His lips part slightly as if he’s about to say something but changes his mind. Not that I want to be thinking about Jack’s lips either. I shift my gaze from them but catch myself staring instead at the strong, steady pulse beating at his throat.
I gouge my nails into my palms hard enough to stem the direction my thoughts are headed in. I’m better than this.
“As I understand it, Mr Keogh, when you started up your business you had neither funds nor sufficient clout to interest any advertising agency at all. My uncle took a chance on you. He gave you, shall we say, a very special deal.” I pause to let my words take effect and to snatch my next hurried breath. At least he’s listening. They’re all listening. “In short, he took you on, and if my eyes don’t deceive me, he did a pretty spectacular job of helping to put you right where you are today.” I brace myself for his second rebuttal.
“That, Miss Caid, is entirely true.”
I’m thrown. I’m already preparing to defend my facts rigorously but he concedes them. Will I never know where I stand with Jack Keogh? “Then what exactly did I say earlier you felt worth disputing?”
“That Zee-Com had its business with your agency.”
His comment skewers me to the back of his luxuriously upholstered chair. His unwavering stare dares me to contradict him but I can’t. It isn’t the agency he doesn’t want to do business with. It’s me.
I ignore the familiar echo of rejection and try to reason with him. “The fact that the agency has recently come under new leadership changes nothing.” Except my whole premeditated, mapped-out life.
“It changes everything.” There’s no trace of amusement on his face.
I snap at his perception. “Only that my uncle died of a heart attack working too many long hours for uncompromising capitalists like you.”
My outburst takes Jack by surprise. The rest simply look uncomfortable. Except for the blonde. She’s sneering.
“Sorry. I didn’t mean that.” Damn. I’ve practically accused him of single-handedly killing Harry Caid. Hot tears of shame spark in my eyes.
Jack curtly nods his acceptance of my apology and discredits me for saying it at the same time with his graceful forgiveness. “Accepted. I fully understand you’re grieving your recent loss.”
Harry entrusted the helm to me and already I fail him by losing his most prestigious and lucrative client. I can handle the Zee-Com account if I’m given a chance, I know I can.
“I may be new but I bring fresh ideas to the table. A more contemporary approach. Things that might appeal highly to your emerging markets.” I’m a straight A student. Earned my degree with honours. Came top in my year. I’m nobody’s fool. Except where my heart is concerned and that’s been firmly locked away for its own protection. “My uncle liked what he saw when you were starting out. Do you have that same vision, Mr Keogh?”
“Are you asking me if I like what I see, when I see you, Miss Caid?”
Oh God, I walked straight into that one. He looks like he wants to lick me all over like the sucker I am. My eyes run over everyone in embarrassment. The rest of the room appears either shifty, bemused or dubiously engaged by the hidden conversation between us. The blonde woman looks like a lightning bolt just zapped her between the eyes. Jack doesn’t seem to care what they think and I’m not sure just how much more of this torment I can take.
I stand.
Jack gets to his feet too, towering above me. It’s a bad move on my part. I feel diminished beside him. Awkward and inadequate.
“Everybody out.” His command is simple. The whole room looks as surprised as I feel. I turn, first to leave. The first to obey him, even now. “Not you, Miss Caid.” His hand on my arm stops me, burns through me.
I wheel to face him, shocked. Is he planning to punish my audacity further or is this my chance? Have I actually got through to him? If the look on other people’s faces is any indication, they certainly think I might have. Their dirty underhand deal might be slipping through their greasy little fingers.
“Mr Keogh?” Anderson speaks up for his agency. “What in hell’s going on here? We have a contract to sign.”
“And we may still have, Anderson, if you’re someone I can work with.” The implication is clear. Do what you’re told or any potential business deal is off the table.
Jack’s eyes return to mine. “Get everyone out, Zuckerman. I’m postponing any decision.”
I think I’ve done it. What it is, I have yet to work out, but I have a stay of execution. Jack isn’t signing anything today. Aware I’ve been holding my breath I exhale in one short burst. What made him change his mind? Is it my reminder of his original opportunity with my uncle? A debt of honour. Whatever it is I’m prepared to do whatever it takes to make his change of heart a permanent one. I’m not fooled into thinking I have anything in the bag yet.
“Look here.” Anderson isn’t going quietly. And he glares straight at me. “I don’t know what sort of game you’re playing.”
One glance at Zuckerman from his boss and Jack Keogh’s team bundle Anderson’s out of the door as they protest their treatment. The blonde stops and lays her hand on Jack’s sleeve briefly. No stabbing puncture marks this time. The gest
ure makes me uneasy. I see her mime giving him a call later which receives a curt nod of acknowledgement before she throws me a final dismissive glance and departs, encouraging her boss onwards.
I begin to understand the level of Jack’s power.
When he turns the lock, I’m not sure if I feel elated or threatened. Being locked in with Jack Keogh may have been the stuff of my youthful fantasies, but in the cold light of reality, I’m anxious. It’s like being shielded from gunshot behind a powder keg.
“You, Miss Caid, may sit.” The only offer on the table so far is the chair I’ve already vacated as he moves back to turn it around and hold it out for me. Offer? It’s most definitely a command.
This is what I wanted, isn’t it? A chance to be alone with the head of Zee-Com, to talk to him, to get him to listen to me. It’s now or never. He pulls his chair so much closer I can smell the heat of him. I’d die if he knew I was exploring his scent but I’d be able to recognise him blindfold in a room of a hundred other men, even after all this time.
“I wish to offer my sincerest condolences for the loss of your uncle. Harry Caid was a decent, wonderful man.”
A diplomatic beginning but sincerely made. Jack had sent flowers, donated generously to our nominated charity and attended the funeral, stepping in quietly at the back although he’d left without a word as soon as the service ended, I remember, so as not to intrude on family grief. My grief.
“Thank you. He was. He believed in me just as he did you. I don’t want to fail his trust.”
“You won’t,” he says. “And yes, Harry gave me a chance and just as my business undoubtedly thrived, so did his. He benefitted as much by our alliance as I did. How many clients do you think CaidCo gained on the back of his association with Zee-Com as it grew?”
Okay, Jack knows his worth but I know mine too. “I understand that. You both advantaged each other, but it happened because he was willing to take a chance on you in the first place.”
Jack slams the ball back. “A calculated one. I brought a lot of technical expertise and new ideas into developing my business. Frankly, he had nothing to lose. If Zee-Com hadn’t prospered rapidly and paid its way, he would have cut me adrift without a backward glance. That’s good business. But my contract with your uncle died, when he did. Read the fine print.”
Not a sentimental bone in Jack Keogh’s body. I know that much already. But loyalty means something to me. “All I’m asking is that you give me the same chance Harry gave you.”
“No.”
He might have been brushing aside a coffee refill. How could he be so callous? “Do you have no sense of fair play?”
“This is business. When I do business with someone, I need to know I’ll get something out of it too.” He leans closer into my space and I’m hyper-aware of even the slightest movement he makes.
I sit ramrod straight, my back more unyielding than the oak back of the chair. Is it my imagination or has his tone changed? I’m usually good at reading body language but being around Jack again has my senses in a spin.
“You’ll be guaranteed my company’s exclusive attention in promoting Zee-Com, just as my uncle gave you. We can both continue to profit by working together.”
He smiles guardedly. “I see how it would advantage you, Miss Caid. What I don’t see is what would be in it for me. What could you possibly offer Zee-Com that would persuade me not to sign with a major advertising player like Advance, but to re-sign with CaidCo, now headed by a young woman, albeit a talented one,” he concedes. He adds a sting in the tail. “A business woman with no proven track record.”
At least he has the decency not to mention one with drink and anxiety issues too. If I lose this argument I’ll never get another chance like it. I try to keep my eyes fixed on his no matter how disconcerting I find them, no matter what they do to my insides. “I’ll do whatever it takes.”
“Whatever it takes is quite some offer, Miss Caid.” The slow smile burning his lips scorches my pride. “I don’t think you really know what you’re offering, any more than you did last Friday.”
I feel my face drain. “What are you talking about?”
“Last Friday. When you offered yourself to me.”
“You’re lying.”
“Am I? You were so drunk you’re in no position to refute my allegation.”
I back-pedal frantically. “I’m not here to discuss a personal situation last Friday. I’m discussing business.”
“You’ve avoided my calls all week but I’m not going to let you avoid discussing last Friday. That was a pretty serious business in itself and I’m pretty serious about dealing with it.”
I’m aghast. “You’re penalising me for my private life.” Who does he think he is?
“I’m applying consequences. To affect a change in your behaviour.”
“My behaviour is not your business.”
He smiles as he neatly closes the trap door. “But Zee-Com is and you want a piece of it.”
Do I? How desperate am I? I know if Jack pulls the Zee-Com account, other major clients will soon follow. I’m not stupid. Like he says, much of my business is built on the success of Zee-Com. People hang onto the tails of a shooting star. If the current exodus continues, soon all I might be left with is a high cost building, expensive staff I can’t pay, mounting business debts and a career that’s over before it begins. No-one will trust me ever again. I’m desperate enough.
“What would tempt you to give me a chance?”
“That’s a loaded question.” Lights dance in his eyes. I find them totally unnerving and I can’t ignore the flash of pleasure which crosses his face as he speaks. “Would CaidCo agree to a trial contract with my company at no charge?”
A life-line, for old times’ sake? I don’t hesitate. “Yes.”
Jack clicks his tongue at me repeatedly like I’m some naïve teenager, blind drunk at her first party. An image a bit too close to home. “That shows you haven’t yet developed any true business acumen. Aren’t your services worth paying for?” His eyebrow quirks with amusement at cornering me so deftly.
I frown, irritated he’s tricked me but I stick my chin up anyway, indignant and unimpressed. “Of course they are. But what use are my services if you won’t let me use them? I agreed as a gesture of goodwill. It’s a perfectly legitimate business offer. Haven’t you ever tried a free sample?”
When he laughs at me, I scowl and move to leave. It’s hard enough following the conversation as it is, the way he’s staring at me. “If you’re going to be disrespectful –”
Jack promptly shifts his body even closer to mine effectively trapping me, resting his forearms along his thighs. His scent intensifies, surrounding me. His parted knees enclose my own which I clamp firmly shut, as his large hands hover indecently over my lap.
“I don’t mean to laugh but this is just too –”
“– Don’t say whatever it is you’re thinking,” I warn him. “I’m serious.”
He sobers his expression with difficulty. “I know you are.”
I stare mutely at the dark whisper of hairs scattered over the strong tanned wrists disappearing under his white shirt cuffs. He wears an incredible watch these days. I remember seeing one like it in a high-end magazine. A Patek Philippe. Eye-wateringly expensive but beautiful and unique like the man wearing it. Both well out of my league. He made that abundantly clear four years ago. My eyes slowly rise to meet the penetrating blue authority of his.
The bow of his lips suggests some sort of dare. “So your free sample? I might be interested to see where that offer extends.”
I’ve always pushed myself to rise to a challenge but I’m suspicious. I know he’s toying with me. Yet if he’ll let me prove my worth… I hesitate until he looks even more amused, damn him.
“Won’t you call me Jack, Tabitha?”
“No. Please stop playing games with me, Mr Keogh.” Now all I can think about is playing games with Jack Keogh and I don’t mean Monopoly. He’s sitting far t
oo close. It’s too warm in here and my tight blouse with its pie-crust collar is strangling me slowly. All the breath deserts my lungs again. I wish he would do anything other than remain so disturbingly near; being so perceptive.
The faint notes of his expensive cologne insinuate themselves individually in the scent receptors of my brain: cedar, citrus, something animal. Does he buy it himself, or is there a woman? I recall the attractive blonde with the darkly polished nails who touched him earlier.
Of course there’s a woman. He’s Jack Keogh, for heaven’s sake. Fascinating, alluring, Jack Keogh. A whip of jealousy lashes me. When it lands it’s still as white-hot as ever. I could have been his, if he’d wanted me. He didn’t.
I cast the mood off. Why did he have to crash back into my life? God, would I never get over this man? I know I can’t trust him any more than I can trust my own emotions around him.
I straighten in the chair. “Will you give me a chance or won’t you?” A professional opportunity. No more immature illusions that I ever meant anything to him.
“Well, Miss Caid…”
Now I wish he’d stop calling me that. It sounds such a tease. When he rears suddenly back in his chair, he makes my stomach lurch. Why doesn’t he make his mind up, one way or another and let me go.
“…It seems to me you’ve gone to great lengths to get my attention.”
Is that what I’ve been doing? Like some smitten teenager still. Is he remembering the cringingly obvious way I used to flirt with him?
“A little like your attention-seeking last Friday. We haven’t managed to discuss that yet.”
My eyes shoot back to his. “I didn’t even know you were there until Saturday morning.”
“You had a ghost of an idea it was me.” He laughs deep in his chest at some private joke and lowers his voice seductively. “It was my name you called when you begged me to touch you.”