by Eve Langlais
Nate began to roll his sleeves up to avoid splashing salsa or grease on his dress shirt and Val stopped talking mid-sentence. He glanced up. She was staring at his forearms. He’d never considered arms to be a very sexy area of a person’s body, but if she wanted to look, he wasn’t going to stop her. Maybe she had some sort of arm fetish and, hey, who was he to criticize someone else’s sexual preferences? He purposely rolled up the other sleeve much more slowly, watching as her small, pink tongue darted out to wet her lips; lips that were giving him all sorts of ideas.
Their drinks arrived and Nate took a long sip from his water in a vain effort to cool his raging body temperature. Val picked up her margarita gingerly in one hand and guided the straw to her mouth with the other. It was impossible not to admire the way she caressed the bowl of the drink or how her eyes closed in satisfaction as she took her first sip. He sat back to watch the show. All too soon, though, her eyes opened and cleared.
She set the drink down in front of her and leaned forward. “So…”
“So?”
“Tell me about yourself.”
Nate made a sound of disgust, and said, “I’d rather talk about you. Are you from Buffalo originally?”
“Born and bred. I left to go to college but came home right afterward. My dad had just begun treatment for cancer and I wanted to be close by. I ended up moving into his house to take care of him until he died. He was treated at CCC and even though they did everything they could, his cancer had progressed too far. My dad needed me, especially in the final months. My parents were divorced and he was alone.”
“I’m sorry about your dad.” And he actually was. He hated his own family, but also understood some people were close to their parents and the loss of one or both could be devastating. “Do you get along with your mother?”
Val wrinkled her nose. “I was always a Daddy’s girl. I think that bugged my mom. Now she’s remarried and has her own life.” Obviously uncomfortable with the turn the conversation had taken, Val ducked her head and grabbed a chip, breaking it into small pieces. He clenched his fists in his lap to prevent himself from reaching out and touching her. She looked so alone. So sad. But then she seemed to snap out of it. “Tell me about what you do when you’re not slummin’ it with a job like this.”
Slummin’ it? He couldn’t decide if that was a dig at him or at the hospital. Hopefully not the hospital. It was obvious even with his limited experience with the place that they were doing good work. And she seemed to be one of its biggest cheerleaders, so yeah, it was a dig at him. “I specialize in damage control. I have a few ‘regular’ clients, but most are referred to me by their normal PR people. I like to think of myself as a spin doctor. Whatever message my client and I want out there is what’s out there.”
“Pretty confident in your abilities.”
Nate shrugged. “Why shouldn’t I be? I’m good at what I do.”
“And modest.”
His eyes narrowed as he tried to assess whether or not she was kidding. He could usually read people, but Val was proving to be quite a challenge.
“Modesty doesn’t get you far in our business, as you well know.” Their food arrived and they began the mutual process of filling their tortillas with the succulent meat and other accoutrements. Conversation between them turned to more mundane topics, as they systematically demolished every bite of food. When Nate had eaten his fill he collapsed back in the booth. He heard the vinyl make a squeak of protest and both of them laughed. “This is why I watch what I eat. I frighten even inanimate objects when I overindulge.”
Val laughed. Despite how full he was, all Nate wanted was to get her out of there as quickly as possible. He grabbed for the check before Val could. “I’ve got this.” Pulling out his wallet, Nate extracted his business credit card and handed it to the server.
When the woman had left, Val said, “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. But since you had a margarita I’m not letting you drive my Porsche.”
“You tricked me.”
“I did no such thing. I even mentioned I wasn’t drinking because I was driving, but you were so focused on that margarita you didn’t even hear me.”
Her bottom lip jutted out in an adorable pout and he was just about to reach over and run his thumb over it when the waitress dropped off his credit card slip to sign.
The urge to kiss Val was overwhelming, and it stayed with him during the drive back to the hospital. He didn’t have time for an elaborate seduction, not that he’d know the first thing about orchestrating one of those, so he decided to just go for it and see what happened. So he was filled with a sense of anticipation when he pulled up next to her car.
*****
Dueling feelings of nervousness and anticipation warred within Val’s body as Nate parked his car alongside hers then came around to open her door and help her out. She wasn’t accustomed to this kind of chivalry and it was keeping her off-balance. It was especially unexpected in a man like Nate, and made it harder to keep to her assumption he wasn’t a man she could have a future with.
He’s only in town for a little while. Cool your jets.
Nate didn’t let go of her hand and Val felt strange tugging it away. He closed the car door behind her and gently pushed her against it, trapping her between his car and himself. “I have to,” was all he said as his mouth descended on hers. She couldn’t bite back a gasp of surprise, and Nate took that opportunity to push his tongue into her mouth, exploring her with long, deep strokes. Val’s entire body started to tingle and, despite her myriad misgivings, she found herself pulling him closer and snaking her arms around his neck.
Her senses went haywire with each touch of his fingertips to her face. Leaning in more, he pushed his erection into her pelvis and Val let out an involuntary moan. Nate licked at her mouth with his wicked tongue and she couldn’t help but respond, opening her mouth farther to his advances. But when he reached down to cup her bottom in his large hands, she finally had the presence of mind to jerk away, gasping for desperately-needed oxygen. If he’d already gone from merely kissing her to grabbing her ass clearly he wanted sex, and she wasn’t the type to sleep with someone and then say sayonara. I might be for this guy. No. Nip it in the bud, before he gets more ideas.
Despite her body screaming in protest, Val pushed him farther away. “We can’t do this.”
“Why the hell not?”
“Because.” At his raised brow she huffed. “Because we’re working together. Because we’re in the parking lot of the hospital that I still have to work in after you go back to your life in mere days.” She motioned in his general direction. “Most of all, because you’re who you are and I’m who I am.”
He ran his hand over the back of his neck and then looked at her, blowing out a loud breath. “What does that even mean?”
Val scooted around him and he turned to follow her. She held up one hand and he stopped. “I need to go.” Ducking into her car, she started the engine and was on her way out of the parking ramp within seconds. As she pulled out onto the road she rapped the heel of her hand on the steering wheel. “Dammit! Why did I let him kiss me?”
Because deep down you wanted him to. You wanted to know what it would feel like.
Val dropped onto the couch in exhaustion the moment she arrived at home and called in reinforcements in the form of her friend Stacy.
“Hey girl. How’s it going?”
Val sighed. “One word. Ugh.”
“What’s up?”
“Apparently you haven’t been watching the news.” Val had checked a couple of the local media outlets’ websites soon after lunch and they all had a story about the theft. She’d been able to speak with several reporters but, without more details, it was hard to give much information. So there they sat, without updates, leading the public to think God only knew what about the situation. It sucked but there was nothing she could do about it. Hopefully tomorrow would be different. “A doc flew the coop this weekend, taking a couple
million dollars with him.”
“Ohhhh.”
“Yeah. Ohhhh.”
“Wow. I had no idea. Shows you what my working life has been like lately.” Stacy was a cargo broker and worked for companies who shipped between Canada and the United States, a position Val knew could get pretty stressful. “Anyway, you have no idea where he is?”
“Not a freaking clue. To make matters worse, the CEO, Doug, apparently doesn’t think I’m capable of handling this on my own, so he brought in this supposed ‘old friend’ to help.”
“What kind of old friend?”
“A guy he knew in college. I’m sure you’ve never heard of him, but let’s just say he’s infamous in PR circles.”
“Why?”
“Well, you know how a sex tape gets leaked to the press, but somehow the guilty party still manages to come out smelling like a rose? He’s the manure spreader.”
“I’m not following you.”
“He’s a PR guy. He specializes in damage control and his normal clientele is…how should I put this…not a non-profit cancer hospital. More like athletes, models, and actors.”
“So he’s like a publicist to the stars? Wow. What’s he like?”
An arrogant ass. A hot arrogant ass who can make me forget my name way too easily.
“He’s…” she struggled to find the right word. “Confident. Supremely so.”
“Does that really surprise you?”
“No, but here’s the thing. The guy, Nate, is smokin’ hot. Like totally smokin’. He’s got perpetual brooding bedroom eyes, a sexy mouth and a killer body, plus a supreme attitude to go with it. He came in today and basically just took over. Irritated the hell out of me.”
“I can imagine,” Stacy murmured.
“I mean, even if Doug did hire him, what right does he have to just storm in and declare himself ruler of the land?”
“He did that?” Stacy sounded dubious and Val sighed.
“Not in so many words. And then he finally got me to relax during dinner and then what does he do? He kisses me!”
“Whoa. Back up there. Dinner? Why were the two of you at dinner? Was it a working dinner or were you alone?”
“Alone.” Val cringed even as she said the word.
“A private strategy session?”
“Uh, sort of.”
“And then he kissed you?”
“Yep.”
“What did you do?”
“I responded at first. I mean, how can anyone be kissed by a man like him and not answer on some visceral level? But then my head cleared and I pushed him away.”
“How did he react when you did that?”
“I practically dove into my car and didn’t give him a chance to do or say anything. I’m horrified. I can’t believe I let this happen. This man could be a disaster for my career, and yet my hormones did the cha-cha the moment I saw him.”
“Are you gonna talk to him tomorrow?”
“About the kiss? Not if I can help it. Maybe he’ll be cool with pretending it never happened.”
“I wouldn’t count on it.”
“Thanks for that reassurance.”
“If you were him, would you just forget about it?”
“I have no idea. I mean, I don’t even know why he did it. To get his jollies? Because he thinks he really likes me?”
“No way to know unless you ask him or he brings it up.”
“Wonderful.”
They spoke for a while about Stacy’s life and then Val fell into bed. Unfortunately, sleep eluded her as a movie of her and Nate kissing looped in her head. Finally she fell into a fitful sleep.
Chapter Four
When Val arrived at the hospital at seven-thirty the next morning, she’d already seen the local newspaper. Fred had been accurate in his reporting. She couldn’t fault him for that, but she wished he could’ve waited another day or two. Of course, with local and national media jumping on this story it didn’t much matter. Fred had been right; this was the biggest thing to happen to CCC in a very long time and there was no way to bury it. But her heart ached for the hospital she’d come to love, first for how they treated her dad and later as an employee.
But as she began to scan the Google Alert of the hospital’s name that landed in her inbox three times a day, it was clear hundreds of online sites were starting to pick up the story, and that was never good. Bad news always seemed to spread like wildfire on the Internet and this situation was no exception. A story like this going viral had the potential to make this disaster exponentially worse.
She looked up when she heard a knock on her office door. Nate stood there, looking far too delicious, not to mention alert, for this early hour. “What’re you so cheerful about?” she asked.
Nate’s eyebrows shot up. “I’m cheerful?”
“Maybe I should’ve said awake.”
“Haven’t had your coffee yet?”
Val held up her to-go cup. Before they could stray into more personal topics, she cleared her throat. “I was just looking at the Google Alert for the hospital, and it’s not pretty.”
“I know. I set one up last night and looked at it this morning.”
“Oh.” She’d been expecting to be a step ahead of him, and instead felt behind and slow.
“We need to act. Today.”
“We can’t do anything without talking to Doug first.”
“I called him. That’s actually why I’m here. He wants to see us at eight.”
Even more out of the loop…fabulous.
“All right.” Standing up, she smoothed down her skirt and watched Nate’s gaze heat. He started to say something and Val put up a hand. “Let’s go.”
He motioned her out of the office before himself and, this time, Val couldn’t help but think it wasn’t so much him being chivalrous as it was him wanting to watch her ass as she walked. Suddenly self-conscious, she took smaller steps than normal to try to conceal any jiggling. Then she shook her head at how ridiculous she was acting. She didn’t want attention from him, so why was she making an effort to look good?
They arrived on the executive floor and were shown into Doug’s office. He looked haggard and Nate, with a sheepish expression, explained. “I sent him the results of the alert so far.”
Out of the corner of her mouth Val answered, “So you panicked him unnecessarily. Great job.”
“I wanted him to understand the magnitude of what we’re facing. I’m hoping it will spur him to action sooner rather than later.”
Val was annoyed that she couldn’t argue with that logic. She’d been begging Doug for actionable steps since Saturday night.
Nate sat in one of the guest chairs in front of Doug’s desk with the grace of a panther on the prowl, and Val seated herself in the other chair, propping her legal pad on her thighs. Doug looked up from his computer, running his hands over his face. “This isn’t good. But I don’t need to tell you two that.”
“No, you don’t.” Nate glanced at Val. “Again, we think we need to act immediately.”
“What do you suggest?”
Val opened her mouth to speak but Nate answered first. “I think we need to keep the hospital front and center in the news. Take an offensive stance rather than defensive.”
“Offensive?” Val sputtered. “Oh, like all press is good press?”
Nate barely spared a glance Val’s way before continuing. Doug appeared to be hanging on every word and Val’s annoyance level was rising by the minute. “Yes. We should immediately issue a statement telling the public we’ve launched an internal investigation; that we’re cooperating with the authorities, all that usual stuff. In fact, we should schedule a news conference for this afternoon.”
“No way,” she snarled. Both Nate and Doug turned to her, the latter seemingly surprised she was in the room.
“Excuse me?” Nate replied.
“I said, ‘no way’.” Val crossed her arms over her chest. “The statement is fine and I agree we need to do something as soon
as possible. But a press conference? Do you really want to throw Doug to the wolves? Because that’s what’ll happen. He isn’t one of your media-groomed celebrities, but the press will never stand for seeing anybody but him on the podium.” She warmed to the subject further, even though alarm bells were also ringing in her head. “And since you want to stay out of the public eye, who’s going to stop the bleeding if he gets flustered or says something wrong? I suppose it’ll be up to me to clean up the mess.”
Doug was watching the two of them with fascination, and Val regretted having this argument in front of him. It certainly wasn’t making her look any more professional. Before either could say anything further, though, Doug cut in. “Craft the message for me and I’ll stick to it. I won’t take questions, just read the statement. Schedule the news conference.”
“Doug–”
“Schedule it. For now we’ll handle things Nate’s way. He specializes in this stuff. That’s why I brought him in.”
“Fine,” Val answered through clenched teeth. She rose and strode toward the door, knowing she shouldn’t be leaving in a huff like this, but not sure how much more she could take before she said something she’d regret. Unfortunately, Nate followed her.
“Do you want me to start writing Doug’s talking points while you call the media to set everything up? Someone has to book the space and such too.”
Without even slowing down, she said, “You tell me. You’re obviously in charge.”
Nate touched her shoulder. “Hold up, Val.” Val spun to face him. Tapping her foot, she waited with her arms crossed over her chest. Nate ran his hand through his hair and the movement was the first outward sign she’d seen that his supreme confidence might be a façade. “Look, I didn’t mean–”
“Like hell you didn’t! You made me look an idiot back there.”
“That wasn’t my intention, but your fragile ego is the least of my concerns.”