Total pages in book: 156
Estimated words: 158829 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 794(@200wpm)___ 635(@250wpm)___ 529(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 158829 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 794(@200wpm)___ 635(@250wpm)___ 529(@300wpm)
Does it ever get awkward when he takes a woman home and he’s just too big for them?
Would he be too much for me?
Would I even be able to close my hands around that ridiculous—
He whips his head toward me abruptly like he can read my thoughts.
I gasp, shrinking back in my seat.
“Feeling all right, Miss Renee?” he snaps.
“Yeah! I just—” I grab the water bottle at my side and pretend I’ve been drinking. “I’m fine.”
I’m anything but.
It’s a minor miracle I remember to breathe before he punches up the reason for this meeting on the laptop screen he’s positioned on the table in front of us.
Michelle, Winthrope Australia’s marketing director, comes through Zoom a minute later. I’m a little jealous at the wide, alluring grin she gives him with her platinum-blond model good looks.
I pry my mind off his unmentionables long enough to listen to her ad successes and struggles.
The meeting drags on for roughly half an hour. We’ve gone over some new marketing ideas, but the conversation always swings back to the reviews.
I’m beginning to think he’s obsessed, and not in a healthy way.
Is he just an egomaniac after all? Is criticism his kryptonite?
“I’ve been reaching out to organic influencers like we discussed months ago with some success,” Michelle says cheerfully. “The big ones kept turning me down, but then I found a lovely young lady from Brisbane with a middling following. She had an in with an entire group of shockingly powerful TravelTok people, and well, the results speak for themselves.”
“They do. Your revenue growth leads the pack over our other branches for two quarters straight. That’s a move in the right direction,” Brock says happily.
I’m annoyed with another pang of jealousy as she smiles at him like a golden lab who’s just been thrown a bone.
“Is Winthrope Australia implementing the reward system Robert Clivewell proposed?” he asks.
“Oh, yes. We’ve started a lovely pilot program in Sydney. Robert recommended we review the data for a few months before extending it, and I tend to agree,” she says.
He nods. “Good. That’s everything I need to know then. Anything else?”
“No. I’ll let you two go. I know it’s rather late there.” She waves at the screen. “Ta-ta for now.”
We wave back to her, and I feel a hint of mounting dread, knowing I’m about to be alone with Winthrope, and this time with no distractions.
She exits the meeting first.
Brock closes the program and sets his laptop on the coffee table beside him, clasping his hands as he looks at me. “What did you think?”
God. I so don’t want to answer that.
Everyone’s working hard, but I still think we’re missing the mark, helplessly picking at insights overseas that might not apply here.
“The ideas are fresh.” I don’t elaborate.
“And?” he clips.
“The midlist influencer thing seems smart, honestly. We can replicate that here pretty easily,” I say, biting my inner cheek. “Although their in-house content leaves a lot to be desired. Their ads just don’t capture any mystique, and you already know how I feel about the content here.”
“Mystique?”
“Yeah. Like remember when we were in Lanai and we talked about what life would be like if we could be different people? Even for one night?”
“Like either of us could ever forget, Miss Renee,” he says with a glance so sharp it hurts.
God.
Not what I was going for.
Not something he’ll ever let me live down, either.
“My point is, that’s what makes a luxury hotel stay so inviting. You don’t have to be you while you’re there. You get to switch off, step outside your comfort zone, and experience another life. That’s the magic that makes people travel and it’s what makes a short video of a fancy place shine. Thirty seconds of glory to spark the imagination.”
“You want us to sell fantasy then,” he growls.
I rock back and blink.
Huh? What’s he so upset about?
He lowers his voice when he speaks again, a thick whisper now. “I won’t pull too many insights from something so personal. Strange things said on a strange trip to a strange woman I hate having to resist.”
My hand trembles.
My breath catches in my throat.
I have to force out air around the lump in my throat.
“You have to resist me?”
I shouldn’t ask, but I’m breathing too hard. No way he doesn’t notice.
“We work together, Miss Renee.” His whispers go from strained to vulnerable.
That throat boulder only grows larger, and my ragged breathing isn’t helped by the fact that he’s breathing harder too.
“But it’s a struggle to—to resist me?” My free hand shakes so hard the notepad I’m using starts slipping out of my grasp.
His hand brushes against my skirt as he catches it.
Our eyes lock.
His hand lingers on my thigh.
“You have no goddamned clue. The fact that you’re here in front of me, dangling like a piece of meat in front of a hungry lion...” He doesn’t finish that sentence as he jerks his face away.