Beg Me (Mess with Me 1)

This is it. Lavin Bridal is what I’ve been waiting for.

So when I’d marched into Milo’s office, my head had been swimming with visions of the future. That’s the only explanation I have for why I’d tell my nemesis that he’d ever gotten the leg up on me.

“Not sure what you mean. You must have misunderstood.”

Milo narrows his eyes and a beat passes in tense silence. Then he smiles, showing both rows of teeth. Like a barracuda.

“Okay, you want to play it that way. Fine. But I don’t poach accounts and when I convince Andre Lavin to sign on the dotted line, I want it known that I did it fair and square.”

“When? Hah. You really think you’re going to win a bridal account? The king of one night stands is suddenly an expert on weddings?”

I shouldn’t have said that. Not only because it makes it sound like I’m keeping track of his personal life outside of the office but because it opens the door for him to bring up my own failures. Namely, being dumped six months before my own wedding. He could argue that my personal life makes me a bad candidate to pitch for this account, too.

He looks like he’s thinking about taking the bait but surprisingly, his face softens. “I think that we’re both willing to do whatever it takes to win this client. No matter which one of us gets to the finish line first, in the end Mirage benefits.”

I look to the front of the plane where Kevin sits next to James. He’s a nice guy but a bit of a suck up. He brings in clients at half the rate Milo or I do but for some reason, James still promoted him to be a team lead.

“What if Kevin is the one to convince them to sign?”

Milo follows my gaze up front. “Seriously?”

“Okay, I admit that’s unlikely.”

“Look, for the next twenty-four hours let’s call a truce. We can go back to being sworn enemies when we’re back in the office but right now, we need to work together to win this. Let’s lock down the account and then we can duke it out later as to who is going to take lead.”

As much as I hate to admit it, it’s a fair plan. This account is a boon for the entire company and working together we have a better chance of convincing the Lavin team that we’re the right fit.

“Agreed.”

“So, truce?” He holds out his hand and we shake quickly.

The plane hits another bout of turbulence and I squeeze the hell out of his hand. “Truce,” I manage to squeeze out.

He carefully extricates his fingers from my death grip. “Seriously, it’s all going to work out. As long as we don’t encounter any other problems, we’ve got this in the bag.”

By the time we land in Vegas four hours later, I’m a quivering mess. Chelsea has been mangled between

my fingers so often the plastic looks permanently deformed and poor Wallace, who had the misfortune of sitting in front of me, heard every four letter word in the English language.

But Milo has been strangely quiet the whole time. After his truce declaration, he put on his headphones and closed his eyes for the rest of the flight. Watching him sleep so peacefully while my heart was in my throat was extremely irritating.

It was also fascinating to watch him when he wasn’t sneering at me or trying to steal my clients. When he’s asleep, he almost looks… nice. Like the guy I thought he was before I found out how far he’d go to win.

Milo has his phone out as soon as we leave the plane.

“Calling your girlfriend?” I applaud myself for keeping the disdain out of my voice when I ask. Truce, remember?

“My mom,” he replies, deadpan. “She’s not a fan of planes either so I always like to let her know when I’ve landed safely.”

“Oh. Well that’s actually sweet.”

“Considering how much she likes poetry you think she’d be a bit more open to adventure. How does it go? For in that sleep of death, what dreams may come.”

“Is that… Shakespeare?”

He eyes me. “Why do you sound so surprised? My mother named me after John Milton. My younger brother is named Tennyson, for fuck’s sake.”

I pantomime zipping my lips. “I didn’t say I was surprised.”