Vegas Virgin (Nevada Bad Boys 1)

“Hi, can I help you?” I heard a man’s voice behind me. “Oh shit, you’re Max Martin!”

“And you are?” I raised my eyebrows as I turned to see a blond haired man smiling from ear to ear.

“I’m Adam Rutherford.” He extended his hand. “I’ve done some work for you over the years—well, for your company.”

“You work here now?” I had no idea who he was, but I tried to be civil. A lot of people did work for my company.

“I’ve been brought on as a consultant for the Energy Enhanced campaign.” His grip was strong when we shook hands.

“Well, that is why I’m here. I was looking for Ms. Abby Grant.” I pointed to her desk.

“She went home for the day. I think she got bad news or something, I don’t know. She’ll be back tomorrow. We have a meeting to collaborate on some ideas. She’s the Team Lead, but I’d be happy to help you with any questions you have. The campaign is coming together very well.” He was overly enthusiastic, but he seemed nice enough.

“Actually, why don’t I stop by tomorrow for the meeting? I’d love to see where you’ve put together so far.” I saw his eyes hit the floor when I made my suggestion.

“We’re not really ready, yet...” He stammered over his words. “But yeah, we’ll have something ready for you. Absolutely, Mr. Martin.”

“Eight o’clock?” I asked.

“Uh, yeah. We were going to meet at nine, but I’m sure everyone will be happy to meet a little earlier.” He nodded quickly.

“Good. I’ll see you then.” I walked towards the exit with a smile on my face.

If you want to play hard to get, then you’re about to learn how dangerous it is to play games with me.

Chapter 13: Abby

The roses in my garbage can had started to wilt and shrivel up when I arrived at work the next morning. I had hoped the cleaning crew would take them away before I returned. Apparently, an email response wasn’t enough of a rejection for Max to leave me alone. I noticed the office seemed to be in a bit of a panic when I poured my morning coffee. There was nothing on the agenda that should have caused that kind of reaction. I turned on my computer to get caught up on my emails and I saw Adam in the conference room already setting things up, so I pushed open the door and walked inside. He seemed to be even more enthusiastic than usual, moving things around on the table.

“What’s going on?” I looked around the room. “I thought we were just having a meeting at nine.”

“

You haven’t read your emails. Shit, I should have sent you a text. I don’t have your phone number. I need your phone number.” His words were erratic and confusing. He walked briskly towards me and put a hand on each of my shoulders. “Max Martin is coming for the meeting—well, not our meeting exactly. He wants a presentation. He’ll be here in thirty minutes. Can you walk him through your storyboards?”

“What?” I blinked a couple of times in surprise. “Max Martin is coming here? Why?”

“I don’t know. I actually thought you might know why he was here.” Adam tilted his head. “I saw him yesterday. He came by and said he was looking for you. I assumed it was about the campaign.”

“Right.” I nodded quickly. “Yes, we’ve—traded a couple of emails.”

“Good, I’m glad you’ve been keeping him in the loop. Okay, so we need to get some pastries in here and some coffee. I’ll take care of that. You get your storyboards together.” Adam ran out of the room at a jog, wiping sweat from his brow.

Fuck.

There was no way Max was coming to see our presentation because he gave a shit about it. Even the clingy clients didn’t ask us to show them the work-in-progress until we had finished our first draft. Max had come to the office to see me and when he saw the flowers in the trash, he decided to swing his dick around and make my life miserable. There was no way to stop the car crash that was coming, so I just did my best to get everything ready. It would be impossible to ignore Max forever, especially when he was an investor in the product I had to make successful in order to keep my career moving in the direction it was headed. If I blew it the first time I got to lead a team, I would never get the chance again. I had seen shining stars crash and burn after disappointing a client.

“Are you going to be okay handling this meeting?” Mr. Hawthorne pushed the door open and peeked inside.

“Yes, I can take care of everything.” I nodded. “You won’t be here?”

“No, I’ve got a conference call I’m afraid. I trust you though. You already impressed Max Martin, so I don’t think you’ll have any trouble today.” He smiled and let the door close as he left.

If only he knew.

W E WERE ALL SEATED around the table when Max arrived. He arrived alone without any of the representatives from Energy Enhanced which confirmed he had no real interest in what we were presenting. Adam greeted him enthusiastically and I walked to the front of the room to go over my storyboard ideas. I had arranged the seats so I could sit at a rounded corner near the back while Max would be at the front. To my horror, Max whispered into the ear of the woman sitting next to my seat and she immediately moved to the front, leaving the only empty seat directly next to mine. I couldn’t focus on that and I certainly couldn’t focus on his eyes, which were practically undressing me as I looked into them.

“Good morning, Mr. Martin. I’d like to show you a couple of storyboards we’re working on. Our plan is to buy advertising spots on some of the college channels. It will hit our demographic, without the cost of a network television.” I pulled the cover off of the first storyboard.