Smokescreen

“Thank you, Stacy. You can tell Chris we’re here.” He dismisses the blonde with a cold and impassive tone. Her face falls but she still sashays out the door.

“I think you may have hurt her feelings,” I tease.

“She’s blatantly unprofessional. I’ve told Chris that for years, but he doesn’t listen.”

“Who’s Chris?”

“My best friend and also my personal lawyer.”

I open my mouth to ask why we are meeting with his personal lawyer, but a man walks into the room. He comes to me with his hand stretched.

“You must be Stella Sullivan. I’m Chris White.” He shakes my hand then turns to Max. They embrace quickly and then Chris goes to the other side of the table.

“Stella, I’ve brought contracts for you to review that have been drawn up by the corporate team at Hurst & McCoy. Those are standard business contracts and Chris can cover those briefly. But I asked you here because we will meet as much as possible outside the office.”

“Why?” I ask surprised.

He motions to Chris, who pushes a paper over the table to me. I glance at it and notice it’s a strict non-disclosure agreement. It’s standard and I have no objections to signing it. Both men watch me expectantly and Max hands over a pen.

Once I sign, Max visibly relaxes and sits back.

“Stella, everything you said yesterday in the meeting is true and then some. I wasn’t kidding when I said Brian hadn’t seen the numbers. The only person who has seen the true profit and loss statement is my CFO and me. He pulled every JOS account off the company financial server and moved it to a private and protected one. The reason we did this was because the rumors in the office are bad enough. Employees are nervous and scared. We’ve already received five resignations. Handling the situation in South America is hard enough; a crumbling workforce would cripple us. That’s one reason we hired you to help. I didn’t want my current marketing and PR group involved. The fewer employees know, the better.

“You’re going to be privy to the financials and the employees of the factories. I want this to be a re-birth. When we get done with cleaning up this mess, Hurst & McCoy will look like the Fortune 100 Company it is.”

“Wow, this is so much more than what was put in the proposal,” I breathe out but welcome the tingling of excitement. This is the type of project I’ve dreamed about. I love the sound of it. I also love the sound of “when we get done.”

“You still up for the challenge?”

“Of course!”

His smile melts me and when his hand covers mine, I feel it again. The connection between us the first time our eyes met. The room goes still and heat rises from his touch. It’s as if we are the only people in the room. My heart beat speeds when our eyes lock. He must feel it too, because he jerks back a little.

“Max, I think you need to tell her the rest,” Chris states.

“One reason I chose your firm is because of your ideas about helping the community. I’ve always thought we should put efforts into the surrounding areas. It was as if you read my mind when you mentioned it. None of the other companies seemed to care but your compassion was evident. The board may be resistant. That’s why we’re going to the executive team first. I’m going to work closely with you because it’s important to me.”

“Not that I’m opposed, but why is this one project mean so much.”

“I was pushed into this position three years ago when my dad died of a heart attack. Edward Hurst is a bastard.” He doesn’t say anything else, but the hand that covers mine squeezes tight.

Chris watches with a soft expression.

“Okay,” I say and smile at both men.

“How soon can we get started?” Max asks.

“I’m meeting with my lawyer tonight and if there are no problems, I’ll have the papers back and signed tomorrow.”

“Perfect, I’ll have my assistant, Dana, call you and arrange a meeting.”

I nod and look between the two men to see if we’re done. Chris sits back and crosses his arms with a smile on his face.

“Great, now that business is out of the way. Tell me your grand plan to bring JOS out of the shithole.”

This is not a date, I keep repeating in my head. It’s purely business. My palms still sweat with anticipation as I wait for Max to walk through the restaurant door.

When Dana called and asked me to meet Max for dinner tonight, I was dazed. I knew he wanted to work outside of his office, but didn’t expect to do dinner meetings. I agreed and instantly regretted it. The need to remain professional is imperative and both times I’ve been around this man, my resolve starts to slip. I can’t put my finger on what is so different about him, but my pulse races and my nerves start to tingle. There’s a tinge of electricity that moves through me, exciting my body. He’s not only extremely attractive, but also kind. Nothing like the hard, businessman Laci told me about.