“We’ll see about that,” he muttered under his breath.
He was Logan Monroe, damn it, and he always got what he wanted. Always.
By lunchtime, Claire had replayed her conversation with Logan at least thirteen times. It was all she could do to concentrate on work, and there was a seemingly endless supply of that. She’d never be finished by the end of next week, and she shuddered to think of the hapless soul who would have to take on her workload, mid-projects. Then again, after Logan’s smug revelation that morning, a replacement didn’t seem likely.
Claire blew out a sigh, saving the proposal she’d been editing on her laptop and closing out the program. Logan was right, her decision to leave LM was solely based on her pregnancy, and, if she were to be brutally honest, she’d admit that shehadbeen hiding from him.
But with good reason. The man was a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, sensual and soft one moment and hard, angry, crude the next. She never knew what to expect from him, and she hated that. She hated the unpredictable.
But what she hated, absolutely hated most of all, was that she was beginning to care for him far more than she should. No one knew better than Claire just how self-destructive it would be to fall in love with him. Falling in love with a man who couldn’t reciprocate would be incredibly foolish. After the disastrous end to her marriage, she couldn’t willingly jump into another, potentially similar situation once more. Especially with the inclusion of a baby into the equation.
So Claire had checked the impulse to accompany Logan on a week-long getaway and told him exactly what she had to tell him, no. There was really no other option, both for her sake and for the baby’s.
Another sigh left her as she closed down her laptop and stood, stretching. Too much work and not enough time had her practically chained to her desk all morning. She needed to go for a walk, maybe grab a quick bite to eat down at the Blue Room. Claire grabbed her purse from beneath her desk and left her office. Jamie wasn’t at her desk, apparently already having gone for lunch, so Claire headed to the elevator bank at the far end of the floor.
She pushed the down arrow, waiting for the next available elevator to arrive. Suddenly, Amy, the co-partner of Claire’s best Creative Team, hurried to her side, the three-inch heels she wore thumping audibly on the carpeted floor.
“Claire.” Amy was slightly out of breath and she looked altogether rumpled, her brown hair disheveled, the tan pantsuit she wore wrinkled. “I’m so glad I found you.”
Claire was beginning to suspect that Amy and her Creative partner, Leo, had finally consummated their flirty relationship. She’d never seen Amy look so out of breath, so rumpled. “What do you need, Amy?”
Amy flushed a bit, looking sheepish. “Mr. Monroe asked me for a finalized proposal for the Scrubby Soap account this morning, but I got, um, waylaid, and I’m running late to a lunch date, and I was wondering if you wouldn’t mind terribly?” She pulled a folder out and held it toward Claire. “I would have emailed it, but my computer’s down, and Leo’s crashed yesterday. I think the system’s a little haywire today. Would you mind taking it to him?”
Claire resisted the urge to sigh yet again. Whenever Amy was embarrassed, she out-talked even Jamie. Yep, something was definitely up between her and Leo, Claire decided. Logan would take one look at her and know it too.
But Logan was really the last person she wanted to see right now. Even so, Claire couldn’t, in good conscience, turn poor Amy loose to face Logan’s wrath alone. It was without question that he wasn’t exactly in one of his better moods today.
“No problem,” Claire found herself saying, reaching out to accept the folder.
“Thanks.” Amy flashed her a smile and disappeared into the elevator that had just arrived for Claire. She waved as the doors closed.
Grumbling to herself, Claire hit the up arrow.
When she finally made it to the hallowed tenth floor, Mindy looked up from her computer and the half sandwich she was munching. “Do you have an appointment with Mr. Monroe?” she asked, her superciliousness obviously in overdrive today.
Claire tilted her head and gave Logan’s assistant her best don’t-you-know-I’m-important look. “Why don’t you just buzz me in, Mindy?”
It was a command, not a polite request. Mindy’s mouth scrunched up into a tight little circle, but she picked up the telephone and announced Claire. “Mr. Monroe says he’ll see you now,” she informed Claire rather frostily after she had replaced the phone in its cradle.
Claire grudgingly thanked her and swept into Logan’s office. He looked up from a sheaf of papers he’d been examining when she entered the room. “Ah, Claire. How efficient of you to appear in my office before I can send for you.” The hard tone in his voice was not lost on her.
Logan was still furious, there was no mistaking it. Every inch King Monroe. She decided to throw him off balance a bit.
She marched across his office and seated herself before sending him a disdainful look. “You know, you really ought to do something about the disposition of your assistant. She’s not exactly a sweetheart.”
Logan raised a brow. “She was rude to you?”
“She’s rude to everyone. Except for you, of course.”
“That’s not really what’s bothering you, is it, Claire?” He was as insufferably perceptive as ever.
She shrugged, uncomfortable under his sudden scrutiny. “If you want a bitchy assistant greeting all the clients, it’s not my problem.” She slid Amy’s almost forgotten folder onto his desk. “Amy asked me to bring you this. Her computer is down and she was late for an appointment.”
Logan’s eyes narrowed. “Would that be a second appointment for a quick screw with Leo?”
Claire’s mouth dropped open. “What?”
“Apparently your little Creative duo has been exploring all the meanings of the word ‘teamwork’. In the men’s lavatory.” He pulled the folder toward himself, a grim cast to his features.
