It was too low, but rather too low than too high. He was trying to bully her with his abrupt tone, but she was going to stand her ground. “Well, the profits we stand to make are significantly lower than what you’re promising in your projections.”
“Two-thirty-five,” Timothy countered.
“Two-twenty. Final offer,” Tyler said.
Jordan let out a silent breath of relief, happy that Tyler had finally taken over the meeting and the pressure was off her.
Timothy was quiet for an extremely long while, thrumming his fingers on the table, while Alex appeared too afraid to say anything.
“I accept,” he said eventually through gritted teeth and Jordan had to clench her fists to stop herself from bursting with excitement.
“We’ll have our legal team amend the contract accordingly,” Alex said, looking at her like he couldn’t wait to get his hands on her in a darkened parking lot.
Matthew stood up, his grin even wider than before. “It was a pleasure doing business with you,” he said, extending his hand to the other men.
Jordan was the first to leave the room. All she wanted to do was run to the ladies room and scream out the excitement flooding through her.
“Miss Shepard,” Timothy said, gently grasping her arm.
“Did she really just do that?” Matthew asked, gathering his documents. “Did she really just save us thirty million dollars? She was incredible. I knew she would be great, but what she did was out of this world. She was on fire!”
Tyler tried to smile. Using Jordan as the secret weapon was a brilliant idea. She had handled the meeting better than he could have imagined but watching her outside the boardroom, gigglingas she spoke to Timothy Coldwell was a sign that his plan might backfire. This wasn’t something he’d foreseen.
She was supposed to throw him off, but instead it looked like she turned him on. He’d noticed the way Timothy held her hand when he greeted, the way he stared at her during the presentation, undressing her with his eyes and he was looking at her the same way now. He wasn’t afighttype of guy, but something inside him was dying to walk up to Timothy and punch him in his smug face.
“I was expecting more of a reaction from you,” Matthew said. “I mean, it’s almost like you didn’t just watch Jordan cut them down to size. When Partridge said playtime is over, I knew they were done for and she ripped right into him. Ty, are you—” Matthew stopped talking and also turned his attention to the door. “Oh, I see.” He said nothing further, merely tapped him on the shoulder and walked out of the boardroom.
Tyler knew he should leave too. He felt like a stalker, watching them the way he was, analyzing their every move. Timothy took a business card out of his pocket and handed it to Jordan. It wasn’t the fact that he gave her the card that irritated Tyler. It was the fact that she accepted it. He then took Jordan’s hand and lifted it to his lips. Tyler had seen enough. He stood up and walked towards them. “Jordan,” he cut in tersely, “don’t you have work to attend to?”
Her eyes narrowed and he could actually sense her urge to slap him. “I’m taking the rest of the day off,” she responded, each word laced with defiance.
“Fine.” He didn’t argue because he didn’t care where she went as long as it was the hell away from Timothy. Tyler watched her walk away before turning back to the other man. “Easy, Coldwell.Sheisn’t on the table.”
“That’s not up to you,” he replied with his usual air of egotism. “She’s a free-spirited, ambitious young woman whois very capable of making her own decisions. Besides, I think she’ll…enjoywhat I have to offer.”
Tyler punched him then, but only in his mind. “Stay away from her.” He turned and walked back to his office.
*****
Tyler was restless and edgy and could not get his mind to stop racing.
Why did Jordan take his card? What was Timothy offering?
The questions had needled him all afternoon and all evening. This whole thing with Jordan was so irritating because he didn’t want to be thinking about her. He didn’t want to think about how amazing she was in that boardroom today. He didn’t want to think about the woman who was so confident and self-assured—the same woman who, just two days prior, had asked him if he had ever laughed so hard he farted.
Why did she take his card? Did she call him? Maybe he’d taken her out to dinner. And now Timothy is the one watching her unclip her hair and laughing at her silliness…So what? Who cares? It doesn’t matter.
He went upstairs and had a shower. He was supposed to be spending the Fourth of July weekend with Matt and his dad and he was already late. Matt had called a few times already, but he’d been too distracted to answer, too busy obsessing over Jordan to care about anything else.
He put on a semi-formal dress shirt and a pair of slacks as his mind continued running a loop of Jordan and Timothy images.
As he walked to his bed, he noticed the pictures of Trisha on the dresser. Lifting the photo-frame, he studied her flawless face, her make-up expertly applied, her hair salon-spectacular. “You’re the one I want,” he said, tracing his fingers over the glass.
But even staring at pictures of Trisha, couldn’t take away his thoughts of Jordan. The problem was every time he thought of Jordan, Timothy popped up too.
What are they doing right now?
He knew Timothy would not have heeded his warning to stay away from her. They probably went out to dinner. He was probably undressing her with his eyes, kissing her hand while he flirted with her. And then afterwards he’d offer to take her home and once they were alone…
