“You’re assuming I made the flight,” I sniffed as I walked through the door he was holding open for me.
“I know you did. I saw the manifest.”
I spun to face him. “Are you stalking me?”
He laughed in a way that made me feel stupid for even suggesting it. “No, I was merely prepping for the fallout of younotmaking it. I had visions of calling a press conference about how the Jetliner Jackass was at it again.”
“Ah, so you’re embracing the nickname,” I fake-smiled sweetly at him as we walked through the grand marble foyer. “Love that for you.”
“Speaking of stalking, maybe I should be accusing you?”
I pulled my badge out of my bag with a huff and held it up in front of Harrison’s face. “I work here. What’s your excuse?”
“I have a meeting, which you’re currently making me late for.”
He strode away from me, but I wasn’t done with him. There were a dozen businesses in the building, and none of them were even remotely related to private jets, unless…
Ugh, please no.
“With who?” I jogged over to where he was waiting at the reception desk.
He ignored me and focused on the receptionist. “Harrison Ashford for Alan Gentry at McPherson Media.”
“No!”
It slipped out, and I slapped my hands over my mouth when both the receptionist and Harrison turned to stare at me.
“What’s the problem?” Harrison asked me.
“I work at McPherson,” I said. The dread flooding through me nearly made me nauseous. “You absolutely cannot seriously be considering them for your Rushie war.”
Why was the one person I wanted to avoid suddenly everywhere?
“Wonderful,” Harrison said, thick with sarcasm. “And here I thought today couldn’t get any worse. I am, in fact, considering them. They’re meant to be real professionals.” The look he gave me made it clear he was now questioning that.
“Ah, so you weren’t expecting someone on their staff to be so…how did you put it?” I tapped my chin and pretended to think. “Messy and frantic, I think you said?”
The receptionist let out a shocked exhale, her eyes bouncing between us as we bickered.
It made sense that he was meeting with Alan. The companydidhave a great reputation for a certain kind of PR disaster. I happened to know that Harrison’s situation was the kind of thing Alan was almost guaranteed to bomb.
Iknew how to make the Rushies stand down, but no one at my company listened to me, so it didn’t matter.
That meant I’d get front-row seats for even more Harrison slander. Perfect, this was going to be fun!
The receptionist finally stopped gaping at me and returned her attention to Harrison. She was typically gorgeous, probably another out-of-work actress, but Harrison didn’t seem to notice.
“I just need your ID for the visitor badge, Mr. Ashford,” she said, batting her lashes at him.
I understood her flirting. Harrison was hot as hell, and you could practically smell the money wafting off him. Shame about the shitty attitude, though.
“Seriously?” Harrison grumbled, sneaking another look at his watch. Yeah, hereallydidn’t like running late. “You already know my name. Does this place think I’m planning to impersonate myself?”
“It’s just policy, sir,” she replied, the wattage of her smile dimming.
I wanted to tell her not to waste her time with him, but Harrison’s true nature would take care of getting that message across for me.
“Fantastic,” he muttered as he pulled out his wallet. “Because nothing says efficiency like taking a photo for a meeting I’ll be out of in ten minutes.”
