Synergy: New Adult Romantic Suspense (U-District, #1) (9 page)

“I need to go over the JND contract with you. It’s ready to be signed.”

“I’ll ask Roz to schedule a meeting later.” Jade stirred the honey into the chamomile tea.

“Later? That’s all you can say to me? I’ve worked the past two days and nights finishing this contract. Was that Craig McDermit, the CEO of Avionics Systems, you just met with? Roz wouldn’t tell me what it was about.”

And I bet that just ticked you off.
She stirred her tea. “Yes, it was McDermit. I’ll fill you in when we meet later.” Thanks to Bryce, her headache was coming on strong. She massaged the back of her neck. She couldn’t deal with him right now.

“Why did he want to see you?”

“He’s not satisfied with the terms of our contract.” Jade threw out the teabag, picked up her mug, and walked out of the break room. She needed to go to her office, pull the shades, and lie down.

But of course Bryce wouldn’t let her be. He followed her down the hall. “I put that contract together myself. It was a great deal for both sides, and so far, it’s the biggest contract Synergy has ever made. I have every right to know if there is a problem.”

“Please ask Roz to schedule a meeting.” The heightened sense of hearing brought on by the migraine made her own voice as loud and irritating as a dentist’s drill. The fluorescent lights might as well have been laser beams sizzling her eyes.

“Why isn’t he satisfied with the terms of the contract?”

“I’ll discuss it with you later.”
Please, please go away, just for now
.

“The hell you will.” Bryce grabbed her arm and pulled her into Sara’s empty office and closed the door behind him. “If he wasn’t satisfied with the contract,
I
should have met with him, Jade. That’s my area of responsibility.”

Jade’s chest felt so tight, it could erupt like Mount St. Helens. She placed her mug on the desk to avoid spilling it, and then turned on him. “How dare you pull me in here like a little child? If McDermit was so comfortable talking to you, why did he call an emergency meeting with me?”

Bryce stepped back. He clearly wasn’t expecting her outburst. Nor did he have an answer.

“I’ll tell you why.” She poked her finger into his chest. “Because this is
my
company and I’m the CEO. That means I do what I want, when I want, and I don’t need to run it by you.”

WHAT THE HELL WAS WRONG
WITH HIM?
Bryce pulled a hand through his hair as Jade stomped off.

Why am I so angry?

He’d never reacted that way with anyone at the office or in his personal life. His conduct was unprofessional. Out of control.

Just like Dad’s.

His parents had always argued. Always. It didn’t become physical though until Bryce was eleven. Eleven, and not big enough or brave enough to stop his father. After that, Bryce spent three long years mostly hiding out at a friend’s house until his mom finally took action. The divorce couldn’t have come fast enough as far as Bryce was concerned. He said good riddance that day and never spoke to his father again.

When Mom remarried, she’d argued with her new husband too. Even though his stepfather had never hit her, Bryce couldn’t take the anticipation of it, the dread. He’d escaped whenever he could. Thankfully, the two of them had finally mellowed out, and somehow were still married, sixteen years later. Bryce had never understood what his mother had done to tick his stepfather off so much, at least, not until recently. Jade had a way of grating on his nerves.

Why does she pull my strings this way and why do I react to it?

The “why” didn’t really matter at the moment. No man had the right to manhandle or physically hurt a woman, no matter how pissed off he was or what she did to push his buttons.

Sara stopped in her doorway. “Sorry, Bryce. I have a telecon in a few minutes.”

Bryce cleared his throat. “No problem. Thanks for letting me borrow your office.” He picked up the mug Jade had left on Sara’s desk. It would give him an excuse to see Jade and apologize.

Sara sat down and made a call. As Bryce left her office, he overheard her say, “Hi Jason, you owe me five bucks. Jade just kicked Bryce’s butt.”

Yes, she did.

Bryce walked to Jade’s door, shrugged when Roz gave him a what-did-you-do-now
look, knocked once, and opened it without waiting for an answer.

Jade sat on the loveseat looking down at the floor, massaging her neck with both hands.

He shut the door quietly behind him. “I think this is yours.” He placed the mug on the table in front of her, and then cleared his throat. “I was way out of line.”

“Thank you.”

“For what? The apology or the tea?”

“For both.”

Bryce couldn’t stand to see her slumped over like that. At least when she was yelling at him, she didn’t look miserable.

He sat down next to her. “Headache?”

“Migraine.” Jade’s eyebrows were drawn together so tight, he could almost see her pain. Her eyes were just slits.

Bryce understood migraines. He’d grown up with a mother who had them often. “Take anything?”

“Yes, it should be gone in a few hours after I lie down.” Jade picked up her tea and sipped.

“I used to massage my mother’s shoulders when she had migraines. It always seemed to help. Do you want me to give it a try?” Dammit, he shouldn’t have said that. What was he thinking? Massaging his boss?

“I’ll try anything. I seriously feel like I’m dying.”

His mom had said the exact same thing on more than one occasion. And now that Jade had accepted his offer, he couldn’t very well walk away and leave her in pain.
Just keep it professional.

He took a breath, then placed his hands on her delicate shoulders and began to knead her tight muscles. When Jade sighed, something stirred deep down in his gut. “Keep your eyes closed.” Soon her muscles began to relax. “Is this why you wanted to talk to me later?”

“Yes. McDermit said he’s going to have to negotiate with someone else when his contract expires if we don’t improve our quality and timeliness of deliveries.”

Bryce stopped massaging for an instant, then continued. “I wasn’t aware there was a problem.”

“That’s because he spoke to Gran about it. They had to send back three Airflight Management Systems and two Airvoice Recorders last month. He said—Ow!”

“That the spot?” Bryce focused on a knot between her shoulder blades. “Take a deep breath and let it out while I work on this.” Her muscles were balled up like a fist. Finally he felt it release. “Better?”

“Mmm.” The satisfaction in the sound made him smile. “He said the deliveries improved initially, but got worse after Gran got sick. Quality has been declining over the past two years.”

“I wasn’t aware of any of this. Timothy never mentioned the returns.”

“Exactly why I want to start seeing monthly return reports.”

“What did you say to McDermit?”

“A little left.”

“What?”

“Can you move a little to your left?”

“Oh.” Bryce felt the knot right away. “Here?”

“Yeah.” When the lump started to dissipate, she continued. “I told him I would draft a contract to give him an extra ten percent of the products he orders as spares, and he can keep them if any of our units are defective.”

“And if they aren’t?”

“He pays for them.”

“Brilliant.” Her craftiness surprised him.

“Thanks, but it’s only a stopgap. We need to start improving our product quality and deliveries, or we won’t get a new contract.”

“At least we have six months. You bought us some time.”

“I just hope it’s enough.” Jade let her head fall back against his shoulder, leaving her neck exposed.

Her hair smelled of strawberries, the sweet fragrance mixing with the scent of the honey in her chamomile tea. It made him hungry—for
her
. The pulse in her neck, just below her left ear, was inviting him to taste her right there.

Not good.

She turned her face toward his. Their lips were a mere inch apart. When she exhaled, her breath warmed his skin. What would she taste like? He could find out so easily… He dropped his hands from her shoulders. “Feeling better?”

She lifted her head, her eyes betraying disappointment. But he didn’t dare touch her again. “Yes… thank you. I’m just going to lie down for a little while, and then I’ll be as good as new.” Jade reached for the decorative pillow.

“You know, you’re too young to have migraines. You should see a doctor.”

“I’m too young to be the CEO. Is there a doctor for that too?”

Bryce let out a nervous laugh, and hoped like hell she didn’t know him well enough to catch it. He pulled the door closed.

One thing he knew for sure: he should
not
be reacting to Jade like this. He needed to get his anger, his libido, or whatever the hell it was, under control.

FOR THE FIRST TIME
since she’d been forced into her position, Jade actually felt like the CEO of Synergy Technologies. Pride spread through her as the migraine medicine took effect. She closed her eyes, remembering how she’d learned about quality control when she was six years old.

“I want that cookie, Gran.” Jade pointed to the one in the middle, being careful not to touch the hot pan.

“Why that one?”

“Because I don’t like them too thin and crunchy or too big and gooey. That one looks just right.”

“What if I want that one too?” Gran asked while she reached into the drawer for the spatula.

Jade pouted. “There are five others on the pan. You can have those. Are you sure you don’t want that big fat yummy one?”

“Nope. I want the one in the middle too.” Gran smiled.

“How come they aren’t all the same? If they were all the same we could each have three.” Jade crossed her arms and huffed.

“I guess we didn’t put in any quality-control measures.”

“We used those brown measuring cups. Were we supposed to use different ones?”

Gran laughed. “Quality-control measures are not measuring cups, my dear. They are tests and controls put into place to make sure the final product all comes out the same.”

“Oh.” Jade blushed. She hated being wrong. “So if we do this quality thing, all the cookies will be perfect?”

“Well that depends on whether we have the right controls and tests in place. What would happen if we turned the heat up too high?”

“We would burn the cookies.” Jade wrinkled her nose. Burnt cookies smelled awful.

“What would happen if we left out the chocolate chips?”

“That’s silly. They wouldn’t be chocolate chip cookies.”

“Exactly,” Gran touched her nose with the tip of her finger. Gran always did that when Jade was right.

“So,” Gran said, “we need to make sure the cookies have the right ingredients and that they’re baked at the right temperature. Those are the right controls. What about the size of the cookie? How do we solve that one?”

“Um,” Jade thought about it. “What if we put exactly the same amount on the pan for every single cookie?”

“That would do it. But what is the exact amount?”

“I don’t know.” Jade frowned.

“Why don’t we test it and see?”

“Okay!” She couldn’t wait to make the perfect cookie.

“So let’s measure out how much cookie dough we put on the new pan. Grab a pen and paper, and we’ll write it down.”

Jade ran to the den to get a pen and paper. She eagerly wrote down the measurements Gran told her, and then watched the cookies go into the oven at the right temperature.

Gran put the oven mitts down on the counter. “So how do we know which cookie will be the perfect one?”

“That’s easy. It will be just like that one.” Jade pointed to the cookie in the center of the pan that was cooling down.

“Well, how will I be able to tell if you aren’t here?”