Trust in Advertising (42 page)

Lexi curled up in the chair and held her mug tightly in her hands as Elizabeth continued.

“It was obvious from the beginning that Tony was great when given an idea, at executing the plan and creating spectacular presentations. But Vincent excelled at creating the big ideas. When he isn’t being crabby, he can be quite charming, as I’m sure you’ve noticed.” The knowing smile Elizabeth threw in her direction made Lexi’s cheeks turn pink.

“A real Jekyll and Hyde that one,” Lexi giggled.

“He gets the charm from his father and the temper from me,” Elizabeth laughed. “When two of the original chief executives retired from Hunter, I had to make replacements. Vincent and Sean were attached at the hip after they graduated. Truly, I think that boy ate at our house every Sunday for a year.

Sean’s degree was in business management, and he was a natural with the staff.

No one blinked when I promoted him to business manager and eventually VP

to run that side of the office. It wasn’t until I had to make a promotion on the creative side that everything went to hell.”

It was easy to see this all had been difficult for Elizabeth to talk about. Her family was very important to her, and she hated seeing anyone hurt.

“I was damned if I did and damned if I didn’t on this one. Someone needed to move up the ladder. I had Vincent who was creative with an impeccable work 252

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ethic, the one who could come up with the ideas and charm the clients, or Tony, who had a brilliant mind and an eye for the art and details of it, but his ideas were poor. Give him an idea, and he could execute it with precision. But ask him to come up with the concept himself and it was a disaster. There was no choice. Vincent got the VP position, and Tony was made head of productions.

He became this nasty, vengeful man who to this day has a giant chip on his shoulder where Vincent is concerned.”

All the pieces fell into place for Lexi. “And Vincent was afraid if I was moved to productions that Tony would go after me because of the fact that I worked for him.”

“His concern was that Tony would take out his anger at him on you, that he would either give you a hard time or not give you a chance to show what you could do and stifle you.” Elizabeth grinned. “My son feels very protective of you, in case you hadn’t noticed.”

“I can take care of myself.” Lexi raised her chin confidently into the air, not wanting anything from Vincent at that moment.

“Yes, you can. But sometimes it’s nice to have someone looking out for you as well.” Elizabeth patted her hand.

“Do you still think I should go to productions? I think it’d be an amazing opportunity, and I’d take the job in a heartbeat without complaint. Tony and I could come to an understanding.” The promotion was not something she was willing to let Vincent or anyone take away from her just because he thought she couldn’t handle herself.

“Believe it or not, after some reflection, I agree with Vincent. Productions isn’t the place for you.” Lexi opened her mouth to protest, but Elizabeth stopped her. ”You’re an idea person Lexi, a big picture kinda girl, like me.” Elizabeth beamed. “I don’t want to groom you to make boards and presentation materials.

I want to groom you to be a creative director like Vincent was before he became a VP. Here’s the problem—you have the most potential, but the least amount of experience or credentials of anyone on staff. I can’t just promote you on a gut feeling.”

Lexi’s dream of coming up with her own campaign ideas faded into the distance.

“What we need is for you to get some experience under your belt, covertly.

Get you involved in different campaigns so you can give your input and make a name for yourself all on your own. Everyone around you will naturally see 253

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the same things I do. I want you to absorb everything that is going on around you from someone who has been through it before and quickly worked their way up through the ranks. Besides, who better to learn from than the best?”

She cocked an eyebrow at Lexi, awaiting her reaction.

“So I get to work with you?”

Elizabeth clapped her hands and threw back her head in laughter. “Lexi, I adore you. Why must my son be a moron?”

“I can come up with a list if you’d like,” Lexi offered, a genuine smile crossing her lips for the first time all day. “In all seriousness, what are you proposing?”

“I want you to be Vincent’s partner on the Stone account. It’s as much yours as it is his, anyway. Everyone in the office knows the two of you worked together on it, and I don’t think anyone will raise an eyebrow if you’re involved with it. There’s another account I will want you in on the planning stages of, once we secure a meeting with the client. Again, you’d be working with Vincent on that one. He knows the job from the bottom up and he has great insights he could share with you. I think the two of you make a dynamite team, and we need to turn our luck around a little. We’ve been turned down by quite a few clients lately.”

The offer was very generous considering Lexi had no qualifications, no experience, and couldn’t compete with the people around her in many ways.

But she did have great ideas and knew how to execute them. No matter how angry she was at him, she had to admit Vincent was a genius when it came to forming an ad campaign. He could teach her so many things, but could they work together? Vincent often made her feel like she was a burden.

“Have you even discussed this with him? I’m not sure he wants to work with me.”

Elizabeth shook her head from side to side in disagreement. “He most definitely wants to work with you, dear. This part was his idea, actually.”

Lexi remembered the latest conversation she’d had with Jade. “Well, he might feel differently now. Jade said—”

“I don’t care what Jade says. She’s not on staff here, last time I checked.

Maybe I should remind her of that fact too.” Elizabeth lowered her voice, the edge disappearing and being replaced with stern, motherly suggestion. “I think this is a great idea. It’s great for Hunter and great for you. The chemistry you and Vincent have will lead to great things. Trust me, a mother knows.”

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Part of Lexi wanted to scream yes and say the hell with the fallout of working side by side with her heart’s desire, she could handle it. This was a once in a lifetime chance. But another part of her screamed for her to say no, to protect herself from the certain doom that would surely come if she spent more time working that closely with him. She was only human, after all, and he was irresistible.

Elizabeth rose to her feet and went back to her desk. “This is your call, Lexi.

You don’t have to tell me now. I think you should discuss this with Vincent before you make up your mind.”

“I’ll let you know by Monday,” Lexi promised. “I cannot thank you enough for this offer, Elizabeth. It was very generous of you.”

“It was all Vincent’s idea,” Elizabeth said emphatically. “He sees something in you too.”

If only Lexi could figure out what that something was.

255

∙ 21 ∙

Vincent leaned back in his leather desk chair as he looked out the window.

The ornate lines of the cityscape entranced him and al owed him to mental y escape from the disastrous day he was having, even if it was only for a short while.

He’d never intended to start a fight with Lexi that morning. He’d wanted to apologize for kissing her at Anna’s and make sure she wasn’t still upset with him. The kiss … things weren’t supposed to get so heated between them, but when he felt the softness of her lips, the way her body molded perfectly against his, something snapped. For some inexplicable reason, every cell in his body screamed at him to pull her closer and wrap her in his arms, so he did.

The deep feelings of lust and desire that engulfed him when they kissed had caught him off guard. He knew on some level, even though he didn’t want to admit it, that he was very attracted to Lexi. Even Sean saw it. But how could he not be? She was breathtakingly gorgeous in a shy and unassuming kind of way, but it was what was inside of her that was truly exquisite. For the first time in a long while, Vincent had met someone he wanted to believe in, that he thought was perhaps genuine rather than someone who only told people what they wanted to hear, waiting for the right time to strike. Unfortunately for Vincent, an air of uncertainty remained. His rocky past made him unwilling to let her in, because he knew it could be his undoing.

The rapid exit Lexi had made from Anna’s house took away their chance to talk about the kiss, not that he knew what the hell he would have said. When the Trust in Advertising

topic had come up during their heated conversation that morning, he’d shrugged it off and said it was no big deal. That was a lie, but what made it worse was the devastated look he saw on Lexi’s face as the words escaped his lips. No woman wanted to hear that her kisses were less than memorable, and he immediately regretted having insulted her. So once again, she’d retreated. And now she was hiding in his mother’s office.

Vincent climbed out of his chair and began rifling through his desk drawer, looking for something,
anything
that would keep his mind off of Lexi White.

The longer his thoughts dwelled on her, the more confused he became. What he wanted with his heart and what he wanted with his head were in constant conflict when she was around, and it was driving him crazy.

The file of the Lewis account found its way into Vincent’s hand. He began reading through the meeting notes, trying to spark an idea for a direction for the project. Deep in thought, he was startled when the office door flew open.

“Sorry I was gone so long, baby. This was a really important call.”

Vincent stifled a groan when Jade strode in without knocking for the umpteenth time. He cursed himself for not taking her back to her apartment this morning and just being late for work. He would never get anything done at this rate.

She flopped herself onto his couch, swinging her feet onto the coffee table.

When her heel caught on a smal bud vase and it crashed to the floor, spilling water and flowers everywhere, Vincent heard Sean’s voice whisper through his head:
Screw Jade.

“What’s with all the damn flowers?” She carelessly scooped the buds up and crammed them haphazardly into the vase before setting it back on the table. She made no effort to clean the large water stain on the carpet. Instead she reached into her bag for her phone so she could check her E-mail.

“It’s a decoration. My mother thinks they make the room look warmer so she has them brought in fresh every other day.”

“They make the place look like a funeral home if you ask me,” Jade muttered, crinkling her nose in disgust at the beautiful buds. “So, what are we doing today?” Jade asked with an utterly bored look on her face.

“
We
aren’t doing anything.
I
need to make a few idea notes on an account.”

Vincent’s voice trailed off as he fell back into deep thought about the campaign.

An idea struck him, and without thinking, he asked the question. “Is Lexi at her desk?”

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Jade’s head couldn’t have whipped toward him faster if he’d told her he was selling everything, shaving his head, and becoming a Tibetan monk. “You did not just ask me about
her
.”

This time Vincent did groan out loud. “Jade, I’m not in the mood for this. Was she at her desk or not? That’s all I’m asking. I need to have her do something for me.”

“And I bet she’d be happy to oblige you anything you asked,
Mr
.
Drake.
”

“Do we have to do this again?”

“Supergirl wasn’t at her desk. She’s probably off kissing someone else’s ass.

Try not to get too jealous.”

“Why do you have to act this way, Jade? She’s never done anything to you,”

Vincent asked in a tired voice.

“Are you kidding?” Jade was on her feet, her hands waving wildly as she spoke. “That little bitch talked shit about me to Julian Stone, and now he won’t return my calls. This is my career she’s messing with, my livelihood. What the hell, Vincent? I’m your girlfriend, in case you’ve forgotten. I would think you should be pissed at
her
for screwing with my life.”

“I know who you are.”

“Well, maybe you need to see who she is. I called that office at their request.

My agent got a message that Stone wanted to talk to me. I called twice. Once I left a message and this was the second call. Whatever she said, that wench of Stone’s …”

“Christina,” Vincent offered through gritted teeth as he pinched the bridge of his nose.

“Yeah, that Christina bitch put me on hold, then got all snippy. The next thing I know, I’m talking to Lexi, who is bitching me out for calling.”

“It was an important day, Jade. We had been up all night.”

“I don’t need to be reminded that the two of you spent the night together, thank you very much.” Jade walked to the window and glared out over the city.

“For the millionth time, we were working. She’s my employee. We do have to work together on occasion. Are you telling me you weren’t up all night at least once while you were on your latest trip? And were there other men in the vicinity? Of course you were, and you were probably at a nightclub, drinking and dancing every night. I’ll bet I can go on-line right now and find photographs of you stumbling into a taxi at dawn. But I’m not giving you a hard time, so why 258

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am I being accused of something I most certainly did not do?” Vincent was on his feet now, angrily stuffing a file into the tall cabinet.

“I don’t like her, and I don’t trust her. And for the record, I hate the way she looks at you.” Her arms were crossed tightly over her chest.

Jade’s all-consuming paranoia was getting old. She didn’t trust Lexi? What a joke. The real problem was that she didn’t trust him. People were drawn to Lexi’s radiant personality, whereas Jade repelled humanity. Lexi was everything Jade was not, and then some. For a minute he wondered if Jade could see that he was developing genuine feelings for Lexi. Was he was that transparent, or was this just her general insanity rearing its ugly head again?