are we going next?”
“Italy, England, Australia, Germany, Dubai, and Singapore for a start,” I said. “Our American Sweetheart will be taking the world by storm, but in between, we’ll find some quiet time to just be ourselves.”
She didn’t respond to what I’d said at first, but she wasn’t just floating and staring up at the sky anymore either. A frown pulled at her eyebrows as she paddled over to the steps and sat down, her arms resting on the step above the one she was sitting on.
“Shouldn’t all those countries have their own models?” she asked as her eyes narrowed in thought. “Will people in all these other countries really want to buy into advertising targeted as an ‘American’ Sweetheart?”
I blinked hard. Fuck. How is it that we haven’t thought about that?
The question sobered me up some as I swam over to her, sliding in next to her as I considered what she’d said. “That’s not a bad idea actually. I’m not sure if the marketing people have looked into surveying foreign consumers about a campaign built around any one ‘American sweetheart.”
“It’s just seems silly to me,” she said with a lazy smile on her face. “It’s just a drunken idea, obviously, but I’d think they’d all want their own models. Think about it. Why would Italians, for instance, be more inclined to buy anything specifically branded as a product for American Sweethearts when they can be Italian Sweethearts?”
“The whole world has become more focused on local products and people,” I said when some more of the buzzing filtered out of my veins. “You may just be onto something really important here. We’re definitely looking at a global launch and market for this perfume, but our branding has all been very much centered around the model, you, being this pure-hearted American girl-next-door type. If the message is that every woman is special and that you don’t have to be a model to be the face of an international marketing campaign or to achieve any other dream, then it seems counterintuitive that it can only happen if you’re American.”
“Exactly.” She glanced at me and wrinkled her nose. “Or sort of, anyway. You’re getting the gist of my point, even if you’ve lost me a little with yours. I drank way too much wine to be trying to engage in an intellectual debate.”
“Maybe, but your drunken idea might just be what ends up saving this campaign,” I said, sliding an arm around her waist to drag her closer to my side. “You haven’t by any chance had any ideas about how we might find models in all these other countries without delaying the campaign by several months, have you?”
She shrugged lightly, turning to plant a row of kisses on my collarbone over my wet shirt while she spoke. “If you don’t want the search delaying the campaign, make the search part of the campaign. If it’s an interactive search for models from each country to represent the same perfume line, you might even be able to drum up a bit of a fan base for the search, which might or might not translate into people advertising the scent for free just by posting about the search.”
“You might just be a genius,” I murmured, winding my arms around her and pulling her into my lap. Just having her this close was already affecting me, and the soft kisses she kept giving me weren’t helping.
My dick was begging my brain for control of our actions, and my brain was still fuzzy enough to want to hand over the reins. I knew that what we were talking about was important, but I supposed we didn’t have to figure it all out tonight.
This idea of hers had made me think twice. I was just hoping it would win Jefferson back to her side. The rest of my talk with him earlier had been more of the same. He was worried about the way she’d acted and that it meant she would make a scene whenever anything happened that she didn’t like.
I was also pretty sure that he was starting to figure out that she wasn’t all sweet and innocent. He hadn’t said it in so many words, but I knew he was worried about how it would look if it came out that we’d hired a sassy firecracker instead of the picture of sweet wholesomeness that he was selling her as.
Personally, I liked the sassy firecracker version better, but we’d have to see which side he