No Strings__ - By Janelle Denison Page 0,5
served her well for most of her adult life, and certainly during her career as an advertising executive.
If she didn’t count her horrible lapse in judgment with her ex-fiancé, Neil, four years ago that had nearly cost her everything, personally and professionally, and made her realize that she wasn’t so different from her mother after all. That despite the goals she’d set for herself and her vow to never let a man control her life and decisions, she’d failed miserably. Her screwed-up relationship with Neil made it abundantly clear that her judgment when it came to men sucked.
But unlike her mother, she refused to make the same mistake twice. Dropping her guard and allowing herself to get involved with a man on an emotional level was no longer an option for her. Now she put all her time and energy into her career, which fulfilled her in all the ways that mattered—except one. But for those times when she had a sexual itch to scratch, well, that’s where friends with benefits came in handy. It was an arrangement that worked well for all involved, but mostly, for her. No mess, no fuss, and nothing to interfere with her main pursuit of climbing the corporate ladder straight to the top.
And right now, there was only one thing standing in the way of her stepping up another rung and getting the St. Raphael account—Aiden Landry, the man who’d also been called to Perry’s office. But she’d just proven her worth to Perry that morning, and hopefully her ability to completely overhaul a company’s advertising and marketing plan was still fresh in his mind and would provide her an advantage over Aiden.
That was her hope, anyways, but she had to admit it was a bit unsettling to be sitting right next to her biggest competition in the firm, a guy who wanted this account just as badly as she did. Only one of them would get the job, and a quick glance at Aiden told her that he had that confident look about him, too—backed by an impressive amount of determination.
Refusing to be the least bit intimidated, she gathered her composure, crossed her legs, clasped her hands in her lap and waited for their boss, a distinguished-looking man in his early sixties, to address them.
“I’m sure you’re wondering why you’re both here,” Richard Perry said a moment later as he glanced from Aiden, to her, direct and businesslike. “And I’m not going to drag this out any longer than necessary. Bottom line, the partners and I couldn’t decide which one of you deserved the St. Raphael account more. You’re both incredibly innovative and have outstanding success rates with your current accounts. Since there is so much riding on this campaign, in this instance we’ve decided that two creative minds will give the firm a better advantage, than one.”
Chloe was so taken aback by Richard’s announcement that she didn’t know what to say. All the hopes she’d harbored in regards to her career and a big promotion dwindled in that moment.
Aiden didn’t seem thrilled about the new arrangement, either, not when they’d been expecting a solo mission. “So, we’ll be working together on the St. Raphael account?” he asked, a cautious note to his voice.
“No, you’ll be working separately, in lead positions,” Richard clarified as he reclined in his leather chair, looking completely at ease even though he’d just delivered a one-two punch to her and Aiden. “You’ll each be assigned your own marketing team to help you with your campaign, and you’ll each give the client a full presentation, along with a complete advertising and promotional package geared toward developing the resort’s matchmaking brand. They’re open to restructuring their activities at the resort to make the social interaction between couples more appealing, and they’d like to see ways to increase their profit margin, while still giving their targeted consumer a great overall experience.”
Oh, wow. The project was huge and complex, and clearly Perry wanted to see which one of them could better deal with the stress and mental challenge of such an enormous task—the same kind of pressures that would face a senior executive. Chloe was more than capable of handling the assignment, and although the man sitting next to her was equally qualified, she wasn’t going to let that fact mess with her head.
Richard steepled his fingers in front of him, and continued, “I think it will be interesting to have two separate campaigns for this particular client, one from a female