12. Jade

CHAPTER 12

JADE

" T he two of you are going to travel to Paris together to meet with Pelletier Design." Leo leans forward, his arms folded on top of the massive black leather desk mat.

I fight back a large grin. "When do you want us to leave?"

"Tomorrow. The private plane has already been booked. You'll have a day or so to settle in and prepare yourselves, and then the team will meet with you this coming Friday."

Three days.

All I have is three days to prepare the last little pieces of the app design that should be included.

Half a week to convince Grayson that the vision I have is going to be the one that takes LRH Global over the top and puts them back at the forefront of people's minds.

Grayson clears his throat, looking at me from the corner of his eyes. "We don't have to both go on the trip, do we?"

"Yes. I want to see how my potential CEOs handle themselves on behalf of the company."

I open my mouth to protest, but Leo is already moving on to the next subject, talking to Grayson about some of the marketing tactics they're going to employ in the next couple of days.

When I manage to catch Grayson's eye, the color is gone from his face and the circles beneath his eyes look darker than normal.

Something is bothering him, and I'd be willing to bet it has something to do with his father thinking I want to be a CEO.

I run a portfolio of multi-million-dollar businesses, but nobody in this room seems to think that's enough for me.

The more time I spend with Leo and Grayson, the more I wonder why I agreed to do this in the first place.

Grayson stands, his hands balling into fists and his shoulders tense. "Thanks. I'll let you know when we land."

I get up and follow him out of Leo's office and over to mine. He follows me into the room and shuts the door behind us, but he doesn't bother drawing the curtain.

He watches me for a moment. "Why didn't you tell him that you weren't interested in the CEO position?"

"Because he moved on to marketing before I got the chance." I sit down on the little couch tucked into the corner of my office while he sits on one of the chairs beside my desk.

"You still could have said something."

"I'm telling you right now, I don't want that position. I make over a million a year on my own, Grayson. What do I honestly need a position here for?"

He shrugs, picking at his nails. "The CEO position pays a lot better. Ten times that, at least."

"Great. I don't need that kind of money. I have more than enough to take care of my mom as she gets older and live a comfortable life of my own."

His eyes narrow, and it feels like the air in the room gets harder to breathe.

I don't know where this is coming from.

Though I may not have corrected his father in the office, I've been clear from the beginning. The last thing I want is to spend the rest of my life working here.

Between Write Now and Harper Times , I don't have room in my schedule to run anything else.

Grayson sighs, shoulders slumping and hands dropping. "I don't know why you took this job in the first place, then."

"I have my reasons, but becoming the next CEO isn't one of them."

"You have to be the only woman in the world who is staring at ten times her current salary and turning it down." Grayson shakes his head, but the lines at the corners of his eyes and mouth smooth out.

"I don't have any reason to want another business under my belt." I smile and tuck my legs to the side as I grab my tablet and open it up, checking my calendar to see that Lara has already put the trip details in it.

"Have you ever been to Paris?" Grayson watches me as I open an email from Paloma about our meeting this afternoon.

I send off a quick confirmation to her. "Nope. The last time I met with Pelletier, the designer happened to be in New York for the week."

"It's a nice city. We're not going to have any time to have fun though, so if you think this is going to be an opportunity to slack off, you're wrong."

My eyebrows arch, but I hold my tongue.

His tone is sharp. Right now, he's acting like I'm a threat to his future.

I know how he behaves when his father is involved.

Though I don't know why he's so concerned about getting Leo's approval. After watching the way Grayson has been working over the last few weeks, it's clear that he could walk away from LRH Global and get a CEO position at another company.

Whether Grayson realizes it or not, he knows what he's doing.

He stands and tucks his hands into the pockets of his slacks. "Do I have time to get lunch before Paloma gets here for the meeting?"

"Yeah. She had to push back by half an hour because the subway she takes isn't running and she's on the other side of Manhattan."

He nods. "I'll be back in a bit."

As he leaves the office, I can't read the expression on his face. I don't know if he thinks that I'm going to swoop in here and take the position from him after I've told him multiple times that I don't want it.

It's clear that he doesn't trust me, though.

If he did, he wouldn't still be worrying about me stealing things from him.

While I wait for him and Paloma to show up for the meeting, I spend time reviewing some of the icon designs Paloma sent over for different sections of the website. They're all organic shapes, bringing more of a young and fresh vibe to the brand.

It blends well with the classic newspaper look of the site, keeping elements of the old and mixing it with the new.

A few minutes later, Paloma walks into my office, pushing her sunglasses on top of her head, her laptop tote hanging from one arm.

She drops down on the couch beside me. "I thought I was in the wrong building for a few minutes there. Everything looks so dated."

I nod. "I know. I still have to work with them on that part, but it's not a priority with everything else going on. I have to focus on moving forward with the bigger issues first."

"Well, hopefully, after today the website will be one last issue to worry about."

"Good," I say. "I don't think we're going to roll the site out until the app is ready. That way we can have a full digital launch and a party to celebrate, but I still have to talk that over with Grayson first."

Paloma nods and pulls her laptop out of her bag, setting the tote on the ground. "I've got the design finalized, it just needs the stamp of approval from both of you."

Grayson walks into the room, stuffing half a bagel into his mouth as he shuts the door and sits down in one of the other chairs. "Nice to meet you."

Paloma raises her eyebrows. "We've met before. I went to the same college as you. We used to go to the same parties."

His cheeks flush a bright pink as he finishes off his bagel. "Sorry. I'm not always the best with faces."

She eyes him before opening her laptop and turning it on. "So, this is what we've spent weeks working on."

Fingers fly over the keys as she brings up the website, showing off the creamy pale brown background and the black text. The icon shapes she sent me have already been incorporated into the design.

Paloma hands the laptop to Grayson so he can get a better look. "Let me know if there's anything you think needs to be changed. I have another week or so that I can dedicate to this project."

Grayson hums, looking through the website. He clicks around, not saying a word as he peruses through the different pages.

When he finally hands the laptop back to her, there's a look of approval on his face. "This is impressive. I really like that the icon looks like ink blobs, as if someone wrote the paper by hand and their fountain pen was dripping."

Paloma beams. "I didn't know if either of you were going to put that together."

"I certainly didn't." I smile and lean closer to get a better look at the website design on the laptop. "Now that Grayson has said it, I feel like it should be obvious. I definitely missed that the last twenty times I've looked at them."

"So." Paloma leans forward and sets the laptop on the desk. "Are we good with this design, or do either of you think that there's something still to be tweaked?"

"I'm good with it." I nod my head, glancing at the homepage on the screen. "It's the perfect mix of everything we're trying to accomplish with the rebrand."

Grayson nods and stands up. "I agree. If there are any tweaks you decide on while testing the site this afternoon, go ahead and make them. Based on this, I'm sure that the two of you know exactly what you're doing."

It's high praise coming from him, and I can't help but beam as I look up at him.

The corner of his mouth twitches. "I have a meeting with Mac, so the two of you have fun."

He leaves the office, the door swinging shut behind him.

Paloma turns to me, one eyebrow raised. "What was that little exchange right now between the two of you?"

"It wasn't anything." My cheeks warm as I get up and sit in one of the chairs at the desk.

She joins me, spinning around once before pulling closer to the laptop. "Seems like it was something."

I bite my lip. "Well, I'm sleeping with him again."

The flat look she gives me sends my stomach twisting. "Because that worked out so well for the two of you the first time."

I groan, leaning back and closing my eyes as my head tilts back. "I know I shouldn't have gone there with him, but do you have any idea how long it's been since I slept with someone who actually knows how to make a woman come?"

Paloma shakes her head, her grin stretching from ear to ear. "You really should find better men."

"I should, but I don't have the time to do that. Especially not right now."

She clicks one of the icons at the bottom of the website that looks like it's just a decorative element. A pop-up opens, asking her to log in. "This is how you're going to get into the backend of the website."

Leaning closer to her, I try to take in everything she's showing me. She designed both of my other sites and most of the mechanics behind this one and mine are the same.

She goes through how to post a story and how to archive it, showing me where the drafts are before giving me the list with all the staff login information.

"All right, so, now that that's done, you want to tell me why you decided to start sleeping with Grayson?"

"It seemed like a good idea at the time," I say, though it sounds more like a question than a statement.

"No, it wasn't. There is no way you looked at that man after all these years and after what happened and thought that getting involved with him again would be a good idea. I know you didn't."

"Okay, fine." I throw my hands up in the air before dragging them down my face. "I don't know what the hell I'm doing. He thought it would be a good idea. No strings attached and all of that."

"And just like the first time you were with him, you're starting to feel more for him."

"I don't have feelings for him. This is nothing but casual sex, and there's a deadline on it. As soon as I'm done working here, the two of us are going to go our separate ways. That's all there is to it."

Paloma doesn't look convinced. "You know this is going to end badly. Things like this always do."

"I know." I run my hand through my hair before grabbing the claw clip off my desk and pinning the strands back. "I thought that it would be good to relieve a little stress, but now there are all these other things getting in the way."

"Like what?"

"Like the fact that when this all ends, I don't know if I'm going to be able to walk away."