her hand, all business, but it felt like he was trying to suck her in.
Kendall nearly clutched her chest with her free hand to keep her heart from failing. The handshake was far too intimate. Too much heat transferred from his big, firm, naked hand to hers. Stupid rules of polite society—touching him was putting her off her game.
“Oh, uh, yes. We do know each other.” She tittered, something she would never do, especially not in a meeting. Get it together. “We met at a mutual friend’s wedding.” Kendall scanned Sawyer’s face if only to figure out what in the hell he was hoping to accomplish by admitting they knew each other. Silently confronting him in this manner only created more problems, as he unflinchingly returned her gaze, eyes singularly trained on her, making her heart beat like a fish trying to flop out of a bucket to save its own life.
“We had a wonderful time. Ms. Ross showed me some of her moves.” He bounced his dark brows. The corners of his mouth twitched arrogantly. “On the dance floor.”
So he was just messing with her. Jerk. First he didn’t call her now he was dropping innuendo in a business meeting? Easy enough for him—the handsome billionaire who didn’t have his career on the line. Of course he hadn’t called her after the wedding. Guys like Sawyer Locke were too cavalier with the hearts and minds of others, especially women. He probably had them lined up around the block.
“Please, Mr. Locke. Have a seat. What can we do for you today?” Kendall was desperate to steer the conversation to the professional. She sat across the table from him, turning to a fresh page on her legal pad. When she looked up, his sights were locked on her left hand. The ring. Good. Let him look. Kendall glanced at the setting of shimmering stones. “Oh, goodness.” She straightened it.
Jillian remained standing. “I won’t stay long, Mr. Locke. I know you want to talk strategy and in that instance, Kendall is your woman.”
“Is that so?” Sawyer leaned back in his chair and slowly thrummed his fingers on the table.
Your woman. Why was she having such a hard time swallowing today? And had someone cranked the thermostat? “I’m good at my job, if that’s what you’re asking.”
Sawyer flashed his killer smile—a self-assured grin to remind her that he was not only a man who knew what he wanted, he had absolutely no problem getting it. Probably the reason he hadn’t called her after the wedding. She was just another in an endless string of women. “Perfect. I need to make a change with my PR. The last firm we worked with had a hard time following my lead. I’m too busy to spend my day butting heads.”
Kendall shifted in her seat. Of course. Men like Sawyer didn’t like it when anyone disagreed with them. “Tell me about the Grand Legacy. After the story in the Times, I can only assume that’s what we’re talking about.”
“So you saw it.”
“I did. I’d call it unflattering, at best.” Even if that picture of you was hot as hell.
“Tell me how you really feel.” His voice was terse, as if he had little patience for her opinion.
Kendall shrugged. “I’m telling you what I saw.”
Sawyer’s jaw tensed, then he cleared his throat. “Fine. You’re not wrong. It was horrible. My brother and I are extremely unhappy that those photos were leaked. We’ve done everything we can to keep the details of our project top secret. We can’t have information of any kind getting out, especially in the newspapers. It’s a disaster.”
“You might be creating your own problem. Keeping secrets almost never works.”
“It works if you do it well. You have to understand, we’re not just renovating the hotel, we’re rebuilding the mystique. We have to keep the details under wraps until the grand reopening, when all will be revealed. We’re going for drama. A big bang.”
She shook her head and tapped her pen on the notepad. “And as a member of the general public, I know nothing. You can’t assume people know the history. I don’t know much about the Grand Legacy and I grew up in New Jersey. It’s been closed for more than a decade. All of that makes me disinterested. Keeping things a secret is the wrong tack to take.”
“Kendall has an excellent point, Mr. Locke,” Jillian said. Any other boss might’ve taken issue with Kendall pointing out the mistakes a potential client had made, but not Jillian. She believed in transparency, at all times, and at all costs.
“What are you suggesting?” Sawyer’s annoyance was clear. “We let people see what we’re doing?”
“Let me ask you this. Would you rather have someone like me open a paper to see grainy, camera-phone photos of your hotel, or would it have been better if this morning’s paper had featured professional photographs, along with a story chock-full of interesting details?”
Sawyer pressed his lips together. His forehead crinkled. Kendall took great pleasure in showing him exactly how wrong he was. “I see your point.”
“Publicity and building anticipation is about the careful dissemination of information, not locking it up and throwing away the key. You have to go for the slow burn, Mr. Locke. You tease. You give the people a taste of what they want. Soon you have them clamoring for more.” Finally, she was hitting her stride. Even if she and Sawyer were not in agreement, at least he would know up front that she was not a “yes” woman. Not even for him.
Jillian’s assistant ducked her head into the room. “I’m sorry to interrupt, Ms. Sloan, but your ten o’clock is here early.”
“Coming,” she answered, reaching to shake hands with Sawyer as he stood. “I’m sorry I can’t stay for the whole meeting, but I have no doubt that Kendall is on the right track. You’re in excellent hands with her.”
“Thank you. I’m sure Ms. Ross knows exactly what to do with me.”
Kendall refrained from grumbling, but she sure felt like complaining. Much to her detriment, the man had a real talent for innuendo. He returned to his seat when Jillian left. He didn’t say a word. He just looked at her. As to what he might be thinking, she had no earthly idea. She only knew that if she and Sawyer were going to work together, she needed to keep them on course. A very narrow, nonsexual and never flirtatious course, especially now that they were alone.
“So? The Grand Legacy. Do we have the job?” she asked.
He nodded, not taking his eyes off her. “I have some questions.”
“Of course. Whatever you need to know.” She exhaled. She could do this. Her brief history with Sawyer didn’t have to be an insurmountable issue. It didn’t have to be an issue at all. They were both professional people and there was a job to be done.
“I want to hear more about the slow burn.” He trailed his index finger on the conference table in a painfully slow circle. “It sounds promising.”
“Oh. Uh. Sure. Of course.”
“Then I’d like to know when exactly you got engaged.”
Kendall froze. Her pulse thundered in her ears as she scrambled for an answer. It was one thing to come right out with it with her boss, but she had nothing for Sawyer. How was she supposed to have anticipated that he’d waltz back into her life that morning and make Operation Engagement Ring infinitely more complicated?
