what did Ella expect? Jake was Sydney’s most famous recluse. He was about to be splashed across Australian and international media. He was not going to be in a good mood.
And when he saw her, it was only going to get worse. She had no doubt Jake wanted his past to stay as buried as hers.
With a deep breath, Ella straightened her shoulders, and mentally yanked herself into line as Cynthia reopened the heavy boardroom doors.
She could do this. She was Ella Cartwright.
Confident. Polished. Successful.
Jake Donner was just another client.
Another deep breath.
You’re not that girl any more.
Confident. Polished. Successful.
He probably barely remembered her.
Just another client.
Ella repeated the phrase over and over as she entered the room, scarcely acknowledging the expansive table that dominated the room or the drizzling rain that blurred the city vista. She was too busy focusing on the rear view of a dark head of slightly-too-long hair—all that was visible of Jake with his chair swivelled away from the doorway.
He didn’t move as they approached.
‘Well played, Cynthia,’ he said, his tone quiet but not soft.
Ella blinked, taking a moment to absorb a voice both familiar and yet completely foreign. He’d been seventeen last time she’d seen him, his voice already deep and mature. But now it was … different. In a way that she couldn’t quite explain. Richer, somehow.
For no reason she could fathom, she shivered.
‘Not played, Jacob,’ Cynthia said. ‘That would imply I was the winner and you the loser. Unless, of course, you’ve cast Armada in the winner’s role?’
Jake laughed, but still didn’t turn. ‘There’s no guarantee this is going to work, Cynthia. I think everyone is hugely overestimating my appeal to the average Australian.’
Ella swallowed a surprised laugh. Surely Jake couldn’t truly believe that? Despite her best efforts—her very best—avoiding Jake Donner entirely when she’d moved to Sydney almost a decade earlier had proved impossible. This might have been the first time they’d been in the same room, but Jake had permeated her world at all sorts of inopportune moments.
He was hard to miss, what with his success being the freakish type that attracted the mainstream media—with his name splashed across everything from articles of terribly serious business analysis to the trashiest of gossip magazines. And he was always linked to impressive phrases: Internet Visionary for one. Or Web Evangelist. Even The Bill Gates of His Generation.
She remembered thinking Jake would’ve got a kick out of that last one.
Belatedly, Ella registered that Cynthia was speaking. Introducing her.
As the chair began to turn Ella swallowed, then shut her eyes briefly, so by the time Jake Donner’s ice-blue eyes locked with hers, she was ready.
Sort of.
‘Good morning,’ she said. ‘I’m Ella Cartwright, owner of Picture Perfect. I’ll be your personal rebranding and image consultant for the duration of the campaign.’
Good. She sounded every bit as professional—and together—as normal.
She could do this.
Ella stepped towards Jake, her hand extended, just as she would if he were any other brand-new client.
Which he was.
A moment passed. Nothing happened.
Had she made a tactical error, pretending she didn’t know him? It was a risk. One she’d decided worth taking after her weekend of preparing for—read: stressing about—this meeting.
Her plan was simple: brazen it out, and hope for the best.
The alternative could not possibly be considered.
Jake’s gaze was unreadable as the silence stretched. Stubbornly, Ella kept her hand right where it was, and her stare did not waver.
Not that it didn’t want to. Her eyes wanted to drop to the floor—desperately. Her shoulders wanted to slouch. Her arms wanted to cross and form a useless shield.
And most of all, her body wanted to sprint as fast as her spiky heels would carry her—out of this room and infinitely far, far away.
But she’d never do any of those things. Not any more. The girl Jake had known would have. Definitely.
With no other option but to look at him, she did, her gaze travelling across a face—despite all the photos she’d seen of him over the years—that was still a surprise. He was just so different from the boy she remembered.
He was more. More broad, with muscles clearly outlined by the thin fabric of his T-shirt. More handsome, with any hint of softness long ago erased by the harsh angles of age, and a sharper edge to the line of his jaw to complement the hollowing out of his cheeks. And more dark, with his hair bereft of its splashes of sun-streaked blond and now simply the colour of her morning espresso.
She’d once thought him cute. Gorgeous, even. But that no longer covered it.
Devastatingly handsome came closer.
Finally, she let her hand drop. She smoothed it over her hip, the fine fabric of her wool pencil skirt just the slightest bit rough under her palm.
She nodded, a brisk, workmanlike movement. ‘Well, then. I guess our first task will be to discuss the value of a good first impression.’
Again, she sounded absolutely normal. She even managed a smile, although her lips felt as if they stretched across her teeth.
Ella was definitely able to read Jake’s expression clearly now: guarded and wary—following just the briefest flash of confusion.
‘Is that your expert opinion…. Ella?’
She held her breath, sure Jake was going to announce that he already knew her. Reveal in one fell swoop the past she’d gone to such great lengths to hide—and to her star client, no less.
And then inspiration hit. She needed to talk to Jake—alone.
‘It is,’ she said. ‘But don’t worry,’ she said, turning to Cynthia. ‘I’ll get him from surly to suave in no time.’
In her peripheral vision Ella was sure she saw Jake’s jaw drop. He went to speak, but she cut him off.
‘Actually, Cynthia—would you mind leaving us for a few minutes? I know this was supposed to be a brief meet and greet, but, really, there’s no time like the present. And obviously we have lots of work to do.’
The older lady grinned.
