Sixteen
Chapter One
The man was a god.
Not with a capital G of course, but unquestionably one of the Almighty’s finest creations. Maddie figured that if angels walked the earth, they would look like this guy: tall and muscular with thick blond hair and the broadest pair of shoulders this side of heaven.
Yup, the man was a god all right. And he was headed her way.
“Maddie, let me introduce you to our newest addition,” said her boss. “Colton Hartley, meet Maddie Sinclair.”
Her face froze. Her mouth went dry. Maddie forced her tongue across her suddenly stiff lips in hopes of coaxing them to smile.
“Nice to meet you, Colton.” Her normally low voice sounded lower still and her greeting was the scratchy croak of a groggy bullfrog.
He didn’t seem to notice. He smiled, a perfect toothpaste-ad smile, and Maddie felt the room brighten and the temperature soar. Her heart did a flip-flop. He extended his hand. “Great to meet you.”
She shook his hand. Too late she realized where all the moisture from her mouth had gone. Her hand practically dripped clammy sweat. Colton was too much a gentleman to wipe his hands on his slacks.
“Maddie,” her boss, Jack Benson, was saying, “it’ll take Colton a while to learn the ropes around here. I wondered if you’d be willing to act as his guide for the next couple of days. To make certain he settles in.”
She nodded. “Sure.” Willing? Major understatement. She was willing all right. To be his guide, his slave, the mother of his children. Whatever.
She was so willing that her head continued to bob the affirmative like one of those tacky ceramic dogs people put in the rear windows of their cars.
Time to get a grip on herself. After all, Colton Hartley was only a man, albeit a perfect specimen. She stilled her bobbing head and smiled. “I’d be happy to help.”
Jack grinned. “Great. I’ve got some stuff I need to get done this morning, so I’ll let you take over from here.” He clapped Colton on the shoulder. “I’m leaving you in good hands.”
Jack winked at Maddie behind Colton’s back and walked away.
Bless Jack’s devious heart. He was always trying to jump-start her social life. Correction. To jump-start her social life would require that she had one. Which she did not. Yet.
“Where to first?” she asked Colton. “What have you already seen?”
“Nothing. You were the first stop on the tour.”
Double blessings on Jack. “Then we’ll start at the front door. Let me introduce you to our receptionist.”
It was encouraging to know that Maddie wasn’t the only one stricken with idiocy when face-to-face with Colton. Crystal, the cute little blond receptionist, was clearly awed.
“Wow,” she said in a breathless voice after Maddie had performed the introductions. “Wow.”
“Nice to meet you, Crystal.”
Crystal wasn’t quite the clod Maddie had been. She was stunned, but not so shaken that she forgot the basics of flirtation. Easily a foot shorter than Colton, she lowered her chin to look up through her eyelashes at him.
Nice trick, Maddie thought. She wouldn’t be opposed to trying it herself, but at five-eleven there were precious few men she could look up at.
“Welcome to Cue Communications,” Crystal purred.
Maddie saw his smile widen in appreciation and two dimples appeared in his chiseled cheeks. Uh-oh. Afraid she’d lose him before she’d won him, Maddie hustled Colton along to the second point on the tour.
A familiar sense of pride filled her as she led him down the plush gray-carpeted hall. Cue Communications, with its sleek Art Deco décor was the top advertising agency in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. Once a dining-room-table enterprise of two visionary young men, Cue now comprised the entire thirty-second floor of the prestigious Tower Building in downtown Fort Worth.
“This is the graphics department. Nick Hodges is our art director.”
Nick stepped away from the table where he was constructing a storyboard. “Hi. What can I do for you?”
Colton stuck out his hand. “Colton Hartley. I just signed on with Cue. Molly here is showing me around.”
“Maddie,” she corrected.
“Right. Maddie,” he said, with the briefest glance toward her.
Nick and Colton spoke for a few minutes about advertising and music and football. Maddie couldn’t tell by the conversation whether Colton knew what he was talking about, but it was obvious he was a natural schmoozer. He had Nick eating out of his hand in no time.
“I’ll let you get back to work, Nick. Molly and I should continue on the grand tour.”
“It’s Maddie,” she said.
He looked startled, then apologetic. “Sure. Sorry. See ya around, Nick.”
Maddie took him to the big conference room at the far end of the hall where they held staff functions and important client meetings. She took him to the production rooms and introduced him to the people on the creative team.
Wherever they went the response was the same. Colton Hartley knocked them dead. Every square inch of his perfect six-foot-three-inch frame oozed charisma. He had only to smile at the ladies and talk sports with the men, and they were putty in his well-manicured hands. If the man ever decided to try his hand at politics, no office in the land would be out of his reach.
Even more amazing than his power over humankind was the fact that he was currently assigned to Maddie’s care. Maddie could hardly believe her luck. The couple of days they would have together while he became acclimated to the firm would surely give her the inside track. Working side by side, he’d recognize her charm and intelligence and fall under her as-yet-undiscovered spell.
Whoa, girl. Maddie mentally halted her galloping imagination before she had them married with two kids, a dog and a mortgage.
First things first. She had to get him away from the crowd currently fluttering around him like moths to a porch light so she could get in some quality one-on-one time with him.
“I think you’ve seen all the highlights,” Maddie said. “Are you ready to head back to your office?”
Colton looked up from his throng of admirers. “Sure.”
Colton had been given one of the coveted offices with a window overlooking downtown Fort Worth. Unlike Maddie’s cramped office with scarcely enough room for a desk and credenza, Colton’s office was furnished with a large desk, two credenzas and a cozy grouping of two high-back leather chairs separated by a small round table.
As Colton sat at his
