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?
* * *
Sawyer didn’t like distractions in business meetings, nor did he like surprises. But this was no ordinary meeting, and Kendall Ross was much more than a beguiling bombshell. She was a force to be reckoned with.
“If it’s all the same to you, I’d like to get back to the PR plan. Isn’t that the most pressing matter?” She straightened in her seat, composed and determined.
Even with vast amounts of money on the line, Sawyer’s mind couldn’t keep from straying to pressing of another kind—namely the moment at the wedding when she pressed against him, his hand settled in the curve of her back and everything around them faded away. It wasn’t like him at all to be so unfocused in a meeting. But he’d never been tested like this either.
It was one thing to run into a former conquest months or years later and see her with a date or a serious boyfriend. That he could handle. That was the cost of being the guy who not only doesn’t do serious, but doesn’t get within ten miles of it. But engaged? Less than two months later? Who was this guy? Where did she find him? And how had Sawyer managed to sleep with the one woman who could move on even more easily than he did? Not that he’d actually moved on from Kendall. She’d kept wandering into his thoughts, while he kept waiting for the day when she’d simply walk out.
“I suppose,” he said.
“As I said, it’s more effective to release information and images on a specific, carefully planned timetable, all of it leading up to your grand reopening. The only way to control the story is to promise the press you’ll give them everything they want, but on your terms.”
“The slow burn.” He might come to hate that phrase. It was far too sexy, especially coming from Kendall’s tempting lips.
“Yes. You have to realize, most people are terrible at visualizing things. And it might seem counterintuitive, but letting them see glimpses of the hotel now will create demand for more and more until people can’t stand it and they have to see it for themselves.”
She was so convincing right now, she could’ve sold him nearly anything, even the contents of his own wallet. “I have a feeling I should’ve hired you from the beginning.”
“Does that mean you’re hiring me now?”
He laughed quietly. She not only knew how to bury his ideas while selling her own, she knew how to close the deal. He threw up his hands in mock surrender. “I don’t think I have a choice. You’ve made a compelling case. Despite the fact that you don’t seem inclined to agree with me, I appreciate your thought process. Let’s do it your way.” He cleared his throat. Idiot. “The PR. Your way.”
“Well, good. That’s great. Thank you. I’m happy to hear that.” She smiled, bringing a beautiful blush to her cheeks. It made him want to only do things that made her smile. But then she pushed her hair behind her ear with her left hand and he was reminded that he had zero business thinking of Kendall that way.
“So. Engaged, huh? That must’ve happened recently. I mean, I hope it’s a recent thing.” Sawyer gave free passes on most personal choices—he simply wasn’t judgmental. But if she had been unfaithful to someone, with him, that crossed the line. He hoped to hell she could be trusted.
“I’m not discussing my ring, Mr. Locke. We’re having a business meeting. Surely you can appreciate that.”
“First off, please don’t call me Mr. Locke. Considering our history, I think we’re past the point of calling each other by our last names.”
“Okay,