Hired Husband. Rebecca Brandewyne

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ proffered sweet roll, she bent over her scattered papers, feeling the heat of her blush deepen and spread, stricken by the terrible, unnerving suspicion that Nick had somehow seen the mental picture she had had of the two of them together.

      From beneath her long, thick sooty lashes, she glanced at him surreptitiously. He was no longer grinning, which should have relieved her—and would have—except that now his dark eyes glittered with speculation as he stared at her, as though he had never really looked at her before and suddenly saw a great deal to interest him.

      “Your papers, Ms. Fortune,” Nick said softly as he handed them to her. One powerful, slender hand reached out, took hold of her arm. Caroline was so startled and unsettled by their physical contact that she only barely restrained herself from jerking away from him as he assisted her to her feet.

      “Thank you, Dr. Valkov,” she replied as cooly as she could manage, silently cursing the fact that her hand trembled as she jammed her diskette into the drive. She cleared her throat nervously. Then, determinedly ignoring Nick, she began her presentation. “As you’re all aware, we’ve had several names for the secret youth formula under consideration. Based on the marketing campaign that I and my department have developed, however, this is the name we suggest that you approve.”

      A click of the mouse brought her own presentation to the monitor, and superimposed over the Fortune Cosmetics’ logo, the words Fabulous Face flashed on the screen.

      After a moment, the video itself unfolded, explaining the concept for the marketing campaign, then focusing on the actual print and television advertising. The proposed TV commercial started with a closeup of Caroline’s sister Allison—who was Fortune Cosmetics’ top supermodel—and a low, seductively confiding voice-over that asked, “What’s her secret?”

      Then the spiel describing the new product ensued as several different women of various nationalities and ages, all the models beautiful and youthful-looking, were shown in a number of settings, both at work and play. More than one of the women had a tall, handsome man at her side. Tucked discreetly into each scene was a shot of the product itself, packaged in an appealing, gilded, heavy glass container designed in Fortune Cosmetics’ signature style.

      Sixty seconds later, the proposed commercial ended with the voice-over announcing, “And now that you know her secret, you, too, can be one of Fortune’s Fabulous Faces.”

      Much to Caroline’s pleasure, at the video’s completion, the room erupted in applause.

      “It’s wonderful!” Kate crowed, laughing like a gleeful child. “Precisely what we want to get across to the consumer…that any woman who uses our secret youth formula can have a fabulous face! That’s it! That’s exactly what we’ll call it—Fabulous Face! Sterling, make a note to register that name right away. Oh, it’s a clever television commercial, Caroline, beautiful, sensuous, a little mysterious, not clinical at all, even though you manage to get the primary points of the product across…. And the magazine layouts you’ve designed are gorgeous and glamorous yet down-to-earth at the same time, so they won’t make the average woman feel that a fabulous face is beyond her reach. I am just absolutely delighted—and so proud of you, Caroline! Excellent work! Keep it up!”

      Even more than her grandmother’s praise, Caroline was thrilled to hear her father’s compliments when he chimed in exuberantly. Jake was very much aware of his position in both the family and Fortune Cosmetics. He had, she knew, given up his own dreams to take charge of the company, resolutely dedicating himself over the years to making it a tremendous success. As a result, he had demanding, frequently impossible expectations, and Caroline understood that she had always taken second place in his heart, that it was her older brother, Adam, whom Jake would have preferred to have seen at Fortune Cosmetics, being groomed as its heir.

      But Adam had always been at odds with their father and had never wanted anything to do with any of the family businesses. At eighteen, her brother had rebelled and struck out on his own, joining the military. That had been a bitter disappointment to Jake. And although ever since then, Caroline had striven almost desperately to make up for Adam’s desertion, to win her father’s approval, today was the first time she felt she had truly succeeded. More than anyone else at the company, she thought, Jake realized just how much was riding on the secret youth formula that would prove the culmination of all Kate had ever hoped to achieve in life.

      After a few more minutes of discussion, the meeting adjourned, everybody agreeing that the new product was wonderfully on track and extremely close now to becoming a reality.

      “Before you all leave, I want to remind you that positively everything connected with the secret youth formula is to remain strictly confidential,” Kate insisted as she gathered up her copies of Nick’s and Caroline’s presentation reports. “We all know the hazards of industrial espionage, and I don’t want any of our competitors getting wind of Fabulous Face until it hits the market. We’re going to blow them away with this one! I can feel it in my bones. Oh, how I’d love to see our competitors’ expressions when they find out about Fabulous Face! They’re just absolutely going to croak!” Kate giggled again like a mischievous child at the notion.

      Then she swept from the conference room, Sterling trailing along in her wake, Jake following behind.

      “Kyle, I need to see you in my office for a few minutes,” Caroline announced hastily, not wanting to be left alone with Nick Valkov. Even so, her heart sank as she thought of what she must say to her wayward cousin. Over the years, she had become very adept at reading between the lines of her grandmother’s words. So, sadly, Caroline had recognized that Kate’s seemingly innocent observations about Kyle earlier had, in reality, been her grandmother’s subtle way of instructing her to fire her cousin.

      In her heart, Caroline knew that what Kate had said was true: Kyle just didn’t fit in at Fortune Cosmetics, wasn’t cut out for the cutthroat corporate world. Not only did he play around a great deal more than he worked, but he had also had a string of affairs and one-night stands with more than one of the supermodels signed to exclusive, multimillion-dollar contracts with the company.

      Recently, Danielle Duvalier—who rivaled even Caroline’s sister Allison for face and name recognition in the marketplace—had been so devastated by her breakup with Kyle that she had nearly suffered a nervous breakdown, and Caroline had been forced to send her to the Bahamas to recuperate.

      Kyle’s falling asleep at this morning’s meeting was simply the last straw.

      So, no matter how callous and cruel it seemed to Caroline, she realized she had to get rid of her cousin. Now, as she and Kyle entered her office together, she mentally steeled herself for the unpleasant task. She loathed firing anybody.

      “Close the door and sit down, Kyle,” she directed as she hung her coat in the closet of her luxurious corner office with its wide windows overlooking the Twin Cities and the Mississippi River, which separated Minneapolis and St. Paul at its confluence with the Minnesota River. As Kyle cast his suit jacket aside and sat down in one of the two plush chairs before her elegant, cherry-wood Queen Anne desk, Caroline took her own seat behind it, drawing a deep breath before she spoke again. “Kyle, you know you’re one of my favorite cousins,” she began, only to have him interrupt with a wry grin.

      “But I’m not living up to your expectations, am I? I’ve let you down in more ways than one, especially by falling asleep at the conference table earlier, and now you’ve got to fire me. Oh, don’t look so surprised and chagrined, Caro. You’re not the only one who’s got a handle on Grandmother and what she meant this morning with her observations about my character. And to tell you the truth, I’ve sensed this day was coming. In a way, I’m actually even glad and relieved that it’s here. It’s saved me from quitting.” Kyle paused for СКАЧАТЬ