Chapter 6
CURTIS
It was her. Different clothes and shoes, but I’d know those eyes and that face anywhere.
I looked over my shoulder at the badass woman I never thought I’d see again.
She was hurrying away, barely balancing on those ridiculously high shoes.
I tried to ignore the way those trip hazards enhanced her shapely calves and peachy ass.
I could still feel the zap of sensation where her warm hand had landed on my pec.
She’d even groped me a little. The shocked look on her face when she realized was priceless, so it was probably unintentional, but a man could dream.
But there was no going there.
I had enough on my plate without my father reminding me about the no-fraternization policy brought in after the last incident, which ended in a firing, payout, and bad press. Not that any of it was my fault. I hadn’t even fraternized, but apparently, lying was enough to get someone a good deal.
Thinking about the past flared the anger that had been simmering since my meeting with my father.
“Hello to you, too, brother of mine.”
I turned back and hit my brother with narrowed eyes.
“Ah, I’ll just be going.” Garth from marketing glanced at my ruined shirt, then gave me a respectful nod as he nervously hurried past and back to work.
“The fox scattering the hens.” Jack chuckled.
“Smart-ass. This is all your fault.”
He grinned, and I wasn’t sure if it made me want to smile with him or punch his smug face. “How do you figure?”
“If you’d come straight to my office at the time you said you’d be there, I wouldn’t have to have security check the cameras for your whereabouts. Can you ever just come to my office without chin wagging with everyone you come across? Also, how did you end up in here?”
He held up a chocolate-glazed donut. “I was hungry.” He came toward me and picked at my shirt. “Mmm, sprinkles.” He added the few he’d snagged to the top of his donut.
Instead of hitting it out of his hand like I wanted to, I turned and led the way to the elevators and my office.
Jack ate the donut as we went. His disgusting chewing noises—which he was definitely doing on purpose—grated on my every nerve so that by the time we arrived on my floor, my fists were clenched with longing to throw him out the window.
“You need to relax, bro, or your brain is going to pop out of your eyeballs. Ooh, the aftermath would be good for a T-shirt design. Splatter pattern with a couple of eyeballs lying in the debris. Hmm….” As we walked to my office, he got out his phone and typed his idea.
“Mr. Knight,” Margie greeted my brother as we walked past.
“Darling, Margie. How are you still putting up with this angry boar?”
“He’s not so bad with me. I think you bring out the best in him.” She winked, then did a double take at my clothes. I didn’t elaborate, but my brother did. I had better things to do than stand around while they laughed at me.
I entered my office and went straight to my desk rather than the couch. The more space between Jack and me today, the better. My mood could be classed as combustible. He would be safer on the other side of my desk.
“Hang on a sec,” Jack said, going to my private bathroom to wash his hands. Finally, he came out and sat. “So, what did you want to talk to me about that’s so secret squirrel?”
Sometimes I wondered if my brother’s brain had matured past childhood.
We were opposites, but funnily enough, the closest siblings in the family.
Not that I wasn’t close to my older brother and younger sister, but Jack and I—the middle children—had always caused mischief together as kids.
Where I was, he always followed. I was the serious, responsible one, and he was the creative, head-in-the-clouds guy.
Which was how I ended up running an advertising company, and he ended up running the Knight luxury clothing and accessories brand with my mom, who used to be a model and had all the connections.
She had a great eye for design, which my brother inherited.
He was one of the hottest clothing designers around right now, and I couldn’t be prouder, even when I wanted to throw him out the window.
Even though people accused our family of nepotism—which, okay was true—all the Knight kids had worked their asses off to get where we were.
Yes, we were lucky and privileged, but we didn’t sit around waiting for shit to come to us.
Besides, my father was strict and didn’t put up with nonsense.
We’d all done our fair share of chores growing up, and if we didn’t perform at our chosen studies, he would’ve kicked us out as soon as we turned eighteen.
In fact, he had kicked my older brother out, and it took two years for them to reconnect after it happened.
“I have a situation, and I need your help.” I’d gone through what I wanted to say to him in my head, how to explain it, but it didn’t make it any easier.
How did you admit to your brother that you were failing at all you’d ever worked for?
I’d be the first Knight to be demoted for poor performance.
Even worse, I had no idea how it happened.
Maybe my father was right, and I wasn’t ready for this job.
“Well… what’s going on? I haven’t mastered mind reading yet.”
I sniffed, coffee and sickly-sweet fried odor assaulting my nose. I ran my hand down my tie. Argh, crusty, sticky donut and a wet patch. A few pink and purple sprinkles fell onto my black suit pants. I took my tie off and threw it onto the table. Stupidly beautiful woman in stupid shoes.
I refocused, keen to get this over with.
“In the last few months, we’ve lost three of our top fifteen advertising accounts.
Dad’s put me on notice—turn it around or lose my position.
” Anger and shame burned in my chest. Since I’d been promoted, I’d done everything the way Dad wanted.
I hadn’t made any major changes. Yes, I’d been the one to okay all the bigger campaigns—I left the smaller accounts to Victoria to approve—but the work was all top-notch.
Which reminded me—Margie should have those ad performance metrics by now.
Jack’s brown eyes—so like Dad’s except they usually exuded kindness instead of disappointment—widened. He was quiet for a minute.
Impatient for his answer and hoping he wouldn’t side with our father, I stood and removed my shirt. I grabbed the spare I always kept hanging in my bathroom closet and put it on. As I buttoned it and returned to my chair, my brother finally spoke.
“Right. Well, you know this probably isn’t your fault.
It’s just like Dad to blame someone else.
You’re also both quick to jump to the worst conclusions.
” He crossed his ankle over his knee and relaxed into his chair.
“The timing could just be a coincidence. Have you looked over the figures? Did those companies give any reason for moving their business?” Jack’s temperament was all Mom—calm and positive.
It normally grated on me because it was as if he didn’t take things seriously enough and prepare for the worst, but today, even though I didn’t agree with him, his opinion brought a modicum of rationality to the swarm of ants Dad had unleashed when he came in here and dropped the bomb last week.
“Hmm, maybe it’s a coincidence. I’m waiting on the figures. They should be ready today. I’m going to call Victoria in once I’ve had a look. See if she can help me make sense of things. As far as I know, no one’s complained.”
“Are your fees way over market?”
I raised a brow. We were worth every damned cent we charged.
“We charge the going rate for a company of our caliber, and our fees haven’t increased since a year before I took this job.
We’re on par with Axis and Partridges.” Axis were number one in our industry, and Partridges were just behind us at number three for turnover.
But if this slide persisted, we’d soon be number three or below.
I felt sick just thinking about it. How low could we go?
“Try not to stress until you go through those figures. If you look at those numbers and nothing has changed, it’s not your fault.”
I wished I had his confidence in me. “Maybe they don’t like a thirty-two-year-old running the company.
I’ll check and see how many old boys are running the companies that left.
Maybe it was only loyalty to Dad keeping them here.
” That would be just great. I couldn’t make myself any older.
But maybe I could appeal to them, show them somehow that I was capable.
Shove the figures in their faces. Unless…
. I forced out a breath. Unless the return on their investment in our services had fallen.
“The world isn’t ending, C. You’ll figure it out.
I have total faith in you.” His phone rang.
He glanced at the screen. “I have to take this. Sorry. When you’re as popular as me, everyone wants a piece.
” He winked, giving me his “what can you do?” smile.
It was always his way to defuse with humor, and it usually worked, but today’s shitshow was too depressing for it to have any effect.
I waved a hand as if to say “go for it.” He answered it, and I buzzed Margie.
“Yes, Mr. Knight.”
“Have you got those figures?”
“Yes. They arrived a few minutes ago.”
“Can you send them through and arrange a meeting with Victoria in my next available timeslot?”
“Certainly, sir. Is that all?”
“Yes, thanks.” I hung up. At least I could count on Margie to be efficient. She never bothered me with inane chatter. We understood each other. She organized things with the precision of a drill sergeant, and I appreciated it.
My brother hung up his call and stood. “Sorry, but I gotta run. There’s been a mistake with an order of fabric from India, and Mom’s not there to deal with it.
She’s taken Grandma to the specialist today, and we can’t just replace the fabric with any old thing.
We ordered it specially from an up-and-coming artist, and we need it for next month’s show. ”
“It’s fine. You go deal with it. I’ll let you know if I find anything. You can talk me off the ledge when I’m done.”
He glanced at my desk, then chuckled. “You can count on me. Later, sprinkles.” He smirked as he turned and went to the door.
I noticed a stray pink sprinkle on my table and rolled my eyes as the door clicked shut behind Jack.
After disposing of said sprinkle and the image of Faith’s big, blue eyes that had popped into my mind, I woke my computer and went to my emails.
There it was, the one I was waiting for.
I opened it, pushing my trepidation away.
Everyone thought I was Mr. Confident, but I doubted myself, a lot.
I just pretended I would succeed. I wasn’t exactly faking it before I made it, because I knew what I was doing, but the confidence wasn’t always real.
This was one of those times where I had to push my doubts aside for the good of the company.
Whether I was scared I was a failure or not, I needed to know.
An hour later, and I was done. One of the companies had a 10 percent increase in costs per sale, but the other two had ticked along consistently for the last twelve months.
I felt slightly better—I could at least prove to my father that I hadn’t made any disastrous decisions, but did that mean the companies didn’t want me at the helm?
God knew that plenty of business deals were all about who you felt comfortable with or who you owed, and no one owed me a damned thing.
I’d also attracted two large clients. Our fifteenth and eighteenth biggest clients were run by guys I’d met at college.
One was a tech company, the other a luxury hotel business that had thirty hotels in fourteen different countries.
My confidence was returning, albeit slowly. My brother was right—I needed to calm down and look at the facts. An answer would make itself clear in time.
My email dinged. Victoria was coming to see me at four today. Good. I could run this past her, ask if any of the companies had said anything or asked questions before they defected.
Right, so I was getting my ducks in a row.
And I needed to—I was meeting with Dad and the board of directors next week, and they wanted answers.
I just hoped I could give them what they wanted.
Now things were more settled on that front, I could let my mind wander to the break room and that sexy disaster with the ridiculous heels and soulful blue eyes.
I buzzed Margie.
“Yes, Mr. Knight?”
“I need you to run some clothes to the dry cleaners this afternoon.”
“Certainly, sir. The shirt and tie?” I ignored the amused tone in her voice. It was a lot easier than ignoring Donut Girl.
“Yes, Margie. Thank you.” I hung up and scratched an itch at my neck.
What was that? I picked something off and looked at it.
This time, the sprinkle was yellow. How many more sprinkles were hiding around here?
Sweeping it and visions of the sweet disaster from marketing into my trash can, I put this morning out of my head. I had work to do.