1. Nova
Nova
One of the absolute best things I had ever done in my life was strong-arming Jax’s father, James Mylonas, into hiring Sofia and me during our high school summer breaks.
Working at his family’s marketing firm, Gold Standard Media, was a hell of a lot better than serving drinks at Cherry Hills Country Club, a gig I’d attempted for all of two weeks before realizing I lacked the patience for rich people complaining about the ratio of tonic to lime.
Sure, we still had to make coffee and go on lunch runs, but the people there were nice and the pay was much better.
James was a sucker for both of us, but I was pretty sure I personally had him wrapped around my little finger. What made me stand out wasn’t just the fact that I was pursuing a marketing degree; it was that I was, and always had been, a rule follower just like James.
Okay, fine. I was more like a rule maker, and a stickler for color-coded organization. James loved that about me. He knew if he gave me a task, I wouldn’t just get it done—I’d do it better and faster, and with a fully cross-referenced index.
Fast-forward through college graduation, and I’d leveraged that trust into full-time positions for both Sofia and me.
Because I was a little more hyper-focused than my bestie, I’d climbed the ladder to junior marketing associate a full six months faster than she had, and just last week I’d been promoted and was now officially a marketing executive in training.
Lucky for me, I’d been placed under Jax’s direct supervision.
Unlucky for Sofia, she’d been assigned to Leonard Whistler, the biggest corporate weasel to ever walk the earth.
The man spent his days stealing Sofia’s ideas, and whenever he was actually at the office, he’d breathe down her neck and yell at her.
I was doing everything I could to help her pull through, but between learning the ropes and maintaining my self-imposed standard of perfection, I was barely keeping my own head above water.
Which brought me directly to my current mission: project tag along to Las Vegas.
“Absolutely not,” Jax said, not even looking up from his computer.
He was leaning against the edge of his desk, the sleeves of his white dress shirt rolled up to his forearms in that way that completely scrambled my ability to form coherent sentences.
Just watching his muscles flex under that toned, tanned skin had my mouth watering.
“Jax. Jacob. My supervisor, my friend, my guy,” I said quickly, stepping fully into his office and closing the door with a soft click.
I held up a sleek, tabbed binder like it was a holy relic.
“We are pitching the marketing campaign for Onyx Casino, specifically to handle all of their Colorado marketing needs. This is Christian Sterling’s brand-new, multi-billion-dollar luxury casino resort.
There is no way you can go alone. You need me and my magic binder in Vegas.
” I waved my hand in front of it like it was a prize.
He glanced up at me and narrowed his eyes.
“I have everything you need to know on the man, except a recent photo. For some reason, he’s been camera shy in the past decade.
” I frowned at my inability to find what the man looked like outside of a few grainy outdated photos.
“I am the senior account executive, Nova. Going alone to big pitches is literally in my job description,” he said slowly.
But his crystal blue eyes were glinting with amusement.
“And since when do you call it Vegas? You usually call it Las Vegas, Nevada, municipal code pending,” he joked.
I wanted to throw my binder at his head.
Instead, I took a deep breath and pasted on my “fuck you” smile.
“I am trying to sound hip and adaptable because I am pitching myself as your right-hand woman for this trip.” I marched over and plopped the binder right over his keyboard.
“Look at Tab A. I have already memorized Christian Sterling’s entire corporate history.
Did you know he went to boarding school in Switzerland and hates the color mauve?
I saved you from putting mauve in the presentation graphics, Jax.
You owe me. Besides”—I shifted slightly—“your father has already approved my going along,” I half-lied.
“Of course he approved you. It’s you.” Jax waved his hand over me and then rubbed the back of his neck, a slow, dimpled smile tugging at the corner of his mouth as he ignored my binder completely.
“Nova, it’s a three-day whirlwind of boardroom meetings and high-roller dinners.
You’ve never even been to Nevada. You’ll hate the chaos.
Besides, there are no rules in Vegas.” His eyes zoned in on mine.
“Which is exactly why you need me!” I countered as I leaned against the desk, right in his space.
Breathing in the familiar scent of his woodsy cologne, I felt my knees go weak like they always did around him.
“Think about it. You get out there, the desert heat gets to your brain, you start making wild bets, you lose the Mylonas family fortune on a single spin of the roulette wheel—who is going to be there to pull you back? Me. The voice of reason,” I joked, getting a low chuckle from him. I absolutely loved that sound.
“I don’t gamble, you know that.”
“But you could,” I argued, narrowing my eyes playfully. “The temptation is real. Plus, Christian Sterling is notoriously cutthroat. You can bet that he’s going to bring a whole team of sharks. You need a shark. A highly organized, rule-abiding shark who knows your pitch backward and forward.”
Jax looked down at the binder, then back up at me. “You’re more like a minnow,” he joked, but the amusement in his eyes softened into something deeper, something that made my stomach do a nervous, thrilling little flip. He let out a long defeatist sigh, though the dimple stayed firmly in place.
“You already packed a bag, didn’t you?” he asked.
“Two bags,” I admitted without a shred of shame. “Color-coded by outfit, event, and day, and with all TSA-approved liquids in clear, labeled pouches.” I leaned a little closer, knowing that I could usually pressure him into anything once he’d started to see the wisdom in my wise choices.
Jax laughed, a rich, low sound that rattled right through my ribcage. “Fine. You can come. But if I catch you trying to alphabetize the casino floor, I’m leaving you at the blackjack table.”
“Deal.” I beamed, already turning toward the door before he could change his mind.
“Nova?” Jax said, stopping me before I could leave. I glanced over my shoulder and waited. “This doesn’t mean that you can slack on your other clients.”
“They’re already handled,” I answered easily.
And they mostly were, though I knew that I’d be spending a few hours on the plane tying up the last loose ends. Perfection required maintenance, after all.
“Don’t you need this?” He waved the binder.
“That’s your copy,” I threw over my shoulder.
“Of course you have duplicates,” he said as I shut the door behind me.
I practically floated out of his office and marched straight toward Sofia’s desk, needing to share the victory before my adrenaline crashed.
When I rounded the corner, my excitement hit a minor speed bump.
Sofia was buried behind a wall of manila folders, her keyboard clacking at a speed that threatened to break the sound barrier.
Leonard had clearly left his greasy fingerprints all over her to-do list again.
“Hypothetically speaking,” I started, leaning my chin on her cubicle wall so that just the top of my head was visible to her, “if someone were to tell you they were going to Las Vegas in less than twenty-four hours, what would your reaction be?”
Sofia didn’t even look up, her fingers flying across the keys.
“Hypothetically? I’d tell them to pack a lot of sequins, steal a mini-fridge champagne bottle for me, and let me die in peace under this mountain of market research that Leonard dropped on my desk before his three-hour lunch.
” She took a deep breath and paused, her hands freezing over the keyboard.
Then she blinked, slowly lifting her head. “Wait. Who is going to Vegas?”
“Me,” I beamed, lowering my voice so the rest of the floor wouldn’t hear. I sat on the only clean spot of her desk and crossed my arms over my chest. “Jax just approved it. I’m going as his second-in-command for the Onyx pitch.”
“Oh my god.” Sofia’s eyes went wide, the crushing weight of her workload temporarily forgotten. A massive grin broke across her face. “Nova! Your first time in Vegas! And with Jax? In the city of sin, bad decisions, and extremely high concentrations of mutual pining?” She wiggled her eyebrows.
“It is a strictly professional business trip,” I corrected, though my burning cheeks entirely betrayed me. “I am only going to help him secure the account and keep him organized.” I tried to sound dry but the excitement was too much to hide from my best friend.
“Right. Keep telling yourself that while you’re sharing a luxury hotel suite with a man who looks like that in a tailored suit,” she teased, throwing a hand over her heart.
“Seriously, go. Win the contract, get out of the friend zone, and live my dreams for me while I double-check Leonard’s math for the third time today. ”
“Need any help?” I glanced at the pile of work.
“No, go. Do the pre-Vegas dash on all your clients that I know you’ll need. Color code your wardrobe, or whatever it is a neat freak like you needs to do to feel happy.” She waved me off.
For the rest of the day, I tried very hard to stay focused. I finished most of my work but was thankful I had an almost two-hour flight ahead of me the next day. Plenty of time to tie those loose ends.
The next morning, the reality of my gamble set in. I stopped lying to myself after repacking my bags for a third time. I wasn’t tagging along to win over the Onyx job. I was hijacking Jax’s trip to either win him over and tell him how I’ve felt for years, or settle my heart and move on.
The interior of Jax’s car smelled like leather and the coffee we’d gotten as we headed to the airport.
Outside, the early morning Colorado sky was a bruised shade of purple as we merged onto I-70, heading toward Denver International Airport.
Sitting in the passenger seat, my tablet resting on my lap, I manually checked off my pre-flight itinerary.
I’d never really taken such a short flight before. Everything my family had done, all those summer or winter vacations we’d gone on, had been overseas. The last time I’d flown this short of a trip was to New York last year for my grandmother’s funeral.
Jax gripped the steering wheel with one hand, while his other arm rested casually on the center console, tapping the top of his coffee cup to some internal musical beat.
“I went through it, by the way,” Jax said, breaking the quiet hum of the engine.
I looked up from my screen. “Went through what?”
“Your binder.” He glanced over at me, a brief, genuine smile flashing on his face before his eyes returned to the road.
“Your research on Christian Sterling and the Onyx portfolio. I’ve got to admit, it was impressive.
The demographic breakdowns you pulled for their high-roller segment were sharper than the data the corporate agency sent us last month.
You dug up things I didn’t even think to look for. ”
A warm swell of pride bloomed in my chest. Hearing him praise my work always felt different than a standard compliment from James or anyone else in the office. I wanted to be invaluable to him.
“I told you, I’m a shark. A highly prepared, rule-following shark,” I joked.
“We will agree that in this area, you are,” he said with a chuckle. But then he shifted in his seat, his posture straightening slightly as he brought his executive voice to the table. “But we need to set the ground rules before wheels-up.”
I raised an eyebrow, adjusting my tablet. “Ground rules? For me? The master of rules?”
“Yes, for you,” he said, glancing over at me. The corner of his mouth twitched once. “Onyx is the biggest pitch Gold Standard has taken on in the last five years. When we walk into that boardroom with Christian Sterling, I am the lead executive. I am in charge.”
“I know that,” I said softly, the playful banter dropping away.
“I’m glad you’re coming, and your research just might give us an edge,” he continued, looking over at me seriously.
“But the stakes are high. I need you to observe, support the pitch, and manage the materials. This is a massive opportunity for you to learn how these big corporate deals are brokered. Can you handle being the copilot on this one?”
“Copilot is my middle name,” I said smoothly, offering him a crisp nod.
I meant it, too. I respected his position, and I wanted him to shine more than anything.
But later, when he pulled the car into the terminal parking, I realized that while I was more than ready to play the perfect junior associate in the boardroom, once the business hours ended and the Vegas lights turned on, all the old rules were officially off the table.