Kissing Under The Mistletoe: The Sullivans (Contemporary Romance) by Bella Andre Read Free Book Online Page B

what Jack
had said to her as she took the pen and paper from the young woman.
Jack couldn’t tell if she was upset about what he’d just
admitted.
    Usually he calculated, figured, assessed—and
then, only then, made a strategic plan toward his goal. But with
Mary, all of the rationale he’d lived by his whole life had flown
out the window…leaving him with just his instincts.
    “That’s a lovely dress you’re wearing,” Mary
told the young woman. “The color is so flattering on you.”
    Jack didn’t think he’d ever seen anyone as
happy as the receptionist was at that moment. “Do you really think
so? It’s new, and I wasn’t sure if I could pull off the
hemline.”
    “You definitely can,” Mary assured her. “I’d
love to know your name so that I can personalize my autograph.”
    “I’m Sarah, with an h. ” Just like Jack, the young woman couldn’t take her
eyes off Mary as she wrote a quick but charming note to Sarah.
    “Here you go.” The young woman stood staring
at Mary for a few more seconds before she remembered her job.
“Please, follow me this way.”
    When Jack’s partners stepped aside to let
Mary precede them into the boardroom, she gave the three of them a
wide smile. “Ready to knock their socks off?”
    It was just the right thing to say to give
them the jolt of confidence they needed to close the deal. Larry
and Howie grinned back at her. “Ready!”
    Jack held out his arm for her, and when she
took it, he felt the sensation rock them both. He was a large man
and, despite being a model, Mary wasn’t particularly tall. Yet,
they fit together perfectly.
    Jack had figured Allen would be impatiently
waiting to send them on their way so that he could get on to other,
bigger money meetings, and the way the gray-haired man was standing
in the boardroom with his arms crossed over his chest confirmed
that. But when he caught sight of Mary, his eyes went as wide with
surprise—and pleasure—as his receptionist’s had.
    Without so much as acknowledging Jack, Howie
or Larry, he moved to greet her. “Hello. I’m Allen Walter. I’ve
long been an admirer of yours from afar, Ms. Ferrer, but I must say
that you are even more exquisite in person.”
    “Mary, please,” she said as she let him draw
her into the room and introduce her to the other members of the
board.
    Jack guessed she must have played this role
dozens of times in her career, meeting strangers and making them
feel as if they were already friends.
    Once the introductions were made, Allen said,
“I’d love to know to what we owe this pleasure?”
    Mary took a seat beside Jack and nodded for
him to deliver their news to the chairman. “Mary has agreed to be
the face of the Pocket Planner.”
    After three decades of running his large and
powerful company, Jack doubted there was much that surprised Allen
anymore. This news, however, clearly had. Despite being quite
obviously impressed that Jack and his partners had managed to pull
Mary into the project, he approached the situation as any good
chairman of the board would: with questions.
    “You have been associated with some of the
most exclusive products in the world. May I ask why you would agree
to work with a group of fledgling start-up engineers?”
    Larry was yanking at his tie as if it had
just shrunk three sizes too small and Howie was sweating. Clearly,
they were waiting for Jack to jump in and salvage the situation
before it could go too far off track. But Jack simply sat back in
his leather seat. He had every faith that Mary could answer the
chairman’s question better than anyone else could.
    “I met Jack yesterday in Union Square. I
believe it was right after your meeting, when you indicated that
the product needed more sex appeal.”
    Though his partners’ eyes went wide at her
honest response, Jack appreciated her candid reply. She was
nobody’s fool, and she didn’t expect anyone to be hers, even when
he himself had tried to change the words sex
appeal to