“I needed a break.”

“From sex?”

“From men.” I frowned. “Andrew really hurt me.”

“Sorry. But that just proves my point. You could have gone out and had sex if you wanted—a physical release. But you associate that with a relationship.”

I guess he was right. I’d had a one-night stand my first year in college and hated the way I felt the next day. I suppose I was complicated.

Now I was the one who wanted to change the subject.

“Have you ever had a girlfriend?” I asked.

“Define girlfriend?”

“A person you dated exclusively.”

“Sure. I told you, I’m not big on sharing when I’m seeing someone.”

“How long was your longest relationship?”

“I don’t know, a few months. Maybe six.”

“Have you ever been in love?”

Bennett’s jaw tightened. Clearly that question caused some hurt.

He cleared his throat. “You said you owe me one, right?”

I nodded.

“Let’s change the subject to talking about business, and we’ll call it even.”

Chapter 17

* * *

Bennett

“Annalise? So great to see you.”

The guy who had just walked into the room to join the meeting came around and hugged Annalise. I watched his hand travel to just above the crack of her ass as he wrapped his arms around her—debatable whether that would be considered appropriate for a colleague.

“Tobias?” She pulled back from the embrace. “What are you doing here?”

“I’m the new VP of Creative for Star Studios. I left Century Films and started here a week ago. I didn’t see your name on the agenda for today until this morning or I would have reached out earlier.”

“Wow,” she said. “Well, it’s great to see a familiar face. How have you been?”

“Good. Keeping myself busy at work. Still perfecting making wine on the side. First full crop came in last week at the little farm I picked up last year. I may have to call your parents for some tips.”

“That’s great. They’d be happy to help. You’ll have to share a taste when your first bottles are ready.”

I stood right next to Annalise, watching the entire exchange. While the sommelier, or whatever the fuck you call a winemaker, didn’t divert his eyes from the woman in front of him to notice me, Annalise suddenly remembered I was here.

“Oh. Tobias, this is Bennett Fox. Bennett and I work together at Foster, Burnett and Wren.”

I shook his hand and sized him up. Tall, not bad looking, shoes shined, a good firm shake.

“Nice to meet you, Ben.”

Normally I corrected people if they shortened my name to Ben, although never a client. Clients could call me dickhead for all I cared, as long as they gave me their business. But something about an immediate name-shortener always irked me. You aren’t my friend. I’m not calling you Toby and asking you to go out for a beer. We just met. It’s Ben-nett…the extra syllable doesn’t cost you more.

“Why don’t we have a seat? I think everyone is here,” he said.

I waited for all the ladies in the room to take a seat, but apparently that was a little too long. Because before I could sit in the chair next to Annalise—you know, to show a united corporate front—Tobias put his hand on the back of the chair in front of me and pulled it out for himself.

Not wanting to cause a scene, I moved to the next available seat, which happened to be on the other side of the table.

The VP of Production kicked off the meeting, giving a thorough overview of the company’s business goals and target audience. I took notes as he spoke and, for the most part, tried to pay attention. But every once in a while, I’d look over at Annalise. Twice now Tobias had been whispering to her while she took notes. The conference table was probably about four feet wide. It made me want to find out if I could reach him with my foot under it.

After the formal presentation ended, each of the Star staff went around and added something. When the floor went to Tobias, he should have kept quiet because he didn’t have anything of substance to add. Apparently, the guy just liked the sound of his own voice saying meaningless buzzwords. And to have an excuse to touch Annalise.

“So I’m the new guy here at Star, obviously. And the team has done a superb job today of laying out not only who we are, but the brand we foresee ourselves to become in the future. One thing I can add is that synergy is important. Our logo, our marketing message, our team, our strategic alignments—they’re just the ingredients to bake a big batch of cookies. Leave out the pinch of salt or the chocolate chips and what do you get? Probably still a cookie—but it won’t be as delicious as it could have been. Cohesiveness is the name of the game, and the campaign that wins our hearts will be the one that mixes well with everything else to bake the best cookie.”

Womp womp womp. Cookies. Womp womp womp. More cookies. That’s what I heard.

He droned on and on, saying nothing really, until he finally concluded with a nod to Annalise. “I’ve worked with Wren before, and so I’m confident they have the ability to think big and think outside the box to come up with something great.” He touched her arm. “We just need to give Annalise and her team the right baking list, and she’ll come back with the tastiest batch of chocolate chip cookies we’ve ever eaten.”

Annalise and her team. Great. What a dick.

After the meeting was over, Tobias volunteered to give us a tour of the production lots. He offered his hand for Annalise to get into the front seat of the golf cart before walking around to the driver’s side. I was relegated to the rear-facing bench seat and had to strain to hear him point shit out as we drove.

After four hours of meetings and being shown around by the president of Annalise’s fan club, the three of us went back to his office to talk. By then, his familiar touches had amped up in frequency, and I felt my face burning.

“So what else can I do to help you hit this out of the park?” Tobias looked only at Annalise when he spoke, even though the three of us were sitting at a small, round table.

“I’d love for us to sketch out some rough logo designs and run them past you informally before we get going too far down the road on our full branding pitch to the group,” she said.

Tobias nodded. “Done. Send over anything you want me to take a look at. Better yet, come on back down, and I’ll arrange a lunch with some of the key players and see if they could give you an early feel.”

“Wow. That would be great.”

I felt the need to contribute something. Or maybe remind him that I was in the room. “Thanks, Tobias. That would be great.”

He acknowledged me with a polite smile and returned his attention to the woman next to him. Again, he touched her arm. “Anything for Anna.”

Annalise caught me staring where his hand rested and quickly moved her arm.

Holy shit. That’s a guilty face. Did she fuck him? Here I was thinking the guy was just a regular run-of-the-mill asshole who takes advantage of his position. But there was something more going on here.

The two of them spent a while talking about crap they did together at his last studio. Of course, I couldn’t contribute to that conversation either, which might have been the point. Luckily, Tobias’s assistant eventually knocked to interrupt and remind him he had a conference call soon.

“See if you can push it back, will you, Susan?”

I wanted to get the fuck out of this office. I stood. “That’s alright. You’ve been so generous with your time. We don’t want to overstay our welcome. Right, Annalise?”

Her brows drew down. “Umm… Of course. Will you be at dinner tonight?”

“I wasn’t planning on joining, but I’m going to see if I can move some things around to make it after all.”

I forced a fake smile. Fuck off. “Great.”

After Toby boy got another hug, Annalise and I walked to the parking lot in silence. It felt like a giant knot had taken root at the back of my neck. I opened her car door and our eyes met for a brief second. My face remained stern.

If I spoke right now, I’d definitely explode. We had a few hours until our dinner tonight, so I’d need to hit the gym for an hour or so to help blow off some of this steam—maybe two hours.

After she folded inside, I shut the car door with moderate success at not slamming it hard enough to come off the hinges.

The minute the ignition started, I put the car into drive and began to move through the lot without programming any directions.

“Do you know how to get to the hotel?” Annalise asked.

“Nope. Why don’t you figure it out and direct me, considering you’re the boss.”

Annalise frowned. “What did you want me to do? Correct the client in the middle of his presentation? You know that would be unprofessional.”

“Not half as unprofessional as encouraging the client to paw you.”

“Are you fucking kidding me?”