He shook his head. “Moving on. Let’s talk about the campaign,” he said, tapping the newspaper spread out on his coffee table. “The metro section says our guy is still getting clobbered. You said you were going to do some digging on Conroy. Did you find anything?”
Casey’s lips quirked up. “As a matter of fact, I did.”
“I knew I wasn’t the only spy in the family. What did you find?”
“Actually, I didn’t dig up any dirt. You saw the picture I sent you of the door. But I don’t think we need to go that way. The people in their district are really responding to Conroy’s message about cleaning up the area, right? Even if it’s not based on the truth, he’s touching a nerve that everyone can agree with. Everyone wants a cleaner, better neighborhood.”
Jack nodded. “Sure.”
“At its heart, that’s a positive message. He might have subverted it with his focus on the clubs, but he’s doing well with that message. And my theory is Denkler’s just backed into a corner now, trying to fight back, and it’s not working. Conroy made the campaign about something else and now Denkler’s on the defensive.”
The cogs in his head started turning. Slowly at first, then more quickly, and soon the train was racing down the path. “He needs to go on the offensive and change the conversation. That’s what we need to do. This isn’t about digging up dirt. This has to be about something better than dirt,” he said, snapping his fingers as the ideas whirring in his head came fully into focus. The data points, the bits and pieces, the clues all came together, and he assembled them quickly into a strategy. “I know exactly how to do it,” he said, then laid out his plan for his sister.
Her eyes sparkled with excitement as he shared his thoughts.
“I love it,” she said.
“Can you work on it while I’m in California? I fly out in two days.”
She shook her head. “You didn’t hear?”
“Hear what?”
“She went into labor. Danielle Paige. You were meeting with Danielle, right?”
“Yes.”
“I was talking to her marketing VP earlier today. She said all of Danielle’s meetings this week are being postponed.”
“That does sound like a reasonable excuse,” Jack said dryly.
After Casey left a few minutes later, his cell phone buzzed, and it was Michelle on the other line. His damn heart thundered just from hearing her voice. Her sexy, pretty voice that he loved to listen to.
“Hey. I have a session in a few minutes,” she said. “But I just wanted to tell you I’m going to miss you a lot when you’re in California and I’m in Paris, and you better be able to handle that nine-hour time-zone difference because I’m going to require a lot of phone sex with you.”
Lust swamped his body, and he was hard instantly. This woman affected him like no one ever had. A dirty word, a sexy line, and he was at attention. “It’ll only be a six-hour time difference. My trip to California was cancelled,” he said, and then the rational part of his brain bounded forward, knocking on his skull. His schedule was clear. But just as he was about to speak and suggest they not have phone sex, she beat him to the punch.
“Jack, do you want to spend the night with me? Or really, five nights?”
It went against everything they were supposed to be. But then, his time with her was already turning into more than he’d bargained for. He said the only thing he could say. The only thing that was completely true. No questions, no concerns, no second-guessing. Besides, it was everything he wanted from her.
“Yes. God, yes. So fucking much.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Illusions
“Are you going to tell the truth now?” he asked, as he ran his finger against the top of Michelle’s hand. The plane soared away from New York, the sparkling lights of the city he called home growing more distant. He wouldn’t miss it one bit, since he was with her.
She pulled her gaze away from the window and raised an eyebrow. “The truth about what?
“You might not even have to tell me. I guess I might see when we land at seven a.m.”
She shot him another confused look. “What are you talking about?”
“Well, this is the first time I’ll have seen you in the morning. You turn into a monster, right? You have dragon breath, or seven toes?”
She turned her fingers into claws, then bared her pretend fangs. “Thirteen toes, actually.”
“I knew it. That’s why you’ve been afraid of spending the night.”
“Absolutely. I’m hideous, and you’ll go running for the hills when you see me when the sun is all the way up.”
He leaned in close. “What if I want to fuck you in the morning?”
“We’ll just have to see if I let you,” she said.
“I’ll take my chances.”
“Was it tough to get away from the office at the last minute?” she asked, shifting gears.
He shook his head. “Not when you run the company,” he said, flashing her a confident grin.
She rolled her eyes.
“Besides, I was supposed to be away this week in California anyway.”
“I’m sure you’ll be working the whole time too in Paris.”
“Not while I’m fucking you.”
“You have a one-track mind, Jack Sullivan.”
“No, it’s two tracks. Fucking you, and thinking about fucking you.”
“You know that only makes me want to tease you this whole flight,” she said, her eyes sparkling. “Sort of like what you said to me the night we met.”
“Payback is a bitch,” he said, grabbing her shoulder and planting a quick kiss on her delicious lips that tasted of the champagne the flight attendants had handed out in the first-class cabin during boarding. Surely, they wouldn’t be the only couple locking lips on this flight. The cabin appeared rife with lovers, boyfriends and girlfriends, husbands and wives, and of course, solo businessmen, and women, too. Even though he’d only had a day’s notice, he’d snagged the last seat in first class, and the airline had found two first class seats together. Being next to her for a seven-hour flight and unable to touch her the way he wanted was hell, but he’d happily suffer that kind of torture. He found he preferred the time with her to the time without her.
“But to answer your question, no, it wasn’t that hard to get away. My sister pretty much pushed me out the door.”