Page 9 of Foreplay with the Boss

I had watched it twice through already, but as Stone was talking, I spotted something I hadn’t last night.

“There’s another place you could improve,” I said. “What was that?” Stone asked, and I shook my head. “Never mind. We can discuss it later.”

“Don’t backtrack now. Speak up, loud enough I can actually hear you.”

My skin heated. I didn’t like having the spotlight, and did he have to be so damn abrasive about it? The guys at my office didn’t always take me seriously, but no one talked to me so sharply. I took a sip of my water and then put as much volume as I could behind my words, thinking that even if they were wrong, at least everyone would hear them.

Wait. Isn’t that worse?

“You’re bragging about your click-through-rate, but the sell-through-rate isn’t enough to merit spending that. I’d guess it’s because your targeting is off on that account as well, judging by which social media outlets you’re focused on.”

I swear the lady seated to my left gasped, and the muscle in Stone’s jaw tightened.

“Off? I set up this account myself, and my analytics prove it’s effective.”

Well, here goes nothing. I hoped he wouldn’t fire me afterward, because it’d kill me to have to go home with my tail tucked between my legs. “It’s effective, but not as effective as it could be. That’s not where most of your target age-range spends much of their time anymore. And sure, a lot of the older audience clicks on the ad, because it catches their eye and they’re curious what the heck it’s about, but then they see it’s the kind of thing those”—I made air quotes—“‘damn millennials like’” and that alone prevents them from buying it. And I know there’s merit in repetition, but my research shows that other platforms would be more effective, and even better, not as flooded yet, which would lower the CTR even more.”

I stood and pointed to the graphs. “Shift a fourth of the money to the next age demographic on that platform because some of them will buy the product, and split what you have left on these other two, and both your CTR and STR will be something you can really brag about.”

If Stone had Superman powers, I was pretty sure this would be the part where he’d use his heat vision to fry me. It made me want to sit down and take it all back—once I’d gotten through the holy shit phase, the numbers and stats just flowed right out, and I’d probably overdone it a tad. “How sure are you about this?”

My rapid pulse hammered through my head. Before he asked? Ninety percent. After, with him and everyone else in the office looking at me? Closer to sixty. “Well, according to my research?—”

“Forget research. I’m asking you. How sure are you, and what is your gut saying?”

I focused on the graph behind him. “I’m sure that if you…” I almost said try, but decided to swap that out. “Do it for a couple of weeks, you’ll increase the profit margin—one hundred percent sure. I can watch and tweak the ads as needed if you’d like.”

“I would. Especially since all of the research I paid a lot of money for says this is the most cost-effective method.”

I bit my lip and Stone’s gaze dipped there, so quickly I almost thought I’d imagined it. I wanted to reply with What can I say? You hired the wrong research company because they’re wrong and I’m right. But I wasn’t that bold. “I’ll change things over after the meeting and give you a report next week.”

“I want a nightly report. If I’m going to put that much faith in what you say, I want daily proof it’s working.”

“That’s not really faith, then, is it?”

The room went dead silent, and I understood why it was called dead silent, because I was pretty sure Stone wanted to kill me.

“I mean?—”

“That’s it for today’s meeting,” he said. “Everyone knows what they need to do. Now go to it.” Without waiting to see if anyone had comments or questions, like my dad usually did and I planned on doing, he turned and strode out of the office like he had a pressing appointment.

He didn’t. I’d know, because I could see his calendar.

I gave my email address to Rob, who was surly enough to make it clear he was holding a grudge, regardless of the fact that we could now be comrades-in-scolding. Debra came over, sandwiched one of my hands between both of hers, and gave me a shaky smile that had a last rites edge to it.

After everyone else had cleared out, I slowly gathered my supplies, the flash drive with the presentation, and basically did everything I could think of before heading back to my desk.

My butt had just hit the chair when my intercom buzzed. “In my office, now.”

No addressing me by name, no I’d like to see you, or Please come to my office so we can talk. Part of me was offended, but the rest of me was too terrified to deal with that right now.

CHAPTER 6

Kat

“Close the door,” Stone said, and it was ironic that he’d accused me of looking like I wanted to bolt out the door and run away this morning because I suddenly had the urge to do just that.

I did as he asked because there was still a healthy dose of fear squeezing at my insides. And a pinch of thinking dirty thoughts about him crossing the room and kissing the hell out of me, which added a thread of lust, and then my emotions were like drunk butterflies, crashing into each other and slurring nonsensical thoughts all at once.

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