Page 16 of Perfect (mis)Match

“Why didn’t you just come out and say Parfum was going to rip us off?” Vincent demanded as my eyes adjusted to the darkness.“You obviously had insider information. How dare you hold it back from the team?”

“What?”

“You knew what they were planning, and you didn’t warn us.” He jumped out of his chair and strode toward me.

“Hold on!” I threw my hands up at him, both nervousandfurious. “I had no idea what they had planned. I don’t have any insider information. I just assumed something like this would happen. I mean, it’s not that big of a leap of logic to think a competitor would copy a successful campaign. I’m sort of in shock that no one on the team considered they’d do it to steal attention away from the release ofEvermore.”

He froze a few feet away from me and crossed his arms. “How exactly do you know all this, Piper? How do you know how our competitors think? You’re just a?—”

“Photographer?” I met his gaze, my anger giving me strength. “I have my own plans in life. You think I’m just snapping pictures? I’m more than a pair of eyes behind a camera, Vincent. I know how to play the game.” Maybe I was overselling myself, but what the hell—I’d be damned if I was going to let anyone at Summit treat me like the help.

“Why didn’t you bring your concerns to Eileen?”

I shrugged. “We talked about it during my orientation meeting, and I mentioned it again after the meeting, and she scolded me like I was a naughty kindergartener. So much for being a team player.”

He watched me for a moment, cool and calculating. “But you’renota team player.”

That was it.

I had had it with this suit-wearing overlord.

I stomped a few steps closer to him, so hot with anger my vision went blurry. “How dare you? Howdareyou, Vincent? I’m doing you a huge favor by being here! I agreed to make nice with the Sullivans to get you the damn flowers you’re so desperate for, remember? Without me,Evermorewon’t happen! I’ve been here for a week, and I’ve already gone above and beyond for this stupid company!”

“Exactly what I meant. You’re not a team player, you’re aleader.”

He turned abruptly and walked back to his desk, then picked up his phone. “Linda? Could you prep an exit package for Eileen Murphy? I’m letting her go today.”

He was watching me like I knew what was going on, which I didn’t, because…was hefiringEileen?

Vincent hung up, still staring at me.

“Congratulations, Piper. As of right now, you’re Summit’s new creative director.”

5

VINCENT

Piper seemed to be leaning into her new role despite the temporary nature of it.

I’d expected her to fade into the background, seeing as her position with Summit had an expiration date, but here she was in my office a week after her promotion, bright and early and ready to present the latest campaign concepts.

The ideas were solid—no surprise there—but I was having a hard time staying focused on what she was saying because she had dressed up for the meeting in a clingy green dress and heels. Her body was…distracting. But she didn’t wield it like a weapon. Piper seemed utterly oblivious to the fact that every time she leaned forward, she gave me a front-row view down her cleavage. She was completely focused on making sure I could follow the mock-ups she was presenting, which normally wouldn’t be a problem for me but…that body.

“You don’t like it?” Piper’s bottom lip pouted ever so slightly as she asked the question.

I’d fantasized right through the latest slide on her iPad.

“No, no, it’s excellent,” I replied quickly. “I’m just not sure it’s exactly what we need.”

The corner of her mouth tipped up in a sly smile. “Good, you walked right into my trap!”

I scowled at her. “Trap?”

“I’m kidding,” she said lightly as she flipped to the next slide. “I purposely showed you my least favorite concepts first because I saved the best for last. How aboutthis?”

She held up the tablet proudly.

The mock-up was of a woman in profile, posed similar to our previous campaigns, but this time in full color. And instead of being alone in the image, a strong-jawed male model was facing her, also in profile, spraying the bottle at her neck. I looked closer at the vapor trails coming from the bottle and noticed shadowy representations of the scents within the bottle, so subtly rendered in the mist that they were easy to overlook. The woman had her head thrown back in ecstasy, and the way the man was spraying the perfume looked suggestive of…well, let’s just say it looked like a happy ending for both of them. The whole thing was sexy, bright, and joyful.

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