Page 19 of Richard

“I know, darling.” The sigh came again. “I need to be more careful, and I promise I will be from now on. Can you forgive me?”

Rubbing a hand at the back of his neck, he closed his eyeswearily and told her yes.

Chapter 5

The first thing that hit her when she received the call was trepidation. He had made the call personally, and his deep voice had sounded brusque and cool, as if he had bad news to impart. She had no idea why that was and had believed that she had been doing an excellent job with the account.

“What do you think he wants?” Babs had hurried into her office as soon as she was told that there was a meeting.

“I don’t know.” Trying not to show her nerves, Collette searched for everything she had been working on over the past weeks. McBride Music Productions were vast and had several entities attached, and it took up a lot of her time.

She had passed some of the pressing accounts to two of her subordinates to give herself time so that she could offer quality work.

“You must have an idea.” Babs refused to sit and was prowlingaround the office in an agitated manner which was not helping the situation or Colette’s nerves.

“How did he sound?”

“Cool and remote.” Even admitting it was doing things to her nervous system. She could not afford to lose this account. But she had read about Richard McBride’s ruthless reputation.

He was a stickler for perfection and expected a lot from the people around him. She had been breaking her back and frantically trying to find ways to deal with the account and thought she was doing great.

“He gave no indication what he wanted?”

“No.” She almost shouted the word as she stuffed material into her briefcase. “He just said to meet him at the office by seven. That’s it, and then he hung up.”

“Oh God.” Babs sank down on one of the chairs as if her knees had given out on her.

“Have you gone over everything with a fine-tooth comb?”

“I have, several times.”

“We are making a lot of money off the man.”

“I know that.” She glanced at her watch and realized it was time to go. She did not want to add tardiness to whatever her other sins were. “I have to go.”

“Please call as soon as you find out what’s going on.”

Babs rubbed her hands over her pencil-thin black skirt nervously as she rose. “It’s Friday, but I am not going anywhere. Ben invited me to some play or the other, but I turned him down. Besides, he is slowly getting on my last nerves.”

Collette cast her a glance and shook her head. “I thought you said he was a dynamite in bed.”

“Yes, but out of it, he is witless and dull. In order for me to keep being interested, I would have to keep him in bed. Which is not practical.” She sighed softly. “Oh, to find a man with all the attributes.”

“That would make him the perfect human being, and we both know there is no such thing.”

“Maybe Richard McBride just wants to jump you.”

Collette let out a startled laugh that did the job of easing the band of tension in her chest.

“Yeah, right.”

“You don’t know your own attraction.”

“I am leaving. Listen out for my call.”

“Oh, I will.”

*****

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