Page 53 of Keep Your Friends Close and Your… Work Enemy Closer?

"Um, I'd rather not."

"Come on, Dee. It can't hurt anything to try."

"You can't really believe in that stuff."

"I do believe in that stuff. How do you think we got into the gala in the first place?"

"Right. Okay. I suppose you manifested it."

"Maybe I did."

"Well, a lot of good that did us."

"Hey, you didn't hear back from her via your methods, and at least now, she knows who we are and we have a foot in the door," he argued.

The man had a point. "Okay. Fine. So how do we manifest this thing?"

"For starters, we set a clear intention and visualize success."

"Are you serious?"

"Write it down and use it as inspiration, set a goal, and come up with a plan."

Write it down. Write it down. Something about what he said flipped on a light bulb in my head. "We can email Max Sterling about the painting. That's what we do. Why didn't I think of that to begin with?"

Jared looked at me, a smug smile stretching across his face. "Because you just manifested it. That's why."

Clamping my lips together, I tried to bite my tongue. I really did. "That's still such bullshit."

His soft chuckle washed through me. "Whatever you say, Dee. Whatever you say."

"Can we just write the damn email already?"

For what seemed like an eternity, the two of us worked on this email, Jared especially dragging it out, debating each sentence with me, scrutinizing every single word, him saying how absolutely crucial it was to get this perfect if we were daring to send it to the CEO, asking for such a huge donation essentially.

He was right. It was imperative that we crossed every 't' and dotted every 'i.'

And we had to strike just the right tone too, confident in our ability while also kissing ass, but not too much ass, always keeping in mind and circling back to how this book deal could benefit not only Insight Ink but also Echelon Enterprises as a whole.

There was an energy about Jared as we worked, something electric that wiggled its way inside me as well, something that took me a while to figure out.

It was called happiness. Like what we were doing, working so well together at this goal, was actually fun.

What the hell was that about?

It dawned on me that everything Jared tackled, he did it with that same energy. I'd never seen the guy mad or even slightly annoyed. He approached everything with positivity, his good nature shining through. What a rarity that was in life.

"All right, Dee. You should do the honors and press send."

After a moment of hesitation, I clicked send, a thrill shooting through me that we'd sent it. A second later, though, I let out a gasp. "Oh, my God, look at the time. He's going to think we're really weird for sending something to him so late."

"Nah. It just proves we're hard workers. That's all."

"I really hope so."

I sat back in my chair, stretching, exhaustion suddenly hitting me like a freight train. The adrenaline and rush and excitement of the evening, plus all that focus, had all left me feeling drained.

Jared eyed me from his chair, still mostly naked, still hot as fuck. Unable to help myself, I let my gaze roam once more, swallowing hard at the slow thrum of lust pulsing inside me.

---