Campaign for Love (7 page)

 

 

He gave her another one of his long assessing looks, then nodded.
"Right you are," he replied. "Imperial Foods it is."

 

 

 

CHAPTER EIGHT

 

 

For the next hour, it was strictly business as usual. Once, Sharon
called in on the intercom to ask, "Is there anything you need done
before I leave, Mr. Pierce?"

 

 

Upon hearing his, "No, thanks," she said, "Okay, then. I'm going
now."

 

 

"Goodnight, Mr. Pierce. Goodnight, Suzanna."

 

 

Quentin and Suzy both returned her farewells.

 

 

By the time Quentin and Suzanna had ironed out all the details of
the
account, it was almost six. He got to his feet and stretched,
holding
Suzy's glasses out to her.

 

 

Suzanna also stood, and reached out for them. He gave a satisfied
smile
as he saw her slip them into her pocket.

 

 

Quentin moved a step toward her. Taking her face in both his hands,
he
turned it up to his. His gaze burned into hers as he bent his head,
slowly lowered his mouth to hers, and placed a gentle kiss on her
petal-soft lips.

 

 

Suzanna's response was as passionate as it was surprising,
especially
to her. Her mouth seemed to catch fire as her arms went around his
neck.

 

 

Quentin reacted in a way he'd never intended. His arms enveloped her
and his mouth opened to take full advantage of her parted lips.

 

 

After indulging himself for a moment, he regained control of himself
and released her, stepping away, leaving Suzanna craving more.

 

 

"God, Suzanna, I'm sorry! I never meant that to happen," he said
with a
shake of his head. "It's just that I was so happy with what we
accomplished, and you looked so damned young and vulnerable. I
wanted
to make a gesture of affection, and look what I've done now."

 

 

She laughed shakily. "If that was your intention, Quentin, I believe
you succeeded beyond your wildest dreams. But you don't need to
apologize. I realize it didn't mean anything. We've had a long
afternoon and we're both overtired and a bit emotional."

 

 

"Nevertheless, I am sorry. I won't forget myself again."

 

 

She steadied herself with one hand on the back of her chair,
resisting
the temptation to throw herself at him for seconds. She couldn't,
not
when he was already telling her what a mistake he had made....

 

 

"Please, Quentin, don't beat yourself up over it. I've already
dismissed it from my mind. Besides, you're coming dangerously close
to
being insulting. Tell me, Quentin, would you be making such an issue
of
it if it had happened with some gorgeous gal like, for instance,
Sharon?"

 

 

He rubbed the back of his neck with the palm of one hand. "I
honestly
don't know. I've never been in the least attracted to Sharon.
Besides,
you're different, er, untouched, somehow."

 

 

"Thanks, I think. Anyway, don't punish yourself. It was at least
partly
my fault."

 

 

Quentin laughed. "You know, that's true? It was. It takes two to
tango."

 

 

Suzy laughed, too, the tension broken at last.

 

 

"Thanks, Suzanna. You're some kind of gal. Anyway, now that we've
cleared the air, I think that wraps it up for tonight. We're
supposed
to have lunch at the Four Seasons with our Imperial Food clients
tomorrow. Does that interfere with any of your plans?"

 

 

"What could interfere with business plans on a working day? Of
course
not. It sounds interesting."

 

 

"Good. Now, if you're ready to go, I'll ride down in the elevator
with
you. The building will be almost deserted between now and eleven
when
the cleaning crew gets here, so at the risk of sounding too
old-fashioned, I'd like to see you safely out."

 

 

"Thank you. I'll just get my things."

 

 

"Yes, I'll just freshen up and meet you in the foyer."

 

 

They met a few moments later, and rode down in a companionable
silence.
Just before the elevator doors opened on the ground floor, Quentin
turned to her and asked teasingly, "Tell me, Suzanna, where did you
learn to kiss like that?"

 

 

Suzy felt herself blush again as she looked him in the eye, grinned,
and said, "Would you believe beginner's luck?"

 

 

They laughed together in a way that wiped out the last vestiges of
embarrassment.

 

 

"I'll get you a cab."

 

 

"Oh, there's no need--"

 

 

"Sure there is. You've worked hard and are entitled to some perks."
He
held up his hand commandingly, and a taxi appeared as if by magic.
He
opened the door, seated her, and pressed a twenty into her hand
before
she could protest.

 

 

"Where are you going--"

 

 

"Across town, and I prefer to walk. See you tomorrow."

 

 

He shut the door with a cheerful wave. All she could do was wave
back.

 

 

He gave her one of his by now familiar last long linger looks, his
eyes
never leaving her face as she replied automatically to the cheerful
Islander cabbie's, "Where to, Miss?" and began to pull away from the
curb. 

 

 

 

CHAPTER NINE

 

 

As they went their separate ways, Suzy breathed a sigh of relief.
One
thing this day had proved to Suzanna. She was definitely not frigid.
If
Quentin had pushed his luck, she admitted to herself as she sat in
the
taxi shakily reliving their kiss in her mind, she would gladly have
given her all right there in the office.

 

 

And if she had looked her old, sexy, self, she was reasonably sure
she
would have. Quentin was sure some man, and only her dowdy appearance
seemed to have stopped him.

 

 

Suzanna made it back to her apartment in the cab quickly and without
incident. One thing was for sure, the more she saw of Quentin, the
more
she could tell that he was old-school and gentlemanly, but not
Neanderthal. Escorting her out of the building and

 

 

Once at home she changed into jeans and a T-shirt, selected a TV
dinner
to give herself a break from cooking, put it in the oven rather than
the microwave to give herself some down time. Then she sat at the
spinet with a sigh.

 

 

Playing always helped ease the tensions of the day. She found
herself
playing some of the sentimental old love ballads, many written
before
even her grandparents had been born.

 

 

While her fingers strayed automatically over the keys, Suzy replayed
her first real kiss over and over in her mind, trying to picture how
it
might have ended if it had gone all the way to its natural
conclusion.

 

 

Of course it wasn't really love, more of a crush on the great boss
she
had been both blessed and cursed to work with. But Suzy was
beginning
to suspect that she was losing her heart to this remarkable man she
had
tricked into hiring her through making herself look more dowdy than
a
buttoned-up schoolmarm.

 

 

Her oven alarm went off, and Suzanna got up somewhat reluctantly to
eat
her lonely meal. She finished the turkey and fixings
unenthusiastically, then curled up on the sofa with the TV on with a
pad and pencil in her hand to take notes on commercials she found
worthwhile. She also watched for any done by Elder and Rubin,
especially ones she might have worked on.

 

 

The ringing phone startled her out of her note-taking. She picked it
up
and was delighted to hear the voice of one or the men Suzy spent a
fair
amount of time with, an old, dear friend who knew her aversion to
being
pestered and never overstepped his boundaries. They were great
friends,
but she had always been like a sister to him and then had managed
that
most rare of things these days, a truly platonic friendship.

 

 

Although Suzy suspected that Jerry White was probably half in love
with
her, he had given no indication of it except that he had never
gotten
seriously involved with anyone else. So whatever his feelings,
apparently he was willing to wait.

 

 

Patience was not Jerry's only virtue. He was steady, loyal and
understanding. He was also quite handsome in an all-American-boy
way.
As a successful practicing attorney, he often needed an attractive
female companion to escort to various social engagements, and always
chose Suzanna because she was so easy to get along with and wouldn't
get any false hopes.

 

 

"Suzy!" he said warmly after they had exchanged greetings. "It's
been a
while. Did you miss me?"

 

 

"Well, I would have if I hadn't been so busy," she answered
truthfully.

 

 

"Elsa tells me you have a new job," he continued, ignoring her
slight
put-down. "How's it going?"

 

 

"Great," enthused Suzanna. "I finally feel like I'm establishing a
career rather than just marking time."

 

 

"I'm happy for you. To paraphrase an old ad, a good mind is a
terrible
thing to waste just because it happens to be overshadowed by a
gorgeous
face and a magnificent body. Which reminds me, Elsa tells me you
resorted to some kind of camouflage for your job interview? Don't
you
think you've taken a big risk tricking them like that?"

 

 

"Not really," she fibbed, though in truth she had been thinking the
same thing herself only a short time before. "I felt that if I
couldn't
get the job on merit alone, it wasn't worth having. This way, I feel
secure in the knowledge that looks had nothing to do with it. In the
past, I feel my looks were a drawback rather than an asset."

 

 

"It's a possibility. Old myths, like beauty and brains not going
together die hard, and the canard that says the bigger the bustline,
the smaller the I. Q."

 

 

"And I don't want to lose the job for the same reason, being chased
around the desk or groped until I'm black and blue."

 

 

"As a lawyer, you know what I think you should have done about that
last jerk-"

 

 

"Yes, yes, I know, Jerry, but I would have been worse off in the
long
run. So let's just drop it."

 

 

"Yes, of course. Just be careful, okay? And now I'll get to what I
wanted to ask you."

 

 

"Oh?"

 

 

"My firm's annual banquet is coming up in a couple of weeks, if you
recall."

 

 

"Oh, er, yes, this time last year, I remember," she said, kicking
herself for fibbing again, when she had always prided herself on
being
honest with her friends.

 

 

I was hoping you'd accompany me again. Only without the disguise, of
course. I'm not into masochism. And you sure look good on a guy's
arm
au natural."

 

 

"Lawdy, suh, you sweep a lady right off her feet. Who could resist
an
invitation like that?" she said, bristling. "And here I thought you
liked me for my personality."

 

 

"I do, sweetie. But I also have an ego big enough to take pride in
walking into the room with the best looking woman in New York."

 

 

"Flattery now, after what you just said?"

 

 

"You know it's the truth."

 

 

"You smooth-tongued devil."

 

 

"That's what I keep tellin' you, Miz Sills. Ah'm a real chahmuh."

 

 

She laughed despite herself. "Okay, you clown. I'd love to go with
you.
I can hardly wait to get into a glamorous outfit again. I'll pull
out
all the stops. What's the date, and what time will you pick me up?"
She
padded over to her purse to get out her Blackberry.

 

 

After completing their arrangements, they said goodbye and hung up.

 

 

Suzy sat wrapped in thought for a long while. For the first time
ever,
she thought consciously of Jerry's clean-cut if unexciting good
looks.

 

 

I've always kept Jerry at a distance, she mused, and he's always
respected my wishes. He's never tried to make a pass, and even his
token goodnight kisses usually land near my lips but never on them.
I
could have intercepted them, but I never did. Maybe I've been
missing a
lot.

 

 

She examined her feelings briefly. Jerry neither disgusts nor
frightens
me. I don't think I'd really mind if he touched me. He deserves a
lot
more than I've ever been able to give him-until now. He loves me, he
would be gentle with me, and he could teach me the things I need to
know.

 

 

But no sooner had the thought entered her mind than she dismissed
it.
She knew she couldn't use Jerry that way. Instinctively, she knew he
was resigned to an unrequited love. She couldn't give him a glimpse
of
paradise, then slam the door in his face.

 

 

With her new insight, Suzanna knew that she could never love Jerry
except as a brother. Making love to him would seem wrong. That was
one
more reason for not considering Jerry as her teacher in love, now
that
she was starting to become curious about what it was really like
between a man and a woman.

 

 

Amazing how one taste of Quentin had left her famished for more.
Just
more of what was the worrying part.

 

 

Her notes forgotten, Suzanna sat up through the eleven o'clock news,
but couldn't have told anyone what she watched. Her mind had turned
from Jerry to Quentin without her even being aware of it.