Good Girl (2 page)

It didn’t get any better as she went and
sat down. Her hips shifted in the seat, and now she was sure she was red.

Maybe he meant it as a joke, but it
wasn’t funny. It was completely inappropriate. Against all professional
standards!

Only one thought managed to rise through
the emotions he had shaken and stirred with hardly any effort—Kali wasn’t going
to let him see that he had gotten to her.

Chapter 2

Hunter smiled to himself.
She picked
up the pen.
He knew she would. He could always tell a submissive when he
saw one.

Ms. Kali Jones was looking straight at
him, her expression hard. Before that, she had been trying to avoid his eyes,
but now she was apparently so affronted by his praise that she refused to back
down, even if it was a completely silent war that was happening right in front
of her coworkers.

It was just the sort of fun that Hunter
enjoyed the most. But right now he had more important things to deal with. He
needed this job. Badly. He couldn’t let himself be distracted by a fine ass and
a fiery disposition.

But the girl did have a fine ass. Her
skirt hugged her curves just right, and her heels were high enough to give a
nice sway to her hips. He thought when he had glimpsed her peering through the
glass, that she would be pretty, and he wasn’t disappointed. With her up-turned
nose and sweetly curling lips, she was more cute than beautiful, but he liked
that elfin look. Innocence could be a wonderful thing to play with, and she had
that in spades. She may have been as young as her early twenties, but she would
probably look youthful well into middle-age.

Now is not the time…
He dragged himself back to the priority at hand.  

“As you can see from this painting, your
eye is drawn from the street up to the gorgeous concave curve of your facade,”
Hunter explained. “Right now the fountain is too big, like a pyramid squatting
on your front doorstep. It blocks the portico that runs along the first floor
of the plaza, echoing that enticing inward curve. With a sundial, the art will
work
with
the building in harmony instead of concealing it.”

Hunter was glad to see that Selina Stern,
the head of the PR department, was nodding along. Selina was the one who had
called to let him know he was one of the finalists in the competition. She had
told him that he beat out hundreds of other proposals.

He wasn’t sure if Selina was on his side
or not, but right now she was returning his easy smile. Selina was a stylish
woman, packaged and polished, as if every detail had been considered carefully.
People in publicity were always hard to read. They were experts at the
smoke-and-mirrors game.

“That is something to consider,” Selina
told the rest of the table. “The bamboo planters would hide the front of the
building at the street level.”

“Even more than the fountain does now,”
Mrs. Chapel agreed. Hunter could tell Mrs. Chapel was on his side. He always
did well with maternal, older women. She actually looked a bit like his mom
with her plump cheeks and tired eyes.

“The question is: do we want a forest
maze or an open plaza in front of our building?” Robert Ryan asked from the top
of the table.

Hunter had seen the proposal that Tami
Han had submitted, just as he had carefully examined all of the plans by his
competition during the online contest. He had heard of Tami before they became
finalists—she was part of the post-postmodern school in urban planning, using
an organic and sincere approach in direct reaction to the destructive
tendencies of postmodernism. Hunter had scrabbled his way up as outsider
artist, and if anything, admired the meta-modernist architects who defied
tradition and relied on the tension of transformation, finding the hidden
beauty in something awkward or even ugly.

Hunter had tried to get Tami to talk out
in the reception room, but she was tight-lipped. She focused on large-scale
corporate work, and made things that filled space in a harmonious way, rather
than art that made you think. Bamboo was exactly what she would propose—a
soothing green mass to balance the hard glass of the building, literally
symbolizing Robert Ryan’s green roots. She was probably dying for a job right
now, too, and she definitely had a much bigger nut to meet than Hunter did.

“Your company is all about natural
energy,” Hunter reminded Robert Ryan. “Your building faces south and should
embrace the sun, not the shadows.”

The others around the table were
nodding. The CFO brought up the biggest line item of the budget—the cost for
the raw bronze for the sundial and benches. But Hunter knew his stuff and could
answer every question, from the comparative exchange rate if the casting was
done in Canada vs. an American-made product. American-made won the day, as he
had expected. It was quick work to clear up the last few questions of cost,
including the fact that the plumbing for the fountain could be left under the
plaza so they wouldn’t have to rip up the flagstones that were already laid
down. They would only have to replace the ones under the fountain and remove
the ones under the base of the individual benches and the sundial to install
the anchors.

Ryan’s assistant Larry was now frankly
appraising him from the other end of the table, silently letting Hunter know
that he had his vote! The women were also in the palm of his hand, except for
Kali Jones. He shouldn’t have allowed himself to murmur those little words of
praise when she picked up the pen. Who knew what kind of pull she had as a
member of the PR team?

But Hunter couldn’t help himself. He
really wanted to tell Kali that she was a
bad
girl. She had peeked at
him through the glass door of the reception room, and then ran away when he saw
her.

Kali met his gaze firmly. “I’m not sure
about those round balls for benches. They look like they might be uncomfortable
to sit on.”

Bad girl
,
was on the tip of his tongue. He was sure Kali had said it because he had
gotten to her.

Selina Stern turned to that page of the
proposal, tilting her head at the benches formed by three balls grouped
together. “They look like bronze exercise balls. I’ve never seen seating like
this before.”

“You said no flat surfaces or people
would try to sleep on them,” Hunter reminded her. “And I don’t like those tacky
benches with arms or with the ridges built into the seat.” Tami had put ridges
on her proposed seating. “The balls contrast with the linear thrust of the
sundial. They echo the semi-circle of the plaza itself.”

“But are they comfortable to sit on?”
Robert Ryan asked.

“I’ve already made the pattern and it’s
very comfortable. It’s at my studio in Bushwick. I couldn’t bring it with me
because it definitely wouldn’t fit in the cab!”

Everyone laughed again, as he had
intended.

Ryan said, “You certainly went the extra
mile on this proposal, Hunter.”

“I want to work with your company, Mr.
Ryan. It would be a real honor to design the plaza for this ground-breaking
building.” Hunter hesitated, but now was the time to ask. “I am curious,
though, how a man like you ended up with a fountain in the first place?”

Ryan let out an exasperated “humph!” The
others looked uncomfortable. “Truth be told, in the original plans it was supposed
to be part of the cooling system for this building. But that’s outdated
technology. SunTech developed a breakthrough in the HVAC system that
regenerates the heat to supplement the power of the pumps. We should have
scrapped the fountain when we went with the new technology, but there were too
many other details we were dealing with.”

Hunter smiled. “Well, I’m glad because
then you wouldn’t be getting such a stellar sundial now.”

Ryan was nodding slowly, tapping a pen
on the proposal in front of him, looking down the length of the table at the
large painting that Hunter had worked on for weeks. Nobody else dared to speak.
Ryan was known to run his company like it was a team, but everything Hunter had
read about the guy proved that he had the final word on anything important.
Seeing that useless fountain every day must really piss him off.

“I like it,” Ryan finally said. “I liked
the idea of a sundial from the beginning. But I want to be sure you can sit on
these benches. Selina, why don’t you go to Mr. Munro’s studio and give the
bench a test run? I want a report back by Monday.”

Selina looked anything but happy at the
surprise task, but she said, “Absolutely, Robert. I’ll send everyone a memo on
Monday morning.” Turning to Hunter, she said, “We’ll work out the details
before you go.”

This was his cue to pack up, which
Hunter did, shaking hands with each person who stopped by on their way out of
the conference room. Larry, Ryan’s assistant, hung back as if to speak to him,
but was called out by Ryan as he left.

Only Selina and the perky but still
piqued Kali were left in the end. He made sure Selina had his address to come
by his studio that night, even though it was a Friday. He would have agreed to
anything if it would land him this job.

“I have a red-eye to catch tonight to
Los Angeles, but I can make it if I come by around six,” Selina told him.

When Hunter said good-bye to Selina, she
turned to her assistant, “Show Hunter the way to the elevators, Kali.”

Hunter stuck out his hand to Kali, knowing
she couldn’t refuse while her boss was standing right there. “Thank you for
your help, Kali. I’m told you put together our proposals. I liked the blue
cover.”

Kali slowly shook his hand. “Selina
picked out the blue one for you.”

He pulled her hand slightly towards him,
unbalancing her a bit and bringing her onto her toes. “Thank you, anyway.”

Kali took a tiny step forward to regain
her balance, unclasping his hand. He had to let go of her, though he wasn’t
ready to, yet. He usually didn’t care much about whether women liked him, maybe
because so many did. But he wanted to give Kali a bit of a spanking for
pointing out the unusual benches, even if it was a metaphorical spanking.

He followed her through the hall and
back out to the reception area where the flirty receptionist leaped up to say
good-bye to him. But Hunter wasn’t thinking about her. He was watching Kali
disappear behind the frosted glass again. He hoped she would glance back at
him, but she didn’t. He was surprised and a little disappointed.

It was too bad she wasn’t coming to his
studio tonight with her boss. But it was probably for the best. He should be
thinking about this job, not trying to provoke a woman he had just met. But for
some reason, Kali Jones stuck in his mind. He could still feel her hand in his,
soft but firm. He had a feeling her whole body was soft but firm, just like her
hand. A fresh, ripe girl ready for the picking…

He thought he had wanted this job as
much as he possibly could
before
the interview. Now he wanted it even
more.

Chapter 3

Kali was hardly through the door of the
communal PR office before Debby, the graphic designer, said, “I heard one of
the artists is really yummy.”

“He’s hot as hell,” Kali tossed off.
“He’ll photograph well if we choose his design.”

Even if Selina hadn’t been busy at her
corner desk, Kali wouldn’t have gone into what had happened with Hunter. She
and Debby were friendly, but Kali kept her private life strictly separate from
work. Debby had no problem airing her most personal matters to Kali or to
anyone else within earshot, including Selina. Selina loved to gossip, so she
encouraged it. But Kali wasn’t playing that game anymore. She had found out
quickly that anything she exposed to Selina would be used against her.

“I wish I’d seen him,” Debby said.
“Lindy says he’s super-cute! Are you going to pick him, Selina? It would be
nice to have a new guy around here.”

Selina rolled her eyes in exasperation.
“I wish it was that easy! Instead I have to go sit on a stupid ball. All my careful
planning, covering all the bases… I didn’t expect to have to take a trip to
Brooklyn before my flight.”

Debby gave her a puzzled look. Kali
tried to clear up the confusion. “You saw the benches for the sundial, didn’t
you? Mr. Ryan is afraid they’ll be uncomfortable. So Selina is going over to
check them out.”

“Call for a cab to be here at 5:30,
Kali,” Selina ordered. “A half hour to get over the bridge should be enough
time. I tell you, those balls better work or I’ll break some balls of my own.”

Kali felt a little bad that she might
have ruined Hunter’s chances by pointing out the unusual benches. But someone
had to. It was one of Selina’s biggest criticisms when they first sorted
through the proposals.

Besides, he shouldn’t have been rude. He
shouldn’t have called her
good girl
.

It made her squirm just thinking about
it.

For the rest of the afternoon, Kali
worked with Selina on plotting out their potential PR strategy if they decided to
choose Hunter Munro. Selina had already developed a plan for Tami based on her
international appeal, but for Hunter’s hook she focused on his small-town
Pennsylvania roots and the local foundry that would cast the sundial. Kali
could tell that Selina was now questioning her earlier decision to choose Tami,
even though she would never admit it. The meeting at Hunter’s studio would
decide his fate.

Kali couldn’t help but feel satisfied
knowing both Hunter and Selina were being put out because of her. It was
totally passive-aggressive, and she knew she shouldn’t feel that way, but there
it was. She wished she could point out Selina’s wavering loyalty from Tami to
Hunter. But Selina didn’t like being teased or tested, not in any way. She had
no sense of humor about herself.

When it came time to pack up to go, Kali
was brought up short when Selina grabbed her rolling suitcase and said, “Come
on, Kali. The car’s waiting.”

“I’m going with you?”

“Don’t be so stupid! I told you when you
ordered the car.” Selina gave her a look. “What’s wrong with you, Kali. Are you
sick?”

Yes
, Kali wanted to
say.
I’m sick and tired of
you
.
Now she had to go to Hunter
Munro’s studio and act like nothing was wrong. “I’m a little under the
weather,” she managed to say.

“Suck it up!” Selina ordered. “I’m not
going to Bushwick alone.”

“How am I going to get home?” Kali
asked.

“Grab a cab.”

Kali didn’t want to try to explain to an
uptown girl like Selina that Brooklyn was not like Manhattan when it came to
finding cabs on every corner. Even in her short time in New York City, Kali had
learned that confirmed Manhattanites knew very little about the outer boroughs
where she lived.

Before Kali could protest or even visit
the bathroom to check her hair or freshen her makeup, Selina rushed them both
down to the street past the ugly fountain that squatted like a fat, beige troll
at the base of their glass building. Kali could almost see the sundial in its
place. The bamboo was a little harder to imagine.

As they were whisked over the
Williamsburg Bridge in the cool limo-car, Kali felt she was at a real
disadvantage. She wished she could put on some lipstick, but Selina was right
there and would know she put it on for Hunter. Kali wasn’t going to give her
boss that kind of leverage over her. Selina would surely say something
uncomfortable in front of Hunter because she never let an opportunity pass by
to take a jab at Kali.

But it wasn’t fair—Selina’s makeup was
perfect. She had been gone for nearly twenty minutes before she had reappeared
to drag Kali away with her. In fact, Selina looked really good. Her frosty
blond hair was freshly cut, curving gently at her shoulders and around her
cheekbones. She was in her mid-thirties, but she was toned and hard from her
daily workout. Men responded to her because of her presence and confidence, but
Kali could see the tiny signs of strain in her face. The lines around her eyes,
and even worse the wrinkles in her neck. Selina dated a lot, almost constantly,
and often told Kali and Debby stories about her dates that were sometimes very
funny, and sometimes very cruel. She wasn’t kind to the men who didn’t meet her
exacting standards.

Kali let out a sigh. Selina was angling
for Hunter.

Kali wasn’t even sure what she was
sighing for; this whole thing was such a mess. She wondered if Hunter would
bite Selina’s hook in order to clinch the job.

If that’s what Selina wants, then she
shouldn’t have brought me along
.

Then again, maybe Selina had brought her
as protection, to keep things from going too far, too fast. Selina was smart,
too smart to risk her professional reputation.

The car took an abrupt left turn, and
they drove through a badly pot-holed street, making them bounce into each other
on the seat. The sidewalks were lined by squat industrial buildings with
loading docks and vents dotting the long brick walls. A lone straggly tree rose
up here and there from the sidewalks.

As they pulled up, even Selina sounded a
bit doubtful. “Are you sure this is right?” she asked the driver.

He pointed to the number on the side.
“Three, two, zero. Like you asked for, Miss.”

It was an old red brick hulk, two floors
high with broad factory windows dotting the second floor. The small panes were
crisscrossed with wire and some were levered open for ventilation. Several
bikes were chained to the wrought iron grate in front, protecting an empty
square of dirt. Faint lines of graffiti still showed where the paint had been
water-blasted off the bricks.

Selina told the driver to wait and she
left her suitcase in the car.

The black steel door had several swirls
of fresh spray paint across it. Selina pressed #3 that was marked with H.
Munro, and a buzzer sounded to open the door.

A sign on the door to the ground floor
space was for a sheet metal fabricator. They had to walk up a battered set of
steps to the second floor. Everything was out of scale, with super-high
ceilings and wide passageways. It felt so strange that Kali was a bit uneasy.

Whatever happened, she prepared herself
to not react, no matter what Selina or Hunter might do. She had gotten back at
Hunter for irritating her at the meeting. Now that Selina was trolling for him,
she would have to stay far away.

Hunter had his door open waiting for
them to emerge from the dim stairwell. “Welcome to my studio. Come on in.”

The space was a raw rectangle with
exposed ductwork high above their heads and a wood plank floor with scars and
discolorations where the factory equipment had once stood. Behind a folding
screen was a small fridge and microwave. The only walls in the room were the
cube that enclosed the bathroom in one corner, with a ladder leaning against it
leading up to the open space on top.

The loft was filled with art. Splatters
of color and odd shapes jutted from every surface. People seemed to be emerging
from walls or in the process of sinking in. A giant quarter lay on the floor in
one corner, forming a platform for a small table and two chairs. Wood racks
held paintings and several were covered over with canvas leaning against the
far wall.

Hunter was gesturing to the bench that
was sitting in the middle of the empty floor. The three balls were joined at
their bulging middles, forming a gentle curve.

“There’s the bench,” Hunter said. “It’s
the model that I’ll use to create the pattern for the mold. When I get the
job.”

His grin was so infectious that Kali
wanted to assure him, but she couldn’t. This was the Selina-show.

“It’s lovely,” Selina said, stroking the
bench. Her manicure was perfect, with dramatic red and black square tips. “Will
it be translucent like this?”

“That’s the resin covering it. The
finished surface will be polished bronze.”

Kali drew closer, admiring the
amber-like quality of the resin as the slanting sun caught the edge of the
ball.

“Have a seat,” Hunter offered.

Selina made a little show of stepping
forward and taking his hand as she sat down. As if she needed help. Kali kept
her expression perfectly still.

Selina’s face lit up. “Wow! I’m
surprised. It’s really comfortable.” She wiggled around on it. “You wouldn’t
think a rounded seat would be this comfortable.”

Hunter sat down on the ball at the other
end. “I had to find the perfect size for the human butt. And you can sit in
different directions, so it’s not a one-way experience.”

Selina slowly moved her feet, shifting around
to face the other way. “That’s a nice touch. We could make renderings that show
people can sit in whichever direction will face you away from the sun. That was
a concern of ours with a southern-facing plaza.”

“My design works
with
the sun
rather than trying to mask it. I spent days hanging out there while I was
coming up with my design. Listening to that lousy fountain!” His grin included
them both. “The sun is the main feature of your plaza. I don’t want to hide it
with bamboo—I want it to be front and center, twisted in a way that makes
people look at the light and interact with the sundial in a bunch of different
ways—reading the time, sitting on the benches, looking down on it from the
offices above. It will be different from every perspective, so you’ll always
connect with it in different ways.”

Kali was ready to give Hunter the job
right then, if she could have. Selina looked like she wanted to. Her boss was
nodding at him, as if she really liked what she saw. Kali couldn’t blame her—
what’s
not to like?
He was passionate about his work, articulate and engaging. He
was as delicious as a man could be, with his strong hands gesturing as he spoke
and his t-shirt hugging the muscles of his chest. Kali wanted to get close so
she could smell him again.

Stop thinking that,
she ordered herself.

Selina stood up, looking thoughtfully
down at Hunter, as if wheels were turning over in her head. As if she was
judging him on various different points.

“You like it, don’t you?” Hunter asked
her, looking up at her from his own seat on the bench.

Selina smiled at him, really smiled. Not
her professional smile that put up a wall between her and other people. Kali’s
eyes opened wide in surprise.

“I do,” Selina said softly.

They were looking at each other so long
that Kali shifted uncomfortably. If this was going to be
that
kind of
meeting, they could have left her out of it!

Then Hunter stood up, breaking the
moment. Selina’s smile was now kind of smug, and she told Kali, “You try it.
See what you think.”

Kali went over to the center ball, on
the opposite side from where they had sat down. As she turned, she caught
Hunter’s eye. He mouthed the word, “
Sit
.”

Her butt hit the ball as her mouth fell
open.
What!?

Did he just order me to sit?

His eyes were laughing down at her. He
had just ordered her to sit!

Kali popped back up again, her lips
tightening in outrage. Selina hadn’t seen anything; she was absorbed in looking
around the room at the various pieces of art. From the poses she was striking,
she was letting Hunter get a good look at her assets.

Kali didn’t say a word. But she did give
Hunter a glare so he would know she didn’t appreciate his jokes.

He laughed. Actually laughed! Which made
her even madder.

Should I say something?
Would it sound awful if I did?

Yes, it would.

Selina turned and saw Kali standing
there. “Kali, sit down! I want to know what you think.”

Reluctantly Kali sat back down,
irritated when Hunter looked amused. She was squirming on the bench. “I don’t
know…”