Turn Back the Dawn (2 page)

When Ben began to speak again, Kate once again felt
the appeal of his voice—low, rich, smooth. It took hold of
her gently, brought her close, until she felt she was a
breath away. "Generally," he observed, "the more you try
to convince a person of something, the more he or she
resists. After all"—he again raised his eyebrow—"there
must be some reason you're using the hard sell." He
smiled. "Needless to say, I hope I'm right in assuming we
can break through all that nonsense. Quite simply, Miss
Churchill, you know that every agency can use another
account. With all the awards we've gotten this year, we're
hardly hurting, but naturally we'd like to handle more.
However." His eyes penetrated hers. "I don't consider this
just another account. The revitalization of Ivorsen and
Shaw is one of the most exciting concepts we've worked
on since the formation of the agency—and one of the most
challenging I've worked on in my entire career. For both
of us, I think, this could be a very exciting campaign. One
I don't want to miss." He paused, and as Kate was drawn
into the depths of his hazel gaze, she felt as if she were
alone in the room with Ben Austin, as if he were beckoning her to the warmth of his strong arms.

Suddenly, she was aware that she and Austin had been
looking into each other's eyes for a long, long moment.
And Tommy Sullivan was probably waiting for one of
them to speak.

"Well," Austin said, as if he, too, had to pull himself up
out of a haze. "As we see it, your store essentially has no
market at the moment—no one group of buyers that can
be broken down meaningfully in terms of age, economic
status, or anything else. But after having spoken to Stew
art
Carey
—
your man who's organizing the new buying
strategies
—
I think the problem is challenging but work
able.
Carey is gearing the entire store—from lingerie to the
new
one-of-a-kind furniture department
—
back to what it
used
to be known for
—
mid- to high-priced items, all of
exceptional
quality that you would find at few, if any,
other
stores in the area.

"The
problem
—
as he sees it and as we see it
—
is that
somewhere
along the way, the image was lost. People just
saw
Ivorsen and Shaw as a dusty old expensive store with
dusty old
expensive things no one could really afford. The
key,
Miss Churchill, is that people have to know what to
expect.
No one walks out of Cartier and says,
'I
had no
idea
the prices would be so high.' It's a luxury store, and
you go
when you want that sort of thing. And remember

you
may not go into Cartier every day of the week to
buy earrings
for yourself, but when you have to give a dear
friend
something special, chances are you'd go there rath
er
than to
a discount store or even something in between.
T
here's a
place in many, many people's lives for a store
like Ivorsen
and Shaw. So. The plan is essentially one of
ima
g
e
building,
and saturation. And I think we've come
up with something
you'll like." He smiled, his warm hazel
ryes smiling, too.
"We'd like to establish the Ivorsen and
Shaw
couple—
young, attractive, moving up in the world.
In
T
V spots,
radio spots, print ads, and in person, this
young man
and woman will buy, argue, plan, even wish
for
certain
items they can't quite afford. And you'll have
your
linage right
there
—
something people can either ac
cept or
reject,
but they'll know what they're getting."

Kate
smiled. She
liked the
idea.
And as Austin went on
with the concept and the campaign plans, she liked it more. Austin introduced Tommy Sullivan again and went through some sample magazine layouts they had put together, and then summarized the campaign once
more.
He finished up by saying they were prepared
—
obviously
—to
work up more ideas, but that what they had done so far was the campaign they would recommend over all
others.

Kate smiled. "Well, thank you very much. I like it a lot
—
I must say that. But I have other agencies
to see.
So
—
I'll let you know by next Friday at the latest. Naturally I'll be meeting with some other store people,
too.
But in any case
it
will be next Friday that you'll
know."
She
looked
into Ben Austin's eyes. "And I must
say it does
look promising."
The moment she saw his eyes shine with
pleasure,
she regretted her words. The decision, after
all,
wouldn't be entirely hers, and while it would
have
been pointless and
silly
to pretend to be neutral, she had just
given
them
all the
encouragement possible, short
of actually saying yes. Now,
if
the
Ivorsen and Shaw
corporate
brass decided
they wanted to
see
other campaigns from
Blake-Canfield,
Kate would have to come back
to
the
agency
as someone whose judgment had obviously been
overruled.

"I'm
glad
you're
pleased,"
Austin said, interrupting her
thoughts. "But
I won't allow myself any real
pleasure
until I've heard
from you again."
His voice was like a
caress,
stroking her outside and in, and the way
he
had said ''pleasure" as he looked into her eyes made her feel
as
if his real pleasure at that moment would be
to
brush
his lips
against
hers.

''
Yes, you
don't want to be
premature,"
she said
vague-
ly,
then snapped herself out of the prison his eyes were
holding
her in. "But as I said," she added crisply, "Friday
at
the latest."

Austin smiled. "I'll look forward to it." He turned to
Tommy
Sullivan. "I'd like a few words alone with Miss
Churchill,
Tommy." He looked at his watch. "And then
I'm off
to lunch. So I'll see you back at the office."

A
spark of surprise flashed in Tommy Sullivan's eyes,
and he
stood up. "Sure," he said. "See you later." He
gathered
up his portfolio, said good-bye to Kate, then
turned
and said a quick good-bye to Austin.

After
he had left, conspicuously shutting the door be
hind him,
Kate looked questioningly at Austin. "What
was that
all about?" she asked. "Why did he look so
upset?"

B
en shrugged.
"You know agencies and how insecure
a
lot of
people are. He was let go from his last place, and
who
k
nows?
He might have thought I wanted to be alone
with you so
I could tell you we'd be bringing in another
ar
t person
next week. Those stories about coming back
from
lunch
and finding your desk in the mail room are
true
, you know."

Kate
shook
her head. "That's awful. Is it really so
cu
tthroat at
Blake-Canfield?"

"Well, yes
and
no.
We're growing now, thank God, so
th
e
c
hanc
e
s of
layoffs are low at the moment. But I can
underst
and a
kid like that. His job means a lot to him, and
the
I
vorsen
and
Shaw campaign is his first one with Blake-
Ca
n
fi
eld,
so
naturally he's nervous."

Kate
frowned.
"That doesn't sound like a particularly
pleasant
atmosphere
to work in. I don't think I would do
v
er
y well knowing that my job was in constant jeopardy."

She paused, aware that he seemed to be only half-listening. His hazel gaze was taking in her eyes, her hair, her mouth, and while he was making her feel self-conscious, it was in a very pleasurable way. Clearly, he liked what he saw. "So," she said, smiling. "I'm sure you didn't stay on after the meeting to hear my feelings about office politics. What was it you wanted to talk about?"

He smiled. "Well. When you ask me flat out, I have no choice other than to answer flat out." His eyes sparkled. "I had planned to charm and lull you into such a state that you'd hardly give the question a thought."

"And what was the question?" she asked, smiling.

"Are you free for lunch?" he said softly. "Or dinner."

A wave of apprehension mixed with excitement swept through her.
He's making this too easy,
she thought.
Which means I'll be all the more trapped.
She was saved, though, from replying, by the buzzing of the intercom on her desk. She gave Ben a noncommittal glance and went over to the phone. "Yes, Linda."

"Kurt Reeves, Kate."

"Please tell him I'm in a meeting and I'll call him back."

"I did," Linda said. "But he insisted."

Kate sighed. "All right. I'll take it. Thanks." She pushed the flashing red button down and spoke. "Yes, Kurt."

"Hey," he said softly. "I just wanted to know about tonight—whether we were on or not."

She hesitated, acutely conscious that Ben Austin was in the room and probably listening. "I don't know," she said.

"Kate, it's been a long time."

That was too much. "At whose insistence, Kurt? I
thought
you were the one who said things were getting too
complicated."

"Yeah, well, maybe I was wrong."

She
sighed and glanced over at Ben Austin. He was
looking
at his presentation, apparently not listening. But
she still
didn't feel comfortable. "Look, Kurt. I'm really
not
in a
position to talk right now," she said, her voice
almost a
whisper. "And I don't even know what I want
t
o say to
you at this point anyway. I need some time to
think."

"But Kate—"

"I'll talk
t
o you later," she said, and hung up before he
could say
anything else.

As she
started for the table, Austin closed the folder he
had been
looking through. "Sorry," he said, turning to
look
at her.
"I should have offered to leave the room."

She shook
her head. "No, that's all right," she said. "If
I
ha
d wanted
you to leave, I could have asked."

He
looked
at her carefully. "Something tells me we're
not going to
be sharing lunch or dinner."

She smiled.
She was actually very tempted to take Aus
tin up on his
invitation
—
if out of spite rather than any
thing else
.
But she resisted. Her natural impulses tended
to
lead her
—
inevitably
—
in the wrong direction. And
wh
ate
ve
r
reckless
attraction and temptation she felt, she
would be
wise to
suppress. "Not today," she said, compro
mising with herself.

I know the conversation
wasn't for me to overhear,"
h. . ml softly, "but you
do deserve better, you know."

She sa
id nothing.
Protest would have been natural
—

saying t
hat
h
e
didn't know anything about Kurt or about
her, that
it
was none of
his business anyway. But some-
how, when she looked into his dark-lashed amber eyes, she knew that he truly did think she deserved better. She half-smiled. "You may be right. But I try to make it a rule not to discuss one man with another. It doesn't seem fair."

He tilted his head. "As if men were members of another species, Kate? I don't see anything unfair about it." He smiled. "Anyway, I'm sure you don't give away any more than you want to."

"Perhaps," she said, thinking nothing could be farther from the truth. "But really
—
why don't we just drop it for the moment."

He pursed his lips and gazed at her thoughtfully. "Well. I can see when I've been beaten. But, Kate, I did want to get together with you before you made your decision."

She raised a brow. "Before?" She smiled. "So you can sway me in your favor?"