Twice Smitten (A Modern Fairy Tale) by Melissa Blue Page B

sure Drew would bring up our association. I’d look petty and desperate. He needs this consulting job, and I’m sure he’d do and say anything to keep it. Let’s not forget it’ll look suspect, because he has veto power.”
    “You’re sure about a lot,” Sasha said.
    “I am.” She looked at both her friends. A worried frown creased Emma’s brows. Sasha wore an expression of concern.
    Damn.
    “I’m going into work tomorrow,” Abigail said. “I’ll be polite and professional. We’ll get the job done, and I won’t lose any of my team.”
    Neither friend concurred that’s all it was.
    Double damn.
    *****
    Ready to go to war, Abigail handed Drew a packet covering all his previous questions and some more she thought he might ask. He settled into the office chair across from her and flipped through the pages, making notes in the margins, which made her scowl.
    She reminded herself to be professional and polite. The latter would mean keeping her mouth shut and not interrupting to find out why he needed to make notes on what she’d given him. Plus, it would sound insecure. The worse emotion an account manager could show to anyone, especially someone coming in to diagnose a team’s problem. The team leader should not lack confidence.
    Drew had arrived early with his game face on. The only sign revealing he’d gone without enough sleep was the five o’clock shadow along his jaw. The scruffiness enhanced his masculine features, deepening them and made him a little breathtaking to look at.
    She tilted her head and wondered how many women who had survived the night of debauchery with no intentions to ensnare themselves with emotions, woke up to his face—scruffy and masculine—and fell hard.
    Drew wasn’t the kind of man who would make a woman feel cheap for having sex with him—a hypocrisy. Abigail never understood that, it took two—and the small human decency probably tripped up the rest of the women.
    And it said a lot her mind had decided to take a stroll through that land mine. The attraction to Drew wasn’t wrong in and of itself. He had an appeal that made those primitive genes of survival sit up and hum. Acting on the primitive urge would be unwise, which is why she wouldn’t.
    Drew flipped to the last page and began to nod. She put her mind back where it should be—work.
    “Ok.” He breathed out. “You need to call a meeting on the Lancaster account. I want to see you guys at work.”
    “It’s my smallest account,” she said and then bit her lip. Defensive was not professional. “Let me get the team together,” she corrected.
    A smile blossomed. “It’s killing you, isn’t?”
    “Excuse me?” Her fingers twitched above the phone.
    “Drives you crazy to follow orders. I don’t think it’s just me, but following along behind anyone.”
    She placed the phone down, willing to appease him with conversation. “I’m a natural leader.”
    “Translation: I like telling people what to do,” he said. “I’m here to watch and then help.”
    Abigail sucked her teeth. “Your job is to watch, but then tell someone everything she is doing is wrong. And maybe put a couple of people out of a job.”
    “She?” A laugh was in the word.
    “I had to choose a gender to make my verbs agree. And currently,” she added, “you’re preventing me from helping you.”
    “How?”
    “I was going to call my team to set up a meeting. I know Janice and George are out, but they could wrap up what they’re doing in an hour.”
    “Everyone has a company cell phone hooked up to their e-mail account. You could send an e-mail. You can keep better track of responses and a loosely put together schedule. Lastly, I don’t want to get anyone on your team fired, if I don’t have to.”
    “I don’t micro-manage my team.” This time she couldn’t help the defensiveness, because the earlier comment had been a potshot he sidestepped easily.
    “Not saying you should. What you do with your team currently works,