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Damn. If it weren’t for the non-compete agreement each new hire at Murdoch had to sign, she’d be bringing a few of those people over here. The only reason she’d been able to take this job was because she’d refused to sign that. One of the perks of a family-owned business. Her mother had put her foot down, and they’d hired Rowan without it. Thank goodness, because she’d seen enough shady practices to damn near feel the taint following her to Barrett.
Here, the air was clear. They worked hard, bid hard, but she hadn’t seen anything underhanded, especially at the board level, though that Silverman fellow sure seemed to have it out for Gerard and Emersyn.
Even Emersyn’s tip about Scott Cybersecurity had probably been happenstance, not subterfuge. Rowan liked how Barrett Investment Group ran. And she loved Emersyn.
The other owner she wasn’t too sure about. Gerard pushed every one of her “avoid like the plague” buttons with an arrogance very much like her father and brother. The problem was, Gerard also pushed every sensual button instilled in her body with those smoldering, dark eyes that bore into her. She couldn’t give in to that urge. She knew from experience that even a whisper of inappropriate behavior could lose her any hard-earned power she’d achieved. No, she could not go down that rabbit hole.
What a conundrum. If Emersyn got her way, and Rowan had seen enough of the brother and sister together to know Emersyn frequently won, Rowan would have to work with him closely on the Scott bid.
What the hell was she going to do? She turned to look at the picture of her mother, a woman who, in spite of having an asshole for an ex-husband, had carved out a life she was happy with. She offset the negativity in her life with charity work and long, lone weeks at the ocean. She said walking the beach refilled her well.
Her mother’s happiness was self-made. Rowan strived for that same satisfaction in her own life, a huge part of the reason she lived in Haight-Ashbury. She loved that eclectic vibe. Haight felt like home.
To keep that sense of satisfaction first and foremost in her mind, Rowan tried to anticipate what was coming to determine how she would deal with it. Working closely with Gerard might be tough on her psyche, but being prepared would go a long way to assuage that, and this bid was a shiny bauble her reputation couldn’t afford to pass on.
Grabbing a legal pad, she began jotting down some of the ideas that hit her as soon as Emersyn uttered the Scott company’s name. She always thought better on paper, at least for the brainstorming part of things.
As she wrote, she got excited. This would be the biggest account Barrett had ever landed. If she could help shape the win, it would cement her place here, and no one would ever be able to say she slept her way to the top. She earned her way through hard work.
Gerard sat in his office long after Emersyn had gone on her happy, ill-advised vacation way. He’d argued until he was damn near hoarse, to no avail. Another reason that damn pledge was a smart idea. Women had a way of getting what they wanted, no matter what.
How had she gotten him to agree to work with Rowan? He turned around and looked out the window, not seeing the city skyline or the bay beyond. The low-E windows filtered out the UV rays, so not even the warm summer day soothed him.
He didn’t want to be attracted to Rowan McCarthy. He didn’t quite trust her. There wasn’t much he could do about that. His body betrayed his wishes every single time he saw the woman. Hell, when he thought about her, his body paid attention.
Under normal circumstances, his baser instincts took a back seat to business. Rowan’s presence…unsettled him, kept him off kilter, and this deal was too important to let his body override him. He needed to be on his A game for this.
So how could he attack this and maintain his sanity? By keeping his distance as much as possible to minimize his reaction. With that thought in mind, he called Sandra in, wishing Rowan was like his assistant. Hard-working, smart, older, and totally in love with her husband of thirty years.
“Starting tomorrow, I’ll need the executive conference room for the rest of the week,” he said when Sandra walked in.
“We’ve got meetings—”
“Move them. And I want the table set up with docking stations at each end. Plus, both stations will need access to the servers and the main viewing screen in the conference room.” At opposite ends of the table, they’d be as far away from each other as possible.
One of the things he liked so much about Sandra was her ability to roll with change. She nodded and walked out without another word, and Gerard knew everything would be as he wanted. He shot off a message for his new work partner to meet him first thing tomorrow in the conference room and to be prepared to dive in head first on this bid.
Satisfied, he opened his laptop and started his own idea list for the Scott bid. His mind had been churning in the background ever since Emersyn’s tip. He didn’t give his next meeting another thought, he was so immersed in planning how to get in the door with the Scott family.
Which was why shock hit him like a full body check when he walked into the conference room the next morning and saw Rowan sitting, not at the other end of the large conference table, but right fucking next to his chair.
Chapter Seven
When Rowan first walked into the executive conference room the next morning and saw the seating arrangements, she almost applauded her boss. She didn’t want to be any closer to him than he wanted to be to her. This would work just fine.
Except…how could they collaborate from opposite ends of the table? While this arrangement worked well for distancing herself from him, sitting twelve feet away from each other would not be conducive to brainstorming and discussing the finer points of putting a bid together.
Before she thought it through any further, she grabbed the set-up at the far end of the conference table and settled into the chair next to the one at the head of the table. She had to replug and retape the wires running along the floor, but it was worth it. Pleased with herself, she shoved her things into a haphazard pile and opened her laptop.
In the process of going over the ideas she’d come up with and getting more excited by the moment, she didn’t see—or hear—her boss enter the conference room. Until his exclamation.
“What is this?”
Rowan jolted up from her chair, putting a hand over her chest to still her racing heart. His gaze dipped to her hand, then quickly back up to her face.
“You scared me,” she said, sitting back down.
“This is not the arrangement I requested for our meeting,” he said, his voice in full-on boss mode.
