Author: Bella Andre

While it occurred to her that Gerry was the only one in the room who had truly looked surprised at Jack’s announcement, she assumed that was because he was the only one of them who knew her history and how badly she’d been hurt before.

When he moved away to finish setting up his cameras, though she was only a few sips in, Mary could already feel the champagne going to her head, so she put her glass down.

She was just about to head into her dressing room to do her hair and makeup for the photos, when Larry said, “Hey, now that you and Jack are engaged, what do you guys think about taking some shots of the two of you together with the Pocket Planner?”

Mary’s gut clenched reflexively at the suggestion that they use images of the two of them as a couple to sell Jack’s invention, but even as she was working to push away the twinge, Jack was shaking his head.

“Mary’s the face of our product. She’s the one people want to see using the Pocket Planner, not an engineer who’s worked out of a garage for the past ten years.”

“Actually,” Howie said as he rubbed his chin thoughtfully, “you two do look good together. Really good. Layla even pointed it out to me after that night at the bar. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if people responded just as well to the two of you as they do to Mary. And maybe Jack’s ugly mug could help pull in even more female buyers.”

Mary felt torn right down the middle. Old fears were screaming at her, warning her not to be so stupid a second time by shooting pictures for a campaign in which falling in love with the founder of the company played any part. But she loved Jack and wanted the very best for him. And her experience with advertising over the past thirteen years told her that the two of them posing together would be good. Really good.

She looked at Jack and smiled. “It’s a good idea. Let’s do it.”

Jack took her in his arms, clearly concerned about the decision she’d just made. “We should stick to the original plan, Mary. I don’t want you to have any regrets. Not now. Not ever.”

For his ears only, she said, “Your dream is just as important to me as it is to you. I think we owe it to all those years of working in your garage to convince people to give your invention a chance any way we can.” She lifted her hand to his face and smiled. “Plus, just like Howie said, women are going to go wild for this face of yours.”

Gerry had picked up his camera and moved over to them in the hopes of capturing the poignant moment. “Mary? Jack?”

Finally, Jack gave a small nod. Larry handed them the Pocket Planner, and she held on to both Jack and his dream as the camera bulbs started flashing.

* * *

Several hours later, Gerry declared that they had more than enough fantastic pictures and headed out to develop them immediately in his darkroom so that they could create the final ad in time for the launch.

Mary realized she’d never had that much fun in front of the camera before. She’d always been able to perform with people watching her, but when she was in Jack’s arms, everyone and everything else had truly disappeared. It had been totally different from the way things had been when she’d shot the ads with Romain. Fun, rather than serious. Impromptu, rather than planned.

Jack was, as she’d suspected, a natural in front of the camera. Gerry had practically been drooling over every frame that Jack had been in, and she had a feeling the photographer wouldn’t be the only one. Rugged, mature men like Jack were always in high demand in the print ad industry. Clearly, if he ever wanted to give up engineering, he could walk right into a very lucrative career in front of the camera. Of course, she knew he’d never give up his work, not when his brilliant mind would always be racing ahead to the next invention.

Mary went into the dressing room to change back into her street clothes and was just coming back out when she overheard Larry and Howie talking excitedly, their voices traveling down the hall to her.

“Can you believe how well this is all going?” Larry said to Howie. “Thank God, we walked past Mary’s photo shoot that day in Union Square.”

She smiled, agreeing with them. Meeting Jack that day had changed her life, in the most wonderful ways.

“And, thank God, she agreed to Jack’s marriage proposal,” Howie added. “Allen was completely right when he told us yesterday afternoon that the press is going to eat up the way the two of them met and fell in love while working on this campaign. He’s already put out some feelers, and it sounded like there is going to be lots of interest already. That’s probably why he left so fast after the celebration this morning—to go make all those calls to confirm the news that she’s wearing his ring.”

Allen had known about her and Jack yesterday afternoon? He’d talked to Howie and Larry about it and how the press was going to love seeing Jack’s ring on her finger?

But he hadn’t asked her to marry him until that evening. And on top of that, they’d agreed to keep their relationship private, just between the two of them. In fact, Jack had been the one who’d said he wanted to keep things private a little while longer once they’d declared themselves to each other.

So how could all of them have already known?

“It’s been the perfect plan from start to finish,” Larry agreed happily.

Plan. Mary felt as if her heart was tearing in two right where she stood. It had been the perfect plan.

She braced herself against the wall and forced herself to take a deep breath. Now that she knew what a fool she’d been, it would be easiest to run, to leave, to get on a plane to somewhere, anywhere, and never see Jack again.

But even bigger than her shame at how easily she’d been duped was her anger. And, right now, fury was all that stood between her and the bitter pain of a broken heart.

She moved quickly from the hallway to where Jack was standing with several Walter Industries board members. “We need to talk.”

She didn’t wait for him to respond as she headed back into her dressing room. When she heard the door close behind her, she whirled.

“When did you tell everyone we were together? Did you brag about it the first time we kissed? Did you give them a play-by-play of the first time we made love? Did all of you toast the way you’d gotten me to be both the face of your product and your pretty little plaything—two for the price of one?”

“Mary?” He started to reach for her, but when she flinched away from him, he dropped his hands. “What’s going on? What happened?”

“How dare you act like you don’t know what’s going on!” The words erupted like a snarl from her lips. “I thought you were such a gentleman, that you were one of the rare men who actually cared about what I wanted. What I needed. I thought I was more than a pretty face to you, more than just another couple of digits added to your bottom line.” Her chest was so tight she felt as if she could hardly breathe. She took several steps away from him, as if that might help her find some oxygen. “When were you going to ask for the ring back? Were you going to wait until sales were steady enough that it wouldn’t matter to anyone that we weren’t together anymore?”

“Damn it, Mary, what are you talking about?” A muscle was jumping in his jaw. “Why would I want the ring back?”

He started toward her again, but she knew the moment he put his arms around her she’d forget to protect herself again…and that she’d give in to her foolish heart and keep loving him anyway.

Panicking, with her Italian temper rising up and clouding her better sense, Mary took off the beautiful engagement ring and threw it at him.

Chapter Nineteen

What the hell had just happened?

Jack stood in the middle of Mary’s dressing room, stunned that she had yelled at him about using her and then nailed him in the head with the engagement ring he’d given her.

He had never been an angry man, had never fought at school or raised his fists for anything but the boxing training at the gym. Most disagreements, he figured, could be worked out with a rational conversation or two. But Mary hadn’t even come close to trying to talk to him about what was bothering her. She’d flat out erupted.

Though he’d often seen and felt the flashes of fire while they were making love, he’d never seen her like this. So furious—and so hurt—that she seemed to have shut herself down to him completely.

His eyebrow was throbbing from where she’d nicked him with the ring, but it was nothing compared to the heavy twisting in his gut at the thought that she might leave him.

Her hand was already on the doorknob when he caught up with her. Fear that he was losing her made it hard to think, to do anything but grab her around the waist and pull her against him.

Her breath rushed out in surprise at the hard press of his arms around her. “Tell me what happened to make you so upset with me.” Her fury had stirred up his, but he worked to keep his voice even. She tried to push out of his arms, but he wouldn’t let her go. “Tell me what’s wrong.”

“You used me.”

Her sentence ended on a sob, and even though he knew she was furious at him, he had to kiss the top of her head. When she was hurting, all he wanted was to help her. To ease her pain. Even if he was suddenly the last person on earth she wanted doing that.

“I’ve spent so long staring at circuit boards and computer screens that I know I often miss what’s happening in real life.” Gently, he turned her in his arms so that he could look into her eyes. He put his hand beneath her chin and tilted her face up to his. “If I’ve made a mistake with you, I want more than anything to make it right. Please just tell me what I did and how I can make it right.”

But as she looked up at him, her eyes went wide. “You’re bleeding.” She covered her mouth with a trembling hand, and her eyes filled with new tears.

A knock came, the door opening before Jack could warn whoever was outside to stay there.

“There you two are.” Larry was too high on the thrill of success to notice that anything was wrong as he said, “A journalist and photographer from the San Francisco Chronicle were hoping to get some shots and an interview with you both. I figured you two lovebirds were stealing some time alone.”

Jack didn’t take his eyes from Mary’s as he said, “We’ll be out in a few minutes.”

“Oh.” Larry looked between the two of them with a sudden frown. Looking terribly uncomfortable, he backed away from them. “Sure. Okay. Great.” He closed the door with a click behind him.

Mary’s mouth trembled as she stared at the cut on Jack’s eyebrow. “Oh God, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

“I am hurting,” he told her as he took both of her hands in his, “but not because you threw the ring at me. What hurts more than anything is that you’ve doubted for even one second that the love I feel for you is real.”

She took a shaky breath. “I need to know why you didn’t wait until the product was launched to ask me to marry you.”

“I had to ask you because I couldn’t wait one more second to know that you’d be mine. Forever. I know the timing was bad, that there’s so much going on already—”

“Wait,” she said, interrupting him, “don’t you mean the timing was perfect?” She gestured toward the other room. “That way we could do this photo shoot and interviews today to sell your invention as a couple.”

Awareness dawned with the suddenness of a hammer knocking him on the head. Even though Jack loved her more than he had—or would—ever love anyone else, he wanted to shake her. “You think I was using you like Romain did.”

Her beautiful eyes flashed with an array of emotions. Fear. Hope. And something that looked a little like shame. “Everyone was so happy for us today, and that was lovely, but then I started putting the pieces together. Allen already had the champagne. How easily you stepped in front of the camera. And then I heard Howie and Larry talking about how perfect the timing was, and how the news of the fairy-tale engagement between the model and the engineer was going to get even more press and sell even more units than I would have representing it alone. What else was I supposed to think?”