Page 10 of The Hang Up
She cleared her throat again. “So how did your first day go?” she asked.
“You tell me how it went. You witnessed a good chunk of it today.”
“The meeting was…interesting,” she offered for lack of a better word.
“Come on.” He rested his hands palms-down on the table. “I’m serious, I want your opinion.”
“You’re asking how I think you performed in the meeting?” Hell, no good could come of this.
“Yep.” He folded his hands on the table. Massive hands, she noticed.
Pay attention, Miriam.
“I’m the new guy,” he said. “And you’ve been working with the execs for months now. I want to know how you think I did.”
She studied him, trying to assess how serious he was. “You want me to pat you on the ass and give you a cookie, or you want me to give it to you straight?”
Jason grinned. “I’d kinda like all of the above, actually.”
“We’ll have to do a rain check on the cookie,” she said, deliberately not mentioning the ass pat, even though her hand tingled with the thought of touching him. “So you really want feedback?”
“Lay it on me. I have thick skin.”
Her libido did an internal shudder at his word choice, but she managed to hold it together. “Well, you already heard me tell Holly you’ve got balls. That’s a compliment, by the way.”
“I took it as one.”
“Good. But the one thing you don’t have is professional polish.”
“True,” he agreed, stretching those long legs out in front of him under the conference table and bumping Miriam’s knee again. “That’s kinda why they hired me.”
“Not exactly,” she said. “They hired you because you’re an authentic, rugged, outdoorsy mountain man who happens to have solid business experience and a good head on his shoulders.”
And between his legs, her libido telegraphed, but she kept her gaze on his.
“You’re obviously smart,” she continued, “and you’re obviously a good businessman, but you have to show them you can do more than swing your dick around. You have to show them you can play in their league.”
He laughed and shook his head, eyeing her with renewed interest. “Are you always this blunt?”
“Yup. It’s why Holly leads most of the meetings and I sit there doodling dick pics on my iPad screen.”
“So that’s what a Chicago Art Institute-educated, ADDY Award-winning graphic designer spends her time drawing.” He grinned wider when Miriam blinked in surprise. “I looked you up after the meeting. Figured you got an intimate look at my junk, the least I could do was find out more about you.”
“Please tell me there are no nudie photos of me on the internet,” she said, only half kidding.
“None that I could find, and that wasn’t for lack of trying.”
“It’s nice to see you have ambition.”
“So back to the meeting,” he said. “You think my professional polish is lacking?”
“That can’t be surprising to you, can it?”
“Nope,” he agreed. “I suppose I’m with you on the tendency toward foot-in-mouth disease.”
“At least I have the good sense to keep my mouth shut in board meetings instead of peppering all my dialogue with profanity.”
“Keeping my mouth shut isn’t usually an option as CEO,” he pointed out. “I don’t suppose you’d care to give me some pointers on being a more polished professional?”
