HE WOKE UP to a note on the pillow instead of Jessica.
*I’ve gone to Rockefeller Center to get ready for the Geocaching. I should be back by one.*
That was it. Short and sweet and no mention at all of the night that had ended when the sun peeked over the skyscrapers.
He lay back down, debating the merits of really getting up, deciding in the end to stay put and order room service.
He knew Owen would be with Jessica at Rockefeller Center, but given the shape Dan was in, he wouldn’t be much help until he got his act together.
Jessica had told him about the all-day stunt that would begin just after eight this morning. All the winners from a write-in campaign, almost a hundred of them, would be given portable global positioning systems and a map. Their task was basically a treasure hunt. Locate one Manhattan landmark by the longitude and latitude, find a clue to the next location, then the next, finally ending at the Central Park Pond, where one lucky winner would receive a full makeover, using New Dawn cosmetics, of course, a new wardrobe and a cruise for two to Jamaica. All of which was going to be recorded by as many entertainment-news organizations as Jessica could entice to be there.
It was quite a brilliant idea, really, but the logistics had been a daunting task. He knew for sure that all the clues were in place, and had been since last week. The grand prize had been buried last night.
At least the whole publicity monster would be over in a few days. He’d promised Jessica he would be there as her arm candy until it was finished, and he would. As for his own research project, he was more confused about women than ever. What was worse, none of his prepared questions seemed the least bit germane. He had no idea what to ask her, what would help him understand her. It seemed an unbridgeable chasm, his feelings, her feelings, their relationship, if he could even call it that. Perhaps if he knew what he wanted from her, it would help, but he didn’t.
Okay, he knew some things: he wanted to see her again. To see her often. To pursue this-whatever it was. To make love to her. To see where she lived, how she lived, to learn about her past.
Shit, he wanted a lot, and almost none of it was directly related to his project.
Bottom line? No way he could walk away from her. She’d become important to him. Vitally. When he thought about a future without her he felt indescribably bleak.
Jessica had awakened something inside him that had been dormant. No other woman had affected him this way, and he had a sinking feeling that no other woman ever would. She was the spark that lit his fire. Maybe that was the whole thing about love. That you wander around until your dormant heart is awakened by the one other person on earth who matches some very specific requirements.
He winced as the full impact of his thoughts hit home. Love? He’d only known her for less than a week. Not enough time, surely, to go out on that limb. And yet, if it wasn’t love, what was it? Lust didn’t cover it. It was involved, but not the whole of it. He’d lusted often before, sometimes to the detriment of his health, his sanity. But that was child’s play compared to his feelings now. He couldn’t abide the thought of Jessica moving through life without him. But he had the distinct and uncomfortable suspicion that she didn’t feel the same way.
Which basically meant he was screwed. Unless he could figure something out. In the next two days.
Right.
“ON YOUR MARK, get set, go!”
Jessica watched the contestants sprint across the Rockefeller Center Plaza, heading east toward the site of the first clue. The whir and click of hundreds of cameras sounded like a swarm of insects as journalists from around the world captured the moment. She’d gotten word early this morning that the sale of global positioning systems throughout the Greater New York Area had tripled in the last four days, and that all Manhattan was engaged in the largest treasure hunt in the city’s history.
By all accounts, the event was a triumph. The name of New Dawn had saturated the market on every level, print, radio, television and most importantly, word of mouth. Already Bloomingdale’s, Saks, Barney’s and hundreds of other retail stores were reporting record sales for a debuting cosmetics line. Everything Jessica had worked for over the last year was coming together in a beautifully wrapped package, and she knew that next week she was going to have to weigh offers from marketing and cosmetics firms from around the world.
She should have been floating on cloud nine. Instead, she had a king-size headache and a mad desire to steal the grand-prize cruise to Jamaica for herself.
Marla leaned against the brightly painted New Dawn pressmobile, arms crossed, a worried frown making her look younger than her twenty-four years. “Want to talk about it?”
Jessica shook her head. “I don’t think so, but thanks.”
“What time do we have to be at the park?”
“The soonest anyone can get there is four-thirty, so we’ll set up at four.”
Marla nodded. “Okay, see you there.”
She didn’t leave, however. She just kept staring.
“Marla, it’s okay. I’m fine.”
“You don’t look fine.”
“Don’t let the New Dawn people hear you say that. I’m wearing all their best stuff.”
Pushing herself off the van, Marla came to her side. “It’s about Dan, isn’t it?”
She was surprised by Marla’s question. In all the time they’d worked together, Marla had never really asked her anything personal. Jessica hadn’t allowed it. She’d realized when she first came up with this plan that things were going to change, but she’d never bargained on the major earthquake that had shaken her to the core. She sighed deeply and said, “Yeah, it’s about Dan.”
Marla took her by the elbow and led her toward a coffee kiosk. “I’ll buy,” she said. “You talk.”
But Jessica didn’t. Not until they had their drinks and found a table near the exit. “I don’t know,” she said finally. “Things are getting really complicated.”
“How?”
Jessica studied her assistant, and it occurred to her that Marla could have been so much more than that. She could have been a friend. Her career wouldn’t have been threatened, the campaign still would have been wildly successful. The only difference would have been that Jessica wouldn’t have been so incredibly alone. “Obviously,” she said, “this goes nowhere, but you were right about Dan. He isn’t my old college boyfriend.”
Marla didn’t say anything. She just put her paper cup down on the table.
“He’s a friend of a friend. I hired him to act like my boyfriend. You already figured out why.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah.”
“Only now, you’re kind of wishing he really was your boyfriend.”
Jessica winced. “I’m not. At least I don’t think I am. No, I’m not. I can’t get involved. It goes against all my better judgment. Every woman I know in business has had to choose between love and real success. I don’t want to have to make that choice.”
“Love?”
Jessica felt the heat in her cheeks. “It was rhetorical.”
“Right.”
“No, I don’t love him. At least, I don’t think I do. It’s just…”
“You can’t stop thinking about him? You feel like you’re a completely different person when he’s near? You want to share every new sight and taste and sound with him? The whole universe has come into focus and you didn’t even know it’d been blurry?”
She chuckled. “Something like that.”
Marla leaned forward and touched her hand. The small gesture was completely foreign to their previous relationship, and yet at this moment, Jessica welcomed the kindness so much she actually teared up.
“Jessica, jobs come and go. But to lose someone like Dan…”
“It’s not that simple.”
“It can be. If you let it.”
Jessica stared at her coffee, feelings she never would have imagined stirring deep inside, confusing her as
