Chapter 8

Mick

Lemmingware was late, but thankfully Terri’s sweet ass had been here bright and early and the coffee was already set up. She even remembered to give Janet her specialty drink. The only thing I didn’t like was Curtis Lemming eyeballing her curves. I wanted to jam my fist in his face, especially since she had her shirt buttoned up to her throat and wasn’t flaunting anything, just being her sassy self. She wore a slim, black pencil skirt and heels. A white silk blouse covered her from her throat to her wrists, but it clung to her body. Her gorgeous brown hair was piled up on her head in a sleek chignon. She looked like a sexy librarian and I wanted to fuck her against the plate glass window in my office overlooking the city, while she made those sexy whimpers deep in her throat.

Curtis seemed to share my admiration, but since he was my client, I just had to be content with blocking his view of her when we talked. Unfortunately, his brother distracted me with a question when Curtis went for a bagel and another cup of coffee. Before I knew it, he and Terri were in a deep conversation. She laughed at something he said, her head going back and her hand touching Curtis’s arm.

This wasn’t fucking happening.

She poured him another cup of coffee and lingered while he drank it. Even worse, her eyes were riveted on him and she was talking to him excitedly. Her cheeks were flushed and she was grinning. What. The. Fuck? I started over there, but Simon got in my way and forced an introduction to Jim Lemming.

“Jim, this is my brother, Simon. He mainly handles our cosmetics and fashion clients.”

I didn’t dare step away because who the hell knew what would come out of Simon’s mouth.

“I’m actually glad to see another brother team working successfully together,” Jim said, motioning to his brother, Curtis, who was still making time with Terri. “After what happened with your father, we weren’t sure that the Wentworth Agency was going to survive the scandal.”

I bared my teeth in a smile that made Simon take a step back. Trying to watch Terri and Curtis out of the corner of my eye, I brushed an imaginary piece of lint off my sleeve. “We keep a clean house.”

My father had made bail almost immediately, and we managed to keep the scandal out of the papers. He quit the agency quietly and we hadn’t advertised for the position yet. I was still hoping to slip into it, but since my mother and father still held controlling shares in the company, it was going to be a battle. Jim Lemming had some good sources.

Jim looked over at Janet, who was entertaining some of Lemmingware’s support staff, and raised an eyebrow. “I can see that.”

Maybe too good.

Simon excused himself from the conversation.

“I’ll be blunt,” Jim said.

“Please do.”

“I don’t care what goes on here behind closed doors. But I don’t want a hint of it touching my product.”

“I’ll be equally blunt,” I said. “Your clients don’t give a damn about who you hire to do your advertising. They care about lag times in your biggest city and glitches that your patches don’t fix. I can direct their attention away from that to buy you some time. That’s part of the process. But if you don’t deliver on your promises, you’re going to lose subscribers. And it won’t be because I prosecuted my father or fired my mother.”

Jim pursed his lips and glared at me. For a moment, I thought I’d blown it. But in the end, he nodded. “I heard you were a hard case. Good to have you on our side.”

“Glad to be here. I’m going to get Curtis and we can get the legalities out of the way.”

By the time I made my way over to Curtis, though, Terri was scrawling something on a Beanery napkin and handing it to him. I didn’t think it was the blueberry muffin recipe. She’s giving that guy her number and not me? We’ll just see about that.

“Curtis.” I forced a smile. “We’re ready to sign the contract.”

“Sure, in a minute. Terri and I were just talking about the expansion.”

“What?” I snapped.

I figured he was asking her out, not geek talking. Why was the coffee girl—my current hookup—talking business with my new client?

“I’m a big fan of World of Legends. My brother and I play every day.” She was beaming and couldn’t take her eyes off of Curtis. I wanted to haul her into my office and remind her who she had been fucking last night, but then I caught my brother looking at us speculatively and I reined in the desire. The last thing I needed was Simon complicating this any further if he thought I was interested in Terri.

“That’s nice,” I said, glaring at her, but she wasn’t even looking at me.

“She’s got some fantastic ideas about promoting the expansion,” Curtis said. “Do you have a gamer on staff?”

I blanked. “Yes, of course.” I had no idea. Did we? Why did that even matter? He was paying us to market his new expansion, not play his game.

“Excellent. I’d like to talk to them. If we can do an in-game event like Terri was saying, it will really get some buzz going. We had been thinking outside of the game, trade magazines and social media. But Terri is right, we want to market to our four million subscribers.”

In-game event? What the fuck was going on?

“Aren’t your four million subscribers already going to buy the expansion?” From what I found out in my research, Lemmingware’s fans were rabid. The Wentworth Agency was going after new customers, other gamers. That was the plan I had sold him on. We were going to go to the major trade shows and hustle for another four million subscribers. We were going to offer gamers to play the first ten levels for free. Hook them in just before the expansion dropped.

“Well, that’s the hope. But Terri brings up a good point.”

“Does she?” I said through my teeth.

This time she looked up at me and had the nerve to look confused.

“What?” she mouthed up at me.

Curtis continued on without seeing her. “Our power players, those who have maxed out at all of the levels and skills, are bored. Some may not even log on every day anymore. It’s not just about gaining new subscribers, we need to retain our existing ones.”

This was news to me. While it made sense, it hadn’t been in my prospectus or my quote. It was completely out of my comfort zone and that made me a little edgy.

“And best of all,” Terri said, “giving the subscribers an epic weapon if they complete all the lead-in quests will get them back to logging on daily. It will give your maxed-out-level players something new to do in-game while they wait for the release, but if you offer a special pet or custom boat, you can also attract new players who want to start the expansion with something that puts them ahead of everyone else.”

“Brilliant. I wish we’d thought of that,” Curtis said. “But we’ve been beta testing all the bugs to get ready for the release instead of actually planning our attack for the release. This is why I hired you guys.”

He clapped me on the arm and gave me a wide grin.

“Right,” I said, still feeling a step behind.

“The code for an in-game event and some new weapons and items shouldn’t be too difficult. I’ll get the programmers on it.” Curtis turned to Terri and asked, “How many sign-ins do you need to advertise in-game? Or are your people already leveled?”

“Uh,” I said, and Terri butted in again.

“Ten people should do it. Five newbies and five level-sixty accounts should be able to spread the message across all the continents.”

I had no idea what they were talking about and that was a fucking problem. I didn’t play this stupid game. I didn’t want to. I knew how to sell a product. I didn’t know how to enter a computer game and promote an expansion. That was what Lemmingware’s programmers should be doing, right?

Yet, it seemed, I was wrong. The client had his heart set on whatever Terri had sold him on. I realized she wasn’t wearing a Beanery apron. My fists clenched. The opportunist little bitch played me. Oh, she was good. Instead of coming across as a caterer, she was letting Curtis assume she was an employee of the Wentworth Agency.

“Terri, I think you should coordinate this.” Curtis gripped her shoulder and I wanted to break his fingers.

Stop touching her.

I had a choice. I could risk losing a multimillion-dollar contract or I could bring Terri on as a contractor, because if she thought she was getting a permanent job by screwing with my head, she was in for a big surprise.

Terri’s mouth dropped open. “Oh, I don’t—“

“Traditional hours,” I cut in smoothly. “That’s all right, Terri. We want to hit all the time zones.”

“Exactly,” Curtis said. “I’m so glad I met you.” He shook her hand warmly and then turned back to me. “Let’s go sign those contracts.”

“What the fuck?” Terri mouthed at me when Curtis turned his back.

“I’ll need you in my office at noon,” I said to her over my shoulder. Truer words were never spoken. I needed her on her hands and knees, with my fist in her hair. I needed her grunting and moaning while I fucked her so hard, those gorgeous tits swung. I wanted to watch her swallow my cock and a whole dirty laundry list of other sexual things. But that wasn’t going to happen again. Because Terri Cooke just got her wish. She was hired as my new marketing assistant—at least until I got her to show me the ins and outs of World of Legends. And unlike my brother, I didn’t fuck my subordinates.