Page 39 of Infatuation (The Josh & Kat Trilogy #1)

Twenty-Seven

Kat

Sarah sputters and stammers for a moment, clearly incapable of responding to Henn’s question, so Jonas grabs her hand and speaks for her, telling the group about how Max demanded a “freebie” from Sarah yesterday at The Club’s offices and then followed up with a creepy-skeevy text demanding she come through.

“What should I do?” Sarah asks the group, obviously wracked with anxiety. “Ignore him? Answer him? Hide?”

“Ignore him and hide,” Jonas says firmly. “I don’t want you saying a fucking thing to that motherfucker.”

“I agree,” Josh says, clenching his jaw. “Ignore him and hide.”

Finally, something I know a shit-ton about. Men.

“No,” I say emphatically, straightening up in my chair. “ Answer him and hide. Ignoring him will piss him off, and we don’t want to piss that guy off. We want to keep him calm and confident and predictable.”

There’s a brief silence while everyone mulls over what I’ve just said.

“Dr. Evil’s real boner isn’t for Sarah—it’s for Jonas,” I continue.

“Jesus, Kat,” Jonas says, grimacing. “Please don’t say it that way.”

I can feel Josh’s eyes trained on me, and suddenly, I feel emboldened.

I might not be the sharpest knife in the drawer when it comes to brainiac stuff like hacking and world politics and legal research and figuring out how to take down a global crime syndicate, but when it comes to men and PR, I’m flippin’ Einstein, peeps.

“Not sexually ,” I say. “He’s got an alpha-male boner for you, Jonas. This is all about a beta silverback wanting to knock off the obvious alpha. He wants what you’ve got so he can win . Hence, his Jonas-boner.”

“For Chrissakes, please stop saying that,” Jonas says.

“So how should I reply to him, then?” Sarah asks.

“We have to keep him off your back and convince him you’re motivated solely by greed and absolutely not by loyalty to Jonas,” I say. “The more he thinks your interests are the same as his, the safer you’ll be. You’ve got to keep him trusting you. If you ignore him, he’ll start getting paranoid.”

Sarah looks at Jonas and he nods like he’s in agreement with everything I’ve said—and when I glance at Josh, he nods encouragingly, a smile dancing on his lips—so I forge ahead.

“Tell Max not to text—Jonas is monitoring your phone,” I say, “and he’s just on the cusp of giving you another humongous check.

That way, you play right into his egomania and also appeal to his greed.

No matter how much he wants his little freebie to satisfy his Jonas-boner—”

“Okay, Kat, that’s enough,” Jonas cautions.

“—he won’t insist on it at the risk of sabotaging the scam. We’ll just make Jonas out to be the bad guy and let Sarah sound like she’s doing her best to manage him and keep the money rolling in.”

Everyone’s staring at me, but no one’s saying a word.

I glance at Josh again and the look on his face right now is unmistakable: I’ve surprised him.

I shrug. “What? There are two things I know well in this life—PR and men.”

Josh laughs a full-throated laugh and beams a heart-stopping smile at me, quite obviously thoroughly impressed.

“Nice,” Henn says, grinning broadly at me.

“Hey, I might be dumb ,” I say, “but I’m not blonde .”

Everyone laughs and so do I—but the way Josh is laughing and smiling is making me do more than laugh; it’s making me sizzle and pop like Rice Krispies in milk.

Josh grabs my hand and squeezes it, his eyes blazing at me. “Does everyone agree with Kat on this? Because I most certainly do.”

Everyone expresses enthusiastic agreement with everything I’ve said, and I feel myself swell with pride.

Josh leans into my ear, still squeezing my hand. “I do believe this little fishy just went for a swim in the river.” He kisses the top of my hand.

I look at him quizzically and he smiles broadly.

“Trust me, I won’t,” Sarah is saying in response to something Jonas just said.

“Now that I know that creep’s out there watching me, I have no desire to leave the suite ever again.

I’ve got to hunker down and write my report, anyway.

This is going to be a huge job.” Sarah shakes her head. “This is so crazy.”

“It’s totally insane,” Henn agrees, exhaling happily. “Isn’t it awesome? ”

Henn and Sarah begin chatting about their strategy for gathering the mountain of data and documents Sarah needs for her report and my attention drifts to Josh. He’s staring right at me, his eyes smoldering.

“Hey, Josh,” I whisper. “Can I talk to you for a minute over there?”

“My pleasure.”

We move to a sitting area in the corner of the suite, away from the rest of the group.

“What’s up, Party Girl with a Hyphen?” Josh asks. He leans back in his chair, making himself comfortable.

“I got a really interesting email from my boss a little while ago,” I say.

“Oh yeah?” he asks. “What’d it say?”

“It seems I’ve somehow managed to secure a huge new account for my firm—an account I’ve apparently been working on while I’ve been here in Vegas, all while getting shitfaced and barfing on your shoes—an account that’s so big and important and lucrative my boss told me to ‘stay in Vegas as long as needed.’”

“Wow. Sounds like a big account. Congratulations.”

“What did you do, Josh?”

He bites his lip. “Not a whole lot. I just picked up the phone and called a friend, that’s all.”

“Josh, what’s going on?”

He smiles broadly. “It seems one of the owners of the hottest nightclub in Las Vegas, a good friend of mine—a guy named Reed?—remember him?—well, Reed met you the other night and you two got to talking and you wound up blowing him away with a thousand amazing ideas for raising the visibility and branding for his club. And now, understandably, he wants you personally, and only you, to work on a massive PR campaign for his club all month. He’s redoing all the branding, at your suggestion, which is a huge job.

Of course, he understands what a major inconvenience it is, having your personal, undivided attention for so long all the way out here in Vegas, so he was very happy to pay a ridiculous premium for your exclusive services—up front. ”

I’m speechless.

“Pretty straightforward.” He beams a huge smile at me.

“But... is there an actual campaign? Something I actually have to do in exchange for this payment?”

“Well, there’s no actual PR campaign,” he says. “But, yes, you have to do something in exchange for the payment. Of course.”

I raise an eyebrow. “And what would that be?” I feel heat rising in my cheeks.

“Well, obviously , you’ve gotta help us topple the Evil Empire and save the world.” He shrugs. “You’re a fucking PR-genius, Kat. If I didn’t already know that about you, you sure proved it in spades a minute ago.”

I blush.

He puts his hand on my knee and leans forward like he’s gonna kiss me, and my breathing catches in my throat.

He leans closer, his eyes burning, and I close my eyes, bracing myself for his warm lips against mine.

But, nope. No kiss. Instead, I feel the sensation of his fingertip pressing lightly against the cleft in my chin.

I open my eyes.

His blue eyes have darkened.

“We all need you here, Kat—you just proved that. And speaking for myself personally, I have no desire to save the world without my Party Girl with a Hyphen by my side.”