Cinderella's Christmas Affair

“Cold hands, warm heart. Do you have a warm heart, CJ?” he asked.

No way was Tad Randolph—the only boy she’d ever allowed herself to have a crush on—flirting with her in the middle of the conference room.

“CJ?”

“Uh…I don’t know.”

“There’s something familiar about you,” he said.

She took her cards from his grip and nervously shuffled them. Oh, God, please don’t let him remember me. She was never going to be able to do this.

“Have we met?”

She shook her head. God, don’t get me for lying, she thought. Just in case she crossed her fingers behind her back. Before she could answer her boss walked in.

“CJ was featured in Advertising Age last year as part of their Top Thirty To Watch. Twenty-somethings who were taking the advertising world by storm,” Butch Baker said from the doorway.

Butch was forty-eight and had been with Taylor, Banks and Markim forever. He was her immediate boss and observing today as part of the promotion process. CJ was next in line for the directorship of the domestic division of the advertising company. Today’s meeting wasn’t a make-it or break-it deal, but bagging the sporting goods contract would give her a nice lead over her competition.

Butch and Tad turned aside to discuss mutual friends and CJ turned back to her presentation. Everything was in place. If she’d paid closer attention to her notes then she would have realized that P.T. Xtreme Sports was owned by Tad Randolph.

Normally, her secretary Marcia would have taken care of notifying her of such details. But Rae-Anne had been lucky to find the file on the company before they’d had to come down to the conference room.

She missed Marcia. They’d worked together for four years like a well-oiled machine until Marcia had fallen in love with Stuart Mann and married him. The couple had decided to start a family, which left CJ without Marcia’s presence in the office. Not that she begrudged Marcia her family, she just wished they’d had more time to train this temp.

“You nervous?” Rae-Anne asked when Tad’s other executives filled the conference room.

“I shouldn’t be. This is routine.” Sure, it’s every day the boy you had a girlhood crush on was the key to an important account…and your promotion.

“Then why are you?” Rae-Anne asked.

“That’s the million dollar question, Rae-Anne. Thanks for helping me set up. You can go back to the office now.”

“No problem. Good luck, CJ.”

“I need more than luck,” CJ said. She needed a miracle, but her life had been short on those.

Taking a deep breath, she squared her shoulders and began her presentation. She avoided meeting Tad’s gaze. And spoke with all the confidence she’d cultivated since she’d left that small town she’d grown up in, and honed since Marcus had left her.

It would be a lot easier to deal with Tad’s reappearance in her life if he weren’t so damned attractive.

Remember what he said about you and how it felt to realize you’d put your trust in someone who was so superficial. Remember that Tad wasn’t the only one to teach you that lesson. Marcus did as well.

How many times did she have to be hurt before she’d finally learned?

Her career had never let her down. Advertising was safer and required no heartache.

But there was a part of her—Cathy Jane—that wondered what it’d be like to kiss Tad Randolph, high school superstar. A little experiment to see if all the hype that had surrounded Tad during high school had been accurate.

She was no longer the girl with the baggy clothes and frizzy hair. She was a sophisticated city girl who knew how to make men take notice of her and wasn’t afraid of their attention. At least in the boardroom she knew how to do it.

Life couldn’t get much better, CJ thought. Once she started talking her confidence returned and she realized that even if Tad recognized her it wasn’t the end of the world.

“I know you had a long-standing relationship with Tollerson but together we can take P.T. Xtreme Sports to the next level,” she said.

“Very impressive. We’ll be making our decision at the end of the week,” Tad said, wrapping up her presentation.

He had a few words with Butch as CJ cleaned up her presentation boards. Not bad, she thought. She’d made it through the presentation and unless she’d missed her guess, P.T. Xtreme Sports was going to be the newest account in her impressive portfolio.

“Great job, CJ,” Butch said.

“Thanks, Butch.”

Butch walked out of the room and CJ felt like doing the Snoopy dance of joy.

Slowly the conference room emptied leaving only herself and Tad. Why was he still here?

Nervously, she tugged at the hem of her suit jacket. “I’m really impressed with you, CJ Terrence.”

“Thanks,” she said. She should just clear the air, tell him they’d gone to high school together and then put it behind her.

He moved closer. There was something sensual in his eyes. Was he attracted to her? He quirked on eyebrow at her as she took a half step backwards.

“Am I scary?” he asked.

“No.”

He smiled at her and closed the gap she’d just opened with her retreat. She tried to reassure herself that he wasn’t stalking her. If she wanted to she could back away and give herself more space. But she didn’t want to. He smelled good. Closing her eyes she inhaled deeply.

He took her hand again rubbing his thumb over the back of her knuckles. “Are you sure we haven’t met before?”

Oh, God. Not again. Why hadn’t she run when she had the chance?

What was she going to say? The truth was she didn’t want him to ever look at her and picture the girl she’d been. But having an account manager that lied to you didn’t exactly inspire confidence.

The rubbing motion of his thumb was sending shots of awareness up her arm. Her hand was tingling and if she wasn’t so reluctant to have her past discovered she’d actually enjoy this time with him.

“Well…Ms. Terrence.”

“Well what, Mr. Randolph?” she said pulling her hand away.

Time to take control and get the heck out of the conference room.

“CJ Terrence…CJ…Cathy Jane?” Tad asked.

She was frozen. Unable to think of anything intelligent to say she just nodded.

“Cat Girl, I knew you looked familiar,” Tad said smiling.