In the Market for Love Read Free Page A

surely he hadn’t already made up his mind about that.
    She sucked in a deep breath. “We also have high rates of skin cancer and the new sun screen we’ve developed can reduce this.” That was the point she’d been trying to make before he interrupted.
    She knew the project inside out and had spent two years convincing the company CEO that marketing the sun screen would benefit the community and bring in profits for further pharmaceutical research. She was not going to let one man ruin two years of work.
    “W ho’s your target market again?” Marcus asked.
    “Families,” she said. “This is an inexpensive product for families and also for the wider community.”
    “So you’re not aiming at people like me who are too young to b e married.” Marcus sniggered. “I’m only thirty-one.”
    “ We do want to include men, fathers in particular.”
    “There are a few ways to get dads interested.” Marcus seemed to be thinking out loud. “And an attractive girl in a bikini never fails. We could use that new soap actress. What’s her name? The one that looks like Pammie Anderson. Every married man in Australia would want her smearing sun screen all over them.”
    Rachel glared at him . “I don’t think so!”
    “I didn’t mean–“
    “The idea of married men playing around. That’s outright offensive. There’s no excuse for it. Not ever. Marriage isn’t a joke. It’s not something to be taken lightly. Not when you live with someone and you have a family.”
    “I just meant that’s one way we could sell the campaign,” Marcus said.
    “That m ay be the case but it’s not the right way for us.”
    Jake’s shoulders tensed as he gripped a pen with both hands. “Hang on. We’re jumping ahead of ourselves here. We haven’t agreed to take the campaign on. Although, Rachel, the way you described the campaign gives it much more of a hook than the way your CEO explained it to me yesterday.”
    “I’m sorry,” she said. “You’ve spoken to my boss?”
    “Yes, b ut I confess he didn’t sell me on it as you have.”
    She had no idea he’d spoken to her ma nager at length. She didn’t like surprises. She liked to be prepared.
    “So why did you let me keep talking when you already knew all about the campaign?” she asked. “Or why, in fact, did we need this meeting at all?”
    “I wanted to hear what you had to say.”
    “Thank you for listening. Perhaps it’s time to hear what you have to say.”
    Rachel smiled to cover the anger smouldering inside her. She knew the score. Jake had already decided whether or not the agency would take on the campaign but he was letting her go through the motions in the meantime.
    She waited quietly for his answer.
    *          *          *
    Rachel’s reaction to Marcus’ suggestion ripped through Jake like an earth tremor. He hadn’t suggested an Australia wide campaign promoting infidelity, merely the use of a scantily clad attractive female, hardly uncommon in advertising. Yet her bitter response left no doubt as to her feelings on the subject.
    Had she noticed his own shocked reaction to her comments? A hundred thoughts rocketed through his mind as he shifted in his chair. He knew instinctively that she wouldn’t have a bar of a married man under any circumstances. What would she think of him if she knew the truth?
    And now she was waiting for an answer on the campaign.
    He locked eyes with her, desperately hoping an answer would come to him.
    He’d only allowed this meeting as a business courtesy. The agency had many requests for pro bono projects and he’d never planned to take this one on. As a small research company, Omega wasn’t a large corporation or profitable venture like the agency’s other clients. There was no money in it and the campaign certainly wouldn’t be a prestigious one. There was no good reason to take on the project.
    Yet he knew instinctively that if he turned down the campaign, Rachel would never wish to see