Chapter 2 BUILDED ATTRACTION 2

'Nice car,' he said as he headed back down and saw Clare unlocking her 5 series BMW. He wiped the sweat off his brow with his forearm. He was looking at her, not the silver-coloured car. Clare was not tall, no more than five foot two in her bare feet, and Gary seemed to tower over her.

'Goes with the job, she said, wishing she had the courage to say what was really on her mind and knowing she never would.

'Nice job, then,' he said. He had a strong South London accent.

Their eyes met. He smiled at her. It was a wistful smile. She wondered if he had ever entertained thoughts about her as graphic as the ones she'd had about him in the last few days.

"Are you working late tonight?' Gary was always the first to arrive and the last to leave.

'Yeah.

'See you later, then, she said cheerily, getting into the car. She started the engine but could not resist staring at those taut buttocks, each one a neat handful, as he wheeled the barrow back into her house.

For some reason traffic was light and it took

Clare no more than fifteen minutes to drive from her house in Kensington to Grosvenor Square. She parked her car in the underground car park of KissCo's offices, one of only three employees allowed to do so, and took the lift up to her office. It overlooked a corner of the square and the hot weather had already brought people out on to the grass, men stripping off their shirts, women furtively hitching up their skirts to expose the maximum amount of leg to the sun's rays. None of the half a dozen men she could see stretched out on the grass had a physique to rival Gary's.

The phone on her desk rang before she'd had a chance to sit down.

'Call from Houston,' Janice, Clare's secretary, said with the appropriate foreboding in her voice.

Houston was the company headquarters and calls or correspondence from there often resulted in a great deal of extra work for Clare and her team.

'It's a bit early. Clare sat down at her high-backed, leather swivel chair and looked at her watch. It was five to ten, which meant it was five to four in the morning in Houston.

"The early bird,' Janice joked.

'Put it through.'

The line clicked. 'Ms Markham. I have Bridget Goldsmith on the line for you

The line clicked again.

'Clare, good morning

'Ms Goldsmith, you're up early

Bridget Goldsmith was the President and Chief Operating Executive of KissCo worldwide. Clare was not at all surprised to get a call from her at such an early hour. The rumour in the company was that Bridget never slept.

'I've decided to come to London, Clare,' she said, getting right to the point.

'Oh?'

"The European launch is set for when?'

'First of September.

'That's just over three months. I think I should come and have a look see before then. I m going to schedule a trip to Paris too.

"To see Claude,' Clare said coolly.

'Should be swinging by in, say, two weeks. I'll fax you the actual schedule when it's confirmed.

Meantime can you work up a presentation for me.

The ad agency, , the marketing people. I want to review everything.

'We're already in the process of combining presentation.

'Good.

'Is there a problem?' The European launch was to be KissCo's biggest marketing operation outside America. A whole new range of cosmetics was to be targeted at every major European country at the same time, with an integrated advertising campaign.

No, no problem. I just want to have a look. My thinking on this is that it might be better to co-ordinate the launch from Paris.'

'I see.' Clare saw exactly. Claude Duhamel, the managing director of the French subsidiary, had recently returned from a visit to Houston. He had obviously not missed the chance to cast doubt on Clare's competence to handle such a large and expensive operation.

Clare's promotion had been sudden and unexpected. Usually all senior staff up for such important positions were shipped to Houston for extensive evaluations. But KissCo's UK managing director had been poached by a rival company and there had been no time. Clare, as the second most senior person, had been the only possible replacement. Claude had no doubt made capital out of the fact that she had not been properly vetted.

Don't worry about hotels. We'll do it all from here.'

'Anything else you want?'

I'll call you if I think of anything. Bye for now Having dropped the bombshell Bridget sounded

cheery.