This will be over in half an hour and you will avoid Pete Sovereign like the plague after that, she told herself.
“Mark and I get along well,” she said. “I’m sorry to hear you and he didn’t.” And then she thought that maybe her response had been the worst of both worlds—not the sly agreement Pete had been trying to coax out of her, and not enough of an endorsement of Mark’s strengths.
“It wasn’t that I didn’t get along with him,” said Pete breezily. “He didn’t get along with me.”
“Well, whichever it was, I hope you can see that doing this tour is in both of your best interests.”
“Is it?”
“There’s a lot of money and exposure in it for you.”
“What else is in it for me?” Pete asked, and there was no missing the note of invitation.
She’d expected this. Once Mark had told her what had happened between him and Pete, she’d understood their past vividly. There were many things she couldn’t know—how much of Pete’s interest in Lyn had been in Lyn herself, how much had been straight-across sexual envy of Mark, and how much had been fed by ambition. But it was clear that the seeds of rivalry were deeply sown, and it was just as clear that Pete was determined to find a way to use her to get to Mark.
She had to divert him, had to redirect his jealousy or lust or whatever it was. If she could somehow play straight to his weaknesses, his vanity and his ego, she might have a shot.
And then she saw her angle. “What’s in it for you? The chance to work on your public image.”
“My image?”
She’d surprised him, set him back on his heels, and she savored the victory. “When was the last time you looked yourself up online? Have you searched for yourself to see what people are saying about you on Twitter?”
He’d recovered his bluster. “I don’t need to ego surf to know where I stand.”
“There are very few people in the world who wouldn’t benefit from some image improvement consulting.”
“Are you saying there’s something wrong with my image?”
“I’m just saying that I think you and I can make a deal.”
She saw his eyes flick back to her cleavage, and she added, “A purely business deal.”
“So few things in the world are pure,” he murmured.
“Business,” she repeated firmly.
Something flared behind his eyes, but he nodded. “State your terms.”
“If you drop whatever your vendetta is against Mark and agree to do the tour, I’ll throw in a bunch of free image advice as we go along. I can give you tips and pointers. We’re talking hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars of insight. But you have to stop holding the tour over Mark’s head.”
“Does Mark know you’re making this deal?”
“Yes,” she lied.
She hadn’t told Mark she was having coffee with Pete because she knew how much he didn’t want her to. And she definitely hadn’t told him she was cutting a deal with Pete because she was pretty sure Mark would be livid with rage.