He didn’t give her a chance to respond, disappearing behind the kitchen door, and she couldn’t help the tears that suddenly filled her eyes. She was glad this whole thing was behind them now. Stuart’s intentions had been good, but something about their conversation made everything with Maddie seem final to her, too. Whatever they’d started with the flirting and the kiss was absolutely over now. Talking with Stuart had clarified her own misgivings.

Still, she couldn’t help a sharp pang of regret.

Chapter Fifteen

Ryann left Stuart’s very early the next morning. He’d woken long enough to have coffee with her, and they made plans to meet in the afternoon to go to the studio together. He went back to his bedroom as she was leaving.

It had stopped snowing some time overnight, but the skies were uncharacteristically gray and dark, threatening more. The roads had been cleared, but the sidewalks were somewhat treacherous in places. Still, she made it back to the hotel in one piece, calling Ted the moment she walked into her room.

He let her know that the board wanted to force her to drop the deal—they had no confidence that she would pull this off without London in on it, and having been there, they were certain nothing could persuade the Brits to shift their dates. She asked Ted to call a virtual, emergency board meeting later that morning. In addition to getting her notes lined up, she spent extra time on her appearance. She had one dress suit with her for exactly something like this, and she was careful with her makeup—aiming for a femme fatale but professional look. She wanted to appear powerful but hot—something that always threw them off.

The meeting went poorly from the beginning. The board had apparently decided to band against her, even her closest allies, which left her as the only dissenting voice in the entire room. She couldn’t ignore them—as a group they controlled the majority of the company—but the longer they argued with her and belittled her ideas, the more determined she became to prove them wrong.

Finally, Ted, who wasn’t officially part of this discussion in any way, made a quiet suggestion: send her to London, let her try one more time to convince the London people to move their dates. After a lot of grandstanding and endless speeches, her board finally agreed. She had one week to get London to agree, or her company was backing out.

After the others logged out of the session, she and Ted were left alone, staring at each other silently.

“Well, that went terribly,” she finally said.

He sighed. “I mean, I guess it could have been worse, but only if they’d made you back out now.”