Read Online Sinfully Sexy by Linda Francis Lee - Free Book Online Page B

blood-drained face spoke louder than
words.

But Chloe's concern was tempered by the sheer concentration that came
over Trey Tanner's face. She could practically see the wheels in his
head spinning as he assimilated this situation.

"As a result," he said, "what you need is something that can be easily
and quickly produced, for little money."

His dark eyes flared with an intense excitement that made her think of
a warrior who was ready to do battle and was certain that he would win.

"A reality show," he stated. "You need a locally produced reality show."

"A reality show?" Chloe asked.

"Exactly. We need to produce a reality show like MTV's The Real World . Or Fox's Joe Millionaire .
You have one basic setup that runs for as long as you want. Recurring
show, recurring audience. Recurring revenue. We can do it, and we can
do it in a month."

We.

Chloe leaped up and started pacing back and forth across Julia's
office. Not that she had far to pace,
since the room wasn't that big, and every time she got close to Trey
Tanner's chair, her mind flared
an imaginary, flashing red warning sign, causing her to jerk around and
head in the opposite direction.

"What kind of a crazy idea is that?" Chloe demanded. "Reality shows are
a dime a dozen."

"But not locally based reality shows," Trey interjected. "We're talking
about pioneering into new territory."

"That's crazy."

"You run it in place of your local evening news."

"You want to produce trash in place of news?"

"As I said, I'm talking about producing something that will earn a
recurring stream of revenue—unlike your news."

Insulted, Chloe defended their evening newscast, going on about how
twenty-four-hour cable news had saturated the airwaves. Which only
served to make Trey's point. They weren't making money in news. But a
reality TV show could.

"If you air the show while everyone else is airing news, you'll provide
an advertising outlet advertisers can't get anywhere else. You'll have
businesses flocking to pay you whatever you want to secure thirty- and
even sixty-second spots. Plus, you don't have to forget the news
forever. Just for a while. Just until you get the balance sheet
balanced."

She hated that she saw the logic. She felt oddly disconcerted and
angry, though she knew deep down
this was about more than his suggestion. She didn't know how to manage
this situation. How would she be able to concentrate, much less get
anything done, if the man was working in the building? What would
she say if she ran into him at the watercooler? How could she ignore
him in the staff meetings Julia had recently started having?

Chloe had given him the upper hand the minute she let him pull her into
the bathroom.

She mentally rolled her eyes. She had given him the upper hand the
minute she launched herself
at him like a grenade.

Geez, Chloe.

And she wasn't sure how effectively her
pretend-she-had-never-seen-him-before plan would work. Though
thankfully she'd had the inspiration to shove the purse back in his
hands and tell him he was mistaken.

Maybe it would succeed if she just kept up with the theme.

With that thought in mind, she looked him straight in the eye. "I
realize I don't know you at all, and
have never seen you before in my life—"

His lips crooked at one corner. Not a good sign.

"—but I think I can safely say that you aren't as familiar with the El
Paso television market as I am."

He responded by reeling off a whole slew of facts about her hometown
and its television viewing habits. He knew the market, which didn't
bother her because her only real goal had been to continue to hammer
home the I've-never-seen-you-in-my-life theme.

Julia leaned forward. "How exactly would this work?"

Trey reached into his briefcase and pulled out a pen and a pad of
paper. He made a few notes. When
he finished, he set the pad down. "The station could put on a bachelor
type show—"

"A bachelor show?!" Chloe barked.

Ben sat back and got comfortable. "This should be