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together. Of course,
I
understand you, but others don’t. Try a little finesse, Zach, instead of your usual bulldozer approach. You might be pleasantly surprised.”
    Was that what Anya had meant last night when she’d referred to his steamroller approach?
Had
he come on too strong with her? Was that the problem?
    “Julian Sindel called twice this morning,” Edna called to his retreating back. “And Evan Hawthorne is waiting in your office with Roland Sutton. Neither of them looks too happy.”
    When did they ever? Zach thought with a grimace as he shuffled through his messages. They were a pair of doomsayers if he’d ever seen one. Roland was a member of the board of directors and had been the most vocal opponent to Zach’s appointment. He’d had his eye on the top management position, but Kathryn had obtained just enough support from the other members to overrule him. Sutton had been impossible to deal with ever since.
    Evan, on the other hand, was a little easier to handle. He hadn’t been at the company all that long, so he didn’t suffer the deep-seated sense of loyalty some of the other executives did. No, his animosity wasn’t personal. It was simply that he had a very conservative approach toward advertising.
    And conservatism could get you nowhere fast, Zach thought as he opened the door to his office. Which is exactly where Renee Alexander had been going for the past several years. Nowhere fast.
    He nodded curtly to the two men seated in the oxbloodleather chairs as he took his own place behind the massive desk. His father’s desk. This office never failed to make Zach feel like an impostor. An interloper. However, he knew his expression gave away nothing of what he was feeling. He made sure of that. He always had.
    “Gentlemen. What can I do for you this morning?”
    “You can tell me what the hell is going on,” Roland Sutton growled without preliminary, tossing a folder across the desk toward Zach. “Do you know what this is?”
    Casually, Zach glanced down, then back up. “I believe that’s my proposal for next season’s ad campaign.”
    “You’ve allotted nearly three times as much for that campaign than was approved by the board. For a perfume that was shelved years ago! Look at the contract you’ve offered that model…that…Anya What’s-her-name. There is no bloody way in hell the board will ever authorize a contract like that. You must be out of your mind.”
    The anger rushing through Zach made his head pound even harder. He cursed the Scotch he’d tipped last night. He wasn’t by nature a patient man. Even less so the morning after. He forced his fists to unclench as he faced Sutton across the gleaming expanse of marble. “How do you think Chanel signed Catherine Deneuve for their campaign several years ago? How do you think Este´e Lauder got Paulina as their signature model, or how Revlon got Cindy Crawford? You have to pay for quality.”
    Sutton’s gray mustache twitched angrily at the corners. “A pretty face is a pretty face, Zach. Your father understood that. Your brother understood that. You seem to have a lesson to learn. We don’t throw money away like that around here. Every aspect of this business is carefully planned and budgeted, and there is no way you can ever justify the amount you offered that woman.”
    Zach felt the anger inside him crawling upward, demandingrelease. He leaned forward, meeting Sutton’s dark gaze. “Every ad campaign this company has launched in the last fifteen years has been totally forgettable. And being forgettable in the cosmetics business is like receiving the kiss of death.”
    Evan Hawthorne cleared his throat and shoved the hornrimmed glasses up his nose. “Gentlemen, with all due respect, I believe we’re straying from the focus of our concern. Besides, Anya Valorian’s contract is a moot point. I talked to her agent this morning. She still isn’t interested in signing. We’ll have to find another model.”
    “Did you up