HEATHER MACALLISTER - Tall, Dark & Reckless

Piper was pretty sure she heard a muffled snort from behind her. “That’s a good strategy for some types of men, though not—”

“But first she’s gotta find a man! And I’m not talking about someone like you!” BT pointed at Mark. “She needs somebody who’ll be around to take care of her.”

“Yes, sir.” Mark spoke with complete seriousness, but beside him, Travis was about to lose it.

“Dad, I’m fine.” Miraculously, Dancie had regained her composure. “I don’t need help finding a man.”

BT turned back to Dancie. “You’re right. They should be finding you. Look at you. So pretty. You shouldn’t be here. You should go to lunch with your mother. Play tennis. Let her take you around so the boys can see you.”

Dancie smiled. “I’ll do that.”

She would?

“I’ll call Mom after the meeting. Let’s get started, or it’ll be too late.”

Way to go, Dancie . Piper sat at the table, knowing the gentlemen in the room would, too.

They did, with BT at the head, a twin on either side and Mark and Piper facing each other across the table.

Mark had moved a little slowly, nothing anyone would have noticed unless they were watching for it, which Piper was. He leaned back in the cushioned chair and they locked gazes.

Let the games begin.

Step three: Demonstrate kindness. The perception that a woman is a kind person is the one trait that appeals to all personality types .

“OKAY.” BT SLAPPED both hands on the tabletop. “Let’s see what we got here.”

As he bent over to reach inside the battered leather satchel resting on the floor next to his chair, both Dancie and Travis emphatically mimed keeping quiet. “Don’t say anything,” Travis mouthed at Mark and included Piper with a look. She glanced at Dancie, who had her finger to her mouth.

Okay. Got the message. Piper mimed zipping her lips.

BT tossed an old-fashioned manila folder onto the table where it skidded a few inches across the shiny surface. The tab was labeled in pencil Twins Biz.

Seriously? No state-of-the art electronic tablets or laptops for him, which was ironic, when Piper thought about it.

BT settled his glasses in place and opened the folder. The next few minutes passed in silence as he read and the twins tried to decipher his expressions. An eyebrow raised here, a head nod there, pursed lips, both eyebrows up—what a performance. As if he hadn’t already read and analyzed every word of the quarterly stats before the meeting.

Typical beta-alpha. Petty power games to make himself feel important. Piper amused herself by watching the others’ reactions. Travis, the alpha-beta, simmered with impatience, but tried to hide it in deference to his father to whom he owed respect. Otherwise, he would have made a point of showing his contempt for those who wasted his time.

People might assume, including Piper at first, that Dancie didn’t have a drop of alpha in her, but Piper suspected she might be more alpha than Travis. If Dancie wasn’t so obviously desperate for validation from her father, her alpha side would be more noticeable.

And then there was Mr. Alpha-Alpha, himself.

Mark leaned back in the chair, swiveled slightly to the side, his lips curved as though amused. He probably was. Clearly, he recognized BT’s posturing and was entertained by it, not annoyed. And that was the difference between Travis’s type and Mark’s type. Travis was irritated because he felt he had no choice but to play his father’s game. If Mark no longer wanted to play the game, he simply wouldn’t. He knew he could always find another boardroom in which to play and to hell—heck—with the consequences.

“So.” BT sat back and removed his glasses. Tapping the folder, he said, “Travis, your sister has got some impressive numbers—even better than last quarter. Which is a good thing since your numbers are even worse than last quarter.”

“Yeah.” Travis gave a little chin nod toward Dancie. “Thanks for having my back while Mark’s leg heals.”

“I wasn’t just having your back. The Women’s Guide to Living Fabulous division is one-third of the company. Our company,” Dancie emphasized. “And this year, it was the most profitable third.”

Go, Dancie! She looked great, she sounded great and the stats were on her side.

Before Dancie could bring up being named a partner, Travis made his case to BT. “Back-to-college and football season always gets us a lot of hits, and then we segue right into the Super Bowl. Another popular time. By then, Mark will be back on assignment and posting his columns. If you average the phenomenal number of hits his page got during his rescue with the last few quarters, we come out ahead.”

“The stats show a big drop-off in his page visitors,” BT said. “What is it—eighty—ninety percent?” He threw a glance Mark’s way. “How quickly they forget, eh, Mark?”

It was only as a slight color bloomed across Mark’s face that Piper realized his skin had been growing paler as the meeting progressed.

He’s in pain . She felt slightly sick knowing she’d contributed to it. She also noted that BT’s words had made Mark angry. Really angry, judging by that gritted jaw and unblinking stare. Maybe his anger would distract him from the pain in his leg.

Before Piper could figure out what had triggered Mark’s anger, Travis spoke. “His fans will come back when there’s new content. And have we ever got content, right, Mark?” He gestured for Mark to speak.

Nodding, Mark rested his forearms on the table. “There’s an ongoing dispute between brothers over oil rights on tribal lands in the Middle East and it appears the U.S. may be dealing with the wrong brother.”

He liked to use his hands to emphasize key words when he spoke. Piper guessed it was a habit from the videos he posted online.

She heard the growing intensity in his voice as he sketched out his plans for the story. He clearly loved what he did and Piper caught herself wishing she felt the same passion about her work. It wasn’t that she disliked what she was doing—she enjoyed helping people identify personality issues and quirks and how they affected them and those around them. Or as one of her corporate clients said, “You show us the hot buttons so we won’t push them.” But these days she had way more of the why-can’t-I-get-a-second-date women clients than corporate consultations.

Maybe once the online Piper Plan was established, women could figure out their man problems on their own and Piper could … could … She was unable to complete the thought. And that was her problem.

Later. She’d puzzle it out after the meeting. For now, she’d focus on that.

Mark was finishing up his pitch. “I’m going to head over to El Bahar to investigate. If my information is true, and I think it is, then this will be huge.” He sat back.

Piper believed him. How could anyone not? Negligent good looks coupled with the contained, focused intensity he’d learned speaking into webcameras equaled sincerity. People would believe anything he said. And if they were aware they were being manipulated; they wouldn’t care. Piper didn’t and she recognized it. Mark made people want to believe him. The man had charisma and an agenda, which made him dangerous.

And he was barely trying. Piper kind of wanted to see him when he was operating at full power. Maybe she’d access the OMG archives and watch a few podcasts.

“And OMG will have the exclusive,” Travis was saying.

See? Mark had even distracted Piper from her objective today and she was letting them make their case for the budget dollars without a fight.

“To get the excitement started,” Travis continued, “we’ll be promoting the heck out of Mark’s return during our Guys Annual Super Bowl Party.”