Blood Possession Read Online Free PDF Page A

today? I mean, really? What are the odds of something like this happening? Ever? ”
    Tiffany gently grasped Brooke’s forearm. Her sea-green eyes were muted with kindness. “Oh, sweetie…okay, so it was an…unfortunate moment. A very unfortunate moment. But honestly? The presentation was really, really good—once you got back on your feet.” She bit her lip to keep from laughing.
    “Don’t you mean, once I got back on my bare feet?” She brushed Tiffany’s arm away and took another slow sip of her coffee. “Oh hell, I think I took the entire women’s movement back a century today.” Despite her gallant attempts at humor, her eyes welled up with tears. “I have never been so humiliated in all my life. That presentation meant so much to me!” Her shoulders sagged and she curled into herself, dropping her head down on her arms.
    Tiffany stood up then. She hurried to the other side of the table, sat down next to her friend, and brushed a wayward lock of brunette hair away from her face. “Listen to me, Brooke…”
    Brooke frowned.
    “I mean it. Listen! ”
    “What?”
    “Are you listening?”
    “ Yesss—what? ”
    “You know as well as I do that what made the presentation important was not the delivery but the information. You showed Halloway a solid way to make a boatload of money, and you backed it up with concrete facts and figures. You introduced an entirely new way of thinking about things that the top brass never even considered, and that , more than anything, got their attention.” She sat back and crossed her arms. “So you had an unfortunate moment—so what? Money talks, Brooke, and that presentation spoke loud and clear. As far as I’m concerned, you took a ground-breaking idea, sold it in a half an hour, and wrapped it all up in a gorgeous silk bow—namely, a really great ass !” She smiled broadly. “Add a little damsel-in-distress theme to the mix, and frankly, there wasn’t a man in the room that wasn’t sold. And the women? Well, luckily for you, Halloway has the final say. You mark my words: This whole incident is going to end up working in your favor.”
    Brooke peeked at her friend from beneath her hands. “You have the strangest way of looking at things, Tiff. Do you really think I still have a prayer?”
    “Yes,” Tiffany answered emphatically. “Are you kidding me?”
    Brooke sat up a little straighter. “Man, I really hope so.” She offered a halfhearted smile. “At the least, I hope Halloway doesn’t hold it against me.”
    Tiffany laughed then, her kind eyes brightening with a twinkle. “You know, for such a smart woman, you can really be dense sometimes.”
    Brooke frowned.
    “What is Halloway?” Tiffany asked.
    Brooke wrinkled up her forehead. “The boss?”
    “ What is Halloway? ”
    “The CEO—”
    “No! Before that. After that . What is Halloway?”
    Brooke shook her head.
    “He’s a man , Brooke.”
    Brooke rolled her eyes. “Maybe, but a very discerning, professional man—who I doubt makes decisions based on some primal, male instinct.”
    “Agreed,” Tiffany stated. “And if your ideas and your presentation sucked, then I don’t think standing in front of the room buck-naked would’ve helped you. But that’s not the case. And all things considered, you really do have a great ass.”
    Brooke laughed then. She couldn’t help it. Leave it to Tiffany to find the silver lining in every cloud. “I kind of do, don’t I?” At least she hadn’t flashed anything she had to be ashamed of.
    Tiffany smiled. “See, there you go!”
    Brooke sighed, feeling a little better. A little . “I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.”
    “Trust me, darling,” Tiffany assured her. “You won’t be waiting long.”
    Brooke shrugged then. She crumpled up her napkin and tossed it in a large gray wastebasket just behind their table. “I think I’ve had enough caffeine for a while.” She stood up, walked to the bin, and dumped her coffee, careful to