Bouncer Post #16

Title: CHANGE OF INTENT

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Word Count: 81,500

Query:

Exhausted from a retched day of contract negotiations, CEO Lily Abbott unloads from a taxi on a rainy day in Chicago. Instead of a soak in one of the hotel's famous sunken tubs, she is intercepted by brilliant and charming Samuel Payne, co-founder of the exclusive Sapphire Properties. Minutes later, she shares a Sapphire elevator with Samuel’s equally handsome and successful partner, Andie Taylor. Lily soon finds that two infamous billionaires mean twice the heartache and even more press coverage.

Lily is in Chicago to close the most important deal of her career. Instead, she is catapulted into a red-hot romance with impulsive, passionate Samuel and into business negotiations with boyish, blue-eyed Andie. Relentlessly followed by paparazzi and plunged into the world of fame and glamour surrounding Sapphire, Lily struggles to keep business affairs separated from affairs of the heart. A press stunt with Samuel’s rock-star ex-girlfriend spirals out of control in front of the cameras, nearly nullifying Lily’s big contract along with her romance and Sapphire’s planned risky expansion into the music industry. Everything is decided on the red carpet in Las Vegas where the trio is set to launch a joint venture that might turn everything around. Companies and hearts are put to the test as Lily, Samuel and Andie head toward either bankruptcy or love.

First 250:

I sat in my office and waited for The Call. The call that would propel me, Lily Abbott, and my web development firm upwards like I’d always dreamed. It was the culmination of thirteen years of hard work and sacrifice. It was success.

Rocking in my leather desk chair and staring at the ceiling, I waited. I hated waiting.

There was nothing left to do, but knowing that didn’t make it any easier. I stood and paced my office, filing some papers and caught myself staring at the three Webby Awards on the wall. Web X.0 had earned each of them and the awards were good, but closing this deal would be better. It meant money, yes, but even more it meant prestige, respect and validation. It meant access to the premiere circle of firms and clients in the world of eCommerce, those selling billions of dollars on the Internet. I wanted to close this account. I wanted it bad.

Suzann Gregory, CIO of Hoyt & Barnes would make me wait for The Call of course. It was her style. She enjoyed watching vendors squirm while she poked at us with her big-retailer, mauve-painted claws. It was her prerogative. She’d let me stew. Hoyt & Barnes was Fortune 15. They were the also the ninth largest online retailer anywhere. She knew I’d invested a good sized chunk of Web X.0’s resources into this deal. She would sweat me out. If I were Suzann; blonde and well endowed with killer instinct, I’d be tempted to draw things out too. But in the end, I was betting she’d call.