When she'd confronted him, demanding an explanation for stealing her account, he'd bristled, denying he'd ever do such a thing, claiming that Walter Strattford was a long-standing friend of his family and had sought him out. After Matt's story had proven true, even though she was still irritated, Jilly had attempted to offer an olive branch, but clearly Matt wanted no part of her peace offering. He seemed to have singled her out as his main competition. As Jilly wasn't about to let him usurp her hard-won position at Maxximum, the line in the sand had been drawn.

Unfortunately, the part of her that demanded complete honesty had to admit-albeit grudgingly-that Matt Davidson's creative abilities were pretty impressive. Okay, incredibly impressive. And as if he wasn't already irritating enough, the guy had the nerve to be good-looking to boot. With his dark hair and deep blue eyes, Matt Davidson definitely wasn't hard to look at.

Still, she had no intention of turning her back on someone as openly ambitious as Matt. Advertising was dog eat dog, and she had no intention of getting devoured.

"Well, he might be your biggest rival and a pain in the butt," Kate said, yanking her from her reverie, "but based on that glimpse I caught of him that one time when you pointed him out, he's very cute."

"Yeah. Cute like a rattlesnake. You saw him at a distance. The closer you get, the less attractive he is, believe me." Her inner voice chanted something that sounded suspiciously like liar, liar, pants on fire, but she wrapped a muzzle on the pesky voice, and forced her annoying coworker from her thoughts.

Her career was priority one. And with hard work and dedication, she had a feeling that this weekend at Chateau Fontaine was going to bring her everything she wanted.

Chapter 2

Stopping under the columned portico that stood in front of Chateau Fontaine's curved driveway, Matt shifted his Lexus into Park and gratefully exited the vehicle. His legs were stiff from six straight hours of sitting, and his ass felt like it weighed eight hundred pounds. For the amount of time he'd been in the car, he could have driven to damn Canada.