Delphine Dryden - When in Rio (pdf).pdf - po ang - Januszek66

An Ellora’s Cave Romantica Publication

www.ellorascave.com

When in Rio

ISBN 9781419920554

Edited by Kelli Collins.

Cover art by Syneca.

Electronic book Publication February 2009

The terms Romantica® and Quickies® are registered trademarks of Ellora’s Cave Publishing.

With the exception of quotes used in reviews, this book may not be reproduced or used in whole or in

part by any means existing without written permission from the publisher, Ellora’s Cave Publishing,

Inc.® 1056 Home Avenue, Akron OH 44310-3502.

Warning: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. No part of

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This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales

is purely coincidental. The characters are productions of the author’s imagination and used fictitiously.

W HEN IN R IO

Delphine Dryden

Trademarks Acknowledgments

The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of the

following wordmarks mentioned in this work of fiction:

BMW: Bayerische Motoren Werke Aktiengesellschaft

Clark Kent: DC Comics

Fantasy Island : Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc.

Google: Google Inc.

Jeep: DaimlerChrysler Corporation

Land Rover: Land Rover Corporation

Lois Lane: DC Comics

Mercedes: DaimlerChrysler Corporation

Snow White: Disney Enterprises, Inc.

Spidey: DC Comics

Starbucks: Starbucks U.S. Brands

Superman: DC Comics

Tiger Balm: Haw Par Corporation Limited

When in Rio

Chapter One

Call me crazy, but I had never wanted to visit Rio de Janeiro.

Not that I have anything against the place. It’s beautiful by anybody’s standards.

But I’m not big on beaches, I don’t like crowds, I can’t dance the samba and, while I do

recall a smattering of my high school Spanish, I don’t know a word of Portuguese.

Why couldn’t it have been a business trip to Megève, Switzerland? Lake Louise,

Canada? Even just a quick hop to Seattle, where I could drink Starbucks in the home of

Starbucks, and my pasty-pale skin wouldn’t be at risk of sunburn, and my light-

shunning eyes wouldn’t have to squint and don sunglasses against the glare. But no.

None of those trips were on offer.

Instead, my boss was calmly explaining what my functions would be when I

accompanied him to a weeklong global climate change conference to be held in

beautiful, sunny Rio. Starting ten days from that very day.

If I’d known this was the price I’d pay for my recent unsought promotion, I would

have taken more care to seem mediocre at my job.

But let me back up just a little, provide a little more context. My name is Katie

Snow—Katherine, really, and please don’t call me Kathy—and I’m an ecologist with

Globe Oil. Until recently, this meant I went to a lot of places where my company did

business, gathering data and writing reports for the EPA on how well the company was

complying with various environmental regulations. Clean air and water, impact

statements, proposed countermeasures…exciting stuff like that. My mistake, I realized

too late, was that people found out I could write. And organize.

And that meant that pretty soon, I caught the attention of the Senior Vice President

and Global Director of Environmental Studies, John Benedict. The Big Boss.

Jack, to his closer colleagues. And presumably to his friends. None of us actually

knew if he had any though. Jack was mainly just something the yes-men throughout the

company called him when he wasn’t around, as in, “Jack is behind this project one

hundred percent”, or “We’d need Jack’s approval before even considering that”. Or

even, occasionally, “Jackass”. But almost all the top company brass came in for that sort

of name calling occasionally. My friend Callie was more inclined to say “Jack…off”

because she thought he was smoking hot.

“He’s the senior vice president in charge of what’s in my pants,” she would

whisper to me with a goofy grin, whenever she was with me and we had occasion to see

him at a meeting or in the company cafeteria. But then, Callie was a geologist and they

could be an odd bunch at times.

Delphine Dryden - When in Rio (pdf).pdf

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