Immersed by Jennifer GriffithLisette Pannebaker speaks five languages and has a brilliant business plan—personal language immersion. Clients can hire her to shadow them and speak all day in any language they need to learn for business or travel—whatever.
But there’s a major hitch: she’s far too pretty. Clients with less than honorable intentions sign up just have Lisette at their side. Solution? A make-under. Way under.It works like a charm. None of her male clients show her the least bit of interest.
Until… Erik.
Erik Gunnarsson is charming, kind, and smart—everything she’s ever looked for. Even though he seems to have a secret and she swore she'd never date a client, Lisette is tempted to shed her disguise—even if it means jeopardizing her career.
Author Jennifer GriffithJennifer Griffith studied French, German, Japanese, and a wee bit of Spanish in her school days. Her grandmother was Norwegian, and Jennifer grew up with lots of Scandinavian traditions floating around, including fabulous cardamom laced cookies called Krumkaker, made on a fancy waffle iron. However, she’d never dream of trying to teach someone any of those languages. And she might botch the cookies. Instead, she writes novels in English, drives her five kids a million places, and laughs with her husband, who came up with the plot for Immersed because he’s just a cool muse like that.
EXCERPTS
#1
This was it, the day she’d waited
and worked for over the past years—her degree would be firmly in her hand.
Lisette Pannebaker, Master of Business Administration. Her smile even made her
eyes scrunch.
Dad’s dress shirt would’ve popped
buttons, had he been here to see her.
But it wasn’t just the degree.
Chances were that tonight she’d have something else in hand. Or, rather, on her hand. She’d seen the little navy
velvet box on Justin’s coffee table—he’d left it in plain sight when she came
by to drop off dinner for him last night—and she’d nearly fainted from heart
palpitations last week when he’d dragged her past windows sparkling with diamonds
and asked whether she thought round cut or brilliant cut had more fire.
Brilliant
cut, of course.
Ah, Justin Fox. She sighed for his
blond crew cut, his square jaw. Mrs.
Justin Fox. It fit. Lisette Pannebaker, student, no more. Now she’d be Mrs.
Justin Fox, Master of Business Administration.
#2
Aunt Corky interjected with a
selling point. “Amanda, I think Lisette might have a good thing going with this
plan of hers. Only the wealthiest business people will be able to afford to
hire her as a linguist. It’s going to be a good pool to draw from.” She aimed
her fork’s tines for emphasis.
Geez. Great. Now her mom would
think Lisette was only starting this business to catch a rich husband. And
she’d expect Lisette to be actively looking among the clients—a complete no-no
on Lisette’s ethical standards. She’d even written it into the boilerplate
contract she expected to have every potential client sign. Aunt Corky meant
well, of course. Lisette could forgive easily. At least what Corky said
worked—there was a visible relenting in her mom’s countenance.
Lisette pounced on that. “Look,
Mom. I have a proposal. Give me three years at this. That’s a reasonable amount
of time for a startup company to either make it or break. If I haven’t both
paid you back and paid off my student loans in that amount of time—in full, to
the penny—I’ll come take the Mandarin job at Pannebaker.”
Mom took a deep breath, let it out
slowly, and relented. “Fine. But three years. Every penny. It’s a deal.” She
put an arm around Lisette’s shoulder. “I know you can do it. Of course, I’d
really rather see you fail.”
“Amanda!” Aunt Corky scolded.
“No, not that. I just want to see
her settled and having a family by then. It’s not business success that I count
as a real measure.”
Lisette had just been forcibly
booted from a relationship not an hour ago. Now was not the time to debate the
merits of marital bliss.
“Three years. You’ll only be
twenty-seven by then. There will still be a chance of happiness.” Mom sighed,
but Aunt Corky squeezed Lisette’s hand and gave a happy little jump and a
squeal.
#3
“So…what?”
“Plain and simple: you’re too
pretty for this job.”
Lisette rolled her eyes and picked
up her brush again, going at the high spots on the wall with vigor. “You’ve
been talking to my mom again. Did she finally rub off on you?” Great. Now no
one believed in her. Not even Aunt Corky. Just
a pretty face.
“No, not in that way. What I’m
saying is that your business has merit. It can totally work. But just not with
you, the way you are.”
Aunt Corky probably didn’t mean to
make Lisette want to cry, but the tears welled in her eyes all the same. This
dream had taken every waking hour of the last eighteen months. She’d poured her
heart and soul into making it grow, not to mention all the money she’d buried
in it—advertising, the office, everything. And her time. Day and night. How
entrepreneurs lived past age forty mystified her. She barely had time to keep
an eye on her elderly next door neighbors. And when a girl was too busy to
serve other people, she was too busy.
Aunt Corky reached over and grabbed
Lisette’s hand. “What I’m saying is you need a makeover.”
Lisette raised an eyebrow.
“Don’t raise that eyebrow at me, Z.
I’m serious about this.” Aunt Corky folded her arms across her chest. “Not a
makeover in the traditional sense. More like a make-under. You know, to make you look less…gorgeous.”
Here it went again, with the
appearance factor. Didn’t all the studies say that people who were good-looking
had a better chance at success than
those who were below average?
“You’re not buying it, I can tell.
But think with me. Dark circles under the eyes. A greasy wig. Lines at the
mouth. And right about here,” she pointed at her nostril, “a big wart.”
“A wart!”
“Okay, maybe not a wart. That might
be over the top. But something that will keep all the pawing maniacs at a
distance.” Aunt Corky shrugged and leaned against a dry wall like she’d made
her case and the prosecution rested. “Think about it, Z. I mean, you want
Immerse to succeed, right? All the years of language skills and business acumen
you’ve amassed, they’re going to waste.”
Lisette sighed. Even though she
wouldn’t admit it aloud to Aunt Corky, unless something changed at Immerse,
things could go south pretty fast. However, she wasn’t convinced it was reason
enough to subjugate her dignity and go into daily disguise just to ward off
pretenders.
Aunt Corky resumed painting. “Just
think about it. Don’t decide now. But if you want to do it, I know somebody.
Samantha. A genius with bad makeup. She could absolutely transform you. No one
would even recognize you.”
This was crossing over from ridiculous into the absurd.
#4
Erik Gunnarson was unbelievable.
Her mouth went dry when she saw him. Lisette hadn’t seen anything this good in
months. Years. Maybe ever. At least not in person. Sure, in movies, when men
were all filter-lit and filmed from just the right angle, they might have
looked this good, but not in person.
Suddenly the room was far too hot
for this stupid fuzzy pumpkin sweater with the shoulder pads. And this wig? She
felt like a blooming fool in it.
“Hello. I’m Lisette Pannebaker.”
She extended her hand, but immediately saw it tremble. His olive skin. Those
dark brown waves in his thick hair. She could feel her voice quavering. Tiny
beads of perspiration formed on her upper lip, and she touched the side of her
eye, then her neck.
He looked up at her, looked puzzled
a moment, and then gave her a crooked smile before standing to shake her hand.
When he touched it, the trembling went into high gear, like she’d received an
electric shock. Did he feel it too?
“Ah, you are speak the English now.
I see.” His voice was like…butter. He cleared his throat and said, “I am please
to meet you. My name is Erik Gunnarson.”
The accent came heavy, and the lilt
was definitely Scandinavian. She’d lived in Norway, traveled all the
Scandinavian countries. Was he Danish? He looked Danish. Lots of Danes she’d
met had darker hair. Like Erik’s.
With effort she remembered to speak
to him. “Where do you come from, Mr. Gunnarson?”
He squinted and shook his head, a
sign she’d seen a thousand times before in these meetings, so she asked it more
slowly.
“I come from Reykjavik. No.” He puzzled a moment and then
continued. “A village…near…Reykjavik.”
Oh, Iceland. She wanted to ask him all
about his life there, his upbringing, his family, his plans for a family of his
own, and could she please be the mother of his children?
Get
a hold of yourself, Lisette. She nearly slapped herself. This had to be
professional. What a crying shame, too. He had such a nice crooked grin. And
those upper arms. While most clients wore stinky sport coats over golf shirts
or boring business suits and ties, Erik Gunnarson wore a plain grey Henley
shirt—and looked like he’d just been at Henley itself, pulling the oars in the Thames. Those triceps.
Who did he think he was? Thor?
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