Kerry came clipping over and adjusted her long dark skirt before sitting down. Skirt? That didn't seem her. Her boss had mentioned she was working a big company locally though. I knew firsthand how stuck in their ways big oil could be.
She must be playing to the crowd. Clever.
And good lord did it make her look amazing. The skirt hugged its way up her hips to a light teal top that sat tight against her lush chest. Her hair hung back in the usual sleek dark tail, but perhaps for the first time ever, I got to see her in profile - see those plump red lips lunge out of her face, her cute little nose, her soft brow.
She was making every effort in the world to keep her eyes fixed on the leather binder before her.
She was just trying to keep things low in front of her colleagues.
But as her jasmine scent settled over me, washing me with a sea of petals, it took every urge not to grab her mouth and bring it to mine.
What would these little field mice do if I took her right here? Probably bill me for my time and call in cleanup afterwards. My mother was more bold than any of them. I'd brought a girlfriend home one spring break from boarding school, and she'd gotten the girl expelled to keep us apart.
But the only things keeping us apart now were Kerry and my respect for her.
Phil cleared his throat at the other side of me. He wanted to set the pace maybe. No dice.
“You all right, there?” I said. “Maybe you should get some water.”
The guy's bald head turned red as an old thermometer. I wasn't done admiring Kerry yet, but maybe it was better if didn’t lose control. I didn't want to put this little balsa wood table of theirs to test. We'd get a chance to cross that off our list in a much nicer spot in Abu Dhabi.
“Morning, everyone,” I said. “How are we doing today?”
“Good,” they all chirped. Kerry didn't even look up.
“Excellent. Now, I apologize for the short notice, but it's the same notice I was given by my advisory board. As you may have gleaned, I'm looking to act quick on a new acquisition for my firm, and I need a second opinion.”
“We're here to serve, Mr. Stone,” Phil said. “You've got our best guys and girls assembled before you.”
“The seven samurai, huh?” I looked at each of them, none older than thirty-five: four men, three women, including Kerry. “If they're all like Miss Martin here, they should be quite satisfactory.”
Kerry nodded, but her eyes still shied from mine. She might not want her colleagues to see sparks fly, but this was too conspicuous in the opposite direction.
I slipped my foot out of my loafers and ran a toe up and down her panty hose. Her skin was like silk.
She jerked upright. I gave her a Texas sized smile, but her lips barely widened for a blink.
“I look forward to working for you Mr. Stone,” she said stiffly.
All business, fine then. Let her see what I had planned for us.
“Now the job is simple,” I said. “I want a full rundown of Habibi Solar, a company based out of Abu Dhabi. It just finished building a massive solar installation in the desert for the state government. This might be the start of a solar boom in the Middle East, so we’re looking to buy while the getting is good. You're there to tell us whether the getting is as good as it seems.”
I clicked through a bunch of slides I had brought. They all took notes silently, Kerry included. I'd gotten so used to Trey's brash confidence, I'd forgotten what normal accountants were like.
“Y'all will be headed out to the UAE for anywhere from three to four weeks. That's the financial center of the Arab world. Should be exciting for a bunch of number crunchers.”
I got a few chuckles. Kerry's eyes dropped to mine a second, prowled my body, but then shot back to the screen behind me.
She should have warmed up by now. Maybe she'd been there already. I know she hadn't for work though. Her boss had been kind enough to give me a list of her assignments when I requested her on the team. They were all within the US.
Now, I was offering to send her on my company dime – for business, yes, but with me there, too. A little enthusiasm would have been nice.
Maybe she needed inspiration. I ran my foot along her shin again. She yanked it away, but kept looking up. Not even the smile you'd get from a tickle.
I ground my teeth and went on to the numbers portion of the presentation. Maybe I should focus on business for now, too. Problem was, it was just some bullshit for Jesse. I'd had three verifications already, between, me, internal accounting and Trey.
I had better things to do than to sit in on a consulting meeting. This was all for Kerry. Hell, if I thought about it, I owed Jesse a favor.
I finished droning on, but the bean counters kept scribbling excitedly. Kerry's notes were far fewer, but I looked over and saw some sharp observations.
“Well,” Phil said from the other end. “We appreciate the level of detail, Mr. Stone. It's always good to see a leader at your level take such bold moves.”
“Evolve or die,” I said. “Those are the rules of this world, right? I'm sure every change that led to humankind seemed ludicrous until it worked.”
“Except the ones that led to a dead end,” Kerry said softly.
I smiled at her. Guess our game was back on. “You disapprove of this business move?” I asked.
“It's not my call.” She said very carefully. “You're making the decisions. All I can do is serve.”
Something wasn't right. I leaned in, but she ducked her eyes.
“As Kerry says,” Phil spoke up from the other end, “we're all here to serve. And I think all of the prodigies in this room share your view. Grow or die.”
“Right.”
I tried to lift Kerry with my gaze, but it didn't work. There was my foot, of course, but that seemed far from the right gesture for the moment. Phil kept talking though.
“So our team will be led by Leo Ginsberg. He's actually headed to Harvard Business School later this year, but you'll get to hire him while he's still cheap.” Phil chuckled.
“It'll be an honor to help you, Mr. Stone,” a round, energetic voice said.
I glanced over. Leo was a solemn ginger boy with a block face and glasses. He looked smart, but that wasn't the point of all this.
“Leo, you sound like a swell guy and all, but I'm a Wharton man myself. I was actually wondering if the team leadership could fall to-”
A sharp little heel struck me in the calf. I bit my lip. Kerry had scribbled a giant “No” facing me on her sheet.
“Actually,” I said, swallowing my tongue. “Never mind, Leo. I think you'll do an amazing job.”
I surveyed the entire room. “In fact, I'm sure you'll all do an amazing job.”
The smiles on their faces were genuine now, from their eyes to their ears. Why in the world was I not seeing it on the one face that mattered?
I pulled my phone. “Phil,” I said. “Would you mind if I had the room? I've got a small conference to hold.”
“Of course, Mr. Stone.” He and the consultants scattered to their feet. Kerry tried, but I weighed her hand down with mine. The edges of her eyes simmered, but that didn't stress me. I just wanted to know why.
Phil hustled the consultants out, then waited at the door.
“I'm gonna need Miss Martin present for notes,” I said.
“Ah,” he shot her a last look, then shut the door.
I ducked down into Kerry's vision. “Are you alright?”
Her words came through gritted teeth. “Get you hand off me.”
“What?” I tore my palm away. “Sorry, sorry, did I hurt you?”
She yanked back, crashing her chair into others further down the table. She strangled her armrests and just sat huffing at me.
I had seriously fucked something up here.
“Tell me what I did, darlin'.”
Her eyes condensed to coals.
“Am I a human to you?” she asked.
“What?”
“Am I a human or just some toy?”
“You're not a toy!” I wheeled around the corner, but she clattered her chair chain further back and I stopped. “I respect the hell out of you. You're more real than any other girl I've met.”
She shook her head. “I always knew there was something off about you. It didn't click until I heard the word ‘billionaire,’ but it makes so much sense now. What I do - my job, my life. It’s all just a game to you.”
“It's not.”
“No? Then why did you march in here and take over my life?”
“That wasn't my aim. I thought if you were too busy to see me, then I could bring myself to you.”
Her eyes flared wider. “So this job is all BS? You wasted a couple hundred grand just to have me in arm's reach?”
“The job's completely real.” I pulled open my laptop. Fuck, was I going to have to write this girl a powerpoint to show her what she was doing to me?
Just my luck, the presentation crashed on me.
“You seemed like a decent guy.” She was speaking to herself. “You treated your men well. You tried to understand their work. Heck, I thought you were smart. And now you’re wasting company money trying to buy me.”
“Habibi Solar is real. The project is real and so is my acquisition. I came here with real work. I just thought it'd be fun if I could get you out to the Middle East with me.”
That stopped her sulk, if only by igniting her. Her skin burned like lava against the dark leather seat. She looked like a goddess in her rage.
“This isn't fun, Deacon. This is my place of work. This is my livelihood.”
“I understand. Trust me, darlin', I do.”
“No, you don't.” She spat, edging in closer. “How could you? You were handed the keys to the world the day you were born. I had to fight to even get the freedom to think my own thoughts.”
“What?” I had no idea what she was on about now. “Listen, it wasn't as easy as you think for me, either. I'm a fighter just like you.”
“Not a fair fighter.” She sank back in her seat. “It worked so hard to get this job. It took me two years to get choice assignments, but I did it on my own. No family to help me, no money to back me, just pure hard work. And I wouldn't have it any other way. Now you swoop in, and act like you're god’s gift by forcing me to be yours.”
“I'm not! This is an international assignment. That'd be a boon to your career no matter which way you cut it.” I held a hand to my heart. “Say the word and I'll take you off though. I promise. I overstepped here. I see that.”
She laughed harsh and high. “It’s too late for that, now. People are already watching the two of us. They’re analysts. If I skip on this 'awesome international assignment,' people will figure out why. Suddenly I'm the office slut.”
I rubbed my forehead, my world dissolving as she laid bare the truth of what I'd done. Yeah, I had considered her career, but I had put my desires first. It'd be bad enough if that was all there was to it, but by the molten tremble in her brown eyes, I’d clearly hit on something deeper. Something dark and wrong.
“What should I do?” I asked.
She rolled back towards me, her flower scent wilted over that of my own dawning sweat. “Don't worry, I'll do your job. I'm damn good at what I do. But that's
all
I'll be doing for you. The only time you'll be seeing me is when I'm in the office.”
My heart turned to a prune, but I nodded. “Whatever you say.”
She clutched her dark binder against her chest, eyes tight in another swell of anger. “You’re going to listen to me from now on? Good. Forget about putting me in your cage. Don’t ever come near me again.”
She turned and clipped out as professionally as she had entered, shutting me in alone as she left. Only the buzzing lights filled the silence.
I sat under the glow of the projector, taking it in, basking in the cold echo of what I had wrought.
CHAPTER NINE
Kerry
I sat alone in a spacious exterior office, willing the financial numbers on my laptop to tell me their story. My nerdy brain usually assembled them all nice and neat for me, but now it looked like just a jumble of digits. This must be what normal people saw.
I sighed and looked out at the large pond down at ground level. The sun would have made the rippling waters blinding, but the tinted windows kept it cool and calming. This was a nice office. It'd take a while to get it working inside Stone Holdings.
Lucky me. I'd gotten it for spreading my legs.
Deacon could spin it any way he wanted. He could even mask it by giving my whole team their own rooms like this. But I saw the snide looks I got at our evening team meetings now. The whispers that disappeared under the a/c’s whir when I entered a room.
They were the best analysts in the company. And it didn't take a lot of analysis to figure out what had happened.
My hands were clenched so hard just thinking about it that my nails dug into my palm. Yeah, this wasn't calming me down any.
Maybe sinking one of these fists into Deacon's smarmy face would. It was almost too bad he hadn't been around the whole week we'd been working here. He hadn’t attended a single meeting, just sent in a vice president from his in-house accounting team.