Billionaires, Bad Boys, and Alpha Males (58 page)

He laughed again.
 
“You’re honest, Nicole.
 
I like that.”

She hadn’t told him her first name, but
someone else must have.
 
Obviously.
 
He’d probably
seen her resume too.
 
But still, she
liked the way he said her name.
 
She
re-crossed her legs and his eyes strayed to them before returning to her
face.
 

“I’d work very hard if I get this
internship,” she said, nervously twisting and untwisting the cap on her water
bottle.

“I believe you would.”
 
He got up from the desk and walked
behind her chair, circling.
 
“But
then again, so would the hundreds of other applicants.”

“I know I can do this job.”

“What can you do?
 
Tell me.”

“Anything and everything the creative
department needs from me,” she said.
 
“Making copies, getting coffee, faxes, emails, research, making phone
calls.”

“Yes, yes, yes, to all of those
things.
 
But there’s more to it then
that.”
 
He stopped in front of her,
sat on the desk again and folded his arms.
 
“I need people who are fearless.
 
Absolutely fearless.
 
People
who will go to the very edge of their capabilities and then beyond them.
 
I want to hire people who will do
whatever it takes to be here.”

“I’ll do whatever it takes,” she
replied.
  

 
“I want to work with men and women that
will follow me into battle, that will fight by my side.
 
Because this business is very, very
serious, and sometimes even dangerous.”

“Dangerous?”

He nodded.
 
“I’ve had death threats.
 
Once, a few years back in Abu Dhabi, I
was nearly kidnapped.”

She wasn’t sure if she believed him.
 
“You never said that in any of the
interviews I read.”

He shrugged.
 
“Some things aren’t meant for public
consumption, Nicole.”

She nodded slowly.
  

“You don’t believe me?” he said.

She thought about it for a moment.
 
“No,” she said.
 
“I don’t.”

He stared at her a long time, so long
that the spit in her mouth dried up.
 
She knew in that instant, she’d blown it.

Suddenly he grinned again.
 
“Good girl.
 
You’re right, Nicole.
 
I was lying about the kidnapping in Abu
Dhabi.
 
In actuality, I’ve had
nothing but wonderful times there.
 
The hotels are incredible, some of the best in the world.”

“I’m confused.
 
So you weren’t kidnapped then?”

“It was a near kidnapping.
 
And no, it never happened.”
 
He stared at her.

She was aware again of her legs as he
looked down at her.
 
The skirt was
really short, too short.
 
Her legs
were bare and smooth and soft.
  

Imagine
if he put his hands on your bare legs right now.
 
Pushed your skirt up…

“..do you?” he said.

“Excuse me?” she asked, flustered.
 
Somehow she’d gone into a fantasy in the
middle of the most important interview of her life.
 

Red scratched his chin.
 
“It wasn’t important.”

“No, please.”
 
She took a deep breath.
 
“Please ask me again.”

“It’s not important.
 
Really.”
 
He locked his dark eyes on her once
more.
 

She looked back at him, trying to hold
his gaze.
 
“Am I blowing this
interview?” she asked, surprised that she’d just said it out loud.

“Blowing your interview?”
 
He took a moment to consider it.
 
“No, I don’t think you’ve done any such
thing, Nicole.
 
In fact, I’m very, very
pleased to make your acquaintance.”

“Me too.
 
It’s been nice meeting you, I mean.”

His eyes moved up and down her body as if
evaluating a painting, and he rocked back against his desk, shook his head and
laughed wildly.
 
“I’m sorry, Nicole,
but I really…I really can’t continue this.” He laughed again.

“Did I offend you?” she asked.

“Look,” he said.
 
“I really need to go.
 
I have a call to attend to.
 
It was very nice meeting you.”
 
He couldn’t even look at her now.

“But…but…I don’t understand…”

He sat down behind his desk, picked up
the phone.
 
A few seconds later he
said, “Mary Anne, please come and meet Ms. Masters in my office.
 
We’re done here.”

***

She sobbed on the train ride home.
 
She didn’t care that people were
watching her, thinking she was crazy.

She kept thinking about the look on his
face as he’d ended the interview.
 
He’d shown her to the door and that bitchy receptionist had been there,
and next thing Nicole knew she was out on the street.
 
Not a word about her being hired for the
internship position.

It was clear she’d lost the job because
Red didn’t like her.
 

She didn’t stop sobbing even when she got
home and fell onto her bed, tears still pouring down her face.

Nicole replayed the interview with Red
Jameson over and over in her mind, dissected every verbal exchange and tried to
make sense of it.
 
What had changed
his mind so quickly?
 
Was it her
saying she didn’t believe his story about the kidnapping?
 
Or was it when he looked her over and
found her wanting?

She stripped off her expensive Prada
clothing, angrily tossing it all on the floor of her room.
  

Luckily, Danielle wasn’t home yet, so she
didn’t have to deal with the questions that would surely come from her nosey
roommate.
 

Nicole stood in her bra and panties,
mascara running down her cheeks, hair a mess.
 
She looked at herself in the
mirror.
 
No wonder he doesn’t want
me, she thought.
 
I’m
disgusting.
 
My body isn’t like that
blonde receptionist’s body.
 
I don’t
have the face of a Vogue model.
 

She’d been rejected by the most
charismatic, powerful man she’d ever met.
 
A man who she considered to be an idol, a celebrity.
 
And what made it worse was the feeling
that she’d been so close.
 
Everyone
there had liked her.
 
She’d made it
through the thousands of resumes, and then the phone interview, and even the
three department members she’d met with.

They’d all approved of her, until
him.
 
Until Red Jameson himself had
shot her down.
 
As if he could smell
her shame and failure and unimportance.
 
He’d laughed her out of the office, if you wanted to get right down to
it.

For the first time in her life, Nicole
was so angry, so full of rage and despair that she literally didn’t know what
to do.
 
She was frozen in
place.
 
Eventually, she picked up
her cell phone and checked to see if she’d gotten an email, voicemail,
anything.
 

When she hadn’t, for a brief moment she
considered smashing her cell phone against the wall.
 
Why not?
 
Who would she want to speak with after
this horrible failure?
 
It would
make a good excuse to avoid everyone.

Sorry,
mom, I couldn’t call you and tell you how things went at the interview.
 
My phone’s broken.

It was crazy, but it might just be worth
it, she thought, hefting the cell phone in her hand and considering the
implications of its demise. Se34 And that’s when it started to buzz.

She turned it over and stared at it,
mesmerized.
 
It was buzzing just in
time, as if it had known it was about to be launched and destroyed in mere
seconds.

The number just said private, but she
answered anyhow.
 
“Hello?”

“I’m looking for Nicole Masters,” the
male voice said.

“This is.”
 
She held her breath.
  

“Red Jameson here.”

She literally could not speak.
 
Why on earth would Red Jameson be
calling her on her cell phone?
 
There were a million people who made more sense.
 
The HR rep, even Glen Goldman made more
sense that the CEO of the company.

“Are you still there?” he asked.

“Yes…Yes…I’m just surprised.”

“We’ve decided to hire you for the
internship position.”

“Oh.”
 
She was so stunned that this was
literally the only word that came out of her mouth.
 
Oh.
 
She sounded like she couldn’t possibly care less.

“Are you still interested?” he asked,
sounding slightly amused now.

“Of course,” she rushed.
 
“Oh my god, I’m…you have no idea how
excited I am.”

“As are we.
 
I think you’re going to do big things in
this industry.”

She could feel her face growing hotter as
the seconds passed.
 
And then she
realized that she was still naked.
 
On the phone with the billionaire mogul, Red Jameson, stark naked!

“I can’t thank you enough, sir.”

“Can you start tomorrow?”

“Absolutely!”

He sighed deeply.
 
“Good, Nicole.” There was a long
pause.
 
“Oh, and by the way…”

“Yes?”

“Those Prada shoes.
 
You don’t need to go broke buying fancy
outfits to come to work for me.
 
Just wear something tasteful, but affordable.
 
The expensive stuff will come in due
time.”

“Yes sir.”
 
She fell backwards on the bed, hiding
her face in her hands.

“Report to Glen in the morning,” he said
softly.
 
“Goodbye Nicole.”

And then he was gone.
 
She squealed to herself and began
writhing in excitement.
 
“Yes!”
 
Nicole stood up and held her fists in
the air, shook them at the heavens.
 
“I did it!”

She lay back in bed pondering the phone
call.
 
When you thought about it,
Red Jameson calling her was about the strangest thing that had ever happened to
her.
 
There was absolutely no reason
for him to do it.
 
His time was so
valuable.
 
Why did he make the call
himself?
 
Did he do that with all
the new interns and employees?

She wanted to find out.

But first, she thought of his voice.
 
She thought of his dark eyes.
 
The way he said her name.
 
It was a shock to realize how wet she
was after simply being on the phone with him.
 
Nicole had never considered herself to
be a very sexual person.
 
In fact,
she didn’t masturbate all that much.
 
When Danielle had first moved in, she’d joked about all of her dildos
and vibrators and had been shocked when Nicole revealed she didn’t own any.

“Don’t you ever get yourself off?”
Danielle had asked.

“Sometimes.
 
I just…use my hand.”

“And how often do you do that?”

“I don’t know.
 
A few times a year.”

Danielle had been awestruck by that
admission.
 
“A few times a
year
?
 
A fucking year?”

Nicole hadn’t been joking about her
sexual proclivities.
 
She didn’t
think of herself as a prude, she didn’t have a problem with premarital sex or
anything.
 
She just wasn’t that into
it all.
 
She’d had sex with only two
boys in her life.
 
One had been her
high school boyfriend, Tim, who she’d dated for almost four years.