Negotiating Skills (4 page)

She was extremely bright and focused.
He would be a fool to not recognize such obvious talent. However,
Veronica didn’t seem to see that. Thinking he could use this to his
advantage, he held up a hand to silence her and chose his words
carefully.

“
Tomorrow’s meeting is
cancelled,” he said sternly.

“
But…”Veronica rushed to
interrupt.

“
I won’t end your contract
just yet,” he continued as if she hadn’t spoken.

“
The company has waited this
long for the application we can wait and additional week. I need
some time to decide whether I still want to move forward with
having you lead the team,” he said as he turned to walk back to his
desk.

He sat down and stared at Veronica
from across the room. She seemed rooted to the floor with a look of
pure panic on her face.

“
I don’t appreciate being
spied on Ms. James,” he said when it looked like she would speak
again.

He watched as she firmed her
lips into a tight line. He could see a spark of anger flare in her
eyes as she clenched her fists at her side.
Fuck, but she is hot when she’s angry
, he thought to himself resisting the urge to stroke himself
through his pants.

“
I need to decide if this
working relationship can be salvaged,” he said gathering his papers
and leaning down to grab his briefcase.

“
Until then I suggest you
make yourself scarce and try to curb your voyeur tendencies,” he
said as he strode toward the door.

He paused in front of Veronica and
slowly ran his free hand up her arm and gently moved her to the
side.

“
I’ll be in touch regarding
the status of your contract,” he said as he opened the door and
strode out of the office.

Veronica woke the next
morning groggy
, disoriented, and horny as
hell. She struggled to hold onto a dream that featured Victor Rossi
and a bowl of ice cream.

She snuggled a pillow to her stomach
hoping to return to the fantasy when the events of the prior night
crashed through her psyche.

“
Shit,” she yelped out as
she shot up to a sitting position.

She whimpered as the room began to
swim around her and the contents of her stomach began to roll
around in earnest. Clutching her aching head she glanced around the
room and saw an empty bottle of rum sitting on her nightstand
alongside several empty beer bottles and empty chocolate bar
wrappers.

Looking down she saw that she was
still dressed in her clothes from the previous day. They were
rumpled and stained with what looked like streaks of chocolate. She
wiggled her toes and felt a lone shoe dangling from her right
foot.

“
Shit,” she repeated as she
lay her head back down gingerly on her pillow. She wanted to pull
her covers over her head as the events of the prior night played
through her head over and over again.

She barely recalled collecting her
things and making her way home, but she vividly remembered Rossi
pleasuring himself, and the disastrous end to her presence in his
office.

She couldn’t believe that she had let
her stupid attraction to Rossi jeopardize the project. Even now,
knowing that it would take her months to recover financially from
the loss of his account, she was aroused by what she had
seen.

“
You’re pathetic,” she
mumbled into the empty room. She slowly sat back up and swung her
legs over the side of her queen sized bed.

She toed off her remaining shoe and
stood carefully. Bracing herself mentally, she made her way to the
bathroom removing her clothes along the way. She wobbled into the
shower stall and turned the cold water on blast.

She stood shivering under
the stinging spray of water waiting for her head to stop spinning
and her jumbled thoughts to settle.
I need
a game plan
, she thought as her brain
eventually stopped its chaotic panic.

She reached to turn on the hot water
and let the growing steam in the shower relax her tense
muscles.

She’d dealt with bad situations before
when she was in New York. Admittedly, none of them involved her
watching a colleague or superior in a compromising position, but
she had survived. In the end her work had always spoken for itself.
She just needed to convince Rossi that regardless of the situation,
she was the best person to complete the project.

She shook her head and admitted to
herself that the chances of Rossi choosing to keep her contract
were slim to none. Best case scenario was that even if she couldn’t
count on him as a reference in the future, she could still use her
work with him in her portfolio. She groaned softly into the steamed
enclosure.

She needed to concentrate on being
solvent, which meant nixing her plans to hire a junior developer.
She would have to put her hear to the ground and pick up several
smaller accounts to just even things out to from the loss of
Rossi’s business. There was no telling when she’d be able to land
another account as large as his.

Firming her lips in determination, she
reached out and turned off the water. She reached for a towel and
began to briskly rub herself down.

“
It’s not the end of the
world,” she said bravely as she stepped out of the
shower.

She walked back into her bedroom
feeling a little more human and a little more prepared to deal with
the situation. She was dressed and sitting at her computer updating
her portfolio when she heard the light chime notifying her that an
email just hit her inbox. She glanced at the edge of her monitor
and her breath caught when she saw Rossi’s name in the message
box.

She hesitated before clicking on the
blinking icon. The effects of the pep talk she gave herself earlier
quickly disappeared.

It was one thing to plan for the worse
and another thing to actually have to live through it. Taking a
deep breath she clicked on the message. It consisted of only three
lines.

The presentation is back
on for today. Meet me briefly at 3:30 prior to the presentation to
discuss the new terms of your contract.

~Victor

Veronica released a huge sigh of
relief. It looked like she wasn’t going to lose the account after
all. She crinkled her brow briefly as she read the message
again.

“
New terms,” she mumbled out
loud.

“
What the hell does that
mean,” she said into the empty room.

Victor sat in his office
waiting
for Veronica to arrive. He spent
most of the night devising the perfect plan.

He thought of just asking her out,
which was the sane and rational thing to do he admitted. However,
whenever he thought of the look of lust on her face and the weeks
of the hands off signals she had thrown his way, he thought a few
more drastic measures were called for.

After weeks of fantasizing about her,
he wanted Veronica to admit her attraction to him and if he got to
live out a few of his own fantasies along the way, so be it he
thought smugly. He felt himself get hard at the
possibilities.

“
Down boy,” he muttered to
his crotch.

He needed this meeting with Veronica
to go smoothly. He couldn’t reveal any hint of attraction,
especially considering the “new terms” he planned on
negotiating.

The soft beep of his intercom
interrupted his thoughts and his assistant’s smooth voice filled
the air.

“
Ms. James is here to see
you.”

Victor took a quick breath and reached
for his intercom.

“
Send her in,” he
said.
Time to play,
he thought and he schooled his features into a blank
mask.

He leaned back in his chair with his
hands steepled and waited as Marie ushered Veronica into the room
and closed the door.

When he got his first glimpse of her
he struggled not to let his surprise or lust show on his face.
During the weeks that they’d worked together he had never seen her
in anything remotely considered figure hugging let alone in any
colors other than black, gray and white but today was a different
story.

She strode into his office wearing a
long purple pencil skirt that ended just past her knees and white
scoop necked shirt that molded her breasts and ended just at her
hips with a slim purple belt cinched in at her waist. He fought
down a groan as his gaze reached her feet.

As usual her choice of shoes didn’t
disappoint. They were constructed with a black stiletto heel with a
multitude of thin black and purple straps crisscrossing across her
feet and ending with a purple bow at her ankle.

He could come just watching her walk
around in those shoes he thought. The woman was turning him into a
freak and he loved every minute of it.

“
Have a seat,” he said
briskly leaning forward, “We have a lot to cover.”

Veronica struggled not to look
nervous. She took a lot of care that morning dressing for this
meeting, deciding to wear what she deemed her “power suit”. She
usually preferred her more comfortable pant suits but she kept this
particular outfit for the times she needed to feel an extra boost
of confidence. If ever there was a day that she needed that
confidence it was today.

She walked briskly to
Rossi’s desk and sat down. She tried to gauge his mood but his
features were a blank mask.
Crap
, she thought cringing inwardly.
Over the last few weeks she had gotten used to him looking at her
with a friendly smile or quirky grin. The blank look he was giving
her now was disconcerting. She knew that it was to be expected
considering the situation, but a part of her couldn’t help but feel
hurt by his expression.

“
I’m glad to hear you
re-thought the decision to cancel the meeting today. I promise, you
won’t be disappointed,” she began briskly.

“
Oh I know I won’t be,”
Rossi replied as he pushed a stack of paper towards her.

“
This is a contract for
permanent retainer services with Nile Enterprises. You will be free
to take on as many side accounts as you’d like, but when dealing
with our projects there will be complete exclusivity,” he
continued.

Veronica was speechless. She
sat silent for a moment letting his words sink in as she stared
down at the dollar amount in the contract. It was enough for her to
stay in the black for the rest of the year and hire
two
junior developers not
just one.

“
Mr. Rossi, I…” she finally
managed to sputter out.

“
Please, call me Victor,” he
interrupted.

“
I think after last night we
can at least be on a first name basis,” he explained.

“
Umm okay …Victor,” she said
trying hard to contain her blush at the mention of the previous
night.

“
Last night is already
forgotten. I can’t wait to move forward on this project with you,”
she said smiling brightly at him.

“
I’m afraid you’re
mistaken,” said Rossi.

“
The events from last night
are far from forgotten and I seriously doubt they ever will be,” he
stated flatly, his mouth thinning into a grim line.

Veronica’s smile dimmed. She looked
down at the retainer contract he placed in front of her.

“
I don’t understand,” she
said.

“
If you’re not willing to
forget, than why offer me a retainer contract,” she asked, her
confusion showing plainly on her face.

“
I consider myself a damn
good business man,” responded Victor, “I learned a long time ago to
not overlook talent and you’re a very talented woman Veronica. I
would be fool to let you go when your skill is an obvious asset to
me and my company.”

Veronica released a silent breath as
relief slowly worked its way through her system.

“
Thank you. I’ll take this
home with me and look it over. From what you’ve said it sounds more
than fair,” she said tapping the contract in front of her, trying
to look cool.

“
I think you may want to
hear the rest of my terms before taking that home,” said
Rossi.

“
I’m sure that whatever they
are we can negotiate something amicable for both of us,” said
Veronica, smiling again and feeling much more confident.

This meeting was turning out much
better than she ever could have expected.

For the amount of money Rossi…Victor
was willing to pay her for a retainer, she was sure that she could
work with any additional terms he wanted to set. It was just so
hard to read him. His expression was still closed off despite his
praise of her talent.

“
One of the first lesson’s I
learned in business is that when I walk into any meeting or any
type of negotiation, that I need to have the upper hand before even
stepping into the room. Without that upper hand I would always be
forced to settle for a compromise beyond my comfort zone,” he said
before pausing to stare at her expectantly.