Seduced By My Billionaire Boss (The Billionaire Boss Series, #1) (2 page)

I had to admit, I looked at her a little differently now. Was this weeping little waif actually my new boss? Should I have offered a second tissue?

“But I can’t do it,” she whispered. “I can’t be here.”

“Why not?” I asked before I could stop myself. I couldn’t help it—I was curious. I would have done anything to be in this girl’s shoes. You didn’t get transferred in at the request of the CEO without having a background even more daunting than mine. And now to be falling apart in the thirtieth story bathroom? It didn’t add up...

She flashed me another watery smile. “My fiancé left me.”

I blinked. Not the answer I was expecting. Not an answer I remotely respected.

Her eyes cooled as she read the subtle changes in my face. “I wouldn’t expect you to understand. Not a young girl like you, fresh off your internship. This must seem like the stupidest thing in the world to you.”

“No, no,” I mumbled half-heartedly, “not at—”

“The thing is...I don’t even like finance. I like the lifestyle. I like the competition. But I don’t give a shit about the numbers.” She dabbed again at her eyes. “And now, by moving here, I’ve lost the only thing I’ve ever really cared about. Jeff.”

Note to self—stay away from men named Jeff. They made you crazy.

“So I’m leaving, going back. My high school sweetheart is picking me up at the airport when I fly in.” She stared with fierce determination in the mirror, daring her own reflection to disagree. “I can fly back to California this afternoon and everything will go back to the way it was before. But this...” Her eyes flickered up to the ceiling, and I knew that like me, she imagined the towering skyscraper overhead. “I can’t do this anymore. I hate this city with a passion. I’ve got to get out while I can.”

With a suddenly brisk gesture, she tossed the tissue into the trash and headed toward the door. I don’t know what exactly made me do it—probably just blatant disbelief at the golden opportunity she was throwing away—but I rushed after her.

“Wait,” I called. She turned back around, and I struggled to find the words. “I mean...are you at least going to tell them what’s going on? I’ve heard this new merger has everyone on their toes—they’ll need to know you won’t be—”

She held up a hand, and I fell silent. “I’m sure they’ll muddle along without me.” For the first time, her eyes sparkled as she glanced around. “What’s one missing cog, right? Consider my defection payback for those years wasted at grad school.”

My lips parted, then turned up in a disbelieving smile. “I just don’t...”

“Good luck, honey.” She winked. “Knock’em dead.” Then she was gone.

Only years later would I understand the significance of that moment. The moment that Katie McGill (I eventually discovered her name) walked out of the lobby and jumped in a cab for the airport. It was the moment when my entire life suddenly altered course. The single catalyst that sparked off a chain of events that would change things forever.

All I thought at the time was,
wow—what an idiot!
I headed back to the waiting room still shaking my head. To give up the dream...it was unthinkable! And then to give it up for a
man
? I actually rolled my eyes as I settled down into a suede chair. Another note to self, if I ever found myself wandering down such a ridiculous road—hire someone to shoot me.

“So, you got your resume all memorized?” the receptionist asked me, looking up from her meticulously potted plants with a bored stare.

I tapped my forehead with a grin. “Practiced it again in the cab.” I wondered how many of us rookie automatons she saw on a weekly basis. Twenty? Forty? Deciding to look it up later, I started going over my list of accomplishments again in my head when the door suddenly slammed open, and a harried looking woman stormed inside.

“...off the phone with the Chinese liaison and they don’t know what happened any more than we do. Not to mention my Cantonese is rustier than I’d like. I don’t know if they were trying to set up a conference call at four o’clock on Friday, or if they were trying to order four more copies of the prints that Jamie sent over on Saturday. Damn translator is out sick. Like anyone gets bronchitis anymore?! Not to mention, they’ve sent over the mockups a full week early, and my backup girl from California has yet to make an appearance. Who’s this?”

The diatribe stopped suddenly, and I realized that all eyes were on me. I stood quickly and offered out a respectful hand. “I’m Jenna Harks. We had an appointment to—”

The receptionist cut me off. “Ms. Macer, this is the—”

“Wait—are you her?” Patti Macer, my hopeful soon-to-be supervisor, looked at me with wide eyes, magnified even wider under her glasses. The receptionist turned my way in slow motion behind her, and for a split second, I paused.

Let me preface this next part with: this is NOT my thing. I set my sights high, but I knew that in order to get there, I’d have to spend a few years slaving in the mines. I understood the importance of hard work—I placed a premium on integrity (even if saying those two things made me sound like I was running for head of the local school board). In other words, it was not in my nature to risk it all by going out on a limb.

That being said, I was a wildly overqualified candidate applying for a two-year minimum entry level grunt job just to get my foot in the door. In the door of a company full of rabid employees who would pounce on this opportunity if given it themselves. My mind flashed back to the girl, crying in the bathroom. She hadn’t told anyone she was going to leave. I hadn’t told anyone where I was headed.

A strange confidence brewed inside me and I shook Macer’s hand vigorously.

“Yes, I’m your girl.”

And just like that, I was whisked away. Up past the nameless cubicles, past the run-down coffee pots, the blood shot watering holes for grunts still pushing year one. All the way up to the seventieth floor. That’s right, ladies and gentlemen, I’d jumped forty floors in ten minutes. Not bad for my first day on the job.

Patti Macer, my new supervisor, had been talking nonstop since my questionable introduction, and although I watched the ascending elevator floors with a fixed smirk, I was absorbing every word.

“So in short, we have about seven days to do close to two months of work. That’s why we called the west coast for some backup. If we can pull this off, it’ll be the third greatest merger in US history, falling short only to AOL/Time Warner and the Louisiana Purchase. Yes—we count that.” She shot me a look as the doors opened and she gestured down a hall. “You and your team are going to be crunching the numbers, cold hard facts. You’ll be writing the bulk of the merger yourself, literally finding a way to absorb the company without exceeding the hard limits set by the Chinese stockholders. But don’t worry about the technicalities or the spin—that’s why we have our PR and legal departments. Am I right?”

I nodded hastily. The higher up we’d gotten, the more papers she’d dumped into my hand. I was now a walking file cabinet, trying desperately to balance the small library she’d handed me while keeping pace and not tripping on my new heels. When she stopped suddenly, I almost had a coronary.

“This is going to be your office. Mine is right down the hall. The rest of the team is scattered around this floor. There’s a staff meeting every morning at eight and the work day begins at eight-thirty—not a second later. You okay with that?”

I opened my mouth to answer, but I was still staring into the office—stunned. You don’t really know what seventy floors up feels like until you’re standing on the inside, looking out. It was like I was in my own piece of workplace heaven. A bright cherry wood desk lay directly across from two thick leather chairs. There was also a sofa pushed up against the walls for what I assumed would be many over-nighters. The obligatory potted plant sat neatly trimmed in the corner, and tasteful, forgetful art hung on the walls. But none of that was anything compared to the view. I dropped the papers on the desk—
my
desk—and wandered to the window. The entire city stretched out below, twinkling and beeping faintly in the distance. The noisy grit and rush reduced to a pleasant background hum.

“Harks?”

I jumped and turned around. Macer was staring at me impatiently.

“Something wrong with the office? It’s probably not as fancy as what you’re used to.”

“No,” I recovered myself quickly. “The office is fine—it’s all fine. I’ll get started familiarizing myself with this and see you tomorrow at the staff meeting.”

She chuckled and took me by the arm, leading me back out into the hall. “Ideally, that’s exactly what I’d like to have you do. Only now—we don’t have the time. This thing came down the pipe a full seven days early, and it’s all hands on deck. I’m afraid you’ll have to get up to speed later—we have a meeting right now.”

“Oh, okay.” I stumbled along behind her, eyes scanning quickly around the office as I tried to get my bearings. “Who’s the meeting with?”

A door opened in front of me and my stomach fell to the floor.

It was Abe Larchwood. The CEO himself.

An unnatural hush fell over the entire floor as he walked out into the hall. His white hair was impeccably styled over a stiff suit that I was sure cost more than my first and second apartments combined. A vintage Rolex poked out beneath his left sleeve, just below a pair of what I swear was Theodore Roosevelt’s personal cufflinks.

“Hello, Patti,” he barked as he passed her.

“Hello, Mr. Larchwood.” He disappeared down the hall, and she turned back to me. “That’s the meeting.” Her voice was still hoarse as hushed as conversations began to pick back up around us. “Now I know you’re kind of being thrown into the middle of this—but are you going to be okay?”

I read through to her real question as easily as if she’d said it aloud.
You’re not going to make me look stupid, are you?
I smiled with that same mask of confidence and straightened to my full height. “I got this.”

“Good,” she mumbled as she pushed her way inside, “because we’re in for a hell of a ride. But we know you’re the best. It’s why we sent for you.”

I went to follow her when a sudden wave of nerves made me stop. It was the same feeling I had when I got out of the cab and stood on the curb, looking up at the building. Talk about high stakes, this was about as high as it got. What exactly had I gotten myself into?

A hand on my lower back made me start in surprise.

“You going in? Or are you just going to stand here looking?”

I
t only took me a second to recognize him. Chestnut curls, deep chocolate eyes, a smile so wicked and tantalizing it had reportedly been banned in several states. It was the same face I’d seen staring back at me from a hundred correspondence dinners and magazines, but even more frequently from the tabloids. Only in person, he was a thousand times more delicious than any picture could suggest.

This was Michael Larchwood. He was the younger son of the legendary Abe Larchwood; second heir to the keys of the castle.

He was also a notorious playboy.

My back stiffened involuntarily beneath his hand, and I pulled myself casually away. “I’m the new girl from California—Jenna Harks. Patti sent me up?”

His eyes did a quick scan of my face, probably wondering about my lack of California tan before he flashed me another million dollar smile. “Perfect, you’re right on time.”

He gestured inside, and I eased past him. But instead of following his hand to the right, I made my way across the room to a seat already flanked by two people—feeling his eyes on my back the entire time. Don’t get me wrong—the opportunity to sit down for a business meeting next to Michael Larchwood? Priceless. And I’d have to be as blind as Katie McGill not to feel some sort of animal magnetism drawing me to that body. The thing is, not only did the company have a zero tolerance policy toward inter-office fraternization, but Michael was well known for flouting those rules. I’d read of at least four women in the last two years getting fired after being seen leaving his apartment, and I was in no way interested in making that list.

That being said...it wasn’t like he was the easiest person to ignore.

He didn’t turn his eyes away even though I’d made my preference clear by sitting on the far side of the room. Instead, he rose to the challenge. The man was shameless. He kept me fixed in a gaze so attentive, that eventually, I had to politely return the seductive smile he was sending my way. I kept it professional and brief. No more than a passing glance as my eyes inadvertently swept his direction. But when a pair of dimples was ready and waiting, I had to actually angle myself around so he wasn’t even in my peripheral line of sight.

Fortunately at that moment, an official looking executive came in, and even Prince Michael sat back and paid attention.

“Good—you’re all here. I have a hell of a day today, and I don’t have time for any...oh, Michael.” The suit looked surprised to see him there. “I wasn’t aware you’d be sitting in today.”

Michael crossed one leg over the other—a gesture that in most circles would be considered professional, but that he just made seem naughty. “I’ll be here every Thursday until the merger is complete.” He flashed me a wink. “Need to keep track of my people.”

The executive stammered for a moment, before dropping his eyes to his papers. “Well, it’s always a pleasure to have you here.”

“Even if it’s only twice a year,” an employee sitting next to me muttered under his breath.

I cast him a sideways glance, and he rolled his eyes with a grin.

“Guy only comes in for the Christmas and New Year’s parties. I’m surprised he even knew where the conference room was...”

My eyes strayed again to Michael as I absorbed this. Judging by everything I’d read about him, that seemed to fit.

“Anyway, as I was saying, we have a lot to do.” The suit looked back up from his stack of documents and his eyes hardened once more. “Pia—where are we at with the mock-ups?”

A regal looking woman leaned forward in her seat. “Jamie sent over the first plans five days ago, but I’ve yet to hear anything from our sister office. I’ve tried to get a hold of Zhang since Monday, but our translator is still out sick—”