Seduced By My Billionaire Boss (The Billionaire Boss Series, #1) (5 page)

“
Jamie
,” I couldn’t help but smile as I grabbed his shoulders to slow him down, “it’s okay—really. I got through all the information and I’m ready to go this morning.”

His face morphed into one of absolute shock. “How...is that possible?”

I shrugged casually. “I’m a fast reader.”

He was still looking at me like I’d beamed down from some backward star. “Are you—”

“Jamie!”

This time, we both jumped as our regional supervisor, Mr. Trask, came up from behind and clapped Jamie on the shoulders on his way into the staff meeting. “Great work on the DeNelven case, son. You really kept those guys on their toes.” He turned his colorless eyes to me. “Who’s this? Is this Stacy?”

Jamie flushed. “This is Jenna Harks, the newest member of Macer’s team. You met her briefly yesterday—she’ll be giving the presentation this morning on the Chinese comparison memo.” He added under his breath, “And you’ve met Stacy half a dozen times...”

“Oh, right, right. Nice to meet you, Jemma.” He caught my hand in a giant shake. “Well, good luck to you—see you in there.”

“It’s actually...um...thank you, sir,” I stammered as he disappeared inside. I turned to Jamie with a look of bewilderment, but he simply shrugged.

“Hey, at least he was close. He didn’t remember my name for the first two years I worked here, and I swear, half that time he thought I was his nephew.” He clapped me cheerfully on the shoulder and headed in himself. “Good luck—sorry again about the mix-up.”

“Yeah, no problem.”

The room was full now, and for the first time all morning, little butterflies starting fluttering away in my stomach. Talk about a make or break moment—this was it. Not only were the heads of all corporate divisions present, but I spotted the familiar white-haired faces of a few of Larchwood’s most prominent stockholders.

I pulled in a shaky breath and smoothed down my hair with nervous hands. The clock now said five minutes to eight and I was about to walk in when I caught a familiar whiff of cologne from just over my shoulder.

“We meet again.”

My eyes tightened a moment before I turned around to find myself once again standing face to face with Michael Larchwood. Unlike everyone around him, he was dressed casually, in designer jeans and a stylish leather jacket. Beautiful as he may be, he’d look more at home going to a Radiohead concert than attending a staff meeting. I was about to murmur a polite excuse and slip inside when he suddenly grinned.

“The girl who blew me off for lunch.”

I smiled in spite of myself. I couldn’t help it—his playfulness was catching. “And as I recall, she apologized profusely—but she already had other plans.”

“Uh-huh, sure.” His eyes were sparkling. “And what about after work today? Do you already have plans again?”

My breath caught in my chest. “Actually...I’m going to the gym. But you know,” I flashed an apathetic grin as I breezed inside, “maybe some other time...”

He beamed and rose to the challenge. “Count on it.”

Great, Jen. Insult the boss’ son twice in a row. Brilliant strategy.

I tried to put the thought from my mind as I walked inside and took my place behind the podium. There was enough riding on this morning without adding Michael Larchwood into the mix. I carefully avoided his eyes when he came in and sat down, and after Patti gave me the nod, I took a deep breath and began the presentation.

It was unlike anything that had ever happened to me before. One of those pristine moments where I almost seemed to be watching myself, out of my body, give the performance of a lifetime. The second I began to speak, a strange force took hold of me. A cool, confident persona—perhaps the same one who’d claimed to be Katie McGill just a day before. The room fell absolutely silent, all eyes on me, as I paced back and forth. Raising my hands at all the appropriate times, delivering the pros and cons with a thoughtful look of concern, even pursing my lips with that perfect ‘professional frown’ as I paused for questions.

It literally couldn’t have gone any better. Patti Macer was beaming, Jamie flashed me a silent thumbs-up, even Trask was frowning pensively—as if trying to remember my real name.

I nodded my head with a gracious smile and was about to take my seat once more when a deep voice called from the back of the room.

“Whose notes are these on the Bekam Report?”

The entire room swiveled around, and I squinted to make out the man’s face in the shadowed corner. Then an intern snapped on the lights, and I sucked in a silent gasp of surprise.

It was Thomas Larchwood. Michael’s older brother, Abe’s other son.

And coincidentally...the man I’d almost soaked in coffee the day before.

What little color there was drained from my face as I froze in my stilettos. How had I not seen it before? How had I not made the connection? With all the thousands of times I’d seen his picture in the news? Thomas
freaking
Larchwood?!

Then I remembered that he’d asked a question, and my panic doubled all over again.

“Um...they’re mine,” I answered quietly.

My new confident persona abandoned me entirely, leaving a small, fidgeting girl in the land of giants. I mean, I had studied this man in business school for Pete’s sake! A brilliant financial tactician and the youngest person ever to be named on Forbes most influential people’s list. All that and he was only a few years older than me! Of course, I had careened right into him...because the cosmos had in mind a fate worse than death.

KEEP IT TOGETHER, JEN!

His head snapped up, and I was able to get a good look at him for the first time. He was exactly like his younger brother—even more stunning in person. Only while Michael was effervescent and approachable, like a playful demi-god just looking for something or someone to do, Thomas was...striking. Everything about him screamed ‘control.’ From the way he dressed to the way he combed his hair, to the strict way he held his face—with a tension that made him seem years older than he was. They were also colored completely differently. While Michael was all lights—light brown curls, bright twinkling eyes, Thomas was the opposite. Dark hair—fiercely combed—dark suit and deep bronzed skin. In fact, the only light thing about him was his blue eyes. But even they were such a piercing shade that they made you think twice.

So at a glance, I guess you could say the only thing the brothers had in common was that they were both absurdly attractive.

Absurdly,
devastatingly
attractive.

I blinked quickly to recover myself as I struggled to meet his gaze. He had been staring at me a bit too long, eyes tracing and re-tracing my face. Then all at once, his face lit up, and a sparkle of recognition gleamed deep in his eyes. My heart sank in my chest.

So he’d put two and two together—he remembered me as well. Coffee girl.

The corner of his lips twitched, but he maintained perfect composure. “These are your notes?” he repeated. He couldn’t keep the surprise from his voice, and I found myself a little insulted. “On the Bekam Report?”

My chin jutted up in spite of myself, and I found I had no trouble meeting his eyes now. “Yes, they’re my notes. I made them last night.”

His eyebrows shot up in blatant disbelief. “All of them. You read through all of this last night.”

He didn’t even raise it as a question, deeming it so ridiculous as to be rhetorical, and I felt the hair on the back of my neck stand on end.

“Yes,” I said again, a little louder this time. “I read through it yesterday, and those are my notes. Now do you have a question about the material, Mr. Larchwood? I assure you, I can answer anything you like.”

All the air sucked from the room. Patti Macer looked like she’d swallowed a fish. And for the first time the whole meeting, Michael was staring back and forth between us with a bit of interest. I instantly regretted the words—calling him out like that. What the hell had gotten into me today? But just as I was about to apologize, he leaned back in his chair with a little chuckle.

Like pulling a plug, the chuckle instantly released the room from its silent panic. Macer collapsed back in her chair with a quiet gasp; the lawyers exchanged a blank look, and I took my first breath in what felt like ages.

“Not at all, Miss...?”

My face flamed red. “Harks. Jenna Harks.”

His eyes met mine from across the room, and once again, I was utterly transfixed.

“Just come in for the merger?”

Heartless man—how could he expect me to speak when he looked like that?!

“Um, yes.” I tried my best to capture that same composure I had before. “I was requested to be on Ms. Macer’s team.”

His eyes now flickered to poor Patti, who looked like she was having a coronary. “Well done, Macer. Looks like you hit the jackpot.”

Her face flushed,  and she looked at me like I was the daughter she’d always wanted. “Oh, uh, yes Thomas. We’re all very happy to have her.”

The eyes returned to me, and for a split second, I thought I saw the hint of a smile.

“Please Miss Harks,” he gestured to my notes, “continue...”

F
inally!

My first work week was officially done. I was free as a bird—past the cagey glass doors, away from the towering inferno, finished with the rest of that excruciating meeting.

Perhaps ‘excruciating’ wasn’t the right word for it.

Confusing? Baffling? Surreal?

I could settle for nightmarishly weird.

Thomas Larchwood and I had kept up our strange back and forth for the better part of an hour. And let me tell you—it wasn’t by choice. Every time I’d try to sit down, he’d haul me back up to the front. What started out as a simple ‘she’s giving the presentation, so ask her the questions,’ quickly turned into a bizarre game of cat and mouse—one where I wasn’t sure which part I was even supposed to play. It went on so long and got so uncomfortably obvious that the entire room took notice. By the end, they were watching it like a tennis match, their heads whipping back and forth between us with each reply.

“And how would you characterize the Chen account?”

“Again, Mr. Larchwood, I would have to defer to my supervisor Ms. Macer, as this is really her area of expertise. She’s the primary on the account—”

“I want to hear what you have to say, Miss Harks.”

At this point, I would usually stifle a frustrated sigh. Jamie’s initial thumbs-up was wilting by the minute, and I could understand the feeling.

“Well, Mr. Larchwood, I would have to say that based on all the factors, the risk is too great. I would back out of the account and go with something easier to predict.”

At this point, there would be a charged pause as he stared into me with those blue eyes.

“You don’t believe in taking a risk now and again, Miss Harks?”

And at
this
point, I would flush and drop my eyes to the ground, wondering what unholy power struggle I’d stumbled across into and prayed for release.

The only one who seemed to be enjoying my passive-aggressive torture, other than Thomas himself, was Michael—who had taken a rather amused position in the back, watching the disaster unfold with an unmistakable twinkle in his eye. When the lights had finally come back on, and the meeting had adjourned, he’d tried to get my attention. But I’d walked deliberately out the door, not speaking or looking at anyone else, lest they pull me into another interrogation to last for days. Instead, I headed straight to my office and pretended to be on an overseas call for the rest of the day. When Jamie popped his head in and told me that everyone could see my phone line was not in use, I flipped him off. He retreated with a grin and left a sympathy salad outside my door on his way back from lunch.

I ate it with a fixed, sullen glare—stabbing at the crisp pieces of lettuce with a vengeance they didn’t deserve. It wasn’t them who’d tried to humiliate me during my first ever Larchwood presentation. It wasn’t them who’d x-ray visioned me in front of the entire office until cold chills were running down my spine.

When it was finally time to leave, I waited until I heard the last computer shut down then made a bee-line for the double doors. Just to be safe, I took the stairs.

And just like that—I was out. No one could touch me, no one could quiz me, no one could mess with me for at least two days. It was the weekend—and I had certainly earned it.

Instead of heading back to the apartment, where Rose would no doubt be waiting to hear how the presentation played out, I went straight to the gym. I needed to run off my frustration for a while. Take off these binding office clothes and sweat it out where no Larchwood could ever find me.

At least...that was the plan.

I’d just emerged from the locker room, wearing a pair of clinging yoga capris and a sports bra, when I walked straight into Michael Larchwood.

I gasped and fell a step back, shivering a little when he caught me. (Men like Michael caught by the waist, not the shoulders.)

“Mr. Larchwood,” I stuttered, instantly wishing I’d worn more clothes. “What are you...I mean...I didn’t know this was your gym.”

“It’s not.” He laughed as he set me back down on my feet. “I’m just trying it out for the day. Seeing where the evening takes me.”

His eyes twinkled incessantly, and I couldn’t help but shake my head with a rueful grin.

“You don’t give up easily, do you?”

He laughed again. This time, he threw in a wink.

“Nope.”

I chuckled myself and accepted his arm when he offered it.

“Where to, Madame?”

I shook my head again. “
I’m
heading to the treadmills. That’s where
I’m
going.”

He pretended to look surprised. “That’s funny—that’s where I’m going as well.” His eyes narrowed shrewdly. “Are you...are you following me?”

For whatever reason, that was the breaking point.

The stress of the week and the nerves from the presentation finally pulled me over the edge, and I erupted in a fit of exhausted giggles. He stepped back when they started, looking wary that he’d somehow broken me, then his face brightened into a wide smile, and he chuckled along.