Starr Fated (10 page)

I quickly set
everything up, then popped my head round the door.

“We’re good to
go,” I informed the PA, whose name appeared to be Joy Pearce,
according to the name plate on her desk. “Only a few minutes late.
Not bad all things considered.”

She ignored my
words, picked up the phone and pressed a button.

“Mr Starr? The
presentation is ready for you now, sir.” She replaced the receiver,
then gave me a glacial stare.

“He’ll be with
you in a minute,” she stated, then went back to her keyboard
again.

“Fine. Be a
miserable cow,” I thought to myself, deciding her name was a
misnomer if ever there was one, as I went back into the meeting
room to wait. It wasn’t long before the door opened, and in walked
the man himself.

I could
immediately see why my housemates called him The Big Guy. He was at
least six foot three or four. He was broadly built, and beneath his
obviously expensive well cut grey suit, it was easy to see that he
was built. I literally felt my stomach lurch as I instantly felt
the powerful aura emanating from him.

I looked up at
his face, and saw straight away the family resemblance to his
younger brother. But whereas Jamie was handsome in an almost pretty
kind of way, Liam was much harder looking. They both had dark
blonde hair, but Liam wore his short and spiky. His face had the
same high cheek bones but he was rugged rather than handsome, and I
noticed he had a scar at the corner of his mouth. He had a strong,
straight roman type of nose, and the only slightly softer feature
of his face was his full mouth, which was fascinating for some
reason, and I found myself wondering what it would be like to be
kissed by those lips. But it was his eyes that drew my full
attention. They were the most intense shade of steely blue, and
right now they were glaring at me.

“Who the hell
are you? Joy said you were Miss Jones, is that right? Where’s
Simon, Rob or Tom?”

His voice was
both deep and melodic, although right now it was laced with
irritation.

“Unfortunately
they’ve been delayed, Mr Starr. I’m Seraphina Jones, the intern,
and I'm standing in for them until they get here,” I explained as
coolly as I could, meeting his gaze, refusing to allow myself to be
cowed by his overwhelmingly macho presence as I calmly held my hand
out for him to shake.

He looked at
me for a beat, and then I saw the penny drop. There are some
benefits to having an unusual Christian name.

“Seraphina
Jones. The girl my brother gave the room to in the student house,”
he said, staring intently at me, letting his eyes wander right from
the tip of my toes to the top of my head. It must have taken him
only a few seconds, but it felt like hours as his gaze burned into
me. Then he seemed to shake his head slightly before taking my
proffered hand. As he firmly gripped it with his very large hand, I
gasped as a bolt of electricity literally shot through me. He
snatched his hand away, as if he too had felt it. It must have been
static created by the plastic soles of my cheap boots. How
embarrassing. We both pretended nothing had happened.

“That’s
correct. I rent a room in the house with Jamie and the other two
boys. So, how many other attendees do we need to wait for before I
make a start with the presentation?” I asked, seeing as no one else
had come in with him, and there was still no sign of Rob.

“There won’t
be anyone else. The two heads of department that were supposed to
be sitting in have failed to make it in this morning, just because
of the strike. It’s pathetic. So how come you managed to get to
work when so many others have failed miserably?” he looked at me
curiously.

“I walked. As
for the others, Tom’s wife is having her baby, otherwise I’m sure
he would have made it in, and the other two are on their way,” I
tried to cover for my colleagues.

“That’s quite
a walk,” he murmured as he tapped his finger on his lips and
continued to stare at me. I wished he wouldn’t draw attention to
his mouth, because suddenly images were popping into my head of his
big muscly body pinning me down on a large soft bed, while his
mouth wandered all over my naked body.
I want him
. Where on
earth these erotic images were coming from I had no idea, but I had
to pull myself together.

“Shall I make
a start then? I understand that you are a very busy man, Mr Starr,
so I’ll keep it brief and to the point.”
Because there isn’t
actually much to show you.

“Are you sure
you’re up to this? Aren’t you just an art student?” The disdain was
apparent in his voice, and again those steely eyes bore into
mine.

“As I have sat
in on all the recent team discussions, I’m confident that I can
present all the relevant information to you, sir. And I am about to
complete the final year of my BA Graphic Design degree at Central
Saint Martin’s, having specifically chosen to specialise in Design
and Interaction.”
Which you would know if you’d bothered to read
my CV, which clearly you haven't.

I think a hint
of sardonic amusement passed over his face as I stared back at
him.

“Very well,
Miss Jones. You may proceed,” he ordered, as he sat himself down on
one of the chairs in front of me. He folded his arms, and
arrogantly crossed his legs out in front of him. Bring it on, his
body language was saying, because I think you’re going to be
pathetic and useless.

Well, although
I knew what I was presenting was pretty pathetic and useless, I was
determined I wasn’t going to give this horrid man the satisfaction
of finding any fault with the way I presented it.

I don’t know
what I’d expected this girl my brother
was chasing after to look like, but when I came face to face with
Miss Seraphina Jones, she was nothing at all how I had imagined her
to be. I suppose I’d expected her to be blonde and busty to have
got Jamie so obsessed with her, despite being led such a merry
dance. That’s the kind of overtly sexy female I expected him to be
lusting after, I suppose because that’s the type I’ve always
enjoyed fucking. Big tits. Curvy. Blonde.

Seraphina
Jones was the absolute antithesis of this. She was brunette, petite
and slim, with average sized tits, although I could see from the
way her blouse was clinging to her that they were a great shape and
totally in proportion with the rest of her figure. I imagined they
looked good even when she wasn’t wearing a bra, not droopy or saggy
like big tits tend to be. And I guessed she was feeling the cold
because I could see her nipples standing out through the thin
fabric too, which I have to say I rather appreciated. And she had
great legs, long and slim and shapely.

Little Miss
Jones was dressed in a somewhat unconventional outfit. Most of the
women at the office wore trouser suits, but she was wearing a short
skirt with lacy patterned tights and funny little ankle boots that
had suede tassels hanging from the back. For some reason, on her
that combination looked incredibly sexy – I have no idea why as I'm
most definitely a stockings and stilettos man.

She stood
there glaring defiantly at me with these astonishing green eyes, as
if daring me to send her packing. Those eyes were set in a
beautiful heart shaped face, and her smooth complexion was a very
pale alabaster, just heightened with a tinge of pink, the only
thing slightly betraying the nerves she must have been feeling. And
I realised my brother had been wrong when he’d described her as
pretty. She wasn’t. She was beautiful. Unquestionably Seraphina
Jones was a natural beauty, and I began to understand why Jamie was
so obsessed, as I found myself staring to take in every detail
about her.

Suddenly a
picture popped into my head of those long legs wrapped tightly
around me as I fucked her hard, while she moaned and writhed under
me, her nails raking my back.
I want her
. I shook my head to
dispel the image. Clearly my recent lack of sex was playing havoc
with my head, and I needed to organise a good hard fuck to restore
my equilibrium as a matter of priority. In any case, Jamie had told
me this female was a frigid virgin, possibly a lesbian, and that
she had issues about men touching her. So she really wasn’t even
worth fantasizing about.

As we shook
hands, I felt a shock of electricity shoot through me. I made a
mental note to have the carpets sprayed to get rid of the static
electricity that must have built up to have had such a pronounced
effect. That was the only logical explanation, and I made no
comment about it.

All these
thoughts passed in a matter of seconds, before my head righted
itself to get on with the matter in hand.

To say that I
was pissed that so many members of my staff had failed to get into
work today was an understatement. I thought it was pathetic. I had
managed to, and to her credit, so had Miss Jones. She’d walked in,
she stated. That was a distance of several miles and I had to admit
I was impressed. I remembered Jamie telling me she was desperate
for an internship and how he’d virtually begged me to give her a
place, so I guessed that explained why she had made the extra
effort to get here today, which I respected. One point in her
favour.

And she was a
feisty little thing. The way she calmly put me to rights over her
ability to make this presentation quite frankly amused me, so I sat
back to see what she would come up with, knowing she must have been
dropped into doing it at the very last minute, and that she was
stuck with presenting other people’s ideas, which is never an easy
thing to do. She was going to have to think on her feet, so I
decided I’d push her, see what she was capable of, because she
intrigued me.

Little Miss
Jones efficiently worked through the flip charts and slides of the
proposed changes. She explained each of the three proposals very
clearly. She impressed me. But the contents of the presentation did
not. Bitterly disappointed me more like. What a waste of time.

“I thought I’d
made it perfectly clear to Simon’s team that I wanted something
much more striking, not just the same old shit rehashed,” I fumed.
I wasn’t going to go easy on her just because she was the
intern.

“I think if
you would just take the time to look more closely, Mr. Starr,
you’ll find there are actually quite significant differences, which
will help to create a different and more vibrant image for Starr
Capital Ventures,” she bravely persisted.

“Bullshit,
Miss Jones. I shouldn’t have to look more closely. That’s the whole
point. I want something that jumps out at me. I don't expect to
have to get a measure out to discover the font is a size smaller,
or the underlining is fractionally thicker.”

I was furious.
What the hell had the team been spending all their time doing, if
this was the best they could come up with?

“I believe
your brief was quite specific with regard to what you would and
would not find acceptable, sir. The team worked extremely hard
within those restrictive confines to come up with every possible
concept,” she challenged, looking me straight in the eye.

“So basically
I got what I asked for? Is that what you’re saying Miss Jones?” I
asked her, not quite able to believe my ears.

She shrugged,
as she calmly replied.

“My
understanding is that the team have produced exactly what you
specified. Nothing more, nothing less.”

Fuck me! This
young slip of a girl actually had the guts to tell me this disaster
was all of my own doing.

“Okay. Let’s
cut all the crap shall we? You agree these proposals are shit?”
Miss Jones sighed, as she slowly nodded her head in defeat. I
continued. “There’s nothing different here whatsoever. The new
image looks exactly the same as the old, yes? And be totally
honest, it’ll make a refreshing change.”

“They’re
pretty rubbish,” she agreed. “But with respect, Mr. Starr, what did
you expect? You have a creative team that you don't allow to be
creative in the slightest, because you lay down the law about all
the things you won’t even consider.”

“Well, why
didn't they confront me and force me to consider other options,
rather than waste everybody’s time with this banal crap?”

“You want me
to be polite, or give you the honest truth?”

“ I’d prefer
the brutal honest truth.”

“They’re
scared of you; scared of losing their jobs. You intimidate
them.”

“So how come
you’re not scared to tell me how it really is?”

“Because I’m
only the intern. I’ve got the reference I need, and I’ll be gone in
another week, so what have I got to lose? But for them it’s their
livelihood, their careers. Rob’s had enough so he’s moving on; he’s
leaving at the end of the month. Tom sticks it out and works really
hard because his wife’s having a baby, so he’s now their sole
provider, and Simon thinks he’s too old to get another job at the
same level, and is scared of losing his pension. So they kowtow to
you and try their best to please you. They give you exactly what
you say you want to avoid confrontation.”

I sat and
stared at Seraphina Jones. I had a team of yes men, she was telling
me.

“So what the
hell am I going to do about the revamp? I’ve set up a whole raft of
meetings in the States on the basis of having a new image to work
with and now I've got nothing. I’ll have to cancel the whole lot
and start again. It’s taken me months to build up these contacts
too.”

“There is
another possibility, Mr Starr,” a man’s voice said, and we both
turned to see Rob Lewis standing in the doorway.

“So kind of
you to join us,” I said witheringly, as I pointedly looked at my
watch.

“It’s been a
little tricky getting into work today, in case you hadn’t noticed,
Mr. Starr. So, it’s a case of better late than never. I did ring to
say I was on my way, but no one answered the phone. Anyway, I’m
here now,” he replied.