Irresistible Billionaires by Summer Brooks

3

Rhett

Logan had said she’d agreed.

He’d said it five hours and twenty-seven minutes ago.

Twenty-eight minutes.

The moment I saw his text message, with Sarah’s contact attached, I’d thought I was going to burst apart in excitement. I almost called her right then and there, but I decided to wait just a little bit. I didn’t want her to think that I was being too needy.

But now, it had been nearly five and a half hours, and I still hadn’t called her yet.

I couldn’t get the thoughts in my head to settle down long enough for me to concentrate on formulating the perfect opening statement.

I usually wasn’t like this. I was normally smooth and suave, totally calm. Women always liked me.

“Yeah,” I reminded myself, aloud. "Women always like you. Get over yourself.”

I glanced around my sunken living room, taking in the potted plants and the relaxing gray couch for just a moment before I picked up my phone and clicked on her phone number before I could give myself a moment to hesitate.

Now was the time to turn on the cool guy charm the way I always did, to make her fall head over heels for me. So she was leaving for Thailand in a week. So what?

That didn’t mean we couldn’t have some epic adult fun while she was still here, right?

“Hello?”

And just like that, all of the suave energy I’d been cultivating melted away, and I was left with a pounding heart and sweaty palms.

I didn’t say a word for the longest second. I was literally incapable of speech as the sound of her voice rang through my head, sweet and musical.

“Hello?” She repeated. “Who is this?”

Oh my God. She didn’t even know I was supposed to call her. Maybe Logan hadn’t talked to her yet. Or maybe she’d forgotten she’d agreed to this phone call, and that was why she was so confused as to who was calling.

My heart started pounding in my chest, and I was absolutely torn. If I spoke now, it would seem strange. Why hadn’t I answered her in the first place?

I could just hang up. Pretend like it was an accidental dial. Or use Javier’s phone to call her back when I was a bit more prepared.

That was it. That was the plan of action I should take. I was just getting ready to hang up the line when Sarah spoke again.

“Rhett? Is that you?”

Crap.

She did know I was supposed to call. And she was smart enough to figure out that it was me on the line.

I sucked in a breath and came up with the quickest, easiest excuse I could possibly find.

“Yeah, that mock-up will be just fine,” I announced to my empty living room. “I just want to make sure the decor portrays exactly the mood we’re going for. Remember, a huge part of what sells our homes is the furniture we stage it with. Okay, team, be off.”

Be off? Be off? I could not believe myself at that moment. But I glossed right over my personal disgust at my lame little cover story and spoke into the receiver.

“Hey, Sarah, sorry about that,” I told her casually. “Just had something to take care of. It’s Rhett Thompson. How are you doing?”

It was a good cover. I knew as soon as the words were out of my mouth that it would work. I seemed now like the cool, easy guy with a great job. I was large and in charge. All of the things a woman wanted in a guy.

“I’m fine,” she replied. I could hear the slight annoyance in her tone and had that sinking feeling that what I had hoped was a very suave introduction to the conversation was deemed much less so by the person I was talking to.

“Good, good,” I said quickly.

Why was I so nervous? I couldn’t put my finger on it in the slightest. I mean, sure, there was my image in the media to contend with, but Sarah didn’t strike me as the type of woman to put much thought into that sort of thing. I just didn’t think she would judge me on one of those he said-she said stories that were always running rampant in glossy magazines and on flashy social media sites.

“So that sounded important.”

It was probably the only thing she could think to say, but it was the last thing I wanted her to. Mostly because the important thing she was talking about was completely made up by me, and I had no idea how to cover it up.

“You know, just a day in the life,” I said casually. “People always need some sort of direction, and I’m great at that kind of thing. It’s how I built this whole business from the ground up in my twenties. Just give them direction and make sure they follow through. Sometimes they don’t, and you have to let them go. I had to do that the other day, actually.”

“Oh, really?” She asked, and I couldn’t tell whether the slight intrigue in her tone was genuine or contrived to make me feel like less of a psycho.

“Yeah,” I replied with a nod that she couldn’t even see. “One of my accountants. She just wasn’t doing such a great job, you know? Messing up my taxes and such. So I said, thanks for your work, but I have to find someone else.”

“And did you find someone?” Her reply was unexpected, but I had to be a little proud of myself. Clearly, she was interested in me.

“Not yet,” I replied. “It’s hard to find a talented accountant around here. Google and Facebook snatched them all up.”

“It’s a hard job,” she chuckled. “People want the benefits those companies offer.”

My heart probably could have burst right out of my chest and soared into the air at that moment. She was actually interested in me.

“They do,” I sighed. “I think that what people don’t realize is that all of those perks are really just a ploy to get you to work longer hours and devote your entire life to the company.”

“Tell me about it,” she groaned. “It’s why I didn’t go into finance right out of college. Even though my last job wasn’t all that much better, at least I got clear time off. I didn’t feel like it was a sin to leave the office.”

“What was your last job?” I asked curiously.

The conversation was flowing so smoothly now I could hardly believe I’d ever been nervous about speaking with her. She was just as calm and relaxed as she’d seemed the other day outside of the corner store.

“I worked for a real estate agent,” she replied. “Henrietta Lin? You might know her, since you’re in the business, too. I was her personal assistant, which was really just code for picking up her dry cleaning and making sure her bratty kids didn’t murder each other after school got out.”

“You worked for Henrietta Lin?” I gasped, faking complete outrage. “She is my mortal enemy!”

“Oh, really?” Sarah laughed. “Well, then, I guess this conversation is over then. I can’t be seen fraternizing with you.”

“Hold on, hold on,” I replied quickly, a tiny bit afraid that she actually meant it. “You said you’re not working for her anymore, right? So, then what’s the harm in a little conversation?”

There was a long pause on the other end of the phone, and I couldn’t figure out whether or not she was debating if she wanted to hang up on me.

“Well, you do have a fair point,” she finally said. “Although admittedly, since I was fired from my last job, I can’t keep talking to you without saying that I absolutely have to feel empathy for the poor employee you fired.”

“Don’t,” I chuckled. “I may have exaggerated how much of a hand I had in that. She may have announced she was quitting before I could get the words out, but I’d been thinking about letting her go anyways.”

“Uh-huh, sure,” Sarah responded sarcastically. “That’s just what you tell yourself.”

“Maybe, maybe not,” I shrugged. “So, what happened to your job with Henrietta? I’m just gathering intel on the enemy, of course.”

“Of course,” she giggled. “Well, it turns out that when you’re a college dropout, even the woman you’ve worked for six years can one day turn around and decide that she wants someone with a higher education to pick up her little brats from their expensive private school.”

“Wait,” I paused, making sure I remembered her earlier words correctly, “you said you had a degree in finance.”

“No, I said I was in college for finance,” she replied, and even though I didn’t know her all that well, I could just tell that she was grinning behind the phone. “Big difference. I dropped out when I realized that my life was going to be a living hell if I kept going. I have never wanted to work seven days a week and be on call at all hours. It’s just not my thing.”

There was a long pause, during which my stomach did about three thousand backflips.

Was I really about to ask her what I thought I was?

She might not have a degree in finance, but so what? Leslie had a finance degree from Berkley and she’d still turned out to be absolutely awful at her job.

Besides, there was something I liked about Sarah. Something new and different… refreshing.

I was pretty sure it was because she just didn’t care what anyone thought about her. She’d made that abundantly clear when I’d seen her the other day, but it had also been obvious at Bella and Logan’s party.

She was her own person, and she needed to honor that, no matter what. That was the kind of person I needed on my team, someone who would blast through walls and find the perfect solutions at all times, instead of bickering over two cents all day long.

“Listen, this might sound crazy,” I started as the idea began to formulate in my head. “But what would you think about coming down to the office and taking a tour? I’ve got a position for an accountant that I need filling, and something tells me that you’re the perfect woman for the job.”

Silence met me on the other end of the phone, stretching on for so long that I actually started to debate whether or not I should repeat my question. Maybe she hadn’t heard me.

Or maybe she thought I was absolutely insane because I’d just turned a casual phone conversation into a job interview.

“Is this a job interview?” Sarah finally asked, breaking the silence with a laugh. “Because I have to tell you, Rhett, I’ve never been asked to have a phone conversation with a guy under the guise of a friendly meeting and then get asked if I’d like a job.”

She was right. I was a total and complete fool. But I was also a fool who had backed himself into a corner, and there was no way I could turn back now.

“Well, you’ve never met a guy like me before,” I replied coolly. “Besides, I need a position filled, you need a job, what’s the harm in it?”

“You know I’m moving to Thailand in a week, right?” She replied. “Because if Logan didn’t mention that, I figure that’s probably something you should know before you try offering me a job.”

“Thailand, shmailand,” I replied, waving my hand in the air.

Alright, so that was a bit of a roadblock. But, I could deal with that later, if it truly became a problem.

All I knew was that I didn’t want to let this woman go anywhere. I hardly wanted to let her go another day without seeing me, let alone move to an entirely different country where I’d never be able to see her.

This might have been the strangest introductory call I’d ever done, not to mention the only one. Still, I was willing to completely ignore that. Something inside of me wanted Sarah to stay, and if all I needed to do to make that happen was to give her a job, then dammit, I’d do it.

“Come on,” I urged her when I was still met with silence on the other end of the phone. “What’s the worst thing that happens? You find out you actually want to work with me and take the job?”

“Actually, yes,” she replied. It wasn’t quite a joke, but I laughed anyway.

“Sarah, if that is your biggest worry, then you better come down and take a look at my office.”

I truly didn’t know how this entire conversation had devolved into a conversation where I was suddenly trying to convince someone to take a job with me. Never before in my entire career had I felt the need to do that, but Sarah was just… different. It was an awful adjective, but so far, it was the only one I had to describe her.

Hopefully, soon, I’d have a different one.

“Alright, fine,” she relented with a little laugh, one that was like music and wind chimes all rolled into one. “I’ll come take a look, but I make no promises. And you’d better get ready to sell me on it the way you sell all of those fancy houses, got it?”

“A tough negotiator. I can appreciate that. Sarah, get ready to have your mind blown with this awesome opportunity.”

“Color me prepared,” she murmured, her tone bordering between surprised and excited.

I was doing the same on the inside…On more than one level. I wanted to meet this woman in person, to actually get to know her, and I also wanted this position filled. I didn’t have to speak to her for another minute to know that Sarah could take on any job she wanted to, and be brilliant at it.

“Then I’ll see you tomorrow at nine a.m.”

“That soon?” She asked.

“Well, seeing as I’ve only got a week to convince you to take this job, yeah, that soon,” I replied with a shrug.

“Alright then,” she said. “I’ll be there.”

When the conversation was over, I found myself in some sort of a strange fugue state. I couldn’t quite figure out how everything had just happened, and suddenly, I burst out laughing.

Rhett Thompson tries to date for the first time in eight years and ends up interviewing his potential date for a job in order to stop her from moving to another country for the next year.

It was like something straight out of a movie.

But now, I had no choice but to prepare myself to sell this job just like I sold a house.

And, if my previous record was any indication, I’d have absolutely no problem convincing Sarah to stick around.