A Daddy for Damian by Joe Satoria

6. KRISTOPHER

All that travel for one of the fastest negotiations. I assumed Theo knew everything he wanted, considering he was already in talks of making them an investment offer. It was a joint venture and worked it together. The only exception being the investments I had in Germany, they were mine, way before Theo and I got into business together.

In the back of the car, Damian sat quietly, twiddling with his thumbs. I had adrenaline pounding through my veins. It was times like this I’d get the driver to leave the car while I fucked in it. But I couldn’t do that, not only because I wasn’t going to hit on Damian, but also because I’d told Theo I could have an assistant without making it sexual.

“Did you make good notes?” I asked.

He showed me the page in the notebook. He’d written what I’d asked. “So, is that how they usually go?”

“Sometimes,” I admitted. “I do a lot of research before I even go into a place.” He’d told me about his brother working at the cat café with the room upstairs. The small kitten play kink area, I’d offered him a good sum in the contract. It was a quick in an out situation, I remembered that. I also remembered seeing he had experience in marketing and a recent bid online for a job, marketing kitten play items. I knew his game; he was just wanting me to get on board so he could legitimise himself and then forget about the club. It would’ve been fine, because I could’ve easily added it to my portfolio, but he was easily spooked by the terms. “Research gives you the upper hand, like, you should have looked into me. Did you?”

He shook his head, looking almost sheepish. “You’re not a murderer, are you?”

I glanced at the rear-view mirror from the front of the car, catching Carl’s eye. He smiled. “No,” I said, “and if I was, I don’t think I could admit that to you. Even with an NDA in place, that only covers certain things. But no, I’m not. Do I look like someone who would get their suit dirty?” I chuckled. “I’m not the American Psycho.”

“Who?”

“American Psycho, you know,” I said, looking into his blank eyes. He had no idea. “The film with Christian Bale, he runs around with a chainsaw, gets naked, lots of sex, and then kills people.”

He shook his head. “Nope.”

He truly was so innocent, and I was a barrel of corruption, ready and waiting for him to open me up, because I couldn’t well open myself up to him. This time, it had to be different.

“Is that your favourite film?” he asked.

“It’s a good film,” I told him. “I don’t think I have a favourite. Of course, there’s a lot of good films I really enjoy, like Wolf of Wall Street, and The Big Short, they were favourites, about men making money and basically an aspirational guide,” I chuckled.

“Obvious Jurassic Park is a favourite of mine,” he said. “There are new films coming out in the series too, and PC games as well. It’s a lot of fun.”

Nodding along to what he was saying, he wasn’t even alive when the first film was released. “You’ll have to tell me more,” I said. “We have an hour drive back into Manchester, and I need to get to know my new assistant. If I’m to end the horror stories of assistants leaving, I suppose I should do things differently.”

“Differently?” he asked.

I couldn’t tell him what that meant, because what if he wanted to fuck? If he even gave the slightest inkling he wanted to go, I wouldn’t be able to hold back. The last thing I wanted, or needed was for that to prove a point to Theo.

“You know, just getting to know you, and seeing what you want from this job,” I said, although the answer was simple in my eyes. Someone of his age would just want money, and I didn’t blame him a second for that, because I was the absolute same.

The question pulled is both into silence for a moment, the lull took over. I didn’t mind. I had emails to respond to, which prompted me to talk.

“I’m going to CC you on these emails,” I said. “We only texted earlier, but I need your email.”

His complexion turned once more. He looked away from me. “It’s—I need a new email. This one is an old one.”

“Tell me,” I said.

“DinoDamian,” he mumbled, “at—”

“Oh. Wow.” Well, that much was true. He needed a new email. “Ok, after lunch, we’ll get you a new email set up. And you need a company phone. It must be turned on twenty-four seven. As well as that, I’ll need to get you a list of places I have investments in, and these places will contact you if they want to get in touch with me.”

He nodded. “I can do that.”

“At any hour,” I said. “I told you this was going to be demanding. Most importantly, just making sure you answer my calls and texts. Anything else can be left.”

Damian scribbled those down as notes. In the past, assistants took on, depending on how well they did, and how well they were doing at other areas. Most of the time, if they’d had a particularly eventful evening, I’d give them a pass and let them lie-in. But this was going to be different.

“And I usually go back to Germany for a weekend or a week, at the end of each month.”

His eyes flickered side-to-side as he did the math, counting the days.

“That’s next week,” I told him. “So, at the end of next week. A Friday. I’ll need you to have clothes ready for a weekend in Berlin. It will be business, but—” I caught myself, thinking about plans I’d had previously. “But you can also do some sightseeing too. Invite a friend. I’ll pay. I mostly see family while I’m there. This is a perk of the job, except you won’t be working.”

“A friend?”

I nodded. “Or brother,” I recalled. “I’ll have you set up in a hotel. Are you writing this down?”

Quickly, Damian scribbled at the notepad. “So, I can bring anyone? Do they have to pay?”

“You’ll be booking the flights, as my assistant, of course. I only fly business, and you only fly economy. I like my assistants, but I don’t want you to get carried away with my business expense account.”

The words exciting him. “That’s fine.”

“And I need to give you my contacts for the places I like to eat,” he said, “although I usually have a standing reservation, I need you to know in case details change.”

“Ok, I can do that,” he said. “It’s a lot to take in all at once.”

“That’s why you have a notepad,” I said, reminding him of what he’d been writing. “So, you won’t be able to forget. Obviously, you don’t speak German, so my contacts abroad won’t really be all that good. It’s best if I handle that.”

“I can speak a little German,” he said.

This I had to hear. “Please, by my guest.”

“Ich liebe dich.”

Translated to ‘I love you.’ “You know what you said?” I chuckled.

“I like you, or something, but it sounds like I like dick.”

“Sorta,” I said. “It means I love you, and I don’t think that’s something you know me well enough to say.”

He continued to blush at the comment. I wondered if there was perhaps something else going on, although him saying he loved me might just be something that had happened the fastest ever. It had been quick. We hadn’t even fucked—and we weren’t going to.

“Well, I remembered something, at least,” he said. “I’ll get a translation book to help for the trip.”

“That would be best,” I said. “At least, so you’re not telling everyone you love them.”

“Can I—can I ask you a question?”

Shifting around in the seat belt, I wondered what he could possibly have to ask me that meant he was asking permission for the question. “Sure.”

“So, you kinda just offered me this job, and I don’t have experience with this, or anything. And from what other people have said, I just wondered why you decided on me?”

I wondered, how much of the truth, could I offer him. I wondered how much of what I had to say could I get away with giving. “Of course, in this industry, I like to turn up to meetings, and I like to have someone who is attractive,” I said. “And you didn’t have a job, and you weren’t a student. Plus, you wanted to be an assistant.”

“Right,” he said. “I was just wondering. Because it was a dating site.”

“Believe me, it’s much better to recruit then hold ten interviews with people who know me and my reputation.” I nodded at him. I told him he was cute, in an around about type of way. I couldn’t exactly lie to him about that, it was true, and the side benefit was often sex, but again—that couldn’t happen with him. At least, not until after I’d proved my point to Theo.

“I got lucky I guess then,” he said, forcing a smile on his face.

That would be one way to put it, although he was the first person I’d contacted, so perhaps not so much luck as it was his profile.