The Hated Billionaire by Erica Frost

Chapter 2: Brett

I looked at the woman who was sitting down at the boardroom desk. She was angry with me – I could feel her anger practically burning the oxygen around her. I also couldn’t help noticing how sexy she looked. She had left her dark hair loose; her profile was elegant and she’d used makeup carefully to enhance her already-considerable beauty. Teamed up with a tight top and jacket, both of which complimented her fine body, I couldn’t ignore her.

She was a senior executive and I had been aware of her considerable appeal since promoting her. It was something I’d fought as much as I could, hiding behind my aloofness whenever she was near. It was a good defense, being aloof, even though this employee made it very difficult. It was something I’d worked on to try and give me an edge in business. It was usually simple, but with Ms. Bradfield I was stumped – ignoring her was virtually impossible.

“Good morning, everyone,” I greeted. “Before I start, I need to thank Ms. Bradfield for fixing the equipment.” I gestured to the projector. “She managed to get the projector running when I was a bit stumped, I can admit.”

I was surprised when Ms. Bradfield looked at me with a look that might have melted the electronics in the laptop, if it had been in the way. Her anger was intensified by my innocent comment. And somehow, that made her even sexier. I cleared my throat. I did not need to be getting interested in her while standing here.

“Right. Now, with no further delay, we can begin. Ted, I understand you have some information to share with us.” I turned to our technical expert. He nodded, clearing his throat and getting ready to begin.

“I have some reports on the new equipment we have planned to purchase overseas,” the guy started. I was sitting down at the end of the table, trying to pay attention to the talk. I couldn’t help glancing across at Ms. Bradfield every so often. I wished I didn’t find her so hot. I wasn’t supposed to find the employees attractive.

I had run this company for ten years and I hadn’t got there by getting distracted, I told myself. I bent over my iPad, trying to make notes.

I looked up as Ted flipped to a slide, a picture of some new-fangled printing equipment that we were planning to invest in. I had read the specs myself and I didn’t really need to watch this part of the presentation, but I felt bad ignoring it. Besides, ignoring the speech meant I had more chance of getting wrapped up in distracting thoughts. Like thoughts about Ms. Bradfield.

I focused on the new high-quality press equipment and tried not to think about the audience too much.

“Um, Ted?” somebody asked, sticking up a hand. I frowned. Normally, I liked employees to wait until a presentation was finished before asking a question, but I ignored it.

“Yeah?” he asked.

“Um…in the slide, you gave the price for refillable cartridges in yen? What is it in dollars?”

“Oh!” Ted reddened. “Yeah. Sorry. Anyone got today’s rate?”

I flipped to my phone but someone else got there faster. Somebody noted down the value and we moved to the next topic. I was distracted by somebody dropping a pen and then bending to get it.

Ms. Bradfield was taking notes.

I watched her as she worked, her head bent down over the paper. Her hair was tucked behind an ear and, every so often, stray curls fell into her eye and she reached to tuck them back. I watched her hand as it touched her soft skin and ached to touch it. I wondered how her lips tasted – probably like strawberries, I imagined. In reality, she looked so mad at me every time she sent a glance in my direction that I’d be lucky if I wasn’t actually set aflame by an angry look from her.

I grinned to myself. I didn’t know what I’d done. Something about me must just offend her. I would try to keep my distance, however much I longed to taste those sweet lips or to undress her beautiful curves.

“Mr. Caden?”

“Um, yes?” I went red, realizing that everyone had stopped talking. Ted was standing at the screen, and to guess from the expectant faces looking at me, I was supposed to say something.

“Mr. Caden? It’s your turn to explain the employment plan for the phase-three growth-plan.”

“Oh!” I reddened. “Um, yeah. My presentation’s uploaded already.” I stood and went up to the front. I should have paid more attention to Ted, since the budgeting part of his speech overlapped with mine. As it was, I’d worked out the figures roughly myself while making the plan for the phase, so I knew them without needing to listen to his talk.

“Okay, people,” I said, flipping to my first slide, which showed a picture of the company headquarters, here in New York. “So, what we are going to do first of all is launch a strong campaign targeted at attracting graduate employees.”

I flipped to the slides my team had prepared, showing our marketing stuff. I have a very strong advertising team – it’s distressingly easy to convince people with the right words and pictures. I waited while the team looked over the pictures and then flipped to the next slide.

“We have been talking a lot about printers,” I said, flipping to the photos similar to the ones we’d just been viewing. “And of course, for a company like ours, equipment is a key asset.”

I could sense Ms. Bradfield watching me. She was taking notes, and her hair was falling into her eye. I fought the urge to stroke it into place. I focused on the presentation. We had worked out a bold scheme of advancement, and I was trying to net a few million in investments to accomplish it, which was why we were here today, brainstorming our presentation to the board.

It was important and I tried hard to focus as I went on with the talk.

“So,” I concluded. “With a simple investment of ten million, we can grow the worth of this company tenfold in the next five years.” I was really proud of the last chart – it had taken me a week to figure out. I was pleased to see Ms. Bradfield’s brow lift. If I could impress her, me and my chart were set to wow the investment-people.

She was looking at me with wide eyes and I felt my body heat up, her admiration making me want her even more.

“Mr. Caden?” someone asked, bringing my mind back to the present. “How are we going to attract new investors?”

“We’ll be going to Investcorp investment bank with these numbers. And together with our board, we should be able to net the ten million fairly fast.” I explained. I felt confident. The development had all been worked out soundly.

“Yeah, that should work,” the questioner agreed, leaving me feeling a little offended. It sure would! I had spent months working on the idea.

“I have a question.”

“Yes?” I frowned. Ms. Bradfield almost never raised a hand in meetings. I was puzzled and I waited to hear what she was going to ask.

“In the last figure, I think you have a mistake in one number?”

“Do I?” I was surprised.

“Yeah. I think you put a comma in the wrong place.”

“Oh!” I reddened. I really had. I must have worked late and entered it when I was finished. “I’ll note that. Thank you.” Oddly, having her notice a mistake in my work just made me want to smile.

“It’s a pretty nice graph, though. What software is it?” she asked me.

I had to grin. “I was impressed too. It’s this really good downloadable software I found. I was thinking I should purchase it for all you guys?” I asked. I was really enjoying talking to her – it made me feel good to have found something that impressed her, and it was great to see her professional interest in the software. She clearly enjoyed her work and I liked that a lot.

“Yeah!” somebody else said, bringing my mind back to where we were. “Imagine what cool projections we could do.”

“That would be great,” Another said.

“Okay. Let’s note it and get onto the next question. I want to get to lunch after we finish.”

Laughter. My employees like me. It’s what I encourage, though of course I try keep a bit of professional distance. We settled down and moved on to the next inquiry. Then we turned to the actual reason for the meeting – discussing the finer points of what we were presenting to the board – what we had done and what we were going to do next.

It was a good meeting. I was standing at the front of the desk, waiting while the employees filed out, when Ms. Bradfield walked past. She looked up at me. I felt my heart shiver at her being so close.

“Um…Mr. Caden?”

“Please, call me Brett,” I said. I usually said that to all my employees once they became senior execs. Most of them still called me Mr. Caden. When I invited her to use my name, it meant something different – at least, it did to me. She raised a brow.

“I wanted to ask you about the software,” she said. “I’d really like to be able to use it...Don’t forget to send the link to all of us on the emails.”

“Yes,” I said. “Of course. I look forward to seeing the results when you present your talk for the board next week.”

“Of course,” she nodded.

I thought her voice sounded almost teasing – but that was probably because that was what I wanted it to sound like. She was standing so close that I could almost feel the warmth of her body and I took a moment to let my eyes wander over her sweet waist and curvy figure.

I watched her walk out, noting the fact that she moved her hips surprisingly sexily as she walked. I forced myself to look down at the laptop, where I was supposed to be saving the presentations and then sorting it out so I could take it back to my room with me. I couldn’t help noting the fact that she hadn’t called me Brett, and wondering why that was, and whether or not she hated me as much as it seemed.