He rested his hands on my waist, kissing my chin once before straightening up.
“I was thinking about taking on a partner. You know we’ve had inquiries from several companies.”
“Wow. Okay. I didn’t think you’d even consider that. You were very categoric when I first brought it up.”
“I told you that you’ve changed me.” He winked, but I could tell he was serious.
I placed my palms on either side of his face, caressing the edge of his lips with my thumbs.
“You’re serious?”
“Yes, I think it was a mistake to believe I could do it all myself, even though you think I’m brilliant.”
“Hey, it takes a brilliant man to admit that his way didn’t work and he needs to pivot. How will you decide on a partner?”
“I have this smart branding expert I’d love to help me veto them.”
“Yes, sir, at your order.”
I shimmied in his lap in a little dance of victory.
“Sienna. Stop, or this conversation will be very short.”
“Oops. That wasn’t intentional. Really. When do we start?”
“Right now.”
I loved that he trusted me so much. I’d never felt so empowered and appreciated.
Climbing out of his lap, I first headed to the bedroom, returning with a thicker shirt for him.
“What’s this for?” he asked, perplexed.
“For you to wear. The one you’re wearing is so transparent you’re practically naked. Does not help my concentration, trust me.”
He barked out a laugh, nodding. Guess what I hadn’t taken into consideration? To put on the new shirt, he first had to get rid of the old one, which meant I got an eyeful of his naked torso.
“God, you’re sexy.”
I only realized I’d said that out loud when Winston laughed.
“You could have just closed your eyes.”
My cheeks heated up instantly. “I could have. But where’s the fun in that?”
Winston had his laptop here. I didn’t, but I worked just as well with pen and paper, especially because at this stage, I was basically just making a huge pro-con list for every company.
We judged based on several factors such as general brand appeal, capitalization, benefits other than monetary value, and so on and so forth.
Four hours later, we had fifteen pages worth of notes and a spreadsheet with three hundred values. We still had a lot of work ahead of us, but this was a solid start.
“My eyes are blurry,” I said on a yawn.
“Let’s call this a day. I’ve been overworking you.”
I batted my eyelashes. “You totally have, and you can make it up to me for the rest of the day.”
“The lady needs to relax?”