My dick is not taking orders from my brain, as usual, so I button my jacket to give myself a little coverage. Not that it helps much but anything is better than greeting a client with an extra arm extended for a shake.
“You’re late,” is the first thing out of her mouth as I approach. But I don’t miss how her eyes roam up and down taking in the custom fitted suit and the bulge trying to bust through the seams of my pants to greet her. Her cheeks are slightly pink by the time she meets my eyes again.
If we weren’t about to meet with a major client I would tease her about checking out my package but this isn’t the time to get Mya riled up. I need her on her game tonight. So I just tap my watch.
“Five minutes early, beautiful.” The compliment slips out before I can question the wisdom of it but Mya visibly blooms under the attention.
“But the Lavin Team is already here which means, we are late.”
Since I’ve already thrown professionalism out the window, I gesture for her to spin around for me. After a slight pause she turns, giving me another glimpse of the round globes of her ass in the clinging material.
“You really are stunning, you know that?” It comes out more intense than I meant for it to but there’s no help for it now. She’s a vision and she should know it.
Mya bites her lip. “You don’t think it’s too short, do you?”
My eyebrows lift. “Short? It’s not even showing kneecap. Half the chicks in here are flashing their Brazilians in plain view.”
That gets a soft huff of laughter and the pinch in her forehead relaxes slightly. “Oh good. I didn’t think so but Will always said… well, never mind. I just like my skirts a little on the longer side.”
Translation, the dipshit she was once engaged to made her feel bad about showing off her gorgeous body.
Insecure assholes are always worried about losing the woman they’re with. Which should be a clue that they don’t deserve the lady in question, anyway.
Before I can tell Mya exactly that, James appears at her elbow. “Mr. Lavin and his team are already seated. Luckily, Kevin and the others were early enough to greet them.”
There’s a subtle warning in his voice. We should have been here early and been the first ones to greet the client. Mya catches my eye and I can see that she’s having the same thought. There’s no way we’re letting Kevin worm his way in on this account.
Time to get our game faces on.
As we approach the table, everyone stands and the introductions are made all around. Maybe it’s because I’m watching Mr. Lavin so closely that I see how his eyes follow Mya after she shakes his hand and then walks around the table to greet the other members of his team. She knows all of their names, as do I. Then she takes a seat right next to me.
Before I can even sit down, James is already ordering a scotch from the waitress. Then I see why.
Elizabeth is sitting two tables away.
She raises her glass of wine in our direction. I turn to see James give a begrudging wave. I’m not sure if anyone else has noticed her yet but she’s already accomplished her goal. There’s no way James can focus completely on the client tonight with his ex-wife sitting right in his line of vision.
Christ.
“Thank you all for traveling to meet with me. I’ve had this week scheduled with potential investors for months so it’s been helpful that you could come to me while I’m already in the States.”
“When do you go back to Italy?” Wallace asks. “I follow you on Instagram. You guys, his page is lit. Fast cars, beautiful clothes. You’re living the dream, man.” He sighs before digging into his salad course enthusiastically.
Andre just laughs. “Thank you. This is our goal, to be as the kids say fire. Why is all of the American slang centered around temperature, I wonder? It used to be that things were cool, now they’re hot, fire, bomb or lit. Fascinating. I have an entire team of people who study the social media trends.”
James looks like he has no idea what is happening. But I strongly suspect that Wallace in his own unique, bumbling way has just broken the ice for us.
Well, if he’s broken the ice, I might as well jump in first. “Mirage employs a lot of talented young designers. It’s why our ad campaigns are so on trend. We combine years of experience in understanding what makes people buy with the fresh perspective of different generations.”
Mya grins over at me. “Wallace is on Milo’s team. He’s been with us for almost a year now and graduated from Columbia with honors. He’s also an amateur photographer and is pretty popular on Instagram, too.”
I glance over at her. He is? How did she know all that? Maybe there is something to paying attention in those bullshit icebreaker sessions at work after all.
Wallace looks shocked, too. “My account is nowhere near the numbers some of my friends have. But I just passed ten thousand.”
Mr. Lavin actually looks impressed. “That’s quite an accomplishment, especially for a hobbyis
t.” He clears his throat. “I’m happy to meet with you all in person after hearing about you from Mr. Lawson.”