Chapter Two
Chase
Months later.
If the briefing notes sitting on the table in front of me went up in flames, I wouldn’t have noticed. The moment she captured my attention, it ignited a tingling spike in my pulse that sent my eyes chasing her movements.
Mingling bodies obstructed my view, but my determined focus kept her in my line of sight. My gaze trailed her body, sweeping the smooth brown surface of her skin before stopping on her face.
Frozen, I found myself captured by her untamed beauty. Based on the way she threw her head back in laughter at something someone had said, it became obvious she was acquainted with my staff.
Who was she?
Why didn’t I know her?
Why had she been brought into my meeting?
I wasn’t the only one in the room observing the intriguing woman either. Members of my staff gravitated in her direction. Several of them buzzed around her at once, their faces animated with excitement, as the atmosphere shifted from sluggish to energetic.
Douglas, my tight-lipped senior analyst, and even Travis, my openly-gay assistant, had been yanked into her world. She was approachable, engaging, and projected a strength of confidence I hardly saw in people anymore.
Her neatly arched brows highlighted her sparkling eyes with lashes so long, I swore with one bat of her eyes, she could bring the strongest man to his knees. Her prominent features boasted a rich dark-honey complexion sought after by most sun worshippers.
A spark against the light caught my eye and stretched my focus. A nose piercing? Surprisingly, the tiny diamond didn’t take away from her distracting beauty. My eyes narrowly glimpsed the start of a wicked tattoo peeking from the side of her neck.
Her hair was pulled into a big bun high on the top of her head, the style adding a touch of elegance as much as it opened a doorway to her lovely face. She possessed a treasure trove of interesting features that gripped my attention with an unyielding hold.
My lips hitched into a smile while taking in the contour of her body, her size a nice full-medium that left images of her sexy silhouette swimming in my head. Her body demanded a lifetime of attention.
The group conversated boisterously, but their spirited discussions alluded me. The aroma of the steaming food we enjoyed at these meetings, wafted around the room as it usually did, but today, the bounty did not affect me, because all I craved now was a whiff of her.
Fascinated, I was unable to look away. She lit the air around her, pulling people in, gifting their senses with purpose.
I waved Travis over. “Who is that?” I feigned nonchalance, but he eyed me with a knowing expression.
The woman didn’t appear to be dressed for the boardroom, wearing boyfriend jeans and a ripped T-shirt that showed off her indigo tank underneath. Her clothing choice suggested that she instead was ready for a night out on the town, rather than a stuffy meeting with executives.
“That’s Jax Saint-Pierre.” Travis lifted his brow as though asking, shouldn’t you know her already? The name resonated slightly before realization set in.
Jax Saint-Pierre is a woman?I assumed Jax Saint-Pierre, a man, ran the company which negotiated an IT contract with my company.
I had taken control of my father’s multimillion dollar investment company five years ago and turned it into a billion-dollar empire. As the CEO of Swift Capital, I should’ve been acquainted with her before now. My staff sang the praises of her skills every chance they got. She expertly solved our computer issues and kept our network purring like a kitten.
New Generation was the company that had been recommended to set up our new network. They had been instrumental in pinpointing the root causes that had allowed our network to become vulnerable to hackers. Firewall breaches, and weak credentials had cost us millions. Jax had proposed the idea of us keeping her company on, under contract, to manage our network.
The pitch couldn’t have been an easy feat. The chances of getting hired by Swift Capital wasn’t an easy task. The candidate background checks, the qualifications, and experience required, intimidated most and left us selecting the best of the best to join our company. New Generation, was chosen because of their previous work with Lexifour, another titan in the investment arena, and Northwest Global, a dominating force in the marketing world.
I snapped my fingers in Travis’s direction to regain his attention before she walked out.
“Introduce us,” I urged. The team must have assumed we had already been acquainted, otherwise, we would have been formally introduced already.
Travis stood across the table from me, but was close enough to the exit to reach forward and grab her attention. His lips hovered near her ear, I hoped, convincing her to return. When she turned away from the door, she scanned the clock above my head before her eyes fell to mine.
I was rewarded with a snapshot of a full-frontal view and realized I had missed the tiny circular barbell through the right corner of her bottom lip. How many piercings did she have? I never liked facial piercings, especially not on a woman. However, on this woman, they made sense.
Finally, I was able to see her free and clear without interruption and paused at the full force of her radiant beauty. Shaking off the trance, I forced myself to stand, reach across the table, and take the hand she offered.
This was the first time I found myself stunned by a woman’s presence.