I laughed softly, something more than a little predatory in the sound. “The pleasure is all mine.”
“Shall we sit, everyone?” Charmaine moved back to her seat.
I grasped the opportunity and sat in the first open spot I saw, gesturing for Jackson to do the same. Seeing Josephine here —Jo— was quite the surprise, but I couldn’t let it throw me off my game. We were here for business and to discuss Apex’s next moves with the new CEO of Gold Moon.
I put my paperwork on the desk. “Let me start right at the beginning.” I paused to smile at everyone present, hopefully reassuringly. “Apex Asset Management wishes to acquire Gold Moon Inc. for the total sum of…” I paused again as if I was skimming my paperwork, even though the sum was seared into my brain. Davina and I had spent an evening tossing figures back and forth, narrowing down the perfect one. “Ten million dollars.”
Jo’s gasp echoed around the conference room, reminding me of all the delicious sounds she’d made in my bed.
“What the hell?” But that tone and those words were definitely not memories of anything we’d previously shared. “How dare you appear with this offensive offer. Last time I checked the books, Gold Moon Inc. was worth significantly more. “
I didn’t say anything. I simply waited, all business now, knowing it often paid to just let people talk. They worked their way to my way of thinking eventually.
“Thirteen million dollars more than you’ve just offered, in fact. You’ve valued my father’s company for less than half of its worth.” Her cheeks grew red, but this time, the increased color was due to anger.
“The two of you have already met. Couldn’t you just consider…” Jackson sounded casual as he interjected, but I waved him down.
I had no idea who he was talking to, but this was no time for any of his half-baked suggestions.
“This offer has nothing to do with last night,” I said instead of following his thought wherever it had been about to go. “It’s simply the fair offer Apex worked out when we were looking at the entire company and formulating a value. All of the usual processes were followed. It’s a fair offer,” I repeated.
“Pah.” Jo simply spat out a sound of derision. “I haven’t even had chance to get my feet under the Gold Moon table, never mind look at the books again. There’s no way I can say what’s fair yet. I need to audit the books properly before I can make any sort of judgement on figures in their millions, especially when we’re currently so far apart of value. And actually…” She pushed her hair back with a sudden furious movement, her eyes blazing with the kind of fire I usually found exciting in a woman. “There are some discrepancies I’ve been made aware of that I want to set straight before I even consider selling my father’s entire life’s work and legacy to a man like you — a man only known to chop up companies and sell their bits and pieces for a profit. You’re little more than a scrap metal dealer. And an insulting one at that.”
My mind was stuck. The moment she said the wordbits, the only thought in my brain was of mybits.Herbits. And her pieces. All of them. And how much I wanted to see them again.
We were all sitting in this meeting today, fully clothed and professional, but all I could think about was the woman opposite me — the womanarguingwith me — writhing naked beneath me.
I knew how she sounded when she came. I could hear it now.
I knew how she bit her lip right before her orgasm took her, and how she clenched the sheets, holding them tightly in her closed fists, as her body pulsed around me.
I knew too much. Her damn naked body was distracting me, and I didn’t have time for it.
Thisright here was why I didn’t do company, didn’t do guests, didn’t even have time for one-night stands. Love wasn’t good for me. Love wasdistracting, and I’d let Saundra distract me and break my heart. And she could have done so much worse.
For that reason, I refused to let this woman, this Josephine or Jo or Miss Everly or however the hell she wanted to present herself — no matter how good a swimmer she was or how perfect she looked gloriously naked in my pool — distract me from the reality of good business.
Because I was a fucking good businessman, and I knew what I was doing.
But I made the mistake of looking at her, and my cock fundamentally disagreed with me that she wouldn’t be a distraction. Little brain indeed.
Shit. This was going to be easier said than done.
“As I was saying…” I glanced back down at my paperwork. “Uhhh…” What the hell was I doing? Shit. I never hesitated.
I moved in and I hoovered up the businesses I wanted, identified any criminal activities, and profited off the cleaned-up company. That was the way I operated, that was what I did. I didn’t sit in meeting rooms, lost in my own thoughts and scrambling to find my place on the page.
Jackson nudged me. “Dude,” he whispered.
I traced my finger across the page, still searching.
“Patrick, is everything okay?” Jackson was all business now, unused to seeing me the least bit flustered. He delivered a sharp elbow to my side.
Hell, Gold Moon Inc was up to its neck in trouble. Regardless of what Jo thought about her father’slegacy, some bad shit was going on down there.
Davina, Brody, and I had theorized illegal gun-running, but we had no proof. That was what I’d wanted to find out after the takeover, when I could install my own men to watch. We had tried and tested systems in place for finding things out.
But it certainly didn’t look like Jo knew much of anything, and I couldn’t be sure about Charmaine, but I could give her the benefit of the doubt…for now.