I washed my hands in the sink and tried to calm my flushed cheeks with cold water, hiding the evidence of my activities as much as possible, but the unvarnished truth I’d revealed to myself was impossible to hide.
Grey Blackwood was willing to give up a twenty-million-dollar property in exchange for two weeks of my company, but the joke was on him because I would have gone home with him for free.
“What time should I arrive tomorrow?” I asked. It had to be close to eight o’clock at night now, and I’d woken up before six this morning to get ready for work at the school. I’d also spent the entire weekend moving into the converted barn I’d rented near the school in Vermont, which meant my muscles were sore and needed a good stretch before bed. Not to mention, I’d just orgasmed my spleen in the washroom, which also took it out of a man.
Grey didn’t look up from his laptop. “You’re coming home with me, or did you forget already? To be honest, that doesn’t bode well for your skills as a personal assistant, not to mention a contract attorney.”
He sounded bored, which was the exact opposite of how I felt. Despite my fatigue, I felt jangly and weird, like I’d been injected with adrenaline and a sedative at the same time. Jerking off hadn’t helped. There was no way I’d be able to spend the rest of the evening with Grey Blackwood without saying something pathetic and ridiculous, like asking him to make all those washroom fantasies a reality. I needed time to wrap my head around this.
I cleared my throat. “I think it makes more sense for me to stay at my old apartment tonight and start fresh in the morning. I can be here as early as you’d like.”
He carefully closed the computer and looked up at me with that icy glare. “I would ask you if you always back-talked your employer, except I happen to know you’ve never truly had an employer, and you certainly wouldn’t second-guess your precious father. So let me make myself clear. Not half an hour ago, you agreed to stay at my place for my convenience. I noticed you arrived with a suitcase, which means you shouldn’t need to stop anywhere for your belongings. That suits me even better. Seeing as how you don’t have the car service number yet, I have already summoned my driver, and he awaits us out front. Let’s go.”
He didn’t wait for a response from me. He gathered his belongings into a buttery leather messenger bag and slid the strap over his shoulder as he stood up.
Grey was even taller than I remembered. He dominated the room, even though we were the only two people in it.
As he stepped closer, he looked me up and down, leaving prickles along my skin everywhere his eyes touched. “I seem to remember your ability to walk. Is that still the case, or do you need some help?”
“Don’t be an ass,” I blurted, going against my secret promise to be cordial and remain calm.
For a split -second, his eyes flared with emotion, but he quickly shuttered them. “Then don’t act like a virginal maiden who’s afraid of the big bad wolf. I can promise you, Ellison, I wouldn’t touch you again for all the money in the world.”
He stepped past me and out of the conference room, leaving a vacuum that nearly pulled me out the door after him. But his words had landed hard and fast like a kick to the gut, leaving me breathless. This time the breathlessness wasn’t caused by his proximity or my sexual fantasies, but embarrassment and the sharp sting of rejection. I’d been so fucking stupid. Of course he wouldn’t want me. Maybe I was the naive idiot who needed to be more afraid of the big bad wolf.
After gathering my wits and trying my best to pull a protective shell of nonchalance around me, I followed him out the door and down to the lobby.
This was going to be a long two weeks.
5
Grey
“In the midst of chaos, there is also opportunity.”
~ Sun Tzu, The Art of War
Putting one’s opponent off-balance was a known battle tactic. It was also delicious to watch. Ellison sat stiffly in the town car that carried us uptown.
“What’s in Vermont?” I asked conversationally as if we were two friends taking a drive.
He did a little double take. “Beg your pardon?”
“You said you’d come from Vermont. Were you on vacation there? Berry picking, perhaps? What else is there to do in Vermont in the summer?”
“No, I… no. I wasn’t vacationing. I live there now.”
How had I not known this? I’d had researchers combing every inch of intel on all the major players involved in York Capital. “You live in Vermont?”
“I moved there this past weekend.”
He didn’t elaborate. I hated his silence. I’d much rather hear him talk, even if he was an entitled asshole.
“For work? I was surprised to hear you were leaving the family business.”
He glanced at me from the corner of his eye. “Why do you care?”
“I hate to lose a promising young lawyer on staff.”
He turned to face me. It was clear I’d pushed his button successfully because his nostrils flared slightly. “Thirty-five is hardly young. Besides, we’re the same age. Would you consider yourself a promising young corporate raider?”
I couldn’t hold back a soft snort at the phrase. “You make it sound dashing and dangerous. Like I strap on a ninja mask and sneak through the city at night to see what kind of companies I can steal away before morning.”
Ellison lifted one eyebrow as if to say, “Am I wrong?”
“But yes,” I continued. “I am quite young to be in the position I’m in. According to the magazines, I’m the youngest self-made billionaire in the venture capital space.” Something I took great pride in when Marcel had informed me of it. There were fewer than a thousand billionaires in the country, and I was one of them. The knowledge of my wealth still blew my mind.
“Congratulations,” he said, and he actually sounded like he meant it. “Are you happy?”
His words jolted me out of my self-congratulatory indulgence. “Happy that I’m a billionaire?”
Ellison turned to look out the window. “Never mind. Silly question, I guess.”
He sounded disappointed, like being obscenely wealthy wasn’t reason enough to be happy. If he’d ever been poor, he might have felt differently. It was yet another reminder of how different we were and how entitled he was.
“Yes, I am happy I’m financially secure. I’m also proud of how hard I worked to get here, especially since I did it all myself.” I felt the anger from fifteen years ago bubbling under my tongue. Since Ellison was finally here in front of me, it was hard to hold it in. “I can only imagine where I would be if I’d actually had help, if I’d had a leg up in the industry and had been able to learn from other VCs.”
I could tell from the tension in Ellison’s shoulders I’d scored a direct hit with my sarcasm. Good.
“Maybe you’d still be under their thumb,” he said. “Maybe you wouldn’t have gone out on your own to amass your own wealth. You never know how that would have changed the trajectory of your success.”
My hands itched to punch him. “Yes, I’m so grateful I started off flipping fast-food burgers while trying to save money to start my own business. It must have been those three jobs I struggled to balance that shot me right into the rarefied air of the ultra-wealthy.”