Resisting the Billionaire (3 page)

My forehead cleared and I relaxed. “Oh!
Of
course.
Umm…I am the guardian of my teenage brother, Marcus, so
overnight business trips may be tricky. As for other family, I don’t have any.
Same for significant other.”

His eyes seemed to sharpen with interest.

Warmth crept into my cheeks under his regard and I hurried
to answer the rest of his questions. “As for what motivates me–
right now, it’s taking care of my brother. And in five years…” I hesitated, not
sure if I should give the standard line of wanting to grow with the
company– blah
blah
blah
.

I’d probably not be
here by next month.

I raised my chin and spoke clearly. “In five years, I hope
to be in a place where I could go back to school to finish my college degree.”

“What did you want to study?”

“Math.”

“Ah…I thought I saw something on your resume about a year of
college. MIT, wasn’t it?”

I was surprised he would remember something so obscure.
“Yes."

“That’s impressive. Why did you not continue?”

Again, I paused, reluctant to share more about my personal
life. “Family emergency.”

He seemed to accept my vague answer and there was even a
flash of sympathy on his face. “Life has a funny way of interfering sometimes. There
will be some out of town business trips, but I can have someone else accompany
me.”

I was bewildered by why he would make special accommodations
for me. It would be so much easier if he picked another person to be his
assistant. Maybe I had to re-evaluate my initial impression of him as cold and
uncaring?

“Is there anything you wanted to ask me?”

Surprised by the offer, I took a moment to formulate my
question. “Why didn’t you pick someone with more experience for the position?” It
had been nagging at me ever since Stewart called me into his office.

He sat forward. “Do you remember typing up the Singapore
Shipping Company contract a few weeks ago?”

“Was that the company dealing with the Los Angeles office?”
I squirmed. Normally, I did not remember the paperwork coming across my desk. My
job was pretty unexciting; I was supposed to type what was in front of me.
Generally I allowed my mind to wander, but I distinctly recalled the SSC
contract because I had noticed a mistake on it. Stewart had left early that
afternoon and since I was under a deadline, I made the changes without running
it by him.

“Yes. Did you know what you did?”

I gulped nervously and tried to reassure myself if I had
screwed up, they would have fired me weeks ago. “Um…”

He grinned at me and I almost reeled back in shock at his
unexpected reaction.

“You caught a mistake and took initiative to correct it. It
saved the company millions of dollars, Cora. When the attorney at the LA office
pointed out the discrepancy in the revision, I was livid, but then I instantly
saw the error in the figures. How did you figure it out?” He cocked his head in
interest.

Relieved I wasn’t in trouble, I blew out a breath. “It
wasn’t hard. The figures didn’t add up. There was no way the order could have
been for six million units if the contract was for twelve million dollars. It
just took some simple math to figure out that it was supposed to be sixteen
million units.”

There was a look of admiration on his face and I flushed.

“I traced the work back to you. At first I was going to have
Personnel give you a bonus, but I realized I needed someone with your quick
thinking by my side. That was good work, Cora.”

I’d have preferred the
bonus
, I wanted to say, but I merely responded with a quiet thank you.

“Do you have any other questions?”

Might as well ask,
Cora.
I swallowed against the dryness in my
throat,
aware I was stepping into dangerous territory. “Could you tell me why your
previous assistants didn’t work out?”

His quirked one dark brow.
“I take
it the gossip mills have been hard at work?”

I wisely held my tongue.

“Let’s say they did not exhibit professional behavior. When
I hire an assistant, an assistant is all I am looking for. I don’t want to mix
business with pleasure.” His blue-green eyes lanced into me. “I take it you
wouldn’t have a problem with that, Cora?”

Any positive feelings I had about Jake Weston drowned in a
wave of disgust.

“I assure you, sir. I have no aspirations on that front,” I
said firmly. I tried to keep the dislike and anger from bleeding into my voice.
Obviously, he was afraid I would come on to him.
As if!
He may be nice– okay, more than nice– to look
at, but his personality left a lot to be desired.

The good news was that maybe I could keep this job for
longer than a month if the only reason he fired the previous women was because
they wanted to be his next piece of arm candy. The idea of me coming on to him
was laughable. Right now I was struggling to be in his presence for more than
five minutes without wanting to clobber him.

“That’s good to know.” His face was inscrutable, but for
some reason he seemed annoyed by my vehemence

I couldn’t resist a verbal poke. “You could have hired a
male EA. Of course you’d have to make sure he was straight or he may also find
you irresistible.”

I wasn’t entirely successful in hiding my acerbic tone and
Jake flashed me a hard look. I was sure his next words would be: “You’re
fired,” but he only said mildly, “I’ll take that under advisement the next time
I find myself in need of an assistant.”

The implication was clear. As far as set downs were
concerned, it was subtle but effective.

He spent the next ten minutes outlining my duties.

The work seemed straightforward enough. I needed to manage
his calendar, run reports for him, draft memorandums and announcements, and
perform a variety of tasks to help make his life easier.

Despite my misgivings, I was starting to get excited about
the job. It seemed like a nice change from the monotony of typing up contracts
and updating databases.

“Cora, I expect you to be honest with me when I ask for your
opinion. Sometimes I get mired in negotiations during a business meeting and I
rely on you to be alert about what you see and hear. You need to become an
extension of me, in essence.”

“I understand, sir.”

“Jake.” His tone was insistent.

I made a face. Using his name still felt strange, but I’d
better get used to it. “I understand, Jake.”

 
“You’ll learn
the rest as we go along. For now, you need to go to the Personnel department
and sign your contract. Dave Chung will go over your new compensation package.
As my EA, you’ll need a new wardrobe.” Under his scrutiny, my smartest outfit suddenly
felt entirely inadequate. My shoulders folded inwardly, as if I could hide my
faded shirt.

“I’ll have Dave add in a clothing allowance.”

I opened my mouth to argue, but thought better of it. I
wasn’t going to cut off my nose to spite my face. As his EA, I did need nicer
clothes and if he was willing to pay for it, all the better for my checkbook.
After all, I hadn’t sought out the promotion. Still, the way he presented it to
me rubbed me the wrong way.

“Take the morning to get used to the office systems. If you
have any questions, ask Alana in the front.”

Alana must be the blonde who gave me the cold shoulder. I
vowed to learn the system on my own. I wouldn’t put it past her to sabotage my
first day.

“As you heard me say to Troy, I do expect to work through
lunch. We have a conference call with a supplier in Rio at one. Have Alana
order us a couple of sandwiches. She knows what I normally eat.” He stood up,
signaling the end to our meeting.

I stood as well and noted how tall he was. I only reached up
to his chin. “Okay. I’ll get going.” I turned around and started walking out.

“And Cora?”

I swung on my sensible heels and looked at him
questioningly.

“Stay away from Troy. He’s not for you.” Without another
word of explanation, he sat down and looked at his laptop.

Fuming, I forced myself to close the door softly. “The sheer
arrogance of that man,” I muttered under my breath. It was a good thing I had
to go downstairs to Personnel because I was ready to tell him off.

Deciding I needed to work off my anger, I opened the door to
the stairs. Most of the staff must use the elevators because the stairwell was
clear. I unleashed my irritation, stomping loudly down the steps, pretending his
instep was at the bottom of my heel.

“First he warns me against throwing myself at His
Exaltedness and now I’m after his brother. Ha! I wouldn’t take him if he came
on a platinum plated platter. As if I were some sort of bimbo gold digger. The
Weston brothers are completely safe from my wiles.”

I snorted at the idea of me having wiles. A femme fatale I
was not. I had no sexual experience to speak of. Just as I was getting
interested in boys, my dad had died. Grief had been an effective killer for
teenage hormones. When I was in college, I did have a very awkward encounter during
my first semester at MIT with my chemistry lab partner. It was an embarrassing
episode for both of us and we never spoke of it again. And ever since my mom
got sick, I had been so
busy,
dating had not been on
my radar. I was practically a virgin at twenty-two.

I started giggling at the absurdity of the situation. I supposed
I should be flattered that Jake Weston thought a Plain Jane like me could
attract the attention of men like the Weston brothers!

By the time I reached Personnel, my equilibrium was restored.

Dave saw me immediately. He placed my new contract in front
of me and I gawked at the salary. It was more than twice what I was making. And
Jake must have made the call downstairs immediately because there was a five
thousand dollar bonus, supposedly for my wardrobe.

Don’t get too excited,
Cora. You’ll most likely only see one twelfth of the salary.

Still, if I could put up with His Exaltedness, I could sock
away a lot more savings. It could mean a better school for Marcus and some seed
money for my college plans. Pressing my lips together in determination, I made
a resolution not to let Jake Weston rile me.

 
I walked out of
the elevator and saw Alana sitting at her desk. As always, she looked sleek and
put together. Her make up was perfect and she was clad in a black sheath that
showcased her toned body. As soon as she spotted me, her face turned sour and
she pretended I wasn’t there.

One of my mom’s mottos rang in my ears: you could catch more
flies with honey than vinegar.

Pasting a smile on my lips, I said, “Good morning Alana.”

She mumbled something unintelligible, but wouldn’t look at
me. I swallowed my irritation. This was the third day in a row I had received
the silent treatment. Every overture I’d made so far had been spurned. I
honestly didn’t know why she disliked me, but her bad attitude was getting old.
Still, I had to try to get along with her since she ran the executive floor.

I placed a small pastry bag on her desk and kept my voice
chipper. “Hey, I got you a chocolate croissant. It’s from that new bakery
around the corner. It’s really good. I hope you like it!”

She picked the bag up with her forefinger and thumb and held
it away from her, as if the contents carried a communicable disease. Looking
straight at me, she dropped the bag into the wastebasket.

I sucked in a sharp breath at her rude gesture and she sneered.
“I don’t do carbs.” Then her eyes ran over my body disdainfully, as if to say I
should do the same.

If she was trying to shock me, she succeeded. If she was
trying to make me feel bad about my body, she was doomed to failure. I had long
accepted my curves and did not have body image issues. And in my new blue
fitted shirt and charcoal pencil skirt, I knew I looked good. The outfit
accentuated my voluptuous curves, but still made me look sophisticated.

By dumping my peace offering, she had destroyed any
remaining desire I had to make nice with her. I refused to waste my time with a
lost cause. Without reacting to her rejection, I turned on my heel and walked away.

Jake was already in his office. His door was open and I
could hear him on the phone. I looked at the clock. It was a quarter to
eight– I didn’t need a lecture from His Exaltedness about promptness
again. When I left yesterday, he was still at his desk. I had to concede he
worked hard for his billions. His schedule was packed from morning to night.

At first, I was afraid he would expect me to work the same
long hours as he did, but he sent me home at my normal time. I didn’t protest
since I needed to be there for my brother, but I did try to be more efficient
during the day and get all of my work done. I wasn’t sure if he was being easy
on me for the time being, but I was cautiously optimistic.

I had updated my resume after my first day, but had yet to
start a job search. At the first sign that things were going downhill, it would
be ready to go.

I got my day started but as soon as he was off the phone, I
knocked on his door.

“Cora, good morning!” He waved me into his office. For eight
in the morning, he was disgustingly alert. I had two cups of coffee and I still
looked sluggish next to him.

“Morning, Jake. I just want to go over today’s agenda before
it gets too crazy.” After fumbling through the first few days, we decided an
early meeting would be the best way to keep his day on track.

He inclined his head and I sat down. His blue-green eyes
looked me up and down. “You look nice, Cora.”

I willed myself not to blush at his compliment. “Thanks. The
clothing allowance was very generous.”

“So, what is on my calendar today?”

Trying to not let his abruptness throw me, I flipped open my
calendar and did a rundown of his appointments.

He stood up and paced as he fired instructions at me. His
movements were fluid and panther-like and I couldn’t help but admire the flex
of his thigh muscles under his expensive navy trousers. The thin cotton of his
shirt could not disguise his heavily muscled chest and bulging biceps. Jake
Weston really was a gorgeous creature.

“Cora, did you get that last one?”

Shit.
Just what I
needed– to be caught ogling my boss. “Um… confirm the appointment with
Leon Richards, CEO of
DataPoynt
, for four o’clock.”
Luckily my hand had been working independently of my recalcitrant mind.

“Good. There’s just one more–”

The sound of a Barbara Streisand song blared from his
pocket. The music was so incongruous with the no-nonsense CEO that I gaped.

He held up his hand to indicate I should stay seated and
took his cell phone out of his pocket.

“Hi, mom.” His voice had turned soft and tender. It was so
different from his normally brisk tone that I had the urge to stick my fingers
in my ears to test my hearing.

I started to stand up to give him privacy, but he again motioned
for me to stay put. It felt strange to be privy to his conversation with his
family and I tried to look busy with my notes even though I was absorbing every
word.

“Yes, Troy and I will be at dinner Saturday. Do you want us
to bring anything?” He listened attentively for a few moments. “Okay. I’ll drop
by and pick up dessert before we head out of the city.” A pause. “Love you
too.”

My head snapped up as he said this last without any
self-consciousness. I could tell he
said
“I love you”
to his mom often. Why was that so damn endearing?

He put his phone back in his pocket.

“
People
, huh?” I teased,
naming the song he chose for his mom’s ringtone. I was delighted to see his
cheeks darken. His sheepish grin was even more adorable.

“It’s her favorite song.”

Damn it. I could feel my insides turn to mush.

It seemed like such a small tidbit of information, but it
turned my world upside down. Who was this man who adored his mom? I tilted my
head to study the contradiction that was Jake Weston. He looked every inch the
imperious CEO, but there were fascinating facets to his personality.

“That’s really sweet,” I said softly.

“Don’t let my secret out or my rivals will eat me alive.”

It took me a second to register that he was joking with me.
His eyes were twinkling with a teasing light. I nodded solemnly. “Of course. It
could send the stock market into a spiral.”

“Exactly.” We smiled at each other in perfect accord before
he became all business again. I watched his lighthearted persona recede with
regret.

“Now, the last thing I need you to do is to pull up the
reports on the Emerson construction project. Study them. You’ll be accompanying
me to the work site today at two.”

“Got it!” I stood up and left his office, my mind still
reeling from this morning’s revelations, which smashed my theory that he was a
cold and unfeeling human being to smithereens. It discomfited me to know I was
harboring these unjust prejudices against him. I felt a little like Elizabeth
Bennett with her Mr. Darcy.

Except of course,
there wasn’t any romantic interest between us,
I assured myself.

The hours flew by and before I knew it, it was lunchtime.
And the reason I knew it was lunchtime was because Apollo was leaning over my
desk. For the last three days, he had visited my desk at the exact same time
and asked the exact same question.

“So when are you going to let me take you out to lunch?”
Troy Weston smiled winningly at me.

Sheesh, he should be
modeling toothpaste or something.
This man had way too much charm at his
disposal.

And like clockwork, Jake appeared in his doorway, glowering
at us, silently reminding me about his warning.

It was becoming a
farce,
with one
brother smiling happily while the other hovered like an angry storm cloud. And
Jake’s protectiveness of his brother was entirely unnecessary because I sensed Troy
wasn’t interested in me in a sexual or romantic way. Nor was I interested in
him. I was sure he had his own agenda for asking me to lunch and I suspected it
had something to do with Jake. Maybe he found out Jake disapproved and he
wanted to rebel against his older brother, but I didn’t want any part of their
family power play. I wanted to bash their heads together and tell them I wasn’t
a toy.

“Cora can’t go to lunch today. We’re going to head to the
Emerson site soon. We’ll grab lunch in that area.”

I looked at Jake in confusion. Having lunch together wasn’t
part of the plan when we went over his day.

Before I could say anything, Jake said to Troy, “I was
supposed to have a meeting with the
Nakamoto
group in
ten minutes, but something’s come up. Could you take my place?”

I scrambled to pull up his schedule, my heart in my throat.
Did I screw something up? The
Nakamoto
group was one
of the company’s biggest suppliers and Jake was very specific about clearing
some time before the meeting.

Troy stood up and smirked. “Yes, of course.” He turned to me
and winked. “See you later, beautiful. Maybe we can do lunch tomorrow.”

Jake was not amused by the endearment and growled at Troy,
who just chuckled before leaving.

“Uh…Jake, did I mix something up on your schedule?” I asked,
my voice tentative. “I swore I cleared up your calendar for the meeting with
the suppliers and allotted plenty of time to go to the site.”

He looked pained for a second. “Uh…no it was entirely my
fault. Something unexpected came up.” He flipped back his sleeve and looked at
his watch. “Let me take care of the…thing and we can leave early so we don’t
have to rush lunch.”

“Um…okay.”

After thirty minutes, Jake came out of his office, ready to
go.

His driver was waiting for us when we walked out of the
building, holding the door of the Lincoln open. I scampered into the luxurious
car and tried not to be intimidated. The only time I’d ever been in a limo was
when I went to prom and there were four couples in the vehicle. Now the
interior felt cavernous. But the space magically shrunk as soon as Jake sat
down next to me, and I found it difficult to breathe. His presence seemed to
suck all the oxygen out of the air.

“What do you want to eat?”

“Um…I’m not picky about food.” I flushed as soon as I
realized what I said. My plump figure probably spoke for itself.

“Good. We’ll go to my favorite Spanish restaurant near
Millennium Park.” He gave the address to the driver and then raised the privacy
screen.

The leather gave a slight squeak as he sat back and angled
his body to face me. “So tell me Cora. What do you think of the Emerson project?”

I hesitated. “Jake, I’m not sure I’m qualified to give you
any feedback.”

“Bullshit. Just give me your gut reaction to what you read.”

“Well…the building will certainly add to the Chicago
skyline. And the architect’s renderings of the interiors looked amazing. But…”

“But…” he prompted, his eyes glued to my face.

“But, all the amenities seem to be geared toward young,
single people.”

“Yes, most of the residents will be that demographic.”

My forehead wrinkled. “I thought there were several floors
with two and three bedroom units?”

“Yes, we figured a few tenants may be married or would want
to have extra guestrooms.”

“But married couples have kids. Did you want them to move
out of their units or did you want to provide some incentives for them to stay?
Wouldn’t lower turnover of units be better for business?” I lost my reluctance
to speak out as I worked through the logic, but I clamped my mouth shut at the
arrested expression on his face.

“Um… Of course you would know more about this than I would.”
I laughed nervously and backpedaled. “After all, you’ve been doing this for
years and I’ve been on the job for four days!”

Jake grinned. “That’s brilliant! Absolutely brilliant!”

I inhaled sharply as he leaned toward me until his face was so
close I could see the fine grain of his skin. His clean scent teased my nose. Inches
away, his eyes were like two liquid pools of paradise and I felt like I would
drown in them. They trailed over my face and my insides felt weak and fluttery.
A heavy heat sunk into my lower body.

“You’re beautiful and smart, Cora. I’m lucky to have you as
my assistant.” His voice was gruff.

The reminder of my job shoved me out of my trance. I broke
eye contact and looked down at my lap, ignoring the tingles running through my
body.
He’s just being polite, Cora. He
doesn’t really think you’re beautiful.

“Thank you,” I muttered.

He sat back and I could breathe again.

“Will, this is Jake Weston. Can you meet me at the site at
two? I want to make some changes to the plans.”

I realized he was speaking to the architect on his cell
phone. Surely he wasn’t going to make changes based on my careless comment?

“Great. See you then.” He terminated the call and turned to
me. “Will
Garucci
did not sound too happy, but he’ll
come around.”

“Please tell me you’re not going to change the plans because
of what I said. I don’t know what I’m talking about.” My voice was unnaturally
high. I was horrified that my big mouth could have derailed a multi-billion
dollar project.

Jake looked completely unaffected by my anxiety. “You made
an insightful observation and I’m going to run with it. Frankly, I’m
disappointed my project manager didn’t see this angle.”

Before I could argue, the car stopped at our destination. I
was in such a
daze,
I didn’t notice anything until we
were seated in the elegant restaurant.

“Jake, you can’t just arbitrarily change such a big project
based off of my opinion. This is crazy.”

“I don’t want to hear another word about it. It’s done. If
you have any ideas of what type of facilities we should add, feel free to share
them.”