Taming Graeme (Taming the Billionaire) (47 page)

 
“We could, if Graeme doesn’t want me for something, Rose. We could go to the Chinese restaurant. The booths there are very private, and Amanda hates Chinese, so she won’t want to come.”

 
They parted.

 
Hailie came down at five, as Olivia was tidying up her desk and closing down her computer. Graeme had said to meet him at his car at five twenty, to give the car park time to clear. Everyone else had already left Currency Trading.

 
“Want to go for a drink, Olivia?” the dark haired woman asked.

 
“I actually am not drinking at the moment,” said Olivia. “Antibiotics.”

 
“Oh, too bad. I wanted a tip or two from you how to get promoted. Amanda says you’ll be on the Currency Trading Desk next week. That pays a lot more, doesn’t it? And she said you got a great raise when you were transferred down here and another one since. She thinks you must be paid close to a thousand pounds a week now!”

 
“Amanda has no idea what my compensation is, Hailie. She’s talking pure speculation. She isn’t privy to that sort of confidential information. Yes, I got two nice raises, and yes, there will be another one when I’m on the desk next week, but what I’m paid is nobody’s business but mine.”              

 
“Well, who’s getting your present job? If I could get it, it would come with a nice jump in my wages from the Secretarial Pool, wouldn’t it?” Hailie settled into a chair to pick Olivia’s brain.

 
“No, it wouldn’t. I was paid so much to fix a very big mess with their paperwork down here, and I’ve done that. I’ve simplified everything so much that we’re actually downgrading the compensation from what I’m getting now, so unless you have programming skills and could help us out streamlining the entire trading procedures …”

 
“No, I don’t. I can do Word, and Power Point, but I haven’t advanced computer training. Why did they pick you of all people to come down here and clean up a mess? And then send you to Ireland to do the same thing at the new Bank?”

 
“Well, Hailie, I’d already been here several years, so the Bank was well aware of my strengths and weaknesses. When Graeme, Mr. Browning, came in January, I understand he spent quite a lot of time the first month studying all the personnel files. He spotted my computer and math skills. You’ve probably noticed that his eyes and ears miss nothing. He got to know us all over the first six or seven months of this year, and then at the end of July, he suggested to Mr. Taylor that they give me a try since the situation here was such a mess and they needed an eye for detail and some mathematical abilities, and he knew I had both. So I straightened out the mess and designed a new procedure and I’ve worked extra hard doing the currency trading course, so here I am, filling in on the desk, and next week I write the exam and I’ll be full time on the desk while Robin and Joe are in Belfast.”

 
“Everybody’s saying you were fantastic in Belfast, but nobody seems to know why?”

 
“Oh, I just straightened the mess out, the same as here. Difference was, I had a super young man to train over there, so it was easy. I found some discrepancies and got them sorted, so that’s probably why some people are talking about my success.”

 
“Amanda is. She’s dying to know the details, but hasn’t found them out yet.”

 
Olivia smiled. “Well, now you know something she doesn’t, don’t you?”

 
“She’s told me she’s on the fast track for management training, but I think that’s because she’s part of the family. But you’ve made it on your own. That’s why I wanted to talk to you. I plan to climb the ladder as well. I’d thought I could get your present job when you start in on the trading desk full time, but I don’t want to take a lower wage. I think if you’re smart, you can have a good future with this Bank.”

 
“It’s a great place to work, Hailie. They really look after their employees.”

 
“And the Vice-Chairman is so handsome, isn’t he?” smiled Hailie. “I want to do well and catch his attention. Amanda says he’s single. She says he hasn’t had a serious girlfriend since he came back to England from the Continent.”

 
“Amanda is wrong, Hailie.”

 
“Oh?”

 
Olivia smiled. She’d nip this in the bud. “I do know that Mr. Browning has a lot of affection for his young
second
cousin but he’s fully aware of her tendency to blurt out confidential information. She’s the last member of the family who would be aware of his romantic involvements. And he is involved, and not available.”

 
“But it must be a new affair, mustn’t it?”

 
“Linda, who you replaced, is a close friend of mine and she’s in a romance with Mr. Browning’s best friend. She’s met his young lady, and she says they are very much a couple. Linda says it’s very serious indeed...”

 
Hailie’s face fell. “Oh. I imagined I might be able to entice him...Amanda said he likes brunettes. She said I look a lot like his last girlfriend, somebody named Francine who he met in Geneva when he lived there. She said I’m exactly his type.”

 
“Hailie, Amanda is nearly twenty years younger than Graeme. She’s highly indiscreet. Do you honestly think he’d confide in her?  As far as Francine is concerned, I heard she was far more interested in him than he was in her. No, he’s quite content with his present situation. And I have it on very good authority that these days, he prefers blondes.”

 
“Damn. I really thought I had a chance. Oh well...”

 
Olivia was happy to see Hailie believed her. “Well, Hailie, you know that Sir David is retiring at the end of the year, and Graeme will be Chairman. Current buzz around the office is that he’s already picked his new Vice-Chair and that man is...” oh, yes, she’d be meeting that man tomorrow evening if the gossip she’d heard at noon from the chaps on the trading desk was true! She’d have to ask Graeme when she got to the car.

 
“Don’t stop there, tell me the good stuff!” demanded Hailie.

 
“Please don’t say I told you, Hailie. It might just be idle speculation, but the traders told me today that the new Vice-Chairman is another second cousin of Graeme’s, a man called Glen Palmer. He’s supposed to be single and handsome. He starts February 1
st
, Jamal was telling me today. They say he’s brilliant, and gorgeous. Jamal regards himself as a bit of a ladies’ man, and he thinks Mr. Palmer will be giving him a run for his money as the most handsome man here. He says he’s even better looking that Graeme, which I find hard to believe.”

 
“I know all about Jamal. He’s asked me out twice. He’s a bloody octopus. Grope, grope grope grope. So how does he know the new Vice-Chairman?”

 
“Mr. Palmer is a consultant specializing in Banking. He’s been a speaker at some conferences that Jamal was at.”

 
“I’ll Google him when I get home and check him out,” smiled Hailie.

 
“Good idea,” smiled Olivia, “I’m sure you’re eager to do that, aren’t you?”

 
“I need a new man,” agreed Hailie, “and I’m tired of the wimps and wannabe’s I’ve been dating recently.” She got up, turned and spoke again.   “See if the traders have any more information, will you? I understand Sir David’s P.A. is retiring at the same time he is so Rose,
Mrs
.
Lewis
as she now likes to be called, will be moving to the Chairman’s office with Graeme Browning. Perhaps I could become the new Vice-Chair’s P.A.”

 
“That will all depend on your skill level,” Olivia smiled. “So I’m sure you could be a strong contender, if you want to apply for the job.”

 
“I think I’m the best suited person working for the Bank right now. I’ll have to check out this Karen when she starts,” said Hailie as she flounced out.

 
Olivia gave a sigh of relief and scurried up the stairs. She would be glad when all the secrecy was over, when she was on her leave of absence, which would probably turn out to be her resignation, in the end...

TWENTY NINE

  Graeme was waiting in the ca
r
.

 
“Hailie detained me. She wanted to know how to climb the corporate ladder so that she can impress you. I hope I diverted her attention. Jamal said you have a handsome cousin taking over your position, and I believe I’ll meet him tomorrow evening?”

 
“Glen? Yes, Jamal is correct. We’re actually issuing a press release to that effect in the morning, and he’ll be here at the Bank for photographs, etc.”

 
“She’s going to apply for the position as his P.A.”

 
“Glen will decide. He usually fucks his P.A.’s and then he gets rid of them when he’s tired of them. I guess I owe him an attractive tart for looking after Francine tomorrow evening.”

 
“Is that what you think Hailie is, an attractive tart?”

 
“Well, isn’t she? She couldn’t have made herself more obvious when she met me if she’d started to unbutton her dress in front of me.

 
“In fact, I wasn’t going to tell you, but she brought me in a file the other day while you were in Belfast and I was here, and her shirt
was
unbuttoned halfway to her waist. Then she perched on the corner of my desk, and her skirt was obscenely high. I could see her crotch. She was wearing a black lace thong.

 
“She was leaning closer and closer. I told her to get dressed and go back to her desk, and she told me I knew where to find her when I was ready to get to know her better! Brazen little hussy is a better description than attractive tart, actually.”

 
“What was I, at the Bank party, then?”

 
“A lovely young innocent, not used to drinking who was being plied with wine by a young man intent on taking advantage of her naivety, but she got waylaid by an aging roué who got her pregnant and is now going to marry her,” he grinned.

 
“Aging roué, eh? I’ll have to remember you called yourself that,” she teased.

 
“Let’s go to Ragnar’s and get our wedding rings organized, and then meet Linda and Michael for a few moments at The Club before their class. I’m sure she’d like to see your ring, baby.”

 
“Oh, could we? I did show it to Rose...”

 
“I know. She came back enthralled, telling me what wonderful taste I have. I promised Mrs. Hall you’d pop up in the morning and show her as well.”

 
“I love it.” She slipped it off the chain and onto her finger.

 
Graeme took her hand and kissed the palm.

 
“And I’m very glad you do, my lovely.”

 
“I take it Rose is our wedding planner?”

 
“She is. So you have a weakness for pink roses because I sent them to you in Ireland. You loved my card...”

 
“You sent them to me at the office as well, remember? Those roses were like having you in the bedroom with me.”

 
“So, we’re having pink roses for our wedding, then? And deep pink peonies. They can wash the ants off, you know.”

 
“My grandmother didn’t know that. She just cut the peonies and brought them in from the garden and our lounge was full of them, tiny, tiny ants...of course I was blamed for that, and beaten.”

 
“You don’t want them at the wedding do you, your grandparents?”

 
“No, I don’t. It’s sad, really. They’re the only relatives I know and I don’t want them at my wedding.”

 
“They don’t deserve to be there, the way they treated you. Never mind, my family will love you. We’re having dinner Friday night with my daughters and Louisa’s husband, who is a bit of a pompous prick, but her choice, and Julia’s current man, who is very artsy if he’s the same as all her other young men. Funny, she must have been going out with him for nearly a year now, and I’ve never met him...he never comes to London for the weekend with her, always seems busy.  I want you to wear the outfit you bought in Belfast. We’re going to a fairly upscale restaurant in Knightsbridge.”

 
“Oh.” Olivia swallowed.

 
“Don’t worry, pet. I told them both about you and they are so relieved I’m not marrying Francine that they love you already. Well, I told them I have a delightful new woman in my life. I thought we could tell them we’re getting married when we have dinner. They’re going to love your ring.              

 
“Oh, tonight, after we see Michael and Linda, we have to drive by and look at a house on our way home. I thought we should get a bigger place, so there is a separate children’s floor, with a nanny suite and a playroom.”

 
“Oh...that sounds grand.”