Chapter 23
Sutton
The anger didn’t dissipate overnight. Just the opposite, it built and built, and now I felt ready to explode. Perfect timing, since I’d gotten to the office at six fifteen—knowing Jagger liked to start his day right after the gym—before anyone else got in.
I rode the elevator directly up to the executive floor and swiped inside.
The receptionist wasn’t in yet, so I walked around the desk and kept on going.
The blood in my veins pumped faster with every step.
I had no idea if other people who worked up here got in this early, though I definitely didn’t want to make a scene and have my stepfather walk in.
So I turned right to pass Edmund’s office so I could double-check that he wasn’t here yet.
I’d already planned what I was going to say if he was, but thankfully his office was dark—as all of them seemed to be, except for the lone one shining a streak of light across the hallway floor. He’s here.
My swift strides suddenly slowed. Part of me considered chickening out—stopping and turning around, hauling my butt back out the door, and taking the stairs so no one would even know I’d been on the executive floor.
And I might’ve done just that if Jagger hadn’t walked into the hall.
He looked up, and his lips curved to a smile.
Though it wilted when I brushed past him and walked into his office.
“Sutton, what’s the matter?”
He followed me back inside, and I motioned to the entrance. “Shut the door.”
He studied my face before pulling it closed. “Why are you upset?”
I took the diamond anklet from my pocket and held it out to him. “I’m not a whore.”
He blinked a few times. “What are you talking about?”
I waved the box around. “That night meant something to me, even if it didn’t to you. You could’ve just ignored me like you did for days after and left it at that. But instead you had to treat me like one of your fuck buddies.”
“That’s not what I was doing.”
“Really?” I tilted my head. “You told me you buy a fuck-off gift for your playthings. Can you honestly stand there and tell me you’ve never bought one of them an anklet like this?”
Jagger’s face fell.
I rolled my eyes. “Exactly.” I tossed the box to him and started marching back toward the door. Jagger caught up to me just as I reached for the handle. He wrapped his arm around my waist and squeezed.
“Stop.”
My anger suddenly morphed into hurt, and I didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of seeing me upset. I tried to wriggle from his grip. “I need to go.”
“Hear me out first.”
I didn’t agree, but I did stop trying to escape. Once I stilled, Jagger spoke in a low, even voice. “I’m sorry. I was wrong.”
I swallowed back tears.
He continued. “You’re right. I have sent that gift to women who didn’t mean anything to me.
But I honestly wasn’t trying to do that with you.
You said the anklet that broke was from your ex.
As much as I would have preferred to throw it in the trash, I got it fixed because it sounded like it meant something to you.
At the same time, I hated the idea of you wearing it again, so I wanted to give you an alternative.
I should’ve picked out something more personal.
It was stupid, and if the roles were reversed and you’d given me something you bought for other men, I would be just as upset.
” He paused. “Will you turn around and look at me now so I can apologize to your face?”
I wasn’t ready to look at him, but I didn’t fight him when he guided me to turn.
Jagger bent his knees slightly, so we were lined up eye to eye. “I’m sorry. Can you forgive me?”
I nodded.
“Thank you.” He brushed the hair back from my face and smiled. “Just in case a small part of you is still uneasy and thinks I’m full of shit about you being different than other women I’ve spent time with, I’m going to show you something.”
I let him take my hand and walk us back behind his desk.
He pressed a key on his keyboard, and the monitor woke up from its screensaver.
Jagger pointed to the top right corner, where the security feed from my floor was playing.
“It’s been there since last Monday.” He shook his head.
“I’m reading nine-hundred pages of bullshit from the DOJ that could mean the end of my company and meeting with lawyers all day long, and yet I can’t stop watching this fucking thing. ”
I probably should’ve been freaked out that he’d just told me he’d been watching me, yet it made me feel just the opposite. It settled my nerves.
I stared at the screen for a minute, even though nothing was happening in the security feed since no one was in yet. Then I turned to face Jagger again. “Will you have dinner with me this weekend?”
His eyes reflected his hesitation. “We wouldn’t be good together, Sutton.”
“I thought we were pretty good together Saturday night.”
He smiled sadly. “I’m a workaholic who’s controlling and likes things a certain way.”
“How do you know I don’t like them the same way? I don’t even know what I like yet, Jagger.”
His Adam’s apple bobbed, and he stared into my eyes for the longest time. Eventually his hand went to my hip, and he mumbled a string of curses as he yanked me flush against him. I felt his cock, hard and thick against my abdomen.
“Fuck it. Maybe this thing will finally go down on Saturday then.”
I nibbled my lip. “I could…make it go down now.”
He groaned. “We don’t have time for that.
I told everyone to be here by seven this morning to go over the DOJ filing.
I expect Edmund will be walking in any moment.
” He reached behind me, grabbed my ponytail, and gave it a yank so firm that my head snapped back.
“Seven PM Saturday. I’ll pick you up. Now kiss me and get out of my office. ”
Jagger moved in fast, pressing his lips against mine. Within seconds, all the tension that had been swirling inside me was gone, and I melted into his tight hold. He groaned again. “Open your legs. I need to make you come quickly, or I’ll never be able to think straight today.”
I didn’t even have to think about it. I widened my stance, and Jagger’s hand dipped down and under my skirt. He sucked my tongue as his fingers pushed away my panties and stroked along my center.
“Fuck.” His voice was a sexy, low rumble. “You’re wet for me already.”
One finger pushed inside, and he started to massage along my walls. He added a second finger, and it didn’t take long before I was a panting mess. I was on the edge of finding ecstasy, standing in the middle of his glass-walled office.
But then Jagger abruptly pulled away.
I reached for him, thinking he was playing some kind of a game—until I realized why he’d backed off. Someone was coming down the hall.
And it turned out to be my stepfather.
***
“Sutton.” Edmund’s eyes slid over my face before moving to Jagger. Luckily I’d put some space between us before he walked in, so at least we weren’t caught standing inappropriately close. “Is everything okay?”
My stepfather misread my heated cheeks for something other than what they were. “Oh, yeah.” I fanned my face. “I’m fine. I just came straight from the gym. It takes a long time for me to cool down after.”
“Oh.” He nodded, seeming to at least mostly accept my explanation. “What are you doing here so early?”
I’d made up one good excuse, but my brain was still misfiring from what had been going on thirty seconds ago, and I couldn’t come up with a second one. Luckily, Jagger helped me out.
“I had my assistant call her last night,” he said. “As Sutton’s mentor, I thought it would be good for her to sit in on this morning’s meetings. She was the first one to arrive.”
That did it. My stepfather’s face went from ninety-percent satisfied to one hundred. He looked at me and smiled. “Eagerness is a great asset in the workplace.”
“Indeed it is.” Jagger’s eyes slanted to meet mine with a glimmer. He was lucky my cheeks were already red. Though Edmund thankfully seemed oblivious.
“I’m just going to get some coffee,” he said. “Where are we meeting?”
“Board room,” Jagger responded.
Edmund looked at me. “Did you get your morning cappuccino yet?”
I shook my head.
“Join me.” He gestured toward the hall. “I’ll fill you in on your mother’s latest plans to set you up, this time with Patrice’s nephew, so you can thwart them before she accepts a goat for your hand in marriage. That was all the two of them could talk about when she was over yesterday.”
“Great.” I rolled my eyes before exchanging glances with the boss. It was just my mother being my mother, but the glimmer of fun in Jagger’s eyes was gone now, replaced with something I thought looked a lot like jealousy. It made me smile.
“I guess I’ll see you at seven,” I told him.
***
The seven-AM meeting went on for more than six hours.
A team of in-house lawyers, outside attorney consultants, and every member of the executive team sat together, going through all of the details of the antitrust violations Apex and Jagger himself had been accused of.
I got lost in some of the minutia of the law, but I definitely followed the government’s theory when it came to the algorithm.
Basically, they claimed that Apex and other large financial investment firms were colluding without having any direct communication just because there were some commonalities between their algorithms. This caused the companies to provide similar guidance to investors about the prices at which they should buy and sell stocks, thereby creating what looked like a conspiracy to fix prices.
The problem was, in order to defend such a claim, Apex would need to prove that their algorithm differed from their competitors’ algorithms, and doing that meant spelling out the secret sauce of Apex’s internal system, which obviously Jagger did not want to do.
By the time the meeting started to break up, the boss looked like he’d been through a twelve-round fight, and he wasn’t anxious about hearing the referee’s decision.
I hated the stress he was under, but it didn’t stop me from admiring how he’d handled himself when his feet were held to the flame.
Jagger Langston commanded a room full of men twice his age with twice as much experience, skillfully navigating between listening to their thoughts and opinions, weighing them, and managing to draw his own conclusions.
I’d been excited to spend the day near him for personal reasons, but in the end, I’d learned a valuable lesson in business.
A commanding presence wasn’t about having the loudest roar so your team followed in a straight line behind you.
It was about earning influence and respect so they followed you willingly.
There had to be forty people in the room.
I stalled as many of them cleared out with marching orders, hoping to get a few minutes with Jagger alone.
Though when I realized there was a long line of more-important people ahead of me, I figured I should let him work and quietly made my way to the door.
Jagger’s booming voice stopped me before I walked out. “Sutton?”
I turned, and he glanced over at one of the attorneys who had been brought in on retainer. “Excuse me a moment.” Jagger looked back to me. “About the suggestion you made this morning to correct the issue we were discussing…”
It took me a few seconds to extrapolate that my suggestion had been dinner Saturday night and the issue we were discussing was my wanting to sleep with him again. At least that’s what I assumed he meant. “Yes? Have you decided how you’re going to handle things?”
There were still a dozen people in the room left, yet when he locked eyes with me, I felt that spark between us light again.
“Aggressively,” he said. “I’ll be in touch soon with plans.”