Chapter 15
ZACH
I don’t sleep much. Again.
I kept seeing Dex’s smirk and hearing Jett’s accusation. The way he said Maya’s name like it was filth.
The housekeeper’s daughter.
I hope he was just irritated and grouchy. Not because he’s turning into a jerk. And Dex, no better. Saying I wanted Maya for … other reasons.
I don’t. Well, not entirely. Getting my teeth into something I know I can make a difference in is what’s driving me.
I can turn things around in Stella. I’m confident that I can do a better job of it than Cecil.
I need this win. I need something that’s mine, something I’ve earned, something I’ve chased by myself and plan to fix with no help from anyone.
I head to the Stella offices way too early, because tossing and turning in bed isn’t getting me anywhere.
It’s deathly quiet at this hour, and the sharp and bitter tang of coffee lingers in the air. I’m about to walk into my office, the one on the same floor as where Maya sits, when I see her.
Maya is already here.
It shouldn’t hit me like a shock, even though it does, seeing her unexpectedly at this ungodly hour of the morning. She stands at her desk, wearing a glossy emerald-green satin blouse that is impossible to miss. She bends over, pulling something at the back of her PC. Then she disappears.
Curious, I walk over to her desk, and see her little slingbacks peeking out. She’s under the desk. I try not to grin. What is it with her and her love of being on the floor? She crawls out, lifting back on her haunches before standing up.
“Why are you always crawling around on the floor?” I ask.
If she’s surprised at my sudden appearance, she hides it well. She sits down, and rolls her chair closer to her desk, fingers on the keyboard, flying away. “It works,” she whispers to herself. Then, glancing at me. “A hazard of the job.”
I try not to let my gaze rove too slowly all over her. She looks elegant, and gorgeous. This is who my brothers think I acquired the majority stake for. I can still hear Dex’s voice from last night. You moved fast.
Jett’s, sharper one. You didn’t think with your brain.
I hate that they reduced her to an object. A reason. Maya isn’t a reason at all. She’s a complication; a constant presence I didn’t plan for and can’t seem to factor out.
I know my brothers are waiting for me to fall flat on my face but I won’t give them the satisfaction. Maybe they also assume that I’ve overpaid for the shares, and that I’ll coast. That I’ll just sit here and leave this mess to middle management while I play house with the housekeeper’s daughter.
They’re so dead wrong.
“My keyboard cable was loose.” Her eyes meet mine. “I wasn’t aware you’d be in today.”
“I wasn’t planning on it,” I say, and immediately regret how honest that sounds.
“Don’t you have other businesses to tend to?”
“I do, but Stella is going to be my main focus for a few months. Is it a problem, me being here?”
Her gaze sharpens. “It depends. Are you going to start micromanaging?”
I almost smile. Almost. I like that she doesn’t beat around the bush. I like that she’s so direct and asks it to my face.
That’s my girl.
The one who used to look at me with her chin lifted, daring me to say something stupid, before collapsing into laughter.
I only plan to be here for a quarter. I’ll still have a majority stake in the company, but after three months I don’t plan to come into work much.
I’ll move onto other projects. But right now, to get the ball rolling at Stella, what I need is a client profitability audit. Some sort of repricing initiative.
“Stella’s biggest issue isn’t sales,” I say, propping myself up on the edge of her desk.
Her eyes widen as if I’m invading her territory.
She slides her chair back, then turns it to face me, so I stay put.
“They’re strong,” I continue, “but they’re undercharging the wrong clients.
They have legacy clients draining resources, and no one’s had the nerve to touch pricing with those people.
People get a Stella bag every year because they can. ”
She looks interested. “We have many clients who’ve been with us for years. Decades even.”
“That’s right. You have clients who have been with you for over forty years, who now have daughters and granddaughters and great-granddaughters who continue to buy from this iconic fashion house.
These people don’t need favorable pricing.
They can afford ten Stella bags a year and they wouldn’t bat an eyelid.
I have a feeling that Stella values stability over disruption, and they’re too scared to piss people off.
I want to look into this, and so I want a clean data map of our customers, what they buy, how often they buy, and how long they’ve been with us.
To start with, I want to see where pricing can be restructured without mass fallout. ”
“You’ll want historical segmentation, not just spend, loyalty patterns, attrition risk.”
She’s right. Hell. She’s smart.
“I will.” I didn’t have to push her or explain. She already knows what’s needed. I knew she’d be the perfect person for this project. I wanted to give it to her from the get-go, and the way she’s already streets ahead, confirms that she’s a perfect fit for what I need.
A sharp click of heels cuts through the quiet and we both turn to find Katherine approaching us like thunder on the horizon. With her handbag clutched tight against her side, her eyes flick to me, then to Maya, before bouncing back to me again.
This woman is seriously pissed.
“Well, this is most … unexpected.” Her gaze lingers a fraction too long on the empty desks around us. “Am I interrupting another private meeting?”
The words hang in the air like a stench.
Maya straightens almost instantly. “Good morning, Katherine.”
Her boss doesn’t return the greeting. Instead, her attention is on me. “I wasn’t aware that we were hosting private strategy meetings before office hours.”
She’s suspicious, and vicious. A deadly combination. My instinct is to immediately guard Maya. “I came in early,” I say evenly. “I didn’t think anyone would be here.”
“I was already here,” Maya pipes up. “I-I need to leave early today, if … if that’s okay? I’ll make my hours up.” She waits for Katherine’s permission. “Something urgent came up.”
“You need to leave early?” Katherine asks, voicing her suspicion. A pregnant pause ensues, in which a lesser person would feel obligated to talk and give up their reason. Maya holds firm.
“If that’s okay,” she says, refusing to provide any information. And now she has me wondering whether she has an interview later.
“As long as you get everything done that I’ve asked of you.” Katherine heads for her office, her heels clicking like a warning shot.
Maya lets out a slow breath. But I have questions, and fears. “Everything okay?” I ask.
“All good.” She’s always so guarded with me, but that’s okay. Nothing that can’t be changed, over time. I push off her desk to standing. “I-uh … I need your help.”
She blinks as if this was the last thing she was expecting me to say. “You need my help?”
“I do. Come and see me before you leave today, please.”
***
MAYA
Butterflies riot in my stomach the second I set eyes on Zach.
He’s sitting behind the desk, jacket off, sleeves rolled, completely absorbed in whatever he’s scribbling down.
I pause for a moment, transfixed. The set of his shoulders.
The concentration etched into his face. He looks devastatingly handsome like this, unaware and unguarded.
Then his gaze lifts and catches mine. He’s caught me red-handed.
Heat floods my cheeks and I move forward, flustered and painfully aware that I’m about to go into a meeting with him.
Just me and him, door closed, uncomfortable yet strangely… nice.
I walk into the windowed office, instantly on edge.
If only he’d moved to the executive office upstairs.
Out of sight and out of mind. I could focus better.
Now, I feel the weight of guilt as I walk in, knowing that everyone can see us.
I glance around at the open plan office.
No one’s looking. But still I feel guilty.
Every time Zach and I are in a room together I feel an undercurrent that tries to pull me back into the days on the Knight Estate, when our feelings for one were intense.
“What I was talking about this morning, the client profitability audit, I’d like you to do it.” Zach dives straight into it, not even giving me a chance to breathe. My thoughts scatter and it takes me a few seconds to process his words.
He wants me to do this audit? I’m suspicious again. “Why me?”
“I don’t trust anyone else here, that’s my reason, and for you, well, you get visibility.”
That’s how he’s framing it? Like he’s doing me a favor? Sounds to me like he’s doing everything in his power to get me alone with him. From having dinner at that fancy restaurant, to him now taking up residence at my place of work, how obvious can he be? “What’s in it for you?”
He gives me a curious look. No hint of a mischievous smile. “A competent person putting together a great report.”
“No, seriously, what do you get?” Because I don’t buy this. When it comes to Zach it always feels like he’s orchestrating another move to get closer to me.
He lets out an exhale. “I get someone I trust, and that’s the most important thing to me.”
“You don’t trust anyone here?”
“I need to do a stellar job. I need to produce results because everyone’s waiting for me to screw this up.”
This gets my attention. “Who?”
“My brothers ... maybe my father ... I’m not sure.”
I knew his family was messed up, but even this surprises me. My mouth falls open. Has nothing changed for him in all this time? “Are they … still the same? Your brothers and your father.”
I recall how awkward they all were around one another.
Jett and Dex were moody, even for teenagers.
Paul Knight always seemed cold and shady.
For as long as I live, I’ll never have a good thing to say about that man.
Zach was the only one who seemed normal.
He had a kind and caring side to him that was so clearly not present in his siblings or his father.
Him now revealing this makes me feel sad for him again, like I did when I first met him.
“Still the same?” he asks, like he doesn’t understand.
“You were so different from them, that’s what I remember.
” We fall silent, and he has a faraway look in his eyes.
I think back to those days and for a few seconds we each fall into our memories about that time long gone.
A wave of familiar concern comes over me, and we stare at one another.
Something in me softens and the tension I walked in with eases away.
Zach isn’t posturing or trying to impress me. He’s being careful. Thoughtful. Just like he always was. I can see it now in the way he’s trying to do right by me, to give me space to grow instead of holding me back the way Katherine does.
“They’re waiting to see if I can pull this off. They think I’ve bitten off more than I can chew, and if this works, it’s proof.”
“If this works?” His family has him doubting himself. Poor boy. Maybe his life isn’t as effortless and gilded as I’ve always imagined.
“When it works. It will. I’m confident of it. It’s just my brothers …” His voice trails off, and I feel a small, traitorous ache in my heart. “I’m sorry if it doesn’t sound interesting,” he says, quickly, the contained and relaxed Zach coming back. “But it’s what I need.”
He adopts a casual and unaffected pose, crossing his ankle over his knee, fingers loosely clasped as if he’s trying not to fidget. Oozing the undeniable confidence of a billionaire, but his gaze keeps drifting to me, and then away again, like he’s trying not to make it too obvious.
I’m no better.
I can’t help but notice his rolled-up sleeves, and the lightly veined strength in his forearms. Something coils deep in my belly.
The strange thing is I feel safe with him, safe, familiar, and comfortable in a way that sneaks up on me when I’m not paying attention.
I’m starting to see that he wants the best for me.
He has my back. The person he is, the way he looks and carries himself, makes it harder to remember all the reasons I’ve told myself not to fall for him.
He explains how he also wants a pricing audit and that he’ll need historical pricing decision data, as well as a compilation of our product lines going back to the beginning. I’ll have to go to the archive room to get all the old data.
I’m not the right person for this task, but I know who is. Katherine would leap at the chance to do this, and she would have the information at her fingertips. Me? I’ll have to go looking for it and then piece it all together.
But why volunteer Katherine for this when I need this opportunity? Katherine doesn’t care about my career. Zach does.
“I’m eager to get my teeth into this,” I say, eagerly. “I want something meaty.” I blush at my words which hang between us like an invitation I didn’t mean to send. The corner of Zach’s lips curl up and he obviously finds this amusing.
I’m certain that my face is red. As certain as I am of how close he is, and how nice he looks today. One careless comment, one slip, and I’ll give myself away.
He coughs lightly. “This is your priority for the next few weeks. I’ve cleared things with Cecil, and Katherine—”
“You’ve cleared this with Katherine?”
“I have. You’re not to work on anything but this.”
That’s interesting. Katherine hasn’t said a word to me “Thanks. I appreciate that.” I stand up to leave.
“Let me know if anything is unclear, or if you need resources or anything.”
“I will.” I move towards the door.
“Maya.”
I turn around. Zach hesitates. My insides flutter, and I wonder what he’s finding hard to say.
“You leaving early … is … is everything okay?”
I chuckle lightly, but it sounds false and, knowing Zach, I’m scared he’ll see right through me.
“Yes.”
As soon as I get back to my desk I check my cell phone.
Fleur: Are you okay, hon? Did you find a place to stay?
Me: I’m fine! ??
I add the smiley face to convince her and myself. It’s just a few nights. That’s all. I can do this.
Fleur: Dave only has one bedroom. I’m on the couch, it’s small, but I can ask him if you can stay.
Me: NO. Don’t ask him. It’s fine. It’s only for a night or two.