Chapter 7
“I appreciate you concerns here, Aiden, but I really don’t think this is getting anywhere.” Alan Jenkins cast the contract to the conference room table and stared at me.
“I don’t think your attitude is helping his much either, Alan,” his partner, Everett Lowell, scolded.
I rolled my eyes and sighed. “Gentlemen, you are looking to offload forty-three properties. I have been through the surveys on every one of them, as has my assistant here. Munroe Holdings didn’t get to where it is now by taking on properties that need as much work as four of your properties do at the price you’re currently asking for them. ”
Everett nodded agreement.
Alan shook his head.
I looked at Ellis, and I could see that he understood now why they had the reputation they did. In fact, I think he was realising that it was like refereeing children in a playground. They were positively unbearable.
“Alan, Everett, I know you want the best price you can get. We are all businessmen here, but I also know that the best price for those properties is around ten percent less than where you have them priced. It’s just how the market works.
They will need extensive modernisation. You have the images taken inside them.
You can see that they look like the 1970s threw up inside them.
They haven’t been touched in over forty years. ”
I waited. They had been there since ten that morning.
It was now almost two in the afternoon, and we still hadn’t moved off the price to discuss any of the other items on the agenda.
I was done with this bullshit. I wanted to take Ellis out on that lunch I had promised and forget about the rest of the day.
“I don’t think we’re going to get anywhere on this today.” Everett spoke finally. Alan tutted and sighed disapprovingly.
I nodded. “I think you’re right. Can I suggest that we reconvene next week at your earliest convenience and we sort out the rest of the items on the agenda?”
Both men mumbled their agreement and started to pack up their belongings. Ellis pressed the intercom and called in one of the girls from the floor to escort the gentlemen to the lobby.
As soon as they were out of sight and earshot I flopped into my chair, wringing my hands in my hair. “Jesus fucking Christ.”
Ellis snorted a chuckle. “I wouldn’t have believed it had I not seen it with my own eyes.”
“They’re fucking insane, aren’t they?” I laughed.
Ellis nodded. “How do you ever get anything done with them?”
I shrugged. “You don’t. You hold the meetings, listen to them disagree and then do whatever the fuck you want with their juniors, who apparently know how to handle them, because they never refuse a good enough deal.
We’ll get the properties, and at the discount I’m asking for, but not before we’ve been through this ridiculous ritual of umpiring their disagreements. ”
Ellis shook his head in disbelief.
“I don’t know about you, Ellis, but I’m ready for a beer. Let’s get the fuck out of here for a while.” I smiled and he smiled back. We gathered our paperwork, dropped it on our respective desks, and left the office for lunch.
* * *
I laughed when we arrived at the restaurant. “Here?”
There was a cheeky glint in his eyes that was beyond sexy. ”You don’t like Japanese food?”
I grinned and nodded. “I love Japanese food. In fact, I love coming here. I’m just surprised you didn’t book somewhere fancy or expensive. Previous assistants have.”
“Sure, I could have booked something like Oblix, but this place is much more me.”
I smiled at him, biting back what I wanted to say to him, what I wanted to do. He was beautiful. He was unique and genuine. He was utterly kissable, and I had to admit I would have happily defied my father for a man like Ellis.
“Earth to Aiden?” He nudged me playfully in the arm and nodded to the door he was holding open for me.
I looked at him, and for a split second, there was a moment between us.
I could see attraction from him, and I certainly felt it towards him.
I cleared my throat, momentarily broke the spell, and walked in.
We were seated in just a few minutes, and a couple of ice cold Lucky Buddhas were soon in front of us. I took a long swig from the bottle set in front of me. “Damn, I needed that,” I said, setting the bottle back down.
Ellis smirked and took a drink from his own bottle.
I found myself transfixed at the way his lips kissed at the top of the bottle, thinking about things I could get them to kiss in a similar way.
Ellis set his bottle down and raised an eyebrow.
Busted. Again. Fuck. I smiled and looked away, trying to act cooler than the beers in front of us.
“So, how long have you been an assistant?” I tried to change the atmosphere a little to something more bright and breezy instead of wanton and lust-fuelled as I’m sure Ellis knew the looks I was giving him were.
“Oh, I would say about eight years now. I had a few years’ permanent position and then some things happened in my personal life and I needed a little time off. These days, I like temping. I like moving around and heading to different companies, getting experience of different office dynamics.”
Something tightened in my chest when he said something happened in his personal life.
But from the look on his face, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to pry by asking what happened.
I wasn’t sure it was my place either. I was just his boss.
“And then you pulled the short straw and ended up working for me.” I laughed.
“Oh, now that I did as a favour for my friend in the agency. Your reputation precedes you.” He laughed and I couldn’t help but roll my eyes.
“Oh, I’m sure it does.” I smirked back. “I know all about what they say about me, and the secret Facebook groups they say it in.”
Ellis blushed.
I grinned more. “Do I take it from the rosy glow you’ve now got on your cheeks that you’re in said group?”
“Maybe.”
I shrugged. “I’ve been a tyrant, but so was my father, and his father before him.”
Ellis nodded. “After my experiences in Munroe Holdings and today’s meeting, I can understand why there is a need for you to stand your ground so fiercely.”
Did he really understand?
“It’s a family business. I’ve been very fortunate to be born into that kind of family wealth, but it has its pitfalls.
I have to sacrifice a part of me to be where I am today, and I guess sometimes that pisses me off and I take it out on the people who don’t deserve it.
” He looked at me curiously, like he was about to ask what I had to sacrifice.
Fortunately for me, the waitress arrived and interrupted that thread of conversation.
“That looks amazing. I might have to try it next time,” Ellis said, his eyes on my food.
Without thinking about it, I lifted my chopsticks, grabbed some of the teriyaki sirloin steak soba from my plate and offered it directly to Ellis’ mouth.
He looked right at me, opened his mouth, and accepted the food.
A low hum of approval at the tastes rumbled through him and I felt my cock stirring. Fuck .
“That is delicious.” He smiled.
“Yes, it is.” I smiled back.