Chapter 19 Quinn #2
“Why don’t you take Lisa, Sam, and James inside and introduce them to the rest of the men, Mr. Knight and I will be in momentarily,” I said with a tight smile to Noah who ushered the team into the room and sent me a wink.
I grabbed Theo’s arm and took him around the corner so they couldn’t hear us inside the room.
“So you can break the no touching rule?” he asked with a scowl.
“Theodore.” I glared at him and crossed my arms over my chest. “I put that rule in place for you because we are sleeping together—”
“Do you really think that is all it is?”
“What?” I shook my head at his rude interruption of my well-crafted speech.
“Love,” his eyes softened, “you think we’re just sleeping together?”
“Well… I just…” I was trying really hard not to let my heart get ahead of me here.
“I guess I haven’t said anything because I thought it was pretty clear but I’m all in this, for you, with you. You’re mine.”
“Like property?” I asked with a raised eyebrow.
“No. I’m yours in this arrangement too. I can call you my girlfriend, that seems so inconsequential, but it will do for now.” I bit my lip to hide my smile as he reached out and tucked my hair behind my ear, his hand lingering. “Is that clear?”
“Yes,” I said, knowing I was blushing. I really liked being called his. “But can I finish what I was going to say now?” He smirked and then waved his hand so I could go on. “You have different rules when I’m here on business.
“I don’t love my job, but I do want to do a good job for you.
I don’t want to be questioning if you like my ideas or are saying yes just because…
we’re in a relationship. I want you to take me seriously, I want the team to take me seriously.
So you can’t touch me while I’m here.” He wrapped some of my hair around his finger, his eyes locked on mine.
“Fine,” he grumbled, clearly seeing my logic. “But I’m instituting the rule for all those assholes in there,” he said as he pointed toward the boardroom. I smiled and nodded, that was a compromise I could live with.
Going up on my tiptoes I placed a quick kiss on his cheek before spinning out of his grasp and going to the boardroom while he groaned behind me.
For the next hour my lead designer, Lisa, and her second on this project walked them through every single marketing idea we’d come up with. James added value points or other options they could take if they wanted. Each of them sat there listening intently while I tried to gauge their reactions.
I’d grown to know them but they all had some serious poker faces on right now. As Lisa finished the presentation, we all turned to look at Theo at the head of the table, Asher on his right. Theo tapped his hand on the desk as I waited anxiously.
“I think we should do it all,” Theo finally said.
I blinked a few times and then shook my head. “Did you miss the part where Lisa asked you which of the options you want done? The intent isn’t to take on all of these strategies.”
“I heard it, I just want to do all of them,” he said casually as he leaned back.
I frowned, watching him for a beat. “That’s not how it’s done.”
“Well, not normally. But if we tackled different regions and followed a rolling strategy, we would be able to have them running for a while,” James said thoughtfully.
“That is way more work than you contracted us for,” I countered firmly. “I doubt you can make a call like that on your own. Don’t you need board approval or something?” I was grasping for straws really. The man owned the damn company.
“Conveniently, the board is all here,” Asher stated. I narrowed my eyes at him quickly trying to communicate that he should, respectfully, shut the hell up.
“We wanted to make ourselves known in this market. This does that and goes over the top, it will also help us move the members club along faster. We can use it to increase interest and membership before the thing is even open,” Theo summarized.
“All in favor of taking on all these approaches, say aye.”
“Wait!” I called but all five men said ‘aye’ before I could talk them out of this.
“Oh my god,” Lisa muttered, likely thinking of the cost breakdown of each scenario. The final amount would be massive when it was all done and the men hadn’t even asked for the total.
“I’ll draw up the paperwork,” Will said with a smile.
“I don’t have a big enough team for this,” I sputtered.
“I’ll call Richard, let him know who you want.” Theo stood up, I guess our time was over. “Great work today.” He nodded at my team as we started filing out. “Miss West.” I turned before I could follow James out, the rest of the guys still sitting. “A word.”
“I was going to head back in a car with them."
“Arthur is already waiting downstairs.”
I rolled my eyes at his smug smirk. “James,” I called down the hallway, he looked at me with a raised eyebrow. “Head back to the office without me.” He nodded and went down the stairs as I closed the door and sat back down. Everyone else was instantly more relaxed, their cool masks gone.
“That was fuckin’ great, Q,” Noah said through a yawn as he took a chug of his coffee.
“I really didn’t think you would do all of them. I just wanted you to have choices,” I said sheepishly.
“The benefit will be huge, this is what we wanted,” Asher confirmed with a nod. I knew he wouldn’t say that if he didn’t believe it.
“Thanks,” I mumbled, shifting focus away from me. “Why does Shelly need my passport number?” I asked looking at Theo, at least if he didn’t tell me someone else would.
“We need it for the flight manifest,” Jaxson was the one to answer, his tone made it seem like it was obvious.
“But why?”
“We leave tonight,” Theo confirmed.
“Leave?” I looked at him confused. “I thought we were going to a charity event tomorrow?”
I’d been stressing about what to wear. Aubrey and I were supposed to be going shopping tomorrow morning for a dress.
“We are. The event is in London,” Theo said casually. “Richard knows you’re taking Monday off.”
I sat there blinking at him.
“You didn’t tell her?” Oli asked with a smile on his face, like it was funny I didn’t know I was flying internationally in the morning. Theo just shrugged.
“What?” I gasped. “We’re going somewhere international?”
“We do it all the time.” Theo waved me off and I realized why he didn’t think this was a big deal. For him, it wasn’t.
“I don’t have a dress! I need to go shopping…
” I spluttered. “I was supposed to go in the morning.” My brain going in overdrive.
“And you really should not have called my boss for me! I have time off, I could’ve taken the day, no problem.
How could you not tell me we were flying to the charity event? !”
“Don’t worry about a dress, I have it covered.” Theo ignored my comment on calling Richard.
“What does that mean?”
Will and Jaxson laughed but I just sat there confused.
“Arthur will pick you up after work, pack what you need from home and then he’ll bring you to my place. We’ll go for a few drinks at the club and then head straight to the flight, we take off at about eight fifteen.”
“Can we skip the club tonight?” I asked, before I’d even finished a few of the guys were shaking their heads.
“Sacrilegious!” Noah yelled.
“Sorry, Love,” Theo apologized, although he didn’t look upset at all. The smile on his face didn’t match his tone as I scolded him with a shake of my head.
Theo seemed to forget to share small things like dress codes and flights because our worlds were so different. Since starting Knight Enterprises, he never worried about money. Expensive trips and international flights were just routine for him, nothing worth mentioning to anyone else.
I listened as they moved on to our plans for the weekend, admittedly I was excited to experience London with them.
Apparently, we were going to a football match while we were there and they were really excited, since it was the team they normally watched on TV together.
They also talked about how excited they were for me to see it in person, from the box.
There went my night of distance and space from Theo.