Chapter 23
Twenty-Three
S teph sat nervously in the conference room dressed entirely appropriately for the meeting in a navy blue knee length pencil skirt and matching jacket with a pale blue, silk, button through blouse and navy blue designer heels that she rarely wore. She was sipping a cup of tea while she waited for anyone else to arrive and decided that this was the bit she hated about big money jobs, the anticipation, the way she tried to run through all possibilities beforehand, just in case. Andrea was first to appear, followed by Jon, then Sonia Hansen. Steph looked at the time on her watch, laptop and the large clock on the far wall and all three confirmed that it was 9:24. The phone rang near to where Andrea stood and she smiled at them as she responded to the caller.
“Okay, I’ll collect them, oh okay, I’ll let her know.” She hung up and turned to Jon, “Mr Newton and Ms Downing from Montague have arrived and Jonah Mason from Richards has been trying to reach you, Miss Pryor. Rosie has told him you’ll be unavailable this morning.” She turned back to Jon, “I’ll collect our visitors.”
“Unless you’d like me to?” offered Sonia.
“I don’t care who collects them so long as someone does,” said Jon suddenly irritated and no longer the carefree, playful Jon that Steph had travelled into work with earlier that morning.
Sonia and Andrea exchanged a glance and both left to collect Montague’s representatives.
“Are you okay?” asked Steph as soon as the other women left the room.
“No, I am not. He pisses me off, Jonah bloody Mason! The way he looks at you with his tongue out in his desperation to get into your knickers,” he snarled.
Steph moved to stand behind Jon’s seat where she bent down, wrapped her arms around his neck and whispered into his ear, “But there is only one person I want in my knickers, and that’s you, you know that, or you should after how much I begged you last night and this morning to be exactly there, in my knickers, in me.” She released a groan at the memory.
“Fuck Steph, don’t talk like that, darling, I am getting hard thinking about being in you.” He groaned making her laugh gently against his ear.
“Good because every time I look at you I want you back there to the point that I may need to take a comfort break to relieve some pressure,” she told him nipping at his ear now.
“You won’t find a shower head like mine in this building.” He laughed as he turned in his seat and captured her between his thighs.
Steph laughed too, then gazed up as if reminiscing. “Mmm, I told you it was effective didn’t I?”
“You certainly did . . .” he started before the door opened and they both turned to find Sophie Marley standing there breathless.
“You have made it by the skin of your teeth!” grimaced Jon as he checked the clock.
“Sorry,” Sophie started, but Jon stopped her.
“I don’t need excuses, just sit down and remember you are here to observe unless invited by one of us to speak,” he said tartly surprising Sophie.
“Yes, Mr Brooker,” she said and attempted to take the seat next to him.
“Sit next to Steph, she’s the one you need to watch.” His tone was flat making Steph smile a little too much that Sophie was on the receiving end of pissed off Mr Brooker and although it was because he was jealous about her, it was still Sophie who was on the receiving end of his angst.
Steph retook her own seat opposite Jon as Mr Newton and Ms Downing appeared with Sonia, but minus Andrea who was heading back towards her own office. With the introductions over and a quick explanation from Jon that Sonia would be responsible for the company initially if the merger went ahead, that Steph had overseen the new proposal and that Sophie was an observer.
“This all seems very disorganised and unprofessional,” snapped Ms Downing who was probably only in her mid to late thirties, but somehow managed to look ten years older with her frumpy suit, flat shoes and frown.
Jon huffed and looked across at Steph who picked up her queue perfectly.
“What does, Ms Downing? The fact that a new member of staff initially negotiated an implausible deal with you, but we have now ironed out the in-discrepancies of that in our final offer? Or perhaps you’re referring to your deliberate attempts to misrepresent the state of your company’s finances and its order book to force an offer biased towards you from the said new member of staff?”
Ms Downing stared down the table at Steph but made no attempt to reply.
Steph stared back for a long moment and then smiled as she asked, “No response to that? I guess we all know the answer then. Now, shall we move onto the deal that is on offer to your company or would you like to debate the merits and ethics of your own and Miss Marley’s conduct?”
Steph continued to hold the other woman’s gaze firmly until she replied, “So there is a deal available then?”
Steph passed out the provisional offer and smiled across at Jon who was staring at her wide eyed.
“You should look at the figures and distribution of cash and shares on page three,” started Steph, “And then Sonia will talk you through where we’d be looking to take the Montague brand long term.”
“Are these figures negotiable?” asked Mr Newton finding his voice.
“No!” Steph’s blunt response seemed to shock everyone around the table including Jon.
Ms Downing looked across at Jon and then back to Steph, “You’re the accountant?” The question was almost accusatory.
“I’m an accountant by qualification, but I can’t claim to be the accountant,” Steph replied tersely.
“Are these your figures?” asked Mr Newton, a man that made paint drying seem exciting.
“They are the figures that Sonia and I came up with alongside the original accountant, but after doing a little more research on your company’s figures they were scaled back,” Steph admitted honestly.
Steph saw her phone flash before her and smiled as she saw the message from Jon appear on her screen.
You are scary corporate Steph this morning! I love her and she makes me hard. What I wouldn’t give to lay you across this desk right now darling! Jon x
Her smile broadened as she looked across at him and arched one eyebrow as she turned her phone screen down on the desk.
Ms Downing continued to debate each point and made several barbed references to Sophie’s input. Steph allowed a couple of comments to go before she put a hand up to signal that she should halt after some inference that Sophie’s appointment was more to do with who she had shagged rather than her work record.
“That is enough, Ms Downing! Miss Marley may have naively allowed your claims to go unchecked, but had you been completely transparent in the first place she would never have offered you the possible deal she did, would she? But you need to stop bitching and look at the deal that is on offer and if you’re not interested then just say and we can all get on with our day can’t we? Oh, and I would have thought that as a young woman in the corporate world you’d seen and experienced the difficulties of working and competing in a man’s world without throwing your contemporaries to the wolves by recycling such misogynistic accusations.”
“Maybe Ms Downing and I could have a twenty minute break and we could confer?” asked Mr Newton seemingly realising that this deal was seriously at risk of being whipped out from beneath them for his colleagues attitude alone.
“Take half an hour, my assistant will be down in a moment to get you anything you need,” said Jon, getting to his feet. “Sonia, will you take Sophie and go through the finer details of the deal? Steph, my office, please.”
Sonia and Sophie left together followed by Jon and Steph and as they approached the lift, Sophie appeared to be listening to whatever Sonia was saying intently. Jon continued walking with a purpose towards his own office, but Steph smiled as she passed them.
“Miss Pryor?” called Sophie, stopping Jon and Steph in their tracks.
“Yes.” Steph turned to face the other woman.
“Thank you, for sticking up for me back there. I think Ms Downing was ready to make me totally culpable,” said Sophie.
“Look Sophie, I know where your culpability in that deal lies, but they lied to you, to us all and you should never have been given the amount of unsupervised freedom you were, so I would never have allowed Ms Downing or anyone else to throw you under the bus. Someone tried to do it to me once and I was lucky enough that there was somebody in my corner who stuck up for me.” Steph smiled warmly, remembering the way Jon had defended her against Jack Baker.
“Well, thanks anyway.” Sophie smiled as the lift arrived.
Following Jon into his office, Steph was surprised when he pinned her against the back of the door as he closed it and kissed her hard, crushing her mouth before coming up for breath.
“You were fucking amazing, darling, although I don’t think you should expect a Christmas card from Ms Downing.” He laughed emphasising the Ms.
“I wouldn’t accept it if she did send me one!” pouted Steph reaching up to run her fingers through his hair making him laugh.
“I do, however think you could be in for a Christmas card from Sophie now.” He grinned, snaking an arm beneath her jacket and into the blouse he had untucked to stroke her bare back.
“Maybe, but I meant what I said to her, she should never have been given so much freedom,” Steph reciprocated, untucking Jon’s shirt from his trousers to stroke his taut stomach muscles.
“And you hold me responsible for that?” Jon stared down at her inquisitively.
“Yes, well, her line manager, but if there is no protocol for that, I suppose it would be you,” she told him making him laugh.
“Are you bollocking me in my own office for the way I run my company?”
“Maybe,” she admitted, making him laugh even louder.
“God I love you when you are bossy, corporate bitch!” He pulled her skirt up, exposing her thighs.
“What are you doing, Mr Brooker?” she asked indignantly.
“Well, as you have gone out of your way to turn me on this morning I thought that maybe we should make up for lost time after your sex ban.” He arched a brow making her laugh, a throaty laugh as she smacked his chest. “I love that you wear such sexy underwear beneath your corporate image and I love that nobody else knows what is underneath your well cut suits,” he told her breathing heavier.
Steph opened her mouth to speak, but a message alert on her phone interrupted her thoughts and Jon’s attempts to seduce her. She freed herself from between him and the door and laughed as she saw the message from Lindsay.
“What?” Jon asked as he tucked his shirt back into his trousers.
“It’s Lindsay, she has found some hot pants for our holiday,” Steph revealed, grinning at Jon’s horrified expression.
“No!” he exclaimed making her laugh as she replied to Lindsay’s message.
“Yes please, in silver for me,” she said reciting her response out loud.
“I forbid it!” he said making her almost roll with laughter. “God I sound like my dad used to.” He shook his head.
“Why? Did you want silver hot pants?” she asked enjoying his objections.
“Ha bloody ha! Cancel your holiday and we’ll go away together.” His tone and expression confirmed he was serious.
“I can’t! Linds and I do these a couple of times a year, although I would relish the sight of you in little, black Speedos.” She grinned salaciously.
“Oh, darling, you in a bikini or hot pants would not be conducive to me remaining in little, black Speedos and quite possibly I would end up in a foreign jail for indecent exposure.”
“I can’t bear to think of you stranded in a foreign jail while me and my hot pants hit the beach.” She pulled an overexaggerated sad expression.
“You are a bad girl, darling, and for that reason alone there will be no hot pants,” he said still serious despite his smile.
“We’ll see,” she teased and then laughing at his expression darkening said, “Although you won’t see, will you?”
“You are insufferable in this mood, but seriously, would you consider changing your holiday plans for us to go away together? All of us if you want, Charlie and Lindsay, too,” he asked looking concerned about her holiday plans now.
“Jon . . .” She moved across his office to sit on the edge of his desk in front of his chair where he sat now. “I am going on holiday in just over a week, so a bit late to let Lindsay down, but I would love to go away with you, with or without hot pants.” She smiled a smile that quickly turned into screams as he pulled her off his desk and into his lap where he swiped her behind.
“You are going to drive me mad while you’re away and I am going to be a complete bastard to be around, darling.” He moved in to kiss her before the intercom on his desk sounded. “Saved by the bell, Stephanie,” he said as he spoke to Andrea who was letting them know that they were needed back in the conference room.
As they headed back into the conference room all eyes turned to look at them and as they retook their seats, Jon turned to Mr Newton. “So, are you interested in the deal or can I finish what I had planned for the rest of my day?”
Steph was sure she blushed knowing that she was what he had planned.
“Yes, we are very interested in the deal, but if we could clarify a couple of specifics with Miss Pryor?”
“Of course,” replied Jon waving towards Steph to suggest that they should ask their questions.
Another hour or so had passed before Steph was handing over for Sonia to discuss the direction she anticipated the company moving in once the merger had been completed and Steve had joined them to discuss some legal points with Mr Newton who was representing legal for Montague.
Steph leaned back in her chair and struggled to stifle a yawn to Jon’s amusement and began to regret managing no more than two hours sleep in favour of world rocking, hot make up sex, although she had found it most pleasurable at the time, every time, she let out a sigh that appeared to be more audible than she had imagined it might.
“Are you okay, Miss Pryor?” Jon obviously knew that she was having thoughts of an inappropriate nature.
“I am fine, thank you,” she said, smiling. “In need of a holiday I think.” She grinned across the table at him making him frown which only served to increase her smile.
It was after lunchtime before the meeting closed with signatures and handshakes in all the right places and a hugely relieved looking Sophie. As Sophie was about to leave, Jon called her back and as Steph prepared to leave them together he took her arm and said, “You too, Steph.”
Steph remained where she stood next to Jon while Sophie moved back towards them nervously.
“Sophie, as you may be aware, Steph is off on holiday from a week Monday, but when she returns she has made some suggestions to aid new employees like you and she has also agreed to mentor you,” he announced surprising both women, one more pleasantly than the other.
“Oh, thank you, that’s marvellous. I really am very grateful for this chance, Jonny,” she said infuriating Steph with yet another pet name between them. “And of course you, Steph,” she said, but back tracked slightly when Steph stared at her wide eyed, still struggling with Jonny rather than the informality of the use of her first name. “Miss Pryor, really I am.”
“No problem,” replied Steph. “It was all Mr Brooker’s idea, and Steph is fine, but I should be getting on, I need to call my friend, Jonah.” She offered a sardonic smile.
“Steph,” he called after her, “Tread carefully, darling.”
She strode out silently, refusing to get drawn into this and she really did need to return Jonah’s call and find out exactly what he wanted.