A very Corporate Affair Book 1 (The Corporate Series) (9 page)

                 "He sounds very taken with you. I still think you need to be careful around him though. There really is something about him that puts me on edge. I don't mean that I think he's a paedo or anything like that, more a sort of.....coldness. I can't imagine him being kind to small animals, that type of thing."

                 "I know exactly what you mean. He certainly doesn't like being challenged, and no, I can't see him liking kittens either."

                 "Unless they're in a sandwich." We both laughed, which felt a bit disloyal to Oscar, but James had hit the nail on the head. I knew Oscar fancied me, I knew he found me attractive, but I didn't know whether he actually liked me, let alone developed deeper feelings. For my part, I liked him, enjoyed his company, but still felt intimidated and unsure around him. I fancied the pants off the man though, so had buried my disquiet, putting it down to my own insecurities about my background. I told James that I was going to Oscar's place in Sussex next weekend. He just raised his eyebrows.

                "Best develop a thirst for blood sports, and grow a thick skin this week then little Elle. I think you may need it. More coffee?"

                 "Please. I won't lie, I'm worried about not fitting in, but if Oscar thinks it'll be fine, then all I can do is go along with it." James had voiced my fears, but in truth, I would have been more worried if Oscar had wanted to keep me a secret. The fact that he wanted to introduce me to his friends was a step forward as far as I was concerned.

                  Despite all the coffee, James was in bed by nine. Poor man couldn't keep his eyes open. I tidied up the kitchen before taking a long bath to contemplate what lay ahead.

Going through the contract took the whole of Sunday morning. It was extremely detailed and precise, but there were a couple of clauses that James wasn't happy with, namely a severe anti competition clause that would prevent him building any more apps for a year. I suggested he get it changed so that he could still build games and lifestyle apps, and agree not to build financial ones. I also picked up on a percentage issue, as the apps would be given away free by the respective banks, they wanted one payment, with no further cost per download. I suggested we negotiate a nominal amount to provide residual income. I drafted an email for him, asking for the changes, and explaining what was acceptable. James breathed a sigh of relief once the email was sent.

                 "Thanks Elle, I wouldn't have spotted any of that without you. Now, shall I take you out for Sunday lunch? I know a great little place on the river."

                 "No problem. Glad to help. A roast sounds like a great idea." We grabbed our jackets and wandered down towards the river. The restaurant was small and cosy, and we both settled on the roast chicken. Two bottles of wine later, we both wobbled unsteadily back to the flat to sleep off the effects of the enormous dinner, and the copious amounts of alcohol.

                 Back home, James chose a film, and we flopped down on the sofas to watch. It took about five minutes for James to fall asleep, and I don't think I was too far behind. It was gone six when I woke up, groggy and disorientated. I glanced over at James, who was curled up on the sofa and still out cold. His eyes were flickering behind his eyelids, an indicator of REM sleep. He shifted on the sofa before breathily muttering, "no, please don't." I held my breath as he shifted again. When he seemed to relax again, I slid off the sofa and wandered to the kitchen to pour myself a glass of fruit juice to rehydrate my alcohol parched mouth.

                As I padded back through the lounge to my bedroom, James started awake. He scrubbed at his face and stared around the room, clearly as disorientated as I had been.

                "Jesus, how long have I been asleep?"

                "Couple of hours. I just woke up too, must have been the wine knocked us out. You were talking in your sleep." I swore I saw a hint of a blush on the tiny bit of his face that was visible.

                "Bloody hell, what did I say?"

                "I'm not sure, but it was something like 'please don't' I have no idea what else you said as I wasn't terribly awake myself."

                 "I must have been dreaming. God I feel ropey. Why do you let me drink Elle? You know I can't hold my beer." He staggered out of the lounge and headed to his room to the bathroom. A few minutes later, he had his head in the fridge, ferreting around for food, pausing only to finish the orange juice straight from the carton.

  He returned with Doritos and dips, which he put on the coffee table for us both. We shared a love of Top Gear, so didn't bother replaying the film, and just sat in companionable silence to watch the Stig.

                 Monday morning came, and I hit the ground running. I had meetings planned for most of the day, with the first one starting at eight thirty. The morning passed in a blur with no time for lunch. I half expected Oscar to turn up, but was relieved when he didn't, as I had barely time to eat the sandwich one of the assistants brought for me. Mid afternoon, I was just leaving the conference room after a meeting to wrap up the boring merger, when I came face to face with Ivan.

                 "Miss Reynolds, how lovely to see you," he said in his thickly accented but sexy voice. My knees went slightly weak.

                 "Mr Porenski, hope you're well. Did you have a good weekend?"

He smiled widely, which opened his face up beautifully, "yes, thank you, I had dinner with Oscar. Such a shame you weren't able to join us."

                "Oh, Oscar told me he had nobody coming to stay this weekend. I'm going next weekend though."

                "I live a few miles away from his home in Sussex. It's a beautiful place, you'll love it."

                "I'd better be getting on, I'm in meetings all day today. Nice to see you Ivan." I scurried away quickly and grabbed some files from my office before heading off to my next meeting, which by coincidence featured Ivan. He was selling a company to a client of ours, and the purpose of the meeting was to form heads of agreement, so that contracts for sale could be drawn up by his legal team.

                The meeting went fairly smoothly. Ivan didn't try any bamboozling tactics, and all the basic terms of the deal were agreed in principle without much fuss. As Ivan's legal team had the task of drawing up the contract, we simply had to wait for it to arrive to check that everything was as discussed in the meeting.

                As we all stood up to leave, Ivan smiled at me and said, "one day Elle, it would be nice to be on the same side, don't you think?"

                I laughed, "engage our company as your lawyers then," before I picked up my files and went back to my office.

                 I finally made it home by seven thirty that evening, wiped out both mentally and physically by the pace of the day. James had a curry waiting at home, and a large glass of very cold white wine. He was grinning broadly as I walked in.

                "They agreed to those terms," he said before I'd even taken my jacket off.

                "Yay. You signed now?"

                "Ish, they want me to go back out there this Friday, so I can sign everything then."

                "Good. Just make sure you check they haven't changed anything else before you ok it."

                "Will do. You look shattered. I made us a curry, so sit down and drink your wine while I dish up." I sat down gratefully at the island and took a large gulp of wine. My eyes felt gritty, and my shoulders were up around my neck with tension.

                "Elle, there's something I need to tell you," my eyes lifted from my curry to look expectantly at James, "they want me to work out there for the next two or three months. Will you be ok here on your own?"

                 "I'll be fine. I'll miss you though. Where will you be staying?"

                 "They said I'll be put up in an apartment in California."

                 "What a fantastic experience. You grab it with both hands James, and I'll look after everything back here, don't you worry." I felt a sudden pang in my chest. I would miss James more than I wanted to admit. He was a good friend, and we had developed an easy and warm relationship. I cleared away the dinner things, and watched half hour of telly before turning in, noting that Oscar had failed to call.

                He turned up at lunchtime the following day, and took me to a little wine bar for lunch. I told him all about James' trip away, and my reservations about being alone in the flat.

                "It's very secure there, especially on the high floors. I don't think you need worry about burglars."

                "So how was your weekend?

                "It was ok. Bit boring really. Ivan came over to dinner on Saturday evening, but apart from that it was just Mother and I. My sister is away in Italy at the moment."

                "Your mum lives there?" I was shocked.

                "Yes," he said, as if speaking to a small child, "it was her home before I was even born. I inherited it when my father died. I'm hardly going to kick her out now am I? Besides, it's way too big for just one person. At that moment I twigged. We weren't talking about some tiny weekend cottage. "She has an apartment in the East wing. I barely see her to be honest, she's always off doing her WI stuff and charity work. My apartments are in the central part of the house. Well, you'll see on Friday what I mean."

                "Ok. I ran into Ivan at work yesterday, he said he went to yours for dinner, that you were neighbours." I took a bite of my sandwich.

                "Yes, his estate is about 20 miles from my place. In deepest Sussex, that's a next door neighbour. It's very rural there."

                "What clothes will I need?"

                Oscar looked at me strangely, "the normal."

                "Weekends in the country aren't normal for me, you need to give me a bit more clue than that. I'm a city girl remember?"

                "Of course, sorry, jeans and flats for day, party dress for dinner, not long though, cocktail length is fine. We don't stand on ceremony."

                 "That all sounds easy enough. Who else is going?"

                 "My friends from uni, and their wives or girlfriends. They're a fun crowd, you'll like them," he paused, "can I see you before that though?

I knew what he meant, but I wanted to be home as much as possible before James went away. "I have a really heavy week ahead, especially if I'm gonna get off early on Friday. How about a lunch date in your office?" I smiled and batted my lashes flirtily. Oscar grinned back.

                "My office door has a lock."

                "Hmm, what are you suggesting?" I pretended to look shocked. Oscar stroked my fingers across the table.

                "Well if you wear a skirt and stockings to work tomorrow, you can find out." His touch left trails of heat running from my hands straight to my groin. I crossed my legs under the table. He smiled widely and winked like a naughty schoolboy. "Can you wear the heels too please," he whispered in his sultry voice.

                 "I'll see what I can do you dirty boy," I flirted, batting my lashes. It pleased me when Oscar came on strong. There were so many times that I felt unsure of him.

                 "You love it when I'm a dirty boy," he murmured.

                 "I sure do." With that, he lifted my hand to his mouth, and kissed the back of my hand softly. Everything south of my waist tightened.

                 The spell was broken when he glanced at his watch and told me that he had to be getting back. We made our way up, and sadly the lift was too packed for anything other than a peck goodbye when I reached my floor.

                 As I headed into my office, Lewis came out of his to find me. "Elle, need you in a meeting in two minutes. My office." I just had time to dump my handbag and trot down the corridor. When I opened the door, I was shocked to see two of the senior partners sitting with Lewis. After the hellos, Lewis asked me to sit.

                 "Mr Porenski has approached our firm to undertake a substantial amount of his legal work. Apparently his companies are now too big and complex, and the volume of work too much for his in house legal team, so he wishes to farm out the contract, and flotation work to a legal firm, and keep the legal work for mergers and acquisitions done in house. He has insisted that we meet a number of conditions, primarily concerned with his need for complete confidentiality. He requires a fixed team, including secretaries, all of whom must sign confidentiality agreements. He also requires Ms Reynolds to be his dedicated contact and co-ordinator at the company."

                 My hand flew up to my mouth. I had been flippant when suggesting Ivan become a client. I never in a million years had expected him to actually take me seriously. I could see the senior partners salivating at such a coup.

                 "This deal is worth a huge amount of both money, and prestige to the firm Miss Reynolds, as I'm sure you're aware," said Mr Carey, one of the senior partners, "how do you feel about becoming his point of contact? Are you comfortable with that?"

                 "What would be expected of me?" I wanted to know what sort of demands I was supposed to kowtow down to in order to keep him happy. From my perspective, I felt a strange mixture of professional pride that I'd instigated such a coup, and mortification because I felt Ivan was only doing this to get in my knickers.

                "You would be expected to oversee the delivery of whatever services he needs us to provide. You would be directly responsible for all communications with him. He doesn't operate nine to five, so a level of flexibility would be required from you. We expect you to check everything is done on time, and to the standard he requires. We want no mistakes on this account. Are you up for this challenge?"

                 "Yes, I believe so. Has he indicated whether or not we're competing with other firms for this account?"