All That She Wants (Connor's Point of View Part 1) (5 page)

I really liked this girl, but she was slave
to the same notion as almost everybody in her position: that
circumstances – especially money and opportunity – are dictated by
outside forces.

Usually, they’re not.

More often they’re dictated by our attitudes,
and how we
react
to those outside forces.

I wondered if I should tell her that…and
decided,
Yeah, let’s see how she handles it.

“We either make our own realities, Lily, or
we accept the realities others impose upon us. You’ve got way too
much going for you to accept a reality that includes Klaus as a
part of it.”

Maybe I stretched it too far. Maybe I was too
pedantic, too lecturing, too judgmental. Whatever the case, I could
see her clamp down and the defenses go up.

Fuck,
I thought, without even knowing
exactly why I cared so much.

I came to a halt, caught her arm, spun her
around gently to face me, and stared deep into her eyes.

(I have to admit, in retrospect, it was all
worth it just to get to touch her again.)

“Did I have a lot of advantages growing up?
Yes I did,” I said, as earnestly as I could. “I’m a very lucky guy,
and I recognize that. But part of my upbringing was that I learned
my strengths, and I learned what I was worth, and I never let
anybody tell me differently. When I look at you, Lily, I see a
beautiful woman – ”

Her face betrayed everything – a whole
whirlwind of emotions, but most powerful of all:

She was attracted to me.

And she liked it when I said she was
beautiful.

For the first time in over a year, my heart
skipped a beat.

And in that instant, I decided I wanted to
sleep with her tonight.

All of that raced through my head as I kept
talking.

“ – who is poised, very intelligent, in
control of herself, doesn’t take any crap – ”

Should I?

Yeah… let’s have a little fun.

“ – oh, wait… skip that last part,” I said,
and made a face as though I were making a mental note for future
reference. Then I turned around and started walking – which was
good, because I didn’t want her to see the grin on my face.

“Is it this way?” I called over my
shoulder.

I could almost
hear
her fuming as she
ran after me.

“You know, you talk a big game for a guy
who’s here to look at somebody else’s business files on a Friday
night after closing hours,” she taunted me.

I laughed. “Uh oh, did I touch a nerve?”

I could almost see the steam coming out of
her ears.

Which was perfect.

There’s only one cardinal sin when dealing
with a beautiful woman: being boring.

They’ll forgive you just about anything else
but that.

“Why
are
you here, exactly?” she
challenged me.

I put my hands in my pockets and looked
around casually, like I was taking stock of the place. “Oh, I don’t
know… thinking about buying the company.”

She snorted derisively. “
Right.
”

“Maybe one day. Once I save up my
pennies.”

“So you can have a whole company to kiss your
ass, huh?”

I looked over at her, momentarily shocked.
And then I burst into a belly laugh.

Damn, this little secretary has balls of
steel!

Or
had,
anyway.

She blushed and looked like she immediately
regretted saying it – but I was impressed she’d said it at all.

She was going to bust my balls?

Fine.

I’d bust hers, too.

“I don’t know about other people kissing
my
ass, but…”

I angled my head back and took a look at her
derriere.

Her very
nice
derriere.

“…I wouldn’t mind kissing somebody
else’s.”

BAM – she went red as a fire engine,
instantaneously.

I grinned and kept walking –

But she didn’t.

“Hey!” she snapped from somewhere behind
me.

Uh-oh.

Might’ve gone too far with that last one.

I turned around and gave her an innocent
Who, me?
look.

“What?”

She crossed her arms and scowled. “You know
that’s highly inappropriate, right?”

Yeah, she was pissed.

And to be honest, she had every right to be.
I was an outsider here, in a business setting, and I was making
inappropriate comments of a highly sexual nature. Sure, she’d been
busting my chops earlier – but over money. And I had invited it by
acting cocky.

She hadn’t asked for me to leer at her.

I’d gambled hard, because that’s what I like
to do. High risk, high reward.

But this time it didn’t come out in my
favor.

“Sorry,” I said, and meant it.

More than anything, I was pissed at myself
that I’d played this all wrong. After a year-long failed
relationship, and then eight months of self-imposed celibacy, I was
apparently pretty rusty with women.

“I apologize,” I continued. “I didn’t mean to
make you uncomfortable. You’re just… sorry. I won’t do it
again.”

Something in her expression shifted. “‘You’re
just’ what?”

Aha.

Maybe I
hadn’t
played it wrong.

“Well, you’re – ”

Her body leaned in the slightest bit.

I could see she wanted me to say it.

I’m back in the game
.

I shook my head ruefully. “Never mind.”

“‘You’re just’
what?”
she
demanded.

Okay, I’d played it
exactly
right.

I smiled and decided not to feed her another
line.

I was just going to tell her the truth.

“I find you very attractive,” I said.

Her entire expression went soft and
doe-eyed.

“I’m used to being a little more…
aggressive
, and I forgot the setting and my manners. I’m
sorry.”

That’s a little heavy, Templeton – lighten it
up some.

I held up both my arms like this was a
stick-up. “I’ll stop, just don’t file a sexual harassment lawsuit,
okay?”

She stood there, and her expression slowly
hardened as she thought it over.

She was more difficult to read than I’d
initially thought…

…which I kind of liked.

Definitely a challenge.

Which I
really
liked.

She took forever to say anything. If I were a
cynical man, I would have said she was letting me roast in the fire
for her own amusement. But that was probably just the last woman I
was with, who used to do it all the time.

Besides, Lily seemed a little too sweet for
that.

“I didn’t say
stop,
” she muttered.
“Just… tone it down a little.”

HELL YEAH.

“Agreed,” I grinned. “Now let’s go look at
those files, shall we?”

We threaded our way through the cubicles in
silence.

I didn’t say anything because I was running
through the various companies I needed to see.

She was quiet because she was nervous.

I could hear it in her voice when she finally
spoke. She was trying to be sassy, though she didn’t quite pull off
the breezy tone she was aiming for.

She was still challenging me, though, which I
liked.

“You still haven’t said what’s so important
about these files that you have to waste a perfectly good Friday
night.”

I grinned. “Actually, I believe I did.”

She rolled her eyes. “Oh, that’s right –
you’re thinking about buying the company. How about a
real
reason?”

I kept smiling, just to let her know I was
playing around. “Well… if I were Klaus, I might say something about
it not being any of your business. But since we’re friends, let me
put it this way instead: there are things I’m not at liberty to
talk about, but you could say I’m the… advance man on a very
important business deal, and I wanted to check out some things
before we go through with it.”

“The LMGK buyout,” she said, looking exactly
like somebody in a film who’d suddenly puzzled out who the murderer
was.

And here I’d thought it was all hush-hush.
“You know about that?”

She blushed. “Everybody’s been whispering
about it the last few weeks. And I’ve seen a few things.”

“Such as?”

“…such as things I’m not at liberty to talk
about.”

Point for Lily. “Touché.”

She looked at me with distrust. “But what I
haven’t seen is
you
before.”

Your CEO could take a few lessons from you on
appropriate levels of suspicion, Lily.

“Now you have. In the flesh.”

She didn’t seem satisfied with my answer, but
she didn’t say anything else.

We reached her desk, and she bent over and
started looking for something.

At first I was just watching her ass –
daaaaamn –
but something plucked at my subconscious.

The word ‘Teramore’ on her computer
screen.

Oh my God, this is too perfect.

“Hey – are those the numbers for Teramore?” I
asked.

She looked around, looked at the screen – and
then suddenly bolted upright in panic. “Those are
confidential!”

I gave her a
Give me a break
look as I
bent over her desk and started scrolling through with the mouse.
“Remember, both Klaus and your CEO said you should give me
anything
I want – oh, wait, is that an inappropriate
remark?”

She narrowed her eyes. “I’ll file it under
acceptable innuendos,” she said coolly.

I laughed. She was pretty damn clever, I had
to give her that. “Acceptable innuendoes… that’s good…”

Then I turned back to the document.

LMGK had just completed an exec comp report
for Teramore. In a little bit of back-channel negotiation, I had
convinced Teramore to hire Exerton to do an identical report – as
long as I footed the bill.

I’d already inspected the report from LGMK
and run it past my own people, so I knew what the numbers should be
–

And Klaus had gotten every one of them
wrong.

The report was a travesty. Sloppy,
incomplete, and inaccurate.

I got to a particularly idiotic
recommendation and muttered “Bullshit” without realizing it.

“Excuse me?” Lily asked. She sounded
shocked.

I looked up at her and pondered my next
move.

I liked her. Okay, that was an
understatement. I wanted to sleep with her – but this was a
make-or-break moment. If I trusted her with this, and she gave me
the wrong answer, I’d have to take a pass. I couldn’t compromise my
reason for being here just because I wanted to take her for a roll
in the hay.

But… she’d been honest with me about her
feelings about Klaus.

And she was a whole lot smarter than I’d
initially given her credit for.

Not to mention she had some spine.

Screw it.

High risk, high reward.

“Can I trust you with something, Lily?”

She blanched a little. “Uh… I guess…?”

Not looking good.

“Yes or no. I don’t want this getting back to
Klaus.”

I could see the wheels turning in her head
again.

Finally, she nodded. “Yes.”

I believed her – and I felt a lot more relief
than I would have expected.

“LMGK already did their own appraisal of
Teramore. I told – uh, we convinced Teramore to let you guys make a
pass at it, too, to see your numbers and compare how Exerton would
evaluate the situation.”

Her mouth dropped open. “Wait – you mean,
this is a test for Exerton Consulting?” she asked as she pointed at
the monitor.

I nodded.

“It’s not an actual job – it’s just a
test?
”

“Well,
Klaus
thinks it’s a job, and
Teramore will actually pay the bill as though it were an actual
job. ”
Once my check to Teramore clears,
I thought. “But
yeah, it’s a test.”

“One we didn’t know we were taking.”

“We didn’t want you to go to more trouble
than usual. Like how the food critic doesn’t want the restaurant to
know when he’s visiting or who he really is.”

“But why – ”

It was a beautiful thing: I could actually
see her thought process play out lightning fast on her features. I
saw all the gears turn and lock into place as she grasped the
entire situation – that this was one of the final tests for the
buyout, and Klaus had bungled it.

She gasped. “Oh…”

“Yup.”

She winced. “I guess we didn’t do so
well.”

“No, you didn’t. Your appraisal of the market
is waaay off.” I glanced over at her, not wanting her to think I
was criticizing her personally. “Not you, of course – Klaus’s.”

But she hadn’t taken it as a personal slight.
She just gave me a
Hmmph, it figures
expression. “Well, he
always does that.”

Wait – what?

I stood up, suddenly a lot more interested.
“What do you mean?”

“I’ve proofed all his reports over the last
six months. I have to double-check everything, and, well… he tends
to tell the client what they want to hear. Not necessarily
reality.”

Whoa, whoa – time out.

She was a secretary – and she knew that the
head of the Exec Comp Division of Exerton Consulting was an idiot?
Not just an asshole, but incompetent?

“Wait – wait, wait, wait,” I said, trying to
wrap my head around this. “Do you know about – ”

And for the next five minutes I hit her with
every question I could think of on cash compensation, option
grants, deferred compensation, long-term incentive plans,
retirement packages, and perks.

“What’s the typical long-term incentive plan
for a CEO of a Fortune 500 company, lower end, market cap $1
billion?”

She knew it.

“How can you manipulate stock option grants
as part of compensation without running afoul of the SEC for
backdating?”