Meeting Mr. Mogul: A Billionaire Contemporary Romance (15 page)

After letting out a huge, calming breath, I slowly opened the door. This was my first time to enter his office. Once I got in, the first thing I saw was a massive, clear glass wall behind him, which provided a spectacular view of the whole city. I silently gasped at the sight, which made him look up at my entrance.

His initial expression was anger, which then turned impassive in under a minute. But I saw his eyes soften for a second before he sported his poker face. He was the only person I knew who could change expressions pretty quickly.

“What took you so long?” he asked in a commanding tone, the kind I was used to hear from him.

“I rode the bus. So, what do you want me to do here?” I asked as I gestured around the room, slightly taken aback by the piles of papers in front of him.

“Straight to the point, as usual,” he mumbled softly to himself, but the eerie silence in the room made it easier for me to hear him. “You can take over Maggie’s work until she gets back. You’ll just recheck all the paperwork done for the past month,” he instructed and pointed to the huge table on the right side of the room.

When I turned to look, I was startled at the mountain of boxes and the files in them. The table looked a lot like the one in the boardroom, complete with twelve chairs. My guess was it measured six feet long. On the edge, near his dark mahogany desk, there was an open laptop. I guessed that was where I would be working until Maggie comes back.

Without another word, I turned away from him and walked towards the table. I could sense him stare at my back as I silently made my way to the laptop. When I sat down, I glanced sideways in his direction to check if my suspicions were correct. I managed to catch him swiftly divert his attention back to his laptop. I mentally grinned at his reaction.

For almost fifteen minutes, the only thing I could hear in the room was our fingers tapping the keyboard. The sound was starting to drive me insane until he opened his mouth.

“Why are you dressed like that? Were you with someone?”

His gaze was on the laptop as he asked me. I didn’t answer him right away because I wanted him to face me first.

“Why do you ask?” I countered with a raised eyebrow when he finally looked at me.

“Well, because you are wearing
that
...” he scoffed, gesturing to my outfit.

To give him the impression I wasn't affected by his words, I simply went back to work (barely managing to suppress a giggle) and calmly replied, "I went on a date."

It was strangely silent in the room after I said those words. I wondered why he became quiet, so I glanced at him to see that both of his eyebrows were raised in surprise. Incidentally, that was also the first time I had a good look at him since I arrived. He wasn’t wearing his usual corporate suit and tie. Instead, he wore a grey polo shirt with a few buttons undone and denim jeans. For the first time, Mr. Mogul didn’t look much like a Mogul. He looked more like a supermodel who just came from a photo shoot. His hair wasn’t styled back like it usually was. It was ruffled like he only got out of bed.

“You were on a date? You outright refused me because you were on a date?” His skeptical tone made me understand what he was thinking.

“Yes. I have a life outside of work, Mr. Maxwell. I need to make my man happy or he’ll find someone else,” I replied. I wanted to slap myself for keeping up with this lie.

“Then why are you here Ms. Peterson? If you feel strongly about making your man happy, why did you choose to come to work today?” At this moment, he turned my way to scrutinize me.

I didn’t cower under his gaze and stared back just as intensely. “Well, I didn’t at first. My man convinced me to change my mind. He understood that I have a boss who is very demanding of my time.”

“Are you saying that it’s my fault that you are here now?”

“No, I’m merely pointing out a fact. Why? Isn’t it true?” I retorted.

He couldn’t think of a response at first. It was only a few seconds later that he asked another question, “The guy with you in the bar last night, that’s your boyfriend right?”

“Don’t drag him into this, Mr. Maxwell. He is a decent guy. He has nothing to do with this,” I told him sternly.

“Do you think I’m going to do anything to him once I find out who he is?”

I ignored his question and continued to type out reports. He asked a second time, which I ignored as well. Then, I suddenly heard a chair move and footsteps walking towards my direction. Before I could react to the situation, he already had his hand on my chair, turning it to face him. His six-foot and glorious body was towering over me as I remained seated in my chair. I glanced up at him in shock.

“What the hell?”

“I’ve never been ignored in my life. You’re seriously testing my temper,” he said with his jaw clenched.

His actions made my heart beat faster than usual. But I sat there immobile and kept my face as impassive as I could. “You were the one who started asking unnecessary questions.”

“God! I’ve never met a woman with a mouth like yours. You always have something to say, don’t you?”

“Well, I was raised to be opinionated, Mr. Maxwell. When I have something to say, I’ll say it without second thoughts.”

“Why does it have to be you?” he softly asked to himself with a strained breath. He let go of my chair by then. “Do you loathe me that much that you have to tick me off every minute we are in the same room?”

Frustration was written all over his face and I began to feel sorry for him.  “I don’t hate you, Mr. Maxwell. Maybe it seems that way, but I think that’s because we look at the world differently,” I replied as calmly as I could.

“Then what does it seem to you?” he earnestly asked.

“I think that we fight because we are afraid of each other,” I reluctantly admitted, my voice was almost inaudible so that he can barely hear me, yet wishing he could.

“I agree that you’re afraid of me. But what makes you think I’m afraid of you?” he asked, somewhat startled at my reply.

“It was obvious from your actions.”

“What have I done to make you think that?”

“Well, when you visited me at my old place, you were very nosy after Ms. Maxwell gave me a job. You were also keen on embarrassing me during that meeting. Lastly, throughout the time I’ve worked here, you’ve made my life a living hell,” I pointed out, mentally squirming under his watchful gaze.

He snorted at my reply. “You have a good memory, I’ll give you that.”

“Thank you,” I managed to give him a small smile.

He closed his eyes for a second before he placed his right hand in his pants pocket and ruffled his hair with the other. Then, he sighed and opened his clear blue eyes. His mannerisms made my stomach knot and my breath hitch.

“How about we start all over again?” he offered with a small smile, which made my stomach tighten even more. Not sure how to reply, I just gave him a curt nod.

“Sure. I can do that,” I replied after clearing up my dry throat and regaining my scattered thoughts.

“Great. I would love that,” he smiled a toothy grin. The effect, this time, was my heart stopping for a second. “So, we’re friends?” he asked after a few seconds, offering me his hand to shake.

I looked at him for a second, then to the hand he held out. I mentally gulped at the options I had to weigh.
Do I want to be friends with Mr. Mogul?
When I looked up at him again, his grin was still in place.

“Does this mean you won’t be slaving me around to do your dirty work?” I couldn’t help but ask. I inwardly slapped myself for asking a stupid question and letting my curiosity get the better of me.

Luckily, my question just made him laugh. And here I thought the man didn’t have any sense of humor. I liked his laugh. It was a very manly laugh. I mentally slapped myself again, forcing myself to focus.

“When have I made you a slave for my dirty work?” he asked, still chuckling as he raised his eyebrow inquisitively.

“Well, there was the coffee run, the laundry runs…” I enumerated automatically. I could never stop myself from saying things at the top of my head. I could only hope that I had enough control to prevent myself from saying anything I might regret.

He just shook his head in amusement as he faced his desk again. “Okay. I’ll cut down the slave work,” he snickered, waving his hand in dismissal.

I sneered at his arrogant demeanor instinctively and got back to work. I still hated the man enough that I could brush off my attraction towards him a few seconds ago. But if he continued to be an ass, then being friends with him might be very entertaining. I could only hope his actions towards me wouldn’t change completely, or I wouldn’t be able to fight my attraction towards him. I would never admit out loud that I found the man alluring. Anyone who had estrogen in their system would agree he was very appealing.

Ten minutes after our conversation ended, Maggie came back with our food and drinks. I was relieved when she was finally in the room because it was starting to get awkward after William and I talked.

Friends
. Could we be friends? I couldn’t really grasp the thought of having any kind of relationship with Mr. Mogul. But for now, since I was going to be working with him for the next three months, I would have to swallow my pride and try to be friends with him.

Around seven-thirty, we had almost finished most of the work. Maggie was already done with her pile and was excused for the night. As for me, since I came in late, I had a few more things to finish. William was still focused on his work as Maggie bade us farewell.

When we were alone in the room again, I felt queasy. I sighed in relief that he didn’t feel entitled to say anything to break the silence, like what he did this morning. That was a good thing because I was still hung up about his sudden change of character. Around quarter to nine, I finally finished my work. I let out a huge sigh of contentment that I could leave.

As I was about to stand, William stopped typing in his laptop as well and closed it. I was a bit startled that I took a quick glance at him. But I looked away as I gathered my things.

“Are you done?” he asked as I grabbed my bag.

“Yes. I’m going to head out now.”

“Do you need a lift?” he asked as he stood up and grabbed a blazer behind his leather chair.

I stood up and turned to face him, shocked by his offer. Where was he going with this?    “Ah… No, I’m going to be fine. I’ve got some errands to do,” I replied uneasily as I slowly walked towards the door.

“Oh, are you sure? I could drop you off somewhere if you’d like.”

I stopped walking and stared at him suspiciously. “Why are you being nice to me?”

“Is it really bad to be nice to a friend? I thought we were starting over,” he replied with uncertainty as he raised one eyebrow at me.

I squinted my eyes at him, not really buying it. “I only agreed to be friends so you won’t have to insult me anymore, Mr. Maxwell. We should keep this more of a business kind of friendship.”

He eyed me for a second before he started chuckling. “You think I’m flirting here, Ms. Peterson?”

“Why? Aren’t you?” I probed as I glared at him accusingly. Then, my mind suddenly went blank at what he implied.
Wait, what?

He just gave me a mysterious smile. He walked towards me and stopped a foot away from where I stood. “If I was doing such a thing, I would have done it already, Ms. Peterson. I was merely being a gentleman. It’s almost nine, you know,” he whispered before he went out the door.

“Aren’t you coming?” he called as I continued to stand there like an idiot.

I snapped out of my trance and walked past him while he held the elevator doors open. Did he know that I was attracted to him? No, he couldn’t know. I verbally assaulted him since the first day we met. He was just trying to catch me off guard. I knew that this “friendship” thing is nothing to him. He was only offering it since the bickering was becoming a nuisance. Even I would think it was a waste of time if I were in his shoes.

We silently rode the elevator to the lobby. On the way down, I stood across him, not really trusting the man’s word in any way. When the door opened to the lobby, I didn’t wait for an offer to let me exit first. I walked out of that elevator without a second thought.

I didn’t notice that William followed. When I got out of the building, I noticed a familiar black SUV parked outside the door. I stopped in my tracks for a second as I assessed the situation. A man in a black suit and tie jumped out of the front door and opened the back.

“Come on. Don’t just stand there,” William commanded as he grasped my arm, taking me by surprise.

“What...?”

“I did say I’m offering you a ride to anywhere you like,” he stated when I showed some resistance.

“But I didn’t agree to your offer.”

“Your answer is not relevant to my question, Ms. Peterson,” he said sternly as he tugged me towards the car.

“I’m not going anywhere with you,” I resisted and pulled my arm out of his hold.

“Who said you are going where I’m going? I’m only dropping you off at wherever you like.”