Total pages in book: 24
Estimated words: 21503 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 108(@200wpm)___ 86(@250wpm)___ 72(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 21503 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 108(@200wpm)___ 86(@250wpm)___ 72(@300wpm)
My gaze is locked entirely on my assistant. My mouth waters at remembering the moments we’ve shared this morning and how we’re going to move forward as soon as this fucking meeting is finished. Seraphina is currently moving around the perimeter of the mahogany conference table, handing out updated financial portfolios. I should be pouring over the data right alongside everyone else, but I’m not.
The pencil skirt she’s wearing is agonizingly tight, hugging the curve of her waist at the flare of her hips and ending just above her knees. Every step she takes is sheer torture. When she leans over Harrison’s shoulder to place the portfolio in front of him, the loose silk of her colorful blouse drapes open. My vantage point at the head of the table nearly takes my breath away. The fabric parts just enough to reveal the swell of her breasts, the smooth skin glowing under the harsh fluorescent lights of the boardroom.
Jesus, I should be concentrating, I tell myself as I clench my jaw. I should at least pretend to look at the damn spreadsheet in front of me. Seraphina straightens, smoothing her skirt with a brush of her palms, and catches me staring. Her cheeks flush. The rosy color slides down her neck, and she doesn’t look away. I lick my lips, and instead of looking away, she offers a smile that has blood rushing to my cock.
“As you can see on page three, the duplicate sale receipts are buried in the third quarter invoices. It’s not a system glitch, these were manually entered, twice as transactions, effectively doubling the reported revenue on this specific business account,” Harrison starts the meeting.
“An internal skim,” I state. Seraphina takes a seat to my right, clicks the pen open, and takes notes a furious pace.
“Exactly,” Harrison agrees. I look up at him for a moment before my eyes return to Sera’s. Her brow is furrowed in concentration, her lip tucked between her teeth, a habit I’ve memorized all too well when she’s processing things internally. I want nothing more than to reach over and drag my thumb across that lip, then pull her in my lap, right in front of the entire finance team. “If we run a forensic audit during this acquisition, they’re going to flag it immediately. It compromises the integrity of the purchase.”
“They won’t look for it if we control the narrative,” I say coldly, forcing myself to look between the screen and the portfolio in front of me. I rest my forearm on the table, deliberately shifting my elbow until it brushes against Seraphina’s. She doesn’t flinch, if anything, she leans into the touch, never stopping her frantic writing on her pad of paper.
“What are you proposing, Rafe?” Marcus, the head of legal, asks, leaning forward. “We don’t want to back out of the sale, or we’ll lose it, and I know that’s the last thing you want.” He’s right. I want the business, and I’ll get it no matter what. It’s just at a cost.
“We alter our strategy, go into the negotiation with a lowball offer, drop it by twenty percent.” My eyes drift to Seraphina’s hands, long and elegant fingers wrapped tightly around her pen. I remember those same fingers digging into my chest earlier today, so hard I’m surprised she didn’t leave a mark. Those thoughts do nothing to lessen the way my cock flexes in my pants.
“Twenty percent?” Harrison looks downright scandalized. “You’re talking millions at that rate.” Others murmur to themselves. I didn’t get to be as successful as I am today without having the balls to play in the big leagues.
“Let them wonder why we’re suddenly undervaluing them. They’ll sweat, counteroffer, and if it’s not in the direction we want, that’s when we let them know we’re on to them.”
“You don’t think they’ll push back?” Marcus asks, narrowing his eyes at me. Any other day, it’d piss me off when someone second-guessed my opinion on the matter. As it is, Seraphina being close, the scent of her perfume driving me insane yet somehow keeping me calm, it’s working in their favor. For now.
“If they push back and demand to know why we’re undercutting them, we’ll tell them exactly what we found.” Seraphina pauses in her writing, pen hovering, but she doesn’t look up. She’s listening with intent, analyzing my play and, knowing her, learning my patterns to keep in her back pocket. “We frame it as a goodwill gesture,” I go on to further explain. “Tell them we discovered an anomaly, and while we’d like to keep it between us, it could become public. Nobody with that name wants bad publicity.” Seraphina underlines the word lowball and contingency disclosure. Silence falls over the conference room as they digest my strategy. Harrison slowly nods, his initial thoughts changing from panic to approval.