I offered her a cool smile. I knew she wanted to fuck me. She was a pretty girl, but I had a personal policy not to bang my secretary.
Too cliché.
I entered the conference room and addressed the group of people sitting around the long table. Every morning, I had my most trusted employees gather together to go over the issues of the day, and distribute work. I knew managers could be put into place to handle these meetings and delegate tasks, freeing me up to play golf and chase pussy all day, but the little-known reality was that the business was too delicate to hand over right now. There were a total of eight corporations under the Brighton Enterprises umbrella and of those companies—three were very nearly ready to go under.
I knew that no one would blame me if things went belly up, and that I had more money in investments and savings accounts than I would ever be able to spend in this lifetime, but it was bigger than just my reputation or money. This business had been everything to my dad, and while we were very different people, I wanted nothing more than to honor his memory and get things back on track.
Besides, golf had never really been my game. And chasing pussy—well, I managed to do that, as well.
A flicker of the girl from the night before flashed through my mind but I shoved it aside, the group waiting expectantly for me to begin the morning meeting.
Two hours later, all tasks had been distributed and I felt like everything was on track, at least for the day. After the meeting, I went back to my office to comb through some sales data for the cosmetics branch, Plush. It was a high end line of beauty products and fragrances. It had grown in popularity over the past few years and the new fragrance was set to launch later in the month. I was crunching numbers and pitching a silent prayer out that it would be enough to get me the capital I needed to keep the other branches afloat for a few more months.
“Mr. Brighton?”
I looked up to see it was Kimberly at the door.
“Yes?”
She entered the room and closed the door behind her. For the first time, I noticed that she was wearing a button-up shirt and that somewhere along the line, several buttons had been undone. She was displaying an impressive amount of cleavage as she approached my desk.
“Is there anything I can do…for you?” she asked, her voice low and slow. “I noticed you’ve been pretty stressed lately. I’m available if you need some help unwinding.”
Her brazen attempt at seduction would probably work on a lot of guys, but her approach was all wrong for my tastes. I was not attracted to women who threw themselves at me. I had to be the one in pursuit. In control from the very beginning.
I knew it had probably taken a lot of guts for her to come at me in such a bold way, and I didn’t want to humiliate her.
“An iced tea would be refreshing,” I said, keeping my voice monotone, as if I didn’t register what she was trying to do.
Her face fell at my request, but she quickly rebounded and leaned over my desk, her breasts nearly popping out of her blouse. I could see the black lace edge of her bra and felt a ripple of arousal building. She licked her lips. “Are you sure that’s all you need?”
“Yes, thank you.”
Her face shifted and her cheeks turned a brilliant shade of pink.
I turned my gaze away from her, back to my computer. And I heard her leave, shutting the door slightly harder than required as she left.
I winced at the sound.
Kimberly had been with the company for some time, working up from the front desk reception position
to being the main assistant to the CEO. She had an impressive work history within Brighton Enterprises and I hoped that she would let today’s embarrassment pass and not let it impact her work.
Because the last thing I wanted to do was carve out the time to hire and train a new assistant.
The rest of the afternoon passed without too many snags. I was about to pack up and go home for the evening when my cell phone rang. It was Jessie. I mentally debated whether or not to answer, but I knew that Jessie was a very persistent person and eventually she would wear me down.
Better to get it over with.
“Hello, this is Cooper,” I answered.
“Cooper, what the fuck?”
Well, that was one hell of a greeting.
“Hello, Jessie,” I said, sinking back into my chair.
“Samantha told me what happened last night. How you fucked her and then gave her the brush-off. That was a really shitty thing to do, Cooper! Especially knowing that she is my cousin!” Jessie railed.