But I was definitely both, mostly because AJ had insisted on not only keeping the shake in a cooler of ice during the ride back, but stirring it constantly to “preserve the consistency, or else it’s just melted ice cream.”
Definitely a fair point, but the stirring had been beyond distracting, and I had to commend myself for not crashing the car despite the fact that her perfect tits were bouncing the entire ride from stirring the stupid shake.
I smirked as I watched her set up the conference room now. She’d even gotten fresh whipped cream from the restaurant downstairs, which alone was filling my head with every dirty thought that didn’t need to be there right now.
“You alright, buddy?” AJ asked teasingly, not even needing to look up to feel my stare.
“Yeah. I think it’s just too often that I’m watching you handle whipped cream in this office,” I smirked, peering out the door as I came up behind her. “Remind me that I need to lick every dessert that exists off your body soon, or I might fucking explode.”
“Noted,” she said, giving a little giggle that made my dick twitch as she let me run my hands along her backside as she continued setting up.
But then without a word or a glance at each other, we separated ourselves, because we could hear two pairs of footsteps coming toward the conference room, and within seconds, Carl from reception poked his head in.
He gave me a look that asked you ready? And when I nodded, he looked out into the hall and gestured into the room.
“Mr. Knox,” he said.
And in walked Knox looking half-asleep, wearing team warm-up gear including low-worn sweats and a baseball cap he didn’t take off even as we did the customary handshakes and greetings.
I have zero respect for this meeting was the message he was trying to convey.
And he did it well.
“So. Flying solo today?” I asked, hoping to see Knox’s team walk in any minute as he took a long pull of date shake from his straw. I had to wait till he was done—a good three or four seconds—before he gave his shitty answer.
“Nah. Figured I’d make this quick as possible.”
I smiled. “Right.”
Fuckin’ asshole.
He was being such an intolerable piece of shit from the jump that it was a good breather for me to be able to show him around the office and briefly pass him off to Engelman, who wasn’t as subtle as he thought as he asked how Knox’s RTA meeting went, and if he’d gotten to meet the head of RTA like he was getting to do here.
I whisked Knox away from Engelman as swiftly as I could after that, and we were just outside Engelman’s office when Knox spoke his first full sentence since arriving.
“Listen, I know this is supposed to be the big VIP tour, but I don’t really give a shit. I don’t care how fancy your office is and it’s nowhere near as big as RTA’s anyway, so let’s just get to the meeting, alright?”
My eyebrows flashed for half a second, but even from behind me, I could feel AJ willing me to be nice, so I simply grinned at Knox. “Alright. Let’s get a move on.”
As we headed back to the conference room, AJ and I exchanged a look and I could tell we were on the same page, since it was a look that basically said yeah, he’s a dick, but we can play this game too.
We were usually much more flattering and complimentary of clients, and provided far more pomp and circumstance, but it was clear Knox wanted to lose the corporate veneer, and I was actually more than happy to do that.
So as soon as we were seated just the three of us in the conference roo
m, I got right into it.
“Look, I don’t need to know how your other meeting went to know that RTA is looking to make you fit their mold. They have more clients than any agency in the world. They want you to shut up, do your job and just be grateful they took you on, and I haven’t known you that long, but I do know that you don’t really respond to that kind of authority,” I said, making Knox smirk. He leaned back in his chair, his arms crossed as he took his sweet time to respond.
“I think I’d give it a shot if the authority was Simon Schilling,” he said.
I stilled.
For longer than I intended to actually, but I was trying to gauge what was going on with AJ right now without taking my eyes off of Knox. I was pretty sure I felt an instant shift in her at the mention of Schilling, but now she was playing it cool enough that even I couldn’t tell if she wasn’t okay.
“Schilling is taking you as a client?” I clarified, because since being promoted to VP of RTA, he’d stopped taking new clients. Knox smiled.
“He said he was interested.”