She stared at the glass, her stomach lurching at the sight of the green ooze inside. “Where did you learn about this cure? College?”
His eyes darkened. “My parents.” Simon brought a cup of coffee to his lips and drank. “Hurry up and finish so we can go over today’s itinerary.”
His brusque manner was already setting her on edge, but she’d drink anything to feel better. Taking a deep breath, she lifted the glass to her lips and took a huge gulp. She shuddered as she forced down some of the revolting concoction. It nearly made her gag. “I don’t think I can drink much more,” she forced out.
“That’s probably enough. Now, eat something so we can start the day.”
There was a jug of orange juice on the table, so she reached for it and filled one of the empty glasses. She drank some of it down, trying to get rid of the awful taste in her mouth. Then, she reached for the croissant on the plate in front of her and reluctantly started to nibble on it. Ordinarily she would enjoy having such a nice breakfast, but she could hardly taste anything.
Sitting with Simon here in the clear light of day was already making her face grow hot. Memories of having sex with him started rushing back. Made her entire body tingle with desire.
No. She could not go down that road again. Not if she wanted to focus on work and get back on track.
After she finished her croissant she went over the day’s agenda with Simon. Their morning would be relatively easy with a series of presentations, but the afternoon events were already making her anxious. The afternoon session was basically a networking session, and she knew how much Simon was going to loathe making small talk with people he could barely tolerate.
With breakfast done, they headed to the hotel conference room and took their seats in the front row. The morning presentations dragged on until it was time to take a break for lunch. Once lunch was over, they headed back into the hotel conference room for the networking session to begin.
“This is already tedious,” Simon muttered.
The conference room was packed with schmoozing executives representing tech companies, venture capitalists, and other wealthy investors from around the world. Most of the attendees stood around mingling, chatting, and laughing, but Heather caught most of them glancing over at Simon. Even these wealthy power players knew that Simon was the star in the room.
“Let’s just stay for half an hour,” she murmured under her breath.
“It’s easy for you to say,” he said. “Nobody looks at you and sees dollar signs.”
She frowned. “I’d hope they would look at me and see a person.”
He sighed. “I didn’t mean anything by it—”
“Let’s just get this over with,” she said sharply, making a beeline for a prominent investor she recognized. Santo Mattis was important enough for her to have memorized his photos and his credentials before she came to the conference. Simon probably wouldn’t have recognized the investor, but she did. Because it was her job to make things run smoothly.
Simon had been curt with her all day, but she was just as tired and cranky as he was. Maybe it was the long day, or the sexual tension they had been fighting that was irritating him, but she absolutely refused to waste this opportunity. Getting Simon to agree to a session like this was a minor miracle the board had pulled off, and Dover, Inc. needed this to work if they hoped to attract more investors.
Mattis was talking to a group of other businesspeople, so Heather cleared her throat softly to announce herself.
“Hello, Mr. Mattis,” she said, already sweating that she had been forced to interrupt. If Simon didn’t hate these things so much she wouldn’t have to try this hard to wrestle a meeting. “I’m Simon Diesel’s assistant.”
Mattis smiled and held out his hand to shake hers briefly. “Hello. How good of you to arrange a talk between us.” He was of average build, grey-haired, and spoke with a slight accent.
She returned his smile. “I don’t want to interrupt, but if we could have a moment of your time when you’re through here—”
“Oh, nonsense, you’re not interrupting,” Mattis said. “We were just talking about Simon. Where is he?”