Eight Brothers Fiancee (Love by Numbers 7)

“Nice to meet you too, also, I’m not late. My day starts at 8:00,” I hissed back.

“I called you and told you I wanted you here at 6:30.”

“Yeah, and I’m not an intern desperate to be at your beck and call.” I dropped my signed paperwork on his desk. “I will work normal hours, my non-work hours are mine to control, and if any of you need me during an unexpected time, I expect at least 24-hour’s notice, and I reserve the right to say no. I’d spread the word to your brothers as well, just so we can be clear on that.”

Sadie raised her hand. “I can go?”

Quentin held up his hand. “No, stay.” His lips were sewn shut with indignance, but he had a curious eyebrow raised. I wished that I knew what he was thinking. “I’ll get the word out.” It took me aback. I expected more fight, like what I would have gotten from Huxley, but he just agreed. The brothers may be more different than I thought. He stood up from his desk, grabbed a different file, and handed it over to me. “This is a file for a new event we’re hosting next week. Some prince of something or other that I don’t care about is having a birthday party. Apparently he’s big into fashion, so I’m hiring some models from my brothers’ agency to do a runway show for him and his guests.”

He handed the folder to me and I opened it and started looking over more of the details. In my paperwork, it said I was a ‘Company Liaison’ meaning whenever the businesses worked together, I would be in charge of those arrangements. I imagined that because the modeling agency and the event planning agency were teaming up, this was a perfect example of what my projects would entail. It gave me some comfort to know Sadie was involved; it felt like having a coach in my corner.

“No clothing yet?” I said, reading over that blank detail in the documents.

“Nope. Keaton was supposed to do it but…” he shook his head. “You will need to find at least four designers who would be willing to be featured in this show. This prince is from some island in the South Pacific, so try and find a designer from that region, and of course some local flavors. The arrangement is up to you, and if it seems like additional designers would be good for the show, go for it.” He reached into the folder, and flipped a few of the pages, bringing himself close enough to me that I could smell his earthy cologne. It made my mind a bit fuzzy. For how attractive he was, smelling so good too was just unfair. “Here’s your budget. We can go up within reason, but anything over that needs to be approved by Keaton or myself.”

“Got it.”

“I can help with designers. I’ve got quite a few on speedial,” Sadie said, winking when I looked at her.

“Out the door and to the right is your office, you’ll have one satellite office of sorts here, at the modeling agency, and at the record label’s office, and you have a main office in Foxx towers, just like all of us. Harley wanted you to come here, get this assignment, and then go there to see your new office, and start some work for the news network. He’s hoping you can do your first newscast tomorrow.”

I nodded. “I’m ready to get to work.”

“Well I should hope so.” He smiled. “Do you think you can have the designers locked in by Friday?”

I could feel Sadie’s gaze on me, giving me confidence, that with her in my corner, I could get it done. “I’ve got it.”

“Good. Feel free to drop whatever you need in your office here, and then head down to the parking level. We have a driver at each location on standby to transport us between the different offices so that we don’t have to constantly be parking and unparking. Make nice with the drivers, it’ll be helpful to you down the road.”

I shrugged. “I find that just generally being nice to people is a good idea.” Sadie snickered and, to my surprise, Quentin’s smile grew. He was looking me over like he was going to bear his fangs and devour me at any moment. It was making my body hot all over. “I’ll go then.”

“See you later, Miss Storm.”

Quentin’s voice bowled into me with a strike. Clearly, all of the Foxx brothers were going to be distracting. I took my leave and a few seconds later, I felt an arm link into mine.

“Whoo, girl. You handle the Foxxes like run-of-the-mill children. Be careful with that, they’ll try and get you.” Sadie was laughing as she walked besides me. “You’re such a smartass. I love it!”