All That He Loves (Volume 2 The Billionaires Seduction) (26 page)

Half the table looked stricken. The other half – all men – hid snickers behind their hands or exchanged little glances with one another.

Scott just sat there in his chair, dispassionately watching my reaction.

Obviously I couldn’t count on any support from him. Not that I really wanted it; if he stepped in now to defend me, it would make me look weak. Unable to fight back.

This was it.

After all the work I’d put in, this was the real test.

The asshole bully was trying to push me around and display his dominance. If I wilted here, then all the hard work I’d done was worthless, because nobody was going to take me seriously.

I don’t know how I did it, but I locked eyes with him and smiled. “You’re Bryce Smith, head of Sales, aren’t you?”

“Yes I am,” he said in a cocky
And don’t you forget it
voice.

I looked down at a piece of paper as though searching for a fact, though I had memorized everything. I’d been preparing for this exact situation for the last three days. “You’re the man that one of your direct reports said, quote, ‘He has his head so far up his ass that he can see through his mouth,’ unquote.’”

Of course, Keisha had said it, not one of Bryce’s employees.

And she’d said it about the entire Sales department, not Bryce in particular.

But Bryce didn’t know that.

And at least a third of his own people had probably
wanted
to say it.

The table exploded in a series of gasps and stifled guffaws.

I looked up at Bryce. His face had gone fire-engine red. A vein pulsed in his oversized neck, and he had murder in his eyes as he stared at me.

“I’ve found that you can’t believe what everyone says, and that we should focus instead on the facts,” I said coolly. “Like the fact that you are personally responsible for over 10% of sales in the entire company, or sixty million in total sales per year.”

The vein stopped pulsing, and his jaw unclenched. “Sixty-
two
million last year, and that was 10.3% of all annual sales,” he growled.

“See? That’s why it’s so important to focus on the facts,” I purred. “So let’s do that and leave the personal bullshit out of it.”

Before he could say anything else, I turned back to my laptop and launched into my presentation.

I caught a glimpse of Scott, though, as I began.

He wore the barest trace of a smile.

It was funny watching people’s reactions to my presentation. Over and over, I would say something that would incense the head of one department – yet three or four other people would nod silently and exchange meaningful looks.

Of course, we cycled through each department head getting pissed off, with all their coworkers nodding or smirking in agreement.

Bryce, in particular, laughed the loudest and nodded the most vigorously, occasionally throwing in a “Hell
yeah,
you guys
always
drop the ball on that one,” or “Yeah, you screw that up
every
damn time.”

Bryce did me a favor, though, in that most people’s ire got focused on him rather than on me.

Even those who were seriously pissed off were deferential and polite, though.

Until I started bringing up the shortcomings of Sales.

“NO. WRONG,” he barked at one point, just a few minutes into the Sales part of the presentation.

“I had seventeen different people tell me that, Mr. Smith,” I responded politely.

“Bullshit. Customer service always fucks up the numbers – ”

“Customer service has to deal with the fallout from the numbers, they have no incentive to – ”

“Do you know who I am?” Bryce barked.

Here we go again.

The Bully had been fine as long as everyone else was getting pushed around… but now that it was time for a taste of his own medicine, he was going to be an asshole.

So I asked the question I had been asking myself for a week, running through possible scenes exactly like this one:

What would Sebastian do?

“Do you
know
who I am?” Bryce barked.

“I know who
I
am,” I said coldly. “I’m the person your boss hired to fix your mistakes. Which, by the way, you don’t even know you’re making.”

Another burst of gasps and suppressed chuckles.

Bryce stared at me again, face all red and vein pulsing.

“You do
not
want to cross me, little girl,” he snarled.

“Why not?” I cooed. “I’m out of here in thirty minutes. You’re the one who has to clean up your own mess. And there’s a lot of it.”

Bryce pointed a thick, stubby finger at me. “You listen here – ”

“
Bryce,
” Scott said in a commanding voice from the other side of the table.

The entire room looked back and forth between Scott and Bryce, waiting for an explosion.

Bryce struggled to regain control of his anger as he addressed his boss. “Your…
consultant
 is being highly unprofessional.”

“You just called me a ‘little girl,’” I said evenly. “You don’t get to lecture anybody about being unprofessional.”

He swung back around to me, his brows knit in a scowl. “I’d just like to see a little more
respect.
”

“And I’d like to see a little more common sense,” I retorted. “Every other single department in the company complained about Sales. You were the ONLY department to get that distinction, by the way. HR came in a distant second. In fact, 90% of my interviews had something negative to say about Sales – and of those comments, over half of the people specifically referenced
you.
So, unless you think you can walk on water and raise the dead, maybe – just
maybe
– you might want to acknowledge that there are some things here that you could listen to and benefit from hearing.”

“I’m not going to listen to some chick whose biggest claim to fame is fucking a rich guy,” he snarled.

“Said the asshole who’s fucking the entire company,” I snapped back. “Or at least their morale.”

He jolted up out of his seat, almost foaming at the mouth. “YOU LITTLE – ”

“BRYCE,” Scott shouted.

Silence.

The entire room looked at the CEO.

“You will sit down and not say another word for the rest of this presentation,” Scott ordered.

“Or
what?”
Bryce sneered.

Now the Bully was challenging the man in charge of running the company.

In front of the company.

Bad choice on the Bully’s part.

“Or you can have your resignation on my desk by the end of the day,” Scott said in a quiet, deadly voice.

“Let me remind you of something, kid,” Bryce sneered. “Sixty-three million dollars in sales – 10.3% of the entire company’s annual sales – ”

 “You know what? Fuck it,” Scott said. “You’re fired.”

Deathly silence.

“I’m
what?”
Bryce asked in both anger and disbelief.

“Fired. Collect your things and get out within ten minutes, or I’ll have security escort you out of the building.”

The disbelief was fading, and the anger was turning to rage. “You can’t do that!”

Scott shrugged. “Okay, I’ll have security escort you out now,” he said, and clicked a button on the nearest phone unit. “Amanda, could you have security come into the boardroom? I need to have Bryce Smith escorted out.”

“FUCK YOU,” Bryce roared as he slammed his chair back against the wall and stalked towards the door. “You’re going to hear from my lawyer!”

“And you’ll be hearing from all fifty-five of Telenexin’s,” Scott said with a smile.

Bryce looked at him – looked at me – sputtered – and then ripped open the door and slammed it shut behind him with a BOOM.

The silence left behind in his wake was so complete that we could hear him stomping and cursing through the hallways until his voice faded away to nothing.

Scott closed his eyes and sighed in relief, like a weight had been lifted from his shoulders.

Nobody was saying anything… so I figured I might as well.

“Judging by my interviews, I would say, conservatively, that fifty percent of your problems just walked out the door.”

The entire room burst into spontaneous laughter and applause.

You wouldn’t believe how well the presentation went from there.

Scott walked me out of the building afterwards.

“That was a pretty great presentation,” he said.

“Except for the whole thing with Bryce,” I said apologetically. “Sorry, I didn’t intend to prompt any firings.”

“Not your fault. It’s been brewing ever since I got here. I inherited him when I took over the company a few years ago. He’s a major asset, but almost as big a liability.”

“From what everybody said, I’d go with an even
bigger
liability. He’s toxic to morale.”

“Yeah, I know,” Scott sighed. “I should’ve handled it a lot sooner, but… I have a tendency of focusing on the smaller stuff and procrastinating on the really big items.”

“So I noticed from the interviews,” I teased him.

He looked at me, the slightest bit annoyed, and I wondered if I had overstepped my bounds. But then he broke out into a sheepish smile.

“Well, you’ve certainly given me a huge list to implement.”

I decided to abandon the teasing and just smiled this time. “Good luck.”

We stood facing each other, a little awkward in the ensuing silence.

“Well,” I said, and stuck out my hand for a ‘goodbye’ handshake. “Thank you for the opportunity, I really – ”

“Can I ask you a personal question?” he interrupted.

“Um…”

I slowly dropped my hand.

“…sure… I guess…”

“Would you like to have dinner with me one night?”

My mouth dropped open.

A very attractive, very smart guy – and the CEO of a company, no less – asking me out on a date? A few months ago I would have been out of my mind with joy. And I mean ‘out of mind’ quite literally. I would have had a meltdown: either babbling and making him wonder if he’d just asked out an escapee from an insane asylum, or giving him overly curt answers that made him think I wasn’t interested. And it all would have been from overwhelming nervousness.

But other than the initial surprise, what hit me more than anything was sadness.

Because Scott Shaw was a handsome man, definitely a great personality, probably rich –

…but he wasn’t the one that I wanted.

Over the last two hours, I’d managed not to think about Connor once – a record so far.

But now his absence rushed over me like a wave of pain and longing.

In the brief second before I answered, I thought,
Why not? Why NOT give myself a chance to meet someone who won’t keep me at arm’s distance after he says he loves me?

But just as quickly, I knew it wouldn’t be possible. The wound in my heart wasn’t even close to being healed. It wouldn’t be fair to Scott, and, in all likelihood, it would only make me miserable as I thought about where I
wanted
to be.

“Scott, I’m flattered, but I… I think it’s best if we kept it professional.”

Scott smiled wistfully, then nodded. “Connor’s a tough act to follow.”

That shocked me even more. “I… I don’t…”

“He’s a friend of mine, Lily,” Scott said, then looked to the side and raised his eyebrows. “Well, not
that
close of a friend, or I wouldn’t have asked you out. But… I guess I’m just trying to say, I get it. Sorry, I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable.”

“You didn’t,” I lied. “Like I said, I’m flattered, it’s just… too early.”

He nodded again and smiled. “I hear you.”

Then he stuck out his hand, and we finally got around to the long-delayed handshake.

“Excellent job, Ms. Ross,” he said. “Best $10,000 I ever spent on a consultant.”

My heart leapt. “Thank you.”

“I’ll have Accounting cut the check this afternoon, then we’ll messenger it over.”

I thought about saying,
Oh, you don’t have to do that!
but stopped myself. “That… would be wonderful.”

“If we need you again, I’ll definitely call.”

“I look forward to it,” I beamed, and then started towards the parking lot elevator.

“Lily – word of advice?” he said.

I turned around.

“Triple your prices,” he said. “You’re undercharging.”

Then he got in the elevator and was gone.

Just as Scott promised, the check came by courier service around 5 o’clock.

I about peed myself when the runner had me sign for the envelope – and after he was gone, I almost cried when I opened the envelope and saw the check.

$10,000.

I’d received five times that amount a month ago – but this time it was different.

This time I’d earned it.

Anh came home at 6 o’clock and went into a screaming fit when I showed her the check. I joined in and we jumped around like two little girls at a slumber party.

“I’m taking you out,” I announced gleefully. “And we’re getting a cab so we can get smashed. Where do you want to go?”

“Lily, you don’t have to do that,” Anh protested.

“Yes I do – I couldn’t have done this without you.”

“Oh, you would have been fine without me… I really appreciate it, but – ”

“Okay,” I shrugged, doing my best to keep a deadpan expression, “we’ll order something in and drink a $5 bottle of wine.”

“No, no, I was just being modest,” Anh said cheerily as she patted me on the head. “You were
supposed
to say, ‘Anh, you are the best friend
ever
, I totally couldn’t have done it without you, and I’m going to spoil you rotten tonight.’ But you stopped a little too early.”

“Anh, you’re the best friend
ever.
I totally couldn’t have done it without you, and I’m going to spoil you rotten tonight.”

“That’s better,” Anh beamed.

Dinner was amazing. We went to a swanky new place in Beverly Hills we’d been reading about for months. Anh didn’t think we could get in, but I pulled Connor’s trick with the maître d’: I pulled out $200 and mentioned that we’d meant to get reservations but forgot, and could they possibly find us a table?