Negotiating Skills (2 page)

Victor quirked an eyebrow at her bold
statement. He wondered if she realized how tantalizing her
statement was and how easily it could be misconstrued. Although he
had to admit she had a point.

He had considered going to an
outside company when the idea of developing an application for the
company had first arose. However, after interviewing some software
companies he wasn’t satisfied that his project would receive the
appropriate amount of attention.

Finally looking down at the
proposal on his desk, Victor began flipping through the pages.
After a few minutes of reading in silence he had to admit that the
woman had done her research. He actually began to hope that the
project might be salvaged after all. After a few more minutes of
review he glanced up at Veronica and held her direct
gaze.

“
You have my attention, Ms. James,”
he said before glancing down at his watch.

“
You have twenty minutes to
convince me that you’re worth the risk,” he said leaning back in
his seat and folding his hands across his stomach.

Veronica left Victor Rossi’s
office over an hour later, a wide smile stretching across her face
as she made her way out of the building and back to her car.
Although Rossi had originally given her only twenty minutes for her
pitch.

They’re meeting extended to over
an hour. Once she began her presentation, time had flown by as they
discussed the pros and cons of her proposal.

To her surprise, Rossi had asked
well informed questions, leading her to believe that he had at
least some background knowledge in software programming. His
knowledge of programming wasn’t the only thing that surprised her.
When she first walked into the office, his appearance surprised
her.

She had expected a much older man.
Instead, Victor Rossi didn’t look to be any older than thirty-five,
maybe forty at the most.

He had dark almost black hair with a trim
goatee and green eyes that stood out dramatically against his pale
skin. His strong Roman features spoke of a Mediterranean or perhaps
Middle Eastern heritage.

When he first stood to greet her,
she couldn’t help but notice how his suit jacket pulled tautly
against the solid muscles of his chest. He wasn’t overly tall but
at about six feet tall he easily towered over her five foot three
frame.

Veronica was woman enough to admit
to herself that she found him attractive, but was smart enough to
push it aside and ignore the attraction. Her priority was to wow
him and win his business not jump in his pants.

After his twenty minute
declaration she launched into her presentation. He had let her
speak virtually uninterrupted for those first twenty minutes. But
once she finished her presentation, he voiced a series of pointed
questions.

At first she feared that he was
merely building a case to deny her proposal. However, she soon
realized he was actually negotiating with her, determining the best
way to implement her ideas into the framework of his
project.

“
You’ll still have to pass a
background check.”

“
Not a problem.”

“
And I expect work to begin
immediately.”

“
If you can get me access to the
right files today and a meeting with the remaining team I can get
started today,” she said, a smile stretching across
face.

“
I expect you to be available for
all meetings and all questions.”

“
Consider me
already on speed dial, I
did
guarantee complete exclusivity.” she said her
smile growing.

“
Well, then I guess we have a deal
Ms. James,” he said as he pushed his chair back and stood, reaching
his hand out to shake hers.

Veronica sat and stared at his
outstretched hand for a few seconds. Despite spending the last hour
discussing and defending her proposal and beginning to hope that
Rossi would give her a chance, she was still slightly shocked when
he agreed. Realizing that she still sat there staring at him, she
quickly stood and shook his hand.

Her palm tingled where it met his.
She looked at him and her smile became a fully fledged
grin.

“
Thank you. I promise that you
won’t be dissatisfied.”

He stared at her for a few seconds not
releasing her hand.

“
I’m sure I won’t,” he said before
releasing her hand and sitting back down.

“
Speak to Marie on your way out.
She’ll see about getting you access to the necessary files and
meeting the rest of the team,” he said as he turned to his
computer.

“
Of course, no problem,” she said
as she bent to pick up her bag. When she glanced back up she saw
that he was already busy back at work, looking through his email
client and responding to messages.

I guess I’ve
been dismissed,
she thought as she turned
to leave.

“
Ms. James...”

“
Yes?” she replied stopping in her
tracks and turning back to face him.

“
I want a full analysis, scope of
work and project timeline in my hands by the end of the
week.”

“
Not a problem,” she said with a
smirk as she turned and continued out of his the office.

Six weeks later,
Veronica was
sitting
back in the Victor Rossi’s waiting room swinging her crossed
leg impatiently. Rossi was late-again. After working with him for
the past few weeks, Veronica was used to his
tardiness.

In all honesty, she couldn’t
really fault him. The man ran a multi-million dollar company and
held meetings at all hours of the day and night. Veronica
understood that her concerns and emergencies were just part of a
much longer running list that Rossi dealt with on a daily basis.
However, glancing down at her cell phone to check the time,
Veronica could barely tame her excitement.

She was eager to meet with Rossi
and discuss her progress on the project. Tucking a stray curl
behind her ear, she tried to ignore the fluttering of her stomach,
telling herself that she was just eager to go over the progress of
the project; the fluttering had nothing to do with meeting but with
Rossi himself.

Veronica was honest enough with
herself to admit that she found the bossy CEO attractive. She would
have to be deaf, blind, and the most hard core lesbian on earth not
to find the man attractive. The man just plain oozed
sensuality.

Working in a predominantly male
dominated field, Veronica always made sure to never mix business
with pleasure. She had enough difficultly proving her skill without
people insinuating any strides she made was based on her skills in
bed.

Before working with Rossi, she was
never tempted to re-evaluate her personal rules and unfortunately,
this project was too important for her to let a little attraction
stand in her way.

After countless hours staring at
and rewriting bad programming code, Veronica was convinced that the
previous lead programmer for the Nile Enterprises project was a con
artist and a hack.

She spent the first few days
deciphering the tangled web of shitty code and reports the man had
left behind. As best as she could tell, he produced a labyrinth of
smoke and mirrors meant to convince Rossi that the project was
progressing.

She already spent several hours interviewing
the remaining team of programmers trying to discern how deep the
deception ran.

It was obvious that Alex had hired
a team of entry level and junior programmers that were either to
novice to catch the deception or too naive to not question obvious
bad coding choices. However, after speaking with the team and
working with them for several weeks, Veronica was confident that
they were capable of moving forward and completing the project.
They just needed guidance and organization and despite all of the
problems she found with the project, Veronica was still confident
that she could deliver on her promise to Rossi.

During their first meeting together
after she was hired onto the project, Veronica promised Rossi a
twelve week time-line for completion and she was well on her way to
getting there. She had already spent countless sleepless nights
ensuring that the final product would not only meet Rossi’s
expectations but exceed them as well.

Veronica had a lot riding on this deal
and couldn’t afford to fail. She also admitted to herself that some
part of her wanted to impress Rossi on a personal level. For her,
delivering an amazing product was the closest she’d ever come to a
flirty smile and flash of leg.

Even to her subconscious mind that
sounded pathetic.

Glancing around the empty waiting
room, Veronica was tempted to leave and just send Rossi an email
detailing her current progress. It would save her from one more
uncomfortable session in Rossi’s office where she tried to
concentrate on business and not think about her attraction for him.
When she first started on the project she was surprised that Rossi
insisted on so many face to face meetings.

Truthfully, at the beginning the
in person meetings were incredibly helpful. Aside from being able
to really work through Rossi’s expectations for the application, it
gave Veronica the chance to get a peak at how the enigmatic CEO’s
mind worked.

Unfortunately, after the first few
appointments the meetings became more like lessons in torture. She
found herself constantly repeating to herself mentally that it
would be highly unprofessional to straddle her client and put to
rest her theories of how good his mouth might feel against
hers.

It had become
somewhat embarrassing to her highly focused mind to be constantly
distracted by definitively naughty thoughts whenever she was in the
same room with the man. It had gotten to the point where she began
solving calculus problems in her head whenever she found herself
veering off to the realm of
no way, no
how
.

Being forced to wait indefinitely
each time before each meeting didn’t help her jittery nerves, or
more embarrassingly, her damp panties.

She was at the point where she was
seriously considering investing in an actual Calculus text book or
perhaps even flashcards. Checking the time one more time Veronica
made the decision to just leave her report on Rossi’s desk and send
him a follow-up email.

She stood and glanced quickly down
the hall, making sure that his assistant was still nowhere to be
seen.

She quickly made her way to
Rossi’s massive office and placed her report in the center of his
desk. She was about to leave when she decided to double check that
the correct screen shot photos were included on one of the report
pages.

Despite the fact that she knew she
was being a chicken by not wanting to meet with Rossi in person,
she still wanted to make sure that he was wowed by her progress.
She had just placed the report back on the desk when she heard
voices coming from the waiting area, the deep baritone of Rossi’s
voice unmistakable.

Veronica could only assume that
after weeks of lust induced stress that her brain had a temporary
malfunction, because instead of taking a seat and calmly waiting
for Rossi to enter the office, she quickly sprinted to the sofa
across room and kneeled behind it.

As soon as she felt her knee hit the floor she
was shaking her head at the stupidity of her action.

Just because she was avoiding the
man didn’t mean that she had to hide behind actual furniture when
he was around. She was about to rise when Rossi entered the room
speaking to his assistant across his shoulder.

“
I’m sorry sir, Ms. James was here
just a few minutes ago,” stated his assistant, Marie.

“
Don’t worry about it. It looks
like she left her report here for me. I wasn’t expecting to be over
an hour late. Even I don’t expect people to wait for me this long,”
said Rossi.

Veronica held her breath and took
a peek around the edge of the couch. She saw Rossi standing behind
his desk yanking off his tie and taking off his suit jacket, while
Marie stood at the doorway.

“
Go ahead and call it a night. I’m
going to give this report a quick once over and head home
myself.”

“
Alright, I’ll see you in the
morning. Goodnight.” Marie said as she turned to leave.

Veronica watched Marie close the
door in growing horror. She could hear the woman packing up her
desk and leaving the outer office, and with it any chance of
Veronica crawling out of the room undetected.

There was no way for Veronica to make a
graceful appearance. What could she say?

“
Oh. Hi there! I was just checking
for spider webs and dust bunnies?”

She inwardly groaned as she ducked her head
back behind the couch and hoped that Rossi would read through her
report quickly and leave. She could leave once he left she told
herself desperately. Staying crouched behind the couch she prayed
that Rossi was as tired as he sounded when he walked in and would
leave quickly.