Tonya nods in agreement. “Yes. Get me a public image strategy I can work with, and I’m all for it.”
Pierson’s lips thin, obviously displeased.
As much I want to argue about this entire thing, Tonya’s right. And with the respect she has from the other divisions...I need her support on this.
“Alright, I’ll have something you can work with,” I tell her, even though it kills me a little because I loathe being in the public eye.
She gives me a perfunctory nod as Harvey walks over and claps me on the back. “We all know that Knight has never fallen short with delivery. He’ll get us where we need to be.”
The more Harvey talks, the more he draws everyone in. I met him in college, and we’ve been friends ever since. He’s always been a smooth talker. If it weren’t for him, I would’ve lost my mind years ago. And probably half my employees.
Being in charge, I can do. Running businesses, handling numbers, juggling responsibilities, I was trained for it. But people...I’m not so good with them. Which is why I tend to have the reputation of being an asshole.
When people annoy me, I let them know. When they aren’t performing well enough, I put them through the wringer. I don’t pull punches or sugarcoat words to make people feel better about their fuckups. I don’t have time for that shit, and I’m not here to hold anyone’s hand.
Much to my fucking relief, the board meeting finally adjourns, and everybody files out until Harvey and I are the last ones here. We leave the conference room, walking down the polished floors of the hall, passing by several other suites until we make it back to my executive office.
Harvey follows me in and shuts the door after us, whistling as soon as it’s closed. “Well, that was fun.”
I take a seat behind my desk while Harvey sits across from me. “We anticipated that reaction.”
Harvey nods. “We did. Which was why I was surprised you went off on Pierson. I thought you were going to give him his walking papers right then and there.”
“I wanted to,” I admit. “He’s good at what he does, but goddamn, he’s an antiquated and stubborn bastard. If he keeps fighting me left and right without reason, I’m going to have to reconsider his position on the board.”
Harvey gets up and goes over to the black cabinet against the wall and takes out the decanter full of whiskey and pours us both a glass. When he hands me mine, I toss it back, instantly feeling the burn.
“I personally think Pierson just needs to get laid,” he says. “Hey, maybe that dating app we’re doing will come in handy. Let’s set up the cranky bastard during the four week trial run.”
I chuckle as I picture that. “I wouldn’t want to subject some poor woman to his eating habits.”
He makes a face. “How that man manages to slurp a steak, I’ll never know,” he says, before cutting his gaze over to me. “And speaking of poor woman…” Harvey starts, sitting down with his glass balancing on his knee. His blue eyes take on that excited gleam that he only gets when he’s about to bust my balls. “Did you ask Leo if he’s the one who sent over the naked chick to your office?”
I nod and finish off my drink, setting the empty glass on the desk. “Yeah, I called Leo and Ken. It wasn’t either of them. But they did laugh their asses off when I was forced to explain what the fuck I was talking about.”
Harvey starts laughing while also getting a thoughtful look on his face. “No shit, it wasn’t them? I wonder who sent her, then.”
I shake my head at a complete loss. “No fucking clue. Someone had to have let her in here, but not even my secretary noticed her come in.”
Harvey taps his knee in thought. “Hmm. Well, she was fucking hot, though. Did you see her tits? Jesus.”
I scowl at him. “She trespassed into my office and embarrassed me in front of a client.”
Harvey snorts. “You trapped a naked chick under your desk. How’d you think that was gonna go?”
“I wasn’t really thinking. I just reacted.”
Harvey smirks. “What’s that say about you that your first reaction with a naked woman was to shove her down on her knees?”
“Fuck off. I didn’t want Abner to see a half-naked girl in my office. I didn’t think it would set the right tone for the meeting.”
“But having one hidden under your desk would?”
I glare at him.
He just laughs. “You have to admit, she was pretty fucking hot, even though you tried to tell her otherwise. Not a bad greeting when you walk into your office.”
She was hot, but that’s beside the point.
“She was trespassing, indecent, and could have cost me an invaluable client or even my reputation. I’m lucky that Mr. Abner is older and doesn’t use social media, and that I pay my secretary enough for her to keep my business private. That could’ve been a shit show.”
He ignores everything I said except… “Yeah, well, her indecent looked real fucking good.”
I roll my eyes. “Don’t you have work to do?”
Harvey laughs and stands up, putting our empty glasses on the cabinet. “Nope. It’s almost six. That means quitting time.”
My eyes snap over to the clock on my computer. “Shit. Pierson complained for longer than I thought. I didn’t realize it was so late.”
“Want to grab a drink?”
“Yeah. I’ll meet you in the lobby.”
Harvey saunters out, leaving me to wrap up a few things before I call it a night. If it weren’t for him dragging me to go out five days a week, I’d probably never leave the office.
After I finish up, I walk out, nodding to my secretary as I pass by. Ruby’s a solid worker for me and never complains about my long hours. “See you tomorrow, Mr. Knight.”
“Good night, Ruby,” I say as I head to the elevators.
I press the button for the lobby and wait, my eyes focused on my phone as I go through e-mails I hadn’t gotten to during the day.
When I hear the elevator ding, I walk out, nodding at people as they greet me, my focus still on my phone.
I don’t worry about watching where I’m going, because the entire building is mine and everyone scatters when they see me coming, anyway.
I’m just finishing up an email to one of my accountants when I hear Harvey say my name. I walk past the welcome desk with the reception area and the huge chrome Knight Enterprises sign that takes up most of the wall.
The lobby is busy at this time of night since most of the workers are leaving for the day, so I don’t immediately spot Harvey as people move out of the way to avoid me. Shooting off the email, I slip my phone into my pocket just as I spot him.
He smiles when he sees me. “Just the man we were talking about.”
I expect him to be schmoozing some board members or hitting on one of the female employees like he usually does, but when the crowd parts and I walk up to him, I see him wearing a shit-eating grin on his face. I realize why when I see the pink hair.
No fucking way.
Chapter 12
Warren
She’s not naked this time, but I’m not sure her being dressed is any less conspicuous. She’s in an obnoxiously bright red tie-dye dress that flares out at the elbows, the length skimming her mid-thigh with fucking pompoms threaded at the hem. The material is so damn thin that I can see her nipples because she’s definitely not wearing a bra.
Fuck me.
The quirky little buns have been taken out of her hair, and it’s now been braided back on either side of her head. Her hair is short, so the ends are tucked at the base of her skull with a little curl. She’s not wearing any makeup, probably because she doesn’t need to. She’s one of those women with perfect skin and naturally beautiful features, which is probably why Harvey is looking at her like she’s an ice cream cone he wants to lick.
My eyes rake over her from her head to her toes, and I see she’s wearing what looks like men’s old construction boots laced up all the way past her ankles, and she has thick purple socks stuffed ben
eath. In short, she looks completely out of place in the lobby of my executive building where it’s just a sea of suits and black business skirts. She’s drawing the attention of everyone.
“Knight, you remember Miss Valentine?” Harvey says as I stop beside him.
“Unfortunately,” I answer.
I don’t know what the fuck she’s doing back here or why Harvey is talking to her instead of having her thrown out of the building, but my irritation is spiking. With a quick glance, I notice a dark-skinned woman standing next to her, with dreadlocks almost all the way down to her ass, wearing overalls and ballet flats. Obviously, her clothing choices are no better.
“Why is she here?” I ask Harvey.
“Well, turns out, she’s looking for you, Knight,” he says, his grin telling me that he’s enjoying this way too much.
I finally flick my eyes to her face, trying not to think about how her hand felt on my cock earlier. I try really hard not to remember how she was between my legs, hiding from Abner in that very precarious situation, or how her small hands slid up my thighs. I inwardly chastise myself not to reminisce about the way her hands felt when she teased my body before I captured her wrist and inadvertently caused her to come into contact with my dick.
Dammit. I’m thinking about it.
“What are you doing here?” I ask, crossing my arms, letting anger replace my lust so that I can deal with her.
“My name is Trix Valentine,” she says proudly, even though I didn’t ask.
“Of course it is,” I drawl.
I was wrong. With a name like that, she’s not a hooker. She’s a stripper.
“Warren, it’s lovely to see you again,” she adds with a smile. That smile makes me fucking suspicious. So does the term lovely. No one ever describes seeing me as fucking lovely.
“If you’re here to slap me with some sexual harassment suit, Miss Valentine, I can assure you that my team of lawyers will rip you apart. So I suggest you turn around and walk away now.”
Trix gives the other woman a look. “See what I mean?”
The woman nods with a whistle. “Mm-hmm. You were right. Total asshole.”
I’ve had enough. “Miss Valentine, you are wearing my patience thin, and after that stunt you pulled earlier, you should’ve been arrested already and banned from the building. Now tell me why you’re here.”
She actually has the audacity to sigh at me. Sigh! I don’t think anyone has dared to do that to me since I was in grade school. I’m a scary motherfucker. Or so I’ve been told.
“Six o’clock for your date, remember? You’re a bit late, but I’ll let it go.”
I just stare at her incredulously. This chick really is crazy.
“Are you fucking delusional? I’m not going on a date with you.”
As if the sighing thing wasn’t enough, now she starts laughing. I’d be impressed with her audacity if I weren’t so irritated.
“Not me,” she says, unable to keep the laughter out of her voice, as if us dating is hilarious to her. I don’t know why I find that offensive.
“You’ll be going on a date with Blue here,” she says, motioning to her friend.
The woman with dreadlocks crosses her arms and glowers at me.
What the actual fuck is my life right now?
My eyes go back to the pink-haired termagant. “Did you fall on your head as a child? Or do you perhaps have a video camera attached to your God-awful dress so that you can upload some sort of prank video?”
She wrinkles her nose and looks down at her dress. “This is vintage.”
I shake my head, refusing to entertain her. “I’m just trying to determine why the hell you would think it’s appropriate to trespass naked into my office, feel me up while I’m with a client, and then, after I told you to leave, you come back and try to get me to go on a date. I mean...who the fuck does that?”
Blue’s mouth drops open, and her eyes light up. “Girl, you left some details out,” she mutters.
Trix huffs out some air in frustration. “For the record, I was naked on accident, and you’re the one who held my hand down on your dick,” she spouts off.
“Lower your damn voice,” I hiss, taking a threatening step towards her.
She doesn’t back down at all, and instead lifts her chin up like she’s ready to go toe-to-toe with me. For some reason, it makes my dick twitch, which would be the second time today she’s gotten me hard. I can’t even remember the last woman that got me hard without having to work for it.
“You lower your voice,” she says back, not lowering hers at all.
Everyone walking by glances over at us, probably wondering what the hell is going on. I’m about three seconds from totally losing my shit. I can feel my temper rising like a fever, but the last thing I want to do is make a scene in the lobby of my own damn building.
I loom over her. “Listen, Miss Valentine, I’m not going on a fucking date. Turn around now before I have security toss your ass out onto the street,” I growl, my voice deadly quiet.
Undeterred, she jabs a finger into my chest, making my shirt button dig into my skin. Her warm brown eyes spark in defiance. “I’m your damn cupid, and if I say you’re going on this date, then you’re going! I’m going to coach you the whole time, and you’re going to like it!”
Fiery irritation shoots like sparks out of her eyes. Her small hands are balled into fists at her sides. Her cheeks are so pink that they now match her hair, and while I normally don’t find pissed off women attractive, for some reason, my pulse kicks up a notch at the gleam in her eye. I can’t help but wonder how she’d look if I pushed different buttons of hers. Anger and arousal are so close together, after all.
“Oh, Knight, this is perfect.”
The voice makes my head snap over, and I see Tonya striding up. She drops the cell phone that was against her ear, cutting off her call without saying goodbye as she sidles up next to us. Her keen eyes track over Trix with avid interest, and the edges of her lips pull up when she gets to the pink hair.
“Hmm,” she hums approvingly. “She’s perfect, Knight.”
I blink at her. “What?”
Tonya continues to study Trix, and I shoot Harvey a look because I have no idea what the fuck is happening.
“This is your idea? A modern-day cupid to launch the dating app with you as the first set up?” she asks. “It’s perfection. Utter perfection.”
When all I can do is continue to gape at her, Harvey steps in. “Ah, yes. Yep, that’s exactly what he planned.”
Tonya nods again. “It’s brilliant. She’s brilliant,” she adds, looking back at Trix with an assessing tilt of her head. “Which agency are you from?”
Trix’s eyes ping pong between Tonya and me. “Uh…”
“Rubidoux’s” Harvey answers quickly, giving her the name of one of the talent agencies we sometimes work with.
I give Harvey a what the fuck look. He shrugs.
“This is the perfect way to publicly show that you’re done with Marla May. That you’re looking for real love and are a changed man, while also launching a brand new dating app. Do you realize the women in this country will eat this shit up? It’s exactly what we need. Show the public that the great Warren Knight even uses this app to get matched. A few photo ops, some press releases, it’s just what we need,” she says, her eyes lit up in excitement. She holds out a hand to Trix. “Tonya West. Nice to meet you…”
“My name is Trix Valentine,” she answers, obviously still very excited about giving out her name. “And this is Blue. Warren’s date.”
Tonya looks practically giddy. “I love the juxtaposition of her freeing style versus Knight’s CEO vibe,” she says, eyeing Blue and me before switching her gaze to Trix. “And you. You have the whole modern cupid thing down pat. It’s subtle, but not too subtle. I’m into it. Good work.”
“Thanks!” Trix replies. “I’m going to teach him how not to be a bachelor dud.”
What the hell is happening right now?
I give Harvey a look, and he knows that I’m about to blow up and have security haul Trix out of my damn building, but he stops me before I can. “Excuse us, ladies, I need a sidebar with Knight for a moment.”
The women barely cast us a glance as they start talking excitedly about my supposed date night.
Harvey leads me several feet away and rounds on me. I open my mouth to argue, but he cuts me off first. “I know. I already know everything you want to say, so save it and just think for a second. Tonya is drooling over this and you know what? She’s right. This is genius.”
I gape at him. “You can’t possibly expect me to go through with this,” I say through gritted teeth.
“I know it’s insanity, but look at her. Just look.”
With a frustrated sigh, I look over my shoulder at Trix.
“Even you have to admit that she’s a walking, talking marketing campaign. And Tonya is eating it up. We both know Tonya’s instincts are always right. It’s one night, Warren. You can handle one night.”
I let out a harsh sigh. “Fuck.”
Harvey smirks. “You’ll have to charm your date first, bud.”
I roll my eyes, and he claps me on the back. “Come on, buck up buttercup. It’s just a date.”
I hate going on fucking dates.
The monotony of it all. It’s the same thing, every time, with practically the same woman. I don’t have a taste for it anymore, which is ironic, since I’ve had more dates in the last six months than my entire life. As soon as the Marla May incident happened, women have been lining up.
I don’t get the appeal from their standpoint, and it bores me, but I keep doing it anyway. I have no idea why. Maybe I’m looking for something...but that’s idiotic considering my no commitment rule.
We walk back over just as Tonya is scheduling them in her phone. “You ladies come in next week, and I’ll get with my design staff for a photo shoot.”
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