“You must be Ms. Mitchell?” the nervous assistant asked. When I nodded, she swept an arm out to gesture toward a long corridor. “I’m supposed to take you to the big conference room.”
“Excuse me, but whose offices are these anyway?” I looked around, but I couldn’t see any indication of which company I was even at.
She frowned at me over her shoulder but didn’t answer my question as she kept right on walking. “We really can’t be late. They’re waiting for you and they’re already getting impatient.”
I snuck a peek at the thin watch on my wrist. “I’m five minutes early.”
“Five minutes early might as well be twenty minutes late for these vultures.” She led me down the corridor at a clipped pace, then stopped in front of an opaque glass door. “This is it. Good luck in there.”
“Thanks.” I stepped back when she swung the door open, then gaped when I saw what was waiting for me behind it. “Are you sure this is the right place? There has to be some kind of mistake.”
“No mistake,” she said, ushering me in without giving me time to argue. “Trust me. This is exactly where you need to be.”
The room was absolutely packed with people, and there were cameras from news networks all around the sides. Microphones were set up at a podium on a small stage at the front, and behind that podium stood none other than Benjamin Reed.
I should’ve known a building like this would have something to do with him. My heart and my stomach both sank. Oh no. What the hell is he up to now?
Whatever it was, it was going to play out in front of what looked like every reporter in the city. Dread churned inside me, pushing up the bitter taste of bile that I had to swallow down.
I considered turning around and running away before I was sick all over someone’s expensive news camera, but I refused to give him the satisfaction.
No. Whatever this was about, I had to face it with my head held high. Even if it meant moving to a different city after so that my head wouldn’t be seen anywhere around these parts ever again.
Ben spotted me, a wide grin spreading on those lips I loved to kiss so much as he waved me forward. I arched a brow at him, but he just gave me a look that said to get my butt up there.
While I made my way to him—and his chosen form of torture and humiliation for the day—he cleared his throat and tapped a finger against one of the microphones. A hush fell over the room instantly, and the reporters that had remained standing and chatting while they waited took their seats.
It was only then that I noticed the faint Reed Global logo engraved into the opaque glass of the wall behind him and even on the podium itself. I swallowed hard to try get rid of the lump suddenly blocking my airway.
While it had occurred to me that he might try hiring me for another of his stunts, I hadn’t had time to look up the name of every company that occupied every building I’d been to since his supposed apology job. Now it seemed I’d walked right into the belly of the beast, and I was woefully under-prepared.
After the surprise attack this morning, I’d naïvely believed I was safe for the rest of the day. Yeah. Right.
If anything, I should’ve known that Ben’s next move would come on a day when I was least expecting it. Not that he would’ve known what was going to happen with my previous job. Or hell, maybe even that job had been a setup.
I didn’t know anymore.
“Is this thing on?” he joked, giving the press a winning smile as he spoke into the bunch of microphones. “Oh, good. I guess it is. Welcome, everyone. Thank you for coming on such short notice.”
He looked right at me. “The woman who was the inspiration for the decision I want to tell you about today has just arrived. I’d like to introduce you to none other than Victoria Mitchell, one of my former employees and the star of a certain viral video I know you’ve all seen.”
Every eye in the room turned to me, staring as I focused on putting one foot in front of the other so I wouldn’t fall on my ass in front of all those cameras. Ben, as always, was as cool as a cucumber and as confident as only an asshole of his magnitude could be.
There was a low murmur that went up in the gathered crowd, but it died down immediately when he spoke again. “Before I let her go, Tori told me that I was making the wrong decision by cutting so many staff from our newly acquired company.”
That little tidbit made the stares turn curious before they gave their attention back to him. “She said that we’d make more money if we kept the staff together.”
There was none of the derision in his tone that there had been that first day when I’d made my suggestion. In fact, the expression on his face could only be described as adoring. Or something very much like it.
“I’m here today to listen to her advice. Better late than never, am I right?” Another smile before he brought his gaze to mine, as if he was speaking to me and not to the hordes of reporters he’d brought in. “I’m hiring back all the staff members from Prosper Insurance who are willing to give us another chance. We’ve already spoken to many of them, and their renewed contracts have been signed. They will also be receiving any backpay due to them that they’ve lost in the last couple of months.”
My heart started pounding wildly in my chest. I’d almost reached him by now, but I stopped my advance as paralyzing disbelief gripped my body. This was a press conference, and he was putting me on the spot.
“The thing is, I’ve realized that I made a mistake in not listening to Tori from the get-go. I should’ve at least given her suggestion a try, and I’m curious to see if maybe she was right. If a company that is more like a family really is more profitable under the right management.”
Pandemonium broke out when reporters started yelling questions. They were aimed at me, at him, and at the very walls themselves for all the order that was left in the room.
Ben stepped off the stage, coming up to me and gently wrapping his hand around mine. I was so shocked that I let him do it, following him onto the stage like a lamb willingly going to slaughter. If that’s what this is.
He protected me from the questions, shielding me with his body as he answered a few before getting the crowd to settle down again. “Tori didn’t come here to talk today. She came to dance.”
Somewhere inside the confusion rattling around my brain, I recognized that as my cue, but I didn’t hit the music on my Bluetooth speaker. He turned around to face me, speaking quietly but urgently.
“This will go viral too, Tori. It might help with all the bad press we’ve been getting, and that can only help the company I’ve just hired all the staff back to.”
I guess he has a point. The video of me singing and dancing had landed Reed Global in hot water, and if they couldn’t get out of it somehow, it wasn’t inconceivable that they might just have to cut all those jobs again.
Besides, at least I won’t have to sing again. I pasted a smile on my face, and Ben gave my hand a reassuring squeeze before reaching out and hitting the music for me.
The song he’d chosen and that I’d cued earlier was high energy but not sexual or sensual at all. It was celebratory, which I supposed was the point of all this. When it ended, I wiped my brow and forced the smile to stay put for just a couple more minutes.
Walking around Ben, I leaned over to speak into the microphones. “I hope my co-workers will all join me back at work. I can’t wait to see everyone soon.”
Figuring I’d done my part to right my wrong, I walked away from the podium and headed for the door. I didn’t know what to think about what had just happened, but I had a feeling I was about to find out when I saw Carl blocking the door and, with it, my only exit.
Chapter 30
BEN
Stuck answering questions, I couldn’t chase after Tori when she made for the exit. I’d foreseen this particular problem cropping up though, so I knew Carl had it handled.
The interviews I’d promised some of the members of the press when they’d agreed to come were lined up for the next few
days, but once the conference was over, I had at least a couple of hours before I had to start sitting down with them. It turned out that even if they’d been raking us over the coals, they were more than happy to agree to come today.
Exclusive, no-holds-barred interviews had only sweetened the deal for them. The others who hadn’t managed to secure their slots fast enough had come anyway, eager to see what all the fuss was about. Some of them had contacted my office asking to be considered for interviews, and because I was feeling generous, I’d agreed to a few more.
My real work for the day was still coming, but I had a good feeling about it. A lot hinged on Carl’s ability to keep Tori from leaving the building, but even if she did, I now knew she’d be back soon enough.
So far, the plan had gone off without a hitch. I just hoped the second part of it went as well as the first.
Carl had kept the time for the Q&A after the press conference as short as possible, but realistically, we’d needed to allocate enough time for the reporters to get their most pertinent questions answered. They needed that information to write their stories, hopefully with a positive spin on them, and without those stories, this would’ve been an exercise in futility.
I’d lost sight of Carl and Tori soon after she’d left the stage, but I had seen him moving toward the door. The conference felt like it was dragging on for far too long, but I knew that was only because I was so anxious to get back to my office.
It took a lot to keep answering questions with a smile on my face. All I wanted was to get Tori to say yes to me, just like she had to my company. I had to wrap up things with the media though, and so I did.
The press conference finally ended, and I thanked everyone and hauled ass upstairs. Relief so great it made me dizzy flowed freely through me when I burst into my office to find Carl and Tori waiting for me.
Carl stood up when I strode in, grinning as he motioned toward her. “I got your girl, boss. Told you I could be trusted to get a woman to stick around. Do me a favor, Tori? Make him grovel for it.”
Tori had been smiling at something he’d said when I came in, but the smile disappeared from her face as she turned in her chair. Her lips quirked when he called her my girl, but it seemed she had more pressing concerns than that.
“What the heck was that all about? Are you even for real with any of it? Why are you hiring everyone back? Why now?”
I moved closer to her, sliding my arms out of my jacket and loosening my tie as I took the seat Carl had vacated. It was the closest one to hers, and besides, I didn’t want this to feel like a business meeting with me on the other side of the desk.
“I’ll tell you anything you want to know in a minute.” Looking up at my friend, I nodded my thanks. “For the record, I knew you could do it. You’ve gotten your wife to stick around for years, so I had complete faith in your abilities. Would you mind giving us a few minutes?”
He clapped me on the shoulder, squeezing it before he flashed Tori another grin. “Remember what I said. I’ll be seeing you around, Mitchell. I’m looking forward to working with you.”
Without further ado, he left and shut the door firmly behind him. Finally alone again with Tori, I turned to her and looked right into her eyes.
“Thank you for waiting for me. I wasn’t sure if you would.”
She lifted a shoulder in a shrug, her expression guarded. “Carl promised me answers. He also said he wanted to have a chat to get to know me since I’ll be working on his team from now on. It seemed stupid to say no when I’ve just announced to the whole world that I’ll be coming back.”
“Fair enough. Even so, though, I’m grateful that you’re willing to talk to me.”
Her head drew back. “You’re being weird.”
I couldn’t hold back my surprised chuckle. I dragged my fingers through my hair. “I am being weird, yes. The truth is that I have no idea how to do this without fucking up again.”
At my admission, she released a soft laugh of her own. “Things do always seem to go pear-shaped when the two of us are involved, don’t they?”
“Pear-shaped. That’s a nice way of putting it. If someone ever writes our story, they should name it that.”
She laughed. “Well, considering that you keep hiring me to dance even though you get insanely jealous when anyone else sees me do it, maybe it should be named something about how much you love my moves instead.”
“I really do love your moves.” I groaned, dropping my head and scrubbing my hands over my face in an attempt to clear out the memories of all the times I’d seen her sexy body moving in that way that had driven me to do all the crazy things I’d done. “Maybe we shouldn’t talk about that if you want to get any answers out of me.”
Tori sat up a little straighter, the spark of amusement lighting her eyes flickering out. “You’re right. If I’m going to be working for you from now on, I suppose things will have to change between us.”
“I’m hoping they will, but not because of that,” I said honestly. “To answer the questions you asked earlier, I’m hiring all the employees back because of you, and yes, I’m very serious about it. I wasn’t joking or lying when I said most of the contracts have already been signed.”
“Why?” Her eyes were clouded with incredulity, a small crease between her brows as she stared at me. “Why for me, and why without talking to me about it first? You didn’t have to ambush me in front of a herd of reporters.”
“I didn’t mean for you to feel ambushed.” Slowly reaching out to close the distance between us, I put one of my hands on top of hers. “I mean it, Tori. I’m sorry if you felt ambushed. I just wanted it to be a surprise. If I screwed up again—”
“You didn’t screw up.” She sighed, glancing down at our hands but, by some miracle, allowing me to keep mine there for just a moment longer. But just when I started taking it as a good sign, she lifted it off and returned it to my lap. “Why did you want to surprise me?”
“I wanted to prove to you that I believe in your ideas, so I hired everyone back. Since I doubted you would believe it if I just told you and it wasn’t made public yet, I figured I’d announce it to you in front of the world. The surprise part was because I wanted to do something, for once, that you’d look back on as a good surprise.”
“A good surprise?” She frowned, looking at me in much the same way Carl had been recently. Like I was completely and utterly mad. “Why? Don’t you think that’s just a little crazy? Why do you even care what I look back on or how?”
“Can’t you see, Tori? If I’m crazy, I’m crazy about you. I can’t stop thinking about you. I know I’ve made some mistakes, but I regret every one of them. I’d move heaven and earth to make things right with you.”
When she just kept staring at me, I carried on. At least if I stunned her enough to keep her speechless, she’d hear me out. “I’m hiring everyone back, and I’ll do any other thing you want because you’re that important to me. I want you to be happy, and if at all possible, I want you to be happy with me.”
“I don’t understand,” she breathed after a long pause, her eyes still bright with shock. She was speaking slowly, considering every word before she said it. “I know we slept together, but nothing you’ve done since has hinted that you want a relationship. I guess… I just don’t get where this is coming from.”
“I’m not the best at communicating, but I think you already know that about me.” I took another chance, taking both of her hands in mine this time.
What I needed to say wouldn’t be easy. I’d take any help I could get to not only get through it, but to get through it without making things worse again. If that was literally having her hold my hands, I hoped she’d let me keep holding them.
“Look, I was married before, and to someone I never should’ve been with. It took me a while to see it that way, though.” She tightened her grip on my hands but didn’t interrupt me. “The divorce did a number on my head and my heart. I never thought I’d want to date anyone again, but then y
ou came along, and you kind of ripped that rug right out from underneath me.”
I took a deep breath. “I know that I’m not perfect, and I know I’ve done some things that are pretty unforgivable, but I’m trying here, Tori. I’m really trying.”
“You want to date me?” She blinked a few too many times for it to be considered normal. “Are you sure? Because you don’t even know me, and we’re really terrible for each other.”
“I’m one hundred percent, absolutely sure that I would love to date you. As for being terrible for each other, I used to think we would be too, but I don’t anymore.” I smiled when the expression in her eyes softened. “We’re both passionate people. I think we’ve used that against each other for long enough. Can you imagine what it could be like if we harnessed all that for each other instead of against each other?”
“Honestly?” She gave her head a shake, the corners of her lips tilting up. “No. I can’t even begin to imagine what dating you would be like.”
“Well, that’s good because then everything will be a surprise.” My smile grew wider even though I knew I wasn’t home free just yet. “I’m only asking for one more chance to prove I’m not the asshole you think I am. I promise you that I’m not, Tori. All I’ve done with you is make one mistake after another. I can’t promise that I’ll never make another mistake again, but I give you my word that I’m going to do my utmost best from here on out.”
She didn’t respond immediately. Searching my eyes by moving hers from one to the other, she took her time before giving me one single nod. “Okay, Benjamin Reed. I’ve got one more chance lying around. You can have it. I’ll go on a date with you.”
I scooted forward in my chair, my gaze locked on hers and my fingers stroking the backs of her hands. “Great. How does Valentine’s Day sound?”
Love Your Moves: A Billionaire Valentine's Romantic Comedy Page 18