Lion About
A Zodiac Shifters Paranormal Romance: Virgo
Catherine Banks
Lion About by Catherine Banks
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2018 Catherine Banks
All rights reserved.
Cover design by Ravenborn Covers.
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Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Epilogue
About the Author
Also by Catherine Banks
Chapter 1
“That’s why I recommend selling the company,” I concluded, taking a breath now that I was done.
The twelve executives who had been listening to my presentation now turned to each other.
The CEO, Mr. Jamison, looked at me and smiled. “Excellent presentation, Miss Vincent.”
I smiled and made my way to the door, knowing that was my dismissal. “Thank you for your time.”
Hurrying away from the executive conference room, I waited until I made it to my office, shut the door, and closed my blinds. Once I was sealed inside, I threw my hands into the air and silently cheered.
It was my first presentation in front of the CEO, and I was proud to have received his praise. He didn’t give praise lightly, so it was definitely an accomplishment. Even if they didn’t take my advice, I counted it as a win.
After composing myself and smoothing my dress down, I opened my blinds and door.
“Went well?” Michelle asked as she came to a stop in my doorway, leaning one of her tanned shoulders against the doorjamb. Today, she had on a red dress worth at least four figures, accentuating her curves and highlighting her silver hair. Her shoes were probably worth four figures as well.
“I think so,” I said, not wanting to appear smug.
“Oh? How well?”
“Jamison said, ‘excellent presentation.’”
Her mouth dropped open.
“We need to celebrate!” she exclaimed. “Drinks, on me. Tonight!”
I couldn’t say no to that! “You’re on!”
“Did I hear something about drinks?” Austin, the most annoying coworker ever, asked. His suit was expensive and pressed, yet it didn’t hang right on his body. He was gangly, but that was normal for a goblin. He gave us both a once over, leering at us openly.
“Nope,” I said. “You misheard.”
“Sorry,” Michelle said with a shrug. “You are mistaken.”
He smirked. “What a shame.”
Once he was finally gone, Michelle and I locked gazes, then rolled our eyes in unison.
He was such a creep.
“Meet you after work,” she said, waving as she walked away.
I sat at my computer, adjusted the two paperweights on each side of my desk so they were in their proper places, and then spent the next hour reviewing the one hundred and sixty emails in my inbox. Ninety percent of them were junk, but I still had to read them before deleting.
A new message popped up. A meeting invite. “One on One with Jamison.”
My eyes bulged. A one on one!
I checked the time, and immediately bolted up. Ten minutes from now! I checked my makeup in the mirror on the back of my door then rushed out of my office and to the elevator.
Jamison’s office was on the twenty-third floor, so it took me eight minutes on the elevator to get up there due to all of the people getting on and off at the various floors.
Jamison’s receptionist, Berta, was an older brownie. She smiled at me, her braids shaking slightly as she laughed softly. “You’re right on time!”
I smiled. “Am I not supposed to be?”
She walked to the door, knocked twice, and then waited. She nodded once after hearing something from inside, then pushed it open. “Mr. Jamison will see you now.”
I exhaled, straightened my back, and walked in.
The floors in his office weren’t tile, like the rest of the building, but dark wooden floor. There was a huge rug in front of a fireplace, not currently lit since it was the middle of summer, and he had a self-portrait hanging over the fireplace.
He had a fricking fireplace in his office!
Jamison stood from behind his desk, his powerful build towering over me as he held out his hand. He was a werebear, which was surprising since he was such a calm person in human form, because werebears were known to be berserkers in animal form. “Ms. Vincent. Thank you for coming on such short notice.”
We shook hands, and then he motioned at two leather chairs to the left, with a cart holding a crystal bottle of alcohol beside it.
I sat. “Of course, sir.”
He sat and steepled his fingers. “The executives loved your presentation. So much so, that I have decided to make you Executive Director of Projects.”
I barely managed to keep my mouth from dropping open.
“Thank you, sir. I won’t let you down in my new position,” I said.
He smiled. “I know you won’t. Talk to Berta. She has paperwork for you to fill out.” He stood, and we shook hands again. “Welcome to the team.”
“Thank you, again.”
I shut the door behind me then looked at Berta.
She clapped silently and slid some papers towards me.
“Pen?” I asked, breathlessly.
She held out a golden pen.
After reading through the contract, and gawking at the new salary, I signed all the pages. It took me ten minutes.
Berta checked them, nodded, and said, “Copies will be delivered to your office.” She paused and added, “Your new office.”
“Where?” I asked.
She held out a key that had a small label on it. “One floor down. The receptionist will show you which is yours. Congratulations, Milena.”
I stared at the key I now held and walked down the stairs to the floor below. In front of the elevators sat a receptionist, behind a huge oak desk.
I opened my mouth to tell her who I was, but she stood before I could and said, “Right this way, Ms. Vincent.”
The receptionist led me down the Executive Directors’ hallway where metal nameplates signified who sat behind each one, even though the blinds were closed over each thin window beside the door.
She pushed open an unmarked one, and smiled as she said, “Congratulations on your promotion, Ms. Vincent.”
“Thank you,” I said, stepping into my new office. It was easily twice as big as my previous one. Plus, this on
e had two huge windows overlooking the city below.
I stared out the windows, letting my new reality sink in. Jamison had given me a promotion. Wow.
I walked up to my old office, and started packing my things.
Michelle came in and shut the door behind her. “What happened?”
“Promotion,” I whispered.
“Fired?” she asked.
I jerked my head up to meet her eyes. “A freaking promotion!”
She gasped and then walked to me and slapped my arm. “You scared me! I thought you had gotten fired!”
“He made me Executive Director of Projects,” I told her, sitting in my chair before my legs gave out. “Am I awake? Is this real?”
She pinched my arm, making me yelp. “It’s real, baby!”
“I can’t…”
“Drinks are on you tonight,” she teased.
I smirked. “Deal.”
“Do you want help packing up?” she asked and then frowned at my mostly empty office. “Geez, you already did it?”
“Yeah, I got it all packed. You can help me carry the boxes down,” I suggested, picking up the heaviest one.
She picked up the two smaller ones, then followed me.
“Uh oh. Did your presentation not go as well as you thought?” Austin asked, a smug smirk on his face.
“That’s no way to talk to your new boss,” Michelle chastised him.
“What?” he gaped.
“You’re talking to the new Executive Director of Projects,” she informed him while I pushed the button for the elevator with the tip of my pinky, since it was the only part I had free from holding the box.
“You’re shitting me!” he yelled.
“Austin!” I snapped. “Try to act a little professional.”
“This has to be a prank,” he growled, marching to the stairwell. “No fucking way.”
“What crawled up his ass and died?” Michelle grumbled.
“You know he can’t stand women in power. It rubs his misogynistic brain the wrong way,” I said.
The elevator arrived, and we ducked inside. Someone had already selected the floor we needed, so I waited patiently for our stop.
This new job came with a lot of baggage. Austin was only a piece of it. I would be in charge of several units. I was fine with that, and luckily, I was on good terms with most of the team. So, I wasn’t too worried.
After getting my office organized, I started researching my duties, and the most recent updates.
“Ms. Vincent,” Anastasia, the receptionist for this floor, called.
I looked up from my computer. “Yes?”
“I need to get some information from you,” she said, and I noticed the pen and pad of paper she was carrying.
“Okay,” I agreed, walking to the small table that had four chairs around it for meetings I might need to hold in here.
She sat and asked, “Can you tell me how you’d like to be addressed? Ms. Vincent? Ma’am?”
“Ms. Vincent is fine,” I said quickly.
“Can you look this over?” she asked and slid a business card mockup across the table.
“Wow, you move fast,” I commented, reviewing all of my information, and freaking a bit to see my new title beneath my name.
“I try,” she said with a soft chuckle.
“No changes,” I told her.
She took the mockup back with a nod. “You should have the new cards tomorrow. I can give you a few temporary cards for now, if you’d like?”
“Please,” I said with a smile.
I didn’t need them, but it would be nice to stare at them and squeal tonight.
“I’ll have them ready by four o’clock,” she said. “Also, do you have any preference on assistant?”
“Assistant? I get an assistant?”
She laughed. “Certainly. All executives have an assistant.”
“I hadn’t thought about it,” I admitted.
“I can be your temporary assistant until you fill the position,” she offered. “But it can’t be permanent, since I already assist three other executives.”
“Thank you, that’s great,” I said.
“What will your work hours be?” she asked, preparing to take notes.
“Aren’t they standard eight to five?” I asked.
She shook her head. “You get to choose. As long as you’re here for the nine o’clock meeting and the four o’clock meeting, Mr. Jamison does not care what hours you work.”
“So, I could work seven to four?” I asked.
She nodded.
“Then, that will be my new schedule,” I said with a nod.
“You may have to attend some later meetings, but you can just adjust your schedule accordingly,” she advised.
“Great,” I said, smiling at her.
“Let me get those cards for you, and then you can head home,” she said with a smile.
Chapter 2
“He’s hot,” Michelle commented for the fifth time.
“No, he’s rich,” I muttered under my breath.
“Same thing,” she said with a chuckle.
Our usual bar was under construction, so we’d ended up going to the ritzy one a block away. We didn’t normally come here because it was full of pompous assholes.
“Fancy seeing you ladies here,” Austin said, smiling as he stopped behind our barstools.
Pompous asshole number one.
“Celebrating your promotion?” Austin guessed.
“Yes, we are,” I said, spinning on the barstool to face him. “I hope your outburst earlier isn’t an indication of how the rest of our work relationship will be?”
His right eye twitched, but his smile didn’t fade. “Certainly not. I apologize for my behavior. It was out of line and highly unprofessional.”
No shit.
“Apology accepted,” I said and held out my hand for him to shake.
He shook it, then trailed after a woman in a Vouis Laton dress.
“Creep,” Michelle grumbled.
“Rich creep,” I amended and smirked at her.
She pretended to vomit, which made me laugh. The stuffy bar was so quiet, though, that my laughter carried throughout and many heads swiveled towards me.
I spun around and took a quick drink. “Whoops. I’ve got to learn to use my indoor voice here.”
“A laugh as beautiful as that deserves to be heard,” an elderly gentleman said as he slid his slight frame onto a barstool a few over from mine.
“Thank you, sir.”
“Are you two celebrating?” he asked.
Michelle stood from her barstool to drape her arm around my shoulders. “She just got a big promotion,” she informed him. “So, yes, we are celebrating.”
“Delightful,” he said, his eyes twinkling. “Congratulations.”
“Thank you, sir.”
“Bah!” he said and waved his hand. “Stop calling me, ‘sir.’ I’m old, but not that old.”
I chuckled, and he smiled.
“What can I call you then?” I asked.
“Walter.”
“Well, Walter. Thank you.”
“Martin,” Walter called to the bartender, who immediately came to stand before him. “Get these two beautiful women a drink, on me.”
“Right away, Mr. Bane,” Martin said.
My mouth dropped open at the same time Michelle’s did.
“Mr. Bane? As in Walter Bane, the CEO of Bane Industries?” Michelle asked.
He smiled. “Oh, you’ve heard of me? How delightful.”
“Everyone’s heard of you. You’re a technological genius!” I said, my voice rising a few octaves. I had always wanted to meet him.
I stood and held my hand out. He shook it, and I said, “I can die happy now.”
He laughed and slapped the bar top a couple of times. “You two are a hoot! Why haven’t I seen you here before?”
“We usually go to Steven’s, but it’s closed,” Michelle said. “Sir, you’re my hero.”
He smiled and patted her hand where it sat on the bar. “I’m no hero, Miss.”
“Michelle, my name is Michelle,” she said. “And, I beg to differ. You provided support to that country after the volcano eruption when no one else would. You saved millions of lives.”
“It’s what anyone in my position should do,” he said, growing serious a moment. “Money only does so much, sitting in a bank account.”
“Are you looking to adopt?” Michelle asked. “I’ve always wanted a rich stepfather.”
I slapped her arm. “Michelle!”
Walter laughed. “You two are so much more entertaining than the other dull snobs here. Would you join me for dinner?” he asked and motioned at a table with a reserved tag on it. “I usually eat alone, which is rather boring. I do have a colleague coming later, but I don’t know what time he will arrive.”
“We’d love to,” Michelle and I said at the same time.
He stood, then positioned himself between us, so we could each take an arm. I knew to most we must have looked like we were trying to charm a rich old man for his money, but that was the furthest from the truth, so I didn’t care what they thought. There were so many things I wanted to ask him. He owned the largest technology company in the world, and donated more than most of any of the other CEOs.
Walter sat first, Michelle sat on his right, and I sat across from him, leaving a chair to my right, between Walter and I.
Martin brought Michelle and my drinks to the table, and set menus down in front of us.
“Thank you,” I said with a smile.
He nodded and returned to his post at the bar.
“Have you eaten here before?” Walter asked.
Michelle and I nodded.
“We have had a few company parties here,” she said.
“Oh? Who do you work for?” he asked, setting his menu down.
“Give him your card,” Michelle prompted.
I cringed but handed it to him. “It’s just a temporary card. My real ones should arrive tomorrow.”
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