I chuckled as I wiped my mouth. “You sound very focused in your goals.”
She smiled as she handed her plate to the attendant. “I have been tracking my goals since I was a little girl.”
“Wow,” I replied. “That’s dedication. I knew a girl like that once. We were really young though and haven’t spoken in a long time. I’m sure she met all of her goals though.”
Mia smiled but it looked like an uncomfortable smile. She turned her head toward the window and sat quietly. It stayed that way until we were on the ground in Cali. There was a car to meet us at the airport, taking us straight to Hashimoto’s office. When we arrived, they laid out the red carpet for us, but it was mostly for the brains of the operation, Mia.
“I want to thank you for having us,” I said, shaking his hand.
He nodded and walked over to Mia. “Your creation was inspiring and I cannot wait to see it in action.” He turned back toward me. “I would like her to present.”
She looked shocked but I agreed, knowing it was for the best. Sitting there watching her was a different kind of experience. She was on point with everything. Somewhere in that nerdy intellectual persona she had a vibrant and wild personality. She held everyone’s attention and even struck humor into the presentation. I had watched hundreds of people speak over the years, presenting ideas, but she was the best I had ever witnessed. The client was enthralled the entire time and barely asked any questions, but she covered that too.
“Mr. Hashimoto, you have been very quiet, do you have any questions for me?” she asked, glancing over at me.
He sat, straight faced, making us both extremely nervous for several minutes. Finally, pulling his pressed palms from his lips, he smiled broadly. “I wish I did. I have been keeping a mental list but you have explained everything so fluently. Does anyone else have a question?”
“What will the training for the system, beyond what we have been doing, look like?” one of the other men asked.
Mia took in a deep breath. “Well, I will have to see how advanced your people are on it. Usually we test for bugs before the training but since they will be doing both, I think it’s important for them to know the base equations for the program. From there I will have them use it, a test of sorts so I can get a clear picture of their strengths and weaknesses. Then, simply put, we’ll move through the program one page, one process at a time. This will allow them to fully understand it. When we find bugs along the way, we’ll fix them. That will help reduce the amount of time it’s in testing.”
“Perfect,” Mr. Hashimoto said, standing up and shaking Mia’s hand.
I stood up as well and grasped his hand in mine. “Then I assume you’re happy?”
“More than happy,” he replied. “We start tomorrow, after breakfast. Does that suit you?”
I nodded with a smile. “It works perfectly for me.”
Mr. Hashimoto snapped his fingers and his secretary ran around the corner. “Set them up with a ride to their accommodations and have the driver first take them to Fitzgerald’s, they’ll like that restaurant and the whole thing is on the company.”
“Thank you, sir,” I replied.
“Thank you,” Mia smiled.
She knocked it out of the park.
13
Mia
Evan clinked his glass to mine, the bubbles from the champagne simmering up the sides. “To the magnificent Mia. Not only did you create the most amazing technological invention, you killed it in the boardroom. I’m telling you now, one day, you will be my biggest competitor.”
I clinked my glass to him, laughing. “You mean the one you strive to catch up to? Okay. But I might take it easy on you.”
We both laughed, the champagne refreshing on my lips. I had given up the cold, stark, woman routine at that point. It was hard to keep up with and I was far too excited to keep trying. The little fact about my friendship with the princess from Monaco was a good one. It was completely true, but it had only been satisfying to say in that one moment. It wasn’t until he mentioned his memory of me, even though he didn’t know it was me, from his childhood that I began to clam up.
But there we were, sitting in an expensive candle-lit restaurant in the warmth of the California weather, completely stoked that we were about to embark on one of the biggest deals Evan had ever closed before. And I was at the center of it. Talk about starting my career off with a bang.
“I watched Hashimoto’s face the whole time,” he laughed. “I think he fell in love with you. You could be the next Mia Hashimoto.”
I wrinkled my nose and shook my head as I sipped my champagne. “No thank you. I will stick with building him tech systems.”
Evan laughed again, his smile so handsome and sexy. Stop it Mia. You are not losing your virginity to the mortal enemy of your entire family. Put the champagne down. I set the glass on the table and looked up as the hostess approached. “Excuse me, but your car has arrived, whenever you are ready.”
Evan stretched his arms wide. “You ready, superstar?”
I nodded, wiping my lips. “Mhmm. We have a very big day tomorrow.”
“Yes, yes we do,” he said, putting his hand on my lower back as he led me outside.
I had that happen to me a million times. My father and his friends just naturally guided women as if we were unable to find doorways without their help. It used to annoy me, but with Evan, it sent a warm chill down my spine. It was a dangerous feeling.
The driver opened the door and I slid in, Evan close behind. We were in the back of a limo, which was something I hadn’t ridden inside in years. They were always town cars. Evan grabbed the bottle of wine on ice and uncorked it, pouring us both a glass. The windows were cracked to let the cool breeze blow through.
“Thank you,” I chirped, taking my glass and sipping the sweet pink wine.
I leaned my head back and let the wind wash over my entire body. It felt so good, so relaxing. When I opened my eyes, I could tell Evan was staring at me, his eyes had quickly diverted to his glass. I didn’t say anything though, there was something sexy about it.
“When we get to the hotel, we should have another drink before bed,” he suggested. “Just a little more celebration before all the hard work begins.”
I glanced down at my glass. Fuck it. “Sure. Why not? But you’re buying.”
He laughed and tapped his pockets. “I don’t know if I can afford it.”
I shook my head at his joke and giggled into my glass. I had reached giggling? This was not going to be good. Well, maybe it was going to be good but later I would think it was bad. I needed to stop overthinking everything.
The car pulled down a drive and up to a large condo that faced the ocean. Evan furled his brow. “I’m sorry, I thought we were going to the hotel.”
The driver nodded. “This is the company’s penthouse. It is used for guests. There are several bedrooms and a pool. Much more comfortable than the hotel. I will show you up.”
The driver got out and came around, letting us out of the car. In that moment I wasn’t sure what to think about any of it. We had come out to Cali thinking we would be saying apart from each other and now I was going to be living in a condo with the man.
As the attendants inside helped to gather our bags, Evan pulled me to the side. “Is this alright? I can get a hotel room.”
I shook my head without even thinking about it. “No, it’s fine. Please. Besides, we’ll probably be up late working anyway. Makes it more convenient to be in the same space. But I get my own bathroom.”
He smirked. “Deal.”
We headed up the elevator to the penthouse, just twenty stories up. As soon as we walked in, my breath was taken. The whole front of the condo was made of glass and you could see out into the distance of the rolling ocean. The sun had already set, and I could smell the saltwater below us. It was amazing. Out on the porch was an infinity pool leading straight to the edge where I could already see myself taking in the sunset, relaxing with champagne.
I wasn’t really sure how I felt about it all. I couldn’t tell him that, of course, but I felt slightly awkward and I could tell he did too. “It’s beautiful. I can’t wait to see the sunset.”
He came up next to me and looked out at the view. Nodding his head, he went back up the sunken living room steps and over to the bar. He fixed us both a drink, whiskey and coke. I was pretty sure it was the same whiskey my father drank, which meant they had dropped at least seven hundred or so just on the alcohol.
Evan handed me a drink and took in a deep breath. “Seriously though, it could be much worse. I’ve stayed at corporate condos before and they were nothing like this. They were apartments, usually in a college area. Decorated nicely but you had to listen to college kids chanting, ‘chug, chug, chug,’ all night long.”
I laughed into my drink, shaking my head. “That sounds horrible. I would totally be that party pooper and go over there, mom style.”
“I can already imagine you dragging the kids out by their ears,” he gaffed.
Shaking my head, I turned and looked out the windows. I could hear the ocean from inside, and we had opened the doors to let the cool air inside. I could see Evan’s reflection in the glass and it was messing with me. Every move he made was something out of a romance movie. His face was perfect, his hair always looked like it was purposeful, and his smile made me all giggly inside. I was acting like a child on her first date. Only it wasn’t a date. Suffice it to say, I was definitely attracted to him.
“What does your father do?” he asked.
The question unnerved me almost immediately. “He’s in business,” I replied.
Evan nodded, catching on that I wasn’t going to give up those kinds of answers. “It seems it’s in your blood. You could own your own company.”
“Hopefully one day I will,” I replied, lifting my glass and wiggling my brow.
It was hard work keeping my family a secret. I wasn’t ashamed of them by any means, but I really didn’t want to get fired in the middle of a condo in California. It would definitely be bad. Really bad. So, instead, I chugged my drink and waited for him to do the same, taking the glasses up and refilling them.
“Thank you,” he said as I handed him one. “It just feels so good to have done something right. I mean, the whole company was right, but just when you think it’s going to be a little easier, a little more established, the board steps in and kerflooey. I find myself with a roommate in California, appeasing a crazy client.”
I plopped down on the couch just down from him. “Hey, I’m not too bad of a roommate.”
“Oh,” he said, looking genuinely worried that he had offended me. “I didn’t mean you. I just meant it wasn’t what I expected to be happening at this point in the company. But they know what they’re doing.”
“Are you sure about that?” I asked, giving zero cares as to whether I was overstepping the boundaries. “All I’m saying is that old businessmen tend to have old business views. In today’s world, business is completely different. This was a good client, but would have been good even if you weren’t under stress from your board.”
He sat up and tilted his head to the side. “Oh yeah? Okay, I want to hear what you have to think. Genuinely. I want to hear someone tell me something other than the normal appeasement.”
I looked at him for a moment with narrowed eyes and then shrugged. “Okay. So, if you find that you have a better intuition on marketing, use it. If you think that a hundred one-time clients are better than residual ones, focus on it. It’s your company. Did the board get you where you are now?”
Shaking his head, he scoffed. “No. They didn’t come around until after the company had flourished.”
“So, they are riding the waves, just like the stockholders,” I explained. “They don’t care if your company goes down. They are just trying to make as much off of it as they possibly can before something happens. They are giving you advice based on their pockets, not yours. I know that boards can be tricky, but when you take control of them, really grasp control, that’s when they start really looking at what you want to invest in.”
He rubbed his chin, sipping his drink and listening to me talk. “Right, I see that. So, what am I supposed to do at that point?”
“Make choices,” I said. “Look, when your board and the shareholders are making hand over fist money, you can start to exert your dominance. That is the best time because they want the hand over fist money. They don’t care if that means switching ideals to be on your side. Your side is the winning side. You just don’t want to end up on the wrong side.”
I stood up and walked over to him, reaching down for his empty glass. As I stepped again, my heel got caught on the rug and I fell forward right into Evan’s arms. He caught me strongly and held me there for a moment, staring into my eyes. I should have moved, but I couldn’t. I was stuck there staring at him, locked onto him.
“I should…” I whispered.
He ran his finger down my cheek. “You should what?”
My eyes flickered back and forth on his. “I don’t know. I lost track of my thought.”
Leaning down with his lips barely touching mine, he whispered, “Good.”
Before I could respond his mouth was taking mine in, rubbing his tongue across the seam. I set the drinks haphazardly down on the coffee table, not unlatching myself from him. My hands went up, rubbing up his face and through his dark hair. I could feel my body pulsing into him, wanting nothing more than for him to take me. I didn’t care that it would be my first time, it felt right.
As he stood, he cradled me in his arms, still kissing me as he turned and walked me down the hallway. My body trembled in excitement, and my mind craved the passion and lust that I knew he would give. Evan might be my mortal enemy every other day, but that night, he was going to be my lover.
14
Evan
She was so beautiful, so powerful, there was nothing I could do to stop the intensity of attraction between us. And while she had a wild spirit, she seemed almost delicate and withdrawn in my arms. I could feel her breathing, her chest heaving against mine. I stepped into the dimly lit bedroom and laid her gently down on the end of the bed. My fingers slid down her body from her chest to her belly. As they brushed the waistband of her skirt, my fingers skimmed over to the side, slowly pulling down the zipper.
Lifting her ass, I pulled the skirt off, revealing her sexy black satin panties. I bit my lip, moving my hands back up to her blouse, pulling at the buttons. One came loose, then another, and another, until her matching bra heaved her breasts heavily up and down. She sat partway up, letting her shirt fall off her shoulders and tossing it to the side. Her body was so perfect, so intricate and curved just in the right places.
Leaning over her, I pulled one cup of her bra down and pulled her nipple into my mouth. She grunted lightly, so I did the same with the other. Moving down her body, dragging my lips over her skin, I gently pulled her panties down and off. I gripped her thighs and yanked her toward the edge of the bed, liking how she gasped, her fingers gently sitting on the edge of her lip. I lowered my body down onto my knees and ran my tongue, full force, up through her dripping wet mound. I could feel her foot, pointed, slide up my back, and arch high.
My tongue swished back and forth and around, pulling at her nub, giving her everything I had to give. She tasted so good. Her soft hands shook my concentration as they rubbed up the sides of my face and pulled me up her body. Her deep eyes stared into mine. “I want you inside of me.”
My whole body shivered with anticipation and I wasn’t about to tell her no. I smiled and began to pull my shirt off as she unbuttoned my pants, reaching into my boxer briefs and grabbing tightly to my hard shaft. I grunted, feeling the pleasure of her touch, wanting more and more of it. Somehow, in the midst of my passionate zoned-out persona, I managed to get all m
y clothes off and slide quickly between her thighs.
The tip of my cock rubbed against her vibrant and warm juices and I felt as if she could almost pull me in on her own. I gripped her thigh tightly as I pushed into her. God, she was so tight, so warm, it was already hard to control myself. Very slowly I began to pump my hips, watching her face twist into passion and heat. She gripped down on the bed and moaned deeply. Her voice was seductive and all I wanted to do was take her as hard and fast as I could, but she had to cum first. I wouldn’t let her go until she shook with pleasure.
My hips started to move faster and faster, my teeth gritting hard. I could feel myself losing control of my motions. Gripping her under her back, I pulled her up and on top of me. We sat, face to face, my dick still deep, her hips began to twist against me. Her mouth was slightly perched open at the feeling, her clit rubbing circles against my skin. I gripped her behind the head and pressed my mouth against hers as she started to swirl faster, grinding down onto me. As I released her lips she screamed out in pleasurable overload, unable to hold it back.
My head dipped to her neck and collar bone, nibbling at the skin. A little pain with a whole lot of pleasure was never something to turn away from. She flung her arms back, holding herself horizontal against me. Her body moved like a wave over my cock, every once in a while, pulling back and slamming back toward me. She was breathing heavily, her deep raspy breaths followed by sexy, deep grunts.
“Yeah,” she moaned in a high pitched tone.
I grabbed her hips and moved her body faster against mine. “That’s right. Give into it. Let me feel it.”
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, her head falling back. I could feel her entire body stiffen as she exploded in orgasm. I could feel every inch of my cock being smothered as her pussy contracted around the shaft, hot juices dripping down. I groaned, holding back and waiting for her to finish. As soon as she had begun to loosen her muscles, I threw her down on the bed and flipped her over on her stomach. She giggled in ecstasy and waved her ass back and forth at me.
Hating Him Wanting Him : A Contemporary Romance Collection Page 8
