by Cara Addison
“A management buyout,” Jason said quietly, as he realized what Aurora was alluding to.
Aurora nodded. “If I were John, I’d be quietly buying up as much stock as I could get, and rallying the troops for an MBO.”
“What percentage of the company do you want us to go after?” Douglas asked.
“Granted, you’re the experts,” Aurora said, “but I’d be going after as much as you can, without artificially inflating the stock price.”
Douglas sat back heavily in his chair. “An MBO may explain last night’s spike in the stock.”
“Make it happen,” Jason directed to his colleague. “If we can acquire a twenty-five percent holding, we’ll be in a better negotiating position.”
Douglas excused himself and stepped out of the room to place a call to his office. By the time he returned to the conversation, stocks in Mayberry PLC were being bought up on behalf of F-Five.
After a lengthy discussion and strategizing session, Aurora’s executive assistant interrupted the conversation.
“I do apologize, gentlemen,” Aurora said quickly. “We have our earnings call this week and I have something I need to take care of. Would you excuse me for a moment?”
When the conference room door closed behind the chief executive Jason sat back in his chair and glanced at his lap. “Fuck,” he exclaimed. “Am I the only one that has the constant hard-on when that woman is in the room?”
Douglas chimed in with agreement. “I do my best thinking when I can walk the room, but I’m afraid to get up and show how rock-hard I am.”
Stephen put down his pen and nodded politely. “She has the most fantastic shoes.”
Douglas and Jason just stared at their overtly gay colleague.
Jason’s cell phone buzzed in his pocket. He reached into the inside of his tailored suit jacket to retrieve the buzzing device and quickly answered it. He sighed heavily as his on-again, off-again girlfriend began nattering into his ear before he could finish saying hello. He gave Douglas a look that conveyed his annoyance before excusing himself to step outside the room. In the hall, he did more listening than talking as his girlfriend ranted about a dripping faucet in his apartment. He had heard more than enough when he spotted Aurora walking back toward him. The way her hips swayed as she walked made his cock thicken all over again.
He quickly ended the phone conversation. “Call the superintendent,” he advised before disconnecting the line as Aurora reached the doorway.
As she extended her arm to open the door, the pink patterned Versace scarf she had worn around her neck came loose and fluttered to the floor. She blushed ever so slightly at the wardrobe malfunction before bending down to pick up the delicate accessory.
Even in heels, Jason stood more than six inches taller than the executive and immediately noticed the bruised bite mark on her neck. “Looks like someone was naughty,” he said softly. He desperately hoped the lust in his voice hasn’t betrayed him.
Aurora instantly covered the mark Nicholas has left with her hand before quickly wrapping the scarf back into place. She was embarrassed that any part of her personal life has been exposed at work, let alone something so significant as a private moment between her and Nicholas.
He watched as she flung open the door and briskly entered the room. He felt a surge of precum in his shorts as he watched her walk. He stood for a moment longer than necessary to admire the way her skirt hugged the curves of her ass. He didn’t think the powerful dynamic woman in front of him weighed more than 115 pounds. She had an incredible body that reminded him of his high school sweetheart, the captain of the cheerleading squad. Petite but powerful, as he recalled. Having worked with Aurora on the number of deals, he knew she took meticulous care of herself.
Aurora was all business when he took his seat back at the table. She was focused and disciplined and ready to make this deal happen. She was a cool calm professional and he found it incredibly arousing to have the opportunity to work with her. As Douglas covered a number of contingency plans should the outcome of the acquisition not go as planned, Jason’s mind wandered. He found himself thinking about Aurora and he wondered what it would be like to fuck someone so intelligent and successful. He was mentally undressing her as his imagination ran wild. He knew exactly what he’d be doing when he got back to the office. He would be vigorously stroking his cock until he exploded. He bit the inside of his lip and held back a groan as he thought of shooting his load all over the beautiful woman in front of him.
Chapter 4
When Dan Jenson arrived in the conference room with his tie askew and panting for breath, Aurora knew he had something important to say.
“I just got off the phone with a friend who works in the General Counsel office at Mayberry.”
All heads turned to hear what Dan had learned on the QT.
“They’ve just called an emergency meeting of the board for seven a.m. tomorrow morning.”
“Where are they meeting?” Jason asked. With members of the board living on three different continents, it wasn’t uncommon for board meetings to move around the globe.
“London,” he responded, finally catching his breath.
Aurora looked at the rose colored gold timepiece on her delicate wrist and instantly added five hours to account for time zones. “It’s already three-thirty in London.” She tapped her finger on the table as she thought. “I want the Mayberry board to consider our offer at that meeting, Jason. Make it happen.”
Jason’s mind was racing. He could prepare the offer and have it to a colleague in the London office within a few hours. Even if it was an accomplished colleague, he felt sick about the idea of a relative stranger to F-Five presenting an acquisition pitch to Mayberry on his behalf.
Aurora read his expression. “If you get on a plane in the next few hours, you can be there in time for the meeting.”
Jason had crossed the pond enough times to know that virtually every commercial flight took off from JFK in the early evening, arriving in London between six and seven a.m. Getting access to a Morgan Stanley jet on such short notice would be unlikely. “I’ll see what I can do, but I’m not sure we can make it there in time.”
“Take the F-Five jet,” Aurora said emphatically.
Jason studied her expression. She appeared to be very serious.
“You need to be there, Jason. You need to make this pitch.” She looked up at Dan. “You should likely go along, too, Dan.”
“It would be helpful to me if Douglas were there, Aurora.”
“Of course.” Aurora scribbled a handwritten note for her assistant, giving direction to ready the jet at Tetterboro airport, which was always conveniently waiting in a hanger across the Hudson River in New Jersey.
“How badly do you want this, Aurora?” Dan asked.
Aurora looked up at him as a complete look of surprise on her face. “What do you mean? Of course I want this. You know me, I don’t ever play to lose.”
Dan walked purposely toward the table and leaned forward with his hands on the glass. “Well then, Aurora, you should be on that plane, too. You need to send a very clear message to the board at Mayberry that you’re there to save the company.”
Aurora took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. Dan was right. She needed the board to understand just how serious she was about bringing Mayberry PLC into the F-Five fold of companies.
“Okay let’s do this. How much time do you and your team need, Jason?”
If he pushed his entire team hard, it was possible they could be ready in an hour. This meant he would have to abandon his plans for jacking off back at his office. The trade-off of course was an intimate impromptu business trip with the sexy, alluring, and very capable Aurora Reagan. Once again, his cock was instantly hard at the thought. “I’ll need an hour,” he said aloud.
“Excellent,” Aurora said. ”It’s 10:30 a.m. now. I’ll have the jet ready. We plan to be to be wheels up by 12:30 p.m. make sure you’re at Teterboro in time. No one misses this flight
.”
They all had work to do. Jason, Douglas, and Steven scrambled together their things, exiting the conference room as soon as they were dismissed. Dan gave Aurora a big smile before turning to leave. It was always exciting to work with her on a project that she was so passionate about. He knew they were in for some fun.
Aurora returned to her office, giving her assistant a long list of instructions as she prepared for their imminent departure. While the plane was readied and the car service arranged, Aurora gathered the information she would need to study on the seven-hour flight across the Atlantic Ocean. Forty-five minutes later she retrieved her ever ready go bag from the closet, quickly glancing through it to make sure all the essentials were packed in the Louis Vuitton keep all bag.
Before meeting Dan in the lobby she gave her executive assistant another long list of directions. As always she fully expected her team to function at full capacity during her absence.
The car service pulled up in front of the building just as she arrived to meet Dan in the lobby. Together they road north before crossing the Hudson River on the George Washington Bridge. As they neared the executive airport she interrupted Dan who is expounding on his plan for the board presentation.
“I’m sorry, Dan, I need to make a call before we reach the terminal.”
She quickly gathered her thoughts before pressing the icon that would dial Nicholas’s personal cell phone.
“Hey baby,” came a smooth and sultry greeting. “What a pleasant surprise to hear from you today.”
She cringed just a little, knowing she would be delivering unpleasant news. “Hey sweetie,” she said quietly, fully aware that Dan could hear her every word. “Something has come up. I’m on my way to Teterboro.”
He knew not to ask where she was headed. If she wanted him to know, she would have disclosed the jet’s destination. “Sounds important.”
“It is, Nicholas.” She heard him sigh heavily.
He was used to sudden business trips and last minute meetings. He had grown accustomed to the late nights and long hours that she kept, but it didn’t stop him from missing her.
“Do you know when you’ll be back?”
“I’m not certain, but if all goes well, we’ll be back sometime tomorrow.”
We’ll. So, she wasn’t travelling alone. He felt a pang of jealousy. Even though she worked in the fashion industry, Aurora’s world was still largely made up of male executives. Oh, he trusted Aurora completely, knowing that she wouldn’t dare to risk her reputation for a meaningless fling. It was the men she travelled with that he didn’t trust. He was all too familiar with the heady and intoxicating feeling caused by being with Aurora. He was certain that when she was away, his girlfriend was constantly being hit on.
“I love you,” she said softly and with incredible sincerity in her voice.
He had a sudden ache fill him. He desperately wanted to see her …wanting to be with her. “I love you, too,” he said huskily.
There was no misinterpreting the want in his voice. With such busy schedules Aurora hated to miss even one evening alone with Nicholas. She would miss him terribly. She wasn’t looking forward to a night alone in a lonely hotel room. “I have to go now,” she said gently. “We’ve reached the terminal. I’ll call you when I land stateside.”
He reluctantly said goodbye and hung up the phone.
She stared out the car window is the car pulled up to the hanger. How was it that with just a few simple words he could make her ache so badly between her legs?
A moment later she was escorted through the hanger and toward the jet waiting for her on the tarmac. She took her seat on the luxurious Daussalt Falcon. The team from Morgan Stanley arrived a moment later. She watched through the window as Jason and Douglas walk confidently from their town car toward the waiting plane.
“Did you get everything done?” Aurora asked as Jason took a seat in the spacious captain’s chair next to her.
He patted his bag. “We certainly did. Typed, printed, and bound. It’s all in here.”
He was about to buckle his seatbelt when she held out her hand.
An expression of shock emerged on his face. “You don’t want to wait until we’re airborne to get to work?”
“Why wait? I don’t need to reach cruising altitude to read an acquisition offer.”
Touché. He snapped his buckle and reached into his black leather attaché case for Aurora’s copy of the document his team had rushed to put together. By the time they were jetting down the runway, Aurora was flipping through the introductory pages. She had scanned the entire document before they reached thirty-five thousand feet.
“Is this my copy?”
“Yes.”
She donned her designer reading glasses and immediately flipped back to the beginning and began rereading the document. She poured over each word of each sentence, evaluating the verbiage and tone.
Jason began to get uncomfortable as he watched her repeatedly underline words and scribbling notes in the margin. “Are there errors?” he said self-consciously. Aurora was the absolute last client that he wanted to make a mistake with.
She glanced up over the rim of her glasses at him. “No, it’s very well done, especially on such short notice.”
He was relieved. “Then what are you marking?” he asked curiously.
She was mildly perturbed that he was interrupting her. In her mind, the flow of the document was just as important as the content. “Would you like the attendant to get you something to drink or eat?”
The tone in her words was more than patronizing and instantly made his dick soft. “No thanks, I’m fine.” He sat back and sat silent until she finished her work.
* * * *
“Would blackened sea bass be to your liking, Miss Reagan?”
Aurora had read through the document twice since their departure, preparing her own thoughts for the presentation to the Mayberry Board. “That sounds delicious, Janice,” she responded politely. If it weren’t for the nametag, she was doubtful she’d remember the attendant’s name. She tried hard to remember the names of those who served at her pleasure, but she often failed.
“Can I get you something to drink before lunch?” Janice offered.
“Just mineral water for me, please.”
As Janice moved about the cabin taking drink orders, the pilot appeared from the cockpit. “Good afternoon, Miss Reagan. It’s a pleasure to have you on board with us today.”
Aurora smiled politely in response before putting her documents aside.
“We’re cruising above commercial traffic today. We’re currently at forty-two thousand feet. We have a strong wind behind us. Our current speed is four hundred and eight miles per hour, or Mach .85 and we estimate our flight time to be just under seven hours.”
“Thank you, Captain. It sounds like we’re making great time.”
“It smells like Janice is preparing a nice lunch for you, Miss Reagan. If there’s anything you need, please don’t hesitate to ask.”
The rest of the team followed Aurora’s lead when she moved from her seat to the rear of the plane where a table had been set for their midday meal. Aurora enjoyed the sea bass and mushroom risotto with asparagus spears in silence, tuning out the chatter of the gentlemen who accompanied her. Her mind was focused on the members of the board at Mayberry. When lunch was over, she would review the dossier her executive assistant had prepared on each board member and executive.
When the Falcon 900LX touched down in London, Aurora felt that she knew each Mayberry representative intimately. She had thought through her approach to the board and solidified her presentation in her mind.
It was just after midnight in the UK when they arrived. By the time they reached The Savoy, the city was quiet. During the drive into the city core, Aurora received confirmation that the Mayberry board would grant them time during their emergency meeting to make a presentation. She had no doubt that they were curious about what the F-Five team had flown across the ocea
n to pitch.
“Would you like a quick drink?” Jason invited once they had checked in at the luxury hotel.
Dan responded first. After glancing at his phone he declined. “It’s only eight o’clock in New York. I have some calls to return before everyone leaves the office.”
“Same here,” Douglas chimed in. “The messages are still pouring in. I need to respond to these.”
“How about you, Aurora?” Jason asked politely. The idea of sitting in the America Bar at the Savoy and enjoying a cocktail with Aurora was causing a stir in his pants.
“That sounds lovely.”
Together, they walked into the iconic venue. Aurora noticed a number of executives and hotel guests enjoying a nightcap throughout the bar. Conversations were drowned out by the piano music playing in the background. To Aurora, the 50s inspired décor reminded her of a film set. She dropped her bag beside a sofa before settling gracefully into the intimate yet comfortable seating area. Before Jason was seated in the wingback chair across from her, a waiter appeared to take their order.
“The Kauffman Vintage in a martini, please,” Aurora said politely to the waiter without having even looked at the twelve-page menu. “Very dry, straight up, and with a twist,” she specified. She was very particular when it came to what she considered a good martini.
Jason was taken aback, not even having had time to study the extensive cocktail menu. He quickly flipped through the pages before requesting a rich and spicy bourbon from Rock Hill Farms.
“I’m curious why you work in the consumer products sector, Jason. I would have thought you’d want to work in a sexier industry like TMT or maybe play with the big boys in Energy.”
Jason chuckled lightly at her characterization of the various industries. He shrugged his shoulders and took a sip of the bourbon, which had been delivered. “I don’t know. I don’t think I chose consumer products. It kind of chose me. It’s where there was an opening when I graduated from Stanford and I’ve been there ever since.”
