He laughed again, and she wondered what it was going to take to keep him laughing. She much preferred it to the serious expression he usually wore.
“Touché. Remind me not to underestimate you again.” He took another long drink from his glass, and Charlotte tried to take another sip. She didn’t want to seem rude, but the scotch was stronger than anything else she’d ever drunk before. Every sip burned it’s way down into her stomach, and she knew it was going to hit her hard if she wasn’t careful.
“So, Sophie tells me you have plans to open up your own bakery. Mind if I ask about your business plans?”
Charlotte had spoken to several people around the building about her dream of opening a bakery, and she’d been putting back every extra dime she could since she’d opened the food cart, but she hadn’t ever really sat down and talked to someone about it for more than a moment or two. He had caught her off guard with his question.
“Well, I mean, I’d love to have my own place, but I’m not entirely certain I’ll ever be able to afford it. I’ve dreamed of owning my own bakery since I was a little girl baking in my grandmother’s kitchen, but the business end of things isn’t exactly something I was prepared for. I’m learning my way around things though. It’s just going to take longer than I’d expected to get everything done.” She had no idea why she was telling Preston Pierce about her stupid dream of opening a bakery. He was a billionaire, and he’d owned more businesses in his time than she could even dream about. All she wanted was to have a single bakery where she could make cakes and pastries and make her customers happy. She was sure he’d think her dreams were small and silly. But she was surprised when she heard his reply.
“So, have you thought about finding investors? That’s how I opened my first business, and most of the ones after that as a matter of fact. I’m surprised you haven’t tried to sell the idea to me actually. I know you can bake. You’ve earned the business that you’ve gotten so far.”
Charlotte looked over at Preston and knitted her brows together, a little confused. This wasn’t the conversation she’d been expecting when she walked into the office. Mostly she’d been expecting him to berate her about being in his office when everyone else had gone home for the weekend, but here he was half offering to be an investor in her business.
“It just hadn’t occurred to me that anyone would want to invest in me. I guess I was wrong.” She shrugged and bit down on her bottom lip as she struggled to look him in the eye. Preston leaned forward, moving himself closer.
“So what’s your business plan?” This was where Charlotte was completely lost. She hadn’t even thought to come up with a business plan, and she felt a little stupid when she was going to have to tell him so.
“I don’t have one.” He smiled, leaning back in his chair and taking another drink from the glass in his hand.
“And what’s stopping you from making one?” She had no idea how to really answer him. Nothing was stopping her except herself.
“Mostly because I have no idea how to even start.” She was being completely honest with this man, even though she barely knew him. There was something about him that inspired total honesty. She suspected that was part of the reason he’d gotten as far as he had.
He laughed and placed the glass in his hand down on the coffee table in front of them, turning all his attention to her. His eyes were absolutely piercing, and she felt a little naked when all his attention was on her.
“If that’s the only thing that’s stopping you, then you’re in luck. I’ve made more business plans than I care to admit, and if you’ll let me I’d like to help you out. I’ll be your first investor, but you’re going to have to come up with a workable business plan to get things moving forwards. I’ll give you some advice and feedback, but you’re going to have to do most of the work to get this off the ground.”
Charlotte couldn’t believe what she was hearing. She was siting in front of a billionaire business mogul who was offering to invest in her business, if she could just come up with a business plan. She half wanted to pinch herself to make sure she wasn’t dreaming, but the burn of the scotch that went down her throat with another sip told her she was wide awake.
She’d be insane not to take him up on his offer, but she was terrified she was getting in over her head. Charlotte took a deep breath and another draught of the liquid, this time swallowing more than she’d dared to before now. She almost choked on the liquid, feeling her cheeks redden when he reached out to make sure she was alright.
“Alright then… You’ve got a deal.”
Chapter 4
It had been a long week. Preston didn’t drink that often, but he was celebrating the end of a deal it had taken him a long time to put into place. Selling off a chunk of the business had made him a pretty substantial amount of money, and he’d put everything he had into it in the past few weeks, making it a knockout success. It was the first chance he’d had to relax in all that time. It didn’t hurt that it was a holiday weekend, and the office was going to be deserted. Even Sophie had taken a sick day, so she wouldn’t be here to fuss at him about spending all his time in the office.
He’d half expected it to be Sophie coming in just to tell him to go home when he heard a noise out in the outer office. He was quite surprised to find that it was Charlotte from downstairs. He’d known she and Sophie were friendly with each other. He’d even known she made fairly regular deliveries to the office. He’d arranged for more than half of those deliveries to be made through his personal assistant. He could easily excuse it by saying that she was a good baker and leave it at that, but he wasn’t really fooling himself. He found the young woman fascinating, and the fact that she’d taken up his offer to come into his office for a drink had only made it worse.
He found himself watching the way she stammered and blushed and he was surprised to find out that he enjoyed it. Preston was making an effort to make her blush more with every passing comment. This was going to be trouble if he wasn’t careful, and he’d had far too much of the scotch this evening to be careful. Before he knew what he was doing he was offering to invest in her business. It wasn’t that he couldn’t afford it. There was no way she was going to be able to lose enough money to even make a dent in what he had made just this week.
He wanted to make sure that she was able to have her dream, but he also wanted to do it the smart way. He wanted her to be successful at it, successful enough to take it over and run things for herself, but she was green. That much was clear from the get go. If she went into this half-cocked and without a plan she was sure to fail, no matter how good she was at the baking thing.
At least she had natural talent, that was the one thing he couldn’t teach her. He could run through all the business plan and business skills she would need. In fact, before she’d left that night, he made a point to run through the beginning points of how to write a good business plan. She’d gone off with a head full of ideas and at least some clue about how to get started, but he’d been left alone with a head full of single malt scotch to try and figure out his thoughts on his own.
He’d told himself he just wanted to help the girl out because she reminded him of how clueless he’d been when he first started everything out years ago. She was talented, and it would be a shame to waste that much talent.
In reality, there was something more to it. He found himself enjoying her company. Most days, he kept up a wall between the two of them, making sure that their interactions were purely a business transaction. Tonight, with the alcohol flowing through his veins and all of his defenses down, he’d found himself more than just intrigued by Charlotte and her vision. He was fascinated and he enjoyed spending time in her presence. She was like a much needed breath of fresh air. He hadn’t realized how much he enjoyed it until he let all of his walls down in one go.
Maybe that was why he’d invited her back next Friday after work to show him what she was able to get down on paper. He could play it off like he was just keeping track of a
possible investment, but the truth was, she hit his system like a drug, and he was going to do whatever he needed to do to keep her around. She was an absolute pleasure, and she woke things in him that he hadn’t felt for along time.
She was innocent, that much was clear. Everything about her screamed out her purity and naïveté. It was endearing, but it woke up the monster in him he’d kept suppressed for so long. He wanted more of her — a lot more than he’d managed to get in the simple time they’d spent together tonight chatting about a business plan. He found his fingers itching to reach out and touch her when she half choked on the glass of scotch he’d given her to drink.
He knew she was going to invade his dreams that night and he knew exactly what they were going to entail. He was going to imagine himself with his fingers wrapped around her wrists, pinning her to a wall as he claimed her lips in a kiss or tying her arms behind her back as his fingers explored every inch of that porcelain skin of hers. She was innocent but he wanted to claim that innocence for his own. He knew this was a dangerous game to be playing, but that was half of the fun of it for him. He had denied himself all of this for far too long for his own good, though he was loath to drag her too deep into all of this.
He was going to have to struggle with his inner demons to keep all of this to himself, but he was going to do whatever it took to get more time with Charlotte. Preston was too far gone to deny himself that small indulgence, and if it helped her get her business off the ground in the long run, where was the harm in it? He was helping her out and getting his fix all in one go.
Long after she’d left his office for the night, he lingered, gazing out the windows at the night lights of the city beyond. The Preston Building was one of the taller buildings in the city and if offered a view that was incomparable to any other. He enjoyed just sitting here; watching the lights and cars go by in the city beyond even when he didn’t have so much in his mind. It was calming and a little bit grounding for him to watch.
Tonight was one of those nights he wasn’t going to wind up at home, especially after the amount of scotch he’d had to drink. Luckily, there was the bed in the next room that he could sink into when he was ready to settle in for the night, but for now, he was content to be lost in his thoughts about Charlotte and all the business meetings that he had to look forward to on this little pet project he was taking on. Preston didn’t plan to tell anyone about what was going on between the two of them.
He’d chosen Friday nights for a reason. Most Fridays he was the only one left in the office after five in the evening. It gave him the perfect time to meet with Charlotte uninterrupted and alone. He could do all of this without ever tipping off anyone, and unless Charlotte herself said something to Sophie, no one here was going to know a thing. He could keep his time with her all to himself and as selfish as she was making him feel, maybe that was for the best.
Chapter 5
Charlotte had left Preston Pierce’s office that night and headed straight for the first store where she knew she could get a journal and a planner on the way home. She didn’t care that it was the weekend or that most of the people her age in the city would be planning their weekends out with friends and partying. She was content to stay at home with Andy and work on the beginnings of her business plan.
Charlotte had never been much of a party girl. She’d been to a club or two since she turned eighteen, but even though that had been five years ago, she’d never acquired a taste for going out. She hadn’t really even had a serious boyfriend in all that time even though her friends had set her up with a guy here and there. She met men wherever she went and they asked her out quite often. Most of the time they were met with a polite refusal. Sometimes, they lucked out and got a chance at having dinner with her, but no one got further than that. She told herself she was picky; happy with being alone and working on getting her bakery off the ground, and while it was true, it meant that she had gotten to be twenty-three years old without ever having a serious boyfriend and without ever really even having any sexual experiences.
She’d had her first kiss back in high school when Jimmy Peterson had kissed her after the senior prom, but it hadn’t been anything special. Certainly not enough to make her want anything more with the young man, no matter how sweet he’d been about it. She’d been on a blind date here and there that ended in a goodnight kiss, but nothing more. As much of an anomaly as being a twenty-three year old virgin in a modern city might have been, it was something that Charlotte planned on remaining until something really changed. She was happy to just spend her weekends with her cat in her kitchen coming up with treats to stock her food cart.
Something about meeting with Preston and his offer to fund her business had lit a fire in Charlotte. She wanted to do her best and give Preston something amazing to work with when she finally presented her plan to him and he decided if he wanted to invest in her business or not.
She wasn’t certain why she’d never considered investors before. For some reason, she’d thought she was going to have to go into this enterprise on her own, but once she’d had a long talk with Preston, he’d made her realize that there was every potential for getting her business off the ground long before she’d imagined she ever could. There was going to be a lot of planning and work that went into things, but she was willing to put in the time and effort to get this off the ground.
As much as she was excited, Charlotte was terrified that all of this was going to fall apart around her. She could come up with all the plans in the world, but that didn’t mean that they were going to be any good. She’d never tried to start a real business before. Running the food cart was one thing, but there was hardly any overhead. Owning her own bakery meant she was going to have to think about a building, taxes, insurance, utilities and all the rest in addition to her supplies and equipment. It was a little overwhelming when she sat down and thought about it all, but Preston had told her to take it one thing at a time.
She’d written down everything that was in her head in the journal last night before she’d been able to settle in to sleep. Even though it was rather late when she’d finally drifted off, she still got up early in the morning, waking as soon as the sun was rising and went straight into the kitchen. Tying her apron around her slender waist and pulling out all of her baking supplies was the best way to work out her nerves.
Charlotte decided she was going to come up with some new recipes for the food cart and to post on her blog Life Is What You Bake It, to celebrate the possibility of getting a new investor for her business. She wasn’t ready to make that announcement to the world yet, but she could do a little something without telling everyone what it was for. Besides, it could only help build her business to get more fans and followers of her online presence once things really started getting off the ground.
Today was going to be the kind of day when Charlotte got super experimental. She was going to be trying new things left and right and some of them were going to work out while some of them were going to fail. Hopefully, she could walk out of all of this with a few new things to put in her pocket. She also wanted to come up with something really special to leave for Preston in his office as a thank you for everything he was planning to do for her. She just wanted to make sure it was absolutely perfect.
She knew how he felt about cinnamon rolls and her cheese danish, so she wanted to incorporate all of his favorite things into something special. She just wasn’t sure how to get it all in or that she’d really even managed to hit all of his favorites. She paid attention and she knew what Preston ordered when he came to her cart. She also knew what sorts of things he ordered for the office each week. She pulled all of those ingredients into a pile in the middle of her kitchen island and rubbed her chin, pondering over all the options she had. She could make a cake, cupcakes, pies, tarts, cookies, pastries; the possibilities were almost endless. She considered what he’d gotten in the past but in the end she settled on creating a cake pop bouquet that she was going to leave on his desk. The q
uestion now was just what was going on the inside. She could create any flavor of cake and buttercream to go into the center of the chocolate coating. She looked over her options and grinned when she came up with an idea — salted caramel and cream cheese.
Hopefully all of this was going to work out perfectly but it was really an experiment after all. She’d made salted caramel before, plenty of times, but she’d never tried to capture it at the center of a cake pop before. There were a lot of things that could go wrong, but she found herself plotting them out ahead of time. She was going to make the caramel and freeze it in circular molds to make sure it wasn’t going to run everywhere before she encased it in the cake that was going to surround it. That way when he bit into them, he was going to get a burst of molten caramel that was perfectly salted to balance out the sweetness. It should soak into the cake and keep it perfectly moist once it thawed out, but keeping it frozen was going to ensure that she could coat it in chocolate without making too much of a mess.
The wheels were turning in her mind as she planned out everything that could go wrong, and suddenly it hit her. This was exactly what she was going to have to do with her business plan. Setting out a path for where her business was going to go, and looking for all of the things that could go wrong. If she could get those planned out ahead of time, then she could plan for any contingencies that came up during the process.
Charlotte ran off to grab her journal and plopped it down on the counter next to the notebook where she usually worked to jot down the details of her new recipes while she was working things out. Then she tucked a pen behind her ear and started alternating between jotting notes in the journal and the notebook as she buzzed around the kitchen getting things together.
Sweet Temptation: A Billionaire Virgin Romance Page 3
